I'm not brain-dead enough to choose the shitty monsters that I had for parents. They were my worst enemies and I never stopped hearing the curses, the insults, and the threats that were around 95% of the things they would say to me every fucking day. They're dead now. I'm told I have to say something good about the dead. I certainly can do that. They're dead. GOOD!!!

One thing that I knew before relocating to Israel was that most Americans think that the world is made up of America and theme park called the Rest of the World, but most who are very limited in what they have learned about other nations and the life of the residents in those nations are hardly to blame because that mentality is one that begins to develop at a very young age. The notion that only the United States, which most people will call America for the sake of simplicity, is civilized and intelligent and disagreeing with that opinion makes the person who commits such a serious mistake as to express it branded as not being patriotic and some will even label such a person as "subversive." Even in the educational system, the emphasis is very heavily one that gives little information about the realities outside of the United States, and even the policy of requiring only two years of learning a foreign language, which is widespread in the United States, does have a way of shaping the common perception that if it's not American, it's "the enemy" who is responsible. That mentality was much, much stronger decades ago than it is now.

I remember vividly how during the Vietnam War, those persons who opposed it and made such sentiments public knowledge could face very vicious hostility and be branded as "traitors." That mentality was very obvious and unmistakable in my entire extended family that began when a couple living on a farm in the South managed to procreate enough to produce eleven children. Only one of those eleven actually went on to achieve a university education, which made him an outcast in the family. I remember my own father sounding off one day when he condemned all the damned "hippies, yippies, and anyone else un-American." Because that society was so hostile to me, I had no choice but to learn things in other ways, largely by reading voraciously, which prompted my mother to say over and over, "You've got a lot of book-learnin' but you ain't got no common sense." Having grown up with parents and relatives like that made me think, something that they rarely did, and be able to translate most of their insulting comments really meant in English:

"common sense" meant "too educated"

"subversive" meant "too intelligent to remain ignorant"

"disrespectful" meant "not singing my favorite tune"

"rebellious" meant "desiring to learn much more"

I could go on endlessly with the explanation that so many ignorant people used such expressions to reject everything that dared to think independently and to seek knowledge that was not restricted by bigoted persons who were allergic to any real knowledge. Trying to grow up in such a situation is why I never speak positively about having to survive in an environment that would never accept me because I was "branded" as "gifted" from a very young age.

I already have written and published a novel about a situation that should shock and appall people who deplore discrimination and are not rushing to adopt concepts that actually represent widespread prejudices that are difficult to justify. Somehow, I survived, but just having to live with such memories makes me say that having a strong memory is a curse, not a blessing, for anybody who had to fight for survival the way I did from Day One.