We Enslave Ourselves: Lincoln, Baldwin, and Burns

As I reviewed all the snippets collected for this week's episode, listening to a dozen or so graduation addresses by various celebrities, scholars, athletes, and titans of industry was a must. Yes, I even listened to that douche bag Butker again, just so I could be sure that he really was an asshat exercising his right of free speech. My position on that whack-a-doodle has not changed. But I also heard a whole lotta serious talks by serious people attempting to impart their experience and knowledge to the emerging adult population of this country. Overall, not a bad thing.

However, all other speeches faded into intellectual obscurity as I listened to documentarian (and so much more) Ken Burns talk to the graduating class of Brandeis University. I cannot urge you enough to listen to the full 21 minutes of his speech. Here it is in its entirety:

And here is the link to the transcript link to the transcript. You can read it, but hearing him is so much better. 

Early on, he reminds his audience of a speech given by a young Abraham Lincoln:

In January of 1838, shortly before his 29th birthday, a tall, thin lawyer prone to bouts of debilitating depression addressed the young men's lyceum in Springfield, Illinois. "At what point shall we expect the approach of danger?" He asked his audience, "Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military giant to step the earth and crush us at a blow?" Then he answered his own question. "Never. All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide."

It's amazing to think that even 186 years ago, a guy was prescient enough to warn his audience that we are each responsible for what happens in and to this nation. If we do not take our power as citizens with forethought and deliberation, We, the People own the crumbling of our democratic republic. Would We, the People take a guy that young seriously today? Probably not...much to our detriment. 

One of the most profound and powerful parts of Burns' address was a quote from James Baldwin:

In a filmed interview I conducted with the writer James Baldwin, more than 40 years ago, he said, "No one was ever born who agreed to be a slave, who accepted it. That is, slavery is a condition imposed from without. Of course, the moment I say that," Baldwin continued, "I realize that multitudes and multitudes of people for various reasons of their own enslave themselves every hour of every day to this or that doctrine, this or that delusion of safety, this or that lie. Anti-Semites, for example," he went on, "are slaves to a delusion. People who hate Negroes are slaves. People who love money are slaves. We are living in a universe really of willing slaves, which makes the concept of liberty and the concept of freedom so dangerous," he finished. Baldwin is making a profoundly psychological and even spiritual statement, not just a political or racial or social one. He knew, just as Lincoln knew, that the enemy is often us. We continue to shackle ourselves with chains we mistakenly think is freedom.

We are living in a universe really of willing slaves, which makes the concept of liberty and the concept of freedom so dangerous. When Burns quoted Baldwin, I had to stop the video, rewind, and listen again. 

We, the People, are an entrenched people. More and more, we are a house divided by our own recalcitrant opinions and so buried in the quicksand of our prejudices that we can see no merit whatsoever beyond what we want to believe. And within that entrenchment, is the surrender to the delusion that the lies, the innuendo, and the crimes blatantly committed are somehow okay. Burns refers to the presumptive Republican nominee as "the opioid of all opioids." To continue down the path of the nominee and his supporters is dangerous to the principles the Founding Fathers (yeah, they were men) set forth in the Constitution itself. We, the People don't get to point a finger at anyone but ourselves for the choices we make. 

At this point in our existence as a nation, we are so polarized that the middle ground on which we once met has almost completely disappeared. The House of Representatives is a case study on how to destroy consensus as the ultra-right and the ultra-left battle for position, leaving those who would seek cooperation and bipartisanship holding the bag for progress not made. Officials elected to office are supposed to be servants of We, the People. They do not have the mandate to ignore the will of their constituency while applying their personal paternalistic opinions on an entire country. That said, I seem to be in the minority when I say things like: you may be a XXXX or a YYYY, but once you're seated in Congress, you are representing our entire district/state. You are charged to represent all of us. The good of the people is disregarded every time they play chicken with the budget or the office of Speaker of the House. Their actions are no longer about what is good for America,  only about what is good for their own personal gain. 

Ken Burns observed:

There is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route.

I cannot disagree with him. At the same time, the events of this spring demonstrate they have not progressed away from polarization. That, gentle readers, is terrifying.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

Yael Dayan 
1939-2024

It's worth noting that Israel lost one of its great women last week, and it was barely noticed out in the world. Yael Dayan, author, politician, feminist, advocate for women's and LGBTQ+ rights, activist for peace, and incidentally daughter of Moshe and Ruth Dayan, passed away in Tel Aviv. She was 85. Baruch Dayan ha'Emet. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Stop and smell the lilacs...especially if you're in Minnesota. 

The First Amendment ~ Part 4: It Ain't All Governmental Prosecution

Personally, I think Harrison Butker is a total douche bag. The previous statement is my personal opinion. I thought his speech at a Catholic college was incredibly demeaning and offensive to all women no matter what their life choices may be. Again, this is my personal opinion.

Do I think he should be fired from the Kansas City Chiefs? No, not my call, although if he did, I wouldn't argue with their right to can his misogynistic ass right outta the locker room. 

I commented on this very issue on a friend's post on FaceBook, writing:

As specious and ridiculous as the speech was, he is entitled to his opinion. He is also entitled to address those graduates espousing Catholic doctrine at a Catholic school. I may not agree with what he says, but he does get to say it, and I will fight tooth and nail for his right to express his beliefs. He was not urging violence, genocide, or the annihilation of another country. ..and that was okay on a whole lot of other campi. His speech was probably appropriate for his audience.

Look, there are people that believe deeply in what he said. He did nothing to hurt the team. To demand his removal is really a form of censorship and a challenge to free speech. And it has NOTHING to do with football.

It seemed to be implied that he should be chastised or penalized in some way. He was invited to speak probably because of his beliefs. He gets to say them to that audience. So long as he's not advocating violence or yelling fire in a theater, he gets to say what he thinks.

And  so I was eviscerated, excoriated, any number of names, and basically told I did not understand the First Amendment of the Constitution of these here United States. The following was my absolute favorite response:

ma'am, you proudly display an apartheid genocidal state's flag on your pfp [sic], so my expectations for your reading comprehension are low going in. But I'm a fighter so I'm gonna give it the old college try.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequence. It means freedom from prosecution. That means the cops can't arrest you, you can't be thrown in jail, your voting rights won't be stripped away etc. It means the GOVERNMENT can't use our tax dollars to punish you over your opinion, however shitty.

Oh and #freePalestine

(Just in case you forgot what the real issue is.)

If the writer was correct in that free speech only means freedom from prosecution, I'm gonna guess he never read the First Amendment or the Constitution, and that perhaps he's the one with the reading comprehension issue.

For clarity's sake, here's the Amendment as it appears in said Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Mebbe I missed the part about consequences. Nowhere does it or I mention freedom from consequences for shooting one's mouth off with incredibly misogynistic comments, but that wasn't what my comment was about. I merely said he was speaking to an audience of like-minded people and could say whatever the hell he wants. He did nothing wrong. (Did I neglect to mention that Tavia and Grace Hunt, the wife and daughter of team owner Clark Hunt, seem to agree with what he said, so I'm guessing firing his ass is not happening anytime soon. 

Just like Feckless Loser can lie like a rug, spew toads and worms each time he opens his mouth, and can advocate for the overturning of an election because he has the right of free speech no matter how anyone feels about the bullshit that flows like Niagara Falls. Not even gag orders seem to stem the flow. 

Now, hold on to those thoughts for a moment as we turn our attention to the end of the semester and the end of the Tentifada.

Institutions of higher learning (?) are capitulating to the demands of the mob. Below is taken from today's edition THE FREE PRESS For Free People. Scroll down...it's worth the trip...to the section called → Campus capitulation:

The latest to strike a very one-sided bargain with students is Harvard. In exchange for the protesters going home, the college has announced it will consider adopting boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) measures against Israel, setting up a Palestinian Studies Center, and not taking any action against 80 protesters... 

Harvard is only the latest elite school to promise to consider BDS measures. Colleges to have made that concession include:

Princeton, which will also consider ​new academic affiliations with Palestinian scholars, students, and institutions, and a new Palestinian studies course.

Northwestern, which has also committed to build a house for Muslim student activities and to fundraise for scholarships for Palestinian undergraduates.

Brown University, which agreed to vote on implementing BDS.

Rutgers, which agreed to accept at least 10 displaced Gazan students and hire additional professors who specialize in Palestinian and Middle Eastern studies.

Johns Hopkins, which will grant amnesty to all student protesters.

University of California, Berkeley, which agreed to ensure that their academic partnerships don’t exhibit anti-Palestinian discrimination, which protesters say is a “pathway to boycott of Israeli university programs.”

University of California, Riverside, which has committed to discontinue business school study programs in Israel. It also promised a “review of Sabra Hummus.”

I love the part about Sabra Hummus. For the record: the company was started by Zohar Norman and Yehuda Pearl in 1986 in Astoria, Queens, and is now headquartered in White Plains, New York. In 2005, Israeli food manufacturer Strauss bought the company, and is now co-owned by PepsiCo and the Strauss Group. Who are they gonna go after next? Microsoft? They recently built a huge campus in Herzliya. Maybe the protesters should all uninstall OFFICE from their computers. 

But that's not the part that scares me. I wanna know more about Palestinian studies. Will they be teaching actual history or only 20th century history? Will they teach about the expulsion of the Jews from Arab countries in the mid 20th century, or only about the Palestinians who sought refuge in Lebanon and Jordan where they were denied basic refugee rights? Are they going to support Hamas as viable a government in a new country or are they going to teach how to support an emerging economy? 

I actually think Palestinian studies is not the worst idea on the planet. Those who are rallying to their support need to understand the roots of the struggle and how a solution that ultimately gives equal footing to two states is probably the best solution. 

That said, an article in The Palestine Chronicle: From the River to the Sea and the Alleged Proposed Genocide – Why We Urgently Need De-Zionisation by a fellow named David Miller addressing the dismantling of Israel is terrifying for what it ultimately states:

But, in truth,  the slogan absolutely does mean the ending of Israel as a state form, the dismantling of the “Jewish state”. The reason is that it is impossible for Palestinians to live as “free and equal” citizens without the creation of a new state in which such desires can actually be accommodated.

But does the “destruction” or “dismantling” of the “State of Israel” mean genocide of the Jews? It should be obvious that it does not and it’s dishonest to pretend otherwise. It means the dismantling of a state form established by Zionists. Even if many people died in such a process this would not be a genocide against the Jews since there is no evidence that anyone wants to kill the Jews as Jews as opposed to wanting to end the structural oppression that the “state of Israel” brings with it.

If you believe that last line, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you. 

The world has seen what the Taliban did in Afghanistan, what Hezbollah does in Lebanon, what ISIS did in Iraq and Syria....and David Miller thinks we're gonna fall for that? Guess again, Mr. Miller. All evidence is to the contrary.  Name one Arab state where non-Muslims have full civil rights and live in peaceful equality under Sharia law. I'm not so certain one exists these days. 

Meanwhile, back to Harrison Butker....

Words said aloud or written out or published carry with them a certain amount of weight. If you speak, write, or publish words that are hurtful, be prepared to have them come back and bite you. If you espouse an unpopular point of view, position, or opinion, be prepared for the backlash; it will come. BUT do you have the right under the First Amendment to state your opinions aloud, in writing, or in print? Absolutely. You can insist an election was unfair and stolen...sure, Feckless does that daily. You can demand Jews vacate the land of Israel all you want... but it doesn't mean it's gonna happen. Harrison Butker might have gone on the record praising women who stay home instead of working, but that's his belief. He gets to cherish that all he wants. Even when he advocates for a ban on a woman's medical autonomy, he gets to have that opinion. He does not, however, have the right to force that opinion on the rest of us. That is an entirely different matter.

And he is certainly going to reap all the castigation, criticism, mockery, and assorted consequences the disagreeing public can heap on him. We're entitled to our opinions, too.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

I booked tickets to Tel Aviv this morning.

It's a good time to plan a trip.

Just sayin'.

Bonus Content - 

Here are the other three episodes I've written on the First Amendment

We, the People ~ The First Amendment

The First Amendment ~ Part Deux

The First Amendment ~ Part 3: A primer on Free Speech

YOWZA!

I had the supreme pleasure of watching Eurovision Finals again this year with Little Miss and Young Sir. We were glued to the tube, watching every act do its thing. Some were pretty weird, some were exceptionally good and we cheered for those. Of course, I took a picture of the kids watching the opening and sent it to our friends in Israel...who immediately sent us a picture of them watching it! The kiddos went wild at the idea we were doing something with them in real time. Ain't technology grand!?!?!?!?!

Israel's entry was  Eden Golan; her song was incredible...but would have been even more so had the Eurovision producers not insisted they change the lyrics and change name from October Rain to Hurricane because it was "too political." A commenter on Reddit posted the lyrics side-by-side:

It was not political; it was a reflection on Israeli reality. Golan's voice echos the pain we as Jews are experiencing at the moment...the same moment she is booed, that Bambie Thug says her heart weeps because Israel made the finals. The ceaseless attacks on Golan and other Israelis were normalized in that event. It didn't matter what her lyrics said...as soon as she opened her mouth as a Jew and an Israeli, she was castigated for living. 

Ireland's entry, Doomsday Blue sung by Bambie Thug whose fingernails were painted with little Palestinian flags, was probably the most controversial of the entries for a number of reasons. Little Miss, who is not yet in double digits, remarked, "Well, that was inappropriate!" I couldn't disagree with her. Never mind Bambi Thug is an anti-Semite, that she complained when Israel's KAN network told viewers with children that her performance was scary. It was. It was also sexually explicit. Okay, a number of the performances were sexually explicit and not really all that suitable for children, but the satanic rituals depicted in the act were a bit over-the-top, even for me. Her Eurovision version is not posted yet, but her music video is tame by comparison. Bambie Thug's complaints were not as effective as they might have been...Israel finished in 5th place....Ireland was 6th. We cheered.

Her politics aside, I did not find her performance compelling in the least. It was not edgy; it wasn't even shocking from the sexuality and innuendo, I thought her appearance/costume was distracting at best, and frankly, prosaic. Boring in an oddball sorta wall. And I'd bet you a buck, she didn't know some of her lyrics are actually Aramaic words. Or am I the only one who noticed "Avada Kedavra, I speak to destroy / The feelings I have, I cannot avoid ? Or, perhaps that is not so symbolically directed at us. Hard to tell.

Lots of LGBTQ+ performers also sported "secret" Palestinian and Hamas symbols. I would urge all of them to visit Gaza as soon as possible to show solidarity with their LGBTQ+ siblings....if they can find any. Don't these people know who they are supporting?

Obviously not. 

By the way, Switzerland won. They were the first non-binary winner of Eurovision...that we know of. Maybe we can all give each other a break and let music be music; let it reflect who we are and what we hear in our hearts. Music is best shared...not lobbed as hate missiles at performers and populations. Just a thought.

The kiddos watched the whole thing, right down to the vote tallies. We had a great time, they snarfed up dinner, I got to introduce them to Luigi's Italian Ices (OU- Parve!) and they even let me sleep until 7:30 a.m. when they decided they needed food. Mostly mango, strawberries, and blueberries. After which we adjourned to their house for a delightful Mothers' Day brunch. Having the noodniks overnight is totally the best! Spending it laughing with the kiddos...priceless.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... From the what a difference a day makes divison:

Today was not one of those great days due to an unexpected incredibly stupid I-shoulda-known-better kinda injury. This bright-star moment probably happened several weeks ago, had nothing to do with being knocked over by my 98-year old grandpuppy, but now it has decided to rear its ugly head in a painful way. I sorta remember when I stepped funny on a stone on the walkway in front of my house.....

Seems my ankle rolled and I did what I always do: I walked it off. Schlepping heavy bags of groceries up stairs for Pesach surely did not help the cause, and I started to feel the occasional twinge. About a week ago, I noticed a sharp, shooting pain straight through my left ankle every time I stood up. And I did what I always do: I walked it off. And kept on walking it off because I could. Until Sunday night...when I couldn't just walk it off. 

It's not that I'm impervious to pain...although I do like to think that....I just have an exceptionally high tolerance for a whole lotta reasons, most of which come from ballet, tap, jazz, and screwing around. That I rarely bruise and almost never swell also means stuff gets blissfully overlooked and/or ignored. By me. Despite full range of motion in the ankle, I had to admit to being in a fair amount of trouble. I mean, I hurt like a sonofabitch!

Viking Hell (as some of us call the giant Viking practice complex with the lights that used to shine right into the kids' windows of the old house because they were that high and bright) has a deal with Twin Cities Orthopedic that includes an urgent care on site. Of all the urgent cares around, this is a serious ortho center and (bonus!) it had the shortest wait time posted on the website. Plus, it's really close. So I went over. 

Good choice. I was seen right away, the ankle immediately x-rayed...then x-rayed again from a completely different position...and the ankle PA was with me in a matter of minutes for one of the most thorough joint exams I've ever experienced. She expressed amazement that I was walking if off for as long as I was, assured me all the bone parts looked great, but when she squeezed right where I indicated I hurt the most...and I damn near flew outta the chair. I kinda shrieked, "YOWZA!" She sorta chuckle-snorted. "Yowza?" she asked. I just grinned and shrugged...and thought of Ziggy. 

Seems I have a pretty severely sprained ankle. The ligament does not appear to be torn (thank G-d) but I am now the proud owner of a really nifty brace. It's pretty cool, supports my ankle in all the right places, and while it still hurts when I stand up, it mitigates much faster. There will be PT involved later in the week. I will whiz right through that 4-6 week recovery because:

I AM SPARTACUS!!!!!

Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

This is really a tip from the Senior Son.

If you haven't sent this book to YOUR mother,

you should.

I laughed my motherly head right off. 

We, the Jewish People, do remember. We, the Jewish People, do not forget.

Well, being on the triennial cycle and all, Friday was UP MINE Day. I've written about colonoscopies before...twice....for my previous two, ergo I will make short note of the one last Friday. All I can tell you is that things looked just fine. Of course, I wasn't looking becauses the good anesthesia fairy came and knocked me on my butt while respecting my raging IV-phobia. "You're not the first and you certainly will not be the last," she told me with a grin. I like that woman. And my hot GI guy told me (before he looked up by butt) that I looked terrific and when he saw my name on the list, he knew it was gonna be a good morning. Apparently, I'm funny.

Come on, folk. What's Plan-B when someone announces he's gonna stick a probe up your butt and he's not even an alien?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

As I write this, I am acutely aware that  יום השואה - Yom Ha'Shoa began at sundown Sunday night and is observed all day today, Monday.

Yom Ha'Shoa is a recent and necessary addition to the Jewish calendar. We remember the Holocaust every day, but on Yom Ha'Shoa, we take time for silence, a silence that echoes the voices lost, never to be heard again. 

I grew up in a world where it was not in the least bit unusual to see numbers tattooed on arms because the arms were Jewish arms. Where friends had no grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins not because they were never born, but because Jews were not allowed to live. Where Volkswagens, BMWs, and Mercedes Benz cards were not merely frowned upon, but they were often spit at. Where 8-year old me followed the Eichmann trial closely, along with my friends and their parents, knowing in horrific detail what he ordered for our people. 

I knew all about genocide by the time I was 8. What it means. How it works. How it's done. How it's managed. From first hand testimony. From my neighbors and my parents' friends. And from my dad who was there in the aftermath.

As an adult, I knew other survivors, and I even knew a sonderkommando. I spent time listening and learning their stories. So I could transmit them to my kids.

We, the Jewish People, know about genocide. If we wanted to rid the land of Palestinians, trust me when I saw they would already be gone. 

But they're not, nor should they be. They deserve to have their own state, a state they have been offered multiple times...only to have their leadership reject it in favor of prolonged terrorism.

Yes, what's happening is grotesque and horrible, and a tragedy. But that's what happens when chooser hate, murder, and terrorism over self-determination, an economy, and peace. When you start a war, people die. When you use your population as human shields, your population dies.

Israeli soldiers didn't crawl beneath a border through tunnels to massacre children in their homes or kids at a music festival. Let's not lose sight of the rape and carnage of October 7th.  

Photo Credit: X/@taliahkhan_MIT

And let's not lose sight of the Hamas charter that DEMANDS the wholesale destruction of Israel.  What makes it all so sad for the Palestinians is that with Hamas, they have never had a chance to be a nation, to have an economy. They scream for the destruction of Israel when isn't being Israel what they really want?At MIT, the lady in the red keffiyeh is chanting in Arabic. This is what she says:

 

 

We wish to say it loud and clear: we don’t want to see Zionists here

From water to water, Palestine – Arab.

From water to water, Israel destroyed

We will sacrifice our blood and souls for you, Palestine

Free Palestine - Israel  get out.

Free Palestine – Zionists get out

The iron gates of Al-Aqsa – open for the martyr

From water to water – death to the Zionists

From water to water? Are we supposed to throw up our hands and just walk into a river or a sea? You don't happen to know which river or which sea, do you?

Most protestors have proven through interviews and conversations that they really do not know. Just like LGBTQ for Palestine makes no sense whatsoever. What do you think happens to LGBTQ people in Gaza? Rainbow parades?....Right off the roof, maybe. One might think that's attempted genocide against LGBTQ people....but then again...why would they think that?

Because they don't know what genocide is. 

When Germany began its war against the Jews, they began by chipping away at our identity as Jews. Jews were barred from attending schools. Jews business were taken over. Synagogues were ransacked. Yellow stars were mandated for clothing. The conscious attempt to shame, humiliate, and degrade Jews were core to the erasure of us from Europe. The camps were only cleaning up the mess. 

The so-called "anti-Zionist" protesters are attempting to do the same thing. They are trying to bar us from entering educational institutionls. At UC Santa Clara, they are demanding the removal of Hillel from campus. Other schools will follow. By removing Hillel, they are removing Jewish communal presence from campus and denying Jews a place of their own. If we have no safe place to gather, Jewish students will leave campus....and isn't the desired outcome

This is not about land or government. This is a war against Jews. We are .02% of the global population. Surrounded by 22 Muslim nations, Israel takes up .1% of the Middle East land mass. Not 1%....POINT ONE percent. Here's an interesting graphic. 

Countries ranked by land mass:

Israel doesn't even take up .01% of the global land mass. So why is it such a big deal to wipe it away?

One word: JEWS. 

Take another look at the protests, the signs, the slogans, and the chants. 

If you have family or friends who are out there protesting on behalf of Hamas and Gaza, ask them what they think the end game is? 

Ask them if they believe Hamas will make life better for the Palestinians. 

Ask them if they understand what intifada and jihad mean in terms of their own lives. 

Honestly, they probably don't even know.

But we've lived through this before: we know what it is and what it looks like. And we will live through this again. The difference this time is that we are better prepared. 

Almost all the Holocaust survivors I knew are gone now. I miss guys like Henry Oertelt who witnessed Krystallnacht in person as it was happening. I miss Sam Saide who had some of the scariest, most hair-raising experiences after his family was deported from Lodz in Poland to the concentration camps. I miss Phil Biel who survived because he went into hiding, and always did the prayer for Rosh Hodesh, the New Moon, because he was alive and he could. And I miss Rene Slotkin, a Mengele twin, who, over pastrami sandwiches in a kosher deli, told me about seeing his mother murdered in front of him when he called out to her across a fence. 

If anyone is committing genocide in Gaza, it's not the Israelis. Hamas is doing a fine job with Iran's backing. They are murdering their own people and blaming it on Israel. They reject every ceasefire deal by upping the ante to a place where it cannot possibly be met. Hamas doesn't want peace. It doesn't want a two-state solution that would be supported and nurtured by just about every nation on the globe. 

Hamas does not want that. They want dead Jews. 

And apparently, so do a lot of American students. They chant, "intifada now!"

So you should ask them:

Once the Jews are gone, who's gonna be next? 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you know any Holocaust survivors, talk to them NOW.

    Do not put it off.

All too soon, there won't be any eyewitnesses left.