Every Family Has One

I awoke this morning to find my otherwise happy day spoiled by the "revelation" that George Allen has Jewish ancestry. {I use the "ancestry" word loosely since, as frequent readers know, I consider Judaism to be a religion, not a race; ie, I can't become Black or Hispanic but I can become Catholic. Ergo, it's a religion.}

In light of the fact that Allen is a horse's a**, I'm bummed that we're gonna now be forced by the media to claim him, in some small way, as an MOT (member of the tribe) because his mother's family was Jewish. Argh. Especially in light of the fact that the whole "macaca" slur was apparently something his mom (of French/Tunisian origin) used to say. Great.

The WaPo puts this "revelation" in perspective by listing others who have discovered a Jew hiding in The Family Tree: John Kerry, Wes Clark and Madeleine Albright, to name a few.

Why is this a revelation? And why is it an issue? Can't we just accept that this is 2006 and every family (even YOURS) has a gay uncle, a Jewish great grandfather, a distantly-related African-American cousin, and whole host of other "heritage/ancestry" issues that really are no big deal? (Even Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney have beloved family members who are gay, remember...) I'm a pale white, platinum blond, Scottish, Jewish woman with a Chinese kid and some gay relatives. It sounds exotic but its quickly becoming the norm. No big deal. Family homogeneity is a myth and always has been. It's time to get over it and move on to the real issues, such as why George Allen thinks he's qualified to serve in the Senate, much less in the White House, whatever religion he practices.

Postscript: {On second thought, perhaps on the positive side, the "Jewish" thing will effectively bar Allen from the presidency. As the old joke goes: A father and son were outside the White House. The father said, "Son, the beautiful day will come when wearing a kippah and praying to Adonai will no longer prevent a man from becoming President...unless, of course, that man is Jewish."