Choices - Bridgette Gabriel

We are a group of women who were very happy with your choice of the dynamic speaker Ms. Gabrielle. She is a living witness to the effects of tyranny and religious oppression. The Never Again comment that is so freely used in our homes, temples and parlours must apply equally to our condemnation of all tyranny--whether it be in the Shoah, Darfur, East Timor, and indeed, the Lebanese Christians like Ms. Gabrielle. She has survived and indeed thrived--a person who with dignity and vision shares her message with others. The reason people like her are living in the West and contributing to our society---as doctors, lawyers, speakers, baklava-making next-door grandmothers, taxi drivers and politicians--not because they did not love their beautiful homes or country it is because they no longer had a place to be free to practice their beliefs.

Because of hatred, political and ideological oppression, these people were chased from their homes, their money and possesions stolen, their houses of worship destroyed. To the undersigned, this all sounds very scarily familiar. To ignore or suppress what she says, due to squirminess or political correctness is to undermine the society to which these people have run for freedom.

We live in a democracy, where free speech is a high value. If only the nations of the world had listened to some very inconvenient, squirmy truths in the late 1930's, so many of the lives, bodies and souls of our ancestors could have been spared. As it became too late, the rich and powerful could not save their own lives with their wealth and connections. The poor had no place to run.

As we know from the holy Torah, the desire for Peace and respect for all members of the human race are pre-eminent values, but we must learn from history, that capitulation will not lead to the universal right of all human beings to live and practice their beliefs in peace and uphold the universal value of freedom.