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A tale of Two Countries
Author: TriSec    Date: 06/22/2021 12:01:43

Good Morning.

America has a complex relationship with our own past. Some things are noble and historic...other things, not so much.


But we'll actually start today overseas, in the land of our Teutonic allies. We've long had a complex relationship with Germany, going back to those Hessian mercenaries that once worked for King George III. After that though, much of the central part of the United States was settled by Germans. Although it's Spanish now, for a long time the foreign language most spoken in the United States was actually German.

But things change - in the 20th century, Germany was a bitter foe in two world wars. The second one in particular left Germans with a relationship to their past at least as complex as ours. They took an opposite tack; all the signs, seals, and trappings of that defeated enemy have long been illegal in Germany.

So it's with interest that I report this story - the German military has commissioned its first Rabbi in over a century.


BERLIN — The German military got its first rabbi in over a century Monday, with the inauguration to the post of Hungarian-born Zsolt Balla at a synagogue in Leipzig.

The German government in 2019 approved a proposal by the Central Council of Jews to restore religious counseling for Jews serving in the armed forces.

“This was unthinkable for decades and still can't be taken for granted,” the head of the Central Council, Josef Schuster, said. “That's why we have all reason to be happy and grateful today.”

During World War I, many Jews fought for Germany and dozens of rabbis are known to have performed pastoral work in the military. After Adolf Hitler’ came to power in 1933, the Nazis excluded Jews from all spheres of public life, later murdering millions in the Holocaust.

Schuster said Balla would ensure Jewish soldiers can serve in the military in line with their religious rules, and also teach non-Jewish soldiers about Judaism's traditions and holy days, thereby helping reduce prejudice.


It has taken them 76 years, but Germany continues to adapt and accept their tortured past while trying to make amends for what was done.

But of course, this is about us, too. Here in the United States, it's been a century and a half since we last tried to destroy ourselves. Although defeated in war, those forces that tried to overthrow the government have long been embraced by certain elements of America. The symbols of a defeated enemy are flown proudly to this day by their descendants, embraced as part of their twisted "culture", whatever that may be.

A few halting steps towards righting those wrongs have been taken in the last few years. But like everything else in These United States - you can't do a thing without a lawyer being involved somehow.


DECATUR, Ga. -- The Sons of Confederate Veterans group has sued to return a 30-foot-high (9-meter) obelisk to a site in front of a Georgia courthouse.

The monument was taken down and moved to storage last year after a judge in Decatur agreed with the city's argument that it had become a threat to public safety during protests about racism and police brutality.

The suit was filed Wednesday, two days short of a year after the monument’s removal, news outlets reported.

The group suggests that city officials colluded to get around a state law protecting historic monuments, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

It contends that the monument was not found to be a public nuisance.

DeKalb County Judge Clarence Seeliger’s ruling last year said it had become “an increasingly frequent target of graffiti and vandalism, a figurative lightning rod for friction among citizens, and a potential catastrophe that could happen at any time if individuals attempt to forcibly remove or destroy it.”

His final order, in September, said the obelisk should never be returned to the square.

“The world is full of controversy. And if we were to say anything that causes controversy is a public nuisance, that’s an endless road to go down,” attorney Walker Chandler, who filed the lawsuit, told WXIA-TV.


It is possible for enemies of the past to reconcile with each other and move on. The question is whether or not we as a country wish to do so.

Germany has decided - why can't we?



 
 

22 comments (Latest Comment: 06/22/2021 22:27:22 by livingonli)
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