One of the recurring themes of Shakespeare is that of the world of man and the world of Nature and how they are reflected in and by each other. Well, look at the world of nature today, and then at our world, that of man, and I daresay that this motif is still true, quite valid. That is one of the things that makes Shakespeare timeless.
Our world is in disarray. Desperate people send a frantic message from Palmyra that they are through and another city falls to the barbaric ISIS and more of the world's ancient cultural remnants go down the tube along with the people who will be slaughtered and oppressed. Literally thousands upon thousands of illegal migrants are desperate enough to ship out in prisonlike conditions, trying to reach a land where they can be free or safe or able to earn a living out of the deep poverty of their homeland. Thousands die or are rescued and then left to rot in refugee camps in dire straits.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria.
Women, who are supposedly in one of the best situations they have ever been in, supposedly allowed to flourish, to enter professions, to be citizens with full rights - well, excuse me while I finish my coughing and choking spell. Just look at the world. Women in fundamentalist worlds, be they Moslem, Christian or Jewish or any other, are being enshrouded more and more in drab, anonymous clothing, not allowed to drive or move freely, many kept inside with no permission or right to education, to free thoughts and actions, to see a doctor if it is male, to earn a living. They are subjected to rape as a tool of war, a tactical strategy, purposely impregnated. And this is not just in the Third World, mind you.
We have a graduate in Columbia who continued to drag the mattress which represents the horrifically pathetic manner in which her sexual assault case was handled, or rather not!. We have the increasing rape of women on campus, increased sexual assault and still it is swept under the rug, especially if the offender is an athlete who helps fill the coffers of the school. We have the sexual assault still going on not only in our armed forces per se, but even in our military academies where the elite, the brightest applicants are being educated, and yet, this barbaric behavior continues among those who are to be leaders of the future. And what else? Aha! Yes! Let us return to the years and decades of back alley abortions where desperate girls and women are killed by butchers and why? Because they are allowed no control over their own bodies. Prejudice continues rampant, anti Semitism grows in leaps and bounds and while I am no fan of Obama, what happened when he opened on Twitter is shameful and worse.
We have the Cold War going again with Russia. We have two of their denied troops captured in Ukraine, wounded, and going on trial for terrorism and Russia denies the facts at hand. We have Russia salivating, looking at Latvia, again, planning as to how to break it into teeny sections and rule it again, anything to rebuild their hegemony and shatter the ring of NATO. We have China threatening, cyber attacking, buying our debts, Iran telling US how they will comply or not with a possible nuclear treaty and the answer to the fears, the righteous fears of other nations in the area is to promise them more arms, tanks, missiles? Should we also provide more body bags? More nuclear suits? Perhaps build bomb shelters as of old or maybe give them more desks to cower under as we used to do in the fifties as part of nuclear drills. Truly would have helped, right?
And in Nature what do we have. We have droughts wherein we are now being warned will lead to shortages in the nation's fruits and vegetables to a large degree. The avian flu has led to a shortage of chickens and eggs. Soon we will be told that due to the shortage of eggs there will be a shortage of flu vaccine for they are grown in the medium of eggs and then what will we have, a return to those years when we stood on line for hours at Publix trying to get the shots? We have floods and monster storms and tornadoes. We have destructive earthquakes and thousands die, never mind the property damage. Think G-d is trying to tell us something?
And why is the world a small one? Easy. A disaster in one part of the world, a nasty attitude and way of thinking in one part of the world transfers itself to another. Terrorists and brainwashed or coerced people are sent from elsewhere to kill and maim, or even recruited right here, so there is no hiding from the world and its woes.
Nor do we stand isolated from the world here in the Village. The cynical political attitudes of the politicians are here as well, the selfishness, the could care less attitude towards the electorate, the huge wasting of funds and the ignoring of the rules set forth to protect the electorate, the residents of the Village. How about this one? Not too long ago we were able to read in one of DI's postings that "they" were considering bids for the restriping of the perimeter roads. There appeared to be two bids. Did these bids ever come to fruition? Were they passed on to the bid committee and discussed, on to the other committees and then the DA where it would be further discussed and voted upon? Nope! And yet, look at the restriping near the gate. Ah, ahem, process and procedure? Nope, and we are screwed again.
The examples are many and this posting long enough already. But there is much food for thought here. In the meanwhile, remember what this Monday stands for. It does not stand for sales, or the opening of the beach and summer season in the North or anywhere else, nor does it stand for the rule of clothing and it is now officially ok to wear white!. We forget that people laid down their lives, shed blood, lost loved ones, all to keep us safe, to protect our homes and rights. We should not give up those rights in the name of peace, in the name of oh, who cares and leave me alone. Pick up a paper today - a real one and the newsletter The Messenger. Read about what is right and wrong in our world, large and small. Chew on it and then chew on it again and think about what is at risk and what needs to be done.
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