Raising My Hand

By David M. Friend

Hey, remember when micro-aggressions were all the rage?  You know, those indirect, subtle, or unintentional remarks made to a member of a marginalized group that are perceived as discriminatory?

You know, remarks like, how well an Asian American speaks English, which presumes that the person wasn’t born here.

Or the experience of Black men who are followed around in stores because they are wrongly perceived as potential thieves.

Or something as simple as saying to someone you should smile more, or you’ve lost some weight, good for you!

Well, I have to tell you, this past week, in New York City, the most diverse city in America, Jews weren’t subjected to micro-aggressions, they were clobbered with mega-aggressions.

There was that organized mob from In Our Lifetime outside the Nova Festival exhibit on Wall Street, waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags, shouting Long live the intifada, and Long live October 7th.

They screamed anti-Jewish epithets, they set off flares, they scuffled with the cops.  People viewing the exhibit were told to stay inside for their own safety.

That perverse demonstration of Jewish hatred and anti-Americanism was bad enough.  A mega-aggression for sure.

But what really triggered me this past week was the video from inside a New York City subway car as those lowlives rode from Union Square to Wall Street.  You can watch it by clicking the link below.

  https://x.com/campusjewhate/status/1800555809299935385?s=51

The masked men and women on that train shouted, Raise your hands if you’re a Zionist, this is your chance to get out.

What did they mean?  Get out or be shouted at?  Get out or be beaten up?  Get out of New York City?  Get out of the United States of America?

This took place on a New York City subway car in 2024, not in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, where right wing nationalists chanted Jews will not replace us.

It didn’t take place in the streets of Berlin in 1938.

But the message is the same.  There’s no room for Jews here.  Zionists, get out! Jews, get out!  This time you can raise your hand.  Next time we’ll sniff you out, we’ll measure your nose, we’ll force you to pull down your pants to see if you're circumcised.

I thought, what if I were on that subway car?  Would I have raised my hand and said, Hey assholes, a proud, unapologetic Zionist right here.  What’s it to you?

I think I would. I hope I wouldn’t be afraid.    

But why do I have to decide between being proud of who I am versus hiding from the haters?

Why do I have to wonder, that if I raised my hand and said, hell yeah, I’m a Zionist, would anyone sitting down, trying to mind their own business, have stood up and defended me?

Would anyone have defied these racist pigs in 2024 as the Danes did to the Nazis in World War Two, saving most of their Jewish citizens by ferrying them to nearby, neutral Sweden.

Would anyone in that subway car have spoken up for me, as President John F. Kennedy spoke up for West Berliners in 1963, who were fearful of a Soviet invasion?  Would anyone have said Ich bin ein Zionist?

Would anyone in that subway car be like that man, standing alone for freedom in China’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, courageously blocking a column of the Communist government’s tanks?

Would anyone have helped me against those keffiyeh clad, degenerate Jew haters in that New York City subway car?

And I wonder, if the time comes, when these fringe fanatics are, God forbid, no longer fringe fanatics, will anyone from inside or from outside that subway car, ferry me to safety?

On a completely different topic…

It’s now time someone important in the Democrat Party tells Joe Biden he cannot possibly run for a second term.

Have you seen him in the past couple of weeks?

At D-Day observances, he seemed frail and confused, not knowing when to stand or when to sit.

At a Juneteenth music event, he seemed to be trying to replicate Lot’s wife, standing like a pillar of hardened salt, when everyone around him was clapping and dancing.  During his speech, his voice trailed off while mouthing absolute gibberish.

This past week at the G7 summit in Italy, in the middle of a skydiving demonstration, the 81-year old president feebly wandered off until the Italian prime minister gently guided him back to the main event.

And there was that devastating Wall Street Journal article earlier this month.  More than 45 people were interviewed over several months about his mental cognizance.  Republicans and Democrats who’ve sat in on meetings with him, say respectfully that he has both good moments and bad ones.

Not exactly a rousing endorsement for the leader of the free world.

We are less than two weeks away from the first debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.  The president’s handlers may try to jack him up on Red Bulls or Prevagen for that crucial campaign event, but I think the American voters will clearly see that he’s just not mentally up for the job.

It will be obvious, that if he is re-elected, there’s no way he’ll be able to serve a full, four year term.

Can someone please convince Biden to shuffle off to retirement before this election becomes even more of a choice between the lesser of two evils?

For the good of our democratic system, Joe has to go.  The November election must be about the mega-issues facing our nation and not on the issue of which candidate can remember to gulp his Geritol.

Okay, so now, I’m showing my age.  Maybe I should run for president :)