You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught How To Hate~ Who Taught The Cornell Professors & Antisemitic Students Protesting?

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/30/cornell-antisemitism-colleges-00124346

Peaceful protest is an American right protected by the Constitution. Inciting violence against any group of people or individual is not. 

Protesting the killing of Palestinian civilians is protected speech. Calling for the death of Jews or Israeli people is not. 

It is clear that the education system in the United States of America has failed at its most critical duty…which is to teach young people how to read, write, perform basic mathematics, learn basics of American and world history and develop critical thinking skills. 

What is most concerning is the fact that students and professors at ‘so-called’ elite universities and colleges are so under-educated in fundamental knowledge. It appears as if ‘elite’ in the 21st Century equates to ‘expensive’, not necessarily ‘excellent’ at conveying information that one needs to live peacefully in a civilized world.

James Michener won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1948 for his Tales of the South Pacific, a collection of stories about the Pacific campaign of World War II from his observations while serving in the US Navy. These stories reflect the prejudices of people encountering those from South Pacific native peoples. In the play titled South Pacific, based loosely on theses stories, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein include a song by one of the characters, Lt. Cable, about people raised to hate those who are different. 

https://rodgersandhammerstein.com/song/south-pacific/youve-got-to-be-carefully-taught/

Anyone who espouses hate for Jewish people and the state of Israel for defending the right to exist have been carefully taught all of the wrong things by ignorant teachers, parents, administrators, friends, propaganda and ivory tower professors who could not survive outside the confines of academia.

Every vociferous protestor should be compelled to visit one of the haunting Holocaust museums, read  Elie Wiesel’s NIGHT, and watch Schindler’s List directed by Stephen Spielberg. 

During my formative years, we were taught NEVER AGAIN. What happened!

Daughters of Shandong by Eve Chung

Resilient Women in a Patriarchal World
Daughters of Shandong is a must read for fans of Wild Swans, Peach Blossom Spring, and books by Lisa See and Amy Tan. This story celebrates the strength & resiliency of women who were 'less than' because of having been born female. Even today, sons are preferred in China & Taiwan. 

Having been privileged to live in Taiwan & Hong Kong and spoken to survivors of WWII and the Civil War between the communists and Nationalists, these stories are critical to our understanding of the past as well as the current political challenges facing ROC from PRC. I moved to Taipei in 1988, just after Chiang Ching Kuo died and martial law was lifted. Filial piety was still expected. Since that time women in Taiwan have triumphed in society and government. Loved this book! 

Thanks to BookBrowse and BerkleyBooks  for a chance to read an Advance Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.

 https://www.bookbrowse.com/reader_reviews/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/18178/daughters-of-shandong#reader_reviews

For the Good of the Country, Please Dump Trump & Biden

 

My fellow Americans, it is time to make intelligent decisions about our nations future. Donald Trump is a toxic, self centric narcissist who has damaged our reputation throughout the world. Joe Biden is a charlatan who has used his political positions for personal financial gain. Neither candidate is worthy of representing this great nation either domestically or on the world stage.

Why do the career politicians in Congress continue to support these has-beens? What is the basis for the fear that causes each to kowtow to the political machines that argue for their prominence? What happened to the America that heard and believed FDR when he said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. What happened to the Americans who celebrated when JFK asked us to consider not what the country could do for us, but what we can do for our country?

The Democrats shudder in fear and allow members of the squad, the progressives, and loudest media savvy politicians to create the narratives. The Republicans quake in fear of offending Donald Trump and his acolytes. 

Call them on it! Don’t let the extremists win! Do the right thing for America!!!!!

George Orwell’s 1984 Should Be Required Reading For Wanna Be Socialists In 2023

 

Last night I started reading a new book for my online book club through BookBrowse.Com, titled  1984 Julia by Sandra Newman. I’ve been a BookBrowse member for years and appreciate the occasional privilege of receiving a pre-publication galley in exchange for an honest review or a book with interesting themes to participate in the online book club.

1984 Julia is a retelling of George Orwell’s prescient classic from the perspective of Julia,  with approval of the George Orwell Estate. In just the first chapter, it is abundantly evident that Ms. Newman has captured the dystopian themes of the totalitarian society of Oceania and Big Brother so brutally & disconcertingly portrayed. 

In the first 18 pages of Julia 1984 the theme of Orwell are mind numbing. Julia works in the Ministry of Truth. The employees are compelling to attend The Hate where everyone must express HATE against anyone that opposed The Party.

Even one chapter gave me chills as the extreme right and extreme left seek to nullify people with middle of the road, common sense ideals.

The elites of Academia, the propaganda orchestrator of the press and political class, the hate mongers, those who advocate disregard for citizens of the world based upon country of origin or religion, those who have failed to study world history, those who have been brainwashed by socialist institutions that allege to propagate higher learning have FAILED in every way to support what is historically considered a liberal education.

Hate is unacceptable. Prejudice is unacceptable. Supporting any state that supports terrorists is wrong. Blaming the victim is wrong. Supporting genocide is incomprehensible. Idiotic ill-informed, undereducated, lightweight, proponents of killing must be marginalized. Consequences should be real. 

Read Orwell. He predicted today based upon the totalitarianism of his time. Just say no. Refuse to be indoctrinated. Teach moderation, consensus, compromise, compassion, acceptance, awareness, respect, rejection of prejudice, consideration of the people in the place and time of history, learn not to judge unless you’ve walked a mile in another’s shoes. 

No Room for Hate ~ Remember The Holocaust

 

America was founded on the principles of tolerance. After World War II Americans and the world saw that  the Nazis, hate and the vilification of the Jewish people resulted in the annihilation of millions of innocent people. 

The world said ‘never again’. But, the world has forgotten. The world has forgotten the atrocities of the Nazis. The world has forgotten the genocide of the Jewish. The world has forgotten the camps of Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen and Treblinka. The world has apparently forgotten that at the conclusion of WWII the Allies agreed to establish a space of land for Jewish people to live free of the threat of death squads. 

Yes, Palestinian people were displaced. I know families that were driven from their homes. That was ill-advised and wrong. But, there was no ideal solution. The decision was made by the major prevailing powers to establish a Jewish state. This was no more disruptive than the results of wars throughout history. But this decision has resulted in 75 years of continued unrest or war. 

Not withstanding the legitimate concerns of the Palestinian people, Hamas does not represent them. Hamas represents itself and uses  Palestinian people as pawns in its reign of terror. Hamas does not seek a solution for the residents of Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Egypt or other Arab states. Instead Hamas, under the direction of Iran, seeks destabilization of the Middle East to eradicate western influence and the Jewish people. It is a Holocaust redux. Inexcusable. Abhorrent. Disgusting. Against the laws of nature and any reasonable religion.

And the American students demonstrating in support of Hamas must be the products of of a failed liberal education. I applaud the executives of major employers who refuse to employ the misguided zealots that decry the right of Israel to exist. One must wonder if they’ve ever submitted DNA for testing. It is my guess a significant number have Jewish blood and would have been eliminated in the Nazi purges. It only took a nominal percentage of Jewish blood. 

Please, decry the hate filled hearts of the Squad and their minions. We are better than that, at least that iscwhatvInwant to believe.

No Excuses~ Hamas Attack on Israel

 

There are no excuses by any group, political entity, university organization, religious order, state or individual who celebrates the slaughter of civilians. As an American I am horrified by the student groups at Harvard, Columbia, NYU and members of the “Squad” who argue that the acts of Hamas can be justified in any way, shape or form. The degradation of any people is abhorrent. Those who continue in their antisemitism should be vilified by any human being with an iota of compassion for humanity. In our modern world of mixed race and religion, it is more likely than not that we are all part of the mixology that defies compartmentalization by color, religion, race or country of origin. None of us can claim “purity” of genealogy of background. Essential, most of us are mutts. Get over it. 

Accept it. There is no such animal as a pure blooded human unless that person originated in a remote tribe that has not assimilated into modern society. Hamas made the decision to annihilate anyone who may have traveled to Israel to study, visit friends or family, explore the country that gave birth to more than one religion, to do business, to visit holy sites. 

The assault against civilians by Hamas qualifies them as the lowest form of life. Those of the animal kingdom kill only for food. Only humans kill for sport. Any group that supports these troglodytes should be marginalized by humankind.

I applaud the CEOs of American companies that have pledged to “file 13” any job applicants that belonged to organizations supporting Hamas. These university students are not “ children”. Kudos to those who stand for their principles and hold our young adults to a high standard. Shame to Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Stanford and all of the “woke” alleged institutions of higher learning that abrogate the rights of free speech unless it is leftist propaganda. 

Beheading Babies & Executing Elderly is NOT Okay

 Yes, I get it. Israel is not a state without flaws. There are nuances to questions regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state, the treatment of Palestinian people by Israel in Gaza and historical disagreements that span millennia. But, there is no possible argument to support the slaughter of innocent civilians. Hamas, Hezbollah, the rogue state of Iran exist in an environment of hate that has no explanation.

What I was a university student studying abroad, I had the privilege of sharing my life with students from Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Oman, China, countries of Europe and Turks. As students we realized that what we had in common was humanity in an imperfect world. The year was 1979. The student in Iran occupied the US embassy in Tehran. It was painful for Americans and for the Iranian students who could not contact their loved ones.

Since that tenuous time, Iran has morphed into a rogue state that denigrates women, kills dissidents, holds foreigners hostage for political gain, actively supports terrorists that seek to eradicate Israel and the west, tries to disrupt political alliances, and subjugates its citizens in the misguided name of Allah. 

Studies of world religions will show that the higher power of the world’s great religions advocate peace, kindness, and acceptance of our fellow human beings rather than hate, oppression, war, abuse of power, murder and fomenting discontent. I do not believe that the Koran teaches followers to murder in the name of God anymore than I believe the God of Christianity would have encouraged the Crusaders of the Middle Ages to eradicate those with different beliefs ap during that era.

People have too often employed, wrongly, their religious beliefs throughout human existence to vilify, eradicate, torture, enslave, crush, destroy, marginalize, martyr, eliminate or otherwise erase those with differing beliefs instead of seeking common ground.

The biggest disappointment for me is understanding that we are allegedly enlightened citizens of the 21st century.  Apparently we have, as a people, learned nothing from our collective history. How can that be? 

Condemning Iran, Hamas, Harvard Students & The Squad

 

Any individual, organization or state that supports the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas and Iran against Israeli citizens must be denounced, cancelled, excoriated, vilified, ostracized,  condemned and humiliated. We cannot silence them because the Constitution of the United States of America affords them the right to freedom of speech, a right that must be defended. What is unconscionable is the fact that individuals enjoying the privileges of citizenship, legal residency or student visas believe that people of sovereign nations should not enjoy the same right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we in America too often fail to appreciate.

How can any human being with an iota of intelligence, compassion, integrity, humanity or sense of dignity applaud the atrocities committed by Hamas and Iran?  These reprobates celebrate the murders and kidnappings of innocent civilians including Holocaust survivors, children, the disabled, young people enjoying a festival or civilians asleep in their beds. 

Any person who disavows the principles of the US Constitution should depart the great country post haste. Leave and spread your hate elsewhere. The members of “The Squad” should resign from Congress and crawl back into the caves from which they emerged with their hate, disdain for all that is good in America, their immature and uneducated views of the world, their prejudices, and their failure to appreciate that we the people are overall honest, open, kind, generous, compassionate, welcoming, respectful people that abhor the baser instincts of the human condition. If you belong to one of the individuals, states, political groups or organizations that celebrate the invasions of Israel and Ukraine, you should feel shame for believing it is okay to laud the slaughter of innocents, of vacationers, of babies, of young people on the precipice of adulthood, of young couples, of children, of the aged who survived prior wars, of those with divergent religious beliefs or political affiliation. 

YOU are the PROBLEM.

Yes, the American political culture is divided. That was actually the intent of those who founded our great nation. There have been huge arguments about the future of the USA since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson opposed one another for the presidency. But, we as a people survived. Let us hope that we the people can repel the disgusting people that endeavor to crush this great republic by supporting terrorists, rogue nations and dictators. Do not let the ne’er do-wells win. Stand up for what is right and just. Live up to tour duty as an American to support freedom wherever it may be found. 

Nostalgia ~ Sirius XM ~ The Bridge

 

Yes, my music taste runs the gamut from renaissance to gothic to classical orchestral to Gilbert & Sullivan to opera to Stravinsky to Aaron Copeland to Big Band to New Orleans Jazz to early R&B to Elvis to classical guitar to movie themes to rock or new wave or grunge or alternative to singer songwriter to blue grass. Ultimately, I love music in its many iterations. But, notwithstanding my appreciation for Mozart’s REQUIEM or Stravinsky’s Firebird or Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue or Rachmaninov’s piano concertos or swing or blues…I feel nostalgia for the music of my youth. 

Thanks to Apple Music and The Bridge on Sirius XM I can reminisce while driving, listening to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kansas, Bread, Boz Skaggs, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Simon & Garfunkel, Gerry Rafferty, ELO and recall times of my youth that bring me fond memories.

Music is part of the soul. The music of Chicago brings me back to my freshman year in high school. Donna Summer, my college years, the themes to Apocalypse Now..the end of my school days. How cathartic to think of these tunes as a microcosm of time, of a place in my history, of wonderful memories. Thankful for the ease of linking my past with my current self. This is one of the absolute glories of 21st century life.