By any standard, the resignation of an American president ought not be the cause of anything but sadness. And not only was I sad to hear of the resignation [and by the way, Howie, I cried when Nixon defeated Hubert Horatio Humphrey, which led to the gradual but continual moral slide of the Democratic Party], but I was [also] sad about the chorus of glee. Hearing this I asked myself what had become of Jewish sensitivity and opined that there was no such reaction at our brother non-Jewish camps [which at subsequent athletic events I confirmed with coaches and/or staff].
I've just returned from a Peace Corps conference in Chicago where one of the sessions was entitled "Understanding Islam", moderated by a volunteer who had served in Yemen but whose four participants claimed to reflect the spectrum of the 6-7 million Moslems in America. They were, indeed, steadfast and proud, leading me to compare their present voting inclinations chronologically with the 2000 election [when, Howie, I voted for Gore, and, despite the "moral slide" for Clinton in an earlier race] and "ethno-culturally" with the Jewish community.
In 2000 the pollsters concluded that 80% of Jews voted for the Democratic ticket while 80% of Moslems went Republican. Now, apparently, the figure is 75%, but with both communities going for Kerry-Edwards. Why, I asked myself, were four out of five Moslems able to adjust to a changed reality but only one out of twenty Jews? I am tempted to say "because Moslems are more intelligent and/or pragmatic", but that could be termed racist. But if so [and notwithstanding the ability to extrapolate from a sample of 1,000 how 100,000,000+ will vote], racist for or against whom?
With [continued] sadness [not to mention disappointment]
Your Unc
mark@lgpltd.com