Do Unto

Mickey Friedman
September 30, 2019

My head hurts. My heart aches. I am the son of an Italian Catholic mother, raised in part by nuns, and a Hungarian Jewish father, whose father wanted him to be a Cantor. The Depression did a number on their faith. And though I tried my hand at church and temple, I never quite got it.

But I have always respected the faith of others. So let me make a plea to believers within the sound/sight of my words. There are many different translations of Matthew 7:12. Here are two: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” and “Everything whatsoever you desire that people should do for you, do likewise for them, for this is the Law and The Prophets.”

I have been lucky in my life to have vacationed safely in the Bahamas. In Freeport, Nassau and Paradise Island. The Bahamian people I have met, taxi cab drivers, restaurant workers, those who worked the hotels, have been friendly and welcoming and hard-working. I imagine there are millions of Americans who like me have experienced their kindness. And yes there is crime and violence. But in our land schoolchildren, country music fans, church-goers and Wal-Mart shoppers have been gunned down. Our five year olds practice active shooter drills. Because of white men with weapons of war.

Somehow our President thinks these people are unworthy of our kindness. Confusing one and all, young and old, with the dark-skinned demons that haunt his constricted heart. His fevered mind conflates the Bahamian victims of a natural disaster utterly beyond their control with the MS-13 gangsters he imagines every Latin American asylum-seeker to be.

He said: “”We have to be very careful. Everybody needs totally proper documentation. Because look, the Bahamas has some tremendous problems with people going to the Bahamas who weren’t supposed to be there … I don’t want to allow people that weren’t supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States, including some very bad people and some very bad gang members, and some very, very bad drug dealers.”

Why punish all should several of these Bahamians be bad not good? The Torah has some suggestions: “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall help him to lift it up.” (Exodus 23:4-5)

“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.” (Proverbs 25:21)

What’s involved? Temporary protected status. This protected status would allow Bahamians to work and live in the U.S. until it is determined that their country is safe enough for them to return. We currently grant that status to more than 300,000 people living in the U.S. from 10 different countries, including the victims of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake.

So as of now, if they have the right travel documents, Bahamians can come to the U.S. temporarily, but will not be granted work permits. I’m not sure how, without work, they’ll survive.

Meanwhile, I’m not sure how anyone who has seen the overhead views of the destruction of Abacos can imagine for a moment how anyone who survived that devastation would have President Trump’s “totally proper documentation.”? Where do reasonable people keep their passports? Cabinets, desks, closets? Those desk drawers don’t exist. Those cabinets have been crushed.

We are the richest nation on earth. Just recently the Trump Administration gave out 12 million dollars in subsidies to some our wealthiest farmers because of losses they sustained in his unnecessary trade war with China. And he is adding an additional 16 billion dollars. Not surprisingly 91% of the original payments, or $7.7 billion, went to counties that Mr. Trump carried in the 2016 election.

For those of you who haven’t been lucky enough to visit the Bahamas, here are few facts. There are 700 islands that make up the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. They speak English. There are close to 390,000 of them. Nassau, the capitol, is the largest city with about 255,000 people; Freeport, its second city, has a population of about 50,000. Someone should tell our President that there are 17,000 white Bahamians peacefully living amongst the Afro-Bahamian majority.

Since we’ve been talking about religious faith, you might be interested to learn that 35% of the population are Baptists, 15% are Anglicans. Roman Catholic make up 13% and Pentecostals 8%.

We ought to help these people. We can afford to help these people.

We’re urged to lift them up. To give them bread. And water. To do to them what you would have them do to you. For this is the Law and The Prophets.

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Do Unto was first published in the September 19, 2019issue of The Berkshire Record.