Day 31 of Fast to Defeat Trump

About three weeks ago, around day 10 of my current fast, I was interviewed by Josh Fox for his show on The Young Turks network. At one point he asked me what the difference was between a hunger strike and a fast, after I had used them pretty much interchangeably. I said that a hunger strike was more political, issue-oriented; a fast had more of a spiritual dimension to it, even if it was also political.

I’ve increasingly called this “Fast to Defeat Trump” a hunger strike as it has gone on, now in its next to last day. I’ve called it that in large part because it has not been a very “spiritual” experience for me, as distinct from most of the other long fasts I’ve done. I remember, for example, while fasting in Brooklyn, NY back in the 70’s feeling a real sense of connection to other people and to other living things in what can only be described as a “spiritual” way. I really could identify with Gandhi’s statement that “fasting is the sincerest form of prayer.”

Yesterday, while making get-out-the-vote phone calls to Georgia and Florida, I spoke to someone in Georgia who choked me up and made me think about this issue. He was an elderly African American man, a military veteran. When I asked him if he had voted for Biden he said yes, and when I asked him if he was talking up voting with other people he said, yes, that he lived in a retirement community and he and others had gone on buses to do early voting, and they were always talking about the election. He went on to say, “I’ve voted and talked to people and as far as myself, all I can do is pray and…