Blood Libel

When I was a young explorer of deserts & sunrises in El Paso, we lived across the street from a neighborhood park, complete with basketball courts, a recreational center & groovy playground equipment.  And lot’s of space to run & jump & sit quietly with a book or a sketch pad.  A great community park.

In the aftermath of the Six Day War between Israel & Egypt, someone went into the park & defaced that groovy playground equipment with anti-Semitic graffiti.  It offended & pissed off the twelve-year-old Jaki Jean.

Ettinger was predominately a Jewish name in El Paso, except for my family.  But that was not the point in my twelve-year-old mind.  The point was that the graffiti, the message it sent, was unacceptable. So I launched a protest – enlisted friends, made signs & picketed the park.  No news crews came out to cover the event.  We left the signs against the graffiti.

Someone listened & what would be listed as evidence of a hate crime was removed.

Later, when my father’s job moved us to one of the most Republican districts in Texas, I found myself in the lunch line behind a young man I neither liked nor wanted to get to know.  It was near a Jewish holiday & he turned to me & made an anti-Semitic remark.

And I said, because it pissed off the eighteen-year-old Jaki Jean, & the only Ettingers I knew at the time, outside some second or third cousins in Pennsylvania & my own family, were Jewish:

You do, of course, know that my last name is Ettinger?  How do you know I am not Jewish?
                 
 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

Words have meaning, words have consequences.

Words like Blood Libel. So I am wondering, does Sarah Palin surround herself with idiots?  Or just with people as dangerous as herself?

Blood Libel is a term that dates back hundreds of years – & refers to the accusation, beginning in the middle ages, that Jews used the blood of Christian babies in their rituals in order to justify persecuting them.

Now, I am trying hard, in my analytical mind, to draw a comparison between  Blood Libel & what Sarah Palin has posted in her video. I don’t see the connection.

In fact, I find it repulsive that she would claim the term Blood Libel  in the context of what happened in Tucson – to six dead, so many wounded, & a Congresswoman whose religious affiliation was Jewish.

Words matter.  Words are important. 

They constitute what defines & symbolize us.  Both the ancient Hebrews & many Native American tribes believed that once a word was spoken, it took on a life of its own & could not be taken away.  

Something for Sarah & others to think about.