Re: Gentlemen's Agreement
- From: Rumpelstiltskin <PleaseDoNotReplyByEmail@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 02:00:22 GMT
On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:14:20 -0400, Gary James
<gnjames43REMOVE@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 16:45:33 GMT, Rita <nitany_98@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 09:14:41 -0700, Islander <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Last evening my wife and I watched "Gentlemen's Agreement," 1947,
Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and John Garfield. This is a story about
a journalist played by Peck who passes himself off as a Jew to write an
article about anti-Semitism in the US. He discovers the many faces of
discrimination including the passive acceptance of people including his
fiancé played by McGuire.
I found the movie to be a powerful reminder that we are all guilty of
discrimination if we passively accept it. McGuire relates the story of
a man telling an anti-Semitic joke and how the company simply ignored
him. Garfield points out that she and the rest of the people present
are guilty of passive acceptance by not challenging him.
It is true. If we do not actively challenge those who discriminate, be
it about Jews, Moslems, Blacks, Mexicans, or Gays, we are passively
accepting discrimination. We are helping to perpetuate this ugly part
of our culture. I, for one, will no longer just kill-file or ignore
those who perpetuate discrimination in this ng. I won't be complicit.
Time to call it for what it is!
Personally, I've never let anyone get by with an anti-semitic remark
without speaking up. Once "ruined" a dinner party by doing so.
I've never done anything l like that. I always figured the people I
was dining with were pretty much as good as anyone else and that they
had a right to their opinion. Who am I to be a judge of the people
I know, love and respect ?
Oh, I judge people for things like that. I don't know when
I last heard anyone I knew, or in whose company I was, make
an anti-Jewish comment. That just isn't done in Northern California.
If I were at a political fund raising dinner where nobody knew each
other, or at an office Christmas party and someone made a rude
remark, such behavior would strike me as odd and I "might" say
something. I would be just as offended if someone said F--- as I
would be if the said N-----. To me those are both obscenities and
should not be used except among friends and equals who share your
opinions.
But among peers I would expect honesty and candor.
Honesty and candor, sure, but if they make anti-Jewish
remarks, do you still regard them as your peers?
<snip>
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom: it is the
argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves" -- Wm. Pitt the Younger
.
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