Sunday, May 15, 2022

TOM DOOLEY AND THE REST OF US

 Lest you be confused, the title refers to the Tom Dooley of song, not the real-life altruist. Our Tom Dooley was evidently a bad boy as he is told to hang down his head, prepare to die, for that is his fate, payment for the crime of murder.

Well, folks, here we are, 2022, still wobbly on our feet with a pandemic that never seems to actually go away, are living lives rife with political angst and rancor, dwell on a planet increasingly existentially challenged, and threats and possibilities of WWIII are growing every day. Furthermore, so many of our supposed leaders, the politicians of the day chase self-betterment every day. That is, the betterment to themselves, not of themselves. More money. More power. More invective. More poison spewing forth from their split tongue mouths. Snakes they are indeed, and that is quite probably an insult to the world of snakes. My sincere apologies.

Truthfully, the atmosphere generated by these dangerous fools, is smothering, as their oxygen deprived brains lead them further and further into an evil forest from which there is no return. It appears to be a trend these days to rewrite our traditional fairy tales. Well, we certainly have overwritten these tales via our modern-day versions, true to life unfortunately.

To me, today, every damned day lately, I believe that we need to remind fellow Americans and fellow residents of earth that enough is enough. Time to heave out the trash, the human trash, place them where they can no longer cause a ruckus which ends in bloodshed, no possible positive outcome ever. Time to hang our heads in shame for we are allowing one of the worst crimes of humanity to resurface, gain traction, in a thoroughly challenged population. A population which is growing exponentially and frankly, scares the living daylights out of me, my friends, as our fears for our kids and their kids intensify. There are no words powerful enough to encompass the height, the depth, the intensity of these fears -and unfortunate growing reality of their threat. Why, in 2022, do I read these headlines and stories?

The government said it is removing all links with the National Union of Students (NUS) amid anti-Semitism concerns. Community Security Trust’s report, which found campus anti-Semitic incidents had returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“This should be a warning for all of the dirty zionists on this campus.”

posted anonymously on YikYak, a social media network popular on college campuses, and was part of a wave of online invective that had been building - threats, the public denunciations, the posting of her address online, the ejection from her a cappella club, anonymous outreach to her future employer, and an article in the campus newspaper

 “What we’re seeing on campuses across the country,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, “is a kind of virulent anti-Zionism that purports to be about Palestinian rights, but in reality results in the marginalization and the demonization of all Jewish students.”

A gunman killed ten people and injured three others in the attack, allegedly posting a virulently racist and antisemitic manifesto shortly before the shooting... the manifesto advocates for a war between Jews and non-Jews. “We outnumber them 100x, and they are not strong by themselves,” he wrote. “But by their Jewish ways, they turn us against each other. When you realize this you will know that the Jews are the biggest problem the Western world has ever had. They must be called out and killed, if they are lucky they will be exiled. We can not show any sympathy towards them again.”


Is there ever going to be a time when these words, these hateful words and expressions, accusations, will be put to permanent death? Why, among all the vile habits of mankind, can we never get rid of this antisemitism, masquerading however it does, buried in ostensibly "kosher" accusations. Denying the truth of it all and worse, getting away with it. When will these words and the hate they represent ever be finished?  My take - never, certainly not at this pace.

Our modern haters and those who present themselves as 'progressives', as taking up the cudgel for those 'oppressed' by Israeli thugs, well, think again. I am a born and bred Zionist, as are the rest of my family and most of my friends and acquaintances, Jewish and not alike. I have lost hundreds, yes, hundreds, of family - cousins, aunts, great grandparents, on all sides of the family, during the slaughter of the Holocaust. I have family and friends in Israel. And here, in America. And in England. and in France. All of us, including right here in the good old USA, have been the targets of antisemitic invective, in words and deeds as well. I wonder, when is enough, enough? Is it not time that we speak the truth, admit to ourselves and to the world?

Yes, Israel, under various governments, has committed some errors over the years, some more serious than others. However, not as an excuse, but as a point of fact, a reality which people deny oh so emphatically, why is it that when Israel or a citizen or a lone soldier, does something off kilter, that the world goes ballistic. Even when the same so incensed and self-righteous nations that shout the loudest are precisely the same nations who have done wrong?! Why is it that Israel and its citizens are never deemed deserving of expressed sorrow and regret when the citizens are slaughtered, butchered in their homes, on the streets, at work, at play, in school, living their lives as the rest of the world does? 

Why is it okay, even praised when it happens? The papers, you ask, the media? Hah! Buried on a back page, along with over half the article replete with dredged up counter accusations. See, there never is an expressed sympathy and empathy.  Why is it okay for crowds all around the world to shout, scream, demand severe punishment and consequences, crackdowns on terrorists, when there is an unfortunate incident, but if Israelis shout that, well, Chicken Little indeed looks up and shouts, "The sky is falling!" However, in our rewritten fairy tales, the sky only falls on Israeli heads.

 Why does it go unnoticed, even complimented, contrasted to the violence and political usurpation of Arab funerals, whilst the Jewish victims are buried in grief, in sorrow, rather than in threats?  Why is it okay for haters, for "Progressives" - actually quite regressive - to ignore the wrong on one side and vehemently, oh so righteously, accuse the other of criminal activities, deny it the right to exist as a state. 80 years after the Holocaust, the terrorism never stops, the invective never ends and here we are, never even getting out of the gate.

Can the world not exist without focusing on this spurious hatred, these false accusations against the Jewish people? The Church, in England, just apologized for a document of approved antisemitic content from Plantagenet England. I believe it would have been far more useful and meaningful, to write an apology that would carry weight and meaning, proper action, to our times. 

Those who burned in the Tower of York, that were expelled by Edward II,  who burned at the stake in Spain and Portugal, or were chased out of home and hearth in France, in Germany,  in Moslem lands, viciously slaughtered and tortured throughout the ages -well, here is what they are doing now. They are looking down and asking, "What is the matter with Your people, Lord. Why is one segment of your creations the preferred target of hatred and violence directed at it by Your other creations? G-d, well he shrugs His shoulders, Himself frustrated and betrayed by those to whom He gave the breath of life. 

What a waste. What a terrible, awful, horrid waste.

The why of it never answered, for there is no answer.

Truly, fit companions of Tom Dooley. 

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