Jim Walsh.Photo: Facebook
A Washington lawmaker is apologizing after he donned a yellow star of David as a means of protesting restrictions put in place to contain the spread ofCOVID-19.
After initially defending himself, state Rep. Jim Walsh said that the gesture “went too far” in an statement issued Thursday.
“I apologize for using a profound image in a way that was inappropriate and offensive to so many people. It was wrong. It won’t happen ever again,” Walsh, a Republican,said in his statement.
The lawmaker elaborated in an appearance on the conservativeJason Rantzradio show.
“It was inappropriate and offensive and I’m terribly sorry that it happened and that I was part of it,” Walsh said on the show.
On a since-deleted Facebook post about the star, Walsh wrote, “It’s an echo from history. In the current context, we’re all Jews.”
When asked about why he wore the star in the first place, Walsh told Rantz, “At the event, our intent was to make a signature — make a symbol of the common humanity and frustration whenever anyone is objectified and minimized. That intent was just not executed effectively and it went too far.”
“It is deeply offensive and discounts the painful history of marginalized communities,” ADL chapter Director Miri Cypers said in astatement released Wednesday.“There is simply no comparison for the systematic murder of six million Jews and the segregation of the African American community that has lasting impacts to today.”
Cupers added that she welcomed a dialogue with Walsh to further educate him.
The Seattle-based Holocaust Center for Humanity said that Walsh trivialized the Holocaust and distorted history also weighed in on the lawmaker’s actions, tellingThe Seattle Times: “Our government is making an effort to protect their own citizens, not kill them. It not only trivializes it, it distorts history.”
Lawmakers on either side of the aisle also condemned Walsh for wearing the star.
Republican state Rep. Drew Stokesbary tweeted: “Encouraging vaccination against a virus that killed 600,000 Americans is the opposite of Nazi persecution of Jews. Equating them trivializes the Shoah, devalues the lives and memories of 6 million people systematically slaughtered, and brings unnecessary pain to their families.”
TheTimesreported earlier this year that Republicans in Washingtonhave spent monthsdemanding that Gov. Jay Inslee put a halt to all pandemic restrictions, even filing a lawsuit in May 2020 in which some GOP lawmakers argued “the threat has faded.”
According to theTimes, “The pandemic was only about 15% of the way along its current deadly course” at the time of the filing.
“You know, we can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany,” Greene had said earlier, during a podcast appearance. “And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”
source: people.com
