Steve Cotler Steve Cotler

Category: Politics

Tree of Life

— 9:03 pm · Comments Off on Tree of Life

My daughter Abigail wrote this today.

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I root myself to the ground. I will not give in to fear.

Tree of Life Synagogue [UPI Photo]

Last night my thirteen-year-old attended his first confirmation class, during which they discussed the murders in Pittsburgh.

“There are people who really, really hate Jews, Mom. It pretty much sucks.” I asked him if he wanted to talk about it more, but he said he needed a break from it.

When I started to discuss it yesterday with my nine-year-olds (unplanned, unfortunately), my daughter about lost her mind. “Why do people hate Jews so much?” she sobbed. “Why do they want to kill us? Are they going to come to OUR temple and try to kill US?” I had to pull her down from her perch of hysteria. Her twin brother sat silent, and sad.

I root myself to the ground for my children. I cannot allow them to live in fear.

Today, with my daughter in a calmer state, I continued the conversation. Continue reading “Tree of Life” →

These Magic Kids

— 12:40 pm · Comments Off on These Magic Kids

I haven’t blogged in a long while. I haven’t anything to say that I thought was important.

But here’s something from someone who does. It’s an essay by Michael Tallon, published late last month. It’s about the Parkland teenagers. Like Mr. Tallon, I’ve been amazed by these kids. But he has an explanation.

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Emma González speaks at the March for Our Lives Rally

Today has been a day of awakening for me, and I suppose it has been for many of my age-contemporaries, too. As a fifty-one year old man, I don’t cry much, but, wow, have I been a weepy mess all day today watching these magic kids. And that’s the term that keeps coming back to me: These kids are magic.

They somehow don’t seem real. They seem more like fully formed wizards who just popped into existence, as if the shooter who tore through their high school just showed up expecting sheep and found warrior-paladins instead. Continue reading “These Magic Kids” →

Guns: Be Like Australia

— 12:17 pm · Comments Off on Guns: Be Like Australia

(I posted this in 2016. In the hideous aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting, it demands reposting today.)

The following article, reposted in its entirety from the Sydney Morning Herald (June 16, 2016), was written by Aubrey Perry, a Melbourne-based writer and artist who is originally from the United States. 

Her words are heartfelt. I could not say it better…

 

Thank you, Australia. Thank you for making me feel safe when I walk out my front door.

Thank you for not making me wonder if some enraged lunatic is going to shoot up the post office while I wait in line to mail a package back home to the States.

Thank you for not making me worry that my daughter will be slaughtered in a bloody shooting-spree at school, or that my husband might be shot in a restaurant while he has lunch, or that my gay and lesbian friends will be mowed down by a madman with a machine gun at a nightclub.

About 700,000 guns were handed in to Australia's buyback nearly 20 years ago. Photo: Dean Sewell
About 700,000 guns were handed in to Australia’s buyback nearly 20 years ago. Photo: Dean Sewell

Thank you for honouring and protecting the good of the whole and not the selfishness of Continue reading “Guns: Be Like Australia” →

HR 158: A Betrayal of Iranian Americans

— 3:26 pm · One comment

img_photo_asmoudeh_190wThe following op ed, written by Kamran Azmoudeh, a local dentist, was printed in my daily paper, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, on January 8, 2016. It’s worth reading…and re-posting.

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The war on terror and ISIS in particular has hit home in Santa Rosa. Its effects have shaken me and over a million Iranian Americans (and certainly other Muslim Americans) to the core. Not unlike Kristallnacht or the internment of Japanese Americans in 1942, those perceived as Muslim immigrants are becoming victims in this ill-fought war. The events that lead to Kristallnacht started with the same type of hateful ideology, except sadly this is happening today in the United States.

I have lived in this country for 38 years and managed to gain an education which has afforded me a good life. I have been married 24 years to my loving wife who happens to be a Catholic American of European heritage and have two beautiful American children and two American grandchildren. I have been a productive American citizen for decades and proudly hold an American passport, which enables me to travel freely with all the privileges afforded to Americans. Continue reading “HR 158: A Betrayal of Iranian Americans” →

Guns, Evil, and Insanity

— 1:03 pm · One comment

After the Newtown tragedy, Connecticut’s Gov. Dan Malloy said, “Evil visited this community today.” But Adam Lanza was not evil. He was insane. Beyond this obvious assertion, I have nothing special or unique to add. But two women do. One is my daughter, Julia Quinn, a wise and caring individual. The other is Liza Long, a Boise-based writer and the mother of a mentally ill teen.

Continue reading “Guns, Evil, and Insanity” →

Steve with students at an author event

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