Skip to content
  • Image
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Podcasts
  • Email
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Opinion
  • News
  • Features
  • Comment
  • Store
The Arab Daily News

The Arab Daily News

Original news, features, opinions from Chicago to Jerusalem

  • About
    • About
    • Our Writers
    • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
    • Book Store
    • Contact
    • Submit Book Reviews, Press Releases
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Corrections Policy
    • Profile on Ray Hanania
    • Submit Press Release
  • Features
    • Food
    • Book Review
    • Humor
    • Movies
    • Travel
  • Arab Stores Targeted
  • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Heritage America resources
    • Directory
      • Groups & Organizations
      • Mosques, Churches
      • Restaurants
      • 2008 & 2014 Arab Media Directories
    • National Arab Heritage Month
    • Video: Chicago Arab History
    • Video: Photo Array of Chicago Arabs
    • Overview of Arabs in America
    • Hanania standup comedy
    • Arabs on the Titanic
    • Obituaries
  • Podcasts
    • Ray Hanania on Politics Podcast
    • Arab News Ray Hanania Radio
    • Arab Radio Podcast intro
    • Radio Baladi Detroit
  • Hanania on Tiktok
  • Subscribe to eNewsletter
  • Toggle search form
  • Mahnoor Ahmad Photo courtesy of her website at AhmadforCongress.com
    Muslim American woman challenges unresponsive Congressman Sean Casten in March 19 Democratic primary Activism
  • Committee to Protect Journalists website. Number of journalists killed in Gaza war now 50
    More than 50 journalists killed in Israel-Gaza war Arab World
  • AHRC Logo new Feb 2021
    On World Children’s Day, Israel has turned Gaza into a Graveyard for Children: American Arabs
  • Jewish Defense League members participated in the Washington D.C. rally supporting Israel Nov. 15, 2023. Photo courtesy of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
    Doctors Without Borders condemns deliberate deadly attack on convoy of staff and family members in Gaza Arab World
  • Palestinian protest land grabs by Israel's government from Palestinian Christians and Muslims. Photo courtesy of Peace Now
    Peace Now: Attempt for the Establishment of a New Settlement in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City Arab World
  • Palestinians walk around buildings destroyed during the Israeli bombardment in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on October 29. (Photo: AP/Hatem Moussa)
    CPJ expresses grave concern over 4th communications blackout in Gaza Arab World
  • Comedian Ramy Youssef courtesy of his Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ramysfaceboo/
    Arab American Comedy Festival, 209th Anniversary National Tour returns to New York roots American Arabs
  • The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and nearly 100 human rights, civil rights and civil liberties, immigrant rights, faith based organizations, and ADC’s Volunteer TPS/DED Lawyers Working Group sent a request to Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas urging them to designate Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) and/or Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Palestinians present in the United States.  
    Nearly 100 Organizations Join ADC in Demanding TPS/DED for Palestinians American Arabs
  • Jewish Defense League members participated in the Washington D.C. rally supporting Israel Nov. 15, 2023. Photo courtesy of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
    Terrorist groups involved at pro-Israel demonstration in Washington D.C. American Arabs
  • Doctors without Borders calls for end to Israeli attacks targeting hospitals in Gaza Strip. Nov. 11, 2023
    Patients and medical staff trapped in hospitals under fire in Gaza Arab World
  • Attorney Sarah Gad
    2024 election battle among Arab Americans shaping up in Ilhan Omar’s Minnesota congressional district American Arabs
  • Palestinian civilians flee their homes as Israel continues its savage bombing and missile attacks against homes, neighborhoods and buildings destroying most of the buildings in most of the Gaza's cities. Photo courtesy of Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights
    US Congress: Reject Bill to Support Forced Israeli Displacement of Palestinians to Third Countries  American Arabs
  • RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia and Francis Godolphin Osbourne Stuart - http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=3817223&extra=page%3D1
    Arabs on Titanic: Arabs share the pain but not the glory in ship’s tragic tale American Arabs
  • MedGlobal humanitarian appeal for Gaza violence victims
    Bombing of Al Ahli hospital in Gaza worst attack on healthcare this century  American Arabs
  • IDF soldiers and Israeli settlers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
    Israeli Academic Institutions Persecute Palestinian Students for Social Media Posts Amid Offensive on Gaza Christian & Muslim

Keeping HOPE Alive When I am Sixty-Four

Posted on January 2, 2018September 25, 2018 By Eileen Fleming No Comments on Keeping HOPE Alive When I am Sixty-Four
SHARE ...
          
 
  

  • Tweet

Loading

“When I’m Sixty-Four” by the BEATLES was released in 1967 on the forever young “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.

“HOPE has two children. The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it.”-St. Augustine

 

By Eileen Fleming

It was 50 years ago last June that the BEATLES released Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

 

Cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Clu...
Cover via Amazon

 

Among this American’s annual New Years week traditions is watching “A HARD DAYS NIGHT”

AND loudly playing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band while singing and dancing along.

Because I turn 64 in 2018, I have replayed “When I’m Sixty-Four” sung by Paul McCartney repeatedly, but with a one word change in the lyric “feed” to READ:

“Will you still need me, will you still READ me, when I’m sixty-four?”

My first book remains my favorite book but as it was published many years ago, I am in process of republishing KEEP HOPE ALIVE with more characters and new chapters:

Such as regarding President Lyndon Johnson ordering the cover-up of Israel’s June 8 1967 attack on the USS LIBERTY.

Over the next few weeks I will be publishing excerpts from KEEP HOPE ALIVE beginning with Chapter 10:

THAT DAY

Khaled, now seventy-five and a newlywed since July, turned to Fatiha and cried, “This madness must stop. Retaliation only ups the ante, and the wheel is still in spin. But I am nearing my end. I have been dreaming of mass communication for decades and olive trees my entire life; now, I must act!”

Within hours of viewing the tragic news that stopped the word on a Tuesday morning just before Fall.  Khaled phoned his  many friends: Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others to gather in downtown Orlando at Lake Eola and pray for peace. He told everyone, “Praying for peace without action is like praying to win the lottery and never buying a ticket. But unless we work for peace, saying ‘peace, peace, peace,’ means nothing. If we want peace, we must work for justice.”

Jack had been restless for three days. Julianne was in New York City at her sister’s home and wasn’t due back for three more. His knees began throbbing more the moment she drove out of sight on the morning of September 8, 2001.

After returning home on Monday night from the Brother Lawrence Addictions Center, Jack mindlessly ate two Lean Cuisines, then spent the rest of the evening trying to read. He fell asleep just before dawn and dreamt he was on the blacktop running track at the middle school where Julianne taught seventh grade English, where they both rollerbladed in the early mornings before the students arrived on campus.

Jack spent a ten-hour day at the BLAC, as its founder and administrator, and the mornings on the track were when the couple had their best conversations. He inhaled the aroma of tar as he wondered what was keeping Julianne from him. He bladed for what seemed like hours, when a silver spandex-clad apparition with a golden helmet flew by, sharply turned, and with a backward stroke, called out, “Hi, Jack, don’t look down; don’t look back; look out straight, Jack, look out straight, don’t look back!”

“Yeah, I can; I can do that,” Jack responded, but the apparition had already vaporized into the distance. Then Jack rolled onto an exquisite grace, knees freed from bone-on-bone grinding and not an ache in his fifty-three-year old body that had been abused by two motor vehicle accidents and hours of overuse syndrome. Jack glided on the blacktop effortlessly for what seemed like hours, when suddenly, a roar of thunder assaulted his senses, and his eyes were magnetized upward, to view two fireballs thrown down from on high, miles from where he stood. He saw them hit the ground; one traveled east, the other west, and then they circled back around, burning a path straight towards him. Just before they collided, Jack woke up, not believing he had only been dreaming.

Not until after he had downed a pot of coffee did the phone ring. “Jack? Are you watching TV”, Maureen, the day supervisor at the BLAC asked, as she fingered the framed mission statement that sat upon every employee’s desk and on the north wall of every resident’s room:

‘Peace, peace, peace. God’s peace be upon you. But living today in a time of war, crying out peace, peace, peace, where there is no peace. Fearing age and death, pain and darkness, destitution and loneliness, people need to get back to the simplicity of Brother Lawrence.’ [-Dorothy Day]

Brother Lawrence was a monk in the 17th century, who lived in a monastery and was consigned to the kitchen. He spent his life baking bread, chopping onions, scrubbing pots and floors. He also ran all the errands, did all the shopping, and always brought back the finest of wine. He loved his brothers deeply, but they merely tolerated his many eccentricities, or he was totally ignored. Truly, I tell you, if ever a saint was born to bring hope to the addicted and those afflicted with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, he is the one. For Brother Lawrence learned that by continually re-remembering the Lord, no matter what the activity, or where one might be, the Lord was ever-present and a holy habit was born, just re-remembering that.

Jack thrived on curiosity and spoke as he reached for the remote. “Mo, you know I never watch TV in the daytime; what’s up?”

“Well, isn’t Julianne visiting her sister in the city?”

“Yeah, in fact, today’s plan was to meet her sister’s co-workers on Floor 101 of the North Twin Tower.”

“Jack, turn the TV on.”

“Oh, Mo, I just did; my God, is it the end of the world?” He spoke as he hung up the phone and never heard Mo say, “I don’t know.”

Jack knew in his bones that Julianne had been vaporized as he recalled a song he had first heard at a Bob Dylan concert in 1981:

See the massacre of the innocent
City’s on fire
Phones out of order
I see the turning of the page.
Curtain’s rising on a new age.
See the Groom still waiting at the altar.

And then, II Chronicles 6:1 welled up within him: “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.”

Dr. Jake Hunter heard the news that stopped the world for a day from his third patient of the morning.

Terese didn’t know until Jake called her before his next patient.

Kat had been dancing in her loft studio in Panacea, Florida, all morning, ignoring neurological symptoms. She did not turn her cell phone on until 11:45 a.m., and then gasped, “Christ, who died? The entire Hunter clan has called me. I’ll phone Mom,” she said, just as “Let it Be” chimed from her cell.

“Hi, Kat, I have been trying to reach you.”

“Mom, what’s the deal? What’s going on?”

“Turn the TV on.”

Kat did and gasped, “Oh my God, is it the end of the world?”

“Nobody knows.”

“Mom, I am coming home. I’ll bring Bob; I think I’ll stay awhile.”

“Okay, okay, drive carefully.”

Kat packed three weeks’ worth of clothes, put Bob, her blue-eyed cat, in his kennel, and wrote a sign for the front door that read “KATZ STUDIO CLOSED UNTIL???”

She taped it to the door and walked away saying, “Bob, I have been dreading telling dad about my symptoms, because I don’t want to admit them. But, I have been summoned from the land of denial and must face the facts on the ground. If I have the dreaded Gehrig’s disease like my cousin Nick, I will be livid. He was a saint; I am not. I am not dancing as I once did; I don’t glide anymore, I have gotten clumsy, and all of these muscle twitches are driving me crazy! I am pissed! I am too young for this! Oh Christ, I hope it is just a bad cervical spine, like Dad’s. I can live with the pain, but I must be able to move about, or I’ll go nuts. Nick was a saint even when he couldn’t move, but I will be an unholy terror if I can’t dance. Bob, if I have ALS, will you please just shoot me and put everyone out of my misery?”

Kat sighed deeply and popped in a favorite mix she had burned of Tom Petty and U2, and then lost herself in the music until Bono began to wail:

If I could yes I would,
If I could, I would let it go
Into the half light and through the flame
Into the light and to the day,
Let it go and so to find the way,
To let it go, and so to find the way.
I am wide awake, I am wide awake, wide awake
If I could, you know I would:
Let it go:
Desperation,
Dislocation,
Separation,
Condemnation,
Revelation,
In temptation,
Isolation,
Desolation,
Let it go and so to find a way
I am wide awake,
I am wide awake,
I am wide awake, wide awake!

Kat mused, “Strange, how seeing that horror on TV woke me up to some things, too.”

The Sunday after that day the world stood still, the Hunters’ seven children and eighteen grandchildren had gathered together. Everyone was down at the lake except for Jake, Terese, and Kat, who were in the family room.

Jake contemplated Kat’s chances of having ALS or a bad neck, and brooded.

Terese said, “There’s an interfaith gathering today in Shea Stadium, and I want to view it.”

She turned the TV on just as the shofar sounded in New York City, and hundreds of priests, rabbis, sheiks, and clerics of all kinds somberly filed into the stadium in front of a sorrowful nation.

Kat became luminous, “Wow, look at how beautiful all of that is! All of those holy ones in their uniqueness and all the shades of people in the stands reaching out to each other–how blessed we are in America to live among such diversity, and how beautiful it is to see us coming together out of such sorrow. This is the way we can let the pain go: by reaching out to the stranger, we comfort them and heal ourselves. America’s worst day has brought us and the world together. Why, it’s only a few angry mad men who did the evil; the international community can confront this together, by confronting this evil as sister and brother. What an incredible opportunity America has been given to lead the world this way and not seek revenge. Imagine the dysfunctional family of Father Abraham building on this momentum, to confront the evil that is terrorism, by confronting it with good and unity among us. Didn’t St. Paul say that the only way to resist evil is with good? Imagine how much better the world will be when America chooses not to use military power, now that we all know our nuclear arsenal cannot protect us American’s will want to discover why these mad men did this evil and go after that! The global village is the community to address this issue; terrorism is everywhere, and now America has woken up to the fact that we are not immune. We are all in this world together; we will either learn to share this world as sister and brother, or we will blow it up.”

Terese responded. “Kat, human nature is to strike back and seek revenge, but we have the witness of Christ, Gandhi, and Reverend King how to effectively respond to violence. I hope and pray this president follows their ways, but I see hawks circling.”

Jake cleared his throat and intoned, “Another thing is that acting out of fear makes one do stupid, irrational things. You know I have always said to never ever react out of fear, for the gospel says fear not! And fear drives out compassion and hardens the heart.”

Kat was mesmerized by the TV, Terese sighed deeply repeatedly, and Jake brooded.

In a log cabin nestled within the thickly wooded mountains of upstate New York, Jack sat in a darkened room with the TV on, but he wasn’t watching. When the shofar blew and grabbed his attention, he froze until the ram’s horn went silent, and then popped open his sixth beer of the day, for Jack had fallen off the wagon.

 

Next Excerpt from the Chapter: 16 DAYS IN ISRAEL PALESTINE, from KEEP HOPE ALIVE

Will be published HERE  by January 6 2018

 

 

 

Eileen Fleming is Senior Non-Arab Correspondent for USA’s TADN 

 Eileen Fleming produced the UNCENSORED

“30 Minutes with Vanunu” Mordechai, Israel’s nuclear whistleblower

Contact her HERE 

 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Eileen Fleming
Eileen Fleming
Senior Non-Arab Correspondent for TADN at The Arab Daily News
Senior Non-Arab Correspondent for The Arab Daily News
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" who founded WeAreWideAwake.org in response to her first of 8 trips to both sides of The Wall in Palestine Israel.
In 2012, Eileen ran for US House of Representatives District 5, in Fl.
Read her FREE eBooks and more at:http://www.eileenfleming.org/
Eileen Fleming
Latest posts by Eileen Fleming (see all)
  • Vanunu still has more nuclear secrets to spill, Israeli court declares - December 29, 2021
  • 9/11 and a 20th Reflection of That Day - September 5, 2021
  • Mordechai Vanunu: Final Annual Update and this Writers Next Steps - June 19, 2021

  • Tweet

SHARE ...
          
 
  
 
          
 
 Tweet 
Arab World, Bloggers, Commentary, Eileen Fleming, Israel, Middle East, Opinion, Palestine & Jordan

Post navigation

Previous Post: St. Stephen and Israel’s Nuclear Whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
Next Post: Ahed Tamimi is HOPE in Action in Palestine #FreeAhedTamimi #FreePalestinianKids

Related Posts

  • Constructing a Nation’s Memory: Cinema of Michel Khleifi Arab World
  • Ustar Erdoğan, Stronger Than Ever Abdennour Toumi
  • Thanksgiving Turkey Photo by Alison Marras on Unsplash
    An Arab American Thanksgiving American Arabs
  • Palestinians Commemorate 41st Anniversary of Land Day News
  • Jewish Voice for Peace denounces Israeli killings in Gaza Arab World
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump press conference Wednesday Feb. 15, 2017 at the White House East Room. Photo courtesy of the White House
    Trump resists condemnation of Two-States, predicts peace deal Arab World

More Related Articles

Who was better for Palestinians, Trump, Bush or Obama? Arab American History
Young girl injured by Israeli fire inspires calls for freedom from Israeli oppression Arab World
Saudi business women in Jeddah. Photo courtesy of the Saudi Embassy Saudi Arabia Issues Sweeping Changes to Enhance Role of Women in Society Arab World
Cairo Institute condemns crackdown on Palestinian activists Arab World
Ziyad Tahini, named Best Tasting by Cook's Illustrated Magazine 2017 Ziyad Tahini named “Best” Tasting by national magazine American Arabs
HaaretzQ Conference Addresses US Israel Special Relationship American Arabs

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • OPINION COLUMNS
  • A child stands in front of an apartment building bombed by Israeli using an American made 2000 pound bomb.
    Hostages versus Prisoners: Israel war on Gaza is as much a war on weaponizing words
    December 1, 2023
  • Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib
    Americans rally to support Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib targeted by Islamophobic racism
    November 8, 2023
  • Palestinian parent and child seek refuge as American sanction terrorism by Israel spreads through Gaza Strip Oct 2023
    Some American legislators stand up for justice and against all violence
    October 15, 2023
  • Map of the Gaza Strip, courtesy of Wikipedia
    Israel-Palestine conflict as much about American hypocrisy as it is about violence
    October 11, 2023

Events

  • No events
  • NEWSWIRE
  • Palestinians walk around buildings destroyed during the Israeli bombardment in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on October 29. (Photo: AP/Hatem Moussa)
    CPJ expresses grave concern over 4th communications blackout in Gaza
    November 18, 2023
  • Racist grafitti a Palestinian Cultural Center for Peace and Boston Islamic Seminary, one of a wave of acts of racism targeting Arabs and Muslims in the wake of Israel's war crimes in Gaza October 2023
    CAIR-MA Calls for Hate Crime Probe of ‘Nazi’ Vandalism Targeting Boston Palestinian, Islamic Sign
    October 11, 2023
  • American Middle East groups oppose granting Visa Waiver approval to Israel Sept. 27 , 2023
    American Middle East organizations protest against granting Israel Visa Waiver approval
    September 27, 2023
  • The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, announced Tuesday (Sept. 19, 2023) the filing of a lawsuit with a dozen plaintiffs seeking an end to the government’s secret watchlist that almost exclusively targets Muslims for harassment and humiliation when they travel.
    CAIR Announces Lawsuit in D.C., Mass., N.J., Mich. Seeking End to Secret Government Watchlist
    September 19, 2023

Creative Commons License
All work on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Do not edit original work. Give credit to the original source.

  • 250-x-250-Ziyad-banner-Ad.jpg
  • NEWS
  • Mahnoor Ahmad Photo courtesy of her website at AhmadforCongress.com
    Muslim American woman challenges unresponsive Congressman Sean Casten in March 19 Democratic primary
    November 21, 2023
  • Committee to Protect Journalists website. Number of journalists killed in Gaza war now 50
    More than 50 journalists killed in Israel-Gaza war
    November 21, 2023
  • AHRC Logo new Feb 2021
    On World Children’s Day, Israel has turned Gaza into a Graveyard for Children:
    November 20, 2023
  • Jewish Defense League members participated in the Washington D.C. rally supporting Israel Nov. 15, 2023. Photo courtesy of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
    Doctors Without Borders condemns deliberate deadly attack on convoy of staff and family members in Gaza
    November 19, 2023
grab450

Recent Posts

  • Hostages versus Prisoners: Israel war on Gaza is as much a war on weaponizing words
  • Muslim American woman challenges unresponsive Congressman Sean Casten in March 19 Democratic primary
  • More than 50 journalists killed in Israel-Gaza war
  • On World Children’s Day, Israel has turned Gaza into a Graveyard for Children:
  • Doctors Without Borders condemns deliberate deadly attack on convoy of staff and family members in Gaza
  • BOOK REVIEWS
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    October 24, 2022
  • Stories My Father Told Me by author and artist Helen Zughaib, book cover. Photo courtesy of Cune Press
    Stories My Father Told Me by author and artist Helen Zughaib
    November 1, 2021
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • Comedian Ahmed Ahmed at The Comedy Bar in Chicago June 9 - 11, 2023
    Comedian Ahmed Ahmed performs in Chicago June 9-11, 2023 at The Comedy Bar
    June 9, 2023
  • Ziyad Food item
    Essential recipes and ingredients during Ramadan 
    April 4, 2023
  • Hussam al-Mayman, The Mayman Show, podcast Arab News
    Arab News launches third season of The Mayman Show podcast
    December 15, 2022
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    October 24, 2022
  • Comedian Ramy Youssef courtesy of his Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ramysfaceboo/
    “Ramy” cable series melds Arab world reality with every day American life
    October 22, 2022
  • New-iTunes-1400-x-1400-The-Ray-Hanania-Show-Podcast-Icon-300-x-300.jpg
  • terroristbookcover-300-x-300.jpg
  • powerpr300x300ad.jpg
  • The-Kings-Pawn-Book-300-x-300.png
  • Podcast-iTunes-Logo-Chi-City-Hall-1985.jpg
Arab News Newspaper Logo
Read the Arab News, the leading English language newspaper in the MIddle East

Follow Ray Hanania at Gab.com, MeWe.com and IDobbinate.com, the alternatives to Facebook and Twitter Censorship.

Click here to get information on The Ray Hanania Radio Show and its podcasts

Copyright © 2023 The Arab Daily News.

Powered by PressBook Premium theme