november rabble rousers!

90-year-olds making waves!  literally & figuratively.

november's rabble rouser of the month:

arnold abbott (fort lauderdale, florida)

photo: joe raedle (getty)

late last month, fort lauderdale passed a law that makes it effectively illegal for this 90-year-old man to help feed the homeless. he has received three citations so far this month, with more on the way.  since 2012, fox news reports that 13 u.s. cities have passed ordinances on public food sharing.  fox news further reported the specifics of the newest law to allow no two indoor feeding programs to be within 500 feet of each other or on the same block; outdoor feeding programs require both a permit and port-a-potties and cannot be within 500 feet of a residence. supporters of the ordinance have been on record saying they wish to discourage feeding homeless people.

since winning two purple hearts as an infantryman in world war II, arnold has poured his energy into fighting for civil rights and community betterment.  his wife helped poor and homeless also before she died in a car crash 23 years ago. in her honor, he set up love they neighbor, inc, as a way to not only help feed the homeless, but to offer culinary training programs. he feeds the homeless of the city in a park every wednesday.  however, his good deeds don't seem very welcome in the city of fort lauderdale.  he says he has tried to abide by the new laws, but the portable toilets are beyond his abilities and he believes the city should be responsible for that end anyway.  arnold has been cited every wednesday so far this month, along with two local church pastors.  with the growing media attention supporting his cause, however, the police have backed off of giving him citations in public. on november 19, police did not show up, but the sun-sentinel reported that he would be receiving his fourth citation in the mail.  he plans to receive a fifth citation the day before thanksgiving and joked that "when i was a kid i collected stamps...now i collect citations."

arnold says he is not the least bit worried about the police, has been seen hob-nobbing with the mayor on television recently and harkens his newest cause back to 1999 when he sued the city and won in a similar case.  he makes his robin hood, rabble-rouser case very clear, "i'll go to court again and sue the city. they are doing the bidding of the very wealthy and they are trying to sweep the poorest of the poor under the rug."


november's inductee into the rabble rouser hall of fame:

"doc" paskowitz (1921-2014)
"god will surf with the devil if the waves are good."

doc graduated from stanford medical school in 1945, spent two years in the navy and then became a public health officer in hawaii.  he gave up medical practice to return to surfing after he was turned down trying to join the israeli military during the 1956 war with egypt.  instead, he rode the waves of tel aviv until he was arrested when his surf board was confused as a cleverly disguised missile. that was the seed for the surfing 4 peace organization he started during a 2004 trip to israel, in which his primary objective was to donate surf boards to promote a settlement between israel and palestine. 

photo: independent.uk

doc knew what it took to remain young and healthy.  diet was one thing, surfing well into his 90s another, and a love for humanity really fueled him.  he made international headlines trying to carry surf boards to gaza surfers. soldiers tried to prevent him from entering gaza, until he gave the guard a hug and a kiss. the guard yelled, "don't hug me, i'm a soldier!"  doc was persistent and the soldier relented.

he and his family (nine children) lived in a convoy of station wagons/motor homes all over the u.s., venezuela, and israel.  in 1972, he opened a surf school in san orofino, california. this brought major media attention to his cause and brought the outside world into his sheltered family.  the tribulations were documented in a film called surfwise, which he refused to watch and his children claimed did not show even a small percent of how bad life was.  he believed that "staying hungry was one key to a long and healthy life," literally and symbolically.  he fed his children his own gruel of various grains that he believed to keep people healthy and strong and allowed no fatty foods.  though the children's lives were hard and even harder as they abandoned their parent's way of life, most that have been interviewed in recent years have admiration for what he had taught them.  riding the waves allowed doc to live a boisterous life, until a hip surgery earlier in the year led to declining health. he passed away at the age of 93 on november 10.

doc had numerous philosophical quotes throughout his lifetime, many excellent ones contained in the tribute article in surfer magazine, which also has several great links including a short biography. 

"after my 18th birthday, life began to get complicated. fun became a calculation, rather than just plain instinct. ambition and selfishness helped kill fun. eventually, i looked at fun as, not just wasteful, but downright wrong. i was saddled with that delusion for 18 years. if there is no fun, there is no health. god loves happy people."  so, at the age of 36 and for the next 58 years, doc did what made him happy, rather than what made him wealthy...

photo: paskowitz.com