Funktion
Jacob Rosenblum
Vancouver, before crossing the river into Portland. It is certainly
some solace that I'm counting the days down until I have another means
of reliable travel!
The sherut, which had until recently been little more than an idea, a
glimmer of hope, a description, and a goal, is now on its way to
fruition. We've bought a wheelchair-accessible mini-bus (13
passengers, plus the wheelchair) in Trenton, NJ off eBay, and
Benjamin, my business partner, is driving it back here in the coming
week.
We've got the insurance lined up, the business licenses applied for,
and I've ordered the pink cellphone that we'll give to our driver.
Since I wrote last, I've had many important experiences. After
deciding to postpone my trip to Israel/Palestine until February, I
flew out to the East Coast because I had a ticket already, and had
myself some interesting times: dancing like crazy to Arabic hip-hop at
Beit Adamah before going skinny-dipping in the river by the Sadeh (the
field- the farm).
I decided to return to the east coast by some means other than flying.
After scanning craigslist posts I eventually landed upon someone who
needed a car driven out from New York to Boulder, CO. While not
exactly where I was trying to get back it, it was generally in the
right direction.
I ended up running cars for a small-time shyster who runs a nonprofit
out of Boulder, CO. He gets cars donated to him, many of them in the
New York area, and then gets them driven out to Boulder, where he
touches them up and sells them at public auction, to fund his
nonprofit. His nonprofit (Mountain Journeys) takes children who have
successfully gone through a psychiatric program snowboarding and
skiing as a kind of reward.
Running cars was fun, it was kind of like "Repo Man" except there were
no high-speed chases and people were giving their cars to me
willingly. And I didn't use cocaine.
I brought a Saab and a Suburban from Long Island to Jersey City, and
picked up an Acura in Jersey City and drove it to Boulder. On my way
west, I stopped in Chicago, Lawrence Kansas, was in the Denver area
for 3 nights, then Salt Lake City, then Portland, OR.
I'll tell you a little about my side-adventures. I spent time with
Lora Kraftowitz in Chicago, who brought me to a Palestine solidarity
rally, protesting outside a hotel where Ehud Barak, and Ehud Olmert's
wife, were speaking; ostensibly to raise money for Israeli defense (I
never got a definitive answer to who/what they were raising money
for). There were three little groups there: the Palestine activists
(an amalgamation of Arab, white folks, and people of color, many of
the non-Arabs associated with A.N.S.W.E.R. or the ISO), the
pro-military Jewish folks (a cute and funny little ragtag group of old
curmudgeony Jews; their slogans were pretty racist and uninteresting),
and a little further behind them, the Progressive Jews. Holding signs
like "My Judaism Doesn't Accept Home Demolition" and stuff like that;
this group of 40- and 50-something Jews didn't want to be associated
with either group! They clearly saw themselves more aligned with the
Palestine solidarity activists, but couldn't stomach some of their
slogans, like "From the River to the Sea, Palestine must be Free!" I
went back and forth between my friends in the Palestine contingency
and the prog. Jews. Some Pal. Solidarity Acitivsts would shout at Jews
coming into the event "Racists, go home!" Which led to our (rad. Jews)
questioning, where exactly do they want us to go?
I'll tell you about Maddie. Maddie is a 15-pound chocolate beagle
who's about a year old. She grew up in Springfield, MO, which is where
I picked her up; probably a 3-hour detour from my route. Her owner was
done with her, he had enough dogs of his own, but the owner's mother
fell in love with her and wanted her to move to Portland. PetAir
missed their connections, and she was angry with them, so she posted
on the internet asking for someone to bring the puppy to Portland, OR.
I accepted the task for $330. One catch: she gets carsick. Was I
willing to give her dramamine?
I was, but the dramamine didn't particularly work. My father read me
suggestions off the internet, which I took: no food 6 to 8 hours
before traveling, plenty of air while traveling. Maddie certainly gave
me a challenge; she would cry when left alone, and no one cries like a
beagle. I would clean her cage out every day. She wasn't housebroken,
a fact that one of my hosts was extremely kind about and gracious.
After I got the Acura to Boulder, I became acutely aware that I no
longer had a vehicle to drive to Portland, and I had myself, and a
carsick dog, that I needed to get there. Fortune would bless us.
Brian posted on craigslist that he was driving his truck from Vail to
Bend, and he took me on as a passenger. Maddie's crate fit in the
truck, which was wonderful. I was upfront with Brian as to Maddie's
car-anxiety condition, and he figured if she starting hurling we'd
just strap her crate into the bed of the truck so it wouldn't smell.
Fortunately, we had enough airflow going through the cabin that he
didn't notice when she did throw up. Bile smells a lot less powerful
than somewhat digested puppy chow.
Stayed the night at my mother's friends house in Salt Lake City. The
next day, we ate lunch in Boise, and got to Bend around dinnertime. My
mother hooked me up with a car that needed to be driven to Portland. I
got in, and delivered Maddie around 11 pm, and got my fat wad of cash.
After everything, I actually made money coming out west. It took about
a week. It wasn't without its misadventures. But on the whole it was
good, and I was traveling in vehicles that had their own reasons for
traveling, I wasn't alone creating the demand for their fuel
consumption and associated carbon emissions.
Now I'm in Portland. Working on designing a medical study for my
father, and working on the Sherut. Moving back to Olympia on September
15. The next edition of this missive will tell you about my
experiences at the Havurah Institute, that I spent a week at in New
Hampshire.
You can check out the mini-bus we purchased at http://www.sharedroute.org
Peace y'all.
Jacob