Still Waiting for Reparations

My father was Jewish, my mother was Protestant. I am, therefore, not a Jew by strict Jewish law, and in fact I took Jesus into my heart late in my life. My Christianity is a private matter; I am no evangelist. I am proud of my Jewish heritage and cherish my Jewish friends. No, this is not a religious rant, so my secularist friends can just calm down. This Is A Political Rant Today is the first day of Passover. The definition of Passover: Pesach (Passover) begins on the night of the fifteenth day of the month of Nissan and lasts for eight days. This holiday commemorates the departure of the nation of Israel from Egypt. Pesach marks the birth of the Jewish people as a nation led by Moshe (Moses) [about 3,300]years ago. This is a as much a celebration of our spiritual freedom as the physical liberation from slavery. (More information at http://www.torah.org/learning/yomtov/pesach/) Let's repeat that last line: "This is a as much a celebration of our spiritual freedom as the physical liberation from slavery." Yes, slavery! See, folks, nobody has a monopoly on suffering. Virtually all of us have slaves somewhere in our lineage, whether it was 143 years ago or 3,300 years ago. No Reparations from Egypt The enslavement of the Jews in Egypt ended over 3,000 years ago. They were slaves in Egypt for centuries. Leaving Egypt, they walked into a desert of uncertainty, fear, hard times. Three thousand years of persecution and numerous attempts to wipe all of them out awaited. Yet somehow, the Jews recently produced Albert Einstein. They had no welfare programs waiting for them, no affirmative action plans to help them, and to this day Egypt has not paid one penny of reparations. Egypt has never apologized for enslaving the Jews. The Egyptians did not kill half a million of their own to free the Jews, and there sure as hell were no equal rights laws or voting rights amendments waiting for them. Get Back To Me in 3,000 Years I was walking down Morse Avenue a few months ago with a friend. He and I are both white. As we passed a group of five or six young guys, one of them told us to get the f*** off the street. "Come back after you pay us reparations, honky," he said. Tell you what, friend. We'll talk about reparations for you in another 3,000 years. Let's see if you've produced an Einstein by then. In the meantime, I check my mailbox everyday, looking for a check from the Egyptian government. Perhaps Jesse Jackson will get involved and urge them to make reparations to a people so wronged so long ago. Perhaps.