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Hearing The Cry Of The Holocaust
An abridgement of Pope John Paul ITs words at Yad
Vashem, March 23, 2000:
T
he words of the ancient psalm rise from our
hearts: "I have become like a broken vessel. I
hear the whispering of many — terror on
every side — as they scheme together against me, as
they plot to take my life. But I trust in You, 0 Lord: I
say, 'You are my God' (Psalms 31:13-15)."
In this place of memories, the mind and heart and
soul feel an extreme need for silence. Silence in which
to remember. Silence in which to try to make some
sense of the memories which come flooding back.
Silence because there are no words strong enough to
deplore the terrible tragedy of the Shoah.
My own personal memories are of all that
happened when the Nazis occupied Poland
during the war. I remember my Jewish
friends and neighbors, some of whom perished, while
others survived. I have come to Yad Vashem to pay
homage to the millions of Jewish people who, stripped
of everything, especially of human dignity, were mur-
dered in the Holocaust. More than half a century has
passed, but the memories remain.
Here, as at Auschwitz and many other places in
Europe, we are overcome by the echo of the heart-
rending laments of so many. Men, women and chil-
dren, cry out to us from the depths of the horror that
they knew. How can we fail to heed their cry? No one
can forget or ignore what happened. No one can
diminish its scale.
We wish to remember. But we wish to remember for
a purpose, namely to ensure that never again will evil
prevail, as it did for the millions of innocent victims of
Nazism.
Dry Bones
PREDICTIONS FOR
The MIDDLE EAST?
How could man have such utter contempt
for man? Because he had reached the point of
contempt for God. Only a godless ideology
could plan and carry out the extermination of
a whole people.
The honor given to the "Just Gentiles" by
the State of Israel at Yad Vashem for having
acted heroically to save Jews, sometimes to
the point of giving their own lives, is a recog-
nition that not even in the darkest hour is
every light extinguished. That is why the
psalms and the entire Bible, though well
aware of the human capacity for evil, also
proclaims that evil will not have the last
word.
Out of the depths of pain and
sorrow, the believer's heart cries
out: "I trust in You, 0 Lord: 'I say,
You are my God' (Psalms 31:14)."
The church rejects racism in any form as a
denial of the image of the Creator inherent in
every human being.
In this place of solemn remembrance, I fer-
vently pray that our sorrow for the tragedy
which the Jewish people suffered in the 20th
century will lead to a new relationship
between Christians and Jews. Let us build a
new future in which there will be no more
anti-Jewish feeling among Christians or anti-
Christian feeling among Jews, but rather the
mutual respect required of those who adore
the one Creator and Lord and look to Abraham as our
common father in faith.
The world must heed the warning that comes to us
from the victims of the Holocaust, and from the testi-
I SEE NIGH ROPES
AND DIRE FEARS.
DEMONSTRATIONS,
DENIALS, DUPLICITY,
TRICKERY, AND
DECEPTION!
dr
EDIT ORIAL
Unhealthy Politics
T
he president has decided to expend much of
his political capital on changing Social
Security.
There isn't a chance in the world that he'll suc-
ceed. The best he can hope for is to open the debate
on how the system will be run.
That's because American voters don't focus on the
future too well. They are concerned with what's
happening right now
And what's happening right now is health insur-
ance. This is where the hammer comes down for
millions of people.
What good will reforming Social Security do if
you never make it to 65 because you can't afford
health insurance?
It is also, by the way, crippling our economy,
which should be a solid Republican issue.
The transfer of massive amounts of dollars into
non-productive channels puts American business at
a huge competitive disadvantage in global markets.
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@thejewishnews. corn.
www.drybonesprojectcom
mony of the survivors. Here at Yad Vashem the memo-
ry lives on and burns itself onto our souls. It makes us
cry out: "I hear the whispering of many — terror on
every side — but I trust in You, 0 Lord: I say, 'You are
my God' (Psalms 31:13-15)." El
This is just basic capitalism. The greatest
A Canadian-style system doesn't seem
rewards are supposed to go to those who cre-
palatable, either. It only works in Canada
ate wealth. When too much is siphoned off
because American medical care is available
to other fields — whether it's medicine, law
right across the border for those who cannot
or insurance — there is an economic distor-
wait for treatment.
tion. Much of it may end up being reinvest-
A big part of the problem was that the last
ed, but it is a clumsy and inefficient way for
attempt to straighten out this mess, overseen
the economy to function.
by Hillary Clinton, ended up as a big vat of
Essentially, that's what is happening now
goo.
It was incomprehensible to everyone.
GEO RGE
Health insurance is becoming an unsustain-
No one wants to dip into that again.
CAN TOR
able burden for American companies. They
But things have changed even since then,
Re ality
have to place more of the cost on the backs of
with more and more companies either
Ch eck
their employees, those employees who are
reducing benefits or requiring higher co-
lucky enough to work for a company that
pays.
offers coverage at all.
I'm one of those who don't care much what they
Some conservatives insist we will have to return to
do about Social Security. Despite the efforts of the
the original concept of health insurance as protec-
AARP to scare the bejabbers out of its members, my
tion from catastrophic illness or injury. But medi-
benefits are secure. I am also fairly confident that
cine has changed radically since those days. Early
my 29-year-old son-in-law, a corporate attorney, has
testing and detection are critical to treatment. Who
a much better handle on investing his money to get
will pay for that?
a high return than the government does. Turn him
It may be unkind to point out that many of these
loose, I say.
same conservatives reversed themselves completely
But when health insurance premiums are running
in the Terri Schiavo case. They tried to use the coer-
higher than a monthly lease on a Corvette, some-
cive power of government to force continuation of
thing is cockeyed. The economy would be in much
expensive medical treatment in a situation that most
better shape if the Corvette were sold, instead. ❑
physicians regarded as hopeless.
4/ 7
2005
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