‘I don’t want to die that way’

“What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet. No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled or uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people.”
-- Robert Kennedy

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Twelve hours after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre happened on October 27, 2018, I dropped by the house of Rabbi George, 83, and his wife Helene, 76, in Brooklyn.
“The Rabbi has been sluggish. He didn’t go to the synagogue today (Hebrew Sabbath day),” Helene, a school teacher, volunteered.
“It’s been an awful Sabbath day because of what happened in Pittsburgh. I can’t understand why there is so much hatred in the hearts of some people.”
Rabbi George was sitting in the swivel chair facing the computer in his office inside the house when I entered.
“Is it raining outside, Alex?” the Rabbi asked in hoarse voice.
“Yes, Rabbi George. It’s been raining all day,” I answered.
“I didn’t go to the synagogue today as scheduled and I don’t intend to go out,” the Rabbi sighed. “I have been monitoring the news in Pittsburgh and before you came, I listened to the testimonies of a lot of people interviewed by media about the massacre. I feel bad about what happened.”
The Rabbi suddenly bursts, “I don’t want to die that way, Alex.”
The Rabbi said: “The way to die should be sleeping at night and not being able to wake up the next morning, not being hit by a speeding automobile or being violently shot in the head.”
He apologized that he couldn’t face me “because I can’t easily move my feet.”
Rabbi George mourned the death of his fellow Jews in a bloody anti-Semitic carnage, the worst attack against the Jewish community in US history, according to reports.

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The Rabbi slightly turned his head and shoulder on the right side and enthused, “When I was younger, people with no education were dangerous because of their lack of understanding and empathy on many cultural and religious issues. Today, it’s the educated who have become more dangerous because of the hate in their hearts.”
Rabbi George and Helene were referring to the 11 Jewish elderly massacred by a suspected white supremacist, Robert Bowers, 46.
Six others were seriously injured.
The victims have been identified as the following: Joyce Fienberg, 75, of Oakland; Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross Township; Rose Mallinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill; Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood; Cecil Rosenthal, 59, of Squirrel Hill (brother of David Rosenthal); David Rosenthal, 54, of Squirrel Hill (brother of Cecil Rosenthal); Bernice Simon, 84, of Wilkinsburg (married to Sylvan Simon); Sylvan Simon, 87, of Wilkinsburg (married to Bernice Simon); Daniel Stein, 71, of Squirrel Hill; Melvin Wax, 88, of Squirrel Hill; and Irving Younger, 69, of Mt. Washington.
A total of 29 charges, two of which are federal hate crime charges, have been filed against Bowers who could face a death penalty.

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I got a lot of mixed reactions in the previous article I wrote about retired Philippine National Police (PNP) director general Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who is running for senator in the May 2019 elections.
Some of Bato’s supporters said I “vilified” the retired general when I attributed the deaths of thousands of victims of summary executions to the campaign against illegal drugs in the Philippines which became known as extra-judicial killings (EJK) when he was the PNP big boss.
I reviewed my article several times.
I didn’t see any sentence there that vilified or maligned the senatorial candidate who is being supported by President Duterte.
I mentioned in that article that I only wanted to interview him in the US or in the Philippines because of so many questions in my mind like, yes, the upsurge of EJK cases, which has alarmed the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) so much so that it has called the attention of the Duterte administration.
Doing interview or aspiring to interview any controversial personality in the Philippine government in the name of public interest, I think, isn’t a violation of any law or, to borrow the word of Bato’s supporters, a “vilification” campaign.