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The Certificate Of Cowardice

By       (Page 1 of 3 pages)   5 comments
Message Mark Sashine
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(Article changed on October 10, 2012 at 05:25)

 

 Average man   is always a coward

 

Mark Twain

 

I recently   acquired an interesting   piece of   information. I   watched a semi- documentary movie about   occupied France in 1940s and   suddenly found   out   that in the Vichy territory, the so- called Free Zone, they had a special card- a card of non- belonging to the
"Jewish race'.

If we put aside for a moment that there is no such thing   as "Jewish race', the actual idea is fascinating.   Just think about it.    An average French citizen   could   approach the authorities with all his/her   genealogy ( sort of like they search   on ancestors.com) and   present   sealed copies   of the documents,   proving that within three generations   he/she never had   his/her blood tainted   by   even a drop of Jewish blood.    Too bad the DNA does not have a specific    "Jewish   protein' or   French   chemists might have    discovered DNA earlier. In any case, all those documents then were to be notarized and upon scrutiny and   approval     a person would receive a certificate of non- belonging.   I bet   the good Frenchmen   had family holidays upon receiving such documents; they would invite the Monsieur Council on Jewish affairs and all his staff   and toast   to   a   triumph of   the bureaucracy. Eventually, when Germans occupied the whole France I am sure   some of those French folks   got   aware of the famous   phrase by Hermann Goering, " I decide who is   a Jew," but   who could predict the   future. For now let's celebrate.

 

  When I found out about that nice invention of the   people of Free Zone I wondered how would Joanne D'Arc   react to the idea that all   Frenchmen in then   Free- From - English   zone   would have to   obtain a photo- ID of non-belonging to the   English heritage. I am afraid   Joanne would behead an unfortunate councilman who would    suggest such nonsense, rightfully noting that most of France   had been under English for a very long time and vice- versa, so   it would be unlikely to find some pure- blood Frenchman among the good peasants. Oh, yes, there was   such attempt     before. .That was called   the selling of indulgences. The indulgence was a certificate of absolution     sold by   Catholic Church in   the 16th Century in Europe. For a hefty sum of money you could get a piece of paper   which absolved you for your future sins, sort of an insurance   policy on the way to Heaven. That remarkable idea backfired   so much   that   the Lutheran Church emerged.

But French, you know, they never recognized the experience of foreigners.

 

Turned out   not only them.   A certificate of non- belonging     sounds familiar,   doesn't it?

Right now,   in the good ole US of A,   a certain   institution named TSA offers   every citizen for a fee to   get a proof on non- belonging.   Just pay some money and surrender   to a background scrutiny   and you can   get a   document certifying that you are not an alleged terrorist and not a candidate to the no -- flight list, not   one of those saps   who stay in line. You can proudly enter the security zone and    puff   your   cheeks like a eunuch entering a harem; look, you, suckers,   I can see those women naked every day   while you cannot even see their faces.

Inadvertently we expand this. Like for instance    if you want to   go into   the public service you have to prove   that you are not one of the following: an atheist, a socialist, a Communist, a Bolivarian, a lover of young girls, a Moslem (or if you want to be a Moslem, you have to prove   that you are a eunuch), an angry black man ( angry white man is OK), an educated person, an illegal immigrant, an immigrant, a secular Jew, a non- mobster Russian, a   person who can speak English, a chess --player, a person who hates baseball, a person who hates Oprah, a person who hates American football and   (a carnal sin) a person who thinks Americans are not the best people on Earth, etc, etc. Oh, I forgot: you must not have compassion for any people killed by Americans. You cannot mourn the 100000 Japanese killed in one day and   ABSOLUTELY cannot   express   horror when witnessing   your President watching a killing of an unknown   man on   TV.

 

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The writer is 67 years old, semi- retired engineer, PhD, PE. I write fiction on a regular basis and I am also 10 years on OEN.

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