America

The Grass Needs Cutting

/ howardshapiro / 24 Comments

This is a story I am not sure I should tell. I have such mixed emotions about it. But it happened and is true and is probably a sense of our country right now and it happened to me this week.

We have a vacation home in Western North Carolina. Along with its beauty and respite comes responsibility and burden. (Burden is probably too heavy a word, but I liked the symmetry of the words.) Background information: Our place is basically in the woods: lots of trees and underbrush and mountain laurel and wild rhododendrons. Not a lot of grass or flower beds or garden but enough that we need someone to care for it especially when we aren’t here. The gardener stopped coming – no formal “quitting” – just doesn’t show up anymore and phone calls do not change the outcome.

We need a new landscape company. This is the story of the search. The Landscaper who came was on time and on the right day and I was immediately impressed. More came after I opened the door to go out and talk with him when he greeted me with “Baruch HaShem” (Blessed be God’s Name) in Hebrew. I figured it was the mezuzah on the doorpost. I said: “You’re kidding me.” To which he responded, “Shalom and ‘Elohim’”. I let that sit and started to talk about bushes and weeds. He asked me if I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I then figured it out and said: “Absolutely not! And we should probably agree to continue with how often does the grass need cutting.” (He belongs to a Messianic Congregation.)

A week later he was back to present me with the details of his proposal. I asked him if he would please put on his mask since we were outside, but kind of getting too close together. He echoed my words from the week before: “Absolutely not. I don’t believe in them. I believe the virus is real, but the media is exaggerating how contagious it is.” I was stunned into silence. Finally, I said – “You need to give me a moment.” My mind went racing. Do I impose my beliefs on him? Is the fact that he has a different (false and dangerous) view of reality my issue? Can’t I just let him cut the ***** grass and call it a day?  I don’t know how long it took me to say the words: “I’m sorry this is a deal breaker and we can’t work together.”

As he left, I noticed the two big Trump bumper stickers on his car. To this moment, I don’t know if I was right. I know the incident plays like a serial in my mind. I know that it is symptomatic of how polarized we are. I know that we need to make this better. I know as a country and community of Americans we need to begin the process of healing. Vote!

It is On Us

/ howardshapiro / 14 Comments

I am so saddened by what is happening to our country. I am so afraid of the maniac in the White House who is capable of doing anything to guarantee his re-election. OMG that photo op at the Episcopal Church while Americans are being tear gassed on the other side of the park. And the Bible? Really folks: What was he trying to say? And to whom? It just adds to my fears about his loyal followers and what could come next.

I watch the videos of George Floyd’s murder. What were the other officers standing around thinking? Why didn’t they stop it? I am feeling paralyzed as to what to do. I know where I should be – out on the street, offering my body as a vote in the national campaign for racial justice and reform. I am feeling old and vulnerable. I am impressed by how young the protestors are and like the grandfather that I am, I am happy to see that many of them are wearing masks. At least on TV, there are many ethnicities and races represented in the marches and protest and that gives me hope and faith.

Because this is not a black fight. This is not just the concern of communities of color. This is all of our struggle if we are going to transmit an America worthy of its name and promise to the next generation. This is on all of us no matter what shade of brown, beige, black, tan, white we are.

But I know I really can’t feel their anger. I can emotionally empathize, and I can intellectually understand but my gut doesn’t have the fear and the suspicion built into it because of the color of my skin. I don’t have the eyes on me suspicious of the way I walk or the sweatshirt I wear or the physicality of my body or the crime of being black by driving or black in the wrong neighborhood or black in the park. I am so keenly aware of my white privilege.

If this is on me then the question is what can I do to live my words and my values. Not everyone can do everything. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschels’ famous words: “Some are guilty, all are responsible” are kind of my personal contemporary commandment. I guess I am saying – don’t just sit and watch all this unfold on TV making judgements and weighing who is right and who is wrong. Don’t just focus on the small minority who are looting and turning to violence. Those who are protesting peacefully are fulfilling America’s promise. And especially because we are not on the street, it is time to find an action that will support a just and free tomorrow for all the colors of the rainbow.

Want to read more? Rabbi Judith Schindler wrote a great piece on what you and I can do. It is my next go to:  https://www.judyschindler.com/if-you-are-white-and-asking-what-can-i-do/

It is on us.

D-Day Reflections

/ howardshapiro / 7 Comments

I have been watching the commemorations of the 75th anniversary of D-Day. It has been touching, poignant and important. I loved the red, white and blue flyovers the Normandy beaches and seeing Queen Elizabeth on the podium in Portsmouth. I was grateful that President Trump was respectful. But the stars of the moment were the surviving veterans themselves. Some of who had never been back to this place that changed the course of history and saved the world from Nazi tyranny and atrocities. This place that claimed the lives of thousands of young, brave men who sacrificed themselves for us, yes for the lives we lead and the future our children can look forward to is indeed sacred ground.

I tried very hard not to personalize this celebration of courage. Until I heard the clip of the President being interviewed on British TV by Piers Morgan when he said that he never was a fan of that war, ”I’ll be honest with you. I thought it was a terrible war. I thought it was very far away.” I can’t believe he really said that. But then again we are becoming calloused to the things he says.

Vietnam was very far away. It took me three plane rides to get from Newark, NJ to Ton Son Nhut, Saigon. I wasn’t a fan of that war either but I didn’t have bone spurs that kept me from serving. Funny they don’t seem to keep him from playing golf. I was lucky though. I served as a Chaplain and even if the war had little or no meaning my role there did. I could feel what it meant to the Army, Navy, and Air Force soldiers that there was a Jewish presence there. Someone cared; someone listened; someone brought a taste of what Judaism meant to them wherever they were.

We didn’t win that war. We didn’t even have the high ground morally or politically. We sort of knew it then but we sort of didn’t also. They told us we needed to stop the Red Menace. They told us we were fighting to preserve the freedom of the South Vietnamese. We didn’t want to believe that we were killing children and that dropping Napalm from the sky was a necessary evil.

How different were the wars and how different the experience of the returning soldiers. But none of that takes away from the 90 plus year olds who returned to Normandy and to the place where they waded ashore or dropped from the sky to fight for us. And none of that takes away from the rows and rows of crosses and stars in the American cemetery. And none of that takes away from the most fundamental of all facts: America salutes you.