{"id":1107,"date":"2016-12-27T11:26:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T16:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=1107"},"modified":"2017-02-28T08:46:18","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T13:46:18","slug":"a-government-which-to-bigotry-gives-no-sanction-to-persecution-no-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2016\/12\/a-government-which-to-bigotry-gives-no-sanction-to-persecution-no-assistance\/","title":{"rendered":"“A Government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"trump-tallit\"
The Second Place President-Elect, simpering like a douche, wearing a Jewish prayer shawl laid on him in a black church<\/a> for God knows what reason.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I want to talk about why this picture absolutely breaks my heart, but\u00a0fist I want to talk about that quote in the title.\u00a0It comes from a “congratulatory address” penned by Rabbi Moses Seixas of the\u00a0Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island<\/a>, and presented to President George Washington. \u00a0Washington, in his reply, mirrors Rabbi Seixas’s language, but gives us the slightly more\u00a0familiar formulation, callings ours a government “which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” \u00a0But I really like the full paragraph, so I offer it now:<\/p>\n

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily, the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance<\/strong><\/em>, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I like that he starts to poke a whole in “tolerance” right from the birth of our nation\u2014I myself am done with being “tolerated,” like a fart in an elevator or a tax you can’t dodge. \u00a0You can accept me as your fellow citizen, or deride me as a Jew, but I’m not going to be tolerated or indulged. And I like that he finishes by saying “all we want us for everyone\u2014and anyone<\/em>\u2014to show up and be good citizens to all.” \u00a0I can\u00a0pledge my allegiance to such words.<\/p>\n

And, yes, America has done a crap job of giving bigotry no sanction over the years, but as a Vision Statement it’s solid, and viewed over the course of the centuries, we’ve pretty steadiy progressed.<\/p>\n

Until now, and because of this man. \u00a0In the last year\u2014and at an accelerating clip\u2014we’ve raced backward. \u00a0Today\u2014and I’m telling you this as a fact<\/strong><\/em>, based on my actual experience of actual events, and a lifetime of actually keeping an eye on actual trends in how folks think of Jews\u2014we’ve slid back decades<\/em>. \u00a0The sort of anti-Semitic garbage folks haven’t pulled since I was a kid are\u00a0back and feisty as ever.<\/p>\n

And President-Elect Tantrum hasn’t done shit. In the weeks following his “electoral triumph” he\u00a0literally<\/em> spent more time\u00a0hassling actors than he did decrying hate crimes and all-around shittiness being done in his name<\/a> and on behalf of his team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And there’s the man himself, draped in a prayer shawl\u2014something I wore at my bar mitzvah, that I wore at my own wedding and while officiating a wedding, that I wear on our High Holy Days<\/a>\u2014and it kills me. \u00a0Not just to see something sacred ripped from its context and used as a damned fashion accessory (and apart from the weird vein\u00a0of quasi-crypto-Judaic cultural appropriation that has long pulsed through Detroit’s black Evangelical communities), but to see it on a man who can’t be bothered to extend the minimum effort toward Doing the Right Thing.<\/p>\n

Jesus! \u00a0His most beloved daughter\u2014the daughter that, bizarely, is I guess going to be First Lady somehow?\u2014is Jewish!<\/em> (she converted) \u00a0Yet even then, he can’t be bothered to speak out against anti-Semitism. \u00a0And if he can’t be bothered to speak out against a rising tide that would like to\u00a0see his daughter killed, cremated, and scattered to the sea, what the hell can I possibly expect from him when it comes\u00a0everyone else, the blacks and browns and queers and immigrants and\u00a0whoever<\/em>s with whom he seems to have absolutely no personal contact.<\/p>\n

George W. Bush\u2014a terrible president responsible for terrible suffering\u2014did the right thing<\/a>\u00a0in situations like this. \u00a0It’s\u00a0one of the very basic components of presidenting: Being reassuring and calming when the shit hits the fan. Obama has been fantastic at it; both Bushes had their moments, Clinton could do it, Reagan certainly did (sorry. that’s as far back as I personally go with presidents).<\/p>\n

And yet this guy won’t. \u00a0And that’s unforgivable.<\/p>\n

So what do I need for this to be good, for us to move forward and me to be able to grit my teeth and say “President Trump”?<\/p>\n

When I’m wearing my tallit<\/em> on Yom Kippur, I’m told that three things “soften the Lord’s harsh decree” as It considers our failings:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Repentance<\/li>\n
  2. Mindfullness<\/li>\n
  3. Righteousness<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And that’s what I want: A president who says “It was a cock-up not to get on this sooner,” gives some evidence of thinking meaningfully and deeply about\u00a0how he’s fanned these flames and what he needs to do to stop doing so, and takes some sort of action to show solidarity with us, the people of all of the protected classes who are now checking our locks, keeping an eye peeled, and sleeping light every night.<\/p>\n

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