Week of April 6, 2009

Later this month, on April 21, Holocaust Remembrance Day or Yom Hashoah will be commemorated in memorial rallies in major U.S. communities.  Politicians will declare their commitment to combat hate crimes, church leaders will sermonize against all hatred, and yet despite all of these annual efforts, the oldest hate-anti-Semitism is as pervasive as it has ever been.   



According to the FBI Biased Motivated crimes in the U.S. for 2007 by religion a total of 1477 such bias crimes were committed, of that 1010 were committed against Jews, 65 against Catholics, 59 against Protestants, and 133 against Muslims.  Jews were targeted almost 10 times more than Muslims.

Will Cheney be waterboarded by history?

Another issue that confronts all democracies as they move to the future is how we deal with the past. The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history. Facing the Washington Monument that I spoke of is a memorial of Abraham Lincoln, the man who freed those who were enslaved even after Washington led our revolution. Our country still struggles with the legacies of slavery and segregation, the past treatment of Native Americans. Human endeavor is by its nature imperfect. History is often tragic, but unresolved, it can be a heavy weight. Each country must work through its past. And reckoning with the past can help us seize a better future. I know there's strong views in this chamber about the terrible events of 1915. And while there's been a good deal of commentary about my views, it's really about how the Turkish and Armenian people deal with the past. And the best way forward for the Turkish and Armenian people is a process that works through the past in a way that is honest, open and constructive.

The pharaohs would be at home in the new Yankee Stadium, if they could peel enough gold leaf off their sarcophagi to cover the costs of tickets. The monumentality of the place goes on display this weekend for the first games.