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Dark Starless Nights in Bethlehem, p. 2 Just
as the attack occurred I was walking back with my water buckets and
found myself barred from going home. I tried to change direction by
taking a side street, but all streets were being blocked. Male civilians
were being grabbed off the street and loaded on trucks by armed soldiers
and police. My life was saved that terror-filled afternoon by the tearful
intervention of my 19 year-old cousin Stella, who pleaded with a young
German officer to let me pass. The
next day 330 Italians of all ages were transported by the SS to caves
known as “Fosse Ardeatine” and murdered one by one with a
single pistol, shot to the head in cold blood. The entrance to the cave
was dynamited, creating an instant mass grave. The fascist press called
that action a “justifiable" German reprisal against Italian
terrorists.” Good friends of ours - fathers and brothers of ordinary
families - perished without their families knowing what had actually
happened. The Nazis disallowed fact finding, and claimed to have killed
saboteurs, communists, and terrorists, not teachers, students, doctors,
and workers. No, the Nazis were the "good guys" who were punishing
"evil" Italian terrorists. Five
years later I arrived by ship to the United States and wept with profound
emotion upon seeing the Statue of Liberty. Few people born and raised
in a functioning Democracy are able to imagine the depth of the love
that I as an immigrant from a fascist state have always felt for America.
My
defense of this country, especially when traveling abroad, has never
wavered, even with the discrimination I endured here in my youth. I
remember being called wap, dago, and other derogatory epithets
similar to jap, nigger, and kike, but joked back and reminded
these name-calling right wing racists that Italy had contributed substantially
to their claims of being civilized. The reason I always defended my
adopted country was because I revered its magnificent governing document
and the ideals it embodied: the United States Constitution, the greatest
promise for human beings to live free under just laws and to pursue
happiness in a united and strong nation. Yes, Italy was my childhood
cradle but while my love for its culture is as much a part of me as
the Jewish culture is a part of any Jew, I would never support a Congress
or an Administration that puts the interests of Italy above the interests
of the people of the United States. Fascism
on the Rise Today Thousands
of American who died to rid Europe of fascism and nazism are turning
over in their graves, realizing in horror that in only 60 years the
American people - having become TV-brainwashed - are facing a neo-fascist
takeover of their government in broad daylight. A judicial coup financed
by a multinational energy Ponzi scheme - ENRON - and by armaments and
financial cartels helped by the lobby of a foreign nation, is trying
to establish a totalitarian dictatorship to destroy Democracy by contriving
a perennial war that may end by plunging us all in a global nuclear
catastrophe. Like deer frozen on a highway staring at approaching headlights,
the Americans people are confused and helplessly paralyzed. Meanwhile, Israel’s controlling Zionists have spread their tentacles into the Texas Ranch of the un-American pseudo-leader and are committing errors that retrograde the hard-won Jewish achievements of world acceptance, provoking increasing anti-Jewish feeling and reactions worldwide. No action has been more damaging to the Jewish community than Congress' pro-Israel measure sponsored by Senator Joe Lieberman, which passed with blatant disregard for the immense suffering of the Palestinian people. Read Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s insightful statement about this irresponsible measure. |
