My wife and I just got back from a visit to Charleston, SC and that trip explained my liberalism. Touring plantations is akin to visiting Dachau-- not something to be enjoyed--something that must be seen to prevent its recurrence. Beautiful gardens remind me of the beautiful music played by inmates of concentration camps. I saw exquisite greenery and heard Kol Nidre--the sorrowful music emblematic of Yom Kippur.
I was born at the end of World War II--and many in my family escaped the Nazis--tattooed numbers on forearms were common. No one ever told me "never again" --that was obvious. Instead I was taught that I was to forever defend all victims of discrimination. I was taught not to have fist fights--unless it was for self defense, or minority rights. Hatred --blind hatred-- is wrong--is ungodly--is obscene. Abuse is wrong, obscene, and ungodly. To see all those old churches in Charleston, to realize they were built by slave owners thinking they were doing divine good deeds--was repulsive. To see that almost all the shops were white owned, employing African Americans in servile jobs--was repulsive. To realize that little has changed in 150 years in the deep south is repulsive. To see the stars and bars displayed reverently is obscene.
It is time for an American spring--not just occupying Wall Street--not just for the unemployed--not just for the civil servants. In the fictional words of Marat De Sade--we need a revolution, now. Our history is obscene--America was one of the last nations to outlaw slavery--a slavery that most brutal. Selling off slave children to disparate places was one form of our "exceptionalism."
I never understood stories of Jews quietly going to slaughter--or pride in Masada--nor have I ever understood the demise of the Black Panthers. Charleston showed me that waiting for America to do the right thing is just plain idiotic. The South claims it was genteel while it was cruel and demonic. Churches were ornate--monuments to pastors who turned their eyes away from the evils of slavery.
So, my trip didn't put a smile on my face--but it did allow me to focus on why I am a liberal. We are all Jews, we are all Black, we are all gay, we are all disabled---or we're all shits.