PROGRESS - OR NOT!

     So time to take stock of our world today and how far we have come (?) in our daily lives and in the life of the world. But when I do that, it somehow seems that we are living in a perverted world based on that old movie Back to the Future. I then ask the question - are we meant to live and relive every stupid move that humanity has ever done or will we ever be permitted to move forward without having to look back over our shoulders to see what is still chasing us down, wanting to push us back into some dark corner which we thought to have cleared up already,
     Let's take a look at the question of civil rights, those rights that are 'inalienable' or so we have been taught. FDR spoke of the freedom from certain fears and well, that does not seem to have succeeded yet. Why, in a world which seemed to have everything, do we suddenly find ourselves on the cusp of a huge crisis for mankind. Remember the statement, "It's only water, and water is free". Uh huh, well watch that go down the tubes, halfway down already.
     Droughts, floods, the huge areas of the globe that have no access to clean water, the disaster zones where farming and life saving crops cannot be grown because the farmers are killed if they dare go out into the fields, or there aren't any farmers at all because they are all refugees. The USA where we are told that eggs will be quite expensive and chicken cheap and then dear, fruits and vegetables will cost due to the fact that California has limited waters to share with the farmers and does anybody hear Mad Max calling?
     Times when we thought rights would be expanded to the citizens of the world appear to be dimming. The Arab Spring? And what was that again? We appear to be deep into winter. The cry of "Winter is coming" from GOT appears to be so apropro here. Putin is back to the old Russian groove of dictatorship. It does not matter whether the dictator is a Tsar, a Communist dictator slaughtering millions, consigning other millions to icy camps in Siberia, or simply a run of the mill dictator with personality issues such as Putin.
     Tunisia, the only Arab Moslem country which seemed to be succeeding as a democracy has suffered two major terrorist attacks and now has declared a month of heightened security and suspended the right of free speech. Hmmmm. ISIS or ISIL, take your choice of name - as by any, it is a murderous backwards thinking bumped up terrorist group which will eventually burn itself out like a crazy virus, but in the meanwhile is busy setting up a 7th century Caliphate and destroying all that remains from ancient times - that is when they are not selling these remains off!
     Hatred of others, the different, has resurged all over the world. Anti Semitism is now at terrifying levels again, so much so that we even asked the PBSO to make some extra runs past our synagogue over the weekend, which they did - thank you. BDS, an attempt to delegitimize Israel, to demonize it, has grown, become PC. Will camps return as well? A neo Nazi rally in London states that it is time to deal with the weeds that are Jews, come to their rally and it will be a gas - with a picture of a nozzle spewing a mist. I, for one, am frightened. Not so much for me, but for my children and especially my grandchildren. I look at pictures of families, of groups, of schools, camps, etc. and wonder if I am seeing the past once again, where only several years later these same groups were worse than decimated - they were eradicated.
     And, of course, we have half the world once again trying to stuff the other half back into a room where they need remain, beshrouded, ignored unless it is time for sex, denied all rights that any human deserves, used and abused as a tactic of war and told they have no rights to control their own destiny, not even their own bodies and certainly not of their little daughters who are sold like cattle.
     And the rest of the world in miniature follows along, corrupt, unable to fight this off, rife with petty dictators, and the growing denial of civil rights grows apace.
    We humans are so very capable at pulling the wool over our own eyes, be it in the macro or micro world. Lanny Howe and Petey Boy blather on how David Israel is so wonderful that he should write articles and even give a huge lecture in the Clubhouse so others can hear him and admire him. BARF!!!! Cathy (whoever that is) says, oh, yes, he has made errors but so what, he has given so many hours of his time to UCO. Cathy, would you accept a doctor who flunked every test in med school but was passed along because he had put hours into study and then went to hospitals which also passed him along to avoid increased death rates and then he comes to you for a surgery that needs doing and then you take him, because he has put so many hours into his medical study and work years????? You would not, so why should we take an incompetent, petty dictator who keeps getting us into trouble and only wants to spend our money on useless things while the Village crumbles around us? C'mon - think about it.
     Ooofff! Think I need to go look at pictures of my grandchildren and skip the paper today what with Greece melting, the markets aboil, the weather just nuts and as Shakespeare often portrayed as a recurrent theme in his plays - the world of Nature and the world of Man reflect each other. So read the worlds, people, and let us do what we can to fix things up, even a bit at a time, but at least do something.