From “7 O’Clock
News/Silent Night,” 1966, by Simon & Garfunkel:
[LISTEN
TO IT HERE]
Begins with chorus
singing ...
Silent night, Holy
night
All is calm, All is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.
Announcer’s voiceover:
“This is the early evening edition of the news.
“The recent fight in
the House of Representatives was over the open housing section of
the Civil Rights Bill ... A compromise was painfully worked out ...
“Dr. Martin Luther King
says he does not intend to cancel plans for an open housing march
Sunday into the Chicago suburb of Cicero ... police said they would
ask the National Guard to be called out if it is held.
“In Washington, the
atmosphere was tense today as a special subcommittee of the House
Committee on Un-American activities continued its probe into
anti-Vietnam war protests. Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from
the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans ...
“That’s the 7 o’clock
edition of the news. Good night.”
Silent night, Holy
night, all is calm, all is bright.
Imagine announcer’s
voiceover (from actual news coverage), December 2015:
“This is the early
evening edition of the news.
“A mostly peaceful
Saturday afternoon protest of 30,000 people got messy after sunset
as a breakaway group of demonstrators clashed with police on the
Brooklyn Bridge and a pair of NYPD lieutenants were assaulted while
trying to stop a man from throwing a garbage can onto officers
below.” (New York Daily News, Dec. 13)
“Video captured from
Saturday’s protests in New York City appeared to show demonstrators
apparently calling for the deaths of police officers, hours before
violence on the Brooklyn Bridge marred the massive march in protest
of police killings of black men, including Eric Garner on Staten
Island . . .
“After a few seconds of
chanting ‘Hands up, don’t shoot,’ the demonstrators changed their
cry, apparently yelling out in unison ‘What do we want? Dead cops.
When do we want it? Now.’
The protesters repeated
the chant for nearly a minute before again changing their cry. (NBC
New York Dec. 15)
“Two police officers
sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn were shot at point-blank
range and killed on Saturday afternoon by a man who, officials said,
had traveled to the city from Baltimore vowing to kill officers. The
suspect then committed suicide with the same gun, the authorities
said.
The officers, Wenjian
Liu and Rafael Ramos ...” (New York Times Dec. 20)
“As Obama civil rights
advisor Al Sharpton frantically tries to distance himself from the
revenge execution style slayings of two NYPD officers Saturday
afternoon in Brooklyn, keep in mind that just one week ago
protestors at his march in New York City were chanting, ‘What do we
want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!’
“The protesters were
part of Al Sharpton’s ‘Million Marchers’ protest against police
violence. The protesters chanted ‘What do we want?… Dead cops!’ as
they marched in New York City.” (Townhall Dec. 22)
“That’s the 7 o’clock
edition of the news. Good night.”
Silent night, Holy
night
And if there had been
broadcast news at the junction of B.C. and A.D.:
“I bring you good news
of great joy ... for today a child is born in Bethlehem in Judea ...
“Rome, under Octavian,
is making Judea a Roman province. King Herod has murdered members of
his own family and many rabbis, and hearing a rumor of another king
being born in Bethlehem, has ordered all boys from that town under 2
years of age to be killed.
“The baby Jesus has
escaped with his parents to Egypt...”
Back to December, 2015.
“No, Jews aren’t being
physically expelled from Europe, but they are being made to feel
unwelcome. Given that most Jews feel affinity with the state of
Israel, what must they think when they see parts of Europe being
cleansed of all things Israeli? ... And European Jews are voting
with their feet. In the first eight months of this year, 4,566 Jews
left France for Israel, more than the total number that left in 2013
(3,228). Last year a European Union survey found that 29 percent of
Europe’s Jews had considered emigrating because they no longer feel
safe.
“BDS (Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions against Israel) is one of the ugliest
political movements of our time. It is shot through with double
standards, treating Israel as more wicked than sany other state ...
— Brendan O’Neill, online journal Spiked, Dec. 9)
Historical perspective,
2015:
I don’t recall the
civil rights and anti-draft protesters of the ’60s calling for “dead
cops,” the chant repeated over the over on television news last
week. Isn’t inciting to violence a crime?
As for anti-Semitism,
the common phrase for decades after we learned about the Holocaust
was “never again.”
Well, Martin Luther
King’s dream of racial equality came true, even to the election of
an American president who is black on his father’s side. Then, the
accusation of “racist” became a weapon to use against any critics of
the president, and now, look where we are.
However, the dream of
peace is still represented, this time of year, by the celebration of
Christmas – the birth of a Jewish baby.
Silent night, Holy
night.
Merry Christmas to all
men of goodwill who dream of peace, fight for freedom, and continue
to work for a better world. Best wishes for 2015 to the police who
defend us from senseless violence while facing it themselves.
Condolences to them on the loss of officers Liu and Ramos.
Barbara Anderson of
Marblehead is president of Citizens for Limited Taxation and a Salem
News columnist.
