A few words about antisemitism / Poem: Nazi Waters

Anne Frank (1929-1945)
Born in Frankfurt, Germany, died in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, northwestern Germany

At noon today, the Metropolitan Opera Co., under the direction of James Levine, is performing live the Wagner opera, Die Walküre.

I'm listening to it right now. I'm a huge fan of Richard Wagner (1813-1883) despite the fact that he was a noted antisemite and even wrote essays on how the Jews are inferior people. From Wiki:

The essay attacked Jewish contemporaries (and rivals) Felix Mendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer, and accused Jews of being a harmful and alien element in German culture. Wagner stated the German people were repelled by Jews' alien appearance and behaviour: "with all our speaking and writing in favour of the Jews' emancipation, we always felt instinctively repelled by any actual, operative contact with them." He argued that because Jews had no connection to the German spirit, Jewish musicians were only capable of producing shallow and artificial music. They therefore composed music to achieve popularity and, thereby, financial success, as opposed to creating genuine works of art.

Since I'm not writing a doctoral dissertation on the subject, lemme just write a quick theory I have about why people are racists.

It's in our genes and it's taught by our families, contemporaries and our nations.

In the good ole USA, we hated immigrants who were, in order, more or less, Germans, Italians, Jews, Irish, Chinese, Koreans and other southeast Asians, Indians, Pakistanis, Mexicans, South Americans, Haitians, not to mention other dark-skinned people from Africa.

In this fabulous melting pot, prejudice abounds. And I'm not even talking about the prejudice toward people like myself, with mental illness!

Now take a look outside your window. Next door I see Scott's birdfeeder.

The birds always fight for the food. Their main concern in life is finding food to feed themselves and their little ones. They have no idea what the future will bring. Will there be food tomorrow?

Scott's birds are hopeful. If the food is gone, they linger in the grass and the trees, waiting. And then descend in some sort of pecking order.

Sound familiar?

Well, guess what? There's always enough food to feed the robins, the sparrows, the cardinals, blujays, doves, and the dodo birds.

Oops, they're extinct. They didn't make the cut.

Now doesn't that say something about our DNA? Predators and prey. Strong and weak. Does might make right? Apparently it does in this still-evolving world.

I am fascinated about the Nazis as well as Joseph Stalin. Every night my horrible lullaby is one documentary after another about these monsters of evil.

I fall asleep to either Alice in Wonderland up against the Queen of Hearts' "off with your head" or the monstrous cruelties perpetrated by our 20th century tyrants.

In the documentary Behind Closed Doors, which quotes newly unclassified WW2 documents, I learned that Hitler's goal was World Domination, while Stalin's was simply the wielding of personal power.

When I got married in 1970, I think, and traveled down to East Texas to meet my husband's kin, I knew they had never met a Jew before.

Yes, said my mother/law, Margie Vivian Smith Deming, still alive at 91, her farm people did not like the Jews.

They were probly like ole Richard Wagner. Altho exhorting against the Jews, Wagner had many colleagues who he loved who were Jewish.

I certainly think they respected, if not loved me.

End of abstract for my dissertation.

But, why, I wonder, all this fascination with brutality? Am I preparing myself for the afterlife when I will become Brutal Ruthie?

I was brutal only 15 minutes ago. A black ant sauntered across my computer screen.

Where did you come from, I thot, and knowing when there's one, there may be more, I grabbed the juicy little fellow, squooshed him in my fingers, and tossed him in the wastebasket.

A huge unseen giant crushing another being.

Is God a merciful god or a sadist?

Here's a poem I wrote a few years ago.


NAZI WATERS

Cap may forcefully eject.
Point away from face and people when opening.
Product of Germany.

This is my toast
to the chastened people of Germany:
we have all made mistakes
not quite like yours
but yes we are mortal
and allow the ocean of time
to staunch the flow of hurt.

My nimble fingers
bring you from the shelf
to my kitchen
naturally sparkling from the
underground pools
of your vast lands
where Ludwig stood
and marked the
passage of time
drank deeply
loved carelessly
his fire embedded in
symphonies of
granite rivaling
the birds.

I twist off your cap
so like a head
and pour you,
waters of the Rhineland,
into my glass:
merry bubbles
splash my face

is that you, Anne Frank
pushing a baby carriage
across Tristan’s fair land?
your father beside you
hand on your hair
We made it through, proud daughter,
and dwell together
in a finer land.

I’ve chosen to
become one with my people
their skulls and shinbones
lying concealed in mass graves
nothing ever disappears
their bones and juices
still draining after all these years
to lend flavor and legend
to the underground spring

I drink
deeply
heartily
willingly
the sorrows of my people
and have forgiven my captors
ordinary people
bewitched in gaunt times.

I hold up my glass:
water
so forgiving
uncomplaining
a river of joy
the simplest wish of all
I’m thirsty
Drink
and let
joy reign
through
our veins
as my people’s sorrow
become me
with every sweet swallow
circling my heart
my loins
and my toes.