Like the sounds of that ice cream truck melody running through my brain’s Hippocampus, I am now cursed with a section of Cole Porter’s “I Love Paris” from the Broadway hit “Can-Can.” I hear it over and over and over again. No matter what I try to do. Like a broken record, sixteen bars of “I Love Paris” are stuck there — and no matter what, I feel as though they are there to stay.
The last time I wrote about Paris, it was because of the alarming rise of anti-Semitic attacks in Jewish communities. It seems that France did very little to protect the Jews against the epidemic of violent attacks. For many years, with very little protection from the government, a good number of Parisian Jews threatened to leave the country. And many did.
In 2014, more than 7,000 Jews moved to Israel. The count for 2015 is not in yet.
After that Friday night terrorist attack, we now know that — due to lack of intel or because of sheer incompetence — the nation of France has not done enough to protect its citizens. France doesn’t act. It reacts. She makes her moves after a shocking, horrific situation. That is just too bad, because as the words in the song say, “I Love Paris.”
And we really do love Paris. Carol and I have been there three times, but with the way things look around the world these days, there will not be a fourth. I have added France to my “Do Not Travel” list, which of course includes Mexico, Germany, and the nations of Eastern Europe.
Some of my very elderly relatives who did make it to the United States — and unfortunately left many kinsfolk behind — told me stories of how their “friends” and neighbors helped turn in the Jews. They could not put the Jews on the trains fast enough so that they could help themselves to their silverware, art, and other valuable household items.
My mother was the youngest of 11 brothers and sisters. Only three escaped the Nazis. She cried when she spoke about her brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and a family that numbered more than 100 and was sent to the camps. Momma, who never hated anybody, hated the Germans. She asked me to promise that I will never go to Germany. In her broken English she explained that if I spend a dollar in Berlin, I will have added a dollar to those bastards’ economy. Carol and I have visited many countries. We have not, nor will we ever, go there.
On the reaction front, French jets bombed the hell out of certain so-called “Islamic State” areas as a reaction to the horrible events that took place in Paris. If they knew where the strongholds were, why didn’t France make the first move? Why did they wait to be attacked?
Headline: “Paris terrorists sneaked in as Syrian refugees.”
This is a topic that Congress must discuss.
Headline question: “Should Obama bring 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States?”
See headline above.
And finally, I am StanG
