I caught just a brief excerpt of Elie Wiesel’s remarks at Buchenwald with President Obama and Chancellor Merkler of Germany. The man’s impressive humanity emanates from him; with every word gently spoken he touched us. No soaring rhetoric, just simple belief and statements that reached his audience. He said. “We have not learned.” For anyone who knows his story, we know he speaks the truth.
We have not learned, not the past generation that so bravely fought in World War 2, or my generation, the baby-boomers who they fought to protect. We have not learned to stop hating what is different. We have not learned to seek peace. Instead we automatically wage war when we could have chosen peace. We want our truth to be the only truth. It isn’t enough that we just defend our right to believe our way of life is right, we want to make others live as us.
When President Obama talked of his grandfather who helped liberate Buchenwald and mistakenly used the German word for Auschwitz instead, the conservative right labeled him a liar, a pretender.
“The President is not only the descendant of crazed fire-breathing muslims from Africa, but also from at least one military serving American who was there to offer water and comfort to the fortunate (can one even use that word) souls who manage to survive a concentration camp.”
The right wants to deny President Obama his heritage, the nobility and sacrifice of his very own Grandfather who saw these types of atrocities up close, in action, like this photo of Elie Wiesel at age 16 at Buchenwald.
We carry the banner of democracy as though America has all the answers, instead of admitting we are humans who have not learned. I know we want to believe that we have, but the truth speaks loudly in the millions of lives damaged by the Iraq war. We can stand with hands on our chest at D-Day and applaud our grandfathers, commemorate their service with pride. They fought to defend freedom. But then we try to extend that same sense of justice to every misguided instance of US military poweress, including Viet Nam, Iran Contra and now Iraq.
But the images speak louder of our truth…those images from Abu Greb prison or perhaps the images of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children killed or injured in the Iraq war.
In Afghanistan, our young men and women are fighting to defend freedom and so we should back them with all the fervor of World War 2 pride. But, when we, on our own shores, claim moral superiority over the citizens of Palestine, who are fighting for their right to exist, we must question that moral superiority. My dtr-in-law is Jewish, from Israel, and I support the rights and claims of Israel to their land. But, as President Obama so bravely spoke of in Cairo, we must support the right of the Palestinian people to have their own state, and we must insist that Israel’s right wing leaders find a way to bring that about in our time, now.
The time is now, as Elie Weisel so clearly stated. The time is now for Americans and citizens of the world to demand the same justice for Palestinians as Israelites. To fail to do so, endorses a way of treating people that does not fit our high ideals, our stated beliefs. The same justice that we demand Pakistan and Afghanistan offer it’s citizens, we demand of Israel in its treatment of the Palestinians. Why is that so hard to understand? I get it, and I’m just a simple housewife in America.
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Wowee! There are nuts in every bunch, I guess. The “Obama is a Muslim” argument just has no nuance to it. I’ve heard from people overseas that he IS a Muslim because he is descended from Muslims and that’s that. Of course, we Americans (mostly) believe you can change your faith. So he is and he isn’t. The end. I dislike him, but people need to cut him a break on the “my Muslim faith” interview, don’t you think?
Fire-breathing Muslim makes him sound like he’s hanging out in a cave waiting for St. George. :]
And your dislike for him, is based on what fault? I truly am curious..I see so much in him to admire and respect and like..and I so it truly is difficult for me to understand ..but I’d like to try. Is it the socialism thing? Or his abortion stance.
When I disliked George’s Bush’s policies, I could state them clearly, a long list of them, to point to why I disliked his presidency, so what is the long list of reasons you dislike him? Again, truly curious??
He’s descended from his white atheist mom as much as from his black African Muslim dad — so much to dislike personally, no wonder it doesn’t come across as policy difference.
Do you think it’s as simple as that JJ? That makes me so sad..to think that everything Elie Wiesel said about how we still haven’t learned, and that we still choose to dislike based on our differences in race and faith…will always be the rule. It is the message that Christ brought us..that we must love each other as ourselves..no matter of race or religion…
It is enough to make me fear for my grandchildren, that in their lives as Jewish Hispanic girls..they will always be feared and scorned..for their differences not their beauty and their spirit. I do not think I could abide that..
Or perhaps I’m just melancholy on a lazy Sunday afternoon and I’ll regain my natural optimism in people…I wonder how Elie Wiesel and Barack Obama endured and continue to endure despite their roots, they have chosen to love anyway.
I don’t think that’s a fair reason to dislike someone, JJ, and never have. The “Hussein” name may give a little reason to look askance at a political candidate because we ARE at war with fundamentalist, radical Islam, but I’d have been willing to give him my full backing if he were of the same political type I am.
I think you can also dislike someone in spite of their being rather like you demographically AND politically, too.
Betty, I think most people truly are accepting of one another. Hey, I can disagree with some of the tenets of my neighbour’s faith and still be a good neighbour. Usually the subject doesn’t come up as often as the weather, the grass, what happened downtown, etc. anyway. And really when we post about a political happening, etc. we’re focused on that HAPPENING, which can give us a skewed view of other people (if that makes sense). I’ve seen nasty racist people who love their kids and neighbours, but I’ve also seen loving sorts of people make comments on the blogs, etc. I know they haven’t thought out well. I try to look at their heart on that, maybe say something if I feel someone will listen, and give the grace I need sometimes too.
No, I don’t think it’s simple, at all. Not simple to understand and deal with even for one of us, much less for all of us.
A Sunday column I read pointed out that in the Middle East, a majority of both Jewish and Palestinian people may want peace but find it impossible because a small minority on each side can keep the fighting going.
I thought of us. . .
Us in America, I mean.
Something you both might like is Parenting Beyond Belief’s new post, “Loving Paintings More Than Frames”:
I don’t know, I think maybe JJ has hit the nail on the head.
I may blog about this today: Newt Gingrich wants to keep the religious-political fight going, no matter what peace they rest of us may yearn for. And I mean that outright religious fighting now, and Betty, I might reconsider because this IS pretty simple, straightforward exploitation of faith for personal power, appealing to folks’ worst fears and hatreds rather than their Lincolnesque “better angels.”
He calls a Latina SCOTUS nominee’s judicial philosophy racist and bigoted (although there have only been three “Other Than White Males”of 113 in America’s history, you do the math — that’s as small a minority as homeschooling, smaller than gay Americans.) Bad enough. But now he is inciting his base specifically against the 16% of the American population who told Pew we are unaffiliated to any organized religion. He is calling us pagan and saying we’ve unconstitutionally surrounded the REAL Americans, right here at home — Holy War isn’t just on the other side of the world and God’s word (as received by certain conservative white males) goes, never mind the Constitution or the rest of the people.
Pagans Aren’t Americans: Gingrich
And Huckabee help is helping — they are trying to out-fatwa each other in branding America a theocracy and ameding the Constitution if need be, to make that legal.
Since Gingrich recently converted to Catholicism, I guess he figures an actual crusade for president might beat a mere campaign?
Black Americans were the same under-20 percentage of the South when I was growing up, and they sure made good scapegoat targets for white male Christian conservative politician populism. And Gingrich is a HISTORY professor of all things, he knows exactly what he’s doing. I’d have to be even stupider than he dismisses women and progressives and humanists as being, to “believe” otherwise.
The question now is, how will real Americans and specifically real Christians respond? Our history will be written in that . . .
By the way, if I were a Gingrich Grinch seeking to “educate” through aggressive confrontation, I might hammer away at the fact that the news media and SCOTUS, thus the Constitution itself, are surrounded by Catholics, out of all proportion to their rightful influence in our diverse secular society and government.
Sotomayor actually pads that controlling majority of the highest court! No help from a pagan pov, and if Gingrich really were concerned about his personal faith in god gaining power, he’d be supporting rather than attacking her. (And he would support President Obama as an adult convert to Christianity, just as valid as Gingrich’ own conversion surely?)
So personal power, not power for his faith is what he really craves and why he fights. He’s admitted as much from his start in politics 20-some years ago. See pages 174-6 in The Gentleman from Georgia, e.g.:
[...] Mind Blacks, Immigrants, Gays: Kill the Pagans! 8 06 2009 Good discussion at Betty’s about Obama and Elie Wiesel, religious wars and what it will take to stop fighting them when at [...]
Newt…yeah..that describes him well…a little Newt…with beady eyes, and a small brain..(they say he’s actually intelligent..) I see him clearly in the men of The Handmaid’s Tale….or in The Stepford Wives.
I know..I’m being catty..Well, I feel catty,when I think of women giving away the rights we worked so hard for them to have..and allowing men like Newt Gingrich and even that silly Huckabee to tell them how to live their lives Women are the problem in this “battle”. What makes a woman settle for the leadership of people like Newt Gingrich? I mean really..Anne Coulter and Newt Gingrich? ..
Sides are being drawn…and choices are going to have to be made. For so long, I have believed I could find a balanced Christian viewpoint that would be in the middle somewhere..and yet, I believe that less and less these days.
Because while our middle is expanding, the bizarre reasoning of the extreme right is also expanding..and suddenly I find myself being sucked into groups and conversations where the very base of what I believe to be America is being challenged in ways I never could have imagined…torture, women like Sotomayor being labeled a racist, women like Michelle Obama being called an elitist- (for the very same activities that they praised Laura Bush for), and the name calling from both sides ratcheting up the rhetoric everyday.
What happened to speak softly and carry a big stick?
I
I know what you mean — I feel like my childhood religious fellowship and my family’s intelligent, educated conservatism were looted, pillaged and plundered the same way I feel now about my finances and security.
I’ve heard from people overseas that he IS a Muslim because he is descended from Muslims and that’s that. Of course, we Americans (mostly) believe you can change your faith. So he is and he isn’t. The end.
*********
Except he isn’t.
And saying he is, based not on his current real life but based on his paternity, riles up the crazies.
Does the “father/Muslim = son/Muslim by default” work the same way the “mother/Jew = offspring/Jew” idea? Paternal lineage matters versus maternal lineage?
Not that any of it matters in America. Unless the haters are looking for a reason to hate.
Nance
I never thought about it that way…but our granddaughter is Jewish because her mother is Jewish, even though she will be free to choose her faith..She will always be Jewish..in the eyes of Israel. She even has citizenship because her mother is Israeli..
Interesting thought..the labels we give each other and ourselves and what it means to anyone..
I wonder how some of the assumed “Modal heroes” people sometimes can be so hypocrites!.. they demand a thing for themselves, and at the same time they deny it for others when it contradicts their interests
Mr. Wiesel had a great humanitarian efforts in different matters, specially defending Israel worst actions!.. But when it comes to the palestinians tragedy for example.. you hear nothing from him!.. how strange?
For years Wiesel has remained silent regarding the suffering and injustices committed against the Palestinian people by Zionists!.. While Wiesel supports “the right of return” for Jews to what so called Israel, he says nothing about millions palestinians refugees who had been thrown out of their lands since 1948 till now, he cannot even bring himself to tell the truth about what caused their diaspora.
He doesn’t just remained silent about the continued Israeli military occupation of the Golan, West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem since 1967!.. but he also tried to justifed it!
It’s very disappointing that a professor of humanities and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient such as Mr Wiesel can have double standards when ot comes to his race/religion