An exciting development in the blogosphere -- Joan Nestle has a blog! One would expect that a blog created by the founder of The Lesbian Herstory Archives would be nothing short of provocative and indeed, Nestle's first two entries are exactly that. Cleverly entitled “Don’t You Ever Stop Talking,” Nestle’s blog was born after her very first visit to Israel, and her voice is one committed to ending what she perceives to be the Israeli occupation and oppression of Palestinians.

The title itself intrigues me. She easily could have titled her blog: “End the Occupation” or “Free Palestine.” But “Don’t You Ever Stop Talking” invites a kind of openness, honesty, and freedom that I think the world needs more of, and that the blogosphere prolifically celebrates. Nestle writes:

“… What finally pushed me to blog was my reading on my computer my daily New York Times--I now live in Melbourne, Australia with my lover--my reading of Thomas Friedman and David Brooks, these men of power who make huge pronouncements about how things should be in the world. I am not in their league, but I have stood with the Women in Black peace demonstrators in Haifa and Jerusalem, I have visited with women who run the Nazareth Women's Center and its sister, the Haifa Women's Center, I have met the women who founded ASWAT, the first human rights organization for Palestinian lesbians. I have seen Palestinian, Mizrachi and Ashkenazi Jewish, Christian and Ethopian women meeting together in the same building. I have sat late into a Jerusalem night talking with a young butch-fem community, most of whom are peace activists, about how the body and its desires live in such a place at such a time…”

Pretty amazing that a 67-year-old archivist has entered the blogosphere, no? I look forward to reading more of Nestle’s entries in “Don’t You Ever Stop Talking,” and hope that her blog will generate lively conversation around the challenging issues of our time.