IT'S NOTHING NEW

Dear editor:

So many people are acting amazed at the horrendous story that came out of Pittsburgh last week. They stand shell shocked that a massacre of Jewish people in a synagogue (or anywhere) could happen. Evidently they don’t know the history that preceded it, from ancient times forward.

All thru history we find Jews being massacred. In 66CE Agrippa II exterminated all the Babylonian Jews in Transjordan. Then the Greeks slaughtered the Jews in Damascus, 50,000 Jews in Alexandria and 20,000 in Caesarea Maritima. Skip forward to the Crusades. When Urban II ordered the First Crusade, the only infidel in Northern Europe known to the crusaders was the Jews, who were considered the enemies of Christian society.  And so, in Trier on the first day of Passover in 1096 the Hebrews were offered conversion or death.  Most committed suicide with the balance being massacred.  In March 1096 a large army of Crusaders attacked the Jewish communities of France and Lorraine.  They were given the choice of baptism or death, and when they refused they were slaughtered.  The crusaders massacred Jews in the Rhineland and as they proceeded along their route they became more and more violent, murdering Jews in ever increasing numbers.  This continued in town after town as the mob of murderers rampaged thru Europe. Of course history contains massacres such as these all thru the centuries. There isn’t a country in Europe that at one time or another hasn’t exiled all Jews living there. And don’t forget the “Inquisitions” that killed thousands in many countries, including Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Everyone knows (or should know) of the “Final Solution” (Holocaust) planned and executed by the Third Reich of Nazi Germany during the 1940s.  While 6,000,000 Jews were killed, Hitler did not hit his goal as planned at the Wanasee Conference in January 1942, which listed country by country, the expected total evacuation (killing) of 11,738,684 Jews. There are many deniers of the Holocaust, BUT IT HAPPENED. In 1939, Hitler closed all ports to keep out “unwanted persons” and to stop Jews from escaping from his future plans. But he did allow 900 Jewish refugees to embark aboard the MS St. Louis from Hamburg.  All had visas for Cuba. Upon arrival in Cuban waters the ship was not allowed entry. It then sailed up the US coast, begging President Roosevelt for the right to disembark in the USA. Because of politics, the upcoming election and the “America First” movement in the country (sound familiar?), they were turned down and the ship returned to Europe, landing in Belgium.  Many were accepted in European countries but approximately a quarter of them died in Nazi death camps. This is all just a smattering of examples.

Many instances have happened in the USA.  I personally remember the bombing of the Temple on Peachtree in Atlanta in the 1970s. The center of Holocaust denial, which is now an international movement, is the Institute for Historical Research.  Founded in California in 1979 it disseminates denial literature and Nazi books, pamphlets, tapes and videos throughout the world.

Don’t forget what happened in Charllottsville prior to Pittsburgh. When our leadership in Washington doesn’t specifically call out and condemn any hatred, including Anti-Semitism, it is encouraging acts such as happened in Pittsburgh.

Vicious Buffoon

Dear Editor:

In my life, I have watched Franklin Roosevelt install the New Deal, Harry Truman order the atomic bomb to end WWII, Dwight Eisenhower sign the first Civil Rights bills, John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba,  Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and say, "And we shall overcome," Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over. I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill, George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh's madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing "Amazing Grace" in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Until now these were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men and were not perfect presidents.They approached the job, took to the podium, and with all the gravitas they could muster speak as appropriate to the job. They tried to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled, but they tried.

And comes now a hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. A man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.

The scion of a multi-generational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides. Watch him behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn't he a funny man? Isn't what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now."