Re: Peace on Earth

Dear friends,

What a wonderful e-mail from Sheila! I can see that her haters are no
different than ours, in fact, her haters ARE our haters; and
tragically, most of our haters are functionally illiterate.

Just a cursory reading of the e-mail Sheila received from this man
reveals that he’s also not a fan of rap music or “rappers” or those
engaged in the apparently evil practice of “robing their neighbors” –
how dare they put robes on their neighbors! This man sounds terribly
confused; of course it could just be that this guy is all alone,
afraid and angry at the world. It bears remembering, friends, that
studies have shown that listening to hate radio and watching a steady
stream of Fox News actually leaves individuals less aware of the world
around them.

In my experience as a Mental Health Therapist I have observed that it
also tends to ramp up individuals’ paranoid tendencies, as well as
their anger and hate. One of the great ironies of the
electronically-connected world we live in is that there are increasing
numbers of people who feel isolated; isolation leads to fear and fear
leads to anger. It is this vulnerability that hate radio, Fox News and
religious leaders who traffic in bigotry and hate prey upon. They uses
these vulnerabilities and tendencies to motivate ignorant and
vulnerable individuals to show up at Tea Party rallies carrying signs
filled with bigotry and hate, write letters and e-mails to their
congressmen, send hate mail just like those below, sometimes issue
death threats and even once in a while act out violently – tragically
we are seeing this happen increasingly often; however, we also need to
be reminded that, in Dylan’s famous words, they are all just “pawns in
the game.”

This tsunami of hate will destroy the world if we let it. I know
sometimes it feels like we are very much like Cnut the Great, perched
on the shore, trying ridiculously to hold the tide at bay; however, if
not us, who? In this coming new year we must all dedicate ourselves to
working harder, smarter and drawing more people to the cause of peace,
liberty, freedom and good will, we must do a better job of explaining
why social and religious pluralism is not only good for America, it is
good for the world. And if I may be so bold as to say this, as a Jew,
I believe that we Jews, in particular, need to continue to be inspired
by Mikey’s example and do a better job of standing up to Islamophobia
whenever and wherever we encounter it; if we learned anything from the
Shoah it was this: if we remain silent while any segment of our human
brothers and sisters are persecuted and targeted, we are only inviting
the same thing to happen to us. Obviously I hope that our shared
humanity will be enough to motivate all of us to stand up to bigotry,
but if not, perhaps self interest will motivate us.

Gandhi was right, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was right, Rabbi
Abraham Joshua Heschel was right, and following Malcolm X’s (peace be
upon him) famous journey to Mecca he too was right: an injury to one
is an injury to all. We must join in this non-violent struggle to
defend the rights and dignity of all people, regardless of their
religious affiliation or no religion at all. And finally, if I may be
so bold, I would echo the words of Hillel: “In a place where no one
behaves like a human being, you must strive to be human.”

In this season of light, why not dedicate ourselves once again to
doing whatever we can, whenever we can to shed the light of our shared
humanity – that which is humane within all of us – to everyone
everywhere.

And for all my friends within the orbit of the Military Religious
Freedom Foundation – the entire Weinstein family, board members,
workers, volunteers, supporters, partner organizations and all people
of good will, I wish you a new year filled with the light of love,
peace, freedom and happiness, and with the religious liberty
guaranteed by a rebuilt and reinforced wall of separation between
Church and State.

I thank you all for allowing me the honor and privilege of standing
with and beside each one of you in this work.

I remain most sincerely yours,

Akiva David Miller