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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Oct. 13, 2008 / 14 Tishrei 5769

Now is not the time to blame others

By Mitch Albom


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | As the financial markets tumble and America stands on the brink of a depression, people want to know how on earth we can fix this.


I know the answer. But you may not like it.


We're gonna have to be nice to each other.


Yep. That's what I said. Nice to each other. And before you dismiss this as simplistic drivel, ask yourself a question: If it's so simple, how come we haven't done it?


And ask yourself this: What's the biggest difference between America now and America during the Great Depression?


The difference is people back then were willing to sacrifice, to do without, to cobble through the hard times and pull together because they believed in the future and they believed in their country.


We need to do the same.


Which means a change in the status quo. A change in the blame-someone-else mentality of this nation. A change in the hate-mongering that's going on from right to left and left to right, in the media, in politics, in town halls, in barbershops.


If we're going to weather this mess, if we're going to avert total financial meltdown, if we're ever really going to see brighter days ahead, then here's what we'll have to do:

OUR NATIONAL TO-DO LIST

  • We'll have to stop blaming the poor for buying houses they couldn't afford.

  • We'll have to stop blaming the rich because they wanted more money.

  • We'll have to stop screaming at Democrats, "You created this problem."

  • We'll have to stop screaming at Republicans, "You're the reason this happened."

  • We'll have to help the downtrodden, because without our help they may not make it.

  • We'll have to look out for the elderly, because if illness comes, they can't wait until the markets rebound.

  • We'll have to teach our kids that tough times don't last, but tough people do.

  • We'll have to help our neighbor find a job, because next thing you know, it could be us asking for work.

  • We'll have to take an interest in our community, because feeling part of something may be the only way we climb out of this.

  • We'll have to get behind the new president, whoever he may be, because a country as divided as this one is will never be able to climb out of the muck.

  • We'll have to find a laugh, together, in cutting back to one car, or taking a local vacation, or living without computer upgrades, because if we can't share a laugh over this whole mess, we'll just want to cry.

WORST OF TIMES, BEST OF PEOPLE
The well to do will have to accept that poor people are not stupid or second class — that former high-flying executives are now out in the street, too — and those living paycheck-to-paycheck are not here to be taken advantage of.


The less well off will have to accept that wealth is earned, it is not a right, it is not something you're supposed to have just because people on TV have it. You save, you sacrifice, you avoid debt — those are qualities of admirable folks, not suckers.


The comfortable must know that if they don't help those in need, the needy may be pushed to the brink.


The needy must believe that no matter what, you don't lose your soul over this, you don't steal, you don't rob, you don't break the law for money.


These are depressing times, awful times, head-shaking times. But they also can be times of opportunity. How many of us know a parent or grandparent who claims the greatest lessons they learned came from the Depression? How many of them hearken to that time as a moment when we realized what was important, and we all pulled together?


At the bottom of all that is a simple start. We need to be nicer to each other. That's how it begins. If we take that first step, we may surprise ourselves. And we may surprise this national malaise, which otherwise threatens to swallow us.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

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