[Buddha-l] It's spring--time for poems

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Tue, 2005-05-24 at 11:09 -0700, Gad Horowitz wrote:

>            by a Jew, so it's not anti anything

Non sequitur, unless what you're suggesting is that a Jew cannot be
opposed to anything. 

Or did you mean that a Jew cannot be anti-Jewish? Even that does not
follow, I'm afraid. It is not a general principle that the member of a
genus cannot be critical of the genus of which he is a member. For
example, I am an American and I constantly write what is perceived by
some as anti-American invective (which my biographer, Steven Lane
obligingly collects for posterity). So it's logical possible that a
Jewish person could write something anti-Jewish, nicht wahr? 

Or perhaps you meant to say that Jews are exceptions to the general rule
that the member of a genus can be opposed to the genus of which he is a
member. Is the claim that Jews are somehow unique in their immunity from
being self-opposing? Even that is not true. If you need convincing on
this point, read some of the anti-Jewish ravings of the man whom the
Christians call Saint Paul. It made their version of the Bible yet! 

By the way, your poem needs a commentary for those of us who don't
understand Yiddish. (I am assuming "Gevalt" is not quite the same in
meaning as the German word "Gewalt.")

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico