Archive for May 15th, 2005

Only Jews can SUFFER

Posted by Bob in Coaching Session, History, How Things Work on 05/15/2005

In a documentary on the Titanic, I noticed a comment about the third-class passengers.

Third-class was the way that almost all the wave of immigrants who came between 1880 and 1920 got to New York. Those were the millions who came to the famous Ellis Island.

That was the wave today’s New York Jews descend from. So the crying and moaning about the treatment of third-class has been loud and endless.

Oh, how they SUFFERED!

The only thing discussions of the Titanic ever notice is how the third-class passengers were ignored when the disaster struck. But if you listen closely, some other comments about third-class back then are worth hearing. One thing is that there was always PLENTY of GOOD food for third-class passengers to eat.

They had to sleep in bunks and their other accommodations were small compared to First Class. But compared to where they came from in Europe and Russia, it was a luxury cruise.

Each third-class passenger had his OWN bunk. In Europe poor families did not have a real bed for each of them. Third-class was CLEAN, an experience you seldom found in the poor areas of Europe.

Let me repeat that, for the poor of Europe, third class was a luxury cruise.

When your and my ancestors came over here, the ships were NOT clean. The food was moldy. The first thing people did at the CAPTAIN’s table was to rap their bread on the table to get the worms out. That went on well into the nineteenth century. On those ships, after a week or so, the water was foul. You and I and the third-class passengers who came to Ellis Island would have gotten sick at the smell of it.

So when today’s New York Jews talk about the crowded ships their forefathers came over on in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it is another example of Jewish SUFFERING.

They grieve over the way their ancestors were treated as Jews when they arrived in America.

If their Jewish ancestors had gone into Boston, they would have seen the place littered with hiring signs that said, “No Irish Need Apply” and store signs that said, “No Irish.” But the Irish are not Jews, so they can’t SUFFER.

When my ancestors got to Jamestown, half the town starved to death. I did not say “died of malnutrition,” I said STARVATION. Unless you have seen and smelled starvation, this does not give you the cold chills the way it does me.

Jane Fonda says in passing that large numbers of children in South Carolina die of starvation. People are always talking about “starvation.”

But real starvation is something else. Even in our poorest days, very few people have died of starvation in America since 1750.

My ancestors, including the sons of a professor at Cambridge, came over on ships with rats the size of dogs. They STARVED often. They were attacked by Indians and were slowly burned alive by experts at torture who could have taught the Spanish Inquisition a few tricks.

But they didn’t SUFFER.

New York Jews are always saying, “The history of the Jews is Suffering.” Let an old American make a statement to the New York Jews:

With all due respect, which is very little*, New York Jews are full of that which makes the little flowers grow.

*Thanks, Sam.

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2 Comments

Reply to Peter

Posted by Bob in Comment Responses on 05/15/2005

Peter read my complaint about the lack of comments, and he then did something people just don’t do these days:

He thought about it.

His first note is what I need readers to do: remind me when I am contradicting myself. It is much better to be contradicted by someone inside the blog family than it is for you to let me make a fool of myself in a public debate.

Peter says I should reply to comments more often. I had the feeling that the main blog is mine, so I don’t want to hog the comments page, too. I put my big replies on the main page.

But I enjoy replying to comments. You read what I say about and you feel like talking about it, which is the whole point of the blog.

From now on, I will be replying to more comments. If you feel like am hogging it, I will blame it on Peter.

I do NOT want comments that talk about something I did NOT write in MY blog. Elizabeth does an excellent job on this. She thinks about what I wrote, and then provides information expanding on it.

That gives me information I need and also makes it clear that she is thinking about what **I** wrote. If she goes off into a new subject, it is starting from my writings and she makes it clear that I made her think about it and expand on it.

I would be a happy old man if more Peters and Elizabeths and Dons came in. On the other hand, as Peter said, I am trying to say what you are thinking. If I do that, you obviously aren’t going to have much to add.

I say what I think I have to contribute. You say what you are thinking about. If I complain about the lack of comments, it is NOT because I want ditto heads. It’s just that when I read your comments, I get hungry for more.

But, as Peter reminds me, I wouldn’t enjoy comments if you felt OBLIGATED to make them, even though I made it sound that way.

But if you comment on what **I** wrote, you can’t write too poorly or say something silly. I had to learn to write too.

This is a good place to do it:

1) You are not identified. As a Southern gentleman, I will not ALLOW my team to try to identify you, and they wouldn’t do it anyway.

2) You have a professional writer here to advise you. But I can’t advise anyone who doesn’t write.

You’ll get all I have to give. You know me. I’ll tell you the truth.

3) Whatever you say, a lot of other readers are thinking the same thing. And what my readers are thinking about is the point of Bob’s Blog.

You see all the thinking Peter made me do?

.

. OK, Bob you are missing the obvious here, geeze.
You have us all on your list. It’s a big list, so you know lots of us are here reading you.
Why so few comments?
Because we all agree with you. You say what we are thinking. It would be annoying if everyone said vapidly “You are saying what I am thinking.” Can you imagine reading that 400 times for each beautifully written entry?
Did you want us to type in “Ditto?”…
Comment by Peter — 5/14/2005 @ 11:35 pm
. OK again. If you really want us to comment more, here is what you might do:
Reply more to our comments.
You see, if you don’t reply we think one of maybe two things: (1) Either you didn’t like our comment, but you are too Southern to say so; or (2) we have no idea what you would like to hear from us.
Now, that would take up more of your time. So, maybe you could put a list in the side bar of the types of things you would like us to say, and those things you don’t. If you would like us to think aloud in the keyboard, you could tell us that too. Normally, thinking aloud is annoying to people, so we don’t that. Would you like to hear our various reactions with little regard to how dumb or trivial they may be?
Comment by Peter — 5/14/2005 @ 11:40 pm
. Of course, the reason you didn’t reply to a comment we make could be the same reason we seemingly seldom reply to your entries: We agree with you and of course your entries are so definitive, how can we reply?).
Comment by Peter — 5/14/2005 @ 11:44 pm

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