Daily Blues & Views

 With the war between Israel and Hamas has come a huge rise of antisemitism.  That’s less surprising than the fact that hatred toward Semitic people is as old as time. Lost in the current strife is the fact that both Arab and Jewish people are considered Semitic. It comes down to the language groups originally spoken by people who historically hail from the Middle East. But when we speak about antisemitism and its rise, we’re talking about hatred and prejudice directed toward Jews. In a complex situation like Palestinian and Israeli land claims and rights, the situation is further complicated. How alike and how dissimilar are these people? Isn’t it true that some Israelis and Palestinians have lived side by side peacefully for decades?  Nevertheless, hatred toward Jews and the vicious stereotypes that often accompany it is very much alive and on the rise. For some, it’s a matter of indolence. Too lazy to change their thinking about the old tropes. Thus when an elderly gue...

 Timothy Egan has done it again.  This writer is an American treasure.  His books cover essential topics from America's past that resonate today and allow for historical perspective that is needed and necessary. In A Fever in the Heartland, Egan traces the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in middle America.  When we think of the notorious Klan, most of us automatically think of the South.  But shortly after World War I, with the country in the throes of a postwar moral dilemma, the infamous Klan rose to prominence and swelled its ranks in the states of Ohio and Indiana.  We are talking of a membership in the hundreds of thousands. Under the direction of a few prominent personalities the Klan leadership first co-opted the Protestant Church and its ministers. Then it went on to recruit and bribe various political officials from members of Congress to local politicos and judges, law enforcement agencies, and any other decision-making entity that might be of use. ...