THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS

As the Jewish world celebrates the second and last day of Rosh Hashanah, I wish and pray for peace…and for truth. Without these, there is nothing left that matters.

While I might be the only person on Earth to relate 1980s singer El Debarge to Rosh Hashanah, his lyrics to the song, “The Rhythm of the night,” echo the holiday’s intent perfectly. Debarge tells us to, “Forget about the worries on your mind…you can leave them all behind.”

I did take two days off from work, but I have been unable to pull away from everything. I can’t do it. I would say I tried, but not that hard. There is simply too much going on in the world, and I want to soak up information as quickly as possible. When reviewing various occurrences, I pray that peace and truth emerge triumphant.

On the political front, General Petraeus spoke to the nation, followed by President Bush in a prime time address. I am concerned about the vitriol directed at these men.

First of all I want to say that while I detest liberalism as a philosophy, I do not detest the liberals themselves. I believe that their beliefs are poison, and that liberalism destroys societies. However, I simply refuse to hate another human being simply because they have different beliefs than me. I hate Hitler. Everyone else is nowhere close. When President Bush is compared to Hitler, it enrages me. For those who refer to Hillary as Shrillary Or Chillary, that is one thing. For those who call her Hitlery, please just stop it.

No, I do not hate Hillary. I disagree with her. I want her to live a happy life with Bill and Chelsea nowhere near the White House. I refuse to dehumanize her.

Yet many on the left simply cannot give President Bush that same common decency. Some will claim that they hate him because of the Iraq War, but this is often dishonest. They hate him because of the 2000 election. This hatred causes them to oppose anything, everything, and anyone connected to him. General David Petraeus was referred to as General Betray Us. This is disgusting. How can a man universally praised for integrity be called a liar simply for being connected to a President that his critics dislike?

I asked this because I voted for President Bush. Does that make me a hatemonger and a liar? I look in the mirror and see a man who loves children, animals, and the elderly. I have given up vacations to other exotic world locations because I use vacation days to spend time with my 99 year old grandmother in Brooklyn. One day she will not be around, and then I will visit the rest of the world. My grandmother is an FDR democrat, and she seems to think I am a good person.

Disagreements are healthy, but hatred is not. Some of the best people I have ever met in this world have been Muslims. They don’t hate Jews. They hate terrorists, whatever stripe they wear.

There is conflict in this world, but the good gets ignored. I ran into some Chinese people yesterday. They instantly recognized me as a Jewish person. They wished me a Happy New Year. I was thrilled by these well wishes. I ended the converstion by saying, “xie-xie,” which is Chinese for “thank you.” They were surprised and pleased that I said something to them in Chinese.

So many people in this world think that nobody understands them or cares about them. The tiniest gesture can make peoples’ days. We can overcome cultural gaps, yet political differences often seem unbridgeable.

I worry about this because there can never be peace without truth. If we do not trust those we deal with, we cannot deal with them.

The left needs to stop despising the President not just for his sake but for theirs as well. At some point, be it 2008, 2012, or 2016, the democrats will win the White House. How can they expect their president to be treated with civility? The argument will then become “who started it?” It does not matter. We can declare the political well poisoned for eternity, or the democrats, as the party out of power, can simply stop the viciousness on their side. Then the republicans will have to do the same. If we give our word to do so, we have to honor that word.

I think about the issues of peace and truth in sports as well. When the Raiders play the Broncos, I get passionate. When the Broncos quarterback goes back to pass, I yell, “Get him! Nail him! Kill him!” I then want to see him belted down hard. I then after that want to see him get up safely. We take for granted that this will happen. Tell that to Buffalo Bills player Kevin Everett. On a routine play, he went down and did not get up. For 24 hours in the hospital, there was a chance this young man would die. By what might be a minor miracle, this young man might walk again. He might be a quadriplegic. His career is finished, but at least he is alive.

The Jets and Patriots are embroiled in a dispute over a cheating scandal. The blood is so bad that the coaches can barely shake each other’s hands after a game. No, football is not Fallujah, but have we gotten to the point where men cannot legitimately congratulate their opponents for a job well done? The players kneel in prayer after the games together. Maybe they know that they are one play away from a possible career ending injury, and that their opponent today could be their teammate tomorrow.

This is one example where the politicians could learn from the athletes. Sparring is acceptable, but it must stop when it gets beyond policy.

I disagree with virtually everything Barbara Boxer stands for, but if I saw her in the street, I would say, “Senator…Happy Rosh Hashanah.”

The hebrew word Shalom means, “hello.” It also means, “goodbye.” Yet, its third meaning is “peace.” The concept of peace is so vital. Yet people who claim to be peaceniks are often the most hostile and virulent towards those that do not support their vision of how peace can be carried out. It is one thing to get in a circle and sing “Kumbaya,” or “If I had a hammer.” It is another to hurl rocks or even epithets at people who support President Bush and the War in Iraq. Doesn’t supporting peace extend to being peaceful towards conservative republicans?

Many people oppose the President and the War. I respect them, and see them as patriots who disagree with me. Where I draw the line is those that call war supporters liars and murderers. The rebuttal to the President’s speech contained a line claiming that the President did not lay out any rationale for his point of view. Of course he did. It is one thing to disagree with the rationale, but to claim it does not exist is to say that I have been supporting something for irrational reasons. It invalidates me as someone capable of having intellect, reason and logic.

The goal is to make the world a better place. Whether we are soldiers, politicians, or private citizens sparring on my blog, we must remember that since the ends are the same, we cannot impugn those that have different means to get to those ends, without hard evidence that those means truly fall under the category of “evil.”

If Jews and Muslims can develop common bonds while celebrating Yom Kippur and Ramadan, and if Raiders and Broncos can watch football together, then liberals and conservatives can knock off the hatred and simply have spirited but respectful disagreements that lead to bonds of trust, which is the first step towards peace.

Shalom…and shalom.

eric

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 9:01 am and is filed under POLITICS, SPORTS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.