THE FURTHER CORRESPONDENCES OF MARC SUSSELMAN PART 14
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3 December 2023
MS said:
With Alabama's victory over Georgia, and University of Michigan's defeat of Iowa, the U of M football team is now No. 1 in the country. Go Blue!
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5 December 2023
MS said:
Last night, my wife and I watched the movie “Indignation,” based on the novel by Philip Roth. The book, and hence the movie, is partially autobiographical. The principal character, Marcus Messner, is Jewish and grew up in Newark. He is an excellent student, but rather than go to a college in the East, he applies to, and attends, a college in the Midwest, in Winesburg, Ohio. (Roth actually attended Bucknell University, in Pennsylvania.)
Marcus is a very intense young man and a devout atheist, who resents having to attend chapel services at the college. The movie/book has several sub-plots and dimensions. Marcus has a relationship with a non-Jewish girl, Olivia Hutton, who is experiencing serious emotional issues and is very direct in her communications. One of the themes of the movie/book is how our banal decisions can have significant, often catastrophic, consequences for our lives.
At one point in the movie, Olivia quotes Ben Franklin: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” I was not familiar with the quote, so I looked it up after the movie. Olivia left off the end of the quote, which is:
“Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!”
I heartily recommend the movie, if you can obtain it.
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MS said:
On re-reading Franklin’s quote, I realized that it could be interpreted as an endorsement of the Second Amendment, and of the January 6th insurrection and a campaign slogan for Donald Trump.
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MS said:
The “extensive” research was said to confirm a person reaches their "most productive age" between 60 and 70.
This obviously varies from individual to individual. Einstein did his most creative work in his 20’s, and Newton in his 40’s I am 75, and am representing more clients, and writing more well-written briefs, than I did in decades past – plus emailing very provocative and well-analyzed comments to all of you. (But my chess game has deteriorated severely – don’t know why.)
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MS said:
I can see it all now: Trump’s campaign issues a news release and produces signs, stating: BEN FRANKLIN SUPPORTS TRUMP! LIBERTY IS ARMED SHEEP OPPOSING THE WOLVES’ VOTE!
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MS said:
I was just watching a lecture which Malala Yousafzai is delivering in South Africa. The theme of her lecture is the oppression of women worldwide and the gender apartheid which is occurring in Afghanistan. She then segued into a statement about the injustices which are occurring around the world, first noting Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, and then stating that every ten minutes a child is being killed by the bombardment in Gaza. In departing from the theme of her presentation, she failed to note that there is no gender apartheid in Israel. That in Israel. women are actually required to serve in the military, along-side men. By contrast, in Gaza and in virtually every Muslim nation on Earth, women are discriminated against, oppressed and persecuted. This departure from the theme of her lecture is another example of the double-standard which people – including a Nobel Peace Prize recipient – are willing to apply when it comes to Israel. Rather than praise Israel for its just treatment of women, which, after all, was the subject of her lecture, she chose to point out – erroneously in my view – how the Israelis, acting in self-defense, are oppressing the Palestinians.
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Michael said:
Taking that line with Malala would be difficult
since she was shot in the face with an Ak-47
round because she was standing up for
girls education in her home country of Pakistan.
However, to be fair to the Israelies I believe
without a complete Islamic Reformation it is
very difficult for someone like Malala
in the Islamic world to stand
up to what SW would call group-think concerning Israel.
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MS said:
Michael,
Malala found it within herself to stand up to the group think regarding gender roles in the Islamic world, why could she not find it within herself to stand up to the group think regarding Israel, and its alleged oppression of the Palestinian? This is the double standard I was referring to.
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Michael said:
Marc,
You're correct. I never thought about it like that. Perhaps she is just siding with the Palestinians because she doesn't like the Jewish people. I don't know. Maybe she thinks her religion is superior? When I was 17, I thought Catholicism was a superior religion. I don't think like that anymore. I believe if you are a Jew, Christian, or Muslim you are all equal. I even respect agnostics & atheists. I don't have any feelings of religious superiority anymore. But it takes many years & much reading. At least for me it did.
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6 December 2023
MS said:
A truly great, creative and wise man, who had the secret to living a long life, has passed away at the age of 101.
"https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2022/05/27/norman-lear-advance-life-itself-wellness.cnn"
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MS said:
Rebutting the claim made by several commenters on Prof. Wolff’s blog that I am a homophobic sob because I maintained that the State of Colorado violated the freedom of speech of the wedding announcement designer by compelling her to prepare wedding announcements for gay couples, yesterday I filed the attached brief (minus exhibits) maintaining that the City of Hamtramck violated both the Freedom of Speech and Establishment Clause provisions of the First Amendment by banning the display of the Pride flag on the City’s flagpoles, and requiring that the Pride flag be re-displayed.
Marc's pdf brief file download link
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9 December 2023
MS said:
A travesty of justice was committed in a Michigan courtroom yesterday. The sentencing hearing of Ethan Crumbley, the teenager who shot and killed four of his classmates at the age of 15, was conducted. Prior to the judge announcing the sentence – which he read from a pre-written document – the relatives of the victims and those who survived, but with severe and life-changing wounds – addressed the court. Their statements were heart-wrending. This was also the opportunity for relatives and friends of Ethan to speak on his behalf, to explain to the court the deplorable family circumstances he grew up in, and to ask for clemency. The court gave him none and sentenced this teenager to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Unless the sentence is overturned on appeal, which is highly unlikely, Ethan will live and die in prison, never released to enjoy a normal life or to prove that he has been rehabilitated.
Some call this justice. I call it barbarism. The additional years that Ethan will spend in prison will not resurrect any of his victims, will not mitigate the pain that their relatives will experience for the rest of their lives, and will not alleviate the life-altering injuries the other victims suffered. It is vengeance, pure and simple. What is even more despicable is that the judge had already made up his mind before all of the statements to the court were made; he did not allow for the possibility that some statement might soften his heart.
After the hearing, the prosecutor stated. “It was the right thing to do.”
Oakland County Sheriff Michael J. Bouchard also commended the judge for sentencing Crumbley to life without the possibility of parole. He said in a statement Friday that it was "the appropriate thing" to do.
"He said he was prepared to spend the rest of his life in prison. It is appropriate that the system granted his wish," Bouchard said.
The sheriff said he hopes the families of those killed can take another step forward "in processing this unthinkable tragedy."
This is what passes for rational thinking and the fair administration of justice in our society, and it is sickening. And in how many thousand other contexts does this warped sense of fairness and justice hold sway.
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Michael said:
I too saw some parts of the trial's ending. The judge said something about "deterrence" publically & privately. But who studies that in public school? Answer: no kid does. My late Father would always say that this is what happens when you take the Ten Commandments & God out of public school. When he was growing up kids had firearms but they never turned them on their fellow classmates. There are many factors. I think one of the biggest factors was when the Drug Wave hit the U.S. in the 1960s. Now it's worse than ever before. Was Ethan bullied in school by his victims? Probably doesn't matter.
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MS said:
Post-script:
Ethan’s parents who bear responsibility for their son’s actions by virtue of their irresponsible decisions in how they raised him and their purchasing the weapon he used to commit the murders as a Christmas gift, are no doubt reflecting on and regretting their past decisions. Which brings to mind the following monologue by Ruben Blades in the movie “The Counselor”:
“I would urge you to see the truth of the situation you're in, Counselor. That is my advice. It is not for me to tell you what you should have done or not done. The world in which you seek to undo the mistakes that you made is different from the world where the mistakes were made. You are now at the crossing. And you want to choose, but there is no choosing there. There's only accepting. The choosing was done a long time ago.” (The script for the movie was written by that superb writer, Cormac McCarthy.)
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MS said:
The resignation of Liz Magill as President of the University of Pennsylvania underscores the confusing nuances of the First Amendment.
If a person walked through the City of Pennsylvania holding a sign which stated, “All Jews must die,” and if he were arrested and an attempt was made to prosecute him/her, both the arrest and the prosecution would be unconstitutional as a violation of the sign bearer’s freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution. The sign bearer was not threatening any particular Jewish person, and therefore would not be exempt from 1st Amendment protection under the doctrine of “fighting words.” The same outcome would be true if a student at Penn State U. walked through the campus bearing the same sign. Penn State U. is a public university, and its students are entitled to the same protections of the 1st Amendment as the person walking through the City of Philadelphia holding the same sign.
The University of Pennsylvania, however, is a private, Ivy League university. The university is not bound by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Therefore, the University of Pennsylvania would be free to punish and sanction a student who walked through the campus holding a sign which stated, “All Jews must die.” President Magill, not being a lawyer or constitutional expert, did not appreciate this difference in free speech jurisprudence, and she has paid the price.
By contrast, I sued a group of protesters who had been picketing in front of a synagogue in Ann Arbor every Saturday morning for now 20 years. They combined anti-Israeli signs with what I maintained were anti-Semitic signs, e.g., “Resist Jewish Power”; “Jewish Power Corrupts”; “No More Holocaust Movies.’ The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and held that the signs – both anti-Israel and anti-Semitic signs – were protected under the First Amendment and I was not entitled to obtain an injunction placing reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on their conduct. I disagree with that ruling, and maintain that hate speech in proximity to any house of worship, of any religion, is not, and should not be, protected by the First Amendment. After the Hamas attack on October 7, I went to the synagogue to see what signs they were using. They had added two new signs: “Gas Chambers?? Really???” and “Anti-Semitism, Always Earned, Never Given.” I believe these two signs, in front of a synagogue, are well beyond the pale, but there is nothing I can do about it.
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Michael said:
What the Earth needs now is a person to rise up in the spirit of Elijah & the Madhi to unite the Jews & the Muslims together and to bring peace to the planet & economic security to everyone globally. The Temple offerings need to be reinstated.
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10 December 2024
Michael said:
Marc,
I wonder what the probability of Ethan getting his sentence reduced by an appellate court is?
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MS said:
Close to zero.
I have emailed the defense attorneys who represented him and have suggested that having a judge determine his sentence, rather than a jury, per a Supreme Court case titled Apprendi v. New Jersey, violated his constitutional rights. I have urged them to raise the issue on appeal.
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MS said:
The City of Pennsylvania? What was I thinking? I meant the City of Philadelphia.
And Zimmerman, I agree with Michael and David Palmeter - there is not need to gag when voting for Biden, and his sending military aid to Israel so it can defend itself against murderous terrorists and destroy Hamas is certainly no reason to gag.
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MS said:
Watching CBS Sunday Morning, it had a segment paying tribute to Norman Lear. At the end of the segment, it reported that President Biden paid a shiva call (the Jewish mourning period) at Norman Lear’s home. That’s a mensch, I don’t care what you think about his approval of arms to Israel, and nullifies any gagging reflex.
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MS said:
Fritz Proebel’s comment that given President Magill’s resignation as President of U. of Pennsylvania the “House Un-American Activities Committee” can now go after Cole and Mearsheimer is asinine. Cole and Mearsheimer have been critical of Israel in general, and of its invasion of Gaza specifically (criticism with which, as you know, I disagree). This has absolutely nothing to do with the question of Free Speech in the United States, and on college campuses, with respect to a student advocating for the genocide of Jews. Proebel’s idiotic comment makes me wonder about the rationality of the people who comment on Wolff’s blog and their total lack of analytic skills.
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MS said:
In response to wallerstein's and zimmerman's specious comments about Israel and President Biden's valid defense of its right to self-defense, I have attached a letter which I have submitted to the Washtenaw Jewish News to be published in its January, 2024 issue.
Marc's Published Letter
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11 December 2023
MS said:
To LFC,
You are correct that I should have done my homework and learned that Ms. Magill is in fact a lawyer and taught constitutional law at the University of Virginia, per Wikipedia. However, that makes her response during the Congressional hearing even more egregious. Since the University of Pennsylvania is a private, not a public, university, it is not bound by the freedom of speech provision of the First Amendment, and could, without violating the rights of a U of P student, expel any student who voiced an opinion in favor of genocide of Jews. And that is the law – which I am confident Prof. Tobias Wolff, who teaches law at U of P, would confirm. Why doesn’t LFC, who has a law degree, or so he says, know this?
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MS said:
Bravo to David Palmeter for setting Eric, wallerstein and Zimmerman straight on the justification for Israel's response to Hamas's massacre.
And wallerstein, you keep spewing your nonsense on Israel's alleged "Occupation" of the West Bank, which Israel has striven numerous times to give back to the Palestinians, but only their intransigence regarding the so-called right of return has scuttled every attempt to reach a peace settlement. Why should Israel unilaterally return the West Bank without a reciprocal agreement from the Palestinians to recognize Israel's right to exist and to end hostilities?
P.S. "Return the West Bank" is a misnomer, since the Palestinians never owned it. When Israel obtained possession of the West Bank during the 1967 war, it was owned by Jordan.:
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MS said:
Zimmerman,
For an academic who purportedly practices a commitment to truth and accuracy, your ignorance regarding the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is both stupefying and disappointing. Gaza is not, and has never been, “Palestinian land.” At the time that the UN voted in favor of the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, Gaza belonged to Egypt. It continued to belong to Egypt until Israel took possession of it after Egypt was defeated in the 1967 war between Israel and Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. It was thereafter Israeli land, which Israel rightfully obtained by being victorious in a war bent on destroying it. It remained Israeli property until 2005, when Israel withdrew all of its military forces, and forcibly withdrew the settlers, from Gaza. This withdrawal did not convert the land into “Palestinian land,” since by virtue of the Arabs’ rejection of the UN partition, there was no, and has never been, a Palestinian state. You continue to repeat your false and specious comments, and refuse to educate yourself regarding the truth of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is not an asset for a so-called academic.
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MS said:
To Zimmerman and s. wallerstein,
As I stated in my prior email, there is not, and has never been, an officially recognized Palestinian state. In 1988, Arafat unilaterally declared the existence of a Palestinian state, governed by the PLO, with Arafat as it CEO. See
"https://www.visualcapitalist.com/recognition-of-palestine-map/#:~:text=On%20November%2015%2C%201988%2C%20the,recognize%20the%20State%20of%20Palestine"
The UN has never passed a resolution recognizing a Palestinian state. While 138 of the 193 UN members have declared that they recognize the existence of a Palestinian state, no resolution to that effect has been approved, since it would require the agreement of the Security Council and the U.S., which has veto power. None of the G7 nations recognize the existence of a Palestinian state. The only way that the Palestinians can obtain a state is by reaching a settlement agreement with Israel, which they keep on scuttling by insisting as a condition of peace that Israel allow the right-of-return of the several million people who resided West of the Green line in 1948, but who fled to the East, and all of their children and grand-children. This is a non-negotiable condition for Israel. Those Palestinians who did not flee are now citizens of Israel, with full voting privileges and are represented in the Knesset.
Notwithstanding these historical facts, both of you , along with Eric, will continue to disseminate your false comments claiming that there is a Palestinian state, which Israel is illegally “occupying,” which justifies the Palestinian terrorist actions. Shame on both of you for your duplicity.
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MS said:
So here’s an interesting First Amendment situation.
"https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/us/yale-menorah-desecration-condemnation/index.html"
In the past few days, in New Haven, Connecticut, a Palestinian flag was draped over a menorah, commemorating the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Yale has condemned the action as being anti-Semitic, and the flag has since been removed, but not by Yale. The menorah in fact is not on Yale property, therefore Yale, which is a private university, would have no authority to remove the flag, although it has the right to criticize the action. Since the menorah is in a public place, the individual(s) who draped the flag on the menorah had a First Amendment protected right to do so. As did those who removed it. As will the individuals who first placed the Palestinian flag will enjoy if they choose to re-drape the flag on the menorah. And round and round it will go.
This is very similar to the situation in Hamtramck, Michigan, where I am suing the City of Hamtramck for passing a resolution prohibiting the display of the Pride flag on a flagpole owned by the City of Hamtramck. The flagpole constitutes a public forum, and the city has violated the First Amendment by prohibiting the display of the Pride flag based on its message.
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MS said:
On a totally different subject, my wife and I saw the movie “Mastro” last night, about the life and work of Leonard Bernstein. It is a magnificent tour-de-force on multiple levels. Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of Bernstein is superb – he even lowers his voice to imitate Bernstein’s tone. Prof. Wolff and his wife, and those who comment on his blog, should all see the film, for numerous reasons. It is unique as a cinema biopic in that it does not focus on glorifying the human who is the protagonist, but focuses on his personal life and his relationship with his wife, as he navigates being a husband, a father, and a gay, bi-sexual man. The music is also marvelous, especially the scene towards the end when Cooper re-creates Bernstein conducting Mahler’s 2nd “Resurrection” Symphony. S. Wallerstein would also enjoy the performance of Carey Mulligan as Bernstein’s wife, who was Chilean, and there is a scene in which they speak Spanish to one another. The film is very poignant in its depiction of the human condition, as Mrs. Felicia Bernstein succumbs to cancer. A must see – regardless your views regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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The End.