George Allen address the National Jewish Retreat this week

George Allen.. excerpts..
http://www.georgeallen.com/speeches?ContentRecord_id=9f9dc4c7-7cac-41dd-85ea-a0f3277fd530
My Political Philosophy was mostly guided by Gov. Ronald Reagan, who came to LA Rams practices. Then, at UVA studying Thomas Jefferson’s Statute of Religious Freedom and the Declaration of Independence. For me, Mr. Jefferson, in his 1801 Inaugural Address, best defined the Sum of Good Government as:




“…A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”



In my book “What Washington Can Learn from the World of Sports”, I write “No One Pays to See Officials Officiate”.



Prior to that day, the Jewish aspect made no sense because there was never any discernable reason to think my mother’s parents, my grandparents – the Lumbrosos or Garcin, my grandmother – were of the Jewish faith. I knew my father was raised Catholic and we all were raised as Presbyterians-Protestants.




I then followed up and asked if any of her family way back were of the Jewish religious faith? I asked my mother about the possible Portuguese and Jewish roots, I simply said “is there anything to this, many centuries ago?”



After this last of my innocent, cross-examination questions in between spoons of cereal, my mother very seriously told me that she would tell me “something” but only if I swore not to tell anyone. No one. I replied “okay”. She insisted that I “swear” on Popop’s head that I tell no one. Popop was the nickname for my grandfather and “swearing on Popop’s head” was code for deadly serious Top Secret. I said “yes, okay. I Swear on Popop’s head that I won’t tell anyone. What is it?”
My mother then haltingly told me that “Popop was Jewish.”
I was surprised. Mostly thinking why all these years this was kept a secret and this was a fascinating discovery. I thought there must be a good way to share this newly discovered aspect with others. I thought it to be interestingly positive. My first audible response to my mother was “why didn’t you ever tell us?” and “amazing, people need to know this.”