Hi, Speaking as a Jew, I'm obliged to confess to being somewhat aware of there being an ongoing trend since, oh, say, about the past 1500 years to wipe people like me off the face of the Earth for no other reason than my religious affiliation. Oh yeah, there's the owning all the money in the world, conspiring to take over the universe for diabolical and fiendishly semitic reasons, and the killing and eating Christian babies at Easter thing. Okay, aaaaand the Christ on the cross thing. We said we were sorry, okay? Jeeze. Now who can't take a joke?
So, maybe I'm being just too damned sensitive and humourless about this, but I'm kind of thinking that if some of you Christians would stop beating the crap out of us for just a minute, then we might not be so paranoid and noticing of little things like inquisitions, pogroms, krystalnachts, purges, massacres, church and state sanctioned riots, and calmly methodical, and scientifically conducted extermination procedures. That's why we got so miffed about the Holocaust, okay? Even before it happened, all you guys in the rest of the world stood around, closed your borders to Jewish refugees trying to escape the Nazis, and checked your pockets for spare change while we got barbecued. Hell, before the war, Peru took in more Jews than the US and Canada put together. The Catholic Church piously put its paws together, prayed and pointed out Jewish hidey holes for the SS. I could go on, having just written a term paper on the subject, but if you've bothered to read this far, I hope it's clearer why we consider this an important occasion to remember, and why we make such a big deal out of it.
And YES, I agree that it is very relevant to remember ALL the other ethnic sub-groups in the world who have and still are being wiped out because of what they are and not who they are. There's a lot of them. Humans can be a pretty nasty lot when we pack up on somebody. Maybe what we need is a day, week, hell, even a month of remembrance and meditation on the abominable way we treat the weak and powerless of our species. That said, there is nothing excusable about anybody beating up on anyone else, for any reason except their own self-defence, or, that of someone who can't do it for themselves. I include Jews, Palestinians, Sikhs, Blacks, East Timorese, Spaniards, Basques, Kurds, Russians ,Afghanistanis, etc etc etc. As far as Ariel Sharon is concerned, is it a surprise that Sharon has unleashed dogs of war on the Palestinians? Not for one bloody second. I knew the Palestinians were in for a shit storm when Sharon was elected. He's a murderous thug with the morals of a piranha, in charge of one of the most efficient military forces in the world, and, I might add, extensively funded by the American guvmint. And compared to the Mossad, the CIA are Spanky and the Gang in the treehouse with a tin can telephone and binoculars made out of toilet paper rolls. This is not something I am proud of, believe me. I'd much rather the guy was oh, I don't know, from another planet. Maybe he was dropped on his head one too many times as a kid. But, fundamentalist zealotry is hardly exclusive to any one culture or society.
No one mourned their deaths when they died. Zyklon gas kills hard and slow. Mass graves never give up their dead. So just cut us a little slack and let us say Kaddish for them now. If it's not too much trouble, okay? Owl.