"Jews go home"

Wow, it's been a while since I've last updated. My schedule was a bit hectic lately, and now there are cobwebs on my screen. Well, not anymore, I brushed it off already. I hope that in the future this won't happen and I'll be able to update the blog more often.

I would like to share with you some feedback that I received about one of my earlier posts. You are welcome to read the comments left there, but I want to post something I got from a friend of mine. It is an editorial from the Colorado Gazatte Telegraph from June 1, 1973, by William Atken. Mr. Atken is not a Jew, just as the Telegraph is not a Jewish journal. Mr . Atken was commenting on the slogan which appeared during a flurry of Nazi scrawlings on synagogues and other public buildings.

JEWS GO HOME

"Jews go home" - Well, now this is nothing new. Never in the past have you taken this gentle suggestion to move on. But Heaven forbid, suppose just this once, you thought that expression of a few sick people actually expressed the conviction of all the people in this wonderful land of ours and all of you started to pack your bags and leave for parts unknown.

Just before you leave would you do me a favor?

Would you leave the formula for the Salk Vaccine with me before you leave? You wouldn't be so heartless as to let my children contact polio.

And would you please leave your knack for government and politics and persuasion and literature and good food, and fun and love, and all those things, and would you please leave me with the secret of your desire to succeed?

And please have pity on us, please show us the secret of how to develop such geniuses as Einstein and Steinmetz and oh, so many others who have helped us all. After all, we owe you most of the A bomb, most of our rocket research and perhaps the fact that we are alive today.

On your way out, Jews, will you do me a favor?

Will you please drop by my house and pick me up too? I'm not sure I could live too well in a land you weren't around to give us as much as you have given us. If you ever have to leave, love goes with you, democracy goes with you, everything I and my buddies fought for in World War Two goes with you; G-d goes with you.

Just pull up in front of my house, slow down and honk because so help me, I'm going with you too.

Here we have another article similar to the other one, although they were written 75 years apart.

"Concerning the Jew"

Someone gave me an interesting article I would like to share with all of you. It was written in 1898 by the famed author, Mark Twain. At the end of the essay he leaves off with a question, let's try to answer it for him.

Concerning the Jew

If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but ONE PERCENT of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the milky Way. Properly the Jew ought to be hardy heard of; but he is heard of always has been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be in vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Persian rose filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in the twilight now or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no showing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret to his immortality?

So there you have it, indeed an interesting thing to read. More interesting, however, would be the answer to his question. If anyone thinks they can answer it, go ahead.

The Airlines and Fuel

American Airlines announced that it will cancel some flights because of fuel costs. Also within the last month, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Among many issues facing the airlines was the price of fuel. Of course, the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina didn't help their woes, it actually fueled (no pun intended) the problem.

How did we get to such a state where huge corporations are being forced to cut back on their services, lest they go out of business? More importantly, is there anything that we can do help the situation?

Everyone knows that the main issue is the fuel, something for which we depend greatly on other countries. But do we really have to? If we can somehow get around OPEC, and pay alot less for fuel than we are currently, we just might be able to help these crippling companies. Since 9/11 the airlines were struggling because more people are afraid to fly. The industry had to invest alot of money into security at all our airports, to ensure the safety of travellers. The war on terror caused the price of oil to go up, all this at a time when less people are flying, less money is coming in, yet more money needs to be spent.

Virgin Atlantic is planning to acquire their own oil refineries to bring down the price for jet fuel. If we started drilling for crude oil, will that not bring down the price of oil? Why is it that when a natural disaster like Katrina upsets the price of oil people try to do whatever they can to bring the price down, but when the price of oil is in the hands of OPEC nobody decides that it's enough and we should begin drilling for oil?!