Tuesday, January 27, 2015

The Holocaust and the Righteous Among Nations.

The Holocaust and the Righteous Among Nations.  

The Gist


Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Eleven million people were slaughtered at the hands of the Nazis (six million European Jews and five million homosexuals, Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses, Slavs, mentally disabled persons and other so-called 'undesirables'). For the most part, the world did nothing. The most blatant example of world inaction was at the 1938 Evian Conference. The conference was called BECAUSE world leaders knew that Europe's Jews were in trouble. Yet, the United States and Great Britain REFUSED to increase their immigration quotas. At one point, the US State Department tried to keep reports of Nazi atrocities out of the press.The fact that governments didn't do anything, however, didn't stop hundreds upon hundreds of being what Israel has dubbed The Righteous Among the Nations. Stories of Albanian Muslims, Bosnian Muslims, Turkish Muslims, and Iranian Muslims saving Jews are especially poignant. Recently, Human of New York interviewed a man who said the following, 


"Moral absolutism keeps us from learning from the past. It's easy to say: 'Hitler was a demon. Nazis were all bad seeds.' That's simple. It's much harder to say: 'Is that humanity? Is that me?'" 

Although a bit melodramatic, it is important to realize that the death of 11 million fellow humans could easily have happened under out watch (think Rwanda, where one million people died in 100 days, while we did nothing)....and now you know the gist. 

Friday, January 23, 2015

Bipartisanship, a Marathon, and King Abudullah

Bipartisanship, a Marathon, and King Abudullah 

The Gist


President Obama said he had the courage of his convictions and President Bush said he was a force of modernization. My favorite, however, came from former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel who said King Abdullah was, "a powerful voice for tolerance, moderation and peace." King Abdullah ruled a country that lashes bloggers for defending an atheist (obviously he was a peaceful man). Women are outright banned from certain professions, driving, most sports, and need to get male permission to travel abroad and obtain certain medical procedures (obviously King Abdullah was a modernizer). Saudi Arabia forbids public worship of any religion other than Islam (obviously King Abdullah was tolerant). According to a leaked memo by former Secretary of State Clinton, Saudi donors constituted “the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide." Our country's love for tyrants that benefit our interests is certainly nothing new: the Shah of Iran, Mobutu Sese Seko of then-Zaire, Suharto of Indonesia to name a few. But the praise lavished by CNN, Fox News, NPR, MSNBC and others is ridiculous. I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise: Houston's half marathon is sponsored by Saudi Aramco and large wings of top American institutions are named after Saudi royalty. Our foreign policy still seems to adhere to Secretary of State Kissinger's oft repeated quote, "he is a bastard, but he is our bastard." ...and now you know the gist.

Monday, January 5, 2015

YOU WENT TO JUAREZ?!

YOU WENT TO JUAREZ?!  

The Gist

"You are going to El Paso? How nice. DON'T GO TO JUÀREZ."  Without fail, that is the advice that is given to someone who is visiting the second largest bi-national metroplex in the world. No matter that hundreds of Americans travel to their management jobs there every day or that the vast majority of the 120 Americans killed there in the past decade were somehow connected to the cartels (and let's face it NOT WHITE)...obviously people who hadn't been there in years (if ever) know best. Ciudad Juárez, a city of 1.5 million souls, was once a glamorous place that attracted the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Elizabeth Taylor and Steve McQueen. Residents like to boast that the burrito and margarita were invented there (the former at a place all too familiar to American high school students: the Kentucky Club). Its over 350 “maquilas” contribute approximately $23 billion in imports and $43 billion in exports to Mexico’s economy annually. American companies such as Ford and Delphi are investing heavily in Juárez and the city is on track to having its best fiscal year in decades. One need only travel down its cleaner-than-before main boulevards to see thing are getting better (I mean, no place can be THAT bad if there are Starbucks' every six blocks or so). The restaurants and nightclubs are once again filled to capacitySome time soon, residents hope, American tourists will return as well...and now you know the gist.