A hero of Israel just died and on his desk when at work was a picture of a man kneeling in front of a Nazi officer. That man was his grandfather who was shot immediately after the picture was taken and Meir Dagan said that his job was to insure that this never, ever, happened again. He also stated in his last speech that "I have a dream - to leave my three children and seven grandchildren a different society. I dream that they can dedicate their lives to growth, development to fulfilling dreams, and not to wars for their homeland. I would like to ensure them a better life than I lived. I would like to promise them a society that eliminates its discrimination and violence, that gets back to its roots and takes responsibility for its destiny. A society that will ensure a real opportunity for all of its citizens to strive for real equality."
This statement is equally applicable to any and all countries and should be a prime motivation in their citizens and governments. Unfortunately it is not and thus the world suffers.
What about the actions of people in other areas of the world? Why do the Kurds insist on blowing up things - or does their understandable quest for independence justify these actions? Why does ISIS kill and rape and rampage all over the world, with no apparent motive other than to establish a Caliphate and to hell with those who do not agree, who are not Moslems, I believe Shiite in their sect.
What is it about human beings that they will fight to the death for their beliefs, for that which motivates them, but will not spend one minute of their time on discussion and possible negotiation and compromise? What gives such determination to the people in the Ukraine who are fighting on opposite sides of the issue there - what is to be with the eastern Ukraine?
And what about those who insist on gaining or attaining power simply for the sake of power? So many of our politicians fall into this category and they overshadow those who actually are there to help their electorate. What is this need, this drive to rule, to impose, to dictate, to place primary importance on their wishes over all others?
We have that situation right here in the Village with the current administration and those who follow along in its wake for the "privileges" they believe they are given. Yet these "gifts" for their selling their souls are often temporary for no dictator in history has ever been stable for any period of time and thus the followers are prone to fall under the whims and feet of their "leaders".
And now I, and many others would like to know the motivations behind this apparent attempt to impose further censoring on the residents of the Village, further control and repression. This is the plan to totally censor the library and the Village and make it "religious rein" at all costs. No religious material is to make it alive into the library. Why? Ask the twisted minds of those who are pushing it. Is it some simpleton who cannot deal with a tract that might have ended up on a library table? Is it some fanatic who cannot deal with a book about the religion that is not his/hers? Or is it worse than that, with an evil plan afoot and the elephant in the room question is - WHERE DOES THIS END - OR DOES IT? Do we then proceed to rid the Village of religious people of all kinds?
Religion is both a bane and a boon to mankind. There are those in history who have used it to justify murder on a large scale, allowed them to kill and maim in horrific manner, to crush people under their heels. But there are those who have lived their religious precepts, be they the Dalai Lama or Mother Teresa or the Rebbe or anyone else one knows who lives a life governed by the soft rules of religion, by the rules which guide and urge us to care for humanity.
To perhaps classify myself, I consider myself to be an Open Orthodox Jew if you can figure that out, and my friends number amongst themselves every sect of Judaism, every level of observance there is, along with Catholics, lapsed and not, Protestants of all groups, Evangelicals, a Bahai and even some atheists. It would NEVER cross my mind to ban them or their thoughts just as it would never cross my mind to ban material which presents their religious beliefs as long as there is no hate literature, no words which encourage its readers to kill or maim those who differ from them, no imposing their beliefs on others and certainly there should be the recognition that there is no room for religion in the Oval Office or indeed in any political office of the country on any level.
So why, in Heaven's name, WHY, is there a plan to rid our library in the Clubhouse of all religious material? Who exactly is going to determine this and the meaning of the definition of religious. Are we to ban all history books for certainly the history of mankind is rife with religion, good or bad. Are we to ban so many books of literature, of fiction and non fiction which deal with the topic of religion? Are we to ban magazines which dare discuss religion? Remember the issue that asked "Is G-d Dead?" Would that be allowed into the "holy" walls of our library?
In any case, anyone remember the Constitution of the United States of America? Yes, the country we live in! There is freedom of speech and freedom of religion so this new plan violates both and what about the fact that we lease the Clubhouse, rent it for a fortune, pay for its upkeep on top of that - and now we are told that we have no right to run the library as we wish, the very library that is run by volunteers? And again, I ask, I shout, I cry out - Where does this end? Is there an end? And again, I end with that chilling quote:
THOSE WHO BEGIN BY BURNING BOOKS WILL END UP WITH THE BURNING OF PEOPLE.
The peoples of the world have been there before, many times, so why have we not yet absorbed and internalized that lesson?
WHY NOT, DAVID ISRAEL? WHY NOT, EVA RACHESKY? WHY NOT, MARY MEROLA? WHY NOT???????
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