Despite what my last name may suggest, I’m actually Jewish, at least through connection to my mother, though I’m the non-practicing kind. As the child of a split-religion marriage I get the benefits of Hanukkah and Christmas — and a shared perspective. Now, I won’t bore you further with the details of my family’s lineage, but I think it’s important that you know where I come from as I head into this column.
Walking around as the Episcopalian St. Clair, I have been privy to the jokes and off-color remarks that get hushed when someone more obviously of the Jewish faith comes around. Some people are joking, others much more hurtful and serious. But through this maternal passage I have developed two sensibilities: an abhorrence of superficial bigots and a deeper understanding of the word “genocide.” The latter has become a study of mine, and knowing what my family went through during the Russian pogroms and Cossack raids generations ago has given me a link that is unique and relevant.
This personal framework may add depth and credence to my opinion, but beyond that I hope it will make you listen. I hope it will make you understand the actions our society must take to oust the religious, social, ethnic, gender and racial inequities and bigotries that plague us. In previous weeks I have spoken of respect for the rule of law, but always keeping in mind that it applies to everyone evenly and dispassionately. Today, my intention is to speak to the reader about more than the law, and ask some tough questions about our basic societal morals.
The recent anti-Semitic remarks uttered by Ann Coulter and President Bush’s proposed veto of a bill that would recognize the Armenian massacre during World War I as “genocide” are both events that have enraged all parts of my consciousness. I have a special disdain driven by my ancestry that has pushed the bile to the tip of my tongue, and, as an American, I find both humiliating.
As many of you may have heard, Coulter’s remarks on CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, when she said Jews should be “perfected,” not only smacks of Nazi propaganda, but is completely out of touch with modern morals. Not even the most Evangelical of Christians would dare to believe that Coulter’s approach to achieving a utopian society is in any way correct. It is no wonder she gets booed off college stages — a feat not even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could manage.
President Bush’s potential veto of a Congressional bill that would, like French legislation, recognize the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Armenians as “genocide,” is no less despicable. Certainly, defaming “Turkishness” would harm American-Turkish relations — and they do have great airbases — but I believe the greater damage is done by refusing to recognize the obvious reality: Genocide did occur. In America, genocide is always followed by some politico spouting, “Never again!” But under Bush logic, the definition of this phrase gets lost. Does “never again” mean we will never allow “genocide” to happen again? But what if it’s not termed genocide, per se? Then can we allow it to happen again? Is Darfur something we can allow to happen “sometimes?”
The coincidental occurrence of these two events simultaneously has reorganized my perspective on American morality. Firstly, we still have a long way to go before we can claim to have totally eliminated the persistent bigotry and misunderstanding to which some people in our society still cling. Somewhere we must draw the line between tasteful rhetoric and unacceptable bombast. Perhaps the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations are right to ask that news stations boycott Ms. Coulter, cutting off her platform – though I believe that like the mythological hydra, one severed head will sprout two in its place. Secondly, I have started to more fully grasp the disassociation between political good and political reality. In America, we can be well-intentioned, offering aid packages to the Third World in innumerable amounts. Yet, we are still drawn back to earth by the savagery of our worldly dimensions.
I know I may seem like some half-and-half white kid from the ‘burbs, but I implore my readers to take this column and these two events very seriously. They are both symptomatic of a larger problem: an uncaring America. Perhaps a new president will shift the dynamic and engender a new era of political commentators whose goal is to inform, not denigrate. One can only hope. But for now, I’ll just keep hoping for a more tolerant country and a greater collective understanding.
Neil St. Clair, a senior in the College of Communication and College of Arts and Sciences, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He is also the host of butv10’s On That Point. He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].
Readers are invited to write short rebuttals to the column to be sent to [email protected]. Chosen authors will be invited to debate St. Clair and other panelists live on On That Point during a special segment.