No Place for That

"This was a crime of hate, and there's no place for that in the city of Seattle."

Mayor Greg Nickels, July 28, 2006

Ayiyiyi.

By now you've no doubt heard that Seattle made it into the news again and not in a good way.

The Neighbor and I were having our usual Friday preprandial glass of wine when The Spouse came over with "a face". We turned on the news at his instruction. Neighbor and I decided to call on the Rabbi's Wife, even though it was about 10 minutes 'til Sabbath. Meanwhile, The Spouse went next door because the woman who owns the house works at the Jewish Federation and he wanted to see if the renter had any word. (We're still waiting to hear but as our friend is older than the listed ages of the victims presumably she wasn't harmed. Physically, anyway).

We arrived just as the Rabbi was leaving for shul but he was very grateful that we came by. We stayed to talk with Rabbi's Wife for a few moments, until it was time for her to light the candles and invite in the Sabbath. And the irony wasn't lost on us. I suspect it will be a challenge to have a shabbat shalom this weekend.

Politically, I don't consider myself "pro-Israel" in the sense that everything they do is right or justified. I think, for example, their current engagement with Lebanon is a bit over the top. I do believe the nation has a right to exist but so does every other nation. And yes, Hezbollah and Hamas are "bad guys" and should be disarmed but from the news reports it doesn't look to me like those groups are the ones suffering from this war. And to me a Lebanese child is just as valuable as an Israeli child. The mom in me gets really, really pissed off at crazy men with their big guns and big words who don't get that.

And of course, we didn't get into the politics last night because the point isn't whether or not one agrees with the nation of Israel in the current conflict. The women shot yesterday were regular women, going about their day and anticipating their Sabbath like they do every Friday. And like the Rabbi's Wife said, "You just expect to be able to go to work and come home from work each day". Yeah. You do. The fact of their being Jewish doesn't make them collectively responsible for what is going on in the Middle East.

I've been thinking a lot about collective responsibility lately. It's a thorny one. I've heard players in the Middle East use it to justify the bombing of civilians. With this kind of thinking, killed and wounded civilians aren't "collateral damage". They are considered to be responsible for their governments and therefore legitimate targets. Or at least, that's what some Israeli general was saying about the Palestinians a few weeks ago. They elected Hamas so they pay the price.

Of course you know where my mind went. I didn't vote for George W. Bush. Neither did at least 48% of the rest of America (and that's assuming, you know, a legitimate election). That seems to be an awful lot of people to hold responsible for his actions. Which begs the question. To what degree are citizens in a democracy responsible for the decisions of their leadership? And what if, like me, you sign petitions and act as a citizen co-sponsor of legislation and send emails to the White House urging this or that course of action? I mean, do I get a pass for his decisions because I am on record as not supporting them? I should but the trouble is people always seem to shoot first and ask questions later.

Well, this is getting entirely too rambling and heavy for a Saturday morning. I hate when that happens.

Here's the thing: we hugged the Rabbi's Wife and wished her a peaceful sabbath anyway. "Lots of prayers," she said, "lots of prayers". And one wonders; how many prayers, condolence calls from goyim and healing actions and peaceful intentions have to be poured into a deep wound like this? I am all about healing and restoration but I gotta tell you, some people are making it mighty daunting these days.