Editor:
In response to the “Lemmings” letter (Mailbox, Jan. 16), while it’s true that history is full of instances of people supporting leaders against their own interests, extrapolating from that that Jews didn’t fight back and the Palestinians in Gaza didn’t resist is short-sighted and completely erroneous when looking at the reality. It is a viewpoint from a place of never having your life, those of your loved ones and community at stake if you resist.
Jews during Nazism were faced with brutal fascism. If you resisted, not only would you be murdered but so would everyone you loved. And allies were few. Yet, Jews staged armed resistance and in ways big and small gave their lives to save others. But the whitewashing of history says the Jews walked off like lambs to the slaughter. Typical victim-blaming and letting the perpetrators off the hook for their heinous crimes. (See the film Resistance: They Fought Back.)
Palestinian people in Gaza were facing an armed group and the huge might of the Israeli military. How were they supposed to resist? And again, in ways big and small, they did and are. They asked for U.N. protection and more. The same lies and BS have been told about Black and Native people’s history in this country and, now again, demonizing immigrants.
I agree that lies being lauded constantly as truth makes organizing an alternative movement extremely difficult and now we have a system that is run by oligarchs and wealth for the few. This cannot be sustained.
Possibly we will replace it with a society that lives within the bounds of the ecosystem and places the well-being of the planet and all its beings first. Maybe not. Building compassionate, supportive and responsive community now is a start.
Lynn Kerman, Arcata
This article appears in The Humboldt County Fair is at a Crossroads.