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Staying Awake To Our Dreams

First in a series on the crucial issues that American
Jews should consider in the Nov. 2 presidential election.

N

ext year in Jerusalem — that used to be a
dream. Now it is a reality. But we still hold the
vision close to our hearts and work to keep it a
possibility for all Jews everywhere.
So should it be for us as voters in the United States.
We need to keep vital the promise of the American
dream, a vision of a just and harmonious society where
every individual is entitled to the same opportunities
for happiness and success.
We need to think about which candidates will do
more to further the dream of a land of opportunity
and equality, of freedom and mutual respect.
Listening to George W. Bush and John E
Kerry and reading their parties' platforms
gives reasons both for hope and for concern.
Kerry's economic populism and faith in a national
government's ability to deal with the big social prob-
lems is clearly closer to the historic positions that most
American Jews have held. From our immigrant past
and its movement into trade unionism, we were long
the "little guys" who needed protection from the
entrenched economic power of our big corporate
employers.
But as discrimination against Jews has faded in
America over the last half century and as Jews have
moved ever higher in social standing, we have found
that we need less the governmental protections that we
once embraced.
Now the "ownership society" that Bush says he want
to further seems to resonate for many of us, particular-
ly when we think about its opportunities in economic
terms, about how well so many of us live and how

much we may want to give to our children. The
Jews of America who once embraced socialism
and communism have largely come round to the
capitalism that Bush embraces.
Notably, the gap between rich and poor is
greater than ever and the middle class is shrink-
ing rapidly. Because America has been so good
to the Jews, and so many of us have been or
remain a part of the middle class, we must work
to preserve and strengthen it for the good of the
nation.
Achieving the American dream will always
require some government action to counterbal-
ance the excesses of capitalism, a concept not
unique to Democrats. Republican
Theodore Roosevelt was the champi-
on of government regulations to break
up the trusts.
Reasonable people can disagree about whether
this government regulation or that one hampers
or strains the entrepreneurial spirit. What is not
in doubt is the need for some intermediate force
— government — between the corporations,
the workers and consumers.
Kerry and the Democratic platform offer
more hope as the intermediate force than Bush
and the Republicans. The last four years have
been notable for the administration's haste to
discard many worthwhile rules and regulations
in the areas of labor, agriculture, energy, health and
commerce. The administration has seriously failed to
enforce civil requirements on large companies or to
seek criminal sanctions against rapacious business lead-
ers. The wholesale abandonment of regulation has hurt
individuals and damaged environments without pro-

EDIT ORIAL

Carefully Taught

T

his is the time of the season when our
thoughts turn to the positive side: a new start
in the new year and an effort to move closer to
what we want ourselves to be.
We recite the familiar prayers, and they take on a
fresh meaning. But, even then, the realities of our
uncertain world intrude.
In the Shema, we are instructed to love God with all
our heart, all our soul and all our might; to speak of
this when we lay down and when we rise up; and to
teach it diligently to our children.
Most of us learned these words at an age so young
that we cannot recall a time when we did not know
them.
The sages understood that when they are planted in
the mind of a child, in all likelihood, they will remain
there for the rest of his life.
Unfortunately, that works both ways. Many educa-
tors have warned us of the textbooks that are used in
the Palestinian elementary schools. They contain words

George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@thejewishnews.com

Dry Bones ",„P ry ,f

THE STRUGGLE
OVER THE GAZA
PULLOUT COULD
BE DANGEROUS

THIS COULD END
IN VIOLENCE!

TRUE.

ee

Pb

ARE YOU
LISTENING UP
THERE?!

HEAVEN
FORBID!

YUP.

rV

0

ducing any measurable economic improvement.
Government programs and rules are not the sole
path to realizing the American dream, but they are a
necessary part of it. On that score, Kerry comes closer
than Bush to understanding what government needs to
be and to do. 0

the "sacrifices" he made for his people.
that are intended to inflame passions against
Remember, these are people who chose to
Israelis and against all Jews.
flee,
and yet the indoctrination of their child-
Those children, too, are taught diligently,
hood was so strong that it kept calling them
but the lesson they learn is that it is right and
back to revere the Dear Leader.
admirable to hate; and when they get a little
The author calls this the infantilization of
older, a martyr's death that takes the lives of
the North Koreans, a condition in which their
these enemies is an end devoutly to be sought.
political outlook has been permanently mold-
We want to believe that peace can come
ed into that of a child.
between Israel and the Palestinians and that
GEORGE
Doesn't that also describe what has been
somehow the two can live as neighbors. If not in CANTOR
done to the Palestinians by their leaders? They
complete amity then, at least, in respect for each
Reality
are encouraged to remain in a state of implaca-
other's lives.
Check
ble rage against a demonized enemy who wish-
But how many generations of Arab children
es them harm.
have these lessons implanted in their brains? Is it
They have read this in their schoolbooks and told it
reasonable to expect that they can be overcome in their
by their religious leaders. They have spoken of it
lifetime?
repeatedly among friends. They have been taught dili-
Still, I was hopeful, until I read an account of an
gently.
encounter with a North Korean family that had man-
Someday, Yasser Arafat will pass from the scene, and
aged to escape to the South. They were asked to
the
Palestinians may come to realize that they have
express their feelings about Kim Il Sung, the late dicta-
been held in thrall by a gang of corrupt cutthroats who
tor who turned his country into a massive, barren
betrayed their cause.
prison.
They may understand this on the level of conscious
Even in freedom, however, they still thought of him
thought. But will the lessons drummed into them as
as their Parent-Leader. The mother, a stylish cosmetics
children ever entirely leave their heads?
saleswoman, had tears in her eyes when she recalled

ear

9/17
2004

39