Yesterday I received an email from a dear friend who expressed despair and concern, even bewilderment, at the state of the world with its violence, its unpredictable violence and plain old nastiness among and between people. I tried to answer, but the thoughts ate at me all day and I must confess that they were not helped by watching the first two episodes of the Amazon series The Man in the High Castle. The author, Philip Dick, was a well known science fantasy and fiction author, not about monsters out of space but many times about the monsters within us. He had a readership cult, fell out of fashion, and I believe this series will bring him back. If you have ROKU you can watch it and if not, go to a friend but watch it. Basically the conjecture is what would have happened if we had lost WWII - very scary indeed and goes well along with the book If Israel Lost the War, referring to the 6 Day War and the premise and consequences are horrific to say the least, and so uncomfortably close to today's situation and the state of the world and anti Semitism.
Anyway, this morning I read an article from MSN News regarding the fears of Americans today, about their safety in everyday life and found that my friend and I and many others I have spoken with are vindicated in our concerns - we are not alone.
I thought that I was over the top, jumped the shark, as they say now, because every time I enter a new place, a new theater, a restaurant, even a plane or stand in a library or train station or walk in a mall, my head and eyes are engaged first with figuring out where to go should someone go postal on us. I eye the people around me constantly. Is that a nutjob over there? Is that a Moslem terrorist over there? Is that a guy who hates his wife and now wants to take it out on the world? And the list can go on and on.
The MSN piece relates these same feelings and concerns. Someone with no children yet already knows she will homeschool and why? For fear for their safety, so that they will not be part of a mass school shooting. One states how she acts as I do, always thinking, checking, looking around. Teachers are worried about their students and every institution in America has now drawn up or is drawing up plans for these events. I know in my synagogue we are talking of issues and plans and the same in the schools in NY that I visited over last week when I was there and even schools elsewhere as they drill their students and faculty on new procedures, new ways of thinking. Even in the movies - who is that lone guy sitting there? Why is that one standing up now? What is that woman carrying? Is that a soldier or a wanna be, dangerous thoughts in the head? Do I duck or run?
“Everybody is filled with what we sometimes refer to as anticipatory anxiety — worrying about something that is not currently happening in our lives but could happen,” said Alan Hilfer, the former chief psychologist at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn who is now in private practice. “And they are worrying that the randomness of it, which on one hand makes the odds of something happening to them very small, that randomness also makes it possible to happen to them.”
Life for Americans and indeed for citizens of the world has become much more uncertain and we are talking of life uncertainty, the maintenance of that life in its very basic self. Be it here in America or in Israel or Mali or Paris or Toulouse or Nigeria or the Tubes of London, that uncertainty taints us all. You are not alone in your worry, in your despair, in your bewilderment. We are all there with each other in that and these events sometimes bring out the best in people as they run to aid others, to comfort them, but must it be this way? Why can we not be at our best without the impetus of violence? Indeed, why must these groups, every day another one with a new name or a breakaway from another terrorist group, why must they engage in this horror, in this carnage? Why do they think they have the right to destroy the lives of others, to maim them, and mainly in the name of religion and overblown fantasies of an Islamist state, or perhaps a separatist state, or to release the pressure of anger at a spouse, at a co - worker or boss, at oneself? Why, we ask. Why, we shout to the heavens. Why, we ask of G-d. Why, we ask of each other.
And certainly this does not hold strictly to the outside world. We are affected right here in the Village, be it whether we worry about our family and friends in hotspots in the world, or simply going about their daily lives, never knowing if and when a lightning bolt will strike in the form of monsters in human form. We worry about our situation in here and what we can do about it, but more on that later. For our issues here pale in comparison to the issues of the world and it behooves us to think carefully when we pull the lever this year in the various primaries and final election. Judge carefully and think. Yes, we need a strong leader, almost really, a hero, and G-d knows we are certainly lacking that at present, but we do not need a leader who thinks that he/she knows it all and knows that the way to safety is to throw away liberty and American tradition.
We need help, our poor little world. From whence will it come? Well, the Bible tells us to raise our eyes unto the hills and basically realize that it will come from G-d. Those who have a sane and deep faith, whatever the name of the religion, will choose life over death, hope over despair, and search for ways to improve life - even while still checking out the nearest exit and that suspicious looking dude over there and gathering about oneself all the possible things that can be used to beat down a would be hijacker on a plane - books, soda cans, belts, etc.
And yes, we in America, are not immune. I was in NY, Manhattan actually, for the 1993 bombing of the Towers and remember its appearance as I was in my car going past, trying to get home, the shouted concerns of my kids over the phone - remember those early car phones? I watched as the Towers disappeared on 9/11 and from Queens then saw smoke for days, a new hole in the sky, and in Manhattan watched and wept as did all of us. And yesterday? And in between? We have not been immune from terrorism and must realize that being PC is not the answer. We all knew that yesterday was not over a miff at a party. There was more to it than that but look how people were afraid to call it as it was - an act of terrorism, Islamic extremism. Stockpiling 12 pipe bombs and 4,000 rounds of ammunition is not done over a miff nor suddenly either. This was planned ahead of time. Look how the Moslem organization cried out that we should not take it out on them. No, but why do they not disavow these people, these events, this disregard for all but themselves? Why? I do not know so perhaps you can go ask them.
This is not the life we chose, not the life we wish to lead, particularly in more senior days when the body does not work as well as it used to and the mind is more fraught with worry, especially about our hostages to fortune - the kids and grandchildren. But this is the life we now have and the only things we can do are to live with it, know what is going on and then try to do one's best to perhaps change it even though it be a small thing or effort. We all know the story of the butterfly effect, with the flap of the wings of a butterfly on one side of the world having a chain of consequences until it all culminates in some big event on the other side. True? Not true? Who knows and who cares for the point is clear. We are all one and no one escapes life. So think about all this and then go call a family member, talk with a grandchild about the merits of magna tiles, or a book they just read, hug a friend, read a good book - and check out those exits, be aware of your surroundings. It can be done; it is just a shame that it has to be done.
Total in Israel for October, November, December: 24 dead, 217 wounded, 82 in shock. From the elderly to the young, Jew and even some Arabs being killed in these attacks, stabbed, hacked, axed, shot, rammed by cars. And the attacks continue.
Please note how the wounded keeps rising in number.
No comments:
Post a Comment