Femme Friday: Hope Edition
As the week draws to a close and we come to grips with the horrific shooting at the Holocaust Museum, a letter in today’s Washington Post reminded me of the amazing capacity we as humans have to find meaning, inspiration and hope in the face of tragedy:
James W. von Brunn — racist, domestic terrorist and anti-Semite — never knew that when he and his then-wife sold their Lebanon, N.H., home in 1982, they sold it to a Jewish family.
The von Brunns had moved to Maryland before we looked at the house, and he was incarcerated when we bought it, imprisoned for attempting to hold hostage members of the Federal Reserve Board. When we moved in, we realized we’d bought it from an anti-Semite survivalist because he’d left behind several boxes of anti-Jewish books. We immediately added them to the trash.
Anyway, James W. von Brunn, we want you to know we took great pleasure in living there despite the hate-filled man who occupied it before we did. We celebrated Passover Seders, exchanged Hanukkah gifts and raised two wonderful Jewish children there.
GAIL CHADWICK
Wonderful, non? Irony is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
I find it unfortunate that most media coverage I have seen focuses on the shooter and not on the security guard who lost his life.
It’s possible this is only my perception though.