My Father's Day/Birthday Wish

Today is Fathers’ Day and tomorrow is my birthday.

Last night, right before I blew out the candle on a piece of early birthday cake at dinner, I contemplated my birthday wish. What popped into my head was dismay at the contentious state of humanity in America. I’ve often cited in my prior columns Jefferson’s clause from the Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal,” along with the need for change as to how people of minority status are treated. Of course, it would be naïve to conceive a utopian universe of equality for all; that’s simply not going to happen. Nonetheless, the question of equality has framed me as a person, based on experiences that date back to when I was a child, growing up in Gary, Indiana.

I remember starting in first grade when I was called a “dirty Jew” and how the anti-Semitism continued unabated by a select few, all through high school. During that time, I endured slurs, threats and getting beat up until I learned enough martial arts to defend myself. I will never forget the 1972 Munich Olympics when my mother thought my Israeli uncle, Oskar Klein, our family’s sole survivor of Auschwitz out of about 500 Hungarian family members, was a victim of the Black September terrorist group. Fortunately, he wasn’t, but that massacre was the threshold event that led me to begin studying terrorism, which ultimately led me to write The Last Inauguration, and now, The Sword of David.

I remember my first semester at Indiana University in 1973, when the Yom Kippur War broke out, and as the only Jew on the dorm floor, some my clothes were cut up and a full garbage can of water was dumped onto my bed. And so on. While the anti-Semitism has chased me forever, do not feel sorry for me because I never felt sorry myself. On the contrary, those and countless other anti-Semitic experiences made me stronger. As important and equally relevant, they taught me to have empathy for what other minorities in this country have had to go through. Critically, I learned to use my voice in various ways to combat bigotry and inequality.

Most important, I remember going to work with my dad at Walgreens stores he worked at in the rough neighborhoods of Indiana Harbor, Harvey, Illinois and the south side of Chicago. As we’d drive, he’d often talk about equality for all people. He never pointed out the unfortunate living conditions we couldn’t miss seeing, while driving through these neighborhoods, because there was no need for Dad to state the obvious. Critically, what I remember is that the people I really got to know in the diverse neighborhood stores were just like everyone else I knew in Gary, save their skin color and culture. They were just as smart, as nice, as funny, and had strong values like everyone else I knew. They shared the same dreams and aspirations. Except, largely, since they were Blacks in America, they systemically were not treated equal. Without ever having to utter the words, the best lesson my dad taught me was all men are created equal. So, thank you Dad and Happy Father’s Day, wherever you are, because you were right.

In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln said in pertinent part: “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation can long endure.”

158 years later the country is now as divided as it was back then. To me, racism, and hatred against minorities of all types feels like it is at an all-time high, at least in my lifetime. It seems as though we are in a new civil war where the battle is not about slavery or between those living either north or south of the Mason-Dixon line, it’s a war existing in every city and state over fundamental basic human rights and having all our people be treated like full citizens, with equal rights and opportunity.

Instead of moving forward based upon the proposition that all men are created equal, and given the various equal rights laws enacted in the 1960s and thereafter, the divide on race, religion, LGBTQIA issues, women’s rights, and increasing animosity towards minority groups like our AAPI communities and others seems to be getting worse by the minute. Members of these groups are facing challenges we’ve not seen since the end of World War II, with systemic, institutionalized racism at the core.

This divide is largely promulgated by today’s adults who were taught by their parents that Blacks, LGBTQIA, Jews, etc. are inferior and to be treated as such, and sadly those ideals have been passed down from generation to generation, ingrained in family and community values. It comes from ignorance, from people who blindly believe fake news and refuse to leave their echo chambers, and by the direct and veiled actions and words of leaders who knowingly lie and incite violence and hatred to perpetuate and defend these “values”. This morally decrepit, bankrupt behavior is undeniably embedded deeply into American society. And to top it off, guns are everywhere, which makes this situation that much more dangerous.

As Lincoln asked: Can this nation endure? How long can this divisiveness go on before we as a nation break? When will we all stand together to support and defend the Blacks, the Jews, the LGBTQIA, the women, the Asians, the immigrants of this country, all of whom were and are created equal to everyone else? How does this seemingly unsolvable problem get fixed? How much time do we have before it’s too late?

Going back to Lincoln at Gettysburg, he placed this heavy yolk on the shoulders of every one of us, stating: “It is for us the living, to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that we here highly resolve that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Meaning: Everyone, use your voice! Use your voice!

So Dad, on my birthday and on this Father’s Day, this is something I can wish for, can’t I?