A courageous legacy...and a comment on how so many people are confused on what real courage looks like...

10 years ago, today...Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated...

A decade after Rabin's death, his legacy still divides

For those who don't know Yitzhah Rabin...he was the remarkably courageous prime minister of Israel who helped create the vision of a peaceful co-existence between a democratic Israel and a Palestinian state...who helped inspire so many efforts by Israeli leaders -- Ehud Barak and Shimon Perez, in particular -- to dedicate their careers and their lives to peace between Israelis and Palestinians...

The idea that Yitzhak Rabin's legacy would be debated...for someone to seriously argue against Rabin's legacy of a belief and a commitment to peace between Israel and Palestine...

Is beyond me, really...

I almost can't comprehend it...

I can't imagine how totally out of touch with realities in both lands and with the aspirations for peace that someone would have to have to denigrate Rabin or his legacy...

Which is the most courageous legacy that Israel has to offer...

I can't imagine what total cowardice it would take a person to denigrate someone who gave literally everything...to see peace in the Middle East...

Because they can't find it in their hearts to believe in that peace...

Debating Rabin's legacy of a serious commitment to peace between Israel and Palestine is like debating's the civil rights legacy of Martin Luther King...or the commitment to independence for India and Indians of Mohatma Ghandi...in my book...so much do I admire and respect that man and his courage and his sacrafice...

What is wrong with people?...

What makes such cowardice possible?...

What cynicism could possibly make us so small...in a world...that is so big?...

I don't know...

I just know that I couldn't possibly settle for that world...

Or to equivocate it with a world of more courage and decency...

Margaret Mead has a much repeated, almost cliche quotation...about how to never despair that there are so few people working on the matters of the human heart that matter...that the world has always been changed by only a few people working on its behalf...

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

I've heard that quotation a million times...

Brandi and I used to joke about how cliche and yet how true it really was...

How do so many people lose such touch with their own sense of hope and idealism, I wonder?...their own sense of courage to seek change in a world that will languish in its own tragic inertia and self-fulfilling prophecies without such courage...

How do they ignore the legacies of so many people who've made our present world so possible through their own courage?...

It does put things in perspective for me...

That there are some qualities in the world...

Courage...decency...humanity...thoughtfulness...

That many people understand...and still many other fail to understand them...

And helps me see the much more tragic legacy...of Rabin's detractors...and cowardice in the world, generally...

That some people never know real courage...or decency...or humanity...or thoughtfulness...ever...in their lifetimes...

And that legacy is far more tragic...and bankrupt...

In light of the legacy of genuine courage...and vision...and hope...of a great man...like Yitzhak Rabin...

Than ignoring the courage of Prime Minister Rabin...

If most people cannot...in the span of a little more than a week...

Comprehend the deep hope and idealism and courage...

That the commeration of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin...and the death of Rosa Parks...has to offer us...

I don't know what would help them see the light, better...to open their hearts to the world of possibilities that such heroes offer us...

I just know that I couldn't possible imagine living my life...without recognizing and being inspired by their greatness...

Examples that are worthy in and of themselves...totally independent of whether everyone recognizes them or not...

Thank you, Yitzhak Rabin...for your courage...and your ultimate sacrafice...for a vision of peace...for your country...and for the world...

L'Chaim...

Love,
Ben