In politics, in art, there are many people who care, who try and don’t give up. Here are two, no, three examples:

This afternoon at the Jewish Film Festival I saw a film titled In the Image: Palestinian Women Capture the Occupation. Presenting the occupation through the eyes of Palestinian women with video cameras was brilliant, difficult to watch, horrifying, but also left me hopeful thanks to the closing words of a Palestinian woman who had recorded her brother’s murder: “I hate the soldier who did this but I would not kill him and cause his family the grief that he caused mine.” The film received a standing ovation from the sold out crowd. My companion, whose orthodox son and family live in a West Bank settlement, was in tears like most in the audience. (My friend’s son has no radio-TV-Internet and calls the USA to find out what’s happening in his neighborhood.)

Friday night I saw a one woman show called Tough where a young dancer named Chris Black created a dance based on the life of John L. Sullivan, the boxer. What a wacky idea… that works so well! Have you ever seen something where you want to rewind and watch the whole thing again? That’s how I felt Friday night. This Potrero Hill theatre was created to showcase experimental pieces – its creation and maintenance encourage me, and the tremendous power of this particular piece inspire me. Ya know, Chris Black put it all together, made it happen, made it work. Ya gotta believe in people.

As I was writing this, I remembered a film I watched with my friend Martha – we did rewind it and watch again, El Secreto de Sus Ojos. This is my 3rd example of caring and not giving up. I added this because the other things might not be in your neighborhood.