A plea for more “Howard (and Harriet) Beales!”

Wow Mr. Beale. Here we are almost 50 years after you told us to get up off our duffs and yell, I’m reminded of a famous quote by baseball’s Yogi Berra, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” Amen to that Messrs. Beale and Berra.

Okay, the resonance of all that to our nation today? Well, read on.

You see, I was well on my way to putting the finishing touches on my next National Women’s History profile, this time with “Momma Emma” (Salahuddin) as she’s affectionally referred to, a local didgeridoo instrumentalist, when the two-headed monster of bigotry and its conspiratorial enabler, deafening silence, through off my rhythm. As a result, I must push the “Mamma Emma” piece out a week before the latest news of bigotry that I’ll get to shortly slips to old news. (During the meantime readers, you may want to Google “didgeridoo” as your, eh, homework assignment).

So, here’s what caused me to revert to a few “choice” words about what the president said about Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Jewish American:

“He’s not Jewish anymore. He was Jewish but now he’s Palestinian.”

I mean, when I heard, thought I heard (and hoped that I didn’t hear) those words out of the mouth of the president of the United States — THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, mind you — my immediate reaction was to call the nearest ear doctor to see if I could get an appointment on short notice to unclog my lying ears.

And more startling was what I didn’t hear from the throngs of White House reporters present. Nothing! Not a murmur! Nary a peep! Not even a gasp! The silence was deafening.

But not surprising were the slick politicians who avoided eye contact while trying to slip through reporters asking for their reactions to Trump’s comments about Mr. Schumer. And even more laughable were those who mouthed the typical “Not words I’d have used,” or their most common go to line, “I’m more focused on helping the American people,” as they sped to limousines awaiting them on the curb to ferret them off to the airport for a family skiing trip in Vermont, a golf course in Florida or a sunny beach in Cancun leaving millions of frighten Americans fretting about their livelihoods and futures.

Now this stuff is not new. It’s the same old rhetoric that was bandied about in 2008, particularly aimed at then-Senator Barack Obama. But 2008 also brought us one of the most eloquent reminders of American equality to date from eminent diplomat and respected military leader the late Colin Powell. On Meet the Press, the former Secretary of State addressed the problem of Islamophobia with the poise and aplomb:

“Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no.”

So here we are years later, and one would expect “courageous” people to clap back with “Mr. Trump, is there something wrong with being Palestinian?” Or words to that effect?

Nah, nope, uh, uh! In the words of Hogan Heroes’ Seargent Shultz, “I see nothing,” we turn a blinding eye and pose the next question.

So, as I’m wont to do after witnessing things so asinine and ignorant, I reached out to “Deborah,” who sits near the top of my go to list of respected professionals for sanity checking, advice and counsel. She informed that Jewish and Muslim organizations both slammed Trump’s comments as offensive. Here’s what I gleaned from links she shared:

“A President has many powers, but none of them include deciding who is and isn’t Jewish. Doing so, and using ‘Palestinian’ as a slur, are both beneath any (US president),” the Jewish activist group, the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement on X.

Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), called on Trump to apologize, adding that his use of the term “Palestinian” as a racial slur was both “offensive and beneath the dignity of his office.”

Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, also condemned Trump’s statements, calling them “abhorrent.”

“Since taking office, he’s elevated antisemitic conspiracy theorists & attacked our democracy. His rhetoric, agenda, and alignment with right-wing extremists are endangering American Jews,” Soifer wrote on X.

So, this brings us to the aftermath of Trump’s bigotry, to a nagging question — why the silence on the part of those in the media, leaders of organizations, let alone power-hungry politicians. Well, here’s your one word answer readers…..fear!

Inarguably, people become fearful and retreat into silence when they are afraid of potential consequences. The best contemporary example of what we’re talking about here is the fear of being “primaried,” in other words, the fear losing the next election if he/she doesn’t tout the party line. But there are definite signs of tide turning hope on the horizon readers.

You see, with great frequency these days, our evening newscasts and split screen TVs are highlighting thousands of Americans across the country in large cities and small towns in crowded town hall meetings demanding their representatives answer questions about decisions made from a distance in the nation’s Capital that are having a devastating impact on their lives.

In meeting after meeting, we’re seeing more present-day Howard (or “Harriet”) Beals seizing mics and yelling at the few representatives who are forced to come before them while the majority their elected brethren allege “previous commitments,” or only do virtual meetings with their hand-picked constituents in the safety of their echo chambers.

In the end, can things get any worse in our country? What can each of us do to make a difference?

Although I can’t give definitive answers to these questions, I will say that it is in our power not to remain silent in the presence of bigotry. When you hear it say something, do something, even if it’s just getting up and storming out of the room. The bottom line is that we can all become contemporary “Howard (and Harriet) Beales,” and yell at the top of our lungs… “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take this anymore!”