On this night, 49 years ago, three American civil rights workers, one African-American and two Jewish-Americans, were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi for having the temerity to insist upon equal rights for all. And to dare actually work towards that ideal.
James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner have all now been at rest for more than twice the amount of time they were each alive, yet their legacy and their memory will stay with us forever. They will all three ultimately live amongst us here in the US as long as we remember and respect what they fought, and ultimately died, for.
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Real liberals and progressives should recognize these ideals, and respect them wherever they are found, regardless of the fashion of the day.
(Lynching civil rights activists was the fashion of the day in certain quarters of Mississippi society 50 years ago, after all.)
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Religion can often take a backseat in Israel when it comes to security, as brothers Muhammad and Milad Atrash, two Muslim member’s of the Israel Defense Force’s Golani Brigade, can attest to.“While still in high school I asked my family, ‘Why don’t we, the Muslims, enlist?’” Milad, 19, told the IDF blog. “‘Why do the Jews, the Druze and the Bedouins enlist, while we don’t?’ They explained to me that Jews serve because it’s their country, that the Druze [community] had signed agreements with the IDF and that we have a lot of Islamic movements that oppose military service in the IDF.”Milad’s response? “I told them I don’t care about that. I want to join the army to protect my village, my country.”~~~
Following up on Mike's earlier post, and touching on my comment therein, I would like to think everyone in the region, regardless of ethnicity or religion, can, if they're being completely honest, admit that Israel is one of the very most tolerant and liberal societies on earth, even considering its own special circumstances which are forced onto it by its rather genocidal-leaning neighbors.
This is the homeland of the most historically persecuted people in history, still taking in and providing a better life for even those of its citizens who are not Jewish.
This is the very exact ideal 'progressives' claim to pine for, but for some reason it just doesn't count when Israel does it. And make no mistake. In their region, Israel and Israel alone is the only nation which does this.
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Here's hoping that one day soon irrational hatred of all kinds will come to an end, nations which actually violate civil rights of all sorts will be called to account, and the ideal world so many claim to fight for will actually come into being.
49 years ago today, James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner took action to try to create that world. Would that more folks today, particularly those who claim to care about these issues right here and right now, yet who for some reason focus like a laser on denying only just one particular group of people in the world (i.e. - Jews) their right to national self-determination in our historical indigenous homeland, would decide to at least respect our righteous claim and stick to their proclaimed, alleged, values, in all cases.
Even those cases involving Jews.
49 years ago tonight, James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner paid the ultimate price for their beliefs.
Z"l.
My hope is that today's keyboard progressives can one day decide to honor their legacy for all peoples, and not only just for those who are fashionable to 'defend' at the moment.
