Who Gets the Cookies.

Imagine a classroom where at snack time 5 children sit at a table and the teacher brings out 10 cookies.  Three of the children get 3 cookies each and the other two split one.  Over time the 2 children who had to share that single cookie are getting a cookie each and there is talk that one day get 2 whole cookies.  The children who used to get 3 cookies each are angry and saying that the other children are changing the way things have been done and it is not fair that they have to give something up.  This is what I see our American culture like today.

As the Christmas season is ending for most, we once again were exposed to a lie that somehow since the current President was elected people are free to say Merry Christmas.  To be clear saying that phrase has never been banned by anyone in government nor has there been any real attempt to eliminate it from our language.  A few retail companies did start using Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings in ads and for employees when speaking to customers they didn't know.  But from the halls of Congress and the White House the phrase Merry Christmas was a common greeting every December for as long as I can remember.  But there have been more and more communities that have begun to acknowledge, either by legal decree or growing awareness, that they are more diverse than just Christians.   The changing of forcing children, for example, at school programs to attend events with Santa or sing songs about the birth of Jesus when that is not their faith tradition has been met with anger in some circles.  Like the kids who lost their cookie advantage there are some suggesting that their Christmas is ruined.  When in fact that there is nothing ruined.  Christmas season starts earlier and earlier each year.  There is no lack of Christmas opportunity for people around the country.  But the very inclusion of other traditions in that space has been almost exclusively Christmas has some people riled up.  Without a thought of what it must be like for a child who doesn't celebrate Christmas forced to either spend class time learning Christmas music and visiting with Santa or having to sit in the office these people feel that their children are being cheated.  This sense of privilege is a problem that many in government are now promoting by repeating the lies of the President. 

Religion is only one arena where this privilege but one that we have seen take the forefront.  A recent viral video of a woman, standing in front of a mosque in Brooklyn, saying "this is Brooklyn" astonished that she can hear the call to prayer.  The fairly quiet broadcast to the neighborhood (compared to some I have heard in some places) did not seem to have a rejection from most of the people walking down the street, but for her it was somehow a problem.  This feeds the old creeping Sharia nonsense.  Muslims have been part of our country since before we were a country.  But demonizing their existence is part of a bigger picture.  While church bells can be heard for miles why can't the few minutes a day of a call to prayer can be broadcast?  Because it makes some people uncomfortable. 

This problem is growing in our country.  Some people don't want to make room for others to join the table and get the cookies.  This has been part of our country's history.  We had grown past it I thought.  But today I am in shock, after several attacks of Jews in the New York City area in recent weeks after a couple of years of murders in synagogues in Pittsburgh and San Diego and Los Angeles and and and a man walked into a house of a rabbi and stabbed several people.  This is a form of terrorism that is intended, by all accounts, to force Jews out of the public eye.  Maybe even out of a community.  That is a serious issue and if we keep saying that the kinds of things coming from members of the right wing this will get worse. 

Diversity is our strength.  We can't marginalize groups because some feel they are losing their seat of supremacy.  We need to learn to share and add to our great American culture.  It is a deep seated value we have had from the beginning.  We may not have always lived up to that standard but we can't stop trying.  Everyone should have access to the cookies.  

When Impeachment is Just Another Wednesday

It is Wednesday, December 18, 2019 and the third President of the United States in the history of our Republic will be impeached by the House of Representatives by the end of the day.  While it seems like a major event for many as the media has unending coverage and there were protests in the street, somehow it doesn't seem at all to be anything special in this Presidency.  In fact it simply feels like the cliffhanger at the end of a season of a TV drama where the main character has acted badly throughout and the question is will this when he is held accountable.  This is in part because it feels like every day for the past 3 years we have had to think about the President of the United States, and not in a good way.  I get asked, often, "did the President do anything today?".  A question of preparation for perhaps watching an evening news program.  We have become programmed to wonder what the person in what is the most powerful seat in the world is doing and hoping that it is for the greater good and not otherwise.  Because of this impeachment, a solemn and sober act to remove the leader of the country, is just another event in a string of events around this President. 

 Just think about this, last week or so the President of the United States was ordered to pay $2 million to charities because he defrauded them prior to his election, he wrote a 6 page rant to Speaker of the House Pelosi full of insults and lies (and spelling errors) on White House Letterhead that looks more like a chain email forwarded without comment, his personal lawyer went on television to tell the world that he in fact helped oust a career anti-corruption ambassador because she was in the way, and of course tweeted 100 times in a single day attacking everyone who cares to question his actions. 

Our new normal is to assume the President of the United States will do something outside the bounds of typical behavior for a chief executive and well it is Trump being Trump.  That is a problem.  You may be happy that he is putting unqualified ideologues on the Federal bench to make it more conservative and less about law, with an economy that continued to grow during his Presidency, at least for many sectors and it may make you feel good that he expresses those dark thoughts you have out loud about minorities and immigrants.  But the current environment is not healthy for America, and if you can't see that I understand.  A fish does not know it is wet.  But I hope people will seriously take a look at what is going on around us. The President has been moving more and more into the role of a tyrant where he no longer believes in the rule of law, the Constitution and the functional norms of our country.   When Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Ben Franklin about our new Constitution he answered,  "We have a Republic, if we can keep it."  A President who doesn't care about American values and norms is a threat to keeping it.  This may be a tyrant that you like, but all tyrants eventually find fault with everyone, and when they do I hope we are all here to stand against it. 

When We Want to Know How Old the Earth is Do We Ask a Preacher?

In recent weeks, the Ohio state house of representatives passed a law that allows students to answer questions with religious information and thus can’t be penalized for it.   The law is said to allow a student to write an essay on Jesus if asked about the greatest living human, but it clearly has the ability to challenge the teaching of scientific principles and facts like evolution in public schools.  The idea is that a student shouldn’t have to give up a religious belief for a grade and I agree.  But it looks to many that it can be extended to allow a student to not answer certain questions with a religious response when asked for a scientific one;  that is troubling.  The age of the earth for example is not 6000 or even 10,000 years old, as some believe. 

One can argue that both science and religion explain the way the world works and exists.  In fact there are many who believe that their canonized scripture is the only way and that any discovery that contradicts it is simply wrong.   A sign as you enter the Creation Museum in Kentucky, a so-called museum not far from the Ohio border that teaches the Biblical narrative of creation as fact reads something to the effect of:  Any discovery that challenges the facts of the Bible must be wrong.    

If the most expansive reading of this law is applied, then there is a problem with how grades will be given out.  Holding a belief is not the issue, using it in place of a scientific fact is problematic.  When you take a class and get a grade it is not just for you, but it tells the next person you encounter what to expect of you.  My Organic Chemistry professor put it like this in college “I can give you all As but then the next person that sees you in an academic or work setting will expect you to have knowledge you may not have and you will fail.  Better to learn it now when you have a chance to master it then when there are higher consequences”.  That stuck with me both as a student and an educator.  The grade must be an agreed upon standard.  If you were to allow a student to think the world is 6000 years old and validate it with a grade that could be a problem in the future.  It will also mean that if a student attends a university outside of Ohio they may run into a rude awakening.     

Facts should matter in school and frankly everywhere.  There is a growing trend to elevate so-called alternative facts, as an advisor to the President once said.  The idea that things don’t have to be accurate, if one has a strong belief in what they are saying.  What Steven Colbert once called truthiness.  Facts must be the center of knowledge.  While there are many places that opinion can come into the education process, the facts of science must be known to get a good grade in a science class, even if you reject them for religion.      

I applaud Ohio for trying to clarify that when students bring their faith into their assignments they must not be penalized or told they can’t do so.  Students who have strongly held beliefs who are being educated in public schools do have a right to their beliefs, and they should not be made to change them.  They can discuss them in class within reason, as long as they don’t disrupt other’s education.  But when asked about evolution, the age of the earth, or disease theory they should have to answer with the facts that they were taught.  Even if they reject them.  I am not a fan of Piaget’s theories of development, in fact I think he is wrong.  However, I learned them, I know them, I can be critical of them from an understanding of them, and I passed my test on them in college.   

We don’t know if the law will ever be enacted, nor how it will be applied.  It may open the door a crack to try to bring in alternative views that oppose the scientific view.  It might be a way to protect the religious freedom that sometimes comes under attack in a school setting when ignorance of those rights is the norm.  However, I think there is a way to write a law that protects the freedom without expanding it beyond what education should be.  We will need to keep an eye on this.  Knowledge drives a free people.  Ignorance is easily exploited and we can suffer the consequences of ignorance in the future if we are not careful.  Maybe we already are.

Love and Hate: An Evening in Two Acts

I don't think I have ever been through a more antipodean evening than the other night.  I went to a dinner sponsored by the Immigrant Welcome Center here in Indianapolis.  An organization that is funded to help support the settlement of immigrants and refugees in Central Indiana.  Run by a friend and amazing woman Terri Morris-Downs, who will soon be retiring, the organization has made life alerting and affirming opportunities happen for people who chose the United States as a place to live out their dreams.  The coalition in the room included business leaders, community service providers, religious representatives and a few political folks.  We heard about the importance of the immigrant communities to the greater Indianapolis area and what is being done by such diverse people as the CEO of the Indiana Fever, the Mexican Consul General and a Eli Lilly Scientist.  We also got to see the real work of the organization as many people thanked Terri for her years of dedication to making Indianapolis a welcoming place for people from around the world.  The entire evening was a tribute to the ideal that is so important to our nation, that we are a place of hope for many and many of us who are here now and established owe a sense of gratitude to those ancestors of ours who chose to leave their home to journey to a new world and create a life that led to the future we share that they envisioned in their dreams. 

So I came home in time to watch some news only to see Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS) at a Congressional hearing.  Cuccinelli is only in the acting role because even though he is a Republican, he would not have the votes to become the permanent director because of his draconian stance on many issues.  Today he was trying to defend and deflect from a policy change that he, himself, helped create that would end Medically Deferred Action Program (MDAP).  This program allows for immigrants in this country to remain to get life saving medical treatment if being deported would result in them not getting that treatment in their native country.  Basically, CIS sent letters to families earlier this year that gave them a month to leave the country or be in violation, in some cases this would mean a death sentence to a child getting life sustaining care in the US.  In some cases the reason that the family was here was to help develop protocols for treatment for rare disorders.   Meaning that the doctors sought out and brought children to the US to try new ways to keep children alive with a disorder that was so rare that treatment was slow to come.  Now Cuccinelli and his boss President Trump wanted to just kick them out of the country and if they die, well that is the nature of things.  It was sickening. 

Good reporting and a parade of people who are alive because of MDAP testifying on Capital Hill had them change their mind and to my knowledge none have been deported.  However the very notion that we, as a country, would send young people off to certain death, for no reason but that some people thing the only good immigrant comes from a northern European country turns my stomach.  It appears that much of the rhetoric around the idea of illegal immigration and refugees is just cover for an attempt to make all immigration suspect.  These children and young adults who are here to stay simply alive are no threat to anyone.  They aren't taking jobs, they aren't a drag on the economy, they aren't terrorists, but still the government, IN OUR NAME, tried to send them back.  That is wrong on every level. 

There always have been hard and sometimes bad choices made about immigration.  Stories can be told of the people whose families had barely lost their own accents attacking the idea of boats coming to THEIR AMERICA with immigrants who don't speak the language or quickly assimilate.   I wonder if the first Cuccinelli would have been welcomed with open arms by a country that was skeptical of those coming from Italy in the early 20th century.  But we have always found a way to settle new populations and they add something to the wonder that is American culture. 

The other night I found myself morally raised up by the notion of a diverse community of people committed to the idea that we can welcome people in without fear and trembling that they will somehow ruin what we have.  Immigrants have only ever added to the greatness of who we are.  I also found myself struggling that we have allowed the voices of hate and bigotry to get enough power that we have to shame them on a national level before they stop trying to deport children to certain death. 

Of course we need comprehensive immigration reform, of course we need to have a sense of who and why people are coming to the United States, but we can do it without risking the lives of so many to appear to look tough.  In Jewish folklore there are two voices that whisper to us.  The Yetzer Harah, the evil inclination and the Yetzer Hatov, the good inclination.  I felt both yelling at me the other night in the form of Ken Cuccinelli, a man who seems to despise others and Terri Morris Downs, who seems to love others.  I know who I will listen to, I hope you will too.  

When Rock Bottom Isn't.

Every time we think we have hit rock bottom in the current political situation, someone in President  Trump's orbit takes out a more powerful jackhammer.  This week we have the President and voices from the right attacking Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a decorated war veteran and Ukraine expert for going to Congress to testify to the call that shows President Trump asked the Ukrainian President to investigate Vice-President Joe Biden and his son.  Vindman was listening to the call and reports say that when the so-called transcript was being created Vindman wanted to add words the President deleted. He was ignored.  Col Vindman showed real concerns that the President was working against the interests of the United States during this call.  So of course the President's allies attack him.

On Fox on the Laura Inghram show, John Yoo, the author of the famed torture memo and a person seen by many as an apologist for war crimes suggested the Vindman was acting as a spy for Russia?  Ukraine?   Sean Duffy, former reality star and Congress person and current Trump cultist who is inexplicably was hired by CNN as a political commentator, suggested that Vindman might be working for Ukrainian and not US interests.  Let me tell you about Vindman.

Vindman's family fled Ukraine, then part the former Soviet Union in the 80s.  His Jewish family was leaving persecution and the dictatorship that had little hope for a country of pure hope.  He lost his mother at an early age and was raised in Brighton Beach surrounded by other Ukrainian and Russian ex-pats.  He grew to love the United States and joined the military, along with his twin brother, after college.  He found himself in Iraq where he was wounded by an IED and earned a Purple Heart.  Often decorated he moved up the ranks and served on the National Security Council and in embassies in Russian and Ukraine.  His expertise on the region cannot be challenged and his patriotism should not.  Especially by people like President Trump, who paid for a doctor's note to stay out of Vietnam, joking about his youth paying for sex as his own Vietnam.  Nor the likes of John Yoo, a man banned from countries having been tried in-absentia for war crimes.  And certainly not Sean Duffy who is only relevant to anyone for being a nonsensical character on a reality program when Vindman was defending the country. 

We have seen the Trump administration set a tone that is both destructive and hurtful as people have attacked decorated military veterans, life-long members of state department and of course members of Congress.  But questioning Vindman's loyalty and patriotism to cover for a President who admitted out loud and in front of people in the act being investigated and Vindman is confirming it with facts is a such a disgusting strategy that all who continue to promote it must be shunned by polite society.  While I don't expect Fox to do anything, CNN should fire Sean Duffy and no show should book a member of Congress who repeats this nonsense.  Voters and reporters should ask everyone of Trump's supporters if they feel a decorated war veteran is a spy or traitor and if not they should stand up and call it for what it is, as Rep. Lynn Cheney did yesterday. 

We cannot allow true patriots to be denigrated by people who aren't worthy of carrying Vindman's bloody fatigues.  We are a better country.  

As A New Person Emerges, I Too Am Changed

Two years ago I posted this on my Facebook page and reminded of it today:

 So when I got to work in my box was a book of poetry written by Noah. It is called "Valedictorian of Detention" and it chronicles some of his inner-most thoughts from high school to college. There are some stunning lines my favorite from a poem "Musings of the Damned"

"Life is like a puzzle that forms no clear picture and half the pieces are missing."

This poem is a deep dive into his frustrations with anxiety and those that tried to help. A look from the other side backward. I am proud and amazed and a little ashamed that I didn't see deeper into this at the time. I am glad he found a voice. At times angry but the last poem entitled "Back from the brink" ends with

 "I am uranium, I am energy, Fire and knlife and heat and wonderous ecstasy. I AM ALIVE
And I wouldn't trade if for anything."

I am so proud of this man.....my son....(now saving money to help pay for what I hope will be an MFA).

When I read this I thought I had insight into my child.  What I missed was that my child was struggling with identity.  This summer the child known as Noah changed.  Well, not changed but found a true nature.  The child who was Noah told us that he was now N and gender non-binary.  His pronoun is THEY.  So they told me that it was the first time they felt complete and whole.

For decades I have spoken about the idea the gender is a social construct, I have always taught that our two-gender culture norm is simply opposed to reality.  Gender, different from biological sex, has always been something that is far more expansive than the masculine and feminine images that the Western World adopted in the last 1500 years or so.  In some places like among Native Americans and parts of the Indian Sub-Continent, non-binary people were seen as valued and in some classes closer to the divine.  Some times they were seen as negative, a violation of religious law, but even in those situation they were all recognized as existing and part of the world.  At times, even when confronting a religious law, people found that humanity in individuals who didn't fit into a simplified cultural definition of gender.  Now as religious traditions evolve and reform, gender differences are welcomed and more and more embraced by many in the mainstream faith and more and more by greater culture.  People are open about their own expression and as a culture we are learning to embrace the wide diversity that is human sexuality and gender in the human condition.

But here I am, thinking.  I am proud of N for finding an authentic identity.  I am proud of N for standing up for what they truly feel.  But I won't tell you it isn't hard.  There were reasons we chose the names he had carried.  Noah for their maternal grandfather and middle name Francis for my dad.  Giving those up feels weird to me.  I use to call N "the boy".  On occasion I would say Booooyyyyy like Flava Flav.  N couldn't match it and say Bweeeeeeeee  which led to my gmail address.  Bweesdad.  However I realize this is not about me.  N is an adult and as a parent of an adult my job is to love my child and to help N negotiate a world with advice but to not stand in the way of them growing into themselves.  I don't want to look at this intellectually, but that has always been my safe space when confronted with an issue that I face.  I can and have made the argument that gender is not static and cultural defined, that is not an issue.  However, as a parent, expectations of who your child will be are very emotional.  But I realize that my major goal was to have a child that knows who they are, is happy with who they are, and sees a future that they can build for themselves.  I thin what N is telling me is that he is getting there.  I will stand where N needs me to stand with him to help as much or as little as they need.  So know my own education begins on how to be that parent.  I will stumble, I will use the name Noah on occasion, I will refer to they as THE BOY in a moment of thoughtlessness, I will suggest things that are not helpful.  But I will never give up my love for the child I helped raise and for the adult N will be.  I am happy to celebrate with my child the newly discovered person N is.  Remind me when I stumble.

Abandoning Our Allies

The Kurds are a large ethnic group whose origins are in northwest Iran and whose historical region includes northern Iraq and Syria along with Iran.  Since the bronze age the Kurdish people have developed a distinct culture.  For centuries they have been living under the rule of others.  After World War I, when Winston Churchill and the British government carved up the old Ottoman Empire there was an attempt to develop a Kurdistan for the Kurds.  However the treaty would not be signed by some so the Kurds were left out of getting autonomy.  This had led to oppression and genocide in the course of their history in the countries that they were living.  I first learned about the Kurds in the 1990s when I ran into a Kurdish protest at the Turkish embassy in Amsterdam.  Until that time they were just another ethnic group in the tapestry of the southwest Asia.  Over the next decades the Kurds played an important role in the global war on terror and the changing face of the Middle East.  Most recently the Kurds have been US allies in Syria in the fight against ISIS.  More than 10,000 Kurds have lost their lives in efforts to contain ISIS terrorists in Syria and were on the vanguard in various battles that President Trump has over and over again taken credit for in the stories he tells the American people.  The Kurds were beginning to get a similar autonomous region in Syria much to the concern of Turkey.  The US forces in Syria have held back Turkey who wants to move into Syria and set up a security zone in northern Syria and move out the Kurds.  That was until this week.  President Trump, after what appears to be consultation with President Erdogan of Turkey has decided to move out US forces.  This morning we are seeing the results.  Turkey is bombing Kurdish areas in Syria and have amassed tanks at the border.  Russia is also on the move to help clear out the area.  This also plays into the hand of Putin in Russia. 

It appears the lack of intelligence and his fragile ego has led the President to make foreign policy decisions around the world.  We saw it in North Korea where he got played because Kim Jong Un flattered him.  We see it with Russia who appears to simply make fun of Trump there while pretending to be his friend.  We are seeing it with Turkey, who apparently has seduced Trump to allow a dictator to engage in genocide.  As Turkey begins to its attempt to eliminate the Kurds from the border every one of those deaths is on the head of President Trump.  A President who is abandoning our allies in favor of autocrats who play him like a fiddle.  It is disgusting at best and frightening at worst.  In the next few months we will see the result of Trump's lack of knowledge and concern for the United States standing in the world.  This while he is calling on foreign governments to gin up claims against his political opponent here.  He appears to want to be in the club of dictators around the world.  Is it possible that this is his hazing?  You may not think the Kurds are important.  You may not know anything about them.  But this morning they are under fire and our President is responsible, if we do nothing, so are we.  

You Added a Word. Narrator voice: No He Didn't.

In August a whistle blower in the American intelligence community sent a report to the Inspector General of his division about a phone call between the President of the United States and a foreign leader.  The IG followed procedure and along the way the White House blocked the information about the problematic issues from being sent to Congress, which is in violation of the law.  Good reporting made it known and after some attempts to keep it quiet the White House released not only the whistle blower's report to the IG but a summary of the phone call.  We now know what the troubling aspects of the call were and why looking at a bigger picture in US policy in relation to Ukraine might be troubling.  However, it appears that the Trump supporting pundit class and members of Congress must think that gaslighting will really help the petroleum industry because they are on television for the last few days constantly lying like they are getting paid to do it.  It is remarkable, this isn't the kind of lying we are used to from pundits and elected officials.  This isn't just a distortion of the truth or looking from a different perspective.  These were straight up lying.  Many said this was simply hearsay which should have no value.  It does since it has been corroborated.  They said that the hearsay law was changed recently, it wasn't.  Kevin McCarthy, the highest Republican in Congress, when read the words of the summary of the call were read to him said the Scott Pelly added a word.  Others have said that following the whistle blower law is treason and a dangerous precedent.  These lies are simply made up nonsense so I have questions. 

1.  If what the President was doing is so normal and legal why all the lies?
2.  Why is there so much effort to keep the information from Congress? 
3.  Why is a personal lawyer of the President doing foreign policy? 

One answer appears to be an attempt by the President and his team to get dirt on Joe Biden in connection with his son's role in a Ukrainian energy company.  But the focus seems to also be to confirm a widely debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukrainian and not Russian operatives who hacked the DNC server during the 2016 election and did so to benefit the election of Hillary Clinton. 

I continue to be amazed by the Republican party who continues to carry water for a clearly corrupt President, even now as we see possible impeachable offenses in relation to foreign policy and American intelligence.  Where are the leaders in the party?  Senator Chuck Grassley did come out to stand with the whistle blower law and demanded protection of whoever he or she is, because the White House and others are calling for the name to be released and calling him or her a spy, a deep-state actor, or worse. 

If you are a Trump supporter, I have to ask, what can the President do that violates our values and laws that would make you speak out?  When has he crossed the line if at all?  Should he be held responsible for any of that?  It seems like people are willing to go on TV and in print simply trying to create a different reality..  Is that the world you want to live in?  j

Bias-Awareness and Our Own Common Prejudices

 I was already feeling less than generous about the world as I pulled in to get gas this morning.  Drivers seemed to not notice others around them and as I turned into the station cars were parked everywhere, making the actual turns into the slip difficult at best.  So when I finally got to the pump I looked up to notice a Jeep in front of me.  It was older and looked well used, maybe a work vehicle.  In the back window was  a Star Wars family sticker.  (you know like the stick figures you see only with Yoda, Luke etc.) and then I saw another one.  It said "My family is different from yours" and it was pictures of guns see here.  Above was an NRA sticker.  So immediately I thought for a second who the person might be who drives this car.  When he came out to pump his gas I was trying to find something I lost in my car.  When my tank was full I took out the nozzle out and proceeded to get ready to go when I heard "Have a great Rosh Hashanah".  I looked up, the driver who had the gun family, casually dressed and likely  the stereotype I had the second I saw the sticker had wished me a happy new year, in Hebrew, a few days before the holiday.   A stranger, seeing my kippah,  made me feel included and in my head I didn't do the same.  I have to say that was an interesting feelings a few days before Rosh Hashanah.  Even after he said it I assumed he wasn't Jewish and just said thank you.  Then as we both returned to our vehicles I said, "Have a great day".  There I was, my soul naked to the world.  My prejudice was out there, in the open, and while no one else saw it, I did.   

It has haunted me all day, especially as I do High Holy Days preparation.  I was reminded of a song from my punk days.  The Offs had a song, Everyone's a Bigot, lamenting that some oppressed groups still harbor bigotry that they call to end against them.  I see that they were talking about me.   We all have biases.  Some more than others, but we all carry a series of prejudices and too often we let them come out.  Even when people are trying to fight that very thing.  Years ago I responded to a book for early childhood teachers, called The Anti-Bias Curriculum, with a workshop called Bias-Awareness Beyond the Anti-Bias Curriculum.  My point was that while trying to eliminate bias you build new ones.  The writer of the curriculum seemed hostile to deeply religious people for example.  In the end however, she felt that she had a way to eliminate bias.  We shouldn't be about eliminating bias, it should be about confronting it.  When we think we have eliminated bias, we become blind to our own. 

Confronting our own biases are difficult. There is some irony about the fact  I went to a production of 12 Angry Men at the Indiana Repertory Theatre yesterday where those 12 men, judging the life of a young man, confronted their biases head-on.  They did it in a crucible of a jury room.  It is amazing to see the bias of others laid out in the open as the play does, but it also is a strange feeling when you can see it in yourself.

Part of the High Holy Days is looking at your missing of the mark for the past year.  We are not looking to be perfect, for in fact we never can be, but addressing the short-falls and acknowledging them is an important part of who we are as Jews and I dare say human beings.  I know I have some strong prejudices. I can't really do T'shuvah for this as I will likely never see this guy again.  But it does make me think more the next time I see this kind of thing.  Perhaps this season I can make a list of where my prejudices focus on them.  For those who celebrate may the New Year bring you joy and the opportunity to see yourself how others see you, embrace the greatness they see and work on the problems we can identify.  Shana Tova. 

Why Can't We Talk about Guns?

Rep Beto O'Rourke touched what might be a new third rail of politics during the recent Democratic debate.  Well he not so much touched it but tongue kissed it on national television:  Gun confiscation.  The idea that the government is going to come an take your legally purchased weapon that you have not used to commit a crime is the nightmare scenario that has been the center of the NRA propaganda for decades.  The last time we, as a nation, banned the import and purchase of certain so-called assault weapons, Dianne Feinstein, the leader of the movement, said she would love to ask all Americans to turn those weapons in but it isn't possible.  As Joe Biden said at the recent debate, "We have a Constitution".  I see no Constitutional mechanism in the current political climate to have a mandatory buy back of any kind of gun that was legally purchased and I don't think I want one.  We can legally ban all future sales, put certain weapons in a category that requires a higher grade of scrutiny for the purchaser and of course pass laws that do take away guns from people deemed by a court they are a danger to self and/or others.  But the notion of a government program to take legally purchased guns away from people is a non-starter with the vast majority of people in Congress, and frankly I believe with the country.  It is too  dangerous for that kind of power to exist inside the government and particularly in the Executive branch.  So O'Rourke's position could have some support but it truly is a fringe and unthinking approach to this important situation.  But there are other extremes.

Recently major retailers from Wal-Mart, Kroger, Giant Eagle, CVS and Walgreens among others have asked to not open carry weapons into their stores.  The initial reacts of some is that they will boycott said stores.  Worse, some have decided to ignore that policy.  Again, one argument is that it violates their 2nd amendment rights.  Clearly it doesn't.  These stores are private property and can make the rules they want when weapons in their stores.  They aren't even asking people not to carry, just not to openly carry.  Open carry causes more concerns than it solves problems.  People, especially with rifles, walking into a grocery store usually does not make people feel safer.  In fact it brings a sense of anxiety because we don't know the intent of someone carrying it.  It also is less likely to stop any bad actors who might show up to do harm with a weapon.  First they would become the first target and secondly there is no evidence that an untrained person would be able to respond in a way that is beneficial to the situation.  Nearly anytime a civilian is seen as stopping a shooter in a public environment we learn that the person has some expertise in weapons.  So what is the benefit of open carrying?   Experts I know would rather their weapon be concealed and frankly have a weapon that is easier to pull out to respond. 

So there is a huge divide in how we see guns, gun ownership and rights.  Let's be clear, the founders enshrined a right to weapons in our Constitution.  In part because the states had to have the ability to respond to any attack on the new Republic, even if it came from our own Federal government.  The Heller decision made the right an individual right, so states can't overly regulate gun ownership.  But it also allowed for, in the decision, that, like all rights, there are limits to it.  So there is a role for government to limit who can own and what kind of weapons can be owned.  But even members of Congress don't seem to understand that.  That is where we are. 

We can have an honest conversation about weapons, but it needs to start with facts.  Too often facts are the first casualty of the emotional reactions to both views of people like Beto and that of the NRA, who, to be clear, is not about gun owners but gun makers.  We can't solve problems on the extreme.  We can't solve problems without knowing the legal protections and guard rails.  It is time to ignore that nonsense and focus on what actually can be done.  The first call should never be to groups like the NRA and shouldn't be to someone who wants to ban all guns.  They will not build the future.  That is not what we need.  We need true statesmen and stateswomen to take legal steps.  If you know one give them a call. 

He Isn't Alone

So the latest story about the President is his tripling down on a mistake that Hurricane Dorian would threaten Alabama after it was clear that the storm would turn north eliminating the potential of crossing of Florida into the Gulf of Mexico.  Over the last several days President Trump has tried to make it sound like he was right about Alabama, up to and including alerting a chart with the cone of uncertainty with a sharpie.  I mean it is on brand for him to make something phallic appear to be bigger than it is but this is a dangerous thing.  When the President tweeted that Alabama was in the path of the storm when it wasn't that could have caused confusion in that state as no local or national forecasts were suggesting a concern.  The National Weather Service has to send out a message refuting the President's tweet.  This is clearly not the first time the President was wrong about something.  He lies regularly on many issues.  He lied about Chinese trade envoys calling him during the G-7, they didn't.  He lied about changing policy on separation of children and parents at the border.  Now he is lying about the weather. 

President Trump's inability to live in a world not of his making is troubling.  That is true.  His words change markets world-wide, focus policy and of course challenge democratic principles.  Everyone knows this.  But there are those who allow it to continue.

In an interview with Stuart Varney of Fox Business, Joe Walsh was being pushed for calling the President a liar.  Joe, a conservative former member of Congress who has tons of baggage, is challenging the President because he feels he has gone too far.  He finally asked Varney if Trump has ever lied to the American people, Varney said no.  That is false on its face, but that is how so many on the right react to this President.

While some have stepped up from the outside of power in the Republican party most are allowing the President to simply create a fantasy world where his statements are seen as truth when they are objectively not at all.   Some seem to do as part of their job, Rear Admiral Peter Brown, a homeland security adviser, suggested that it was he who told the President Alabama was in danger.  If he did then he should be fired because his information was not based on the science we understand, if he didn't and is lying to cover the President he should face a court martial. 

What is even more amazing are the everyday people defend this President in the face of facts.  It is not an opinion that the storm was not headed for Alabama on September 1.  It certainly was never going to be bad.  There was never a 95% chance that Dorian would hit Alabama as the President also said.  But there are people on social media, interviewed by TV and radio shows and in the right wing noise machine who are trying to square the circle of that simple mistake the President made.  That is what is dangerous.  We can dismiss the President on many things he says and probably should.  Especially when there is a reputable organization that can follow up.  But when people ignore the truth, repeat the nonsense and try to make it look like everyone is wrong but the President that is the start of a dictatorship.  I never believed and still don't that this President and the array of sycophants around him could pull off destroying democracy on their own.  He isn't Darth Sidious or Adolph Hitler, he is Esposito from Bananas.  But even a mad dictator can do things if the people are willing to turn away from reality and support him or her.  I hope that with the latest crazy that we see from the White House there are some in the GOP leadership to stand up and that people who support this man will see that it is not good for the party or the country in the long run.  But my hope is all but gone.  

Stupid and Disloyal

This week the President of the United States suggested that I and many of my friends are  dumb or disloyal because we vote for Democrats.  While a stunning thing for a President to say, it may not make his top ten of ridiculous or slanderous statements he has made since his election.  But many were confused as to being disloyal, to what?  He clarified that some how if we vote for Democrats we are disloyal to Israel.  

The thing is I still don't know what he means.  The United States has always been a strong ally with Israel.  Both Republican and Democratic Presidents and members of Congress have worked hard to support Israel.  Democratic Presidents (Carter and Clinton) helped broker deals that have led to eras of relative peace in the region.  The current argument is that Jews should support President Trump because he moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, as if that was some how an important issue for world Jewry.  In fact I think that might be counter-productive in the long run when it comes to peace with the Palestinians.  But my Jewishness and my love and commitment to Israel are not about American partisan politics and shouldn't be.  

I am loyal to values and the Constitution of the United States.  For me throughout my entire voting life I have felt the Democrats have upheld my understanding of those better than the Republicans.  It is even more striking with this particular administration and GOP leadership.  There are days I don't believe the President fully understands the role his playing and how the Constitution works, but what is worse are those in the party who enable this insane behavior despite their duty to the Constitution.  Why would I as an American Jewish or not vote for such a thing?  

I know there are liberal voices that are not pro-Israel who are part of the Democratic party.  I also know that there is a fair amount of ignorance on the part of some current members of Congress when it comes to the current situation in Israel.  But regardless of what the GOP says those voices are not the mainstream of the party.  In fact recent events have given some of those members more power as the President not only punches down to them but asked the Israel government to do the same.  But the beauty of living in our country is that I can challenge them on those issues with the hope that they might see the broader world view on the issues.  Frankly it would have helped Reps Omar and Tahlib to have visited Israel and see through the eyes of the people on the ground how complex the issues are and what role the US could play in peace.  But the short-sighted nature of both our President and Bibi Netanyahu allowed for the missed opportunity.  

But what is truly amazing in this discussion is the notion that American Jews have to have a lock-step view of Israel.  One that is more associated with the right wing politics of Christian Zionists who use Israel and the Jews of the world as part of their eschatological endgame without much care for us as people.  I choose not to live in Israel for many reasons.  But I also feel a strong connection to the country.  I feel that I should not have a say in how Israelis choose their leadership or the direction of the country because I choose to live here.  That doesn't mean I shouldn't be critical of the government if I feel they cross a line.  (Frankly I feel I should be critical of any country that crosses a many a line).  But I feel without reservation that the State of Israel should exist as a Jewish State.  I will deal with my own internal struggle of what that might mean in the long run.  So while I don't have a dual loyalty there is a special place in my heart for Israel.  I want it to continue to thrive and I want it at peace with its neighbors.  I don't think that this President, nor the current leadership of his party share that vision.  So the assertion of the President is ridiculous on its face.  

What is even more troubling is that people have been writing about how there are bad Jews who don't support this President, specifically because of his standing with the current government of Israel.  They, like the President, conflate Israel and Judaism.  President Trump once told a group of American Jews, talking of Netanyahu, that he was "your Prime Minister".  That is where I think this whole debate goes off the rails.  This is where I get the most frustrated.  I love Israel as a nation, but I have neither sworn an oath to the country and certainly Bibi Netanyahu is in no way my Prime Minister, nor the leader of all things Jewish.  

Jewish Americans, like every other sub-culture of Americans, vote their personal values.  Mine are informed and shaped by my understanding of my Judaism and what it calls me to do.  I see the Democratic party upholding the values of Judaism that are dear to me as well as what I have always believed and was taught America stood for.  Many of those values are shared between my faith and my country.  That doesn't make me dumb or ignorant, nor disloyal.  It makes me an American, using the my rights to think for myself, choose whose voice I want to speaking for me in government and standing up for what I think is right.  Mr. President if you think that makes me disloyal in your view then I worry you don't understand the greatness that is this country.  That sir is a pity.   

Give Us Your Tired and Poor Meant What It Said

When Emma Lazarus wrote her poem The New Colossus, to raise money for the pedestal of the what is now called the Statue of Liberty, the statue was new and a gift of France.  A representation of the Libertas, the  Roman Goddess of  Liberty and was initially intended to represent the freedom that comes with the rising of republican style of government and the growth of democratic ideals.  The broken shackles on her feet were there to represent the very recent end of slavery in the United States.  But it served more as a different symbol for many, a symbol of hope. It was a symbol to the waves of immigrants who came to New York Harbor as their first stop to a new life and when Ellis Island opened it was the milestone that many on ships entering the New World saw and felt like they made it.  While it still stands for Liberty, Freedom and Democracy it also was transformed when Lazarus' poem was added to the base.  She liken the statue to Greed colossus of Rhodes, another great statue of the ancient world.  She went on to give her maternal attributes as if to suggest that she welcomed to a new home those who were tossed away by their countries of origin or fled from fear or famine.  Lazarus showed a new vision of the still young country to welcome the stranger and we will help them realize their better selves.  That was sometimes not a common sentiment in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Much like today, Immigration was a hot button issue.  But in the last few weeks we have seen the Trump administration try to rewrite Lazarus' poem or completely dismiss it because of their own hatred of immigrants and seemingly immigrants of color.  We must remember who we were when we the statue rose over the New York Harbor.  We have heard administration officials, like Steven Miller, say the poem had nothing to do with the statue.  This radically insane take tried to bring out the idea of the original intent of the statue, but that was a soon faded reality.  But without the poem, the statue can't be a symbol of who we are as a nation, a nation of people who have worked together from many different places in the world.  A tapestry of traditions, cultures, faiths and races.  Something that seems to scare this administration.

Worse than Steven Miller's notion that the poem is meaningless was a recent series of interviews with Ken Cuccinelli, the acting Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.  First he said that the poem was better written to say "give us your tired you poor your huddled masses who can stand on their own two feet".  Later he said that Lazarus' poem was only about European immigrants.  First of all history doesn't agree with Cuccenelli's first statement.  While there was a test that people immigrating to the US were not simply going to be wards of the state, that was not a hard and fast rule.  In fact the first immigrants through Ellis Island were unaccompanied minors.  If there was someone to reach out to people and they had potential they were allowed into the country.  Cuccenelli was seemingly trying to suggest those immigrants on the southern border were going to simply be wards of the state.  But like Ellis Island, if they were allowed in, they could work and build themselves up.  Many did, look at the businesses built by immigrants, who like today's immigrants, were fleeing dangerous government supported or allowed violence.  Only about 2% of the people who entered the country after passing the Statue of Liberty, were permanently turned back.  

But the second piece is a growing worry for many people, both people living here in the United States and those who may some day want to make this country their home.  The President has said in the past he would rather have immigrants from a place like Norway, something he has repeated.  Cuccenelli said that Lazarus and thus the immigration expectation of the time was for Europeans.  This appears to be code for white people.  Again, this is just nonsense as the poem references that the Mother of Exiles From he beacon-hand glows world-wide.  I think it is clear that Lazarus' call was for all those suffering under the governments of the world that hurt more than helped their people.  True the vast majority of people who immigrated through Ellis Island were Europeans, but it was also the closest port of entry for Europe.  America's open doors did not have a White Way to enter.  We were open to all. 

We might say that this is just a little election rhetoric to gin up the base and make people feel we liberals just want open borders and an immigration free-for-all.  But there are real world issues when this thinking influences executive action.  We have seen it in the inhumane ways that people on the border have been treated.  In fact it took a federal court judge ruling to push the Trump administration to provide simple, everyday hygiene products and opportunities to detainees.  Think about that, a judge had to rule on whether the United States of America can avoid giving people, including children, an opportunity to wash themselves and brush their teeth.  But those federal courts could rule in other ways in the future if we aren't diligent.  President Trump has nominated Judge Steven Menashi to the Court of Appeals one step down from the Supreme Court.  He wrote in a law journal that a country cannot function unless it was a monoculture.  I won't bore you with the details but the argument was that a country with many sub-culture cannot find a common link to focus on and thus will fail.  This is an old racist argument that we must all be the same in order to survive and it was used in countries that oppressed minority populations by not giving them rights or status.  That is the antithesis of the American experiment.  This is not normal and not okay.  

I truly believe our government is broken, and while the adage from Game of Thrones, that the small folks care little who sits on the Iron Throne that should never be the case for our Republic.  The government is us.  When we elect people they act in our name.  If you believe that immigration has made this country stronger, if you believe that there was a time when we welcomed the stranger and if you believe that we are better together it is time to rise. This is the direction our country is going.  If you believe we should be purged of diversity, that we should close up our borders, that we should only allow people to thrive who are of a single culture, you really need to explain that to me.  Either way take a moment to read what a young woman in the 1880s wrote about a symbol Americans seem to love and are being told it doesn't stand for what it stands for: 

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

As you read this think about your own ancestors, how and why they got here and what they might say to a country that right now, at this moment, is demonizing the other.  I don't think they would like what they see.  

Partisanship Should Stop at the Edge of the Police Line

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a partisan.  I truly believe that the ideas of the Democratic party are better for the country as a whole than the Republican party.  That is not to say I would never vote for a Republican.  In fact I have.  If the candidate is Republican they have a higher bar with me, but there are times that the GOP candidate is a better fit, mostly in local elections.  That said there are things that shouldn't be partisan in our approach.  So last weekend the country failed that test miserably and this weekend we did it again.  Or at least some of us are.

When the horrific news of the El Paso shooting and over 20 dead started coming across the internet, it didn't take long until there was a response from the lunatic fringe of the right wing noise machine to try to make the shooter into a Democrat.  Like clockwork, these fringe websites posted false information like they had in every major shooting event in the last decade.  But we soon learned that the shooter was a person who was inspired by the language of a Mexican invasion that is championed by the President and others in the Republican party. The shooter was a White Nationalist wannabe.  That uncomfortable notion was quickly mitigated by the fact that in a few hours another shooter killed 9 people in Dayton, Ohio.  It didn't take long until it was learned the Dayton shooter had retweeted posts by Elizabeth Warren, Antifa related people and liberals across the spectrum.  For some the whataboutism was a relief.  Even the New York Times ran a piece suggesting that if we are to hold the President's rhetoric as partly responsible for the El Paso shooter that we must hold the left responsible for Dayton.  That of course is nonsense but it sells papers and promotes clicks.  The bottom line is that we shouldn't immediately look to see if the shooter in a case like this agrees or disagrees with our political positions.  In fact if that is your first reaction, there is an issue that needs to be addressed.  But if the political rhetoric drives an act of violence, we must acknowledge it and move to end it.  We must think in a way that ends violence, not look for excuses to ignore the reality.   For many they see the shooting up of a synagogue, a Wal-Mart or where ever the putting into the actions the words of the President.  That cannot be ignored and shouldn't be.  The rise of White Nationalism needs to be met head on and those who can must point out the President that his angry rhetoric feeds their desire for action.  But just because someone likes a politician doesn't mean that their actions are inspired.   The Dayton shooters actions are still a bit of a mystery but he had a history of misogyny, which is not usually associated with progressive politics, but they are not mutually exclusive.  So if in the end there are voices on the left that helped drive him then we must clearly repudiate them as we do Trump's.  But as of this writing it doesn't look like the Dayton shooter had a political agenda. 

Looking for an angle to stories can bring out so much anger and thus feed further acts of violence.  But sometimes it seems like just a cheap attempt to score points.  Jerry Epstein's suicide clearly is an example of this.  Epstein, being held before trial for sex trafficking, including of under-age girls, was found dead in his cell.  This came less than 24 hours after the release of documents in one of the cases against him that named famous political figures as having sex with under-age girls.  Epstein was linked over the last few decades to political and celebrity figures that crossed many ideological lines.  Like Harvey Weinstein, there are pictures of him with many and varied people.  So conspiracy theories are bouncing around the net.  People have revived the long debunked Clinton kill list, others say Trump's justice department had him killed, still others say he isn't dead just being help somewhere and this is all a hoax for some nefarious reason.  False information for political gain has been spread all over the net and even the President retweeted a crazy conspiracy theory about the Clintons.  This is a problem.  Until there is evidence to the contrary I can only believe that a man who lived the life of royalty, faced with being alone and in a drab cell for the rest of his life, facing potential inmate justice, and losing all his political support chose the easy way out.  He wasn't on suicide watch, he had material to form a noose, and he is not hard to kill yourself even in custody.  But it seemed that the body was still warm when the partisan extreme made so many accusations. 

Partisanship is not evil in an of itself.  It helps define the parameters of your political world.  Being a partisan is not a straight jacket.  But if your partisanship has you manipulating reality and promoting nonsense because it fits your political positions then you are not really just partisan, you are a propagandists.  Rethink before you retweet. 

It Happened Again

Last week I started writing this post after the attack on the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California.  A young man with a legally purchased weapon killed 3, including a small child, and wounded 9.  But yesterday it got worse.  In El Paso, Texas a young man drove 600 miles, put on protective gear, and took a semi-automatic weapon and fired into a crowd at a mall complex with the intent to kill Mexicans, in his own words.  Twenty dead and 26 injured.  Then over night a man in Dayton, Ohio killed 9 and injured at least 16 in a nightclub area.

In a little over a week 3 individuals, at least two of which driven by far right ideology, have killed 32 people who were simply go about their lives.  These kinds of killings should not be normal, but sadly they are becoming just that.  The responses are almost fully programmed.

We hear thoughts and prayers from politicians whose thoughts are limited to attacking anyone who wants to even look at perhaps limiting access to military style weapons and prayers that something else will push the story off the front page.

When someone suggests we have to talk about guns that can be restricted we hear "It is not the time to talk about gun control".  I am wondering when the time will come.  After another 100 deaths, a 1000?  10,000?  Can they just give us a number they are willing to wait for?

As soon as the shooter in all these cases were white men, the calls of mental health issues needing to be addressed.  We know that when a shooter is Muslim, like in the Fort Hood shooting, there is no real call about mental health.  White supremacist ideology and radical Islamist ideology follow the same path leading to a different place.  Both are about purging the world of the other.  Even if the shooters in the rash of the shootings in this country did have a form of mental illness (which I am not sure it is true) it is the carpet bombing of hate that spurs them on.  But here is the chance of all these guys in Congress who call for better mental health support.  I call on Ted Cruz, John Cornyn, Mike Turner, and Rob Portman to write a bill calling for another $2.5 billion in mental health funding, maybe take it from DOD.  I find it offensive that Republicans have been all over the media saying this was a crazy lone wolf, bottom line the President and his supporters are raising a pack.  One does not have to join a labeled group to be part of a terrorist movement.  The internet allows for a virtual collective.  Funny, they say he was mentally ill but he acted with both forethought, preparation, drove for at least 10 hours, posted minutes before opening fire and planned for his eventual capture.  He was making a statement not acting like someone with voices in his head.

The shooting in El Paso also destroys the idea that open carry and concealed carry will protect people.  The Wal-Mart was an open carry store in an open carry state where the shooter could walk around with his weapon totally legally and not break any law until he started firing.  In fact if someone where to try to stop him they would be violating his rights.  So we can only assume the there were armed citizens in the crowd.  They couldn't stop him, it took a group of cops.  While it didn't take them long to get there, it continues to show that armed, untrained citizens do not react well in a mass shooting situation.  There are no heroes.  I can't imagine what would happen if they did.  Dozens of people firing in a public location not knowing who the real criminal shooter is?   The cops in El Paso were there in few minutes, imagine if someone seeing this guy get out of his car with his long gun called the police and they could have come and deal with it before the first shot.

Solutions to these tragedies are not easy, but there are things we can do to make it harder for people to get their hands on guns who can kill dozens in a few minutes.  We can pass a background checks on a federal level with two laws sitting in the Senate that Leader McConnell will not bring to the floor.  We can investigate White Nationalist groups and put back the funding that the President withdrew from Federal law enforcement.    We can hold those who stir the pot of hate to a standard that makes them see they need to stop.  And we can ban certain weapons.

Military styled weapons that shoot many rounds a minute and large magazines can easily be banned.  We did it before and it makes it harder for people intending to do harm to get their hands on a weapon that can kill so many.  Someone actually said in England where guns are restricted that knife attacks are up.  Yes, people who have homicide on their minds can kill in many ways.  I know that for sure.  But it is impossible to kill 20 people in a few minutes with knives on your own.  It is nonsense to suggest it.  Many people suggest that banning such weapons is a violation of the 2nd amendment.  But I have it on good authority that it isn't.  Someone wrote:

Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.

That was Antonin Scalia, the most pro-gun and conservative Supreme Court Justice in the Heller decision that made the 2nd amendment an individual right.  So even the man who wanted to limit local government from regulating guns as had been the case for the life of the Constitution didn't want unlimited access and carry of weapons. 

While guns are part of the equation it is not the entire one.  But it is something we can do, we can do it to not end the individual rights of people, we can do it in way makes is harder for people whose only aim is to kill people to get the easiest way to do it and will not change the ability of people to hunt, fire for sport or defend their life and property. 

I want say one other thing.  I have watched all day as elected and former Republican officials find every possible excuse from not enough prayer in schools, to video games, to the opioid crisis.  Let me be clear, I don't know what drove the shooter last night in Dayton.  What I do know is that the shooter in El Paso was driven by anti-immigration hate.  While he said he had these feelings before the President was elected he spoke in his writing with the President's words.  Words have power.  Words drive people and when the President joked a few weeks ago about shooting immigrants that is a starting pistol for some.  These republicans worried about too much Fortnite or lack of God should spend some time talking to the President about calming down not only his own words but those of his followers online and his supporters dehumanizing so many in quips and chants at his rallies.  Presidents, like all world leaders, are supposed to represent the soul of the country, especially in times of crisis.  Our current President seems to not have the ability to call out the hate because some of those pushing it are his people.  He seems to fear alienating them and in fact feeds them.  Tonight many people will go to bed grieving for lost of life but also loss of safety. We are in the season of  children will return to the classrooms around the country with bulletproof backpacks and planned shooting drills.  This is not the country we have to be, this is not the life we have to live.  We can do better.  I just wish there was the leadership to do it. 

Symbols Mean Things

On our recent trip to the American Cemetery in Normandy I was struck by something I learned.  When bodies were buried there were two choices.  A cross, a symbol of Christianity or a Star of David, the symbol of Judaism.  If you weren't Christian you got a star.  Think about that, a person who was Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, etc or even of no faith was buried under a symbol that was part of the faith expression of another faith.  That was part of the world we lived in but it brings up an interesting point.  Symbols do matter. But symbolic meaning of symbols change.

Recently there have been many incidents when symbols have been the center of controversy.  At Indiana University School of Public Health a classroom had an early 20th century tile installation that included a variety of cultural symbols.  One being a swastika.  Now the swastika was a symbol of many cultures and often is seen as a symbol of a celestial object or of peace before the 1930s.  In fact many old churches and synagogues have a form of it carved into friezes.  When I was a kid, I would visit the Fredric Remington Art Museum that included a recreating of the artist's study.  In the study were a set of spoons with swastikas.  It was always stunning as from and early age that symbol was a symbol of hate.  But Remington died in 1909 so he wasn't a Nazi.  But the symbol has taken on a life of its own.  Having that in a classroom will cause the same horrifying reaction I had as an elementary school kid seeing that symbol so prominently displayed.  With the rise of  antisemitism it is clear that IU chose wisely to eliminate it.  Now some say we can put an explanation on a plaque next to it but let's be clear, people don't read those very often.  In fact one of my favorite stories is from the Cincinnati Zoo's Gibbon exhibit.  You are greeted with a large sign that says "It's Not a Monkey" and goes on to explain the difference between a monkey and an ape.  In a brief encounter, I counted 20 people call them monkeys while standing next to the sign.  For the rest of the day whenever we encountered something we would say, "It's not a monkey".

Hijacked symbols are all over the place.  The Confederate Flag as it is called today, the crossed blue lines with stars on a red background is synonymous with the south though it was part of two of the three adopted flags of the Confederacy, known as the Southern Cross, it was never official as a stand alone flag.  Versions were used as unit flags including and square banner by Robert E. Lee.  In the post Civil War era it was used as a shorthand symbol of the Confederacy and at one time it was used as the flag of the Dixiecrats, the conservative southern democrats who broke off as a segregationist party.   In the south states have adopted the Southern Cross as part of state flags.  I was in Georgia when the debate about the flag led to the design without it being prominent and later changing to the current flag.  The irony of the current flag is that it is basically the 1st official flag of the Confederacy with Georgia Coat-of-Arms in the center of the circle of stars.  But the Confederate Flag we think of today is used in many ways but is seen by many as a symbol of racism, slavery and white supremacy because it was adopted by the people who promoted such things.  Even if adopted by those looking to promote their southern heritage from Alabama football programs to Lynyrd Skynyrd to states-rights advocates, the symbol cannot escape the fact it was often flown over the bodies of lynched men and women, carried at cross--burnings and used to strike fear in the hearts of non-whites in many places in the country.  Calls to remove it from state house polls and displays in schools make sense, even if the intent of the flag is not explicitly racist.

One argument against eliminating symbols from the everyday culture is that we are erasing our history.  This was used as monuments were taken down in many places in the south because they were of Confederate leaders.  Funny thing was many were put up during the Civil Rights Era to intimidate blacks seeking to be seen as equal.  History was never the intent. But I would argue we could eliminate every sign of the Confederacy in public life and we would still know about it if we study our history.  Growing up if someone turned on you, you called them a Benedict Arnold.  He was as much a standard for traitor as Judas from the Christian Bible.  Benedict Arnold was a Major General who fought with valor and was injured at the Battle of Saratoga for Continental Army.  There is a monument to his fighting there, but it is a boot and bears no name.  When he promised the British West Point he gave up the right to have his heroics lauded in our country.  While some wanted to honored his skills and cunning they did it without name.  Yet even today we know who he was.  We don't need symbols in public places to know our history.  We have the stories.

The argument here is also one of the 1st amendment as the statues and all symbols are a form of speech.  That is true they are, but the government is not outlawing the statues, nor the symbols.  In the case of state flags that have tried to eliminate imagery that is seen as hurtful or taking down of statues, the government is simply not endorsing those things.  If in any city you wanted to put up a statue of Robert E. Lee or Adolph Hitler or Carrot top on your private land, and the government tries to stop you, I will fight for your right to do it.  (just don't make me defend Carrot Top).

In recent weeks however the attacks on symbols has been really called into question.  When Nike wanted to put out a shoe with the Betsy Ross flag on it.  A flag with a blue field with a circle of 13 stars and 13 stripes alternating red and white Colin Kapernick, a spokesperson for the brand, objected.  He called it a symbol of racism.  It has been adopted by some some racist organization and it is similar to the 1st Confederate flag I mentioned earlier.   Nike withdrew the shoe and of course the conservatives lost their minds.  At first I sided with Nike, if that symbol truly does generate some concern that it would become white nationalist attire I get that others would feel uncomfortable promoting, especially with a company that has banked on a large African-American following for brand loyalty.  But as I think more, there could have been a middle ground.  But worse is the actor Chris Pratt.  I will start by saying I know little about Chris Pratt, he has made conservative comments.  Recently he wore a t-shirt of an American flag with the Gadsden Flag symbol of a snake and the words Don't Tread On Me.  A flag from the Revolutionary War and I have to tell you one of my favorites as a kid, it has recently been used by far right hate groups, Two white supremacists used the flag to drape the bodies of two police officers they killed in Las Vegas recently.  The Equal Employment  Opportunity Commission says the flag may, in some circumstances, be racial offensive in the workplace.  But there is no indication the Pratt is a aligned with the thinking of white nationalists.  But just wearing the shirt bring some serious criticism.

Symbols tell us things about the person or organization sharing it.  But rarely do we get the whole story from a quick glance.  As a culture we have always made decisions about what is publicly appropriate and what is not. While our 1st amendment protects us from government telling us what symbols we can use or promote, the community we live in tells us what is acceptable.  The local businessman who decorates his store with swastikas will likely never get the Chamber of Commerce award in most American cities, but if we outlawed is decorations we are going in the wrong direction. 

Sometimes the outrage about a symbol is seen as what it is, a fringe cause.  Currently there is a story of a woman calling a Spiderman art installation a symbol of the Devil.  Should the art piece be removed for one person's misunderstanding?  It is worth however taking into account the audience who has to see the symbols we do have around us.  A swastika in a classroom can heighten anxiety in a student whose family story involved many people killed by the Nazis. A Confederate flag still gives many African-Americans a visceral reaction.  There are many other ways that symbols can make people uncomfortable and it is just human and sometimes good business to acknowledge that.  (Nike stock rose after the flag controversy).  Public sentiment will always shape what is acceptable expression in symbols, words and deeds.  Sometimes for good and sometimes for nonsense.  But as long as it is public sentiment that is driving the discussion we are comfortable, but if the government starts to decide we are in danger. 

 

We Can All Agree the Tweets Were Racist...but we won't

Several times today we have revisited Rep. Ilhan Omar's statements that raised questions because they included anti-Semitic tomes.  For some this was a defense of the the President's recent tweetstorm that called for the 4 members of Congress, known as  The Squad, to go back where they came from after mentioning that those were backward countries.  First 3 of the 4 are born in the US.  The one who wasn't, Rep Omar, came here as a child.  It is not happenstance that the for women are black and brown.  The "go back where you came from" is a racist tome used to attack people of color often.  Especially those of a different faith or have radical ideas.

Let me be clear, if you are a Republican who says the Trump tweet is inappropriate BUT these woman say anti-American things, then you are supporting a racist statement not condemning it.  If you say that Trump's tweet are not Presidential, but those women should be grateful to be in this country then you are supporting racism.  If you say that President Trump's tweets are not what America stands for but these women shouldn't speak out against Israel then you are supporting his racism.  That is a fact.  You can't condemn something and then make an excuse.  It is like saying, it is terrible Jeffery Dahmer ate his victims, but they were already dead and he was hungry.  Don't do it.

The four woman he attacked, Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep Rashida Tahlib, Rep Ayanna Pressley, and Rep Omar have all said some things that I disagree with.  They have to live with their statements and every 2 years their constituents have an opportunity to fire them.  But if they are truly representing the voice of the majority of the people in their districts, they are in fact, doing the job they were hired for per our Constitution.  Calling them out for their comments is not the problem.  Telling them they must leave the country because of their opinions is a problem, made worse by suggesting they don't really belong here because of what they look like.

The real issue is that the President is mad at them for visiting the detention centers at the border and reporting on them accurately.  People are even angry that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was sworn in to testify in front of a Congressional committee, meaning her statements must be true under penalty of perjury.  They highlighted a sharp contrast between what the President is saying, what the Vice-President is saying and what seems to be really happening according to everyone else including the Inspector General's office.  The President got mad and lashed out like an angry child and his racism was exposed.

So after one day of GOP silence on the issue, we now get the excuses for him doing it.  Many using Israel and Jewish people as human shields.  Sometimes lying suggesting Rep Omar and Tahlib support terrorist groups.  Pulling quotes to make them sound more anti-Jewish (while ignoring the anti-Jewish tomes that Trump has used in the past).  But it doesn't matter.   You can disagree with things they say and still protect their right to say it and in this case their right to remain in their jobs and country and that they should be afforded dignity not dehumanized by the leader of the country.  I know, I am doing it right now.

It should be simple to say the President's tweets were wrong, racist and dangerous.  It should be.  But it won't be.  More and more Republicans will come to his defense with excuses like a.  He can't be racist there is an Asian woman in his cabinet (happened yesterday)  b.  How can he be racist if black unemployment is so low (suggesting the President controls who you hire)  c.  How can he be racist if he one time helped a celebrity who was black (something we heard throughout the campaign).  or my favorite d. How can he be racist he won the same aware as Rosa Parks (said on TV this weekend)  An aside the award had nothing to do with race when it came to Trump, it was a quickly created award and he got it for being a real estate guy in New York or German decent.

This could be a teachable moment for the Republicans and the President.  They could call him out, tell him he went too far, teach him about the rich and wonderful history of immigrants of color in this country.  Have him meet with these women and discuss policy differences.  Let's have an open discussion about issues of race, religion, gender.  We won't.  In office Republicans will either continue their mealy mouthed attempts to look like they are condemning it while justifying it or like the leadership simply stay silent or support it.  The President will continue to lob racist, sexist, Islamophobic tweets at people and say as he did yesterday "many people agree with me".  The White Supremacists will continue to feel motivated and seen by a President who appears to embrace their ideology and in the end, we will see where the American people are in all this.

Today the House of Representatives has a chance to condemn the President's tweets in a floor vote, this could be a start.  I wish I had hope.

The Power of Nonsense

The other day I was clicking around YouTube as Dianne was reading and came across videos on the Mandela Effect.  Simply put this is a weird situation where a large group of people remember events differently than they happened and the repeated talk about it reinforces the belief.  Now anyone who studies memory knows that this is an easy thing to explain.  Memory is not like a recording of events, it is more like bullet points that we fill in the gaps with our previous experiences.  This is true of many memories even ones that we make emotional attachments to and think that they are solid.  An example is that of major events when people say "I always remember where I was when..."  Various historical events include:  Pearl Harbor, Kennedy assassination, the Challenger explosion, Princess Diana's death, 9-11, etc.  Called flash bulb memories they seem seared into our brains but in fact they are not.  Often when you take a deeper dive into your own personal story about where you were and what you were doing when you learned about them, you are wrong.  Sometimes remarkably wrong and other times just a bit off.  Many times, even in the face of real evidence, they still believe what they remember and not what is proven fact. 

With the Mandela Effect, often you have many people who remember the same way you do, even if clearly wrong.  Named for Nelson Mandela, because when he left prison in 1990 many people were surprise because they had thought he had died earlier in the 80s,   But as late as 1985 there were plenty of people raising awareness of Apartheid, and the Artists Against Apartheid released Sun City that ends with a call to Free Nelson Mandela.  In part the news of the time was all over the place but so many people believed that Mandela had died, stories rose that there was a funeral, an Oprah special etc. These are hard memories to dispel in people even with the fact for many years after Mandela was seen regularly on the world stage.  The Mandela effect has many other examples.  People remember a movie call Shazam, staring actor/comedian Sinbad in the mid-90s.  It never happened.  There was a movie called Kazaam staring Shaquille O'Neil and in the 60s and 70s a cartoon called Shazzan had a similar plot to the missing movie.  Couple that with Sinbad hosting a movie about Sinbad the Sailor dressed in stereotypical Middle Eastern garb often associated with a genie and the confluence of things built a memory. 

I could list many other examples but the point is that most of the Mandela Effect memories are easily explained and often silly.  But that hasn't stopped a niche market of people to believe that something more sinister or other worldly is going on.  If you search the internet you can find places that  speak of the Mandela effect as being evidence of us shifting to alternative timelines, others saying it is a full on psyops program by the government.  In medicine there is a saying, when you hear hoof beats think horses not zebras.  The simplest diagnosis is often the right one.  But for so many they thrive on the conspiracy theory to drive and seem to build their identity around it. 

This is dangerous because reality matters, a lot.  Trying to convince people that every thing can be traced to a nefarious cause has consequences.  This week we learned the often repeated lie about Seth Rich, a Democratic staffer who was murdered in what police believe a failed robbery, was a story planted by a Russian operation to discredit Secretary Hillary Clinton.  The lie was the Rich was the leakier of Clinton's emails and she had him killed.  This lie found purchase in the right wing noise machine underbelly and soon found its way to Fox News and talk radio that talked about it even after the election.  This could be one more piece of the horror show that is the political conspiracy world that included a story that a pizza place in Washington was the headquarters of a sex ring that was managed through the basement of the building.  The building had no basement but that didn't stop someone showing up with a gun to demand he be allowed to investigate.  If you think this is all over, earlier this week a group of right wing activists went to the New Castle Police department in New York to call for them to arrest her. 

Some of the people who spread this nonsense on the internet were invited to join the President at the White House this week.  He was discussing with them how social media is treating them badly because, and I am not kidding, they get banned for violating the rules of use of the platform.  The President of the United States is whining and wants to use the power of the government to help people who report things like Facebook and Twitter are shadow banning them.  That some how they think they are posting but no one can see it.  They did that on Twitter and Facebook.  Others spoke of various plots by Clinton and other Democrats to overthrow the government.  Some in the room promoted the Birther cause and the raging Islamophobia that pollutes their websites often speaks of an attempt to overturn out government through Creeping Sharia.  Oh and a real life Nazi was there. 

Nonsense has cache and not only in the political world and frankly not only with conservatives.  But conservatives have the loudest voices in politics.  This week there are thousands who claim they will storm Area 51, a military base in the Nevada desert used to test and develop secret projects, in search of the aliens rumored to be there.  This place has been ground zero for the alien crowd so much that it is part of the vernacular of the country.  Why people believe the US has aliens and using their technology is beyond me but in the end it is easier for people to believe the lie for whatever reason. 

Nonsense is something that people seem to thrive on.  Be it people who would rather believe they are bouncing between alternate realities than memory is a faulty mistress or that Hillary and Bill Clinton are criminal geniuses that have gotten away with dozens of murders but couldn't stop a TV personality from winning the Presidency you will never go broke creating a good story to sell to people who would rather believe than think. 

Fighting for Freedom

A few weeks ago I stood on the beaches of Normandy.  At Omaha Beach I was awed by the remnants that remain of the battle that took place 75 years ago.  A battle that included members of my own family.  The attached newspaper page has an article about my Uncle Bill who was part of a battalion that helped clear the beach of the obstacles put out to slow any attempted landing there. Among those defenses was The Czech hedgehogs a simple and deadly surprise for those who wanted to storm the beach.  The story of his unit getting honored by General Eisenhower for their bravery under fire.  At the end of the article it references my other uncles and my father who joined the fight in France.  Helping to win the war for the allies.

I do not know what war is like, but the newsreels and the stories put to film created a frightening scene of death and destruction.  The message of the D-day museum was not only the bravery of the warriors and the horror they faced, but what they were fighting for through the artillery, blood and death.  Young men, some in their teens, joined the battle to fight for freedom.  While I can assume their heads weren't filled with the detailed nuance of the fight between Western Liberalism and the Authoritarian ideology of the Nazis and the fascists of Italy, they knew that if Europe fell that the ideals of our democracy were at risk.

So it is truly appropriate as we celebrate today the freedom they helped save as we remember the founders of the United States and our Declaration of our Independence on July 4th.  Our country has been evolving in spreading that freedom to more and more people.  But we must always remember that our freedom is fragile.  As we celebrate today we have seen the rise of authoritarianism in Europe and even her in the US.  We have a President who seems in awe of the power of dictators and  want to be like them.  He seems to want to set aside the rule of law, most recently defying a Supreme Court ruling on the census and the citizenship question.  As we think about the freedom that was conceived by our founders who were tired of living by the whims of a single ruler so too do we have to remember that the real power of our nation must remain in the governed.  That the people of the nation matter and our voices should be heard.  This isn't about a partisan rant but true patriotism is not honoring a man but the values that build this nation.  Let us remember words so important to our nation's birth:

 That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

May this July 4th be meaningful, fun and reflective.