by Anonymous Ms. Cyrus does her best rendition of one of her standards at the 2018 D.C. “March for Our Lives”, striding around in her sweats, holding a “Never Again” placard: “Always going to be an uphill battle/ …The struggles I’m facing may knock me down/ …It’s ain‘t about how fast I get there/ —It’s the Climb!” Contrary to her uplifting anthem, this last advent had a theme of loss for me, feeling quite knocked down. Last month, in a talk at downtown’s 1st Unitarian Church, an impressive U of O professor, Michael Fahkri, a special UN “rapporteur” on food, referred to Gaza as the victim of the “fastest starvation campaign in modern history.” Then Jeff Merkley spoke to the Senate about “the extreme level of devastation in Gaza,” showing an enlarged photo of apartment towers reduced to rubble. We’ve transferred to Israel about 14,000 of our 2000 lb. bombs—capable of knocking down a block— and thousands of smaller bombs and mortars as well—targeting an area about the size of Portland! Amid the clutter in my home, I have a poster of Palestinian women in their traditional folk outfits—so beautiful. Yet now I can’t bear to look at it or put it up, as we know the past can predict the future. Ethnocide (aka genocide) is always too possible. —Miley’s best, "The Climb": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVFC87RxQZs —SEE IT: “The Palestine Exception,” produced in Portland, with protest from the east coast to the west: https://cinema21.com/movie/the-palestine-exception (Jan. 26)