I don’t have a lot of respect for Eric Holder, regardless of his skin color. I say that because the U.S. Attorney General has a history of playing the race card against his critics. Given Holder’s propensity for accusing his detractors of racial bias, I’m wary that any discussion of his policies regarding guns would somehow come back the fact that I am white. How could I possibly understand his perspective on American justice, indeed, any black man’s perspective of American justice? Well guess what? I’m going to play the Jewish card. Sort of . . .
I am a Jew. But I don’t practice. I’ve never practiced. My father emerged from his ordeal as a Nazi slave without religion. He saw too much death, disease, suffering and cruelty to believe in God. When my father learned of the Zionists’ betrayal of the Jewish people, their decision to keep the Holocaust secret to protect the proto-Israeli state, he lost his affinity for Judaism full stop. This from a man who risked his life smuggling orphaned Jewish children into Palestine.
My mother, also Jewish, lost her faith long before she met my father. I’m not sure she ever had any. It was never a source of discussion in our family; a quintet that “celebrated” Christmas by exchanging presents but ignored Chanukah. Truth be told, politics are my mother’s religion. She was – and remains – an ardent liberal, convinced that helping the helpless is the government’s proper role, regardless of the consequences.
None of that matters when it comes to my religious affiliation. My mother was Jewish so I’m Jewish. That’s how it works. My Jewishness is a tribal association rather than an expression of my personal faith or belief. That’s not to say I’m not a Jew or that I don’t have a belief system. I am and I do. I have faith in the principles that have served as a moral compass for mankind since time immemorial. Specifically, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And protect yourself from those who would do you harm.
Here’s where Eric Holder comes in.
Set aside any issue of race. If Eric Holder was, say, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent – of any race, religion, sexual orientation or creed – would he want the U.S. government to provide firearms to people who would do him harm? Would he see this as a betrayal not only of his service to his country, not only of the rules and regulations of the government that employed him, but a violation of what’s called The Golden Rule?
Mr. Holder claims he knew nothing of the government program that enabled the sale of firearms to the drug thugs who used them to gun down U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. A claim that I reject as incredible. Holder’s refusal to surrender documents relating to Fast and Furious – leading to a well-earned by never resolved Contempt of Congress citation – and his subsequent “erroneous” testimony to Congress put paid to his protestations of ignorance, Anyway . . .
Against Mr. Holder’s blatant lies regarding ATF Operation Fast and Furious, just for argument’s sake, let’s take the U.S. Attorney General at his word and put it this way: if Eric Holder and his wife lost their son in the same circumstances as Brian Terry’s bereaved parents, would he want the government to bury the truth surrounding his child’s homicide?
Politicians are masters of justification, both in private, to themselves, and in public, to those who elected or appointed them. As far as I can tell, Fast and Furious was the U.S. government’s attempt to make a case for banning “assault weapons” and/or arming a relatively weak drug cartel against a more powerful one. No doubt those responsible for Fast and Furious tell themselves that they did what they had to do for the greater good. Though foreseeable, Terry’s death was an unintended consequence of a well-intended effort. Unfortunate collateral damage.
I’m sure that the outgoing U.S. Attorney General and his staff see no problem with the Fast and Furious program’s inception, activation and the coverup. Why should the “good guys” responsible for an inadvertent bad result fall on their proverbial swords? What good could possibly come from it? The truth would only embolden America’s enemies and cater to naive voters. Ignorant Americans who oppose illegality because they don’t know that good people have to do bad things to protect good people.
That’s how men like Eric Holder roll. They believe the ends justify the means. If playing the race card protects them from their enemies, thus serving the greater good (in their minds), they throw it down like a gambler revealing a full house. The “We Will Not Speak of It” Zionists in Palestine thought the same way, failing to raise the alarm on the extermination of my father’s parents, the grandparents I never knew, who all but made it to the end of World War II.
In my mind, Eric Holder’s greatest crime – and I use that word advisedly – was his crusade against American gun rights. It’s one thing to give aid and comfort to our enemies. It’s another to try to render us defenseless against them.
By DHS directive, Agent Terry’s team was equipped with guns loaded with beanbag rounds when one or more members of a Mexican “rip crew” opened fire on the agents with U.S. government-supplied AK-47s. By the same token, U.S. AG Eric Holder has publicly stated his wish deny Americans their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Especially the “assault weapons” more-or-less placed into the hands of our enemies by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, a department that falls under his jurisdiction.
Even though I’m not a practicing Jew, even though I know there are American Jews at the forefront of the campaign for civilian disarmament, I’m a Jew. Just as Eric Holder is black, no matter what he does or doesn’t do in his personal or professional life. But more than that, I’m an American. I share the Founding Fathers’ vision of a country where the rule of law means its citizens are free to treat each other with respect. And defend themselves by force of arms against those who respect nothing save naked power. People like Eric Holder.