Brass Tacks #3: She’s Just Having A Bake Sale For The KKK

The third in a series of articles intended to boil down some of the problems we’re facing to their essential, skeletal, sometimes rancid core.

Small town politics are a wonder.  They’re chock-a-block full of big things left unsaid, and, often as not, little things said too loudly.

These unsaid things are a little like rocks that people don’t dare turn over, lest they find something too disturbing or unpleasant.  That kind of knowledge can become more than a bit untenable in the otherwise pleasant intimacy of the small community.  It can become more than just a mere pebble in the shoe.

I had a little run-in the other night with just the sort of blinders that small town folks like to wear to avoid that deeply uncomfortable feeling.  Note:  You’ll know it when it happens to you because it tends to be an effective conversation stopper. 

I was informed by one good neighbor that another “good” neighbor was just now returning from lending support to the recent spate of protests in Egypt.  It turns out that this is just the most recent of five such trips, coordinated with Hamas, over the past two years along with her fellow members of Code Pink.   This “good” person is well-liked in the community, holding a number of notable volunteer and, even, elected positions.  Her left-wing politics are well-known, having been something akin to that pebble in the shoe for the more conservative members of the community.

Within the last year or so, however, her political fervor has begun to focus less on stopping America’s various wars and more on drumming up anti-Israeli sentiment, here at home and now, apparently, abroad, hand in hand with the likes of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

By way of disclosure, I am, myself, not a Jew, nor a Zionist, nor am I always sympathetic or comfortable with the manner in which Israel chooses to respond to its rather dire circumstances.  That said, you don’t, yourself, have to be a survivor of Auschwitz to have your radar go on alert whenever people begin displaying knee-jerk anti-Semitism in your presence.

Well, you might say, “it’s not a knee-jerk response if there are legitimate grounds for opposition”.  OK, I’ll grant that, for the moment, and just ignore the rather obvious and plainly dull irrationality that anti-Semitism has ALWAYS displayed prominantly.  And, let’s be truthful about this:  while Jews have not been the only victims of genocide in the world, they’ve pretty much been the most common.

What I won’t ignore, can’t really, is the insistence that Israel negotiate with and capitulate to those who plainly state their intentions to wipe them off the face of the earth.  This is irrationality writ large.  And, no, I’m sorry, but throwing denials of the holocaust into the argument don’t really help your case. 

So, here it is (the getting down to Brass Tacks):  Lending any kind of support to genocidal, theocratic nut jobs is a bit like holding bake sales for the KKK.  Work on their behalf, even in that capacity, is an unpardonable affront to decency that is no different, really, than participating in an actual KKK lynching party. 

This is true, in particular, when we’re talking about people who are smart enough to know better, yet simply choose to ignore fundamental (not to mention logical) distinctions between right and wrong.  You can sugar coat it, sweetie, but you can’t hide it.  Presumed cloaks of decency, like heading up the Rotary Club, fit rather poorly over that klan hood, be it white or pink.

Now, I can tolerate – even enjoy – all sorts of political discourse….more than most really.  I don’t have the least bit of concern, for instance, over differences of opinion regarding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  Those sorts of debates ought to be vigorous.  And, I can truly sympathize with opposition to America’s support of various despots around the world, even if I tend to worry a bit more about the unintended consequences of so-called “regime change”. 

What I can’t tolerate (and should not, I believe) is the rabid, often puerile, quest for “peace and social justice” by means of intolerance, thuggery, theft, and violence…not to mention outright genocide.   What worries me more, however, is the sort of blinders that are necessary for “good” communities to pretend that such evil isn’t staring them in the face.

For what it’s worth, I had pretty much the same reaction on a visit to Germany to all of the nice family homes packed outside of the Dachau concentration camp as I have to the above photograph.  What sort of degenerative thinking (not to mention spirit) is necessary to offer a smile to that camera?  The same sort, I believe, that was necessary to blithely wipe the accumulated dust of cremated Jews off the table before sitting down to dinner.

In some communities, like mine, this is happening now before our very eyes.  Don’t think that we won’t be held accountable for our response, or lack thereof.  

Harry Tuttle  

PS – I could offer many, many more examples, but this article should give any so-called “woman for peace” some concern before forming alliances with these sorts of lunatics.  Yes, I know this article pertains to the theocratic evils of Iran…still, this is useful demonstration of just how true to form these good revolutionaries are to their own people.  So, even if you can (somehow) choose to ignore the Islamo-facist’s universal desire for the elimination of the Jewish race, you might just decide to pay attention to the fact that the destruction of Israel is merely one step on their path to the revived Mulslim Caliphate where the subjugation of everybody else, and especially women, is the real end goal.  I mean, puh-leeze, this shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.