fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: October 04, 2005 11:28PM
"In Katrina I Didn't See Racism, I Saw Brotherhood"
by Rabbi Aryeh Spero
Posted Sep 7, 2005
In New Orleans, beginning Tuesday morning, August 30, I saw men in
helicopters risking their lives to save stranded flood victims from
rooftops. The rescuers were White, the stranded Black. I saw Caucasians
navigating their small, private boats in violent, swirling, toxic
floodwaters to find fellow citizens trapped in their houses. Those they
saved were Black.
I saw Brotherhood. New York Congressman Charlie Rangel saw Racism.
Yes, there are Two Americas. One is the real America, where virtually
every person I know sends money, food or clothes to those in need -- now
and in other crises -- regardless of color. This America is colorblind.
The other is the America fantasized and manufactured by Charlie Rangel,
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who constantly cry "racism!" even in
situations where it does not exist, even when undeniable images
illustrate love, compassion and concern. These three men, together with
today's NAACP, want to continue the notion of Racist America. It is
their Mantra, their calling card. Their power, money, and continued
media appearances depend on it.
Often, people caught up in accusing others of sin neglect to undergo
their own personal introspection. They begin to think they alone inhabit
the moral high ground. It is high time these men peered into their own
hearts at the dark chamber that causes this unceasing labeling of their
fellow Americans as "racist." They may find in that chamber their own
racism -- against Whites.
There is only one real America. Beginning Friday morning in Houston,
thousands of regular citizens poured into the Astrodome offering water,
food, clean clothes, personal items, baby diapers and toys, love and
even their homes to the evacuees who had been bused in from New Orleans.
Most of the givers were White, most of those being helped were Black.
But there was Jesse Jackson, busy on TV, accusing the country of not
putting Blacks -- i.e., him -- on some type of Commission he is
demanding. Where was he early in the week? Not sweating with others from
around the country who had scraped their last dollar to come help. With
Jesse, it's always about Jesse.
After decades of hearing accusations from Jesse, Al, Charlie, the NAACP
and certain elitists about how racist America is, it would have been
refreshing to hear them for once give thanks to those they for years
have been maligning. These self-anointed spokesmen for the Black
community lead only when it comes to foisting guilt and condemnation,
and not when it comes to acknowledging the good in those they have made
a career in castigating.
As a Rabbi I have a message I wish to offer to my fellow members of the
cloth, Reverends Jackson and Sharpton: It is time to do some soul
searching. Your continued efforts to tear this country apart, even in
light of the monumental goodness shown by your White brothers, is a sin.
There are no churches in the world like the American churches. And there
are no better parishioners and members of churches anywhere in the
world. These churches are saving the day. Their members -- infused by
the special and singular teachings of our unique American
Judeo-Christian understanding of the Bible -- are, at this moment,
writing an historic chapter in giving, initiative, and selflessness.
They are opening their homes to strangers. They are doing what
government is incapable of doing.
America works because of its faith-based institutions. It always has.
That is what makes it America.
So next time the ACLU tries to diminish and marginalize the churches,
saying there is no role for religion in American public life, that an
impenetrable wall must be erected separating the citizens from their
faith, cry out "Katrina."
Next time the ACLU goes to court asking that U.S. soldiers not be
allowed to say Grace in the Mess Hall and that communities be forbidden
from setting up a nativity scene, ask yourself: without the motivation
of Goodness sourced in Faith, would people offer such sacrifice? Where
else does this Brotherhood come from but the Bible which teaches "Thou
Shall Love Thy Neighbor as Yourself."
I saw brotherhood on Fox News, where 24/7 reporters used their perch as
a clearing-house for search-and-rescue missions and communication
between the stranded and those in position to save. In contrast, the
Old-line networks continued with their usual foolish, brain-numbing
programming. Those who always preach "compassion" chose profit over
people.
The New York Times has utterly failed America. Its columnists could have
used their talents and word skills to inspire and unite a nation.
Columnists such as Frank Rich and Paul Krugman, however, revealed their
true colors by evading their once-in-a-lifetime chance to help and
instead chose to divide, condemn, and fuel the fires and poison the
waters of Louisiana. In them, I saw no Brotherhood. The newspaper always
preaching "compassion" verifies Shakespeare's "They protest too
much."
Similar elitists here in the northeast and on the west coast have over
the years expressed their view of the South as "unsophisticated" and
Texans "cowboys." Well, the South has come through, especially
Houston
and other parts of Texas, whereas, as I write this on Labor Day, the
limousine moralizers are lying on east and west coast beaches thinking
they're doing their part by reading Times' editorials and calling George
Bush "racist." How sanctimonious life becomes when proving you are
not
a racist depends not on living in a truly integrated neighborhood, but
by simply calling others racist.
Like so often in history, facts trump platitudes. Reality reigns. Those
who always preach brotherhood, thus far have acted devoid of it. Those
who for decades have been accused by elitists of not having compassion
are the ones living it. They are: the churches, the military and the
sons and daughters of the South
