How could they? How could dedicated medical doctors participate in what was then known as the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male,” while withholding both necessary treatment and information from patients?
How could they? How could educated and sophisticated lawyers and doctors have participated in the extermination of millions of Jews in Nazi Germany?
How could they? How could men and women have been loving fathers and mothers to their own families while ripping other children from their parents while acting as officials in a Stalinist government?
How could they? How could citizens stand by and tolerate, let alone participate in evil in their midst?
Ten, or twenty, or fifty years from now, we will be asking “How could they,” about so many things in today’s society. Social workers who direct confused children to take mind and body-altering drugs behind their parents’ backs. Doctors who perform surgeries mutilating those children, ensuring that they will never have children of their own. Teachers who teach some of their students that they are victims and have no control over their own lives while they teach other students that they are irreparably evil from birth. Lawyers, nurses, legislators, and psychologists might or might not face legal culpability, but they will certainly face enormous moral and ethical comeuppance. And those of us who are not doctors or teachers, lawyers or legislators will sound insincere and whiny while excusing ourselves by saying, “I didn’t know what they were doing.”
Does the above seem exaggerated to you? Do you have no idea of what I am referencing? There are too many good, patriotic Americans who are unaware of how frighteningly fragile the civilization that they take for granted is. Recently, two articles ran on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal. One, by Kimberly Strassel, described how the powerful entities in this country, including government agencies like the IRS, have become partisan tools in the hands of those looking to turn this country into a one-party dictatorship.
The second article was by Senator Bob Dole explaining how we can all get along if we just sit and make friendship bracelets together (o.k., those weren’t his exact words, but that was the sentiment). The disagreement that I read on that op-ed page about whether we are in a state of serious crisis or whether everything just needs basic fine-tuning is symptomatic. And, it is scary. Because remaining ignorant of impending doom does not save people from catastrophe.
I thought Bob Dole was out-of-touch when he ran for president. The years since 1996 have not improved his relevance. I respect him for actions he took in the past, including his World War II service, but I am appalled that a major, supposedly conservative-leaning newspaper saw his current words as the slightest bit germane to today’s climate and worthy of publication.
Courageous citizens are pushing back and speaking up in increasing numbers. We need to be aware of and inspired by them. We need to search for them as their voices are suppressed and we need to join our voices to theirs. Whether I agree with all they say or not or their manner of speaking, I welcome their participation and leadership in resisting evil.
There are times in history where keeping your head down and focusing on your personal situation is simply not sufficient. If you do not think that we are living in historic times such as those, may I recommend that you read one or both of the following? While these came to mind as I wrote this Musing, there are hundreds of other equally valid choices once your eyes are open.
- Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Schrier. If your book list is already too long, search for her articles online. You might start with this one.
- Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng – this powerful book is not a quick read, but it is a fascinating story of Nien Ching’s experiences in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The parallels to all that is occurring in the United States today are horrifying.
- There are relatively established entities such as PragerU and the Epoch Times that are fighting back and there are small groups such as this one that I just recently discovered. Pick one or more of these, research, volunteer, join, donate or sign up.
How could we? What are you going to say?
Is there a man in your life who graciously carries the load of work and family?
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A few weeks ago, a young friend gloomily declared that if some Americans had the power to take away women’s right to vote, they might do it. I laughed and told her things were not even nearly that bad.
But after reading one of the comments above, I’m not laughing. And I’m grateful for the reality check.
Mrs Lapin
Thank you for your insightful article. I have found over my lifetime that most people see, hear and think what they want regardless of the evidence presented. If you recall a few years back someone from Planned Parenthood was being secretly filmed selling body parts of Fetuses while eating dinner in public. They talked about it like it was no big deal! These aborted babies were young lives snuffed out before they had a chance and we the taxpayers are funding it.
I watched a talk show on a Christian channel and it was discussed in detail how the medical community is giving our young children way too many vaccines and all the resulting childhood illnesses that are happening as a result. On the same program it was mentioned about a certain Mega Billionaire who has a charity. Apparently they had been administering vaccines to people in Africa to sterilize them and telling them it was for Tetanus! This man thinks he should judge who should live or die.
I have tried to talk sense to many Democrats about the horrible things that occur as a result of their party but it is futile. People have become “Drones” who do not want to make an effort to learn the truth. The world is being desensitized to the horrible events that are happening. It is frustrating that many people will thoroughly research a product before they purchase it but will not spend any time researching the party and politicians who are trying to ruin America! This party is following the exact script as every Socialist country in history!
The Lord is in charge and will punish those who have broken his laws. We need to be faithful and pray each day that he will make things right.
Dear Mrs. Lapin,
Thank you for addressing this subject; it has been continually on my mind this past year. As an insatiable student of history, especially the history found in the Biblical books of Judges through the writings of the prophets, as well as the histories of my ancestors, the American Pilgrims, and of the stories of the American Revolution, I have seen this coming as long as I can remember. I was homeschooled, and grew up with Biblical heroes and early Americans as my best friends. As I read about the lives of Sarah, Rivka, Ruth, Channah, Priscilla Mullins, Abigail Adams, etc, I looked around and realized that I was living in a time much different from theirs. What I saw around me looked far more like the world in which Noach found himself. Now I am married, and am homeschooling my 5 children. What is happening around me now reminds me of what I read in my books by Maria Von Trapp, and of Corrie Ten Boom. Only worse, because their societies had more holiness than mine has. What am I to do? How do I fight this? I scramble to get my 5 F’s together, but am not even where I wish I was there! I say the Shema every night to my children, and smile into their eyes, but in my heart I hear the words to the music about the Shema written by Yaakov Shwekey, and feel the terror of those words pierce through my soul. Every letter, every aleph I teach; every book I read to them, every Scripture I commit to their memories, every song I teach them, every kiss I give them, I wonder: is it enough? Will they remember? How long do I have? And then I wonder if that’s even what I’m supposed to be doing? Should I be out fighting for their future some other way? It’s all I can do to get through our schoolwork and feed them 3 nourishing meals. There is no time left to go out into the community. I welcome guests into my home, to share a Shabbos meal, and my love of Torah, but that is the extent of my community involvement. And if I could find more time, what do I do with that time? How do I best fight for my children’s futures, for all our futures? I always believed that a woman is at her most powerful with a baby at her breast, keeping a nourishing meal hot for her husband, with a tehillah constantly in her heart. I see the horrific destruction wreaked on my beloved country, by hoards of howling feminists marching through our streets stomping everything sacred and beautiful under their feet. From my lifetime of study of the lives of early Americans, I see the passing of the 19th Amendment as the death of all that was holy and beautiful in our country. I see Abigail Adams as being one of the most influential voices of the Revolution, yet voicing her advice through letter writing and dinner parties, all while remaining at home, to care for her children, her chickens, and even her husband’s precious library. I see Yael actually killing the enemy herself, while maintaining her femininity by doing it at home, and refusing to do it in a way a man would. But now, I wonder, is it enough to continue my fight as a woman? With most other women in our modern world joining the military, running for office, marching in the streets, etc, does that mean the time for old-fashioned femininity is over, and it is time to join them? Is it time to put old-fashioned womanhood aside, and go out into the community and fight alongside my husband, leaving my children to the mercies of a babysitter? This question has troubled me for years, but especially now as our country seems to be in dire straights, and so few care to do anything about it at all.
I wish you a Good Shabbos! Thank you so much for writing this article, and for sharing your advice with the world!
Ten, or twenty, or fifty years from now, we will be asking “How could they,” … Susan, I have been asking that question for several years now. I no longer have time to ask that question. There is a time for peace and a time to fight. This is the time to fight. When we get to the other side of the fight (hopefully victorious) we can resume the question of “how could they” if our purpose is to figure out the answer so that we can develop a strategy to prevent it happening again. If the question is just an exercise in wondering it will be unfruitful.
My purpose in writing, Gerry, is as a message to me that I need to take action. What that means is different for different people and even for the same person at different times. For me, it means researching and donating to places that I feel make a difference, it might mean a letter to the editor or a phone call to a store manager. It could mean speaking up so that people who are told “no one thinks like you” discover that there are lots of people who think like them. For some people, it means pulling their children from school and homeschooling or attending school board meetings. I agree that we need action, but I don’t have an encompassing answer for what ‘fighting’ means.
Thanks for being one more voice sounding the alarm!
I don’t have to worry about losing my job for speaking up, Don. I admire those who are taking that risk.
Prescient as always! Thank you again for such important insights from the Lapins.
Kristin, these are truly scary times.
Hooray to you for writing an article that has been on my heart and in my prayers!!!!! I do not know what to do. I have been praying and praying and praying that if I should see something and be in the position to do something, that I would have courage and God’s wisdom to say something.
Lisa, I don’t know what to do either. I do try to support people/groups who I think are having an impact and to be vocal myself.
Another important group which recently came to my attention and is close to my heart is a project called 1776 Unites. It is a group from the Woodson Center founded by Robert L Woodson Sr. He just put out an important book called Red, White and Black : Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers. This book is a compilation of essays written by a wide variety of the most prominent and respected black American scholars, intellectuals, writers and thinkers. 1776 Unites is a response to the 1619 Project which is sweeping the nation today in education. Red, White and Black is an easy to read (I read it in one day) and thought provoking book which should be a must read for all students and adults today. You won’t be surprised by the foundational teachings throughout this book as it mirrors many of your own books on success.
Lisa, Robert Woodson Sr. is a great resource. There are so many – thanks for sharing this one.