THE VIRUS INSIDE ALL OF US Part Five: Growing up in Pittsbrugh in the 1950’s I presumed that there were only Jewish doctors and dentists. It was quite an honorable profession for a nice Jewish boy and for some Jewish mothers the SON who became a doctor was like receiving a gold medal for motherhood. Our family physician was Dr. Goldfield, a gentle man who as part of his schedule made house calls. If he refereed to another specialist HE was also Jewish. And as my Grandma Braff would quietly say,“God forbid you must go into the hospital (she would then spit a little out of the side of her mouth and say pooh-pooh) only place to go is a Jewish hospital. In fact in Pittsburgh in the 50’s there was one Jewish Hospital called Montefiore (named after Moses Montefiore and Italian Jewish philanthropist who emigrated to London). As I grew older living in Pittsburgh I only used Jewish doctors because I was sure non-Jews did not know how to practice medicine. As I become more aware of the life around me I also learned a very hard lesson of history about Jews in the US. It seemed that doctors were not welcome to practice in most hospitals, so in order to provide competent Jewish doctors a place to provide service many larger Jewish communities built Jewish hospitals. It seems many in the Christian community did not believe that Jewish hands should touch or operate on their chosen bodies (THE VIRUS IS INSIDE ALL OF US, and even if the Virus was going to demolish your body you still had to avoid the Jews.I think I was living in Newport Beach when the JCC I worked with changed its health care plan and I used and HMO, it was then that I actually discovered that good doctors had nothing to with religion, and my doctor was not only a non-Jew, but a black man. Oy!
It was 7th Grade of Linden School, my elementary school, I was in Miss MacAteer’s Social
Studies Class. (I loved social studies, I could name every state and its capital and I was able to list the presidents of this nation in order). It was a day in May, one of those Pittsbrugh days that started out muggy and hazy and could only get hotter and more uncomfortable. Our classroom was on the second floor of the school and the only way to create any kind of circulation of air was to open a window. In those days the windows opened from above so the teachers had to employ about an 8’ long pole with a little grip on top to find the latch and pull down the window. Most teachers preferred not to open the windows because it was a tedious task. This day was our presentation of our projects in which we compared the three branches of government, so every one had to bring in their notebooks. Miss MacAteer knew she had to relieve the heat and informed the class that “as we know she starts her class on time but today she must play weatherman, so if we want we have a few extra minutes to prepare our notebooks. There were five windows to open and our teacher started at the back moving to the front of the classroom. Opening the windows created a perfect little wind storm and with the first gust of wind one of my classmates who had just undone his notebook laying his papers on the desk was shocked to find the wind had blown his papers on the floor. He, I suppose out of frustration shouted “God Damn it!” We all froze, we were in 7th grade and many of us learned swear words, BUT NEVER would WE EVER say them in school and in front of our teacher. Miss MacAteer was at the third window, turned to face the student then did a little two step and marched with her 8’ft pole to the front of the class. Silence ensued, as we watched Miss MacAteer write on the black board, “This is a Christian nation we NEVER use the Lords name in vein”. Miss MacAteer knew the VIRUS IS INSIDE ALL OF US, it existed but she was certain that in this Christian nation in her classroom it would not be permitted to find footing.
On Thursday in Iowa the land where the some of the worst of the core of the Republican Party dwell, a man who has no interest in the welfare of anyone but himself, Donald Trump, decided he needed to indulge the bottom of the barrel of the Tea-Bagging community and inferred if he were to become president , perhaps a monitoring system would be needed fro identify which American citizens were not as equal as others and perhaps we should make a law that Muslims wear identity badges. Donald Trump knows too well that THE VIRUS IS INSIDE ALL OF US, he knows he suffers its consequences and he knows that those who claim the New Testament trumps any other law suffer from THE VIRUS INSIDE ALL OF US.Trump is a very contagious man, he spews venom and could cafe less who he infects next. (THE VIRUS IS INSIDE ALL OF US Part Six follows)
