27 May 2014

An angry (and brave) young man

This reflects my own feelings, but I'm not sure that I have his level of courage to post as he did.

Okay, I accept that this (from Stand With Us) is old news (from 9 May), but given what has happened over the last couple of days in the Brussels Jewish Museum and now outside a Paris synagogue, this is pertinent.

So, after the shootings at that Kansa City Jewish Community Centre, this young man (Avery by name), posted the following "The Jews ain't leaving. We're never gonna leave. So they can say what they want about my people. Slander us, picket us, even shoot us in our schools and homes. Because every single time they hurt us, we will only come out stronger." He lives just across the road from where the (we now know antisemitic) shooter was arrested.

He goes on to say, in part, that having heard about the event, "I am by no means an observant Jew. I don't keep most of the laws, especially now that I'm in college. But when I heard the news about the shootings back home, you can bet your ass I ran to my dorm and put on my old kippah. Not as a resolution, nor as something that I've committed to doing everyday. I didn't do it for myself or even God for that matter." So, in that case, why did he do it? The clue, of course, is in the first quote. But just in case we haven't got it, he goes on: "I did it as a response to unadulterated evil."

It's good to live in the same world as this young man, an undergrad at Kansas Uni. Long may he thrive. And remain as brave as he was that day.

By Brian Goldfarb.

22 comments:

kcmeesha said...

my kid works at that JCC. She was back to work few days after they reopened after the shootings. will be there all summer. kids are pretty strong around here, stronger than I ever imagined.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Which is good and encouraging.

Dick Stanley said...

What he needs to do is get a carry license and be able to shoot back next time. Or, better yet, first.

Dick Stanley said...

Where did they think they were, I wonder?

Dick Stanley said...

Funny, I thought the rock was where Abe almost slew Issac. Those Musslemen, always confusing things.

Dick Stanley said...

Smart kid. He's ready,

SnoopyTheGoon said...

That was in my mind when I read that first. However, I am known as a peaceful person ;-)

SnoopyTheGoon said...

That only proves (again) the statement about absence of limits to the human stupidity.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Ah well, let them. When I was on the top once, I was shown another rock, where supposedly a sign of Muhamad's horse hoof remains...

SnoopyTheGoon said...

indeed.

Sennacherib said...

You are clever beggars! Hiding in your own country, quite diabolical.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Ehehe... obviously we don't do it very good, being outed so easily ;-)

Lynne T said...

If they were speaking Russian ... Russia?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Their mental processes are not that easy to trace or describe, I suggest.

Lynne T said...

I have an infection in one eye and misread Dick's question cause I was wearing my prescription sunglasses.

Lynne T said...

Somewhere where they thought their foul mutterings would not be understood if overheard, perhaps.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Get better soon. With me it's the left ear at the moment. Oh gosh, where I am going with that?

Lynne T said...

I am on the mend. You too I hope.

Dick Stanley said...

Remarkably beautiful in flight, considering how ugly it is (and behaves) on the ground.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Yes, thanks to all the poison they prescribed...

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Indeed. the way it succeeds to cover a lot of distance without seemingly moving the wings is amazing. And notice that this is the smaller one, not the huge griffon vulture, which is even more graceful in flight.

Brian Goldfarb said...

That takes courage. Different from but on a mental par with Avery's.