October 30, 2018
I was struck by the force of some voices I read yesterday and thought I’d let them speak here today.
Here is Sully Sullenberger, the pilot who saved all on board during an emergency landing in the Hudson river when his plane’s engines where incapacitated by birds. A lifelong republican, he implores us to vote differently this time:
“Today, tragically, too many people in power are projecting the worst. Many are cowardly, complicit enablers, acting against the interests of the United States, our allies and democracy; encouraging extremists at home and emboldening our adversaries abroad; and threatening the livability of our planet. Many do not respect the offices they hold; they lack — or disregard — a basic knowledge of history, science and leadership; and they act impulsively, worsening a toxic political environment.
As a result, we are in a struggle for who and what we are as a people.”…. “We cannot wait for someone to save us. We must do it ourselves. This Election Day is a crucial opportunity to again demonstrate the best in each of us by doing our duty and voting for leaders who are committed to the values that will unite and protect us.”
(Photomontages today are of airplane disasters, the one above of the Sully Hudson rescue from my 2015 series Free Fall.)
Charles de Gaulle (CDG)
And here is Batya Ungar-Sagon, writing in The Forward”
“We are not, of course, embattled the way people of color are; no Jew can credibly claim that our situation is anywhere near as precarious as that of black and Latino and Muslim communities. And some Jews, of course, support Trump. His popularity among the Orthodox has skyrocketed since he took office.But what Trump has done more than anything else is reveal — and heighten — the already existing contradictions in Jewish American life. …..
We are a racial minority in America – but one for whom the police will throw themselves in the line of fire. We are the brothers and sisters of George Soros – but also Sheldon Adelson. We are Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. We are Jews of no religion. It’s these contradictions inherent in Jewish life that Trump has augmented, just as he has for American life overall.
Trump has made the difference between left and right, Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative into an existential one. He has exacerbated and intensified the already-existing fault lines, turning them into deep and impassable craters.”
Lower Manhattan
And this from Pharell Williams in a cease and desist letter to Trump:
“On the day of the mass murder of 11 human beings at the hands of a deranged ‘nationalist,’ you played his song ‘Happy’ to a crowd at a political event in Indiana,” Williams’ attorney Howard E. King wrote in the letter. “There was nothing ‘happy’ about the tragedy inflicted upon our country on Saturday and no permission was granted for your use of this song for this purpose.”
South China Sea
And then there was “Rabbi” Loren Jacobs, praying with Pence at a rally in Michigan, a Jews for Jesus type, a movement condemned by Jewish leaders as faux Judaism that wants to promote Christian evangelism and has proselytizing as its goal. The major Jewish denominations view followers of Messianic Judaism as Christian, not Jewish.
His words included the mention of Jesus the Savior, and an appeal to the Almighty to favor the Republican Party in the midterm elections next month. They also included the names of four Republican candidates.
NOT included in his words were these:
-Joyce Fienberg, 75, of Oakland, City of Pittsburgh
-Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross Township
-Rose Mallinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh
-Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood Borough
-Cecil Rosenthal, 59, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh
-David Rosenthal, 54, (brother of Cecil), of Squirrel Hill
-Bernice Simon, 84, of Wilkinsburg
-Sylvan Simon, 86, (husband of Bernice), of Wilkinsburg
-Daniel Stein, 71, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh
-Melvin Wax, 88, of Squirrel Hill, City of Pittsburgh
-Irving Younger, 69, of Mt. Washington, City of Pittsburgh
Lee Musgrave
Very engaging text and artwork.
Martha Ullman West
Powerful words, powerful pictures, cohering into a terrible beauty. Thank you.