Sabra

Life is like a sabra, a sabra, the Hebrew world for a cactus, prickly on the outside, soft on the inside. Any country tiny or not will evidence this condition sometime in its history. Albania, sadly, is no exception. The group, Righteous of all Nations tries to honor individuals, so far about 13,000 who saved Jews from death during the Holocaust. 100% of Jews survived World War II in Albania. Actually only about 1,000 lived there then, but their residence in the country, originally called Illyria, was 2 thousand years old. Albanians adhered to a tradition of BESA (honor) which needed to be preserved as applied to sojourners. In the 15th century, 1262 articles of a code of a chieftain, originating with the mountain people of Albania, said that "the Albanian home is at the service of God and the sojourner." No one asking to be a ‘guest’ could be refused. The population of Albania during the war was about 70% Moslem, 20% Orthodox Christian, 10% Roman Catholic and a bare 1% Jewish. Yet at great peril, 100% of the Jews who were accommodated survived the Holocaust. But like a prickly cactus, history of Albania is sticky. In 1945, the Communists took over - until 1985 - and Albania became the 1st totally atheistic state. Religion and its practice was banned in 1967. Religious books were destroyed; any person violating the anti-religion law was punished. Life again entered a dark age in Albania. Churches and Mosques were closed. until 1990 when conditions eased. But we are not out of the cactus landscape yet. As recent as 1998, 20,000 Albanians have had to flee for their lives due to a war. Obviously, humans resemble sabras. Out of necessity we must remain prickly and defensive on the outside for the sake of self-preservation, no matter what sympathy or softness exists at our core. How else can we survive? How else will we survive the present state of liberal Democrat politics, the present porkulus, the eminent danger of self-destruction and implosion in America?