I have to admit that the steady pulse of mass shootings in recent years has left me, probably most of us, somewhat numb. It's not that I don't care anymore just that I have horror fatigue from attending to so many acts of violence that I'm tempted to call senseless. But I guess they aren't because they're intended to keep the human beings of the U.S. permanently terrified, and it's working.
The attack by a heavily armed white man on a synagogue in Pittsburgh that resulted in 11 deaths of people who were killed because of being practicing Jews has terrified us yet again.
Bend the Arc leaders are reading their open letter to Trump, who is in town today.— julia reinstein 🚡 (@juliareinstein) October 30, 2018
“President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism.” pic.twitter.com/qurAtDtb6T
Our white supremacist president and his Jewish son-in-law, dutifully accompanied by their wives, visited the Tree of Life Synagogue only to be greeted by thousands of protesters shouting "Words matter." This is a reference to, among other things, the president's claim that there were "very fine people" participating in the white supremacist riots in Charlottesville, Virginia during the summer of 2017.
Many of us have been shuddering at the parallels to the rise of fascism in Eurasia during the 20th century. Shooting up a synagogue smacks of a pogrom, as did a white supremacist youth killing nine people at a black church in Charleston in 2013.
A prayer vigil at Morris Brown African Methodist Episcopal Church By Nomader - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Only this moment I learned that two senior citizens in Louisville, Kentucky were gunned down by a white supremacist who had tried to enter a black church prior to the crime. RIP Vickie Lee Jones and Maurice Stallard.
Yesterday I received a video shared in Facebook messenger, allegedly by my husband. The video featured a ranting white man armed with what appeared to be an AK-47 or some such assault rifle. His threats against black women and children and his how-to instructions about mowing them down -- preferably from behind -- were not something I would ever willingly consume, so I turned the video off rather quickly. I practice mental hygiene and limit my exposure to hate speech and ugly ideas at the same time as I take note of their existence and continue to struggle against their acceptance.
I contacted my husband. He had never seen the video and certainly never shared it with me. He changed his Facebook password right away as he had evidently been hacked. I reported the video as hate speech to the Facebook censors, not that I believe they are usually working on the side of truth and righteousness. Also blocked the account of the nasty white man, a self-styled bishop of I can only imagine what God-forsaken church.
Why don't I leave Facebook and its white supremacists and other haters altogether? Because Facebook is where I see things like a Jewish friend sharing these details about the victims on a post where I had named them. She wrote:
Zichronam livracha, may their memories be a blessing.
Joyce Fienberg, 75, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center for more than 25 years. People would just always open up to her in a very easy way. She was an ideal observer.
Richard Gottfried, 65, shared a dentistry practice with his wife, where they both volunteered with Catholic Charities' dental clinic.
Rose Mallinger, 97, Holocaust survivor. She always offered a friendly greeting, a hug and a smile.
Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, a primary care physician who always wore a bowtie that made people smile and made his patients more at ease.
Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and David Rosenthal, 54, brothers and supporters of ACHIEVA, a Pittsburgh nonprofit that provides support for people with disabilities. Cecil's laugh was infectious. David was so kind and had such a gentle spirit.
Bernice and Sylvan Simon, 84 and 86, married. They were loving and giving and kind, gracious and dignified. They wanted to give back to people.
Daniel Stein, 71, always willing to help anybody. He had a very dry sense of humor.
Melvin Wax, 88, such a kind, kind person. He was a bit hard of hearing, and unfailingly attended Friday, Saturday, and Sunday services, filling in at nearly every role if someone didn't show up.
Irving Younger, 69, a youth football and baseball coach. He was an usher at his synagogue, and he never missed a day.Silver lining in the cloud of my days of terror: yesterday a former colleague contacted me. He teaches science at the high school where I used to teach an elective called "The Holocaust and Other Genocides." A student had mentioned wanting to know more about The Holocaust, which is not taught as a separate course anymore at a school with a dwindling population. (In a district where I called out a co-worker for an anti-Semitic slur at a school board meeting after the superintendent and the directors on the board failed to do so.)
Jewish refugees in Hamburg, Germany board the S.S. St. Louis, which would be turned back from the U.S. and Cuba, and return many to their deaths in concentration camps during The Holocaust. Public Domain, Link
Of course I shared a bunch of resources with my former colleague and I'm sure he'll pass them along. It's always chilling to realize how many young people know nothing about the historic genocide that the U.S. stood by and let happen in Europe in the 1940's. While turning away Jewish refugees by the boatload.
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| Photo from "Comfort Women Statue In San Francisco Vandalized As Tensions Rise" AsAmNews.com |
Information is power. Words do matter. Hate speech ALWAYS precedes hateful acts of violence.
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From Mondoweiss: "Young Jews hold sit-in at Republican club that hosted ‘Proud Boys’ to demand renunciation of white nationalism" |
Postscript: Don't let violent racist Zionists confuse you. Their hate language and hate crimes against Palestinians deserve condemnation. And calling Israel out on its crimes does not make me or anyone else anti-Semitic.
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