Since the 2016 election, and maybe longer, I've been wondering which spark will ignite the fury. Was it Charlottesville? Was it the murder of a Saudi journalist at his embassy in Turkey? Would it be the more than one dozen pipe bombs mailed to the President's opponents by one of his deranged supporters? Or will it be this, the worst anti-Semitic attack on U.S. soil ever.
My mother and her mother were refugees in their own country during World War II, for the simple reason that my grandmother did not support the ruling party. Their stories of survival have been ingrained in me since childhood. I cannot fail to see the parallels between what they survived and our current political climate. And I am terrified.
At some point in my teenage years, I found the sentence in the Guinness Book of World Records, 1975 edition, that read,
"It has been calculated that in the 3,467 years since 1496 B.C. there have been only 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world." p. 380
I remember my shock. And here I am in 2018, wondering, in my 44 years of life on this planet, has there been a single year of peace throughout the world at all?
Democracy Now! interviewed Dr. David Glosser on Monday, October 29th, after the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct 27th. He eloquently spoke the words that express my own feelings. To see his interview, click here:
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/10/29/uncle_of_stephen_miller_pittsburgh_synagogue
The transcript is here:
DR. DAVID GLOSSER: Good morning. Before I begin, I’d like to express my condolences to my many friends and relatives in Pittsburgh, and specifically in the Squirrel Hill region, where they live.
We have now been subject to the consequences of our political leaders abandoning their moral responsibilities. The question has been asked: What happens when hate speech becomes legitimized and it becomes acceptable in our political discourse to condemn and vilify innocent people on the basis of race, religion, national origin or color? The answer has made itself very clear in the last few days, and in the last week with the pipe bomb attacks upon political opponents of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump has made it his policy to vilify and dehumanize Hispanics, Muslims, nonwhites, calling them subhuman animals that are infesting our country like so many insects or rats. Make no mistake about it: This is the same kind of propaganda that is identical to the racist rants at Nazi Party rallies in Germany in the 1930s. Now Trump spews the same poisonous messages to his supporters and claims innocence when this inflammatory vitriol is sprayed over society. He claims innocence now that this political gasoline catches fire and people get hurt and killed.
I’m horrified by it. I’d love to say I was surprised, but I’m not. More shockingly, the Republican Congress has tolerated his vilification. Where have been their cries of outrage? They’re the so-called responsible people in our country, in positions of political leadership. Their silence has been deafening. I would say that this silence tends to legitimize the crazy conspiracy theories, the hate speech, the threats, the violent acts of the most noxious white nationalist elements of the American political spectrum.
Mr. Trump is even unashamed to tell us that among the chanting Nazis in Charlottesville, there were many fine people, drawing a false moral equivalency between those protesting against these kinds of actions and the Nazis themselves. Should we now be surprised that well-armed white nationalist bigots, isolated—isolated, friendless loners seeking validation for their empty lives, that they act out on their hate? I think not.
Now, Mr. Trump didn’t pull the trigger in the synagogue. He didn’t mail those bombs. But for the first time in 50 years, he’s made bigoted hate speech in America a legitimate tool of political manipulation. His endless barrage of excited hatred threats and lies has consequences, as we have seen. I regard Mr. Trump as a hopeless moral imbecile, indifferent to the deadly consequences of his inflammatory conduct.
But those politicians who know better still do not say much. They don’t stand up and loudly denounce his hate speech. They don’t denounce his lies. They’re hypocrites. They’re cowards. Their deafening silence condemns them more loudly than any courtroom ever could.
And so, what can we say? We have to take the actions that are most prudent, that are most—that are loudest, that are the most effective. That means getting out and voting. Vote your conscience.
