i don't get it!

When my mother finally recognized she was indeed a senior adult at the age of 83, she decided that maybe participating in senior adult activities at the Pittsburgh JCC would not be so bad after all. Her kids had begged her to meet other people, take classes, eat lunch and spend time out of the house, knowing that any activity would be helpful and healthful for her. A few weeks into attending classes and activities at the JCC, when asked how things were going, my mother would say, "...Kids, there are three groups of seniors at the JCC, the Go-go's, the Go slows, and the No goes." The Go-go's are the cool ones the Go slows kind of invisible, and the No go's ignored. Somehow, she added even as we get old and are a minority within our own group there are some who continue to hate.

Growing up in Pittsburgh, the major Jewish community of Squirrel Hill had within its boarders certain locations of streets where once you proclaimed your address you were considered well to do, not so well to do or poor. The better the zip code somehow the better person you were supposed to be. The Pittsburgh Jewish community also had two country clubs which were predominately Jewish by membership ( there had been restrictions for membership denying Jews, Blacks, some Catholics and animals prior to this), and one in particular which when joining an annual membership of $10,000 was your fee. Membership to this country club meant you were rich, better, bigger, and anyone else was poor. The Jews in Pittsburgh were plenty, but in the scheme of things we were still a minority. And yet within that minority a pecking order based on nothing more than how much money your father earned or inherited, permitted some to discriminate against people just like them.

Black ministers from across the nation are banding together to rally against same sex marriage. Many of them get livid when they are accused of being homophobic, (not them, not that), and many of them seem to forget they and their Congregations were victims of a phobia against race. Many of these black ministers and pastors get very riled by the implication that homophobia has anything to do with racism. Many of them say same sex marriage, Gay adoptions, anything Gay is not guaranteed in the Constitution, and denial of those rights do not at all compare with the denial of blacks being able to drink from the same water fountain, enter the in the same doorway, have the same opportunities for housing and employment. Those restrictions of American's rights was different. For the black ministers in America, the struggles of black people is real and God like, for the Gays it is nothing more then sinners demanding more than they deserve.

Some Black ministers have gone as far as saying if the KKK would ride the rails against same sex marriage they would ride that same train. Agreeing with same sex marriage is like ignoring the differences in gender. There is nowhere in the Constitution that says all Americans can marry. Those same Black ministers somehow seem to differentiate hate for one minority from hate for another minority. Those who want to ride the same train as the KKK better watch out for what they wish, cause when the train driven by the KKK finds it has black passengers no one in a white robe will be well too pleased and may ask them to ride in separate cars. Those who shout we must not ignore differences in gender because to do so means men and women are equal, might want to worry that many a white person would love not to ignore the difference in skin color and keep those with darker skin separate. And reading into the Constitution about who really has rights, might be read by some whites as there is no room in the Constitution for the rights of people of color.

I remember taking my first sociology course and the Professor talking about scapegoating. He said groups of people never satisfied with their own life, or fearful that the good they have accomplished may fade, or insecure and unable to feel pleasure from who they are will want to find someone to put down to be lesser than to hate. The louder they shout, the more they decry the more they seem to think they can maintain that higher wrung on the ladder. Many of them will blame their hate on God's words.

At the JCC some seniors must have felt that old was a disease, so by not admitting they were old made others older which then would keep the focus from their own frailties. In the Pittsburgh Jewish community, many Jews knew they might not be accepted by their white Protestant counterparts the power brokers, so instead they needed to keep some kind of authority, keeping others from finding any success. In the black community, it seems some are afraid that the equality they have so far achieved will be weakened if more people become as equal as they, placing them lower on he wrung of life.

I don't get it, why we are so uncomfortable in sharing the wealth, health and happiness we have. I don't understand why the only way we feel better is to make someone else feel worse. And why we seem to hate in the name of God.