Dear Congressman Cantor:
You and I have two things in common. First, we are both Jewish. Second, both of us have roots in the state of Virginia. Let me tell you about my roots.
My mother was born in a large northeastern city, but, when she was still a young child, she became an orphan, losing both of her parents to the Great Flu Epidemic at the end of World War I. She went to live to a small town in Virginia to live with her eldest sister and her husband, a newly returned Doughboy who had survived the hell of trench warfare in France. My aunt and uncle had opened a clothing store in this small Virginian town. There was only one other Jewish family in the town; they also owned a store. Except for these two families, and some Lebanese Christian immigrants who also owned stores, every white man in the town was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
My aunt and uncle enrolled my mother in the public school, the one for white children. My mother was very sociable and made friends easily, and she quickly learned that nearly every child in the school, except her, belonged to the Junior Klan League. Naturally, she wanted to join too, and her classmates were happy to have her, but the next day she got the news - sorry, our dads and moms say you can't join the Junior Klan League.
My mother told how she witnessed Klan rallies. She watched the townspeople parade down Main Street in their white sheets, their faces hidden by their hoods. She watched them climb the hills surrounding the town, carrying torches to light the way, and to light the burning cross that could be seen from miles away. She heard the chants, "White Power!" "White Power!"
In 1927 my mom graduated from the high school, the only one of her siblings to do so, and left her sister and brother-in-law and the town to enter nursing school. I knew that my uncle had died the following year, but neither my mom nor my cousin would tell me why. When my mom passed away, I visited the town of her childhood and met a lady - since deceased - one of the Lebanese Christians, who had been her friend. And this lady told me what happened.
As I mentioned, there was one other Jewish family in the town. They had twin boys. One day in 1928, when they were about 12, they both drowned in the town's swimming hole. On the same day my uncle was found hung in his store. The sheriff, a Klansman, refused to investigate any of the deaths, and simply ruled that the boys had accidentally drowned, and that my uncle had committed suicide. It was all a coincidence, the sheriff decided, that it happened the same day. It didn't matter that the boys were known as good swimmers, or that my uncle had not displayed any signs of depression. My mom's friend said she had no proof, but she was certain that the Klan had murdered all three.
Within days, the town was "Jew free". The Klan had won.
Congressman Cantor, you have sponsored a constitutional amendmentto allow states to repeal laws enacted by the Congress and signed by the President. Congressman Cantor, maybe you don't know American history, but 1928 was the heyday of "state's rights," when meddling federal beauracrats made no attempt to prosecute murders that state authorities refused to prosecute, or to curb the power of the Ku Klux Klan. According to a Tuskegee study, from 1882 to 1944, 3,417 blacks, and 1,291 whites, were lynched. And the federal government did virtually nothing to stop it.
I know the oligarchs, some of whom may even be Jewish, who have bought and paid for you, want the federal government off their backs so they can continue to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us, without fear of federal regulation to slow down their thievery. But, I ask you, as a fellow Jew, is this wise? Your fellow tea baggers might not be displaying anti-Semitism, for now, but do you really trust them? First they may come for the gays, but you will be silent. Then they may come for Hispanics, but you will be silent. Then they may come for the Jews, but, with your constitutional amendment in place, who will be there to shout "Stop, enough?"