Lightening the mood… May 7, 2008

Yeah, life’s been crazy… what else is new?

In so many ways, it seems like we’ve been in Arizona forever, and in other’s it’s hard to believe it’s already been two months – heck, over two months…

In that time, I’ve started a new job, we’ve (mostly) unpacked the house, repainted the bedroom, torn down a wall, taken a jacuzzi outside, rebuilt the wall – and windows, and door – repaired drywall, plastered, primed and painted that room, shopped for a rug to cover the nasty stains on the linoleum (that isn’t getting replaced because our home repair budget doesn’t permit flooring just yet!), tried to stay on top of weeding the overgrown yard (who knew a desert scape could get overgrown?), tried to carve out the “usual” house keeping, grocery shopping, cooking, living, etc, all while getting used to a 45-hour work week (what the hell was I thinking when I took this job?), and oh so much more.

My writing – outside of work, that is – has fallen down the tubes to say the least!

My picture taking has followed it… And there are several pics sitting in my camera waiting to be downloaded and ’shopped.

But I had to share my weekend (and it’s only Wednesday! Wow, I’m finally getting to Sunday’s activities?)

You see, when we got this place, we knew right away that awful jacuzzi-in-the-family-room thing had to go. And go it did (look back for my home projects…) We also knew what we would put in its place…

A pool table.

And so – we investigated inexpensive tables. And The BF hated them. They didn’t “play” right.

And so – we investigate used tables.

And I hated them. Plus it seemed silly. By the time you bought the table, paid to have it moved, paid to have it refelted and rebumpered, plus bought new balls, cues, etc, you were almost to the price of a new table, but you had no warranty.

And so – we shopped. And we bought. In fact, we bought this table, custom done with burgundy felt. It’s a gorgeous piece in that room. (I need to take pics!)

But before we got that, I saved some money.

I found a furniture shop having a going out of business sale, they were selling their display rugs at dirt cheap prices. I found a beautiful area rug, 8×11, gorgeous, and typically priced at $550.

Wanna guess what I paid for that rug? Try $62. Yep. That’s it. Mind you, it doesn’t offset the price of that damn pool table, but I’ll save a buck (or a few hundred of them) when I can.

Oh yeah, I don’t even know how to play pool. The BF is teaching me.

Standing not silent – Yom HaShoah May 2, 2008

“The civilized world stands revolted by a bloody pogrom against a defenseless people. Every instinct in us cries out in protest against the outrages which have taken place in Germany during the last five years and which sank to new depths in the organized frenzies of the last few days. . . . If you saw a gang of cowardly ruffians set upon a helpless man in a public street and proceed to beat him, you wouldn’t long remain silent. If you saw a fanatical mob pillage and burn a church or a synagogue you wouldn’t long remain silent. If you saw a brutal band drive helpless families from their own homes, you would speak out, and promptly.” ~Thomas E Dewey, November, 1938

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,760309,00.html

http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/dor/years/detail.php?content=2008

April 27 – May 4 marks the Days of Remembrance, set aside by the US Congress as our nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust.

Friday, May 2 marks Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Memorial

This isn’t your typical “holiday” filled with commercialism and parties. This is a solemn day of remembrance, of mourning. Whether you have family who were lost in the Holocaust, family who survived the horrors, or have no familial connection at all, it’s a day to mourn those lost and to make a solemn promise of “never again.”

As the atrocities fade further and further into the past, as living survivors becomes more and more rare, it become ever more important to remember the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

When I was in school, we studied World War II and the Holocaust simultaneously. Many of my teachers were old enough that the scar was still fresh, the wound still bleeding, and the pain still very real. Years passed and I had children of my own; I was surprised when in their first World History classes, my children barely heard of the Holocaust, that this incredible atrocity was mentioned only in passing, then brushed aside as “covered.”

Actually, surprised is too bland a word. I was shocked, stunned into disbelief, and outraged. The curriculum gave more coverage to Cinco de Mayo, a cultural festival marking the anniversary of Mexican troupes defeating the French and commonly mistaken for Mexican Independence Day

(which it isn’t – that would be September 16).

They spent an entire week covering Cinco de Mayo, but all of 10 minutes on the Holocaust? Shall we discuss the conversation I had with the school regarding that particular curriculum choice?

Unfortunately, memories dim. Years pass and wounds turn into rapidly fading scars, soon to be forgotten.

Despite numerous survivors’ testimonies, despite the Nuremburg trials, despite evidence to the contrary, there are those who downplay the Holocaust. There are those who claim Auschwitz wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it was made out to be and the estimate of lives lost is overstated. There are those who claim the genocide never happened. Some even go so far as to claim the Holocaust is an elaborate hoax.

While today those attitudes may seem extreme, in just a few year’s time, it will become easier and easier to believe – with no living survivors to continue telling the tale, with schools no longer teaching on the Holocaust, who will there be to stand and speak up?

When there are no longer those who can say, “It happened” there will no longer be those to say, “and it will never happen again.”