Really quickly, my philosophy of life, after being on this planet for 50 years.
There are good people and bad people on the Earth. No one group of people, be they broken down by religion, skin color, ethnicity, sexual identity, etc., are all good nor all bad.
I’ve met some pretty wonderful Arabic people, and some I’d not give the time of day to. I have met some great Jewish people, and others I’d run as far and fast as i could from. The same goes for all other groupings of people, some are good, others not. But that is why I cannot understand hate of whole groups and prejudice.
I am religious, Jewish as I had mentioned. Even if I was not, from genetic testing I am 99 percent Ashkenazi Jewish. My father of blessed memory, had his faults, like all people do to a degree. No one is truly perfect. He had a deep seated hate of all Arabic people, a view he tried to pass on to the next generation, a view which we promptly ignored.
The Arabic people are my closest relatives. We are brothers and sisters. And sadly, like many brothers and sisters we often do not get along. But we should and we often do, especially on an individual level.
I am back in the hospital, and I saw my nursing assistant’s name on the whiteboard. I never had seen the name before so we started to talk. Turns out she is from Iraq, and like many individuals who relatively recently flew Iraq, they ended up here in metro Detroit. She said her name meant flower, and I honestly told her, her name fit. We chatted another 5 minutes or so, about how one cannot label ALL members of a group good or bad, and we, Jewish and Arabic people need to get along, we should get along, with our shared ancestry. It was a really positive experience and I felt good in meeting a new person and having a nice interaction with them.
I just wish people who are on both extreme sides of I/P, the racist idiots who make up the KKK/Proud Boys/etc, the militant members of militias, all could somehow see this, open their brains and hearts and realize that lesson.