The "Bridge to Being" Blog

Of course there WAS a holocaust.  My father served in Europe in WWII.  My brother and I saw the pictures . Dad brought them when he returned safely home to mother.   We found them in a dresser.  We saw the harvest of evil in small black and white photos brought home in an Army officer's trunk, saved because of the lesson....

And the lesson is still NEVER AGAIN.

 

I've just received an email (reproduced below), one of those hundreds of ‘forwards’ one gets these days.  But this was from a physician I respect, someone who – as do I – strongly supports the cause of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish refuge state.  This was a forward from another good physician, someone I don’t know, and it contained an email trail. 

 

The normal protocol is to erase an email trail to protect the privacy of those who are in the chain, then to re-forward the piece – if one is inclined to do so.  But, for technical reasons, I can’t elide the trail of email addresses for the message I received.

 

So I have elected to post the entire message on the ‘Bridge to Being Blog’. 

For this purpose, I’m considering the whole work to be public domain.  If I am wrong, I invite someone holding the copyright(s) to contact me by email at – law@jaygaskill.com .

 

The piece begins with a compelling, not copyrighted picture, and includes a brilliant and touching ‘Non Sequitur’ cartoon by Wiley, whose work is syndicated nationally.  There is no indication whether the cartoonist has given copyright permission, but I believe that Wiley would approve a limited distribution.  So, in lieu of a forward, I’m posting everything here for the next ten days, after which I’ll pull it down.

 

Please do share this. 

 

Jay B. Gaskill

 

 

 

 In MEMORIAM - 63 YEARS LATER 

Please read the little cartoon carefully, it's powerful. Then read the comments at the end. 
 
I'm doing my small part by [forwarding] posting this message. I hope you'll consider doing the same. 

 

In Memoriam 
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian Peoples looking the other way! 
 
 Now, more than ever, with Iraq, Iran , and others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again. 
 
 This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! 
 
 Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world.  

[][][]

 One comment:

Why, why, I must ask, was the despicable Iranian president, a holocaust denier and Israel hater - who was given an international platform in New York City NOT roundly denounced for his views by every congressional leader and, dare I say it, our new President?  Only the Israeli President, in words worthy of a Churchill, spoke truth to venality.  The silence from POTUS and the chattering left and isolationist right was stunning.  G-d save Israel and G-d save the USA

JBG 

JBG

Posted by U2RGood at 06:54 PM | Permalink

The arrival of Rosh Hashanah (this year on my wife’s birthday) is a reminder of the universality of the Moral Law, its origins in the Creator of All That Is, and of our shared human frailty.

Since the time of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD, Rosh Hashanah is to be celebrated for two days, as a day of rest (Lev. 23:24) and moral renewal. 

Rosh Hashanah is accompanied/announced by the blowing of the shofar.  This is intended to awaken the gathered and alert them to the coming judgment. 

On the first night of Rosh Hashanah after the evening prayer, it is customary to wish Leshana Tova Tikoseiv Veseichoseim (Le'Alter LeChaim Tovim U'Leshalom) – “May you immediately be inscribed and sealed for a Good Year and for a Good and Peaceful Life”.

All who love life take note.  This is a universal call.

I note from the Bhagavad Gita, “Two Paths”:

1.  “Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination to the spiritual life....  Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all....

6.  “Some people have divine tendencies, other demonic....”

7. “The demonic do things they should avoid and avoid the things they should do.   They have no sense of uprightness, purity or truth.”

8. “‘There is no God’, they say, no spiritual law, no moral order.’....”

{Trans. Eknath Easwaran, © 1985 Blue Mountain Center of Meditation}

I also note from the Book of Common Prayer (American Anglican/Episcopalian)

“Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.”

And, as I’ve noted in earlier writings, the biblical shema, the obligation to love G-d with all one’s heart, mind and strength [Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “And you shall love the lord your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul and all your might.” [V-ahavta et Adonai Elohecha b-chol l’vavcha u-v-chol m’odecha.], is perfectly coherent within Judaism and Christianity. 

In Mark’s gospel, for example (12:28-30 28), we find this passage:

“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’

“‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”  

[][][]

The Creator of the universe has given us the Moral Law, without which human life would indeed be “nasty, brutish and short.” 

Whatever our differences, I believe that our faith touches the same Law and invites us to enter the same Dialogic.  [http://www.jaygaskill.com/i2i.htm ]

To all who are within the reach of the Moral Law:  May we awaken, repent and renew our deepest connections to each other and to the deeper Truth that binds us; may we all have a good year and a good and peaceful life.

JBG

Posted by U2RGood at 08:43 AM | Permalink

I respectfully submit that the first moral imperative is, "First do no harm."

I expand on this notion at the following LINK: http://jaygaskill.com/HealthCareWind.html  .

Jay

Posted by U2RGood at 10:44 AM | Permalink

As Published On

→The Bridge to Being Blog: http://www.jaygaskill.com/blog2

→The Policy Think Site: http://www.jaygaskill.com

All contents, unless otherwise indicated are

Copyright © 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009 by Jay B. Gaskill

I took this photo of a destroyed firetruck near Ground Zero a few days after 9-11-01

 and this window, late in the afternoon on 9-11-01....

911 ---- NEVER AGAIN!

September 11, 2001 is the Day that will live forever in the hearts of courageous Americans because we were called to defend the most precious gift of all....

Eight years ago today, I awoke in a small apartment on Madison Avenue in Manhattan -- about a three mile walk down Broadway from Ground Zero.  

Soon, we saw hundreds of traumatized office workers, covered in white dust, walking in the middle of that street.  A friend (husband of a classmate) would be walking across the Brookline Bridge from One Liberty Plaza, unable to reach his wife by phone. 

Thousands of others, Mayor Giuliani among them, made that grim Broadway walk.

When I first opened my eyes on 9-11-01, it was just a few minutes after the first airliner had struck the first target.  On a computer screen, I saw the tiny color image of an aircraft, blooming with flame at the moment of impact.  

Other terrible images, smells, sensations and impressions - real and immediate - would quickly follow.  For the rest of that day and for ten days more, my wife and I were immersed in a sea of grief, raw patriotism and a holy sense of shared compassion and resolve. 

I last talked to a group about my experiences four years ago.  LINK: http://www.jaygaskill.com/91105d.htm .

The park at Union Square became a shrine. 

The nearby Armory became a wailing wall. 

I’ve written and talked about this transformative experience more than once.  And I will never forget.  My identity as an American took on a new armor on that day.  And I understood with new, terrible clarity what my Jewish friends meant by “Never again.”

I was most deeply impressed by the insight that we were in the presence of a great existential Evil, but that, somehow, that recognition prompted an immense outpouring of Good.  The photos I took on 9-11 and 9-12, are images that are even brighter in my memory.

A girl endorses a scroll that ran the full length of the park.

 Everyone who was there was changed forever....

 God bless America.

JBG

Posted by U2RGood at 09:43 AM | Permalink