Sep 13 This week's topics of note: Israel's future; small town food shortages; initiatives and referendums; reunion news.

Israel. Uri Avenry opens his recent column, "Israel's Impending Civil War" (London Review of Books)  by noting,  

Something happens to retired chiefs of the Israeli internal Security Service, Shin Bet. Once they leave their jobs, they become spokesmen for peace....The intelligent among them (intelligence officers can be intelligent) also come to conclusions that evade many politicians: that there is a Palestinian nation, that this nation will not disappear, that the Palestinians want a state of their own, that the only solution to the conflict is a Palestinian state next to Israel.

Avenry also references the Academy Award nominated film (2012), "The Doorkeepers," which focuses on Shin Bet, Mosad, and an increasingly divided Israeli society.  Link here.

Food in small town America. Leah Todd's article, High Country News, "How to feed the masses in small-town America," is not about food shortages as such, but rather the shortage of grocery stores, as was the case in tiny Walsh, CO. Town residents re-opened their town's shuttered grocery store as a community venture. Theirs is a model other small towns who have not yet attracted a Dollar General or similar store.
     Ms. Todd writes, "In rural communities, grocery stores — part economic driver, part community builder, and part food supplier — are key institutions, according to an analysis by the Center for Rural Affairs. But keeping them alive isn’t easy."
     However, in this same issue, Ben Goldfarb writes about the need to overhaul/improve America's agricultural system. Good points are made by both authors.

Amendments and Initiatives. I do not know about your state, but the imitative and amendment process is alive and well here in CO. To my way of thinking, almost too healthy -- at least the referendum process to amend the CO constitution. I remember the famous line from the Preamble to the US Declaration of Independence: "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes..." Indeed, the national constitution has only been amended 27 times -- the first ten being approved in one full swoop, the Bill of Rights.
      That said, CO voters too often faced with proposed amendments on subjects better addressed by simple legislation, laws which can be changed, even reversed as needed. The removal process for amendments is too cumbersome, too lenghy. Witness our state's problems financial problems associated with the so-called "Bruce Amendment."

Birthday/Reunion thoughts. It is always with hope and trepidation that I go to my high school's reunions and, now that we are of a certain age, birthday parties. The class graduated in 1959, is blessed with a core home town core who have graciously organized a reunion every five years. Having aged a bit, we now also hold significant birthday parties. This past weekend's 75th was well attended by both those living close by and those of us who traveled further. A good time was had by all.

Thank you for reading. I am reminded by a friend -- and so I encourage you -- to enjoy this coming Friday's Harvest Moon.