I spent a fair part of Saturday seeing "Paper Candles," the new play about the Billings menorah incident of 1993; then sitting through a discussion about it; then watching "Not in Our Town," the documentary that aired on PBS about the whole thing; then viewing excerpts from related documentaries; then a second discussion about all of that.
I'm assembling my thoughts for next week's Outpost, and I don't know how it will turn out. But I was especially struck by something Venture Theatre's artistic director, Mace Archer, said after the play. He said that the menorah story functions as a metaphor, and people have trouble dealing with the metaphors in their own lives. I can't recall specifically whether he said this next bit, but it seemed to follow from what he did say: Art is a way of helping people incorporate metaphor into their lives, and helps build the mythology that makes up the fundamental truths about who we are and how we live. Anyway, that's how my thoughts were running, and, as usual, Mace said it much more eloquently, and he's smarter and better looking, too, which is why I hate and despise him.
And all that about metaphor and mythology is a bit high flown, and I will try to bring it closer to earth for the paper. As I watched the play, I did find myself wishing, somehow, that the facts were further in the past, so that they would stop intruding on what really was a parable. In some ways, it may be that the people who have the most trouble grasping the significance of the parable are the people right here who lived through it all.
In the meantime, I'd be interested in hearing any metaphors, or myths, any reader here might have to add.
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11 comments:
Mark: Thank God those people were just mad at Tammy for advocating tolerance, not for being a Jew. I'd hate to think there were any bigots in our town.
snap
Tammy was no prize, that's for sure. Her husband divorced her, and she moved out of state.
Please write the story - all of it.
Ed, in NE Iowa and I'd guess in Minnesota too we had plenty of prejudice. Billings is no worse.
I remember my father-in-law getting a nazi-type flyer on his porch, right about the same time as the Schnitzer thing, but I also thought the whole thing was blown out of proportion.
I didn't put a menorah in my window, because I reasoned that if people were really going to break them out, it could be somebody else getting a broken window as well as me!
Hate AND despise, David?
(not to be anti-semantic...)
I think people have trouble with the "facts" in the lives, not the metaphors!
I have to respond to the person who thought coverage of the Billings story gave Billings a bad image. I'm the lyricist for the Paper Candles play and worked on the script as well. I've been involved with publicizing the Billings story for years, reading the book "The Christmas Menorrahs in schools and seeing various schools put on the play in earlier versions. Telling your story inspires people everywhere. Adults and children alike really "get it". They get the power of standing up for one another and supporting one another. One young actor told me "If we're ever going to reallly live with and enjoy each other instead of just surviving near each other, we have to learn to help and reach out to people - we can't discriminate. I think the people of Billings are the best, and are an inspiration to everyone. Being in Billings for the play's opening and getting such a wonderful welcome was great, but I've known your special courage and ability to stand up for what's right for years. One other note - The Schnitzer's window certainly wasn't the first targeted - there were several others. The first was the window of your former symphony conductor.
Every major town and rural area in Montana has a small but vocal group of racists or bigots or people who just display some type of intolerance, just like every other place.The belief we are somehow superior in this respect is a myth.Montana Human Rights Network does great work exposing these bigots.Here in the Bitterroot we have more than our fair share and if you include gays in the group being discriminated against....
The menorah incident demonstrates another phenomenon for me - that of worthy victimhood. If you want to experience the good people of Billings, try being an Indian for one hour - prejudice of that sort is so common that we don't even notice it. Jews, however, have achieved high status in our society - white and well-educated - when something happens to them, it arouses our sympathies. I viewed the whole "Not in Our Town" incident as hypocrisy in its most rarified form.
There are two Mark's.
It's amazing how quickly people forget. I was there. Yes, there were acts of hatred perpetrated by a small group of skin heads... there was, at the time, a lot of hatred spewed by the Militia of Montana. Windows were broken, and not just in Tammy's house. There was anti-Indian graffiti spray painted on a house in the south side. There were homophobic flyers passed out in our neighborhood. The Jewish cemetary was dececrated. I remember delivering thousands of paper menorahs to businesses on the west side that winter, and holding a candelight vigil outside of the temple after a bomb threat. (The leadership at St. Vincent's Hospital refused to allow the kids from the temple to evacuate to the hospital during the bomb threat).
We should never let the passage of time diminish or alter the facts. It was an anti-Jewish thing. It was not an anti-Tammy thing. Tammy Schnitzer, although not born a Jew, was courageous in mobilizing the community to fight these attacks. People are too quick to forget the silence of the Holocaust.
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