Saving the World

Good morning Isidore.

First I want to say that I thank you and Adina for this discussion.  I wrote specially on your wall because you were physically there during the Rwandan Genocide and I KNOW you would understand.  I didn't intend to bring back bad memories or judge anyone, but to try to highlight the bigger issues and to raise an awareness in all those in my sphere of influence.

I know that many people did not want to discuss it.  That is the sad nature of world.   When I posted the video on Facebook of the danger and terror of the women, children and elderly being rescued by the Kurds, there were no likes.  When I posted how my son saw Clayton Kershaw pitched a no-hitter - the 2nd no hitter he saw in a year, I received 39 likes.  When I showed the video to my family, my daughter said she didn't even want to watch it. She said it was too sad.  People feel like you said - 'It is just too much'.  

This is why the Rwandan genocide happened and why the Holocaust in World War II happened and the Turkish genocide of the Armenians happened - most people didn't want to know or care or speak up.  I'm reminded of Pastor Martine Niemoller's statement:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— 

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

As Adina said, where is the humanness?  Where is the love?  The answer is in us - you, me, Adina.  The world is teetering on a balance scale between good and evil (Islamic Front, Hamas, Russia, Korea, Syria, etc).  Most people are in the middle ignorant, not caring or doing nothing or feeling they can't do anything about it.  If we can reach out and influence others to do good, we can tip the balance scale toward the side of good.   We have to get out and create bonds and do kind deed.  God created this world for us all and we all are a part of God and need to bring the heavens to earth.

That answer I have provided above has come from the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.  Joseph Telushkin wrote a book called 'Rebbe' that just came out and which I highly recommend people to read and understand how we CAN take action and influence others.

Also I strongly suggest that we all speak up.   Vocally lend your support to the Kurds and Israeli soldiers who are on the front line against the Islamic Front and Hamas like my friend Dan Habecker just did.   The best way to prevent genocide is to support and arm each people to defend themselves just like when the armed Rwandan Liberation Front led by Paul Kagame came in to save their own people after the whole world sat around and did nothing.

Isidore - of all people, you ARE doing it - you have created IDEAL and are working to figure out how you can do more.  I am already very proud of you that you have done. So much more than many other people I know.  And I know as well as you that we all have A LOT of work to do.  It is a task that will end only on the day each of us die.

So while we are alive, let this event inspire all of us to continue your mission with more determination, passion and enthusiasm to figure out how to build more bridges and take actions (do kind deeds).

Warmest,
Eric

PS  For those who don't know about IDEAL, please visit them at http://www.realideal.org and consider giving a donation as I have.  I can vouch for the great work they do.

Isidore Niyongabo

11 hours ago

What I am learning today on the passing away of a Great Celebrity man, A man with a big heart, Robin McLaurin Williams is that neither money nor fame will bring us long-term happiness. He have more than he had and I have no doubt he got less than he gave. If you have close friends who check on and cheer you regularly, you are blessed beyond measures so kindly cherish them. May you lest in Peace,#Robin #Williams, and your legacy lives eternally.

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• Mahie Sumathipala and 54 others like this.
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  Joel Kirk We've also learned that money/fame can't buy happiness with Philip Seymour Hoffman.
  
  I'm sure there are many, many more examples.

  10 hours ago · Edited · Like
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  Isidore Niyongabo What's tragic here is that even such a generous and sweet man, as it seem, may not had truly intimate friends who would cheer him up on daily basis. I know depression is illness, but in some cultures it is preventable.

  9 hours ago · Like · 1
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  Pato Pato Banner Amen

  8 hours ago · Like
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  Eric Brody I don't know. You're taking about an actor who killed himself. I wish more folks would pay attention to what's going on in Iraq where the Islamic State is trying to start a genocide campaign against Christians, Turkmen, Yazidis, Kurds because of the are not Moslem. Why can't this post get more attention that the death of an actor who decides to commit suicide as hundred of thousands of people are fleeing for their lives with only the underequipped Kurds able to save them.. Watch the video and think about it - 40,000 Yazidis are trapped in the mountains with no food and water. The Kurds just fought and open a road to save 5000 yesterday. Isidore - you probably understand more than many Americans what's going on. http://www.cnn.com/.../iraq-rescue-mission/index.html... And don't forget in Israel where Hamas is seeking to destroy the Jews in Israel and launching rockets daily.
  

  
  

  'Heroic' mission rescues desperate Yazidis from ISIS

  www.cnn.com
  

  The Iraqi air force and Kurdish peshmerga carried out a dramatic rescue mission Monday at Mount Sinjar, safely evacuating some Yazidis.

  8 hours ago · Like · 3 · Remove Preview
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  Adina Kaplan Eric Brody, you speak the truth, and at the same time both tragedies speak to the same truth. We, as humanity, are suffering: personally, culturally, globally. It is affecting everyone in ways beyond what we currently accept as "the way things work." But the truth is, when we are not consciously working to eradicate our own demons, our personal grudges, stupid angers and upsets, the whole world will reflect back at us that reality. I would say it reflects back a thousand-fold more intensely, but with our exploding populations, it is probably more like a billion-fold.

  7 hours ago · Unlike · 2
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  Isidore Niyongabo Eric Brody, I have been following this tragedy as well, but honestly, I don't know how to react, or whether I should react on this because...at least they have media attention and some rescue. Back in October 1993, we had no one to help in Burundi until the killing was already complete. And then in April 1994 in Rwanda...Washington knew, CIA and the western had seen it coming, but they closed their eyes until it was too late to stop the genocide. It is not that I don't care about what is happening, It is just Too much for me. For both these issues, it goes back to what Adina Kaplan just said, where is humanness? Where is love? Why one man who had millions of dollars died of depression? Why thousand people are being killed by another thousands haters? I wish we all would revive Ubuntu one more time. But maybe it is too little too late for some people?

  7 hours ago · Unlike · 3

Ben with a flat tire, spare flat tire, dead cell phone....

I got an email today from something that happened a few months ago.   

It was early morning and after dropping Riva off a early retreat, I was taking Judah to breakfast before taking him to Sunday school and then playing pick-up basketball at Marymont.  We were driving down Highway 154 when I made eye contact with a guy on the side of the road by his car in the rain.  

I pulled over and asked him what’s wrong.  He said he got a flat.  He asked by any chance if I was going to Ventura (he lived in Simi) and I said no.   I asked him if he had a spare and he said the spare was flat too.   I asked if he had someone to call and he said unfortunately his cell phone is dead.   

I told him I could take him to the tire shop.   He laughed and said ‘You want to hear what the worst of this is?   After a long pause, I asked him ‘Um…what could be worse?”  He said that he was at the Chumash Casino and blew all his money.   

 I shook my head and said ‘Ok let me get this right... two flat tires in the rain, dead cell phone and coming back from the casino blowing all his money.   You like living life on the edge?’   

He laughed saying how stupid he was and that wasn’t probably wasn’t the worst of it.  I He said that his girlfriend just had his baby and is far away in Mexico.

“Oh boy…” I said.

I asked what his plan was now.   He wanted to know if he could leave his car there until he come back to pick it up somehow.  A cop drove by and said he could leave it there 72 hours. 

He asked if I could take me to the bottom of the hill where he could find a phone booth.  I said what are you going to do – no money, no tire, etc?   He said he’ll figure it out.

After a long pause, I said ‘Put the tire in the car and I’ll take my son back to Sunday school and then take you to the tire shop and you can pay me back later’

He was so happy and told me how he was from Yugoslavia and going to tell his parents how wonderful someone was helping him out.   We talked and I ask him what he learned today?  That his gambling days are over?   He went on about that he was never going to gamble again and how stupid he’s been and he’s inspired to change his life around. 

When we were at the tire shop at Costco waiting for it to open, I told him I was on my way to play basketball after taking son to breakfast.  He said he played basketball and soccer and was from Yugoslavia and telling me about how great his crossover move was.

‘Hmmm….stay there’ I told him as I went back to the car to get the basketball and gave it to him and said “Ok I’ll guard you now.”  Sure enough he had a good crossover move.

After taking him back to the car and fixing the tire, he told me he would drive up in two weeks and bring the money and play basketball with me Saturday morning.  I didn’t hear from him for about two months until today when his wife emailed the following

“Hi, this is Ben Pxxxx's wife, the man you helped a couple months ago with his tire. 

He asked me to email you because he got in a car accident, luckily he is fine but he lost his job and things have been crazy, as you know our baby girl and I are in Mexico and he hasn't been able to come down yet.  He talks about you so much what a kind person you are and I wanted to thank you for helping my husband when nobody else did, I'm so grateful he found you, this world would be a different one if we all were like you. He is also very ashamed because he hasn't paid back but of course as soon as he gets up in his feet again, we will contact you for this. “

I wrote back thanking her for the email and that it meant a lot to me and that to tell Ben to get better and when he is able to pay me back to pay me back then.    In the meantime, focus on being positive and doing all you can for your girl.  

She was very happy and sent a picture of the girl and baby.

So why did I help him?  He really didn’t ask me for money or a tire or much.  He actually turned down my offer for food at Costco.   I guess I recalled from studying with Rabbi Zalmy how everything in this world is preordained by God   The only way we can change the the sequence of how events are going to unfold is when we go out of our way to do a mitzvah.  He gave me an example - If you were driving our car and see someone with a flat and drove on, that whole series of event was predetermined long ago by God.  But if you stop to help out, you changed the course of those predetermined events.

What do you think?  Would you have done something like that?

Tom Painter is Johnny Snow!

Who is Johnny Snow?

(Be sure to watch Dr. Horrible on Netflix or Youtube)

When Dr. Horrible was singing a song about his new Freeze Ray and how he will make time stand still, he sang this verse:

It’s not a death ray or an ice beam.  That’s all Johnny Snow!

The only other reference we have on Johnny Snow is when Dr. Horrible read his email from Johnny Snow calling him his nemesis and challenged him to a fight in the park.  Dr. Horrible derides him telling him that he isn’t his nemesis and sarcastically tells him that he does not have time to deal with every poser in a parka and how there are kids in the park.

I wondered for a long time who is this Johnny Snow guy?  Maybe some ice-themed super villain who armed himself with an ice beam and wears a parka like DC Comics villain Captain Cold?

Then one day as I was preparing a Jeopardy game show for our New Year’s party, I was looking for some trivia questions for the category ‘Frozen’ movie that my kids love and LO and BEHOLD, I stumbled across the following blurb:

Let it snow – in an effort to perfect Elsa’s icy magic, filmmakers called on Dr. Thomas Painter, a scientist from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena known as “Dr. Snow” to learn about snowflakes from a molecular level, 80 percent of Earth’s fresh water is frozen in the form of ice or snow.  Snow is colorless and clear, but light reflected evenly on snowflake crystals gives its white appearance"

It hit me like a brick!  Dr. Horrible talks about how he got a Ph.D. in Horribleness and that got me thinking when I went to Graduate school about an weird evil looking fellow graduate student named Tom Painter who was working on…..YES…..a  Ph.D. in Snow Hydrology!

YES!  Johnny Snow is none other than my fellow Graduate student Tom Painter who later becomes Dr. Thomas Painter AKA Dr. Snow!

Dr Horrible and Dr. Johnny Snow (Thomas Painter)

It all adds up - the name 'Johnny' probably came from his fellow graduate student John Felkner'.  AND he had a evil junior sidekick named Tom 'Junior' Albright who is just like Dr. Horrible sidekick 'Moist'!

Now comes the scary part!   If you google and watch videos on Dr. Painter (AKA Dr. Snow), you’ll find a TEDx talk he gave on ‘Dark Snow and Climate Change’ and many scientific papers he wrote about how our snow runoff is melting at rapid rates along and diminishing the world’s fresh water supply

Who’s causing this and why?

I think it’s more than a coincidence and can only hypothesize that Dr. Snow working in his secret evil lair at Jet Propulsion Laboratory has this diabolical scheme in which he disintegrates our freshwater supply with some giant fricking laser beam or steals it and stockpile it somewhere which causes a rise in the price of water and a mega-fold increase in his stock of drinking water companies.  Or it could be the Dr. Snow has this grand nefarious scheme to impress Bad Horse, the leader of the Evil League of Evil to get membership into this exclusive organization.    This makes perfect sense in which Dr. Horrible, threatened by his arch-nemesis rival Dr. Snow for the seat on the Evil League of Evil, derisively put down Dr. Snow at every opportunity on his sing-along blog.

Bad Horse and the Evil League of Evil

We on earth are in for some serious trouble.  One day there will be no more snow and our kids will cry ‘Let it Snow’ to no avail unless we pay a hefty ransom.  Our only hope is to spread the word via blog (Gradb) and pray for Captain Hammer to return and save the day from Dr. Johnny Snow...who is none others than Dr. Thomas Painter!

Save us from Dr. Snow!

Electric Vehicle Information

The Nissan Leaf runs great.  I highly recommend it because

1. Been around for a while.

2. Realistically gets about 80 miles a charge

3. Roomy - 5 seats
          4. Cheaper than my gas car

5. Drive quietly and accelerates very nicely!

  

Thinking about buying?  Here are all the details you need to know

1. My story is pretty much the same as in the article from my friend Jeff and Mandy.  See Jeff and Mandy P. are "driving on sunshine"

2. Down payment should be no more than $2500.   Jeff got $2000 down payment and mine was $2500.  You can probably negotiate to $1500 so that the $1000 can be used for home charger (see #4 below)

3. After buying, the California government will get you a rebate check for $2500.  So down payments should be at least zero.

4. The rebate will be good as long as the rebate funding is available.  Currently 75% remains available.   You can get the information at this link.

5.  We brought a 30AMP home charger from Home Depot (see here) for $700.   We paid an electrician about $150 to make a plug in cable so we can simply plug in the 240v outlet which is usually the clothing dryer socket in the garage if you have it.    This method is better than connecting directly to the electrical system because we can simply unplug it and take the unit with us to wherever we go and use this instead of the slow 120v trickle charge

6. Solar power is installed in our house but not yet turned on.  Electricity should be zero hopefully in a few days or weeks.  If you’re thinking of solar, call Stuart Lewis of Solar City (slewis@solarcity.com) for free estimate and all.  I’ll get $250 referral fee to help pay everything.  ;-)

7. If no solar, the electric bill can be high if you charge with trickle charger or during the day (higher cost tier level with Edison).   That’s why you want to buy the 30AMP home charger and use the timer on it to delay the charger time to run after midnight or 6pm.  Below is short summary cost or click here for more info.

8. Be sure to call Edison and get on the EV tier plan.

9. The 0-100% charge time is as followed

1. Trickle charge (plug into standard 120v socket) – 15-18 hours
2. 30 AMP home charger – 5 hours
3. 30 AMP home charger with on-board charger on car (extra $1300) – 2.5 hours (we did not get this)
4. Super fast charger on car (only on higher end SV and SL model) but charging stations are only available in LA - .5 hours (we did not get this)

10.    My commute to work is 52 miles round trip.    My average mileage per day along with Jana driving it at night is about 70 miles.    In one month, we put on 1500 miles.  No gas!

11.  I leased the car for $225/month.  That includes tax, license and additional $12 to bump mileage from 12k/year to 15k/year.  Taxes are cheaper in Simi valley than Santa Barbara.   You can probably negotiate lower due on 2013 models since 2014 models are coming.  If you want more stuff, leather, rear camera, on board charger, etc. - expect to pay around $50-$200 more depending on what you want.

12. 2014 models will be similar to 2013 models.

13.  With our old car, I was spending about $250-$300 on gas per month and about $50-100/month on maintenance.  So basically saving over $100/month

14. I leased because I believe electric and battery technology will be changing in 3 years.   I have full bumper to bumper warranty from dealer for years so no maintenance fee.  If accident, my insurance will cover it.

15. I did not get the other models (Honda FIT, Ford, Volt) because they were too small (4 seats), too new and no track record or more expensive.  The electric / gas cars like Volt or Prius were too expensive or didn’t get enough mileage on electric (Prius – 11 miles).  Also I was concerned about extra maintenance with dual engine on car.

16. I got a carpool EV sticker for $8 – see here for more info

17. While cost and environmental were a factor here, the main reason is I just couldn’t stand paying money to the Middle Eastern despotic governments.  See below my letter on Facebook:

Open letter to my fellow Jews in Santa Barbara

Long, but I hope you take the time to read.

On Rosh Hashana, Rabbi Evan talked about Rabbi Prinz who spoke immediately before Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream’ speech 50 years ago. Rabbi Prinz said that in the face of discrimination, “the most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and most tragic problem is silence’. His contemporary Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said “The opposite of good is indifference” and “In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible”. These faith leaders were not indifference. They spoke up, they took action, and they made a difference.

Then Rabbi Evan spoke about Syria, in the middle of a horrifying civil war where over 100,000 people were killed in two years. One side is an authoritarian dictator who thinks of nothing of slaughtering his own people to stay in power and on the other side is an increasingly radical Al Qaeda affiliated Islamist rebellion while the world has stood by paralyzed, indifferent. And now Assad of Syria has unleashed chemical weapons that have been banned by international protocols for nearly 100 years.

He explained that doing nothing is not the answer and asked what shall we do now while congress and the President debate on military action.

Here is my answer - we have to look deeply in ourselves and realize that many of the problems in the Middle East is the result of our actions. We have been dependent and buying oil and feeding the despotic governments there. 

So what to do? Where here’s what I’ve been doing – Last week, I have brought an electric car. The car runs great. I get 85 miles on a charge. Zero down and I pay less about $100 less than my 1997 Avalon’s gas and maintenance bill. I have invested a chunk of my meager savings in solar power coming next month which should hopefully reduce my electricity bill to nearly zero in the next two decade. 

So while there are many economic and environmental reasons (relatively zero carbon emission) involved in my decision, the main reason I chose to do all this is because I could not stand supporting all the countries in the Middle East where every single one of them except for Israel do not allows freedom of speech or the religious, women and gay rights.

So now I like to take this a step further and encourage my friends to think about what they are doing with their lives and how they are spending their money. I simply cannot understand why many people I know in Santa Barbara who are very well off and CAN easily afford electric cars and solar power chose not to. The reasons ranging from “I don’t like the look of it on my roof’ to “I don’t want to be constrain to driving only 80 miles before having to charge it (even though they already own another car or two) just doesn't compute with me.

Truly I believe if we examine our own actions - how we drive, where we buy things, how we connect and work with the community, I think we can see that part of the problems are not in the Middle East. They begin at home and with ourselves.

So what to do? Taking action. Buy electric cars. Buy Solar. Donate time - Get involved in community by connecting with others and volunteering our time. Donate money (BTW Hillel needs extra money to get Solar) The more we connect with people, the more we can learn and help others. The more actions, the better. 

L’shana Tovah to all of you and may each of us help G-d to bring peace to this world.