Rabbi Sandra Lawson"There are Hitlers loose in America today, both in high & low places. As the tensions & bewilderment of economic problems become more severe, history scapegoats, the Jews, will be joined by new scapegoats, the Negroes.
The Hitlers will seek to divert people’s minds and turn their frustrations and anger to the helpless, to the outnumbered.
Then whether the Negro and Jew shall live in peace will depend upon how firmly they resist, how effectively they reach the minds of the decent Americans to halt this deadly diversion." - Martin Luther King Jr. 1958 National Biennial Convention of the American Jewish Congress
Izzlizz@rabbisandra this morning I'm reading Strongmen by Ruth Ben-Ghiat. I keep struggling with the idea that these tactics work, but the stories of these dictators are all basically the same and it looks just like what the far right is trying to do in America and I still can't entirely figure out what would have stopped them, because the water warms slowly before it boils. I also don't understand if the tactics used by our civil rights leaders would have worked in those places and times, which makes me wonder if they can work here, now. Maybe there's a moment now where it would, and maybe it will become too late at some moment that might not be foreseeable. I don't know how to interact with people who want to drive our country into totalitarianism but who are great neighbors. They look very different to me when I wonder how many Mussolini supporters were lovely to the neighbors who looked enough like them.