No More Heroes

I usually do my best to avoid politics, particularly on my blog and even more particularly when it comes to Israel. However, this is just too much for me to stand.

Helen Thomas is a woman any young, female writer my age would have looked up to. She was an aggressive reporter, working the White House Press Room for as long as I’ve been alive. She was ground breaking for women, as far as I could see, during my entire lifetime.

Ari Fleischer calls for Helen Thomas’ Firing.

Sure, she is entitled to her opinion on Israel. Damn near every person is on one side or another. I’m no Zionist, many Jews are not, but Helen Thomas’ comments on May 27 during the Jewish Heritage Celebration at the White House were certainly not appropriate to say the very least. Her anti-Semitic spew during a Jewish event shows she was never worthy of my high regard. These are the kind of comments backward, uneducated, racists throw around to make others feel sorry them when in fact it is their inability to get along in the world and laziness keeping them down. They blame the Jews, the blacks, the Mexicans, anyone but their own inept, lazy selves. This isn’t a tradition promoted by whites alone. I have heard the same bull shit out of black people as well. Bigotry has no color.

I would expect so much more from Helen Thomas, something intelligent, for a start. She can be sitting on the Arab side of the fence and show up to the event. She can even mention her views when prompted, but that isn’t what she did. She’s an idiot. How could someone so obtuse get so far in the US? I’ll ponder that for the rest of the day and I’m afraid at what the answer truly is.

Her public apology isn’t worth the virtual paper it was written on. It was no apology. It was no misstep with words. It is her actual, hateful view on Jews. It is quite clear the only thing she’s regretting is that numerous educated people in the USA do not share her hate and there is likely to be a price she is going to have to pay. With any luck, she will be removed from the White House and never heard from again.

There is such an anti-Semitic upswing right now in the USA and in the rest of the world. Things had quieted down for a little while and now it is all brewing and bubbling away once again. I can’t help but think the next Hitler is getting ready to be revealed. It is never a matter of whether or not people will slaughter Jews again; it is always only a matter of when.

My great-grandparents came to this country from Russia/Poland around 1906. They were killing Jews in pogroms in Russia at the time. When they got to Michigan they said they were Catholic and buried their Jewishness. I was the first person in my family to get on a mission to find out why I was taught to do odd cooking traditions. I was the first in my line to discover the truth, we were Jews. A distant relative told how they were chastised as children if they ever mentioned they were Jews. They were forbidden to ever mention it. The only reason he spoke about it now is because I sent someone to ask the old man.

My first reaction was anger at my immigrant ancestors. How could they cheat me out of my rightful Jewish upbringing? How could they deny who they were? How could they not be proud of who they were? How could they not tell their children before they died?

And now, at 52, I might be on the verge of understanding. They were trying to stay alive. They were trying to save their children. A fate I might one day face myself.