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Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of December
8th, 2013.
This-past Thursday, Ronnie Smith, a science teacher, was shot and killed while going for
a jog. No, this didn't happen in Chicago, or Detroit, or the Bronx, it happened in Benghazi,
Libya, where Smith had emigrated with his family to spread the gospel and help children
there get an education.
Okay, many things to consider in this senseless act of violence. First of all, Benghazi is
the place rebels took when they ousted dictator Muammar Khadaffi from power. Now, Khadaffi
was no sweetheart. He was an Islamic fundamentalist -- which means, he was fundamentally crazy.
Also, you could have run a small city for ten years on the energy he expended hating
Israel. He funded Jihad and even the Black September terrorists of the Munich Olympics.
Bad guy. Not someone I'd want at my pizza party -- unless I could take the molten cheese
and smear it over his ugly face, and watch the grease droplets melt into all those little
pockmarks on his godforsaken punim. But I digress.
Out went Khadaffi and his Shariya law, in went rebel forces and a bunch of moderate
Muslims supposedly carried along on the happy rainbow of the so-called Arab spring. All
went swimmingly for, oh, a month or two, until Islamic militants attacked the U.S. consulate
in Benghazi, killing our diplomat there. Since then, Libya has not exactly been St. Maarten's
for American visitors.
And yet this guy, Ronnie Smith, he's on a mission. He thinks God wants him in the middle
of Libya, doing good works and maybe spreading some gospel to the heathen. So he brings over
his wife and kid, and he's at the International School teaching chemistry. Does it occur to
him that he's teaching chemistry to a bunch of teenagers who will use that information
to make bombs and chemical weapons? For his troubles, and his kindness, and his humanitarian
beliefs, Ronnie Smith was shot down like a dog on the street. Allah works in mysterious
ways.
So I feel sorry for his family -- who were already back in America for the holidays when
this happened. And I hope the Libyan government -- a phrase which may be an oxymoron at this
point -- I hope they pay more than lip service to hunting down the Muslim madmen who keep
doing, well, what Muslim madmen do.
But let's be honest: what was this idiot doing in Libya? Really. Who asked him? America's
got public schools that are one step removed from penitentiaries, but this guy has a calling
to go help our enemies overseas. And what's more, the main argument that liberals and
"We-are-the-World" types make that can even remotely come close to defending events like
9/11 and the Boston Marathon, is that America sticks its nose in where it doesn't belong.
We go scavenging for oil and scamming for capitalism in any country we can get our grubby
red, white and blue hands on. Some of these countries -- in Latin America, in North Africa
-- they don't want our help. They don't need our processed foods, our politics, our ***
-- but they're getting it.
In a statement, Smith's widow, Anita Smith, said, quote, "Ronnie's greatest desire was
for the people of Libya to have the joy of knowing God through Christ," unquote. Anita,
darling, they don't want your Jesus any more than they want my Jews. And it's the one prerogative
they really are entitled to; if they think the Koran's gonna get them some virgins, who
are we to force our equally crazy religions down their ululating throats?
The death of Ronnie Smith was tragic, but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time
for what he fantasized were the right reasons. He knew the risks and admitted as much, but
that's cold comfort to his son, who's getting a dead father under his Christmas tree. When
the American government issues a warning that it's not safe for white-looking western people
to go jogging where they hate us, maybe Jesus, instead of telling his followers, "Go, spread
my truth," should say, "You're in a war zone, schmuck! Get your tuchas out of there, and
go teach at MIT."
With all due respect to the late Mr. Smith, if you're a homeless person in London, you
can choose to sleep on a bench in Trafalgar Square. But if you wake up covered in pigeon
poop, literally and figuratively, that's on you.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of ***
in Great Neck, New York.