Multiple people have asked me the question and more than a few received an answer they didn’t appreciate, understand or agree with.
Don’t pose rhetorical questions that you do not wish to hear the answer to. Do not ask questions that you know will inflame you unless you are prepared to deal with hard answers.
Someone told me they couldn’t believe I would be so cruel as to say yes and I asked them why they would want someone to lie about their true feelings.
Sometimes there is value in don’t ask and don’t tell.
There is also value in kindness and compassion so there have been moments where I didn’t offer the truth or at least the truth as I understand it so asking me certain questions isn’t a guarantee of the hard answer.
Recent experience with such a question/statement has surrounded politics and foreign affairs with people who are quick to share their half baked assessment of particular events.
The guy who told me that nothing like this would have happened if 45 had been in office got a hearty, “yeah I think you are profoundly ignorant.”
He didn’t follow when I said if I was seven feet tall I would absolutely be playing professional basketball. No doubt in my mind that is the truth.
Nor is there any doubt there is no practical reason to engage in the kind of useless armchair quarterbacking that line of thinking is tied to.
We can’t go back in time.
things and
I Have Seen This Before
After the attack while the family was processing the chaos and uncertainty of the new world I told my children to ‘armor up.’
“I have seen moments like this before and I can promise in a short time Israel will be blamed for many things and you will be outraged by some of it. You will encounter people, some you may know well who say things you think are ignorant, unfair and unreasonable.
People will be ridiculous not all, but some and you need to be ready.”
We went back and forth about it and I reminded them there is a reason to be educated and well informed on topics that are important to us.
I also said I expected there would be some valid criticism too. Every country should be subject to it and it should be balanced and factual.
“You won’t see as much balance and fact here as you want to. Hopefully I am wrong, but I have seen this before.”
****
Everything is exacerbated by the chaos of the past administration and the increase we have seen in antisemitism during the last half dozen years or so.
The barbarity and brutality of the attacks is reminiscent of the Holocaust and other dark moments in Jewish history.
Look up the Hebron massacre from 1929 and you’ll see some similar brutality. You’ll also see it had nothing to do with ‘Palestine and Israel and that it took place years before the modern state was reborn.
But you won’t find much talk about that among some because it doesn’t fit the narrative they wish to push.
Reminds me of a midwestern congressman who pumped out a variety of antisemitic statements over the years.
She was quick to push a debunked story about Israel bombing a hospital and in spite of President Biden saying that is incorrect she has kept up the tweet and a note about the importance of providing credible information.
If she really believed what she tweeted she would take down the lie she tweeted out and apologize. Instead she inflames others with some vile misinformation.
It is disappointing and disturbing.
Do You Still Know Things
Thought about it when I wrote this post yesterday and thought about it many times since then.
Do I know things and what is it that I know. Is it accurate? Is it relevant? Is it meaningful? Is it important?
Got unfriend and blocked by more people who dislike my honesty. Thus far it hasn’t been done by anyone whose opinion I value or friendship I would miss.
Hasn’t stopped me from taking a moment to consider my role and if the ability to swing a verbal or literary hammer repeatedly provides cover or ignorance for my behavior.
Thus far I haven’t found reason to feel guilty or sorry for my actions.
Sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand. Sometimes you have to do hard things.
Not everyone in your life is interested in walking with you through the fire or anywhere in particular for that matter.
Told the kids I don’t have any questions about whether this is a just war and that I hope Israel does all it can do to prevent the loss of innocent lives.
Also said that when you fight people who refuse to abide by the laws of war and whose humanity is in question requires doing things that make it harder to protect the innocent.
I am not happy about that nor unaware of the complications.
If you do not defend yourself you invite more of the inhumanity and terror. That is a horrible reality and it does make me wonder what costs will be incurred in restoring deterrence.
Yet I can’t see any way around it because those who burn babies, butcher families and kidnap the innocent young have to be stopped.
There is no choice.
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