Toothless Mule

Thirty years ago, I, a young immigrant from Kishinev, Soviet Union, stood on a big stage and lit a candle, for the brothers and sisters who perished in the Holocaust, at the commemoration of Yom Hashoah event in Philadelphia. Six candles were lit. My English was poor and I was in the sea of unknown. I had just found about the Holocaust a few weeks prior to that occasion. Soviet textbooks taught about WWII, but not about the Holocaust. I believe I sat next to a local politician, and a picture of me at the ceremony appeared in the Jewish Exponent. I was very nervous, and very proud for having been asked by my school, Solomon Schechter Day School, to participate in that event. To my grandparents, especially, it meant a lot. Shortly after that my grandmother died. She didn’t get to see how our lives took off in our new country. She missed it all.

All these memories came flooding back as I was standing at Abrams Hebrew Academy watching the wife of a Holocaust survivor tearfully light the six candles for the 6,000,000 Jews who died during Nazi Germany’s reign of hate. Her husband was too sick to come to the ceremony. The school principal, Rabbi Budow, showed us the yellow star that was actually worn by the survivor during WWII. For its Yom Hashoah observance Abrams invited Sister Joseph Spring, a Holocaust educator, to speak to the students. She spoke about the global ramifications of the Holocaust and the importance of teaching it to future generations. In her speech she mentioned a phrase spoken by a Holocaust survivor, Murray Goldfinger, “Don’t forget the past, but don’t live in it.” When Mr. Goldfinger got up to speak after Sister Joseph, he elaborated on his saying. I thought how fascinating that a survivor of such unfathomable horror, and one who would have every right to be angry, and to hold on to his pain, bitterness and loss, would inspire us to go on into the future and know our past, but not be possessed by it. I believe, with age, we are prone to dwell on the past. We carry our strengths and weaknesses from both our individual and collective yesterday and the older we get the more realize, we can’t change our past, but we can’t ignore it either. Somehow, we have to artfully weave our Jewish past to our present and future. History seems to prove that, so far, the Jewish people have succeeded in that. In 1897, on the subject of Jewish survival through the ages in comparison to the Egyptians, Babylonians and the Romans, Mark Twain wrote, “The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind.” Twain prolifically wrote those words 40 years before the Holocaust. Despite the devastation of World War II the Jewish people rose up and finally accomplished what had not been possible for 2,000 years. They rebuilt Eretz Israel. The State of Israel is Mark Twain’s and Murray Goldfinger’s best proof of learning to “remember our past, but not live in it”.

I had the honor of speaking with Mr. Goldfinger, after the presentation, about his survival and liberation from Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. He showed me his numbers tattooed on his forearm. I looked into his clear blue eyes and saw no bitterness, no darkness. Instead, Mr. Goldfinger’s eyes were full of light and warmth. As I was driving away from Abrams I kept thinking about his phrase, the meaning and the necessity to understand it. We have no right to forget about our collective Jewish past, but if we have any chance of survival, we must build our future.

My mother’s house is full of photographs, of family and friends. Some are framed on the bookshelves, others are hanging on the wall, and others are suitably placed throughout the house. Each one captures a moment. One of those moments captures my then 18 month old daughter on September 9, 2001 in a nearby park by a beautiful cathedral. She was wearing a pink dress with flowers and had a wide smiling grin on her face. We took many pictures that day in the park and the next day I gave them in for development. Two days after that picture was taken, September 11, 2001 was my first official day back at work and my daughter’s first day with a babysitter. My husband, who had interviewed with Marsh & McLennan in the World Trade Center, at the last moment, accepted another position with a different company in Manhattan. He started commuting from Bucks County, PA to Manhattan on August 27, 2001. That part of the day still belonged to a different world. At 8:46 am everything changed. The rest of the day, and the rest of our lives would belong to a different era.

I vividly remember September 11, 2001, watching Good Morning America with my daughter as Charlie Gibson announced that a plane had just hit one of the World Trade Center towers. Complete shock and disbelief, followed by more of the same to the point of numbness. I tried getting in touch with my husband, but no phones were working. He called from someone’s phone and said that he caught the last train out of New York. The rest of the day is covered by fog of disbelief: Did two planes just hit the World Trade Center? Were people really jumping to their deaths? Did the two Towers really collapse taking thousands of lives with them? Was the Pentagon really attacked? The Pentagon?! Did a plane, aimed at more destruction, really crash in my state? Was any of this real? Yes, it was very real. It was horrifically real. The following days were spent going through the motions. We watched the news all the time. The images, the faces, the stories of loss, horror, and pain were deafening and overwhelming.

A few days later I picked up my pictures from September 9, 2001. While looking through them I stopped at the one that is now framed in my mom’s house. It’s a black and white photograph, with my smiling daughter. For some reason, in this picture, I see my daughter’s free spirit, her innocence and her sense of security. She was at harmony with the world and this picture conveyed that sentiment. I looked at it for while and thought that this picture, like all the time prior to the morning of September 11 was now from a different time, a different world. A world, though less than perfect, that still held on to some of its innocence. My daughter was not aware of the change yet, but her childhood now belonged to a different world than the one in which I had spent mine. I am aware that every generation has its schism that divides lives into a before and an after. This was ours. My daughter is 11 now. She knows what happened on September 11, 2001. She and my younger daughter have both experienced the post 9/11 world with the long lines in the airport security and the requirement of taking off shoes. They know no other world.

I visit my mom’s house often and whenever I see that picture I stop and think about a different world that once existed and hope that the next schism will not be as altering.

On Tuesday, August 9, 2011, Wisconsin held recall elections of six Republican Senators as a direct result of the GOP controlled state government which managed to pass a limiting collective bargaining law for unions and public sector workers earlier this year. Despite the winter demonstrations and a lot of time and money spent on the recall elections Democrats failed to win the three seats necessary to obtain the majority in the state Senate. The Democrats won two seats, which now has them within one of equal separation. When all hell broke loose in Wisconsin, the Democratic State Senators left the state to avoid signing the bill, which would greatly curtail bargaining rights of the public sector workers, into law. The mainstream and social media were all gathering in the state capital and Madison, WI was filled with fervent defenders and attackers on both sides of this issue. The supporters of the bill chanted the same old “shared sacrifice” song as well as “unions are too big, have too much power that must be reduced”. The way Gov. Walker and the Republicans saw it the people who already make less money for what they would get in the private job sector must sacrifice more, and the corporations must be left alone so they could flourish. The Wisconsin Republicans don’t think the public sector employees sacrifice enough and must step up to take the lead in the “shared sacrifice”. The opponents of the bill used their arguments that unions are necessary, that the workers in question already agreed to severe spending and benefits cuts, but really want to hang on to their collective bargaining rights. After much heated debate and fighting and with some tricky maneuvering, the Wisconsin state Senate was able to pass this bill through without the Democrats. People were angry and Democrats in Wisconsin began the process for recall elections to take place this summer. August 9th recall elections were among the numerous recall elections taking place in Wisconsin this summer.

It is a losing argument to present unions as honest establishments. The fraud that went on and continues to go on is known. At the same time no one can argue that unions were originally created to serve a purpose; to protect the working class. In the beginning of the last century, before unions came to be recognized, workers went on strikes, went to jails, lead peaceful and violent demonstrations in order to win every single major and minor right from their employers. Corporations mistreated the working class in the worst possible way, while advocating for freedom and equality. This is a fragment of a conversation between Commissioner Harris Weinstock of the Commission on Industrial Relations and John Osgood, head of a Colorado coal company owned by Rockefellers circa 1914:
Weinstock: If a worker loses his life, are his dependents compensated in any way?

Osgood: Not necessarily. In some cases they are and in some cases not.

Weinstock: If he is crippled for life is there any compensation?

Osgood: No, sir, there is none…

Weinstock: Then the whole burden is thrown directly upon their shoulders.

Osgood: Yes, sir.

Weinstock: The industry bears none of it?

Osgood: No, the industry bears none of it.
Howard Zinn, A People’s History of United States, pp. 327-328)

In March 1931, two years into the Great Depression, Henry Ford said about the unemployment crisis here in America, “the average man won’t really do a man’s work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it. There is plenty of work if people would do it.” (Howard Zinn, A People’s History of United States, p. 387) Several weeks later Mr. Ford laid off 75,000 people.

Unions were needed and unions were forming. Somewhere along the way they became as fallible as human nature, and their flaws, shortcomings and failures are evident today. The Republican Party, which is emphatically against unions, has a valid argument on their side. They say why fund these establishments when they don’t work and better reroute the money to the private sector and give corporations more tax breaks. However, before singing that tune, perhaps the Republican Party should take a peek into this country’s past to the time before the unions. The truth is that most of the gains won for the rights of the working class (against the desires of corporations) were won before the recognition and popularity of unions. According to research most benefits were won by the workers’ uprisings. As workers continued to strike, despite the owner’s and government crackdowns which included prison, violence and death, the working class united in joining strikes and sit-ins in sympathy with other strikers. In addition, by shutting down factories, plants and even whole towns they won many of the rights that the American worker enjoys today. With the formation, growth and recognition of unions came different ways of presenting grievances. Negotiations and bargaining replaced strikes and sit-ins, for the most part. Despite the promise by two biggest unions not to strike during America’s involvement in WWII, “there were more strikes in 1944 than in any previous year in American history, says Jeremy Brecher.” (Howard Zinn, A People’s History of United States, p. 403)

In today’s age, despite the existence of the unions, some groups still strike, though the strikes are sporadic, not as widespread as they were before the working class was able to unionize and even civilized. It seems that the Republicans continue to be ignorant of history and advocate failed measures. Just a reminder: corporations came first, not the unions. If we go back to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution we understand that unions were born for a reason. Had the working class been treated fairly there may have never been any need for unions. This is a historical fact. The old way without unions failed. It didn’t work. Despite Mitt Romney’s insistence that “Corporations are people”, they are not, and the working class was not respected, heard or protected until unions came about and offered some sort of protection and representation.

On August 9th, the voters spoke, and all the demonstrations, anger and public outcry across the country were not enough for the Democrats to obtain the control of the state Senate. While the margin has narrowed, Republicans are unapologetically standing firm on their cuts and now on very solid ground having survived these important recall elections. The voters gave some ground back to the Democrats, but nonetheless refused to bring more pro union politicians into the Wisconsin legislature. Somewhere along the way, it seems, the unions lost their image of fighting for the American worker and instead came to be seen as a corrupt institution. As a nation we want to believe in unions, we want to believe that they operate in the best interest of their members, and often they do. But often enough, they are corrupt and operate in the best interests of the top honchos and not their members. It seems that the voters wanted some change or at least a greater challenge to the Republican majority, but not enough to defang the GOP completely. On Tuesday, August 16, Wisconsin held two more recall elections. This time two Democrats were on the ballot, who the Republicans were seeking to replace. Republicans failed and the two Democrats are staying. I find it fascinating that in spite of Gov. Walker’s plan to curtail the rights of workers, that were so hard won in the previous generations, voters did not completely rebel and throw all the Republicans out of office, they just made the split a narrower one (17-16), and arguably created a bigger challenge for the Republican controlled government. Perhaps, this was done to send a message to the unions. Perhaps American people want the unions to accept at least some responsibility in the American attitude to that establishment, and, most importantly, to take real and substantiative steps in reform and restoration of American faith. So, GOP, while you take strongly to oppose unions, perhaps you should heed to the proverbial, “be careful what you wish for”, and learn your history.

If I am missing something, please enlighten me.

October 12, 1940 the Warsaw Ghetto is established. It covers 1.3 sq. miles, housing approximately 400,000 Jews. In a matter of hours the inhabitants of the Ghetto go through a transformation from property owning citizens of Poland to unwanted and despised creatures, averaging 7.2 people per room. These people, who had nothing in common other than their faith and/or national identity, had to find patience and the ability to compromise and to share everything. There were rationed portions of food, children were not allowed to study, and corpses were lying in the streets. “On the streets children are crying in vain, children who are dying of hunger…They are like old people and are only conscious of one thing: “I’m cold.” “I’m hungry.” (Doris L. Bergen, War & Genocide, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003, pp. 111-112). The corpses: 83,000 of them dead from starvation, 35,000 killed by the SS in the Ghetto, were spared the train ride to the death camp of Treblinka.

As I was reading these numbers about the Warsaw Ghetto, which was in existence from October 12, 1940 to May 16, 1943, I imagined the crowded streets of the Ghetto. The sick and the dying, marking their presence as much as the living. I imagined the irritation of the new neighbors who went from comfort to hunger, but had to be civil, or at least try to be. However, we must remember that the Ghetto was a work in progress. It was not to remain so populated for long. Besides the death of over 100,000 Jews in the Ghetto itself, regular deportations to Treblinka promised a rapid decline in its population. During the time of its existence, about 265,000 were deported to their deaths in Treblinka. And so the streets went from overpopulated to sparse, the apartments became less crowded, the fatal disease had less victims to conquer, and the echoes of the dead were…probably deafening. It is believed that about 65,000 Jews remained in the Ghetto at its destruction. Most of them perished in different death and concentration camps. Among the remaining Jews were some brave heroes with nothing to lose. There was a teacher, Emanuel Ringelblum, who made it his mission to document as much about the life in the Warsaw Ghetto as possible. Today his writings are in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. The Jews of Europe were abandoned. A cluster of young people in the Ghetto, led by Mordecai Anielewicz, stood up to the Germans on April 19, 1943, the first Seder of Passover. The Germans picked that date to begin the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, which they calculated was to take three days. Instead they were met with some weapons, mainly handmade grenades, but mostly that resilient human spirit that has brought humanity to survival through its darkest times, time and time again. The resistance knew they were fighting a losing battle, but they were determined to make a difference and stand up to the murderous monster, even if it cost them their lives. They were going up against the mightiest army in Europe at the time. Elie Wiesel wrote in 1985, “April 19, 1943 the Warsaw Ghetto rose in arms against the onslaught of the Nazis. They were so few and so young and so helpless. And nobody came to their help…Every Underground received help, except the Jewish Underground.” (Steve Hochstadt, Sources of the Holocaust, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p. 273)

Yesterday we celebrated the first Seder of Passover. Jews from all walks of life, different religious and political backgrounds, all over the world sat down together to remember their ancestors’ exodus from the land of Egypt. We celebrated freedom from slavery and thanked God for hearing our cries. As we continue with the observance of our most important historical holiday, perhaps we can remember that invincible spirit that helps us endure the most horrific of circumstances, and even more so than that, ensure the victory of what is right and what is righteous. There is a certain similarity between the story of Passover and the uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto. Mordecai Anielewicz may not have been Moses, but he was fighting for the same freedom that Moses delivered to the Jews. He did not survive the uprising, but his actions and those under his command connect the present with the very distant past. There is a profound connection between the story of Passover and the uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto. They are separated by centuries, but are connected in the human desire for freedom. Freedom is to be celebrated and preserved. As we celebrate Passover, 5771 we celebrate freedom and human spirit. Happy Passover! Next Year in Jerusalem!

If I am missing something, please enlighten me.

Dedicated to my cousin.

This morning I read a blog by Ezra Klein, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/wonkbook-has-the-gop-really-taken-taxes-off-the-table/2011/03/10/ABP5XzHB_blog.html, about the necessity to raise taxes to ease the burden of the deficit on our country. I liked his article, and agreed with the logic of raising taxes in order to help ourselves. While agreeing with the blog, I condescendingly smiled at myself thinking, “thank you, Mr. Klein for writing this piece, but we all know that Republicans won’t change their minds or the irresponsibility of not raising taxes while preaching about the deficit.” Even when pointed out historically, that one of the biggest economic expansions of the 20th century was under Bill Clinton, who raised taxes, the Republicans still hold their ground. I do understand that this view is very comfortable, but it is just as unrealistic. One cannot be healthy without taking care of him/herself, and one cannot be a professional hockey player without putting in many years of hard work and practice on the ice. I could go on and on with such examples, but the point would be the same; you cannot pay off your loan without making more money and consolidating your expenses. The extra money potentially coming in from raised taxes could help with the deficit as well as saving such important programs as healthcare and education. Not raising taxes and crying about the deficit without putting up any agenda that would help with these two important issues, as well as protecting the corporations and wealthiest people in America (many of whom have asked for their taxes to be raised) do not solve any of our problems. The evidence is in front of us. I have yet to see any trickle down benefits from the wealthiest to the poorest. However, I do see huge corporations raking in billions and not paying taxes that is proportionate to their profits.

Having said all that, but always eager to learn, I often try to understand the Republicans’ logic on many issues including their stance on the deficit and taxes, as in wanting to reduce the deficit without raising taxes, and every time I fail. I try to understand how that logic works, and today I may have found an explanation going back to the 19th century, in the words of Frederick Douglass, a former slave. While reading Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, (Harper Perennial, New York, 1980) on page 183, I read a speech given by Frederick Douglass in 1857. In his speech against slavery, Douglass said, “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.” As I was reading Douglass’ words I remembered the blog that I read in the morning. As I was reading that, and keeping in mind that the subject was of a very different nature, I saw the similarity of the message. Mr. Klein writes, “…if you’re not willing to consider tax increases, you’re not serious about deficits.” You cannot have an ocean without its roar, just as you cannot lower our current deficit without raising taxes. As great as it would be, if that were possible, the reality shows otherwise.

In reading about the history our great nation, I understand that while we live in unprecedented times, our arguments are anything but that. While we live in post industrial age, our disagreements are as old as this country (at least). The politics of this country are part of what makes this country great. We treasure everything because it was fervently fought for. A lot of the liberties that we enjoy today were obtained through a struggle. As Frederick Douglass said in the same speech, “If there is no struggle there is no progress”. His words ring just as true today as we find ourselves in a struggle for the survival of the middle class. We are fighting for healthcare, unions, public education, and a lot of other issues that have been ongoing themes in our national politics. Every few decades we come back to the subject of immigration, and every few decades we come back to the issue of women’s reproductive rights. The same goes for education. The same goes for raising taxes. Douglass went on to say, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”.

If I am missing something, please enlighten me.

Last night I was thinking what would be the subject of my blog on Friday. Since it was going to be the first one in a while I wanted to pick the right topic. On Friday morning the subject had picked itself. When I turned on my TV at 7:09 am, the images on the screen were truly terrifying. There was water all over the screen. Water, full of debris, swallowing and displacing cars, homes, fires on the water, and causing unimaginable scenes of devastation. Image after image painted a picture of the worst possible catastrophe. As the first images appeared, thoughts like the end of the world, and where is this, were flying through my mind. As I was listening to Good Morning America anchors, I was starting to understand that Japan was in a state of crisis with an 8.9 earthquake, creating destruction, followed by a 23 foot wave tsunami. The images of the devastating tsunami that hit the coast of Japan after the earthquake were surreal.

When the tsunami hit, the political pundits were replaced by theoretical physicists and other scientists explaining the catastrophe that befell the northern coast of Japan. There were no tweets about Glen Beck or Scott Walker. Those little flies in the course of human history had momentarily ceased to matter. What mattered was the uncontrollable might and reach of nature. Once again Mother Nature sent us a sign to shut up about the nonsense and deal with the important matters that can unite us instead of divide us. Of course, the tsunami does not resolve Scott Walker’s drive to take away freedoms from the people who are entitled to them. And unfortunately the earthquake does not humble Gaddafi to resign his post and ease the oppression of the Libyan people. But, I believe that what happened in Japan is arguably a demonstration that we get into these bloody conflicts when we have “nothing better to do”. Yes, there are humanitarian crises all over the Earth, but they are not in our backyard. And yes, it is important that the Libyan people obtain their freedom, and that Scott Walker’s underhanded shenanigans be dealt with, but none of that matters when we see the images coming in from Japan. The horror of what happened in Japan was unraveling by the moment; the tsunami, the earthquake and nuclear plants becoming a priority, with the matter of politics taking a back seat to the matters of survival. More than ninety countries, allies and not, are mobilizing to send whatever help possible in order for Japan to recover.

Having said all that, I am fully aware that Gaddafi is still killing his people in Libya and still has to be dealt with. Afghanistan is still experiencing violence and our soldiers are still dying in Iraq. As I was thinking about the help being offered to Japan, I questioned if the same help would be offered to Libya or Venezuela or North Korea, if they experienced some catastrophe? I think the help would be offered. If some disaster happened in Iran would we send help? I think we would, regardless of how we feel about Ahmadinejad. And the reason we would do that is because it is the people that matter and not the leaders. While weasels like Ahmadinejad and Gaddafi will do everything possible to save themselves first, it is ultimately the people that would suffer and need help the most. So, if we are willing to send help to the people of those countries, can’t we figure out how to engage their leaders in productive conversation to resolve issues that have been plaguing us for years? How do we reach the starting point of valuing life before disagreements? If we are willing to save those people in dire circumstances, why are we not willing to practice the same morality outside of natural calamities? I really believe we as a humanity can reach that point where we start out with understanding, compassion, and our collective humanity before the religious, ideological and cultural differences.

If I am missing something, please enlighten me.

November 3, 2010. What a great day. No more mudslinging political attack ads for about 18 months. We are safe for a little while. However, the happiness of today does not negate the significance of yesterday’s elections. As a result of the 2010 midterm elections the Republicans, peppered with Tea Party candidates, have achieved the biggest gains in the House since the 1938 elections. The Senate, it seems, will stay a Democratic majority. As the results from the states were coming in the pundits and commentators on all channels covering the elections, said that the American people have spoken and are sending a message to Washington, DC about their frustrations. The newly elected and ousted candidates reconfirmed the same theme upon giving either their victory or concession speeches. With such drastic results, it would certainly seem that the people have spoken, but have they? The one fact that was rarely mentioned was the amount of registered voters who actually put in the effort to vote. And here is where the message gets a bit confusing. Those of us, who went to vote, absolutely did so to send a message to our government. At the same time we cannot ignore those of us who didn’t go to the poles. The non-voters had different reasons for not exercising the fundamental right of a free society, and however valid their reasons may be, the point is they didn’t vote. As a result, approximately 50% of the registered voters did not vote in the 2010 midterm elections. The truth is that it is too early to know what percentage of the registered voters voted yesterday, but so far it seems that they are following the numbers of the 1994 and 2006 elections, which were 48.4% and 48% respectively. So, while the candidates elect may beat their chests saying that the “American public has spoken”, may be what they should say is that half of the American electorate (only!) has spoken and the other half didn’t, and this what we have to show for it.

The fact is sweeping changes that occurred yesterday are the fruits of the labor done by 50% of eligible voters. Keeping such facts in mind, perhaps the newly elected candidates, of both parties, should show some humility and modesty when using the words “American people”. The people who didn’t vote also exercised a fundamental right of a free a society, the right not to participate. And while we may not agree with them, they constitute a big enough group to be taken seriously by our politicians. The hope is that this abstinence will evoke a reaction or at least a consideration from both parties that they must find an approach to the passive ones and get them to care about our elective process. Not one candidate, last night, was chosen by an overwhelming majority of any given region. The candidate was elected by 50% of that region’s eligible voters.

I hope that our elected officials take notice of what the American people are truly trying to say to them and instead of standing by their party, will instead stay by the people, all people.

If I am missing something, please enlighten me.

This weekend was one of polar emotions, as my friends and I went to Washington, DC for Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive on 10.30.10. Upon our arrival in DC we went to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). For some of us it was the first time, for others it was more. Being one of the ones who have been there several times, I believe I have the right to say that one does not become immune to the images and exhibits on display. The more one visits the more one ponders, how could that happen? How could humanity buy into such hatred? The reality of the World War II and the Holocaust resounded from the walls into the air and it was possible to sense human odor in the train car of the exhibit. The shoes recovered after the liberation of camps retain the imprint of their owner. These were real people! Real people who perished because the world leaders were indecisive about Hitler’s intentions even though he made them very clear. These people died because the others bought into the propaganda of fear and hate, and for some reason found it very easy to follow in the footsteps of prejudice. This Museum serves as evidence of what can happen to a nation with a hateful dictator. But then the question arises how could the masses be so willing to see reason in such hate? We left the Museum in a quiet and somber mood.

The next day, 10.30.10, it was time for Jon Stewart’s Rally. We got up and made our way to the National Mall between The Capitol and Washington Monument. It was a gorgeous sunny day with tons of people converging on the Rally. It was literally a sea of people, of reasonable people. There were numerous signs and Halloween costumes. But, mostly there were smiles and relaxed faces laughing with the hosts and enjoying the music of Tony Bennett, Kid Rock and Cheryl Crow, to name a few. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert had great chemistry and rapport pointing out the flaws of the cable news media and their choice of coverage of America’s current events. They showed a video of political commentators from different ends of political spectrum calling each other all kinds of negative names in hope of demonstrating their passion for the issue at hand and how far they are willing to go to defend their beliefs. In theory this sounds great, but in reality the venom being spewed by both sides is such a turn off for us, the spectators, who do indeed find a way to get along with each other every day of our lives. While their passion at times transfers momentarily onto us when we watch them, so far reason and negotiations have won out at the end. Is it unreasonable to think that the media should play a similar role to the one played by art, in being the mirror image of the society at the time? It seems, at least Jon Stewart thinks it’s not. His speech was passionate and reasonable and so easy to agree with. He did not promise a happy future, but he did remind us that we get along and reason with people every day. Every day we need to be patient with our children, spouses, parents, friends, teachers, cashiers and so on. And every day we do. Despite the loud volume of those pundits we drown out their voices with our daily routines of driving our kids to their activities, going to work, getting dry cleaners and not really caring, in the best sense of the word, about their political views.

It seems that the visit to USHMM turned out to be a perfect prelude to the next day’s Rally. In both cases we were reminded what ideology with scare tactics can do to a society. Jon Stewart’s Rally reminded us that we are all just people with different beliefs and backgrounds who want the best for this country and are willing to listen and debate in order to achieve what we want. The biggest proof of that message was in the amount of people that showed up at the Mall. All these people were respectful of each other and were there to have a good time, which I believe, they did.

I personally thank Mr. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for a great time in Washington DC and for creating an opportunity for us to connect to something reasonable.
If I am missing something, please enlighten me.

Welcome to our new blog, the Toothless Mule. We are perfectly aware that this blog begins its life in the pangs of the interim elections of Obama’s presidency and cyberspace is on blog and information overload. Nonetheless, we felt compelled to seize the time and express our thoughts on the present situation of our nation.

To us the most logical place to start is the fusion of the present and the past with the future. It seems, in this election at least, that no name does a better job at that fusion than Hitler, Adolf Hitler. It seems that no matter what President Obama, or the liberals, attempt to do for the benefit of this country, there’s a Republican around the corner shouting “Hitler”. So, let’s get the facts straight. Adolf Hitler, a leader of the Nazi Party and a fascist by self admittance, comes from the right wing of the political establishment. Mussolini and Hitler are fascists. Fascism is on the right side, or rather the conservative side of the political spectrum. Stalin, Lenin, Communism and Socialism would be situated on the left side of the same political spectrum. Therefore, to call Obama Hitler and Socialist is like using a double negative in the same sentence. Both terms negate each other. So, our right wing friends please make up your mind. Is Obama a Nazi or is he a Socialist?

However, before you do, please keep in mind that you, right wing conservatives belonging to the Republican Party, come from the same side as Hitler. Fascism stands for a lack of progress, the corporatist establishment and a clear class structure. Our American conservatives also would like to hold back progress in any social or political strata. The conservatives, have historically, been loyalists, monarchists, federalists, and they have continuously fought to get back “to the good old days”. The progressives and liberals have historically been fighting for progress and they are the ones who were able to accomplish many civil and social reforms that the conservatives have benefitted from as well. It seems that the liberals or the Democrats are more inclusive in general. The Social Security Act of 1965 passed by Congress, under Lyndon B. Johnson, only because the Democrats took over the majority of Congress. At the present time Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress passed several important legislations for which they are being called Socialists. To stray away from the thought for a moment, I guess in about 50 years, the Republicans will be fighting for the reforms achieved today.

Now back to Socialists…I have a question: On what basis is Obama a socialist? Whose Socialist theory is being applied in its correlation with Obama? If the answer is the Marxist theory, then let’s remind ourselves that Marx wrote about economic theory and Obama is no economist. If the answer would be Leninist theory then, as we know, that it is not even an argument because his theory, warped as it was, never succeeded. Soviet Union was a failure and was never socialism or communism. It was a totalitarian dictatorship.

If I am missing something, please enlighten me.