If a Draft Dodger and a Gold Star Father Can Find Something in Common, So Can the Rest of Us

*-Spoiler alert. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the episode of All in the Family that aired last week.

Last week, Live in Front of a Studio Audience: ‘All in the Family’ and ‘Good Times’ aired on ABC.

I can’t comment about the Good Times episode because it’s just one of those shows that I never watched.

However, I knew the episode from All in the Family.

The focus on the episode was Christmas dinner. Pinky (Kevin Bacon) has been invited by Archie (Woody Harrelson) to join the Bunkers for Christmas Eve. A gold star father who lost his son in Vietnam, Pinky is still in mourning for his son. David (Jessie Eisenberg) is an old friend of Mike (Ike Barinholtz). He has nowhere else to go for the holiday and is extended an invitation by Mike.

Over the course of the episode, David reveals that he is a draft dodger. Archie, of course is enraged. The expectation is that verbal daggers will be thrown. Instead, the two men shake hands and peacefully sit down to dinner.

Our country is as divided as it was when this episode originally aired. The thing that struck me is that if these two men, with completely opposite viewpoints, can sit down and have Christmas dinner in peace, why can’t the rest of us?

Happy Monday.

Advertisement

Welcome to the Tribe, Tiffany Haddish

When one thinks of a Jewish woman, the image that is conjured is usually that of Barbra Streisand or Fran Drescher.

One does not think of Tiffany Haddish.

A few weeks ago, Tiffany Haddish: Black Mitzvah premiered on Netflix.

The daughter of an African-American mother and an Ethiopian Jewish father, Haddish celebrated her fortieth birthday and embraced her father’s Judaism earlier this month.

I love that she is Jewish and she embraced her Judaism. I love that she reminds audiences that not all Jews look and/or sound like Barbra Streisand or Fran Drescher. We come from all parts of the world and speak as many languages are there are to speak. Some of us have lighter skin, some of us have darker skin.

Either way, we are all Jews and Tiffany Haddish is one of us.

Welcome to the tribe, Tiffany Haddish.