Washington, D.C., Holocaust Museum Shooting, 2 wounded

Naw.

I'm commenting because I love Nordette and she alerted me to when this entry was posted. It's amazing how caught in our own day we can get and then something like this incident happens and nothing else seems relevant. 

Tomorrow evening I'm being installed on the board of the American Jewish Committee in Cleveland - a diplomatic and moderate group that has been around for decades. As it says on the about us page:

American Jewish Committee (AJC), established in 1906 by a small
group of American Jews deeply concerned about pogroms aimed at Russian
Jews, determined that the best way to protect Jewish populations in
danger would be to work towards a world in which all peoples were
accorded respect and dignity.

Over 100 years later, AJC continues its efforts to promote pluralistic
and democratic societies where all minorities are protected. AJC is an
international think tank and advocacy organization that attempts to
identify trends and problems early - and take action. Our key areas of
focus are:

• Combating anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry;
• Promoting pluralism and shared democratic values;
• Supporting Israel's quest for peace and security;
• Advocating for energy independence;
• Strengthening Jewish life.\

 And it really does do these things - it operationalizes every one of those key areas. Its presidents past and present (in Cleveland) are Obama supproters as are many of its members and board folks.  It is not aligned with AIPAC or J-Street - it is about dialogue. I feel as though I'm finding a home for doing more about and with my religion.

I feel great irony at this event being tomorrow, given what happened today.

The only specific thing I can think of at the moment, to single out from so many other emotions I'm feeling is this:

This man is not alone in his thoughts.  This man is no "lone shooter." There's a reason aiding and abetting is a crime. There's a reason when kids get written up for discipline even if they weren't the ones doing the direct teasing or bullying but were egging them on.  There's a reason why the men who watched the woman portrayed by Jodie Foster in The Accused - based on a real story - get raped were convicted of criminal solicitation.

And 88 year old white men who hate Jews and Blacks and anything that does not pay homage to the way they always thought it would be and should be and to which they're entitled to have it be are NOT as uncommon as we want to think. I know - because I live around the corner from an 86 year old man who, when I went door to door with my daughter asking people to sign my petition to run for city council, the first question he asked was, What's your faith? When I told him, he said, There are too many Jews in this city already! I will not help you! He then lamented his belief that we currently have the last Christian mayor we'll have and our city is 70% Jewish (horrors! except it's not true).  All in front of my middle school child and me.

This man had lived in the neighborhood since a time when it was not only ok but it was expected that you did not sell your home to Jews or Blacks - the land had restrictive covenants that eventually were outlawed by SCOTUS and then the Ohio Supreme Court.

And so now - this is not the place he expected his neighborhood to always be - exactly like him, exactly the way he wanted it.

I can count on one hand the number of times in a year I use the word hate. I don't let my kids use the word hate - I make them find another word or describe their feelings with other words.  Hate is a terrible word.  It is intense, it is four letters, it fills me with pain - can you conjure up for yourself what you feel when you speak that word? How must it feel to people who FEEL hate as these men do?

I know I know now what it is to feel hated - by someone who lives in my own town.

The really sad thing is - we know there are people driven to do these things for any number of reasons - from the left or the right or any other place that most people don't go.  But the critical mass at some of these places has arrived.  And the only way to not contribute to that mass is to weaken it - with ideas like Kim's and conversing and asking and communicating like Nordette did to me - asking my thoughts.  We must see each other as humans, we must demand that of every single leader as well.

I understand what it is to curse a blue streak of anger and hatred at an act that killed an innocent man doing his job, protecting thousands of strangers. I remember feeling that streak take over me on 9/11 as well.  But saying wretched, awful, untruthful, inciteful rhetoric about people we don't even know - groups or individuals - has no value - none.

I've tried to stay focused on doing better - I thank a woman and activist named Tanya Tarr for that mantra.  It gets me back to center.

Do better. We just must do better.

Jill Writes Like She Talks

My most recent blogpost, which you can read here, discussed the Obama Cairo speech.  Ok, the speech wasn't perfect.  Ok, Obama's not perfect.  Hey, I'm not perfect!  NONE of us are perfect.

However, I felt the address was earnest, and a good begining to restoring America's stature in the world.

I was therefore stunned at the vitriolic repsonse in Twitter and elsewhere.  One girl, a young, attractive girl, on Twitter wrote: "BO can take his message of peace and put it where the sun don't shine"!  Who thinks like that?!?!

Well, it seems a lot of people do.

Obama's speech made me feel hopeful.  The Twitter comments make me feel terrified.   If our own countrymen aren't on board, peace and respect appear to be things that are beyond our grasp.

God bless the soul of the guard who died today and God be with his family in their grief.

God help us all on our little blue and green planet.  Because if we don't make respect and understanding a priority, we are doomed.

Marie

www.nourishourselves.blogspot.com

www.theshorebookworm.blogspot.com