museum of tolerance

MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE

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thats not its name but i wish it could be since that would mean we were living in a much better world than we live in now

last week i had my late afternoon follow up visit for the biogen aducanumab study at ucla
since it was late and the traffic is bad at the time we finished we had a choice to hang around los angeles for a few hours then drive back to santa barbara later that night
or
just get a hotel room and stay the night
we opted for the later
we stayed at a hotel near the ucla campus
met friends for dinner and a lengthy chat
she being the author of the book last trip home

so i said to my wife she
what do you want to do
she said
ive been wanting to go to this museum for a long time
i of course thought she was talking about the getty museum that is high on the hills as we go down the 405 to ucla
now we went to the smaller getty museum in malibu but had put the larger getty one in los angeles on our go to list
but
no
she said i want to go to this one
the museum of intolerance

well
little did i know that it would be the lead in to the end of the week
where the young man tried to mow down all the jewish folks at a synagogue near san diego
killing one and injuring three including a young girl and blowing off the rabbis finger
only fate kept this massacre from being worse
a lady jumped in front of the rabbi and got mowed down
his gun locked thank goodness or this could have been worse than it was
then
luckily an off duty agent was there and confronted the guy

then
later in the week a man had planned to bomb a political rally at the iconic long beach pier and possibly mow folks down with his rifles
he was thwarted by the police

i guess when you think of it none of us are safe now a days
if you are religious jewish christian muslim hindu etc you may not be safe in your place of worship
in the united states

i felt sad when i wrote that

then if you are black or brown or gay or an immigrant then you may be in just as bad a situation
i even think you can add police to that list
if i was out there policing now a days i wouldnt ever feel safe

so
back to the museum of intolerance
if these things didnt happen and these groups were not at risk then it could be called
the museum of tolerance
but
alas
thats not the way it is
sadly

so
we went to the museum of intolerance in los angeles
there were guards inside and outside
yes you go through a metal detector
yes they checked my wife shes purse

it was strange as we parked our car and i went inside
well
i felt uncomfortable
not because of me being a white male
but
because i realized as we went through the museum that this could be a place folks who are racists and or crazy would attack

they said as we checked in
you can go through here by yourself or tag along with one of the tours with a docent
so we did
it was a group of high school kids and probably teachers and some parents

it was interesting to watch the kids watch videos and old news reports and old history stuff about how we have been intolerant in the past and or somehow worse it seems today
many of the events i remember when they happened
all the riots after mlk getting shot eg

they asked good questions
as i watched all the videos and stories and their questions
i thought
we may be leaving our country in some good hands when these kids get old enough to take over
if
that is
we have a country to take over

mass intolerance im afraid will destroy us all

i thought as i looked down from the fourth floor down the stairwell to the first floor where 100s of kids were lining up to tour this place
this really affects us all
we all are immigrants or descendants of immigrants
we all are at risk with our religious beliefs
we those of us who have dark skin are at risk
some are at risk for their sexual orientation

intolerance is an ugly ugly thing

we all need to be more tolerant
we all have a lot to lose

the organicgreen doctor