DO YOU HAVE THE MAP?

  What map you might be asking? Well, at this point I think we should take any map and make the changes on it that we need. To make room in space and time available for the changes that have been made to that map. To any of the maps of the world. For sure, the one thing we know about these maps is that they carry inaccuracies that had once been eliminated. That they carry with them signs of danger, even when not denoted clearly on the map. Unfortunately, more people are in situations where all seems lost, with no hope of finding their way out of wherever they are. Certainly, these maps   provide very little help, if any at all, to safe passage to the desired destination.

In fact, this is a growth industry position of totally and clearly not knowing where we are, nor how to get where we wish to go, not even knowing for sure if that is where we wish to go and what will be awaiting us should we get there. Most probably is the reason why all the shows streaming on the media portray people not quite sure where they are and how they got there and what to do about it. It is the primary core of these programs and the books deriving from or sourcing of these programs. Lost. Manifest Destiny. Gulliver's travels. Lost in Space - of the Robinson family. 

Or people finding anomie and confusion in their own hometowns. The Last House. The End of Oak Street. Two examples of many in the same genre.   Good movies. Keep your interest, keep the suspense. But unfortunately, very easy to make the   connection between what is real and what is on the screen. Not so far off reality, is it?

Over in France, they are looking at the end steps of the restoration of Notre Dame. Which underwent a catastrophic fire a number of years ago. The French pride themselves in taking ancient architecture and sites very seriously. Are very careful about hewing to the line of the original. They are taking what they consider to be a bold step in replacing the 19th century's stained-glass windows with modern interpretation of those windows. Stained glass. But just a different presentation of the same themes.

It is debated throughout France, but unfortunately, along with this country's worship and veneration of the old and the tried, they keep with them the old and the tried as well, not quite as gracious and beautiful as the stained-glass windows. In keeping and being true to the ancient sites and memes, some ugliness is carried on as well. Primary among that is the traditional anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish themes which run thick and fast through their veins and arteries. And that was before Israel was established, or should I say reestablished, in the ranks of the independent nations of the world. 

Never mind the fact that Israel, or Judea, whatever name it was called those times, had been around    longer than the governments and statehoods of most of the nations of the world. It took generations and generations before these countries were united. From tiny segments of what would be a nation at some point in time in the future, with the opposition of the many families of declared royalty, mostly it was a case of constant warring between segments and between so-called countries. 

Finally, most pieces became part of the whole, whether they liked it or not, only to contain stress and tension, until so many were reseparated once again in the second half of the 20th century and/or forcibly forced to join a coalition.  These coalitions and separations were certainly not conducive to a serene world affect. But one thing, be it in France, a primary carrier of this virus, or in myriad other representations of independence, always and forever, the one thing that was held in common, clutched close to offbeats beats of hearts and souls, was the JewHatred endemic within. And mind you, this was before the recognition and reestablishment of the State of Israel in 1948. 

Quite a long time to carry this infection and mind you, for no reason at all. Furthermore, there was no opportunity here to disguise this JewHatred with the cover of opposition to their own state, as they claim now. The cover is flimsy and shreds itself via the light and the truth, which too many national maps try to erase from the maps of their destinies and destinations. Why? For some reason, some warped sense of hate, Jews are evidently not worthy of their own nation, where mind you, all are welcomed, and have the same rights. That is, all those who do not conspire to destroy it and its people within. 

 Evidently, these misdirecting maps, find it better to 'unstate' it, find it an irritant to all other states. Deny the right of Israel to be a Jewish state. This has been anathema to the world, recently and has been in this area since time began. Denied an acceptance. deemed as an invader, an interloper, from the time of the promise to Abraham from the One Above. Through the intervening wars and times and oppressions. 

And wasn't and isn't it a grand opportunity to maximize the costs of these attacks, this constant desire to spill the blood of Israelis, Jewish or not, visitors, Jewish or not, as the targets became ever easier to find. The Hebron Massacre of 1929. The attacks on villages and kibbutzim prior to statehood and afterwards. The bloody intifadas. Continuing to the present times, in Israel, and throughout the world, as the hatred has become legitimate wherever and whenever a Jew can be found.

  The world conveniently forgot an important road on the maps of those times. A major road which led to the reestablishment of the State of Israel in recognition of its modern form. That was the Holocaust and the Post Holocaust times when the killing continued in Europe. This tiny, embattled state undertook the inflow of survivors of the horror of Europe and the expulsions and oppression from Arab lands. The constant attacks continued various alliances of Arab nations against Israel. Evil minded terrorists. And when Israel beat back their invaders the world did not take it well.  

The now persistent constant state of war, from enemies surrounding this small country, continues. Sparked by the ugliness of October 7. An attack aimed at civilians out of sheer bloodlust and a    refusal to recognize the State of Israel. Its permanence. 3000 trained troops plus thousands of evil-minded adherents to that cause, swarmed in, homes, kibbutz, cities, moshavim, dancers at a Nova Festival - all were prey, their lives and their belongings savaged, terminated or stolen away into Gaza's hell.  Unfortunately for them and for the world, Israel was able to regather itself and beat them back and down. Once again, trying to end the foe's attacks for all time rather than this piecemeal business. But the world did not like that. It viewed Israel and the Jews within and the Jews without as convenient constant targets and deflectors. For them to be victors and saviors of themselves as anathema to the thinking of the world.            it had to be wiped off the maps of the world.  

Our rescuing of ourselves out of the hands of the    bloody-minded murderers was turned into an excuse for war to be waged upon Jewish people wherever and whenever they were. Once again, our blood would soak foreign lands and the lands of the State of Israel, but they found a different map in place for the Jewish nation. We stood up, spoke up, did not adhere to the 'be quiet' behavior formerly encouraged. No. We struck back and will continue to do so until the maps are corrected. Forever.     

So, if one is in France or similar surroundings, where do we go to get out of there? How, in fact, do we know where to turn on a continent that is so befuddled that it cannot find its own place even when there were specific directions to reach it. But these specific directions were deemed unsafe. Unworthy of the people of France, of the world, and so, they chose the misdirecting map. And the anger that built up as over and over again they found themselves in nothing positive situations, they found release via that one, lifelong belief.     

They and other countries aways held to the belief that Jews are considered anathema, as foreigners. Never mind how long they have been living in those countries and how much they have contributed to its wellbeing. Disregard the map laid out in the Old Testament. The Book they all claim to follow. Wherein Israel was presented with the promise of the Lord of their own land. For all eternity. And to be under His eye and held within His arms forever. 

The world somehow has to be deradicalized. Given instruction as to how to find proper maps. Hold them steady. Learn where to fold, and where not. No more revision of the facts of history. No more the use of Jews as deflection for the woes of the world and of nations in particular. We have got to ensure that we have a true road map for all time and for all people. Revitalization of that which the world needs and not which certain individuals need and wish to adhere to for their own benefit.

It is most frustrating when that which should guide us is that which misleads us instead.  The maps   were 'mismapped' for political and/or or individual benefits. For short term benefits. The ever-growing deficits within our leaders and the ever-growing herds of sheep following along. Adhering to maps which only led to a perdition for all. Never mind the truth of what happened, good, bad, or indifferent. Stick fast to that which looks better even as it is worse is what we have inculcated within the belief system of the people of the world.  

We forget similar times of stress and disorder. Much of what we are undergoing right now is not new. We talk of endless wars. Wars that never end. Please note that these wars are not fought continuously with mass attacks and invasions. Much of the current wars are fought in phases.    Sporadic attacks from the air, from the sea, or from land. Whatever suits the attacker at that moment. But we forget all the designations of war that had been held within Europe, between countries, between pieces of countries. The Hundred Years War. The French and Indian War. The 30 Years War. The Wars of the Cousins' war in England between York and Lancaster. Between the Protestant movement and the Catholic movement and the Puritans. It seems that humanity cannot let go of the need to make war upon others. To impose their beliefs upon others. Even if it must be at the point of the bayonet or with a click of a trigger. Or even the lighting of a fire at their feet.

 Any of you out there who still maintain this fallacy that your country is safe and secure, that your country is steady and does not need a map, for it is on a map of long duration and long accuracy, they are grossly mistaken.  Antagonistic debates about where they were and where they are going and how should they get there, if that is indeed the destination they should desire. These questions and desire remain quite well and alive in human culture and behavior. Countries manifesting strong hunger for the territory of others. Examples of such are many.  Threats and troops come in tandem. I must tell you that my guess is not optimistic in remedying this want among nations nor the pressure from those within who wish to break away for their own group. Or when supposed allies break apart and the crack is heard round the world.   

More and more people are deeming the maps of the United States are no longer map worthy. No longer doing their jobs. For we have competing series of maps, each different, each proposing new and conflicting directions and routes. Are any correct? Are they all wrong? Or is this something that can be made from a combination of the best of all? That would be the best hope that we Americans have, that the world has. But   optimism is not bubbling over within me. 

For we have become too stubborn, too set in our ways. Too little understanding and too great misunderstandings. What we each need, what we each want, what we will deem as irreplaceable, and what we will deem as negotiable. Such is the way of the world since forever. But it seems that we have forgotten that piece as we move forward. As we return to many old standards which deny acceptance of more modern ideas which in fact benefited their nation and the inhabitants within. But who are now at the losing end of this movement.

 I am so tired of these awful maps. I am disgusted by the map makers and by those who know the truth, who can reroute in the proper manner, but who do not. Who choose for whatever selfish or feared reasons to keep to these broken maps. To direct people to places of danger. To the ends of the world where there remain only evil portents of a future most vile. This can be corrected. This can be rectified. It will take lots of hard work. It will take redirection and corrections of misdrawn lines. These maps will require give and take, push and pull, but at the end, if we all realized that our goals are basically the same, aside from those crazed by bloodlust, we all wish for peace. We all wish for a chance to raise our families in that peace. And to move humanity forward. It is just so damn bad that we have lost our way. That we have totally disregarded even those paths which we know began correctly. These will lead us back in the proper direction. But we, in our ignorance and in our arrogance forget all that. We deem ourselves as above all else on this earth, all else in this universe. But we are evidently not. How many more earthquakes do we need? Is not four enough? How many more droughts and tsunamis and hurricanes    and freaky weather must we endure till even the blind and the deaf have to acknowledge that things have gone very weird out there in the world of nature. And as Shakespeare pointed out, when things are amiss with man, things are amiss with nature. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does it even make a difference when the outcome is the same?

When will we discard these terrible maps. When will we allow a true map maker to arise? Show the world the truth of these maps or their untruths, and understand the lies entombed in the false maps. I have no idea. What I do know innately, what I do fear greatly, is the fact that we are running out of paper and pen. And people. That He who is above.  is getting angrier and angrier. More and more sorrow filled at the thought of what He created, allowed to run rampant upon the face of His creation, the earth and the universe around. How much patience does He have? How much more tolerance does He have within? I don't know. I don't know that anybody knows. What I do know is that we are pushing that envelope. Real hard.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

Our maps grow worse. We reject the corrections. And we return to the misdirection.

 Must it be this way forever? 

Up to us folks, and we are falling down on the job.

SO WHERE EXACTLY IS WALDO NOW?

   In the midst of huge crowds do we indeed look for Waldo? His bright striped cap and his forever mingling among the masses or will Waldo now be found hiding among the elites, the top 1%. who hold most of the wealth of the world in their hands. Or one of the chanting mobs calling for what they do not know. For what they do not understand. In mindless acquiescence to those who are pulling the strings of them all.

Or is it in fact better that we put aside Waldo. In the vain search for the real one, the challenge is too overwhelming, too difficult, as the disappearances of so many American icons have accelerated or been changed irrevocably, at least under present world situations. so changed, or discarded, that their discovery and identification is quite difficult.  

And so, we turn instead to another icon, Rod Serling and his constant everlasting background theme: doo, doo, doo, doo, etc. That is a theme that many of us realize is quite appropriate for today's times, for indeed, we know not very much in any type of secure and comforting manner, what exactly is in store for us in the most current episodes of life. In fact, it is indeed quite difficult to understand how the hell we got into this situation.

 How and why have so many turned to an evil past, a backwards past. Endorsed it over too many times into the greedy and evil hands of those who would make it much worse than the original source. The instigation and raucous, evil intentions, it's inappropriate and dangerous positions on life, are certainly out of our hands and out of our minds as we follow like sheep the latest most current ideations of the ugliness that has suffused the world before. 

Now we have allowed it to be brought out into the eyes of the world under the bright light of the sun.   Under this exposure, the ugliness is fully exposed. Yet few have seen it or admit having seen its future, the ugliness which awaits the viewers. Its exposure. rather than putting pressure on the evil and wrong, is perversely turned into an invigorating, exhilarating, encouraging element of life. The gates to Hell are opened, crushing beneath their weight the social mores and morals, all the legal positions   defining and inhibiting evil and wrong. It indeed liberates those who buy into it. Who enjoy the wildness of its evil intentions and its evil actions.

More and more of the population of the world are taking this developing situation, well developed in too many cases, as permission to take it and run with it, to grow it. The crowds grow. Evil chanting intensifies in words and intent and volume. Threatening those at whom it is targeted. Individual acts of violence to the point of murder are proliferating. 

And unfortunately, most of the world, even if they disapprove, say nothing. Thinking that if they ignore the squeaking wheels, the quiet ones will win the day. But that is poor thinking, for that is not the way of the world. Not at all. What results is an intensification of the potential and actualization of evil and horror to the point of no return. The sum of the parts is equal to more than it seems, for the synergy is maximized in its power to do evil, to do wrong, to indeed drain the humane out of humanity.   

This is not a new thing in the history of mankind. We have gone down this horrible road many times before. So many times, these wars on those roads have been deemed "Last war". The "final war". "The war to end all wars". But it is never so, is it? We managed to gin up old problems, old arguments. create new arguments, defy the truth and the facts, ignore Justice and Right. We give way to our worst and most base intents. With the refrain of Rod Serling growing louder and louder  in the background, we begin to feel the hopelessness of what, in fact. is awaiting us? Power and Wealth. Arrogance and Exclusiveness. These are the names of the games in the approaching episodes.  

One is supposed to think and wonder. One has cause to worry. Millennia ago, the power of the true Prophets was taken away from mankind. After that, our connection to the Lord was diminished.        Humanity was left quite often to fly alone, and our flights often went off course. In some cases, people were thrilled that there were no more scoldings, no more threats. Freedom to forge ahead as they saw fit. Unfortunately, humanity forgot the warnings, too quickly, too deeply, almost completely erasing them from their soul and their memory. And here we are now,

Everything in the prophecies, in the warnings of what would happen if humanity did not get its act together again and return to the proper pathways through life. Look around and see them come to life. Europe is burning in literal fire. Enormous degrees of heat. Mighty rivers round the world, including in the US, are running dry. Water is becoming the most precious natural resource.         

We have damaged the economy and the environment so that it is impossible to carry on in a proper and predictable manner. Shortages, scarcity, rising prices and fewer products available, growing tension as to whom is entitled to a portion of whatever is at stake and the inevitable disagreements.  The population of the earth is more than capable of doing the research and applying the elbow grease necessary for new pathways and new ideas and new medical research. We prefer to ignore that path and fight over what remains rather than what could be. Our energy and our funds are expended on misplaced priorities. And though we are so advanced, at this point, the muck is too thick to move forward. In fact, it pulls us back.  

Fire. Drought. Crazing heats. What is next? I think we're already beginning to see that. The very earth itself is breaking apart. The sun. The eclipse. Once considered in earlier societies as an omen of evil, that they have displeased their Lord, Well, what about the total solar eclipse? What is that meaning for us? Is it to remind us of the power of the Lord above? That He does not have to wait for natural things to coincide? That he can create and collide and do as He so desires, for He is the One who created it? He is the one who has been disrespected.  

 "Nature is not on our side anymore."

 Fact checking the administrations claims and finding great holes and fallacies and exaggerations. Even gross lies.  

 "Democratic Socialists.” All over the world, promising the pies but never reaching the skies and never reaching fulfillment. Other than an increase of poverty, intolerance, and dictatorship. 

I read of these words from the 1967 film As Good as It Gets. One character says to another, "Where do they teach you to talk like that? Sell crazy someplace else. We're all stacked up here." The writer of the article in which I found this, goes on to say, "I wish we could say to both these extremes we're all stocked up on crazy here in American politics. Sell it someplace else". But it is not just here, is it? The crazed rumors permeating the world. Even as the tragedy of Ceuta is blamed on Israel!. The clear gaping divisions in the choices we are facing in the current and soon to be elections. With choices neither good nor bad, in fact mostly evil. Boding more troubled years and a vastly challenged earth.

Do we accept the growing monarchy as desired by   Trump and his followers. And worse, if the far right attain office? Or do we vote for those who plainly and openly claim to be wanting to destroy   society. To cancel banks and police. To cancel democracy in the name of another political system which has already failed many times over where it has been installed. And along with them comes the blatant and toxic JewHatred - of the Jewish people as a whole and the state of Israel in particular and very vocal in this Hatred and intention to foment and install and grow wherever they are in the seats of power.  

We need to ask ourselves. Why do we stay quiet in the face of the truth, reaching up and smacking us right side and left side? Do we turn both cheeks? Ignore the filth and the horror, the hate.  The filthy name calling by the members of ICE who chase down those they deem as animals and treat as such. Hurting them, harming them. Using terms which I do not care to type up on this blog. From whence did this come? From what darkness deep within America?  

We must ask ourselves what one reporter asked of another. "What is it that ordinary Americans want of their government?" I believe we have to add the question of what we will allow for our government to be and to act.

And extend that to the world at large. Why? Because yesterday, today and tomorrow tell us the truth.  We do not live in boxes. We do not live behind impermeable walls and blockades. We are all susceptible to what is going around. Remember, what goes around will indeed come around.

Ask yourself, ourselves. Who are we? What do we wish to be? Where do we wish to go? And what will we do, allow or disallow in that quest?

I think I already know how the good Lord Above. thinks. How we have been evaluated and found wanting. I only hope and pray that we can do something to forestall any further consequences foretelling of more harm, more discordance, more danger and more existential questions. 

doo, doo, doo doo....

And where exactly is Waldo now?

WHO IS OUR FRIEND?

 An excellent question indeed. And one that should have been asked in various manners, languages, ways and certainly in timing. Unfortunately, we did not really pay attention to that question and blundered on in sheer ignorance and denial and refusal to acknowledge what was well known and true. We trekked on into what was becoming strange territory, unknown and quite frightening. 

But in our arrogance of denial of change, in so many areas and manners, we refused to admit it and blundered on, blinded and limited in scope of vison and turning wheels in the brains to admit that this world and the people within are shedding friends far faster than a dog sheds fleas. Even when garnering some attention, as people called out warnings, it was generally a case of fading attention. It did not gain popular acceptance.   

Freak storms and droughts and floods and earthquakes of great power and resultant damages continue, to cause a synergy of the misplaced powers and realities of "freaky" weather, becoming ever so much more normal in its freakiness. But the naysayers, those who have much to gain in their rabid denial of other cleaner sources of power, are apparently the winning side for now. The possibilities of more answers of better quality and portent for the future will apparently have to wait by the wayside, until the situation is even more critical and more hitting home in the ensuing consequences.

Much less food, certainly those derived from fruits and vegetables grown on various farms round the world. The weather is so volatile that farmers are greatly challenged to find crops suitable for the new environment. How to market it? How to improve?  If we are unable to feed the world or have been unable or even 'unwanting' to stop this situation, so bad that the remaining food stocks are too costly to be out of the reach of most of the world's population, we will see the worst of the worst.  

 Scarce food to buy as familiarity with the new technique of growing food. To ensure that we can keep what we now have and branch out from there. Do further research. Set up a fair and equitable program for distribution and keep the corruption likely to occur at a minimum, if it must be there   at all.  Most important, learn from the past. Avoid the problems that have plagued Humans since time immemorial.

The research is important. It is key, as a matter of fact. But we will net nothing worth of anything if we do not meet expectations and needs. Further research to alleviate the 'wolves' of this problem.     An acknowledgement that we, us, and nobody else engendered its creation.  Existential Peril to the world, to the only world we have.

It is a role placed upon us such as that we have never seen before. Yes, in certain pockets of the world, but that was downplayed as it was 'them'. the 'theys' of the world but not us, no, not we who live here and are ever so, much better, smarter, and self-sufficient.

 Are we not? NO!! 

We have just been luckier in the gifts of the world, of the earth, to us. We had some wise leaders who were able to weave their way between combatants and remain willing and able to put forth the effort to search their minds for answers and pathways to a better life. 

But the truth is that we have been luckier. That we were able to overcome so much of the bad. But the truth remains. We are all in the same boat together. The same orb rolling around in space. Growing ever so much more challenged. The bitter, hard to swallow, to even recognize truth, is that our wisest people have not found a way through this terrible mess as it defies a true solution. All found so far are a pitiful few slight indications of possible ways to slow it down. But not to stop it. That point has long ago been reached and surpassed. 

Right now, the best possibility is to find and keep it in a form of stasis. Until we indeed, hopefully and necessarily slow the path, and find new pathways, new sources of wisdom. Recognition that we are all sharing this planet and the fate of one is the fate of all. All of us are in the same boat. We share the same small planet.  The world is in this critical condition because its inhabitants have allowed it to be so. 

We have forgotten that not sharing and emphasizing instead that which separates us, even as the truth is that the similarities are far more important than the differences, those we have so foolishly, dangerously exaggerated. Certainly not to our credit. Nor to our pride. The farmer from the plains of America is in the same mess as the farmer in Pakistan who cannot grow his jalapeno peppers. The same stress and strain.  To prevent further damage to the point of a "once upon a time" footnote in the history books of another planet, another civilization which hopefully, will have taken the lessons to heart.  

The first steps are not to hoard. Not to grasp.  Actually, opening up our minds and hearts, are steps helping to us move forward. Stop threatening each other with fists shaking in the wind, with threats to do the worst to each other. Time to put down the fists. Time to generate more smiles. Value honesty in our dealings with each other. have an acceptance of the truth as it is. And not as we make believe it is. The necessity to indeed improve that truth.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

The first step is the same.

Make a friend.

Be a friend.   

WHOSE COUNTRY IS IT?

    Whose country would that be? There is a refrain of a song which states proudly "This is my country". That refrain resonates in the air, in my ears, but only wistfully in my heart. This country, the one that is supposed to be my country is no longer. I am not quite sure whose country it is right now. But for sure. my hold and the hold of many others grow more tenuous by the day. 

Jewish American. American Jew. Which is the noun? Which is the adjective? And does it truly make a difference? At this point in time, I am feeling more of the past in the present and worry about what the present will be as it approaches its tomorrows. In fact, I am not sure there will be many more tomorrows. Certainly not as we have been living in that which came before the recent past and the present time of our lives here in América. My America. Where has she gone?  

I wonder what my ancestors would say if they were given a trip through time, to their future. My present. What would go through their minds as they would peruse the printed and online media. As they would see the sights of the riots. The chants. The visible portrayals of the spoken and the unspoken hate, the vitriolic anti-Semitism, - the JewHatred", that has found fertile feeding grounds in too much of humanity. In the horrors proliferating in Europe. In all areas of the world.

 Would they not take a look around and say, well guys, this is pretty bad. But wait till you see what's coming. We know. We have lived through this ourselves. We will look aghast at each other. Thinking. Worrying. Fearing. That the past is reproducing itself. That people have to not look so far deep into their souls nor expend much energy in finding and allowing for the growth of that eternal Virus of hate. Which apparently has no antibiotic, no drug to cure it. 

That truth became ever so evident on October 7th. When Hamas took it upon themselves to invade Israel. To wreak as much havoc on infrastructure, to loot, to rape and kill and burn and behead - from infants to the elderly, from individuals to families. To flood a land with more Jewish blood, and to take back captives, as has been the case for centuries, and then to hold them in dungeons surpassing the worst of humanity. 

By the afternoon of 10,7 the hatred began to spew out from all over the world. Apparently, Israel had committed a great violation of the rules of humanity. By managing to resist and to beat back Hamas, and to wage a desperate war of survival; to wage war that would ensure its safety. 

Once Israel, the Jewish people, displayed their G-d given abilities to beat back the murderers, time and time again, the world chanted and stomped and roared. And protested. And demanded. That Israel dials back. Not to finish to the end, where the matter would finally be ended. No, better that Israel, better that the Jews would find themselves once again, whenever, into periods of existential danger. Always. Over and over again. Because it suited the world. It suited their politics, and it suited their blackened souls.

  Once again, the world has turned its back on all that is being handed out and thrust upon the Jewish people. They turn blind eyes and deafened ears to what is going on. Or perhaps they are not turning away in any way, for they like what they are hearing and seeing. In America, those who openly, viciously. espouse JewHatred, bedevil and demean the State of Israel and its right to exist as a Jewish state, it's legitimate right to be an independent nation. Their voices grow ever louder. Stronger in influence. And most unfortunately are managing to pull the wool over the eyes of the nation and the people of the world, so that they do not see the bloodlust and the devilish ambitions of these people.

Greatly troubled, the people of the world fall prey to the false promises of pie in the sky lives. The full pies without having to pay bakery fees. These people call themselves versions of Democratic Socialist Party. Number one, they are not democratic. Number two, these are not mild socialists who wish to ease the burden of people. To help them live better lives. No, these are out and outright vicious socialists. Who very quickly morph into communists and then bring tragedy upon the nations where they reside.

Their spokespeople, such as El Sayed and Mamdani are outstanding examples of what we have in store and what is already happening and what will continue to worsen under the leadership of such as they. We turn to wishful thinking that somewhere out there is a messiah of one form or another who will wave a magic wand and right the wrongs.

 There is no such being. 

Yes, there is a G-d, but we have been warned over and over again. Simply take a look around and see the signs of the anger of the Lord. Is this not the apt description of our times, identical to the original situation during the time of Noah?

" The Lord saw how great man's wickedness was upon the earth. And that his thoughts constantly inclined toward evil. Then the Lord regretted that He had made man on earth. And His heart was touched with sorrow. The Lord said, I will erase my creation humankind from the face of the land. Man, even animals and creeping things, even birds of the heavens, for I regret having made them. But Noah found favor in the Lord's sight...." (and then again)   

"The earth had become corrupt in G-d's sight. Full of violence. And when G-d saw how corrupt the earth had become, all flesh corrupting its ways upon the earth, G-d said to Noah. The end of all flesh has come before Me. But the earth is full of violence because of them. I am about to destroy them along with all the earth."

Humanity then had a reprieve of sorts with the Ark.

Do we have such a chance again? The doubts are great in my mind.  

Yesterday and today and tomorrow.

 It seems mankind always has a war within itself. And without itself. We never seem to be able to engender a time of true peace. Of equity. Of brotherhood and sisterhood.  

Ask yourselves again and answer truthfully.

Just whose country is this?

And whose fault is it?

 

    

HUGE SALE! DO NOT MISS IT!

  Everyone loves a sale, do they not? The chance for a bargain? The chance to pull something over on another person, or persons, be it friend or enemy. It seems to be an innate quality or lack thereof within humankind. Always to look for a bargain and then waved triumphantly when we think we actually secured that bargain. Then when we get home and take a closer look and evaluation at our bargain, out of the heat of the fray, we wonder. Why did we buy this? Why did we think that this is such a bargain that we had to have it? That which we were seeking. 

In the heat of the battle for that bargain, we forgot    that ancient piece of wisdom. That one gets what one pays for. That the lowest price is not necessarily the best price and at times, most often, your "bargain” gets behind you. It nips at you, bites you hard on the rear. And all the while you are shouting in pain. Cursing yourself for going for the cheapest in so many ways. You look around and see that you indeed got what you paid for. 

Buy cheap, get cheap. In the buying of that cheap we make compromises. We decide we don't need quality. We decide we don't need character traits of honor. faith, of public service, of sacrificing one's own needs so that the public benefits. One who devotes himself/herself to that public service and accepts that as a great honor. Perhaps not cheap, as honorable traits and action can be costly. However, we must remember that cheap disappears, with nothing left to speak of as a bargain. That initial bargain will cost much. 

Cheap is not secure. Cheap is not honorable. And if we persist in choosing.  "cheap” people, we will, certainly reap the "benefits". Oh, yes, there will be advancement along with huge transfers of monies from public to private. We will incur debts of longstanding life of to rack up interest at unseemly, usurious cost. We certainly will advance - ever deeper into the morass of cheapness left behind when our "cheap" and ignorant 'leaders' are far away, leaving us to deal with the detritus left behind by our 'cheap bargains'.  Our backs will bow as we encounter the addons that invariably come with the lowest price bargains.

So, who are the bargains of the moment? The victims of these bargains, we know. All we can need do on that line is find the nearest mirror and see one of the biggest victims. Our cheapest bargains, from all the cheap material on the sale table have cost us dearly. First, we lost our ability to define and understand words properly. To progress is not to regress. To advance is not to go backwards. You can use any term you want, any misnomer that you gin up, but what is clear is clear. The intentions of these bargains are extremely clear to those who will open their eyes and see. Not for those who close their eyes willingly. Not wishing to see the truth. Only grabbing hold on those false promises of cheap government. Of cheap lives. Of cheap education. Of cheap lives based on faulty flimsy premises. Guaranteed to collapse under the feet of those in the world who misunderstood the final costs of cheap. Not so cheap in the long run to set aside morality and honor and justice and honesty. and equality.  

Not so cheap after all, is it?     

 The costs of those original bargains continue to rise. The bad effects fall upon the nation and the world. Before the quality goods find their way onto the private markets and supportive public markets, we will have rough slogging ahead. We are in a season of short supply, its links shattering and separating. The supply chain of bright and intelligent people, people who care for others is challenged at present, to say the least. People who know the honor of public service, who seek not honor for themselves but rather for true advancement for their people, are mostly out of stock.

 At present we have a large stock at wholesale prices, of the unqualified who presented themselves to us as bargains. Cheap to us. In false glory and treacherous rhetoric, dressing themselves in fancy clothing as did the Emperor - who wore no clothes at all, yet had managed to set the prime example of the bargains and the fallacy of the bargaining and misplacing clear thought when it comes to governing for the people of the world, not for a small group of deal makers and deal breakers, all at cost to the public, but certainly quite substantial for them.   

 We, the people of the world, must see through the false facade of fancy clothing and garish decorations round the bargains, for they hide the truth, the cost of such bargains. Presented as promises to the people, the clothes will fade and fall apart, the garishness of the decorations will fade away, and their falsehoods will emerge, as we finally begin to comprehend the truth there before us. The promises will never have gotten off the ground nor made its way to the public market.   Their once bargain becomes the most expensive thing one has ever bought.

  This has been a challenge over the millennia. A mankind too often allowing themselves to be bought by the glitter and the gilt. And then pay the price later on. It is true that one gets what one pays for. One can hide the innate cheapness of some for only so long. The truth will be battering at the door. and its fists will be heard by those open to them, who will hear and listen and heed and open a passageway for them to enter the arena of humanity. 

 But this process, this repetitive, harmful process. takes too long. Humanity suffers under this burden of bargain rate leaders; bottom of the barrels and the barrels themselves are moldy and broken. Lack of thought and the consequences of time for humanity over the centuries have cost us dearly. Almost inevitably, Humanity managed to find the worst leaders. They did not necessarily want to hear Truths that might be hard and difficult to replant within society. There are several tables at the bazaar sale for leaders. Humanity falls too often for the Big Lie, the false words promising bargains for life, the best at the least cost.  

And so, we get our bargains - for the most part, dregs of life. Sooner or later, too often, too late, we realize that we fell for the tricks and the glitz.  To    those who indeed have no honor. No positive thoughts. No true interest in doing better for the world. Merely for themselves.

They go cheap. Very cheap. What is it that they're selling cheap? Merely their souls. Merely their honor. Those things have been kicked down the road. Trashed. Yet another Faker who raises his ugly head and promises pie in the sky to the roiled society. Desperately seeking a leader to help them out of the consequences of their most recent poor shopping expedition. And lo and behold. There are those same bargains vying for their chance to get to the top of the heap. Climbing high and hard over the bodies of those they fooled. Truly the most expensive things on the market for their buyers.

 We certainly got what we paid for. And pay for what we did.  We pay through our noses for our persistence in lack of thought, in stupidity, and stubbornness.     

Worst of all is that too often the addon is our soul, as individuals and as a society.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

We keep falling for the same nonsense.

Time to change the record or the tape or the disc or whatever is next.

The lingua franca of this nation, of every nation are words of divisiveness and hate.

 Time to change.

Enough of false and dangerous bargains.

We have paid too high a price already.     

NOT NORMAL!

  Sorry folks, it's been a crazy morning. Really tough session at PT today. And when I came home, I could not wrap my head around writing the blog at that moment. So here I am now, late afternoon and I am first getting started on it. Hopefully, it will post either late today or tomorrow morning.       

The morning has also been weird because so many things came at me from various people who've been writing. From various events that have occurred this morning, I just wondered what the hell is going on in this world? Nothing is normal. It's just not normal. That feeling of not being normal is to be found in many, many people these days. One woman analyzing the war with Iran over the Straits, going this way and that, calling it a whiplash war. She states: "The level of volatility and how public the whiplash back and forth has been. That's not normal". She further pointed out that as he has done throughout his whole life, done nothing for principle, done nothing because it is right except for his wallet, she states again. "Getting a deal rather than making peace." This is a man that this nation elected as president for two terms. Evidently not learning enough from the first term to keep him out of ,a second term. Going so far as to attempt an overthrow of this nation to continue his first term without a break.  

It is both interesting and very sad to observe how this nation has changed under his administration. We have, so many, too many of us, sold our souls, even giving them away. In the name of the procurement of a bid, a favor, a meal at the White House, favors and deals are happening with finger laid against the side of one's nose. One cannot even stand fully erect in Washington, DC.  lest one get hit by a wrecking ball. Or the debris of yet another of our national heritage places being destroyed. All done with no bid contracts. All the better to bilk this nation out of more.  

This new physical ugliness and its deteriorating sites are the outward revelations of the inward debris accumulating within our souls. We have taken up those no bid contracts and delivered our worst. But that seems to be OK as long as the contractor and Trump or one of his besties benefits.  Accumulation of money is the name of the game. It is commandment number one in the new Ten Commandments.  It is quite interesting as well when terms of religion are used in presenting these misdeeds before the nation. 

It is with great chutzpah that Trump pushed through a law saying that he who inhabits the Oval Office is immune from any prosecution for any misdeeds done. Free pass to commit felonies. To accumulate dirty money. To be a sexual pervert. To take this nation down the road of wrack and ruin. All with the same penalty. Either nothing or pat on the back. from another felonious person. Good life, if you can get it!  

Apparently, there are other areas of free play and rampant moral turpitude. The rather gross adoption of a false religious zeal as a cover for the incredible violation of the tenets of religion. To be honest. To be fair. To behave responsibly. Not to be a sexual pervert. To extend the hand to those in need, to the strangers among us. Yes, all these and more are spouted as justification for moral and civil transgressions which dictate a harmonious life, a welcome to the stranger among us and clemency and understanding.

These precepts of acceptable behavior, be one religious or not, are flagrantly violated. Even if legal laws of the land, it makes no difference.  Hate instead of lending a hand and a warm welcome. Dishonesty and greed the name of the game and neither civil nor moral laws will stand it the way of personal ill-gotten gains. Revenge? Why not? Sexual perversions? That's a go. A modern-day Midas with gluttony only for the gold. So much so. that he is willing to lose family and friends in the name of the chase for it.

 Where does the world stand now in the case of war? One day it is not a war and the other day, it is a raging one. With threats being bandied about. A war in which the apparent troublemaker is blessed   with control over the Strait, a new opportunity for them, along with the permission to charge a passage fee. A clear case of the Barbary Pirates, only this time we enabled them rather than defeated them. Good going there, Trump! 

We are now reaching a point of capitulation to the soulless people who walk among us. Actually, have taken positions of guidance and direction for us. Not a good turn for us, that's for sure. The politicians are now engaged in guiding only their hands to their wallets. There is no more any cross the aisle negotiations for the betterment of the people of America. No, now what we have is a group of people who cannot think for themselves. Vote strictly along party lines. As expected, the outcome is manifestly, totally, egregiously evil. 

It is a world that has forgotten its past. The truth of its history before being rewritten. The powerful currents in the world based upon past history and its interpretation have been twisted beyond any and all ingredient of truth. October 7, 2023, has been twisted and perverted into a claim against the nation that was invaded. Women, children, babies, elderly. Dancers. Singers. Soldiers. Policemen. All slaughtered. Fodder for terrorist groups who take the bodies of those slain and build upon them.  Convince the world that it is those bodies that committed the crimes. Those bodies that are war criminals. Are the perpetrators of this horror. 

The world falls in place. Antisemitism now     ramped up into a mindless JewHatred. A magnet for the evil, the soulless, the enthusiastic purveyors of violence, the liberation to do so with full permission, even approval. New recruits. Enthusiastic leaders. An Awful hate as a pathway to success.  Intense bullying of those who attempt to talk with them, to reason with them, to show them how wrong they are - all in vain.  So all-encompassing is this Evil, that it matters not who oppose them, be it family, friend, or stranger. The anti - Semitic words that are suffusing the world, have a seemingly endless flow capable of wrapping itself round the world multiple times. 

We have relied on false gods. We made Trump into a god because he said he would stand with Israel. But he did not do it for any principle. No, he did it because he saw the advantage for him. Even worse, is that both political parties have trashed their honor in the name of politics and remaining in office. No matter what it costs them all. 

As far as I am concerned, they are way down that slippery slope. With no working brakes nor do they care to find them. Both sides of the aisle are corrupt. Both have adherents who wage war against those they perceive as inimical to the rise and maintenance of power, to remain in their hot, greedy little hands. Both parties and all who call themselves members of those parties lost themselves. Are wandering around in the fog which they have created. Their moral spines are gone, and they are lost in so many ways. The sad thing is they are causing too many others to lose their way as well.     

 We are losing all the battles and wars, those without and those within.

Thus it has been in all the yesterdays and todays.   What will be the fate of the tomorrows to come.

  Ours to decide. Ours to live.

What shall we choose?

NO DOUBT ABOUT IT

  And aren't we the worse off for it? I am talking about the ugliness of this world. Yes, there are good people around. Boy George was a welcome example of that. And there are others around. But so many, too many are afraid to speak up. Or they feel enabled to speak up, entitled to speak up and out of their mouth spews Hate beyond all imagining. It almost doesn't make a difference at whom this hate is aimed. For when one runs out of one group as a target why not pick up the next group? Whomever is in our sights.

We are even taking that ugliness into the world of nature. Into a world that was given to us pristine. and fruitful. Look at what we have done now. Areas of fertility are useless for agriculture. Areas of drought are now inundated with floods, floods greatly destructive in their effects. The very ground of the earth is shaking. Loudly, strongly, impatiently. Trying to send us a message. Well, I think most of us are not heeding the warnings. Willingly refusing to know the truth.

We are ugly in the choices we make. We go back decades to find something to hang on a person whose transgression was minor, certainly compared to the grievous ones of our day who would suit our needs quite well and boo them out of the running. Meanwhile we overlook or even cheer on, even forgiving the worst offenses and all due to their bribe giving and taking, the could care less attitude for the people they are meant to serve. Greatly overlooked are the filth and the machinations of the crooks who now abide as a majority in our houses and offices of government. Why should they not do as their President has done, amassing personal fortune on the backs of the inhabitants, of the land which was entrusted to him.

Overlooked are the filth and the crooks that are right here in our faces, right now. Blatantly so. As I look around all that can be seen at present is hypocrisy. Selfishness. Greed. An absolute blanket denial of anything that is right. Anything that needs to be addressed so as to make it right. And anything that is wrong, so clearly very wrong. But apparently is met by universal blindness.

This corruption is not the purview of one person or one party. It seems that all who are engaged. In the business of politics, have found that it behooves them far more if they engage in the crooked practices so ably set forth by the President. But it is not just him. It is all parties. All political parties seem to have taken a get mean and do wrong pill. All are engaged in selfish actions. All seem to ignore the moral laws of society. Everything Is evaluated offn the basis of how it meets their goals. 

The mantra of their life being gimme, gimme, gimme. I want, I want, I want.  Just like the President and his officials and those of the Democratic Party, of all political parties, reach out with grasping hands open only to take, but not to give. What is there for them, not for others, not to help others. There is a meanness about people that was not here before.

We engage in a case of selective deafness so dense that we do not hear even our own inner voices calling out to us, shrieking to us. Don't you hear the cries of those who are hungry? Don't you hear the cries of those parents who cannot feed their children? Don't you hear the cries of those with skeletal children in Africa? Or from the hungry children here in America. And of those shivering or broiling depending upon the weather, unable to find shelter. Unable to find release. Unable to find a. safe place to lay down their heads and those of their children. Or the broken bodies of the elderly. Needing proper food. Proper homes, proper medical care. But unable to do so because any and all programs meant to help them have been canceled or whittled down to barely anything.

And all the while we have a growing divide between the haves and the have nots. Actually, the haves have become the have haves, have it almost all. The have nots are losing their hard fought and won position in society. Where if one worked hard, white collar, blue collar, one, was able to make a living. To support a family. To give to charity. And feel blessed.  Now those who were able to manage are finding it much more difficult. Those who are once solidly middle class are wobbling and slipping.  

This picture of the reality of this world gets even uglier.  Know nothings have permeated our government and have actually caused death and disease where there had been none, or very little.  Know nothings are wreaking havoc upon this nation, this world. Know nothings presume to know everything and make decisions based on their ignorance and people die because of it. Children get measles where once they did not get it anymore. Diseases once thought to be at least tamed are now running wild. New pathogens. New bacteria. All are coming around, hanging around. Surging forth in quite scary attacks upon life. And the surety that we once felt is fading away.

 Even more frightening is the fact that we have allowed artificial intelligence to run wild through our societies. A pastor boasted in church to many of the parishioners re his enormous use of AI, even during counselling his parishioners. That is obscene! The truth of history is being challenged. Historical books written by robots. By AI Creatures. Where does one go for the truth now? How does one know what is true and what is not?   Fiction. Nonfiction. What are we supposed to believe? How can we distinguish between true emotions and those that are false? Creepily false. How do we know which nonfiction book is telling the truth about the person they are doing a biography about? Or reporting on a history of a past event or a current event.

The answer is there appears to be no way out. We seemed to take 10 backwards for any forward movement.  Once upon a time, we knew there were faults in the world. And once upon a time we made great efforts to eradicate these faults. Or at least ameliorate consequences. But now it seems we welcome it all back. Even admire those with the highest rate of approval for all that sours this world.  

Humanity has made such a wrong turn. I don't know why humanity thinks that when they invent new words or new definitions of words, that is going to make things oh so much better. The Boo- Boo will be fixed.  But it seems as if we are only making the problem more of a problem. Higher degree of a problem.  Judges and lawyers, those who are supposed to uphold the law, the moral laws of society have they themselves been absorbed into it and given way to the way of life of bribery and corruption.   

What are we doing, fellow Americans? Why are we allowing ourselves to do evil to others? Because they have another color, another religion, another ethnicity, another belief? What are we doing to the people of the world, those whom it is upon us to help. To make this world a better place for us having been here. 

There are those of us who are extremely concerned. Who worry about the fate of the world. Who do not look away. Who do not think that these problems will go away.  Some of us turned to the comfort of religion. Some of us turned to the comfort of drugs and alcohol and wild destructive lives. Some of us do the minimum. Some choose YOLO. 

Yesterday, today, tomorrow. 

Was it always so?   Destined to be so bad? So crazed in the directions we chose to walk. To think. To live.

If we do not take the lessons of yesterdays and use them to begin to remedy the todays, we will never be able to trust in a new tomorrow.

And then what, folks.

And then what?

BLATANTLY CLEAR

 It has always been there before us. We just never paid attention to it. Or if we did, it was of very brief duration. We did the same with all other categories of the creative arts. We gazed at a painting. Felt something move within our hearts. And then someone asked, "where are we going to eat?" and the movement stilled. Never to return. Or we read a book. Thought about it, recommended it. And then over time, as we did nothing else with it, it too faded away into the memories of the past. 

We even intruded upon the blessings of the physical world. We spoke of hiking, going to see some famous site. We boasted of going to odd places. Like the Galapagos. Into the beauty to be found in the Denali area. Or the vast awesome high deserts of Arizona. And the thunderous silence of the Joshua trees. But when we were there, all we did was exclaim about it briefly and then onto the important part of the trip. The busy work. 

Instead of admiring the natural beauty, the gift we have been given, we all go in a different direction. Selfies. The same pose. The same background. And then, after we admire ourselves, we then engage in whining. It is either too hot or too cold. When can the pool be accessed? What about playing my phone games or calling a friend to say where we are? Or far more important, one needs a drink and a visit to the facilities. Barely, after the first remarks do we hear more of the beauty just observed.

In one opinion piece I read today, the article is concerned with a comparison of talking and listening and what happens when one shuts down, at least a bit. Do we instead gain more of an ability - and a desire - to better acclimate ourselves to other activities and knowledge? That which should be incoming rather than outgoing or lying dormant within our minds and hearts, leaving our souls uninspired and seeking. 

Always searching for a more substantial basis of life and too often that search, in a desperate effort to find something, anything, we do not hear what we should and instead glom onto dangerous ideas, manifestly wrong. Hurt and damage ensue. Exactly the opposite of what we had been hoping for. In fact, it exposes us to more elements of danger. Oppositional to survival and wellbeing.   

I believe this writer wants us to do more fine tuning. What we hear. What we allow into our stream of consciousness. Of what we allow to reach deep into our hearts and souls. Into our minds. To be able to distinguish and separate the wheat from the chaff. The good from the bad. The dangers from that which better ensures a more peaceful and productive life for humanity.  

But we humans talk too much. We talk trash. We talk nonsense. And inside all of the trash, hidden and drowned out are other voices. These voices are calling for better people, for wiser and more compassionate humans, for a willingness to share and to truly know what is real, what is indeed essential for a life which we all should, must have. They call out to us, to excise that which can be dispensed with and delve deep within to find the jewels we are too often overlooking, living in a world too loud and too busy. Too difficult to do the winnowing necessary to insure a life of goodness for all.

In all the hectic business of life as humanity has too often lived it, we see jewels where there are none. We ignore the jewels, which are us, we, the people. However, we are too busy looking over at each other to see what that one has. What the other one has. If you are missing it. Sudden needs become deep wants and in the sating of those wants we discard too much of value. 

 

Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

This is a chronic illness of mankind. If we do not listen. If we do not hear the voices calling out to us from without ourselves we will not hear them within ourselves; we will be the sorrier for it. What will be, and too often is already, are lessons, truths, to be heard, to be internalized.

 

From a folk song harking back to the antiwar themes of yesteryears, we must hear and feel its words and lessons. And warnings.  Unfortunately, war is sometimes impossible to avoid. But at other times, with a great effort, it can be avoided. If we make ourselves clear. If we reach out to the other side. Teach them.   Lead them to the truth. Push them to set aside their negativity in which they immure themselves. Help them to understand that some of their deepest feelings are based on a flawed basis, actually no basis other than lies and determination to deal harm to others. 

We, you and I, are the jewels which are constantly getting lost in the shuffle. Our inner selves call out. But we did not hear that voice. And if we hear it, we do not heed it. We talk over it. Thus, we lose the connection to that which we should seek and hold dear and close.      Bottom line? Read the lyrics to the song below. Feel them. Understand them. Sing along with them. And apply it to life as we know it. It's what we have to gain. And what we unfortunately have much to lose.

All in our hands.

 It behooves us to listen well. To heed all the signs of a Lord greatly disappointed. Grieving for the wayward children of His below. He is sending us many warnings. Understand that.  

Listen children to a story
That was written long ago
About a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley folk below

On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath a stone
And the valley people swore
They'd have it for their very own.

Now the valley cried with anger
"Mount your horses, draw your sword"
And they killed the mountain people
So they won their just reward
Now they stood beside the treasure
On the mountain, dark and red
Turned the stone and looked beneath it
"Peace on earth" was all it said

So Go ahead and hate your neighbor

Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away.

So the people of the valley
Sent a message up the hill
Asking for the buried treasure
Tons of gold for which they'd kill

Came an answer from the kingdom
With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain
All the riches buried there.

Go ahead and hate your neighbor

Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away

THESE ARE THE DAYS, MY FRIENDS. WHY? WHAT IF? .....

 It is mostly a challenge, a burden and a pleasure to write this blog. Posting almost every day is difficult. Finding a topic and writing about it in a manner which will absorb people's interests and cause them to think is probably my most prominent motive. Of course, there's also the inner release, expressing one's opinion without getting directly into someone's physical face. Wring about it in a manner which will provoke thought but not hate nor violence. I do my best and do find it on the whole as a positive benefit for me and hopefully for others as well.

Long ago in the early days of our revolution, to seek freedom and independence for that upstart nation of America, to be known as the United States of America, many words were spoken with relevance to their days and down the line, to our days as well.  Sometimes not so united, unfortunately, but still, we have come through mostly intact, even with deep abysses appearing too often on the scene. 

I do believe if we are meant to keep this entity alive and well, we must choose our words carefully. Monitor our thoughts. Choose as our primary motivation the preservation and the good health of this unique experiment in the history of humanity.   Rather than using it as a bully pulpit, using all sorts of negative means and manners and even a couple of smacks with a figurative steel pole, simply to gain the attention of readers, forcing them to open minds and hearts. To contemplate perhaps, a revision of past thinking, a turn towards the positive. 

Unfortunately, some heads are too stuffed with the negative. With reams and barrelsful of hate. That hate is both taught and adopted. No one is born with it. Even as we have sung many times about how hate has to be taught, how negative it is, how destructive it is, how much we dislike it, we never seem to shed it, do we? It is always there.

 Like that weird relative that people used to lock up in a closet or in the attic, so actually needful of aid and not isolation, even as that "shame' was wrong, so are the main motivations of people like that. Who propose nothing constructive. Only restrictive. Who never have a good word to say. About liberty. About cooperation. Only words of excess. And negativity. And restrictions.

 Hands that should be open and welcoming are held back or sent out with pain to be inflicted on one person or group or another. Bottom line? This negativity, this retrogressive behavior. thinly disguised as it might be with words that cut deep, will affect all groups, for Hate has no boundaries, its appetite voracious, impossible to sate.

This venomous hate makes its appearance in many guises. Nasty slogans. Shouts and words can be more painful and long lasting than the pain of physical offense. Cut deeper and hurt more than a physical smack. For the one can heal and one can never heal, its hurt and harm remaining as sharp as the day it was born all the way to the day of death.  Mother Goose's nursery rhyme tells us that words can never harm us. She obviously missed the lesson that day. 

And again, it cannot be stressed enough. The most miserable thing about this is that those adorable little babies we love to cuddle. Upon whom we pin dreams that fly to the sky and out to the horizon are not innately poisoned with Hate. We teach them wrongly. We teach hate and violence. We teach them to demean others. We teach them and present to them lies as truths. We conflate that which should not even be in the same universe! Let alone the same sentence.  

Our most precious resource, our children, are at stake. To offend and to hurt has increasingly become the mantras of the day.   We need to recall some of the words from our revolutionary heroes. Not perfect people, for to err is certainly human, (We prove that on an hourly basis, do we not??)  Words of those early days of this nation as from Thomas Paine who warned us, then and now, that " "These are the times that try men's souls."   Women's as well. It well behooves us to go and re- read some of our founding documents.

 We have lost much of that which defined America. We have lost, unfortunately, much of its greatness. We went backwards, retrograde rather than progressively forward, not the pathetic and dangerous imitation presented to us as such. Personally. I am extremely troubled. Growing more so every day. And less so in terms of confidence and trust in my native-born country. It was not so that long ago. Then I felt secure in my citizenship, my membership in this nation which always had my back.

Now I feel a great chill on that back. As do many others. My children used to be able to go wherever they wished. They could study wherever, whenever, and whatever they wished. They, the members of the Jewish people, whether it is a religion, a nation, an ethnicity, etc. in any combination thereof did not have to walk through gauntlets of crazed people screaming for their death and not only theirs, but their entire nation. 

Once we could do whatever we wished, of course, assuming all within the parameters of laws, moral laws. Not fake laws which authoritarian governments tend to install. Which unfortunately is becoming the mode of the day here in America. Baaing sheep, greedy wallets, headful's of cowardice and the rot and stench of corruption rampant. led by a greatly challenged and get rich quick any which way, a greatly challenged President, and an incompetent Congress, we do not add up to anything in the positive range, but rather into, well into, the negative numbers.

Today, not so much confidence as I once held. In fact, my supply is running quite low. Fighting to come back from the inherent and growing despair, felt deep in my soul and heart, I wonder how could this have happened? Even more important, to how did WE, ALL OF US, YOU, ME, AND ALL THE THEMS AND THE THEYS OF THE WORLD, allow, even enable this to happen? Even more important than that, how and why are we continuing to let this happen?

Yesterday.

Today.

Tomorrow.

If we don't stand up and find the right vehicles, the right drivers, and the right roads, well. in the not-too-distant future this blog might be censored. Its author jailed. You think this is an exaggeration. Just take a look around you. The warehouses full of immigrants, many of whom did it legally, or are waiting for their green cards, or are waiting for their visa extension, or have been granted asylum, or who have grown up here, as Americans, have contributed much to the economy of this nation, who took care of our children, the elderly, the patients in hospitals and homes.

What the HELL! are we doing?

And who is next?

And don't kid yourself, for there is always a next.