Deep, slow, breaths

[angrychair]

It’s so important that we carry the lessons of the past through to today. Merely because one group commits atrocities and acts with depravity does not mean vast hundreds of thousands or even millions of others should be lumped together with them and made to suffer[ - George Takei

Link to tweet

?s=19

My comments on this:
The anger and fear is understandable. Its normal. But take a breath. In and out. Slowly. Since the attack I have read things on this site that I would have never imagined ever seeing anywhere but far right websites.

I'll post the whole thing Mr. Takei said below. He is a man that speaks from experience of being swept up in revenge, xenophobia and racism. He spent years as a child, locked up in an American concentration camp with other Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Their only crime was their Japanese heritage. We have to be better than that. Especially Democrats. We have to be the voice of reason. Of calm. Of clarity. Hamas is the enemy. Not Palestinians. Not Muslims in general. Just Hamas.

Also, let's not forget to be nice to each other. Everyone is hurting and everyone has their own way of processing that information.
Kindness and understanding is something we desperately need more of in these horrible times, both domestically and internationally.

[KS Toronado]

1. Hope everyone reads this and learns from history

[Skittles]

16. the people who NEED to read it will not

that's usually how it works

[1WorldHope]

2. Thank you for your wise words. There really has been a lot of hostility here.

Fuck war, fuck bombs, fuck hatred. There are no winners in war. If there are, it's a handful of rich men who have no moral compass.

[CaptainTruth]

4. +100

[Dave says]

22. +1,000,000,000

[MiHale]

3. These are the times people should strive to be their best...

Thank you for a great post.

[Sky Jewels]

5. And let's not forget that the United States

has committed several acts of mass terrorism, including slaughtering and maiming untold tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.

We have no high horse to get up on.

[Magoo48]

8. Yes, there is no moral high ground in the US to stand upon. Never has been.

[malaise]

37. THIS

Ask the Vietnamese or the Iraqis

[spike jones]

38. One matching example is the My Lai massacre.

About 500 men, women, children and babies killed, women and children raped before being murdered.
And no one really was punished for doing it.
Read "Kill Everything That Moves."
58,000 American soldiers killed in the war, but about 3,000,000 Viet Nam killed, mostly civilians.
Moral high ground? American stands in a deep, deep bloody hole.

[Sky Jewels]

39. It sure hurts to think about that and our role

as murderous terrorists on a massive scale. Damn. Humans (especially males) are capable of inflicting such horrors on other humans and animals.

[ismnotwasm]

6. Hamas is literally a terrorist organization

The Israeli government is a very peculiar blend of religion and democracy. They give nebulous interest in the idea of a Palestinian state when it is politically advantageous but no real action, letting human rights violations grow.

Hamas denies Israel very right to exist. They want war. They want destruction. Now they got it.

My heart is broken for all the people. For all of us.

[Magoo48]

10. And, what is the Israeli military when they bulldoze Palestinian homes in front of children.

Is this not terrifying?

This is all cause and effect. For decades easily documented atrocities build up. Periodically they blow up.

[ismnotwasm]

15. I have a couple of work buddies from Israel

Hamas does shit like set up strikes to Israel from schoolyards, hoping for retaliation. There are no winners here.

[Cyrano]

7. No Japanese Americans celebrated in Times Square after Pear Harbor.

George, I love you and your wisdom. But the two situations are not comparable.

Having said this, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been going on for 75 years now. And though I wish that the conflict, suffering and mutual hatred would come to an end, it won't happen anytime soon. And, unfortunately, this situation is going to get a lot uglier before it gets better. It's really depressing.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

20. All lumped together ... is exactly what was being warned against...pause.

All lumped together if foreign place….seems to be the go to mindset…anything else requires thought and evidence and logic…maybe have to debate someone!!….no thanks!!,…will stick to social media memes and their solid reporting and fact free…theories…??!…the past wrongs of social media are ok and forgiven …if it’s war!!

[SickOfTheOnePct]

26. I agree

Not comparable situations at all.

Japanese-Americans weren’t celebrating the attack on Pearl Harbor. And Japanese Americans didn’t show open support for the Japanese government.

Palestinians have done both.

[Warpy]

9. Don't forget, Hamas also runs the hospitals, food distribution,

and other social services in Gaza. It's their government, period, so declaring war on it in general is a losing proposition. The problem, as always, is with their military wing. In addition, no one knows the exact structure of the group, the who's who, and whether or not there's much contact between the civilian government and the military.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

21. Hamas and IDF are terrorists groups killing civilians to see who has the bigger dicks! Evil v.evil...

Why complicate these simple things??

[Torchlight]

40. One might as easily ask, "why over-simplify the complex and layered?"

Convenience?

[Ligyron]

11. IDK, there sure seemed to be a lot of citizens cheering on and abusing captives.

Do we drag our captured al qaeda prisoners through the streets like they do? How many Americans would come out to cheer on this barbaric behavior and abuse the captives along the way as well?

I understand even their textbooks teach hatred for Americans as well as the citizens of Israel.

[maxrandb]

14. The January 6 crowd would have paraded Nancy Pelosi and AOC through the streets

and would have hung Mike Pence from a DC bridge like a scene out of Felugia. 30% of the American people would have cheered.

Hell, the "good" people of Virginia could still smell the smoke, teargas and blood waifting across the Potomac when they elected members of the violent insurrection party to their three highest statewide offices.

Do you think it matters to a mother if her child is beheaded by a sword, or a cruise missile?

Putin has been doing to Ukraine for 18 months what Hamas did in Israel, and one entire political party and 40+% of the American people are on his side.

I'd be careful about underestimating the cruelty, violence and depravity of your fellow Americans.

[Progressive dog]

17. How many hostages did the rioters on jan 6 take?

How many people did they kill? How many national guardsmen refused to come?
How many police from Gaza tried to stop the rocket attacks ever?
There is no comparison between the actions of the good people of Virginia and the Hamas supporting people of Gaza.

[maxrandb]

24. Well, there were 5 police officers and a crazy lady who tried to get to the Speakers Office

and just because they were "mostly" unsuccessful doesn't change the fact that they would have killed as many people as they got their hands on if given the chance. Thank God our security was a lot better than Bibi's.

I wish we were as outraged about 5 and 6 year old kids getting their brains blown out and their torsos blown in half in CT and TX, as we are about this.

January 6 should have brought seething outrage from 90% of Americans, and the "current" Retrumplican Party should have been a pariah. Instead, just like after the Civil War, the very fucking people that tried to violently destroy our country were back in power mere months later.

Find some new sources for news, because it took me a second to google and find quite a few citizens of Gaza protesting against Hamas over the past decade.

The leader of the Retrumplican Party is a fascist and a terrorist. Until they denounce him and repute him, their party is a fascist terrorist party.

I for one will listen to multiple sources about the depraved terrorists that attacked Israel. One source, where I won't give two shits about what they have to say about it, is the Retrumplican Party.

[Progressive dog]

25. I'm sure that all google sources

are honest and trustworthy, at least when they share my views. That's why I don't take anyone's word for their existence or truthfulness.

[quakerboy]

29. Guantanamo

Is literally still open with our hostages in place.

Not to mention allthe others. Recall Abu ghraib?

How do our textbooks treat the Muslim world? Or, more relevant lyrics, how do you think it would treat the Muslim world if they were the main financial and military supporter of our topmost opponent country?

[onecaliberal]

31. Uhm, we tortured them. Some are still locked up. Not a good comparison.

[calimary]

12. This. Especially your last paragraph, angrychair.

“Also, let's not forget to be nice to each other. Everyone is hurting and everyone has their own way of processing that information.
Kindness and understanding is something we desperately need more of in these horrible times, both domestically and internationally.”

Totally and absolutely. At a time like this, everyone is hurting.

[burrowowl]

13. K&R

[Staph]

18. A tangential comment....

You all need to read George Takei's book, They Called Us Enemy. It's a graphic memoir, suitable for children and riveting for adults.

[Pinback]

28. Wow. Visceral.

Thanks. I will look for this book. Love George Takei.

[littlemissmartypants]

19. Where's the 'whole thing"...?

[Xavier Breath]

23. K&R.

[roamer65]

27. George is a national treasure.

[greblach]

30. Yes! NT

[onecaliberal]

32. K&R

[geardaddy]

33. Here's the whole quote for those who can't see it on Twit-X

When I was a little boy, the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor. It was a surprise attack, and thousands of U.S. servicemembers perished. As a nation, we were stunned. And we vowed to strike back. Revenge was understandably on everyone’s mind, including many Americans of Japanese descent who opposed the emperor and were peaceful and law-abiding U.S. citizens and residents.

In its zeal to exact that revenge, however, the U.S. government overreacted, out of fear and bigotry. They targeted everyone who happened to look like the people who had carried out the attack. Those of us who had done nothing wrong were forced to pay the consequences for the decisions of others far away and disconnected from us. We were interned for years, in open-air prisons, while America went off to fight Japan, Germany and Italy.

It’s so important that we carry the lessons of the past through to today. Merely because one group commits atrocities and acts with depravity does not mean vast hundreds of thousands or even millions of others should be lumped together with them and made to suffer. We must never paint with the brush of justice and retaliation too broadly, or the toll of human suffering will rise immeasurably.

[BlueMTexpat]

35. THIS!!!!!

Thank you for your post!

[bdamomma]

36. K&R

thank you for your post. We shall overcome!