I am in the 2%...roughly...that is where as a Jew in 2021 I fall in the charts tracking religion in our country...Christians, which combine Protestant, Catholic, and Mormons, rack up somewhere around 65%...there are other small figures for many other of our fellow Americans, but the largest following Christianity is Unaffiliated...and yet, even in this little 2% sliver...I am subject to the anti-Semitic rhetoric and t-shirt display blatantly flaunted in our Capitol on January 6th...from a group dedicated to our current President...and for this, to date, there has been no condemnation from him...no distancing from this message...and so, if I follow "a" to "b"...this is more than a silent nod of approval to the rabid dogs who stormed the Capitol...theirs was merely a Pavlovian response to years of dogs whistles going back to Charlottesville...which leaves me in a sad and bitter place...if you are reading this and have ever been subjected to prejudice and hatred because of religious affiliation...or the color of your skin...or the accent which inflects your speech...you will understand that there are triggers...mild to severe...which will always lead you back to where you were left feeling your worth was less than zero...with all the visuals and audio from January 6th...it was actually those t-shirts that brought me there...and it leaves me wanting for a quiet seat in a synagogue...by an Eastern wall...to ask why?...why again and again?...and also begs me to ask...to the 65%...is this what Christ would do?...I think not...
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