GOOD ADVICE

     Attended a great show last nite at the Kravis, Paul Anka, and the man still has it all - audience rapport, voice, meaningful music, especially my favorite, the one he wrote for Frank Sinatra - "My Way". That song touches all, but especially those of us in Act III of our lives. It is our last shot at choosing what legacy we wish to leave behind, to inspire others, especially our children and grandchildren.
     In the song, the lyrics admonish us to "say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels" and isn't that a telling piece of advice. How many times during a lifetime have people shut up, not spoken up no matter the wrong they had seen, no matter the need to speak out.
     But this was not what I was taught nor the example I was set and knew that right demanded a voice, even against the odds for if not, then how could one live with oneself? That is why many of us here are speaking up, refusing to speak and parrot the words of those who kneel, losing their dignity all in the name of a position, a little job which in so many cases, particularly in this administration at UCO, means little or nothing for all the decisions are pre made, pre decided in the backroom of UCO, bringing to mind the smoky and corrupt backrooms of dirty pols all over the world. How could one expect and believe anything else when it is the same names, the same people who are on every committee, the same names that write a purported paper. One cannot call oneself a true paper when only the "chosen" can write an article and all else are verboten. How many articles can Jody Lebel, Lenore Velcoff, Irv Rikon, David Israel (and his are just so special!) write, and of course with a sprinkling of Don Foster and Lanny Howe. This is not a paper, but a rag, its new name. Once, it had a pride of authors, an open door policy, a vibrant air but not anymore.
     So people kneel for their bread, for their lives, for something to justify their existence and in so doing shame themselves in front of the whole world. Their lives were not lived doing it their way, but instead the way of others. Is this not the time to finally say enough and get on with the truth. Bragging about the number of ads is a sign of the times when it is more than half the paper and a good part of the remainder is repetitive stories saying the same thing about the elections, those same elections which are suppressed and censored in the campaigning aspect.
     In reading a book recently, the author wrote a beautiful and meaningful introduction in her dedication.  "Never let any person's will
                     supplant your own,
                     nor anyone's advice override 
                     the dictates of your
                     conscience...."
Beautiful, powerful, meaningful and wise. Yet simple in its wording. If one were to remember this and stop trying to gain something other than what is right, if our leaders, here within and without the Village, were to remember that, then perhaps the world today would be a better place.NO, it definitely would, no maybe about it.
     If we had the courage to stand up and do what was right we would not have fought and lost two recent wars and get enmeshed in yet a third which is growing in leaps and bounds as we keep trying to stick fingers in the leaks of the dikes of civilization, all the while worrying if we hurt some terrorist's feelings or pride, even as we allow a country to openly violate the rules of its pact it just signed and worse, now hold and interrogate 10 of our armed forces, caught up in a mess of broken boats and nasty people and weak supposed leaders. Remember the Pueblo incident? Are we going to allow our people to get tortured and undergo forceful interrogation again? And then we will just go on and remove the sanctions as a reward for this? It is no wonder that people of the world do not respect us or traditional western civilization any longer as we willingly allow it to be pillaged and overrun. Just read that the sailors will be released after a day of interrogation. Let us hope that is true.
     I do not know about you, but after having watched a recording of Obama's speech I am not reassured, most assuredly so. He is still more worried about PC than in truth and appointing Joe Biden for a year to come up with the winning solution to cancer is ridiculous. Granted, the man lost his son to it, but cancer is not a singular monolith and tumor cancer is different from blood cancers and bone cancers and on and on and one man, with no medical knowledge and no real power to do anything will do naught for its defeat. It is the continued funding of research and the hard work of the scientists and hopefully a lack of greed on the part of the drug companies that will defeat the scourge of cancer - not Joe Biden.
     ISIS, we are told, is not a WWIII, yet a rose by any name.... for what do you call a war which has spread all over the world, with no country, including our own, immune to it. What do you call a conflict when wee little institutions such as our synagogue have gone to several security meetings with PBSO and Homeland Security to discuss this very issue. Though I must add that personally, I believe that David Israel and his ilk, others who favor the dictatorial approach to life, who violate the dictates of the Constitution on a daily basis, are far more serious and immediate threats to the fabric of our country and the meaning behind it.
     But, on the bright side, we live in a country where an individual of no import on a national scale can write or send an email to a candidate for national office and get a reply the same day, within hours and contain advice as to how to direct it better so as to insure a proper response. Amazing! Our country still has it, that indefinable je ne sais qua so please, let us maintain it here in the Village, emulate the good and proper, be of proper respect for ourselves nad not kneel to anyone. Do it the right way!