Kristallnacht

It is the 72nd anniversary of Kristallnacht when Nazis burned 250 synagogues, smashed shop windows of Jewish owned businesses, and arrested thousands of Jewish men. I would like to take this opportunity to remind us all of the importance of tolerance. We should never allow our our differences to morph into bete noirs so powerful that our fear of them becomes irrational and turns into hatred. Let us preach tolerance when it comes to Muslims and mosques. we must afford homosexuals the same freedoms as every other citizen of this country. It is acceptable to criticize a president for his policies but not for the color of his skin. We must remember that the United States was a country founded by immigrants. If we allow fear to turn into hate then we open the door for atrocities to take place such as what happened on Kristallnacht 72 years ago to the day. Remember the person next to you is wonderfully unique and that is something to be praised not abhorred.

republicans

it would appear that health care for all in this country is not nearly as important as one might hope. the people have spoken, allowing the republicans to take back the house, thus affording them the opportunity to repeal the so-called obamacare. as one of the multitude of uninsured in this country, i find this dazzling sweep of stupidity offensive and frightening. yet despite the level of fear this generates, it is nothing compared to the chills up my spine sensation over the many judges voted out of office nation wide. why were these judges ousted? was it because they were corrupt or failed to uhold the law? no, it was because they failed to vote according to republican party lines in matters such as gay marriage and abortion. these judges did not vote based on personal or political bias. They actually cast their votes as a part of their job, which is to champion the freedoms guarunteed to all citizens regardless of their sexual orientation or political affiliation. it is a dark day for american justice when judges are punished for doing their jobs. if we as a populace continue to punish our judges in this way, we can expect justice to be bought and sold like so many of our other ideals are in this country. if we disagree with a judge then there are recourses. we can draft an amendment to the constitution and vote on it. DO NOT PUNISH the judges for voting according to the letter of the law just because you personally disagree with it. as a wiser person pointed out, this would be like running umpires off the field every time they made an unfavorable ruling. how long would we expect the game to continue to be played were that to occur. without the umpires, the game dissolves into chaos on the field. without the judges, american society devolves into anarchy.