Pittsburgh

The Old Broad Speaks Her Mind

Pittsburgh

I was in Las Vegas when I heard about the shootings in Pittsburgh. It spoiled my entire trip.  (Of course not being able to find a Blackjack table for under $10 a hand didn’t help my mood.)

I was raised in a Jewish Neighborhood – the “Borscht” belt in Los Angeles.  My high school – Fairfax High – was closed for Jewish holidays.  Although I did not go to Sunday School, most of my friends did; most of my friends were either Bar Mitzvahed or, if female, Bas Mitzvahed.  I would go to the Synagogue with friends when asked to go with them, and attended many Seder’s on the holidays.  I celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas, and have a Menorah and candles ready for this holiday season.

You would think that people would be safe in the  “House of God”. The president’s idiotic comment that if there had been armed guards at the “Tree of Life” Synagogue there would not have been so many deaths. There were 11 known deaths, and 4 armed police were injured, two critically.  Does he really think that armed security guards would have made a difference?

Today a person is not safe anywhere.  We are not safe in school; we are not safe in a concert; we are not safe in a House of Worship.  It wasn’t too long ago that a gunman shot multiple people in a Church that was visited by the African-American community in Charleston, South Carolina.  We are not safe in a market – Kroger’s in Kentucky a few days ago;   on the street, in your house, etc.  Yet our legislature have been bought by the NRA and do not have the balls to enact some kind of gun control.

Don’t give me the bulls—t that it isn’t the gun that kills – it is the people.  What a bunch of crap that is.  If there wasn’t a gun in that person’s hands there would not be mass killings.  To think that one of those people killed in Pittsburgh survived the holocaust only to find his death in America is sickening.  I remember a cousin that I met when I was about 5 years old.  She had these funny numbers tattooed on her arm.  When I asked her what it was she began to cry. My Father quickly took me out of the room and it wasn’t until years later I found out why she had that tattoo.  And this poor man went through all of that only to have, basically, the same thing happen to him again.  Why? Because he was Jewish?

The man in the White House has unleashed the bigotry that has been dormant for so many years.  He is inciting the White Supremacists, the KKK, the mentally ill to carry out their fantasies.  He is rude, crude, and perverted, and wants all to be like him.  He is Hitler incarnate.

My friend Susan and I went to see the Bill Maher show while we were in Vegas.  It was the night after the Pittsburgh massacre.  We sat in the last row, near the exit.  As the show began, I started to have paranoia feelings, because if you were not a Democrat you would be very upset with his show.  (As it was we saw 6 people leave during the show.  They didn’t just go to the restroom; they never came back in.)  Maher attacked all of those things that are wrong with society today.  He didn’t pull any punches, nor did he mince any words. He called it as he saw it, and I presume that the 700 of us in the audience agreed with him, for the clapping and catcalls were refreshing to hear.  But after what happened at Mandalay Bay, just a few miles from where we were sitting, I was glad when the show was over and we could leave the auditorium.  Let me tell you – that is a horrible way to go through life.

To the people of Pittsburgh, and, specifically those attending services at the “Tree of Life” synagogue, my heart goes out to you. I would imagine it will be difficult to attend services again in the near future. But we Jews are strong; we have been through this before.  I just had hoped that we would never have to go through it again. Shalom!