Can It Happen Here?

If anyone had any delusions that ‘it can’t happen here’, those delusions were literally blown away on the last day of Passover in the Chabad house in Poway California. We live in Canada, it’s quieter here. We don’t have so many guns floating around – or so we think. There are not so many angry young men surfing the dark web here.

All of the above no longer apply. It doesn’t matter if you live in Canada, the US or on the other side of the world in New Zealand. Angry young men find each other on the dark web and sadly, emulate each other. This was brought to the fore on Saturday which was the six month anniversary of the shootings in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. No coincidence.

What are we to do? How do we react? Two very different questions.

What we do for starters is protect ourselves. Make sure our places of worship are properly secured. Make sure the congregants know what to do if… Train people how to react quickly in an emergency.

How do we react? Watching endless videos of the event does not help those who are suffering. What does help is that we react as Rabbi Goldstein said. Do. Be. Live. the opposite of evil. Be kind. Be nice. Do something to help your fellow.

As we have all seen, many of these heinous acts are brought about by young men who have empty lives. They fill that emptiness with evil. It behooves us to inculcate positive values in our children.

One way to do this is with a moment of silence at the beginning of each school day. No instruction on how to use this moment. Just think for one minute not about yourself, but about your friend. His or her needs. That we share the same air, planet, trees and oceans. That we are both human beings. That there is a G-d in the world.

Justin Trudeau totally blew two events this weekend. When we say totally blew, we mean that he made a total fool of himself. Perhaps it’s because his right-hand man Gerry Butts is gone from his side and he can’t function without him. Which of course leads us to the never-answered question why in fact he did resign. But we digress.

The president of Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Ottawa for a very short period of time. Perhaps Justin needed more time to learn where he came from. Obviously he didn’t really know or, perish the thought Blanche – he can’t tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese people. Twice he said China instead of Japan when referring to how friendly their countries are. Rather embarrassing for Canadians who actually know that Abe is the Prime Minister of Japan.

The second blown event was much worse. He went with an entourage to ‘sympathise’ with those whose homes are being flooded in Quebec. He should have gone with one car and one reporter.

Instead he took his wife and children with him, along with about 12 cars. Can we talk?

If he was looking for a Sunday activity for his children this was not it. If he was looking to make a good impression on his wife, again this was not the place.

He took picture after picture of himself bagging sand, then himself with the chief of police, then himself in who knows how many more pictures.

How about this: Pick one town. Take one car. Take one picture showing yourself walking in and then stop the camera. Talk to the people. No pictures. No press.

He would never have done that because he’s a selfish, narcissistic, self-centered Peter Pan who never grew up.

He has not a clue how to care for anyone but himself. Thanks to everyone who elected him. You will soon have a chance to redeem yourselves by voting him out of office. Jason Kenney got it right and we will repeat it: Trudeau has the political acumen of a finger bowl. Again, Andrew Scheer may not be the loudest or most exuberant leader, but he’s consistent, mature and actually cares about others.

This past week, the New York Times printed an outright, in-your-face anti-Semitic cartoon. It was likened to the cartoons printed in Germany in the 1930’s. We will not give them more publicity by describing it. You can look it up on your own.

Just know that this cartoon passed through many layers of ‘head-honchos’ before it was printed, and it was passed by each and every one of those people. What is completely and totally incredulous is that it is Jews funding the NY Times, the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders and others who stand tall and are counted as anti-Semites.

Where are these self-hating Jews coming from? Did they not learn from history? Before the war in Germany, the Jews were a mainstream part of society. They were more German than the Germans. In the end, the Germans didn’t care. If you were a Jew you were hunted down.

Self-hating Jews are going to be in for a very rude awakening one day. Let’s hope it’s only an awakening.

The media has decided that Joe Biden is going to be the one to challenge Trump in 2020. They invoke poll after poll on how well he is doing. “He’s beating Bernie”. “He’s way ahead of O’Rourke.” “He raised an inordinate amount of money.”

We will jog your memory and remind you that it was the same media who, on the day of the presidential election in November 2016, said that Hillary Clinton had a 92% chance of winning. The polls said so. They did not learn from their mistakes.

We’ll talk…