Liz and I have been in the Moabit Berlin neighborhood over a week.
Our first trip out of America 🇺🇸 to Berlin in over five years.
A preferred mode of transit is the bicycle.
We are just hanging out as if we are locals leading a regular life. Taking public transit. Shopping. Going to cafés and restaurants. Chatting up the merchants and citizens of Berlin.
A Police boat on the Spree River which winds its way through Berlin
Moabit is a heavily Turkish neighborhood and we have eaten several meals at the Turm Bistro.
Twice we have dined at a nearby Italian restaurant Osteria dell’ Arte where the staff offered us expensive drinks on the house.
Earlier Liz and I spent an afternoon at the ✡️ Jewish history museum. The current special exhibition is a deep look into the lives of Jewish people in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Formerly East Germany.
There is so much history in Berlin.
Germany. Land of bicycles 🚲 At the Jewish ✡️ Museum..Kristallnacht November 9, 1938..when the Nazis rampaged and destroyed Jewish businesses and houses of worship
Top photo: the Bellevue train station in Berlin..a train for Potsdam approaching
Liz Heidhues next to DA candidate Chesa Boudin campaigning in 2019
Sometimes I feel like despairing.
I still feel emotional pain and anger at the political lynching of Chesa Boudin on June 7, 2022, when the scheming ultra-wealthy Machiavellian toadstools, funding the recall campaign, when the POA, in retaliation for being held accountable for abuses of power, fomented lies about Chesa, when the pitchfork mob seeking a scapegoat raised public strife against Chesa, succeeded in taking Chesa away from me. I had campaigned for Chesa for DA and for the “No On H” anti-recall campaign.
Chesa on the campaign trail in San Francisco’s Castro district in 2019
I became friends with Chesa Boudin after I was falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned by two Citizen’s Arrests in my old age. The brutality I experienced at the hands of SFPD and the degradation and indignities I suffered in jail will live within me until my grave, due to my having endured these injustices towards the end of my life.
Chesa visits Mommy and Daddy in Jail
Chesa was the only person before whom I would break down and weep when he came to talk with me in a visitor’s room behind a thickly walled, soundproof partition. As the warden took me from my jail cell, she said to me “Your attorney is here to see you”. In astonishment, I asked myself “What attorney? I don’t have an attorney”.
I didn’t know what rights I had, since I had never experienced an arrest nor had ever been confined to a human cage, which is exactly what a jail cell is. Because I was desperate to find out whether my husband was ok, I decided to talk to this stranger with eyes that gripped mine with intensity. But as soon as I began speaking, Chesa stopped me, shook his head, and then pointed to the wall over on my side of the room where a phone receiver dangled without moorings.
A young and studious Chesa Boudin. “I would call him weekly for twenty minutes.” Chesa referring to his father David GIlbert with whom he had a weekly phone call
When the sheer horror that I was now imprisoned in a soundproof room where I could not be heard by another human being, that I was now wearing lurid, fluorescent orange prison attire from head to foot instead of my own clothing, that my freedom and my identity had been stripped from me for having done nothing wrong, tore into my brain, I broke down and wept in front of Chesa. Chesa’s eyes had been the first compassionate eyes I had seen during the nightmarish ordeal of my first False Citizen’s Arrest.
Chesa was the friend I turned to for inspiration when struggling with the cruel attacks on my character during our lawsuit against the people who carried out my two False Citizen’s Arrests. Their defense attorneys, wanting to win the case at any cost, waged a war against my husband and I, who are elderly and could never match their fat War Chest funded by 30-billion-dollar insurance companies. Chesa reminded me “You survived jail, you can survive this”. And so I continued our costly and draining fight for justice until we finally prevailed.
“I I could only replay that day I wouldn’t be there.” Kathy Boudin speaking of the October 22, 1981 Nyack, New York bank robbery which led to the death of two Nyack police officers and a security guard which resulted in her over 20 years incarceration. Kathy Boudin and Chesa’s dad, David Gilbert were unarmed and driving the getaway car. David Gilbert spent over 40 years in prison. His sentenced was commuted by Governor Andrew Cuomo in August 2021
‘Beyond Bars’ is Chesa’s story of the children of incarcerated parents yet it is also a story about the inhumane world waiting for those who are incarcerated and stripped of their dignity and basic human rights.
Chesa’s documentary shows the importance of family bonds and how families are broken and destroyed by the incarceration of parents. My own family did not escape the fallout from my two False Citizen’s Arrests. ‘Beyond Bars’ is a strong statement that justice must be defined, not by punishment, but by alternatives to incarceration.
Note: Liz Heidhues, 73, is a native of San Francisco. Mother. Grandparent. Educator. Athlete. Prior to April 12, 2018 Liz had never encountered law enforcement or the judicial system. On that day she was the subject of the first of two false citizen’s arrests. The second took place less than two years later. Both false citizens arrests were discharged by the Superior Court. Liz filed a lawsuit against the perpetrators and prevailed. But, the emotional and financial price to fight for her rights was devastating. Chesa Boudin was one person who felt Liz’ pain and was there for her in her moments of need.
Beyond Bars trailer
Lee Heidhues contributed to this blog post.
Top photo: Liz Heidhues at left wearing sunglasses with Chesa in front of the San Francisco Hall of Justice – April 30, 2019
Germany is well aware of the dangers of antisemitism. A country whose name will forever be stained by the Nazi reign and the resultant Holocaust from 1933-1945.
This is the reason the current Socialist government, which includes the Green Party in its ranks, has been so strident and sensitive in protecting the rights of its Jewish population.
It’s a real dilemma. Protecting the rights of its refugee population, which includes many people from the Middle East diaspora, while simultaneously cracking down on antisemitism.
The strong feelings bordering on virulent antisemitism are not limited to its refugee population. This abhorrent behavior is also exhibited by German citizens across the political spectrum.
NeoNazis on the march in Germany
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 11.3.2023
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has spoken out emphatically about antisemitism in Germany — and, in particular, an uptick in hate crimes since the Israel-Hamas war began.
“Jewish communities warn their members to avoid certain places for their own safety. And this is the reality here today, in Germany, almost 80 years after the Holocaust,” said Habeck.
In a video posted online, the Green Party politician also warned that there would be consequences for those who exhibit antisemitic hatred.
Habeck defended Israel’s security as an integral part of Germany’s existence as a nation and sharply criticized antisemitic tendencies among some Muslims, right-wing extremists and left-wing activists.
Local media reported that protest march in Essen Germany was separated by gender, with women marching together behind men
He said Germany’s responsibility for the Holocaust meant it was essential that Jews should be able to live “freely and safely in Germany, that they never again have to be afraid to openly show their religion and their culture. But it is precisely this fear that is back.”
He spoke of “painful” conversations with Frankfurt’s Jewish community, in which he learned that children were now afraid to go to school and sports clubs or to display their religious affiliation by, for example, wearing the Star of David necklace.
Habeck, who in addition to being vice chancellor is also minister for economic affairs and climate action, said there should be severe consequences for antisemitic acts, particularly for supporters of the radical Islamist militant group Hamas in Germany.
Later on Thursday, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced a ban on activities by or supporting Hamas and another pro-Palestinian organization accused of antisemitism.
Habeck said the burning of Israeli flags during demonstrations and “praising Hamas terror” were criminal offenses.
Memorial in Germany for Kristallnacht (night of the broken glass) when Nazi mobs destroyed Jewish businesses throughout the country – November 9, 1938
“Any German citizen who does this will have to answer for such offenses in court. Those who are not German cititzens will also risk their residency status,” said Habeck. “Anyone who does not yet have a residence permit will have provided a reason to be deported.”
In my wildest Pacifist dreams I never imagined a Republican, from Alabama no less, would single handedly apply the brakes to the humongous American military machine. I can still be surprised.
Former football coach now Senator Tommy Tuberville has succeeded in pissing off the Pentagon, his fellow Republican senators and millions of women who want the right to control their bodies.
Military families heap scorn on Senator Tuberville
What’s his problem? He doesn’t believe the Pentagon should pay for women to travel to states where abortion is legal to terminate their pregnancy. The past nine months he has placed a “Hold” on Senate confirmation for approximately 350 nominees who require a Senate vote.
Just imagine the uproar if Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren were engaging in a similar stunt.
Excerpted from The New York Times 11.2.2023
In a clear sign that pressure is building, a handful of Republicans took to the Senate floor on Wednesday night to excoriate Senator Tommy Tuberville (R- AL) for his tactics, which have held up more than 350 senior military positions. They attempted to call up scores of pending promotions for military officers one by one, insisting he quit blocking them — which he refused repeatedly to do.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Tuberville shot down 61 separate requests to let nominees be confirmed.
Tommy Tuberville at confirmation hearing for Chairperson Joint Chiefs of Staff
“No matter whether you believe it or not, Senator Tuberville, this is doing great damage to our military,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, in one such floor speech on Wednesday night. “If this gets to be normal, God help the military, because every one of us could find some reason to object to policy.”
The policy Mr. Tuberville is targeting, announced in February, allows service members to take leave and be reimbursed for transportation expenses if they must travel to obtain an abortion or certain fertility treatments because such procedures are not available where they are based.
It came in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade, which prompted many states to move to ban or severely restrict abortion. Some doctors and legal experts fear the ruling could also eventually lead to new curbs on in vitro fertilization.
The spectacle on the floor marked the breakdown of months of behind-the-scenes negotiations in which Republicans publicly defending Mr. Tuberville’s actions and blaming Democrats and the Pentagon for failing to accommodate him have privately pleaded with the Alabama senator to relent.
“I will keep my hold in place until the Pentagon follows the law or the Democrats change the law,” he declared.
Tommy Tuberville on the gridiron as Auburn football coach
Despite their palpable frustration, none of the five Republicans challenging Mr. Tuberville on Wednesday night pledged to sign onto the Democrats’ proposal.
“I’m hoping we can find an alternative to that, but something needs to give here,” Mr. Graham said.
Still, Senator Todd Young, Republican of Indiana, said he had not ruled it out, and other Republicans refrained from doing so as well.
“I don’t like Mr. Tuberville’s technique of making his point, and I think it’s getting to a breaking point, quite frankly,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia. “So we’ll see if the resolution comes up.”
Lee's Perspective 