Appleseed Shoot: Former Cook, Now Becoming a Rifleman

"I went to an RWVA Appleseed Shoot.

I was there for the adventure. I was there for the rebirth . . .

Those who can't shoot, have to cook.

Former Cook now becoming a Rifleman.

It feels GOOD . . .

And my mission in life is pass on the Tradition,

the one that started on April 19, 1775.

Want to be a Rifleman? I will show you how! Just ask . . .

This past weekend, the Rasta Jew and I went to an Appleseed Shoot. The Appleseed Project is sponsored by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association, and has the goal of turning one million ordinary citizens into Riflemen, and to teach them the story of April 19, 1775--the day our nation was born in blood, founded on the skills of the American riflemen who chased the greatest army in the world from Concord back to Boston.

Picture: The flags of our founders posted and the Red Flag signifying a hot firing line at the NRA-Wittington Center, near Raton New Mexico. (Taken August 28, 2010).

The Rasta Jew and I drove up to the beautiful NRA Wittington Center, the largest and most comprehensive shooting range in the United States, on Friday after school. We took with us two borrowed 22 rifles. Our own rifles take much more expensive ammo, and we would go through 500 rounds each over the course of the Appleseed Shoot.

Picture: Bronze Memorial to former NRA President Charleton "from my cold, dead fingers" Heston as "The Scout" at the the Santa Fe Trail Marker inside Wittington Center, near the Canadian River, outside of Raton, NM (Taken August 29, 2010).

During the Shoot, our home-away-from home was firing line, which was situated 25 yards in front of the first target line. Over the course of two very full days, we learned the fundamentals of the Rifleman skills: safety, the six steps for taking a shot, the Natural Point of Aim (NPOA), and how to shoot prone, sitting, kneeling and standing. The Rasta Jew was a natural, but I improved only slowly, changing rifles twice to solve a few physical problems.

Picture: The Rasta Jew lays out the sleeping bags on the firing line. These will serve as ground cover for shooting prone, sitting and kneeling. (Taken August 28, 2010).

Shooting from the prone position is the most stable, and done right, is both relaxed and beautiful. Sitting is the next most stable, because there is still much bone in contact with the ground. Kneeling is next, and standing is least stable. However, when shooting in real situation--such as hunting--there is no bench, and one may need to shoot in a variety of positions to hit the target. Therefore, a good marksman can shoot accurately in a variety of positions.

Picture: On the second day, they brought out some bigger guns. Here the Rasta Jew shoots an M1-Garand (a classic rifle) at metal targets 200 yards away. Another participant is sighting for him, to let him know how to adjust his aim. (Taken: August 29, 2010).

Appleseed Shoots are intense: the instruction is rapid and then there are numerous drills each day on the Army Qualifying Test (AQT), during which shooters shoot from all the positions, are timed and have to make magazine changes and position transitions.

During the breaks and the lunch periods, the teachers take turns telling the story of April 19, 1775. The stories are intended to remind us that those people then thought about us now, and given the choice between slavery and the bullet box, wanted to leave us a third choice: the ballot box. They are intended to get citizens involved in that legacy.

Picture: Navy Chief Bill "don't call me sir" Black teaches the Rasta Jew to fire an AR-15 on the AQT. The Rasta Jew qualified as a Marksman, but did not earn the coveted Rifleman patch this time. (Taken: August 29, 2010).

Despite the intensity--the pace was like drinking from a firehose--Appleseed was a great deal of fun. The teachers, who are all volunteers, spent a great deal of time helping each of us one-on-one, and met us where we were at with respect to our skills. Everyone who perservered, went away as a better shot than when they started. As a novice on a rifle, I began with scores in the twenties on the AQT, but by the end I scored a 96, 14 points away from Marksman.

Picture: The teachers for this shoot. The orange hat means teacher-in-training; the red hats are teachers, and the green hat is the Shoot Boss. (Taken: August 29, 2010).

"I am a former cook, becoming a Rifleman. And it feels GOOD!"
And I brought away some insight into the minds of our forefathers who fought the Revolution as well. They were always talking about "posterity." They were always thinking about us. But we are not thinking about our posterity. And when Gill "Bluefeather" (the Shoot Boss) said this, I said out loud, "Maybe that's our problem!"
And one of the other teachers said, "I think you have the secret."
John Adams said this to us:

"Well, Posterity. You will never know what it cost us to preserve your freedom. I only hope that you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it."

The point of Appleseed is not only to make us a nation of Riflemen again, in the Spirit of April 19, 1775, the day our country was born in blood, but also to get us to remember the spirit in which our forefathers preserved our liberty, thinking always down the years to us. And to get us to think about our posterity in the far future with the same care, so that we, too, preserve our liberty. And it was their hope, and should be ours, that their third choice--the ballot box--will be sufficient to preserve it.

Shooting--the only sport endorsed by the Founders--

an American Tradition since April 19, 1775.

Patriot Days

It is instructive that as I sit facing my calendar, I see that although April 27 is marked as "Freedom Day (South Africa)", the 18th and 19th days of April are not marked at all, and this on a calendar that was "Printed in the United States." It is somewhat reassuring to note that July 4 is marked as Independence Day, and the independence days of other nations are so marked, but it is disconcerting to see that Constitution Day, September 29, is also missing from this calendar.

I will not be purchasing another calendar from this particular publisher.

For to celebrate the 4th of July without marking the day upon which the fight for our liberty had its inception, and the day upon which that liberty was guarranteed by law and oath is to turn it into a holiday with no roots and no wings. By tearing Independence Day out of context, we are throwing the real history of our freedom down Orwell's fabled memory hole, perhaps out of some misplaced politically correct version in which Liberty can be achieved by proclaimation without revolution and the rejection of tyranny.

On the 19th of April, 1775, the Militias of Lexington and Concord took up arms against King George's Redcoats who had come to confiscate their arms, cannon and powder. The British Regulars, under the command of General Gage, had blockaded the Port of Boston, occupied the Town of Boston and placed its denizens under martial law because of the tax resistance of colonists that culminated in New England with the Boston Tea Party in December of 1773.

In addition, the British Crown had confiscated the property of the individuals, quartered their troops in the houses of the citizens, and suspended trial by jury, subjecting the people of Boston to military tribunals.

It is instructive to remember that these violations of the rights of Englishmen were the reason for the American Revolution; the cause for which Colonel Parker and his Militia "fired the shot heard 'round the world." These violations found their way into the Declaration of Independence in the listing of the "crimes of the king" and they were answered in the Bill of Rights, the first ten Amendments to the Constitution. The Founding Generation had direct experience with the coercive actions of a central government whose power went unchecked. They challenged that power by taking up arms to defend their rights first at the Green at Lexington.




And it is instructive to note that those first patriots stood by that "rude bridge that arched the flood" to defend the right to keep and bear arms, a right that was affirmed as the second amendment, not because people like to hunt for sport, but because the founders knew that it might become necessary to defend those rights against an oppressive central government once again.




Today many Americans are waking up to the fact that we have an oppressive central government: An Executive Branch that has been busy accruing power to itself over the past decades; a Congress that no longer properly represents us, but usurps our property rights through confusing and unconstitutional legislation; courts that have ignored the Constitution they are sworn to uphold by making decisions that clearly violate the meaning and the intent of the founders, thus violating our rights. We intend to defend our rights in a peaceful revolution of the ballot box and the soapbox. We earnestly pray that we never have to take up arms against the government established to serve us and protect our rights.


And today, on that sacred ground of the Green at Lexington, we were assured that there are those among our military services, our militias, and our peace officers, who intend to stand by their oath " . . . to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic . . ." The Oathkeepers stood today there at the cradle of our Liberty and proclaimed the ten orders they would refuse to obey. They did so because most of these illegal orders have been given in recent history in the United States, and shamefully some of their own have obeyed them.



Many citizens who are not in the services took the opportunity to swear the same oath this Patriot Day, vowing to uphold the Constitution of the United States, so pledging "our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."




Given the peril to our Constitution, which has been growing over our own lifetimes, there may be many Patriot Days to come; days upon which we will be called upon to risk our lives and our fortunes in order to uphold our sacred honor.


"The tree of Liberty," we were told, "Is nourished by the blood of patriots."

I most sincerely hope that for our generation, as we work to restore our Constitution, these words are figurative rather than real.

Albuquerque Walking Tour: Huning Highlands Neighborhood

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

The Engineering Geek and I jumped at the chance to escort four boys from the EMHS Freshman Humanities class on a walking tour of Old Albuquerque. Although I had done a walking tour of the Presidio in Tucson once, I had never had a guided walk about in my adopted hometown.

This blog entry shows features of the Hunning Highlands neighborhood. Developed by Hunning, a railroad tycoon from Germany, this area lies east of the railroad tracks and west of the freeway. The houses were built in the late 1800s, and are wonderful exampes of how the merchant class of Albuquerque lived over 100 years ago.

This is a restored Queen Anne style house, but it also has some Craftsman features. Such houses were for the upper middle class of the day, and now the restored treasures are housing those who can afford to be part of the Near Downtown Revitalization project. This house is for sale!

The Old Albuquerque Public Library building on Central Avenue now houses the Geneology Collection. It is built in the Pueblo Revival style. The boys thought it looked like many of the buildings on UNM's Main Campus, and it does, as those buildings are also Pueblo Revival.

The Daily Grind Coffee Shop occupies an old house on Central Avenue, next door to the Artichoke Cafe. Chile Ristras hang from the gingerbread eaves, a common sign of autumn in the Land of Red or Green (chile, that is!).

After walking most of the Hunning Highlands neighborhood, the boys felt the need of a little caffeine. They felt very sophisticated, sipping their mocha's on a cool autumn morning during school hours.

That is the Boychick in the Fedora!

The last landmark before leaving Hunning Highlands for the Near East Downtown area was the Old Albuquerque High School Building. Built in the classic turn-of-the-19th century style, it boasted marble halls and wide staircases. Now being made into Condos and Lofts, it reminds me of the high school I graduated from in Illinois. In the right foreground is an apartment building made from one of later AHS annexes.

I was taken aback by how differently I saw this neighborhood on foot. I usually speed by on Central Avenue, or Lead or Coal!

Next week: Near East Downtown and Downtown.

The Value of Liberty: Goddess Democracy 1989

Today, N. reminded me that this week is the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protest and massacre that occured before he was born.

This is our rememberance of the Lone Rebel and our reminder of the cost of liberty...

Students in Beijing erected this statue of the "Goddess Democracy" in 1989 during a peaceful protest.

The students desired freedom of speech and press,

and they also expressed the need to "live a free life."

The communist tyrants that ruled China responded with a show of force, bringing troops and tanks into Tiananmen Square.

In a show of true courage, we see here the Lone Rebel facing down a line of tanks

sent to defeat the protest.

We do not know for sure what the fate of this courageous student was. I remember seeing a picture in Time Magazine of a young man lying on the pavement his head crushed by the tanks. But I cannot find that image and I don't know if it was this young man, who was so willing to give his life for liberty.

The protest was violently put down on June 5th.

Students were beaten and killed by the frightened old men that ruled China.

Their actions clearly showed that their desire for power was greater than their concern for the future.

This is why we are 'boycotting' the Olympic Games this year. We will not watch them, nor will we participate in the hoop-la associated with them. We will not purchase anything from the sponsors of the broadcasts during the Games.

Perhaps our action is meaningless in a larger sense.

But we cannot look at that picture of the Lone Rebel and not be ashamed if we do nothing.

As for our nation's participation in the games, I fear we have sold our birthright of liberty for a mess of pottage in the form of credit for consumer goods.

Is the liberty this Lone Hero offered his life for really worth so little to those of us born in a land "conceived in Liberty?"

Addendum 9 June: Dan over at the Edge of Reason has written a post about the courage of the Unknown Rebel in which he says: "Heroism is not restricted to characters in stories..." I enjoyed his very thoughtful post.

The Spring of Our Discontent

We've been talking and thinking about politics around here lately.

It makes sense.
N. and I are studying the founding of the United States and the Constitution.
And it's an election season.
And then there is the economy and the way our politicians are (not) dealing with it.
And the war. Oy. This is truly a discontented spring for the American electorate.

And since we are studying the founding documents of the US--in our haphazard and conversational, unschooling way, I also have gotten interested in reading about that time in our nation's history. When I was a schoolgirl, it was the Civil War period and aftermath that really captured my imagination. After all, I grew up not 60 miles from Springfield, Illinois. It was the "Land of Lincoln." Somehow, although I had read the founding documents, and could recite the Preamble to the Constitution, my study of the first years of the United States got short shrift.

Last week, when I was browsing the new books shelf at one of our branch libraries, I found an interesting looking book: A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign by Edward J. Larson. So I picked it up, figuring that if I get nothing else from it, it would at least provide background for our conversations about our country's early history. But when I picked it up and started reading it this weekend, in between Shabbat and Purim Carnival activities, I realized that it was going to be much, much more.

It is the story of the end of a friendship. It is the story of the beginnings of partisanship in the American election process. It is the story of a fundamental controversy that has been with us since the ratification of the United States Constitution. And, although I have not finished the book, I can see already that there is much wisdom for us, the primary-weary American voters, in knowing what has gone before. And in knowing what has been survived. I am enthralled.

But this is not a book review.
I can't do a review until I finish the book.
And in between the beginnings of cleaning for Pesach, and preparing for Purim, and writing papers, there is precious little time this spring break to sneak in a few pages but for my morning and evening reading.
But my reading so far has got me thinking.
And I wanted to write a little bit about this spring of our discontent in light of what I have learned thus far.

One piece of my musing is about the Federalist-Republican/Democrat controversy that made the election of 1800 so wild and woolly, and has been with us ever since. The Federalist position (simplified) was (is?) that a strong federal government is necessary and that the Constitution did not make it strong enough. Coming from the dour religious views of our Puritan founders, Federalism assumed that people with too much individual liberty were liable to fall into sin, becoming frivolous and dissolute in their personal and political behavior. The Federalists at the time of the "electioneering" for the 1800 presidential election looked to the French Revolution, and seeing the extremes of the reign of Terror and Jacobinism, were determined to restrict the individual liberties of the hoi polloi in the nascent United States, in order to prevent such chaos. The High Federalists toyed with the idea of having the Senate and President of the United States serve for life, and together with the more moderate Federalists such as President John Adams, managed to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts in direct violation of the Constitutional guarrantees for Freedom of the Press, because of the danger to the country of a possible war with France. Sound familiar?

The Republicans, the party of Thomas Jefferson (not the party of Lincoln--the first Republicans later called themselves Democrats), believed that a weak and contentious federal government, whose power should be contained by checks and balances among the branches, was vital to the protection of the rights and liberties of the citizenry. Sons of the Enlightenment, our Republican founding fathers looked to the French revolution as a confirmation of our own struggle for liberty. They thought that the citizenry would only lose their liberty if their rights were restricted by elites. They opposed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and it was the editors of the Republican newspapers that courageously went to jail, and then continued to inform the American public about the restrictions placed on their liberties, in defiance of what they termed the "tyranny" of the Federalists.

As I have been reading, I have been thinking that the Federalists and the Republicans are still with us, to this day. Since the Civil War, and even more so since the Progressive era, it has been the 'Federalists' who have been gaining in power, and the Federal government has been strengthened at the expense of the liberties of the citizenry. The Federal system now includes a central bank, the Federal Reserve, that was once opposed by the Jeffersonian Republicans as the sure road to tyranny. The Federal government has taken an increasingly large role in telling the states how they may govern, as well as in directing the economic, social and personal lives of individual citizens. The Nanny State is well on the way to removing our remaining liberties, all for our own goods, of course.

And so we find ourselves, in this 'the spring of our discontent,' dealing with a falling dollar, a housing market in chaos, 'billions and billions' of dollars in unfunded entitlements strung like an albatross around our childrens' necks, and in a costly and bungled war, wondering what in the world our self-appointed leaders are planning to get us into next. (Oh, but we are being told that the check is in the mail. Of course it's our money, but we'll have to pay it back).

It is somewhat comforting to know that we are not the first generation of ordinary Americans to deal with this kind of fight. And although we are much nearer to tyranny now than the citizenry was before the election of 1800, we do have the example of those who went before us to strengthen our resolve.

It is a balancing act. That is what maintaining a cohesive national government and at the same time maintaining that government as the servant of the people requires. In 1800, the revolution was still fresh in the memories of the people. The failures of the Articles of Confederation demonstrated that a stronger central government was important, but the Alien and Sedition Acts showed that if the government become but a little too strong, the bright and shining experiment upholding the rights of man would certainly fail.

As I read, I am comforted by the fact that those people, our political and spiritual ancestors, did not meekly follow one or another of the parties. Vigorous dissention, strong debate, and an ongoing argument--these were the order of the day. But I know how it came out. Jefferson was elected and the excessive restrictions on the liberties of the citizenry were halted. But the question was not settled.

It will never be settled.
The balance must be maintained.
Stray but a little one way, and tyranny will ensue.
Stray but a little the other, and anarchy will prevail.

I think that now, in this spring of our discontent, as the party ends and the fiddler's bill comes due, we are leaning a little too insistently toward tyranny. We have been for much of the last century. We want someone else to pay the fiddler for us. And the presidential candidates we have to choose among seem happy to promise to do so. They all want to solve our problems for us, bail us out of our present difficulties, and stave off economic problems for a while longer (at least until the election is over) using quick fixes and expensive programs. They want to give us stuff to distract us from the loss of our national sovereignty and our individual liberties. And if we accept then we are sacrificing our children on the altar of the expediency of the moment.

As I read, I keep thinking of those people who were "rocked in the cradle of the revolution." They were hardy people, and prudent. If our ancestors could face pain and sacrifice in order to make a better world for their children, surely we have the same strength to do so. They did not prematurely give up the argument, and allow tyranny to prevail. Nor did they sit back and let chaos ensue. We can do the same, and maintain the balance in order to "secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity."

So I am feeling a little better. I feel that I am gaining some strength and resolve to face the coming wake-up call. And it is coming, no matter how many times we roll over and hit the snooze. But a look at history can strengthen a person. And listening in on the arguments and battles of our founders, can make one realize that contentiousness is our lot.
And it's a good one, if we can keep the balance.

"Wasn't that a time, wasn't that a time?
A time that tried the souls of men?
Wasn't that a terrible time?"
(The Weavers)

"We cannot choose the time we are born to, we can only choose what to do with the time we are given."
(Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring, Movie Version)



Now I just have to figure out who to write in next November.
Thomas Jefferson is not an option.

Road Trip: Gran Quivera

Tuesday was the last day of a long weekend for N.'s friend, A., and the forcast was for a warm but cloudy day. It is February, that time when winter seems to be hanging on forever, and the routine begins to feel unbearable.

It was, in short, a perfect day for a road trip. So we picked A. up at home in the morning and stopped at Smith's in Edgewood for some junk food. That's right, what's a road trip without junk food?

And it was off to the south for a Visit to the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument--Gran Quivira Unit--about 70 miles south of Tijeras. Gran Quivira is the most southeastward set of ruins of three Indian villages that comprised the Salinas District of the Spanish Colonial Missions. The Tompiro speaking natives of this village had traded salt from ephemeral lakes left behind when Glacial Lake Estancia dried up about 7000 years ago. They had first come to Chupadera Mesa (south of Mountain Air, NM) between 1200 and 1400 CE, and were then made a Spanish possession in the late 1500's. The first mission church was built in 1630.

This picture, looking south from the village ruins, is of the ruins of the first church (built 1630) right next to a ceremonial kiva, the center of the Puebloan religion. The boys commented on how odd it must have seemed to the Tompiro natives, to build such a large structure for two men with no wives or families, when the Puebloans, far more numerous, worshipped in the intimate spaces of an underground kiva, and lived in small 'apartment' rooms in the pueblo.

This is the nave of the larger church, built with an attached "convento" in 1670. This church is set apart from the pueblo village, and a little to the northwest, whereas the first church was located right next to one of the larger ceremonial kivas near the village center.

By this time, Gran Quivira was an important trading center for the Spanish, salt being an especially valuable commodity. It was also a jumping off point to trade with the native people of the plains to the east, although missions did not get built among those people, as they were not settled and were also quite fierce in defending their territories.





Here are some of the ruins of the Tompiro speaking pueblo, Cueloze, taken from the partially excavated upper village. The boys had a great deal of fun on the upper village, following the maze of walls so that they might identify kivas hidden beneath the peublo 'apartments'. Although the Fransciscan missionaries had tolerated the larger, open kivas and their ceremonies to begin with, they soon forbade the "pagan" rituals practiced there, and the Tompiro who had not joined the new church were forced to hide the practice of their own religion. In 1601, one Marcello de Espinosa wrote:
"There is a sweat room (kiva) painted all over with large and small idols in the same manner that they paint devils here. In the middle are sculpted large idols of stone or wood to which they offer maize...and when they make a 'sacrifice' they all join in a circle to dance..."

The boys asked many questions about theway that the conquering Spaniards forced their religion on the natives, and were quite interested in learning that many of the Pueblo Indians identify as Christians to this day. They speculated about how that compared to the way that near-eastern religions were spread by conquest, and also Christianity to Europe, and Islam to North Africa and Asia. They drew parallels between the hidden kivas, and the conversos, the hidden Jews of northern New Mexico, some of whom retain their hidden Jewish practice to this day. They were very happy to discover that the Katchina dances of the nineteen Pueblos of the Rio Grande are the religion of the Puebloan peoples, practiced to this day.


These are the steps of the convento, leading up from the south courtyard and gardens to the common areas and cells. The boys were also fascinated by the windows, which had very thick walls that slanted inward, to make shadows so that the summer sun would not overheat the rooms inside.
N. also pointed out that the shape would work well for defense, with two bowmen able to creat crossfire from either side of the window, and yet remain hidden by the angled walls.

I am often taken aback at how much they have learned about history, about religion, and about warfare without me being much aware of it. In visits to many historical sites in New Mexico, they have learned that the Puebloans, and later the Spanish and then the Americans, had to always be aware of the raiding Apachu--a Tewa word for enemy or thief--the fierce Apache, Athabaskan speakers who hunted the plains and raided the stores of the settled peoples.

It was indeed a beautiful day for a road trip,
and at Gran Quivira it was 60 degrees.

Although partly cloudy, the sun did shine on Chupadera Mesa, as we stood above the newly built ramp to spot golden eagles hunting the vally and hills between. We tried to imagine what it must have been like to be the Tompiro people, meeting the Spaniards for the first time.

And what it must have been like to be a Spanish mission priest, out here on the edge of the empire, sitting outside the church on a February day, watching the eagles hunting from the top of the Mesa.

And so our road trip, undertaken to break the monotony of blustery February, became a field trip, a chance to delve into New Mexico history, and to think about issues of colonization, economics, warefare, and religion.

As N put it: "History. It's everywhere you want to be."

Remembering and Understanding: Studying Yom Ha-Shoah

We have been talkin about WWII lately. N. has taken to reading the newspaper and then he asks a lot of questions. He is starting to link what happened in the past to what is happening in the present. And yesterday was Yom Ha-Shoah--Holocaust Memorial Day.

It is always hard to know how to present the massive evil that was the Shoah to a sensitive young adolescent. We want him to understand the precursors to the Shoah--Christian anti-Judaism going back to the 5th century, it's virulent and racist descendent, European anti-semitism, WWI, the economic crisis in Germany in the 1920's, the weakness of the Weimar republic...there is just so much that must be understood to even begin to get a grasp on what happened to our people in Europe.

And then there is the emotional side. The thought that "it could have been me," is very real when you walk into synagogue past a policeman every Shabbat.

This year, as N. started asking questions, we decided on a two-part approach. First, we read some of the modern history chapters in the Kingfisher Encyclopedia of World History together. (We are doing ancient history this year, but we let N.'s curiousity about the Shoah guide us for a while). This helped N. understand that the events did not come out of nowhere and that there are always reasons for what people do, even when those reasons are irrational. It also provided a bridge to talk about some of the background for what is happening today with the U.S. War on Terror. A question that N. has brought up again and again has to do with when it is important to fight and perhaps die for something greater than yourself. This is a very important question for the people of the West right now. Is there ever a time when that is right?

So we studied the Jewish Partisans who fought back against the Nazis. We discussed the importance of resisting evil and of the necessity, sometimes, to stake one's life on important values: life and liberty for yourself and others. This, we explained was "black resistance"--violent resistance to oppression and death. This was the resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. N. found the "Partisan's Song" on the web, and I taught him the tune.

We also discussed "white resistance"--resistance by subterfuge, by protecting others, by sabotage. This was the resistance of the Righteous Gentiles, those Europeans who tried to help. And it was often the subtle resistance of our people in the camps. People who understood that survival was resistance. That remaining a human being in an inhuman situation was resistance. MLC taught N. another song that goes with the "white resistance," Ani Ma Amin--I believe.

We talked about the phenomenon of Holocaust denial, the reasons why people deny really aweful events. There are personal, political and psychological reasons why this is so. And we talked about the importance of remembering for our Jewish culture and in the dominant culture. We discussed how Yom Ha-Shoah is observed in Israel. There, a siren goes off at a certain time, and everyone stops where they are. If you are in a car you just stop on the road. If you are walking somewhere, you stop. Everyone observes 6 minutes of silence. We talked about how long that can seem. We asked if 6 minutes, 1 minute for every 1 million Jews who were murdered in the Shoah is even enough.

We finished all of this study with a ceremony last night. We had received a candle for Yom Ha-Shoah for the Federation of Jewish Men's Club. They also provided a meditation to be said when lighting it. The focus was that the next generation should not forget.

We gathered in the kitchen at sunset. N. lit the candle. We read the meditation. We observed 6 minutes of silence. Then we sang two songs.

The Partisan's Song

Zog nit keyn mol az du geyst dem letstn veg!Khotsh himeln blayene farshtein bloye teg. Kumen vet nokh unzer oysgebenkte sho Es vert a poyk ton undzer trit - mir zeynen do!

Never once say you walk upon your final way though skies of steel obscure the blue of day. Our long awaited hour will draw near and our footsteps will thunder - We are Here!

Vun grinem palmenland biz vaysn land fun shney Mir kumen on mit undzer payn, mit undzer vey Un vu gefallen es iz a shprits fun unzer blut Shprotsn vet dort undzer gvure, undzer mut.

From a land of green palms to a white land of snow, We march on with our pain and with our woe; And there where a spray fell of our blood, there our strenght and courage yet will bud!

Es vert di morgenzun bagilden unz dem haynt Un der nekhtn vet farshvindn mitn faynd Nor oyb farzamen vet di zun in dem kayor Vi a parol zol geyn dos lid fun dor tsu dor.

The morning sun will rise and brighten the day and yesterday's night will fade away, But if the sun delays in rising to the dawn then like a watchword pass this song on and on!

Dos lid geshribn iz mit blut un nit mit blay Es iz nit keyn lidl fun a foygl af der fray Dos hot a folk tsvishn falendike vent Dos lid gezungen mit naganes in di hent!

This song is written with blood and not with pencil lead it's no song sung freely by birds flying overhead. So a people among the falling walls made their last stand and this song they sang with pistols in their hand!

Zog nit keyn mol az du geyst dem letstn veg Khotsh himeln blayene farshtein bloye teg. Kumen vet nokh unzer oysgebenkte sho, Es vert a poyk ton undzer trit - mir zeynen do!

Never once say you walk upon your final way though skies of steel obscure the blue of day. Our long awaited hour will draw near and our footsteps will thunder - We are Here!

We finished by singing:

Ani Ma Amin

Ani ma-amin, ani ma-amin, ani ma-amin. B'emunah shleima. B'viat ha-Mashiach, ani-ma amin! Ve-af al-pi, v'it mameyah, ani-ma-amin. Im kol zeh, ani-ma-amin.

I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah. I believe. Even though he tarry, Still, I believe.

N. ended the ceremony by quoting the last words of Daniel Pearl, who was murdered by terrorists in 2002:

"I am a Jew and the son of a Jew."

This brought us from events of the past into the present state of our world.

We then quietly left, one by one, and the candle burned all night in the window.

There is something very effective about ending a unit of study that is so emotional using ritual and ceremony. This connects the emotional to the rational, and helps us experience history as full human beings.