You Don't Expect Me to Take That From Him?

North Miami Beach, FL May 16, 2002
A.H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED

"YOU DON'T EXPECT ME TO LET HIM GET AWAY WITH THAT?"

When was the last time you heard a boy OR a girl say that about
something another said about "your mother" or about you? We are hearing
that phrase over and over again throughout the world and especially in and
about Israel and Palestine.

My memory of kids facing off and whaling at each other - usually
with damage that goes away in a few days - is that it started by one saying
something derogatory and the other giving him a chance to "take it back".
When it lays out there in its glaring unfairness and the insult is too much
to take, the battle is joined.

This is not quite the same thing as blowing people up or moving
military ordinance into towns to catch perpetrators. Yet it started in the
same way. Bitter thoughts about real or imagined slights lead to bitter
words and intemperate challenges.

I have a memory from work. A long period of uneasy mistrust began
when a misinterpretation of my role as a chairman of an important college
committee led the Union hierarchy to call me to a meeting. At that meeting
I had no one representing me or my interests and was alone facing that
hierarchy. A question was put to me about my intention to continue to flout
a convention they instituted that I considered silly. I admitted that I did
what I did and I still considered the convention silly. I was told that I
was replaced because I would not bend. Words led to other words and in anger
(where it came from, I did not know) I threw out a challenge "I'LL SUE YOU!"
This led to a period of bad feelings with me trying to get my appointment
back. I never did get it back.

Words have consequences. When you insult or the words are
perceived as an insult you never can quite go back to when all was at peace
before. The insults around the world today are bullets and bombs and
rumbling military machines. They have grave consequences. It seems
impossibly hard to take them back.

Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.