Yesterday a tsunami hit the shores of the West Coast of our country, an unusual, though quite possibly a most dangerous event. Thankfully, that was not the case this time but always, the risk remains, both from Nature and from Man. Of late there has been a chain of weird natural events, almost as if we are being sent message after message from on high, from whatever Power you believe in or from the depth of your own honest soul. There is something very wrong with us, with the world and we had better tackle this problem or there will be nothing left to tackle. Priorities are screwed up, to say the least.
There was another high-water mark yesterday, one that is always being challenged, others willing, eager even, to set yet another record. This high watermark has been exploding over the past few years, yet despite all these new marks, it is merely a continuation, albeit growing by leaps and bounds, dating from time immemorial, or more specifically ever since Abraham, the forefather of all, recognized his Invisible G-d, a unique one. It stamped a notice to the twisted world on the body and soul of all who followed in his footsteps, who worshipped the same G-d, called themselves Jewish, part of the Jewish nation. Here, yet again, surprise, but not really, shock, but not really.
So, damn it all, when is enough, enough? When can Jews expect to be safe in their own lands? When can we cease being the target of false canards, deadly lies, accusations beyond the Pale? When will it ever stop? Why was my Sabbath, the Shabbat of Jews around the world disturbed by news of yet another brutal attack on our people? Make no mistake about it; this is not only an attack on Jews. As I have said multiple times, more than I care to remember, that hatred and its inevitable consequences never ends, never stops with the elimination of its target or targets. It must feed on something lest it consume itself.
It is a fair statement that reactions were one of predictable choices. It was ignored. It was greeted with a yawn. It was greeted with glee. It was met with anguish. It was met with anger. It was met with fear. Luckily, it was not met with blood - this time. The next time, and assuredly there will be a next time, that blood might well be there. Thus, we have grown to expect. Thus, we have grown to know. We will always live in anguish, in the homelands of Jews in their homelands around the world. Not even in our tiny, unique country of our own, amongst the many Moslem and Christian and Buddhist and Hindu nations, are we forbidden to live in peace. The Jewish people are evidently not on the list of being worthy of their own land, a land that has been theirs from time immemorial, built and rebuilt, time and time again, always with Jewish inhabitants. Damn it all. A continual chasing of high-water marks that should never be, that should have been stamped out millennia ago.
That this hatred has grown to such proportions even in this country of ours is a high-water mark of shame. But no shock. Not in the atmosphere of this country these days, lo these many a year. How could it be otherwise when we can pick up a paper and read more lies, wallow in the falsities of social media, when a blood libel is actually raised, when a false pamphlet called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a patently false publication created by anti-Semites is so easily available, when the sales of Mein Kampf are growing? How? Why?
There is an acrid taste of bitterness in the air we breathe today. When a prominent historian from Yale can write a most frightening article -" the states are preparing the legal steps that will enable Trump to be installed as president the next time around. And that in turn will lead to a terrible sort of conflict, the kind that we haven't seen before. we are on the brink of some kind of conflict. It's the kind of conflict that ends with some kind of basic political reconstruction, where the US as we know it doesn't have to exist."
Echoing what I have been predicting, warning, preaching about lo these many a year, well, it is downright frightening. We Jews know what happens in such lands, in such places, under autocracy. We are the preferred target of the day, we and others who will protest, who will form a challenge to such a country. Jews thrive in democracies, where people are welcomed, treated fairly - at least most of the time. Thus it has been throughout all the days and years of our lives. And such is the challenge we are facing today, as a nation, as one country. Yet we have denial, a most dangerous denial, willful or not, conscious or not. Read his long article for perhaps one might wake up and taste that acrid air. Feel it burn one's soul along with one's lungs.
Whatever metaphor, analogy, allegory you prefer, high water or low, quicksand or cement, we are not in a very good way these days. Are we honest? Look past all the shouting, all the curses, all the blind to reality loyalties, the willful ignoring of dangerous people and ideas in some bizarre repudiation of our value set, of our ethos as Americans, as Jews, as Christians, as freethinkers, as humanists, as any sane, rational, thinking human being. Get over it, be you Democrat or Republican or any political denomination. Our country is drowning or sinking or both at the same time. The road to a positive future is befogged, almost to the point of Nacht und Nebel, the fearsome atmosphere of Nazi Germany and its conquered lands. There is very little time remaining to find a different path or to clearing that highway so befogged and dangerous. Little time indeed.
To prove a sad point, I will venture that many of you are not even aware of the event that I refer to, what happened yesterday in Texas. Check the papers, the media. Yet again, a synagogue held to ransom, to free a terrorist, the Rabbi and three congregants held hostage, a siege which thankfully ended with no bloodshed. But many consequences. Close, too close. How much more are we to fear this recurring. And recur it will most certainly do.
With respect for the BLM movement and supporters, there has to be a change. Jews have recognized the unfairness of your history here and been in the frontlines of protest and funding, linking hands, hearts and wallets with all. Why, then, is the BLM movement, along with suspicious allies, even Jewish self-haters, disregarders of the past, holding our people responsible, worthy of blame and death, of bloodshed, of anguish, of denial into the ranks of humanity as equal members? Why are anti-Semites so welcome in your world? Why have you allowed this? Why have you forgotten the past, disregarded the present and mortgaged our future to evildoers? Anti-Semites. Again, ad infinitum ad forever - hatred has neither bounds nor boundaries, always seeking food for its ever-hungry maw. Always and forever and you are right there in its sights. I know there are those who will vehemently deny this paragraph, but it is my call, Think about it.
We must all choose to be part of the solution, not builders and accommodators to the problem, an existential problem for all. Read the following. Think again. Reassess. DAMN IT ALL.
THERE MUST BE AN ANSWER.
THERE HAS TO BE.
LEST WE ARE ALL LOST.
ALL.
Type in: Yale history professor Timothy Snyder...
letter to the editor: Reader dismayed
Yale history professor Timothy Snyder told Insider he fears American democracy may not survive another Trump campaign
cdavis@insider.com (Charles Davis) - Yesterday 4:20 PM
cdavi@insider.com (Charles Davis) - Yesterday 4:20 PM
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