Catholics in El Paso like Dems in San Francisco

When I was eight years old, I lived in El Paso Texas where my father was a prominent reform rabbi and my mother was active in Planned Parenthood. I went to a public school heavily populated with Mexicans and Mexican Americans. My Mexican classmates were nearly all Roman Catholics, in those days.

Whenever a traveling priest came to the local parish, usually a Dominican, he gave a fire and brimstone sermon excoriating Jews for having killed Christ.

It was on the following Monday that I was chased home after school by the inflamed Catholic students who often threw rocks at me.

You should not be surprised that I get exactly the same feeling being a pro-commerce advocate in a city like San Francisco. My fellow San Franciscans treat me the same way as my Mexican Catholic classmates following a visit from a proselytizing Dominican.

In some ways my early experience inured me to my current experience. I know that American society did not protect Jews and doesn't protect pro-commerce advocates.