When Myra Goldman Jimenez was born in 1906, Theodore Roosevelt was president, the theory of relativity was newly born and Hitler had just dropped out of school to pursue painting. Myra has lived a long life, and witnessed many changes, and she still feels she has something to offer to the world and to her country.
"You're never too old to want to give something back," said the vibrant 100-year-old at her birthday party with residents, friends and staff at the Del Cajon Health Center Sunday.
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The only child of Ruth Goldman, a German Jewish immigrant, and Julio Cesar Jimenez, a Mexican and African American rancher in territorial New Mexico, she lived a relatively quiet life, never marrying or having children. She served overseas in Europe as a WAC first officer during World War II, and was a local librarian for many years, until retiring in 1975. As part of her job, she became known as the "town conscience" and was a frequent speaker at City Council and school board meetings, building the library's collection while standing up against repeated efforts to ban books.
"You write it, somebody will want to ban it," she said. "But I've always thought of myself as a librarian, a friend of the books, and I wasn't going to let them make me into an empty-shelf tour guide."
Jimenez even won awards from the American Library Association and the New Mexico ACLU for her staunch local free-speech activism. She speaks proudly of her accomplishments, but also sees dangers ahead.
"I can't remember a government that made me more scared than what we have today. These so-called conservatives will use the ugliest cultural politics to divide this country, as long as it works," said Jimenez.
So Jimenez has come up with a radical idea she hopes can help.
"The Bible says the sins of the community should be redeemed by a scapegoat into the wilderness. It's in Leviticus. I'm an old lady, but I will be that scapegoat. I'm a poor, elderly, black, Mexican, Communist, atheist, lesbian military veteran of Jewish ancestry. Make me the scapegoat. Drive me into the wilderness, but afterwards, there can be no more class warfare to destroy the middle class and poor, no more stealing Medicare money for drug companies, no more lynchings, no more American mass deportations or concentration camps, no more political witch-hunts, religious discrimination, gay marriage bans, or frivolous use of our fighting men and women in foreign adventures, with poor care for them and their families if they can manage to make it back to the U.S. in one piece. That's the trade. Me for that. Take out all of this nation's frustrations at once. Show it on C-SPAN. And if this country can't find it in its heart to sacrifice me, they've got to stop sacrificing everybody else piece by piece to these various prejudices which are false idols. It'll just have to start being America again."
Myra Goldman Jimenez smiled after struggling through such a long oration.
"I may be nothing more than a crazy old woman, but this is a limited-time offer, so come and get me. If you want to say I'm everything that's wrong with America, burn me at the stake, I won't fight."
"Myra's our oldest resident at the Center," said nurse Norma Dunbar. "She's a real sparkplug."
Alex