The Reflecting Pool

I knew it would come down to this. It always does. When everything is said and done, they always find a way to blame the Jews.

This time, it’s the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC. It’s become a cesspool. Algae is spreading across our National Mall faster than corruption.

This is the same granite reflecting pool where, on a hot May afternoon during a class trip to Washington, I dipped my fingers into the water and waded in with my bare feet. It’s the same pool where Forrest Gump reunited with Jenny in a scene I’ll never forget. It’s where Marian Anderson sang before a crowd of 75,000 in 1939 after being denied the opportunity to perform at Constitution Hall. It’s where Martin Luther King Jr. declared, “I Have a Dream,” and where Barack Obama drew hundreds of thousands of people for his first presidential inauguration.

And yet, somehow, this algae bloom is the Jews’ fault.

As a writer, I know every conspiracy theory needs a scapegoat. More often than not, that scapegoat is us.

Now, as large sheets of “American flag blue” vinyl peel away from the bottom of the reflecting pool and float to the surface, who will be blamed?

I imagine Marjorie Taylor Greene declaring:

“I saw Jewish drones, emblazoned with blue-and-white Stars of David, flying over the reflecting pool. They fired lasers into the water, causing it to boil, bubble, and tear great gashes in the vinyl lining.”

I ask her, “Why would the Jews—or their Israeli agents in Mossad—do such a thing?”

Without hesitation or reflection, she replies:

“Revenge. They wanted to mock the President’s promise to make America beautiful again. They wanted to punish President Trump for his criticism of Netanyahu during the Iran war.”

I want to laugh.

But I don’t.

Because I know how these stories always end.

When everything is said and done, this cesspool of antisemitism will always find a way to blame the Jews.