8 | JULY 4 • 2024
J
N
essay
Please, Don’t Talk to Me
about Politics!
P
lease, don’t talk to me
about politics! I just
can’t hear it anymore.
There’s nothing new to say.
We are stuck on repeat.
Please, don’t talk to me
about politics! Instead, I want
to talk about how to live in a
better world, a saner world, a
heart-centered
world. Or, at
least, how it
feels to live in
this one.
I want to
talk about how
much it hurts to
see the world on
fire. I want to talk about how
wrong it is that our children
pay the price for all our adult
insanity. I want to talk about
how helpless I feel and even
how guilty. How is it that I get
to live such a good life while
others suffer? How is it that I
was lucky to be born here and
they were unlucky to be born
there? I didn’t do anything
to deserve it. They didn’t do
anything to deserve it. Life
shouldn’t be such a crapshoot.
And, if you have to talk to
me about politics, don’t talk
to me about the past. Let’s be
forward-thinking, future-
facing. Will somebody please
come up with a real solution
here?
If you have to talk about
political figures, I’m almost
begging you please, please
don’t talk to me about Trump.
I could live the rest of my life
without hearing the name
Putin as well.
If you must talk to me about
political figures, talk to me
about Anne Frank, Desmond
Tutu and Yitzhak Rabin.
Talk to me about Mahatma
Gandhi, Martin Luther King
and Harriet Tubman. Talk to
me about every person that
dared use their great imagi-
nation to solve the impossible
problems of their time. I only
want to hear from people who
believe that life is worth living
and that the future is going
to be beautiful. Bring me the
wildly optimistic and the
unabashedly hopeful.
Please, just don’t talk to
me about politics. I know the
house is divided. I know that
the world is in filibuster. I
know that they’ve been invad-
ed, ripped out of their homes
and God, my God, I know
that my brothers and sisters
are still living in the bowels
of Gaza in some godforsaken
tunnel. So that’s why you have
to stop talking to me about
politics! We just can’t live this
way anymore! I refuse to live
this way anymore.
Someday, I’m going to die
and fly away from here.
Until then, I’ve got to find a
way to make the world more
livable.
Let’s be clear. I’m not
calling for a ceasefire. I’m
going much further. I want
an International Day of
Mourning. I want it old-
school shivah style — where
you sit on the floor to mourn
the dead — mothers hold-
ing mothers, fathers holding
fathers — and children play-
ing outside throwing balls
over the fence and catching
them back from the other
side.
I want to spend the whole
day howling at the sun and
the moon, pleading with
Mother Earth to show us how
to be reborn.
I want to turn off the world
like I do my computer —
restart. Reboot, clear out all
the old programs so that we
can process again.
Come on people! We
invented the nuclear bomb!
We can send people to the
moon! Let’s use our imagi-
nation here. Are you actually
telling me that we are going to
land on Mars before we make
peace on Earth? Does any-
body else think that this is a
waste of human potential?
Is anybody out there?
Anybody? If you’re hearing
this from another planet and
you’ve got a better way — now
is the time to step forward.
Please don’t talk to me
about politics. Talk to me
about love. How much you
love your children, your dogs,
the way the sunlight makes
the lake dance or the taste of
your grandmother’s recipes.
Talk to me like your grand-
mother talked to you when
you were little. Reassure me.
Make me laugh. Hand me
sugar cookies. Wrap me so
deeply and so entirely in your
love that nothing else but
peace feels possible.
Rabbi Tamara Kolton, Ph.D., is an
independent rabbi, psychologist,
author and feminist mythologist. As a
rabbi for over 20 years in the Detroit
community, Rabbi Kolton has shared
life’s greatest joy and deepest sorrow
with thousands of people.
PURELY COMMENTARY
continued from page 7
Rabbi
Tamara
Kolton, Ph.D.
lighting a proud Jew-hater
validates a growing interna-
tional trend of hypocrisy. By
giving a platform to bigotry
and censoring Jewish voices,
the venue and its owners not
only disrespected the Metro
Jewish community, but also
sent the message that social
justice doesn’t matter for the
Jewish people.
They would rather embolden
extremists like Seales, who
regurgitates some of the most
venomous attacks against
Jews in her performances.
Giving Seales the stage will
warrant consequences, as
her fan base and those who
attended unfamiliar with
her controversies will feel
emboldened to dehumanize
Jewish people online and in
public spaces. We must hold
institutions accountable for
their actions and fight for a
society where Jew-hatred, or
any form of bigotry, has no
place. There is nothing funny
about Jew-hatred.
Adar Rubin is director of mobilization at
#EndJewHatred.
Correction
In “JBAM Honors Legal
Achievers” (June 20, page 36),
the reported quote from Judge
Mark Goldsmith contained an
error. Judge Goldsmith’s cor-
rect words are:
“
As Jewish judges and law-
yers we have not simply an
opportunity, but an obligation,
to teach the centrality of kind-
ness and justice through our
commitment to the law.
“My lifetime in the law
teaches me that this our best
hope for unifying our very
contentious planet and trans-
forming it into a peaceful one.”