Vicki Larson: You can’t ‘pro’ your way out of being ‘anti’ something – Marin Independent Journal

I’ve been struggling.

Antisemitic flyers have been left at households across the country, Bay Area and Marin, most recently in San Rafael, Mill Valley and Corte Madera. Antisemitism is nothing new to Jews like me, it’s just that with the huge uptick in antisemitic acts recently, I’m being forced to face an ugly side of me. I am “anti” — anti-antisemitism.

But being called “anti” seems so, I don’t know, dismissive. I mean, what if the antisemite distributing the flyers — oh, sorry, the dude (I’m just going to assume it’s a dude, a White dude, but I could be wrong) — was just “pro” another religion, say Christian or Presbyterian? Why focus on the neg?

Who wants to be called “anti” anything?

If you only focus on that one aspect of the flyer distributor, aren’t you missing out on all his other qualities and qualifications?

He may be a good father and husband, an upstanding member of his community, someone who’s passionate about his beliefs. For all we know, he might have been one of the “patriots” who happened to show up at the Capitol on Jan. 6, or one of the “very fine people on both sides” at Charlottesville.

So, I’m struggling with calling myself anti-antisemitism. I want to be “pro” something, not “anti.”

So does Janine Pera. She’s the spokesperson for Marin Freedom Rising, the group supporting but not quite endorsing a handful of candidates for various Marin school boards and municipal contests this November who are anti-vax and anti-mask mandate — oops, I mean pro-unvaccinated and pro-unmasked.

“The COVID response and restrictions have been so divisive. We wanted to represent health and wellness, and mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. We want to work toward unifying the divisions,” she told the IJ. “We have come together, not to be in fear, but to dispel division. The last thing we want is to be labeled ‘anti-something.’”

I hear you, Janine. Loud and clear.

Thus, I am concerned about how I may be labeled.

One of the people they support is Holly Baade, a former candidate for governor during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recall election who is now running for a seat on the Fairfax Town Council. She really sums it up best — don’t turn people into labels. “When you turn all that a person is and summarize it in two words — ‘anti-vaxer’ — you’re dismissing all of who they are. You’re missing out on their essential qualities and qualifications.”

Actually Holly, the hyphen makes it one word, but let’s not quibble.

I agree! If I’m anti-antisemitism, what am I really saying? That the people who don’t like Jews, the people who have marched in our communities declaring, “Jews will not replace me,” the people who, if we can go back in not-too-distant history, exterminated 6 million of them, including a few members of my family, have absolutely nothing to contribute to their communities? Calling them antisemites would probably lack compassion and may not acknowledge that they, as Baade says about anti-vaxxers, “may be very viable in service to the community.”

Hitler surely was in service of his community. For a while anyway.

Now I’m really starting to feel bad about myself for being against antisemites.

Despite my “anti” label, I, too, am not a bad person! There’s much more to me than being against antisemites. For one, the columns I write, such as this one. Yes, they seem to upset some people who continue to read them even though no one’s forcing them to. I do believe in speaking truth to power in my columns, and that has earned me hate mail and hateful comments, and even a threat from a local first responder whose salary — three times my own — comes out of my taxes. But I have many other essential qualities and qualifications! I write stories elevating artists and choreographers and filmmakers and authors who live in Marin. I also oversee the IJ’s lifestyles section, hoping to give readers stories that will interest, engage and maybe even inspire them. I also happen to be a pretty cool mom (according to my kids), friend and romantic partner.

If you just focus on those two words — I mean one word — “anti-antisemitism,” you’re not getting the “all of me.” You may even be lacking compassion for me and all that I bring to my community.

Still, I don’t want to struggle anymore. I don’t want to continue to feel bad about myself. I don’t want to be labeled negatively. Maybe I should try to embrace what Philip Wyatt says.

Wyatt, also supported by Marin Freedom Rising, is running for a seat on the Marin Board of Education. He didn’t want to be interviewed by the IJ — the press is the enemy of the people after all — because he didn’t want to be identified as “anti-vax.” But in an email to the IJ he wrote that if he had to be labeled, he’d prefer a more positive label: “‘pro-choice,’ ‘pro-body-sovereignty,’ and ‘pro-informed consent.’”

Who doesn’t want to be “pro”? But if I try to spin my anti-antisemitism into something more positive, it’s worrisome. Am I pro-Jews? I am, but absolutely not to the exclusion of other religions, races and cultures. Am I pro-Israel? Um, you do know that “Israel” and “Jewish” are not the same things and not at all interchangeable.

There’s no other way to express what I am. I am against people who have hatred for, who are hostile to and who are prejudiced against Jewish people. There’s no other way to say what I am — I am anti-antisemitism. I’m also anti-racist, anti-anti-vaxxers and anti-anti-maskers because I, too, want Marin to have “health and wellness, and mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.”  Vaccines and wearing masks have kept many people out of the hospital and alive.

I also want honesty. So, anti-vax and anti-mask mandate candidates running for office in Marin this November, please: Own what you are. Because no matter how you want to spin it, we’re on to you.

Vicki Larson’s So It Goes opinion column runs every other week. Contact her at vlarson@marinij.com and follow her on Twitter at OMGChronicles.