Buffalo. And again.

 5/18

After the Tree of Life shooting

Today I feel like not wearing a hat at all, I  don’t want to take a hat off to anyone because I am angry.  Angry because yet one again a hate filled white supremacist has opened fire and deliberately murdered people in the name of defending against the “great replacement.” In Buffalo, New York, that same sick confluence has come together again. The sickness of white anxiety fueled by Tucker Carlson’s preppy no longer even thinly veiled racist fear mongering, Republicans both true believers and those who are are afraid to confront them allowing the crazy theories to become accepted  mainstream opinion and our total inability to deal rationally with guns has now led to 10 dead human beings at the Topps Friendly Market in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo.

And Congress refuses to accept the reality that the vast majority of domestic terrorist acts (67% last year, over 80% this…)are committed by right wing white people of various sorts.  There is simply no equivalence.

Stronger than hate

So today I am wearing the shirt from my hometown of Pittsburgh, from the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting 4 years ago when 11 worshippers were murdered.  “…Stronger than hate…” it reads.  It’s a touchingly typical Pittsburgh graphic.  Starting with what was the US Steel logo that has become the beloved Steelers symbol and changing  one of the arched hypocycloids (crescent diamond shape) into a  Mogan David, Jewish star. On my mug, all the hypocycloids have become Jewish stars. How many communities must stand in solidarity with one another? Do I really believe the implied love is stronger than hate?

I finally selected my Fellowship of Reconciliation from the International Peace Bureau World Peace Congress in Barcelona last October, an amazing gathering of people from around the world, former heads of state, scholars, and just plain folks, gathering to explore roads to peace that take into account the intersectionality of economy, militarism, environmental justice, and resulting world refugee crisis. 

In 1915, AJ Muste, Jane Addams and 66 pacifists gathered to declare an international movement against violence. Socialist Norman Thomas became  the first director, once convinced they were serious.  Over the years they have protested war, organized freedom rides to the American south and  organized to stop gun violence  and even risking the disapprobation that comes with supporting the Boycott, Divestment and  Sanctions (BDS)  movement to bring justice for Palestine. 

In a world where the murderous violence and hatred continues unchecked, the faithful witness of groups like FOR are one of the few glimmers of hope.

And today I am angry.