"It is not one world..."
Paul Harvey's famous quote disappeared under a generation of ignorance. But he was right...and I am aware that this is not my usual content.
When I was a boy, I remember hearing Paul Harvey on the radio and having his sign off each day gently reminding me of what I felt was a calm and thoughtful presence. “Paul Harvey……….Good day!” And off I’d go to school, or out of the car or into the store with mom or dad, wherever I was.
When I began to commute to my first years of teaching in the early 90’s all the way up through the early 2000’s, I would hear his daily broadcast on KABC out of Los Angeles, and it brought back memories as well as provided insight to the day’s stories. In the latter pieces, Harvey would begin to report the news of some atrocity, tragedy or act of human depravity by saying, “It is not one world….” By this, he was responding ostensibly to the rising tide of voices claiming that, in fact, it was one world-in music, and rhetoric, the cry was we are all the same. But the story Harvey told elucidated his point and provided a counterbalance that echoed Viktor Frankl’s famous utterance that there are only two races of people: the decent, and the indecent. It is a much harder truth today than it was even then, particularly for those who in their ideologies see equity as the goal toward which we strive. I don’t agree with that goal, and neither do most of us if we’re really pushed. There is a big difference between equity and equality and equity is of little value by comparison.
The massacre of innocents by Hamas has its echoes in early 20th century Europe, and well before that too. There is no equivocation here. The invasion of homes, private lives and the horror visited upon Israelis this past week cannot be countenanced by some bizarre claim of “occupation.” This was murder on a mass scale, as it was previously in our beleaguered world’s history.
And right on cue, we see apologists for murder across the spectrum. One of my favorite journalists and writers, Nellie Bowles, at the Free Press, has the full line-up, particularly in American universities where, as she points out, people who are outraged by being “misgendered,” and call it a “microaggression” are pretty O.K. with the “macroaggression” of mass murder.
This is yet another impossible thing to write about, yet here I am doing it. There is little I can say that isn’t already being said, but I think of this as an added voice to the counterweight because there are still voices that ignorantly talk about the Palestinian people and their struggle. The trouble with that rabbit hole is that Hamas has no truck with the Palestinian people. Their own mission statement calls for the destruction of Israel (you don’t need me to link anything. Look it up yourself—go ahead. I’ll wait). They are not interested in two-state solutions, or forging ties, or peaceful coexistence. They want Israelis dead.
In 2005, at the request of nearly all the world, Israel traded “land for peace, and Gaza was no longer under their rule. When Hamas was “elected” to power in Gaza, it began sending rockets into Israel, and hid among its civilian population, making it hard for Israel to strike back without harming innocents, something they’ve tried very hard to avoid. Now, however, it will largely be impossible to avoid and the war that is coming is going to shake the world.
In the dock, it’s probably also necessary at some point for much smarter people than I to start discussing the possibility that Hamas is in possession of weapons from North Korea (North Korea denies that of course). If that is so, then one can be certain Beijing approved it—and then we can start to draw some more startling, and perhaps, more disturbing conclusions.
I am aware that this is not my usual content and that I am out of my wheelhouse here. I can feel it myself, too. I’ve never wanted to write about or report on International crises, politics, etc. But I also know that I have an enormous stake in what is currently happening and I cannot ignore it. When my parents divorced, my next door neighbors put a protective wing over me at an age when I needed it. Michael gave me a job, direction and advice and kept me in line. In deference to his and Phyllis’s memory, I won’t go into that history here as I’ve written about it before and there’s no need to rewrite it. Suffice to say, I have a great deal of experience with Jewish families, theirs are paramount, but there are others too that began when I was a boy. I keep a dog-eared and well marked book on my shelf by Rabbi Michael Lotker, whom I came to know when I lived in California, called “A Christian’s Guide to Judaism,” and my love for that faith, my respect for the people who adhere to it are important to me.
So while writing these things is not my usual fare, I take this moment to do so because what happened last weekend blew up anyone’s illusion of “groupthink,” as we’ve been ensconced in for so long. Our media, our politics puts us all into groups—so we’re no longer individuals and we’re just “liberals,” “conservatives,” “white,” “black,” “LGBTQ,” “cisgender,” and so on. And yet, the very basis of who we’re supposed to be, human beings and children of God, however we each express that, has largely been abandoned. “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” George Orwell’s quote comes to mind. Never mind what you see and hear, reject that and listen to us.
Well—here’s the moment. We cannot do that. I prefer Arthur Miller’s quote he gave to the Reverend Hale in his essential play, The Crucible: “…cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. It is mistaken law that leads you to sacrifice. Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.”
There are the decent. And there are the indecent.
Amen.
Mark, this is impressively reasoned! Certainly has no place in our present environment.