LOST IN JERUSALEM

     Today is our last day here in Israel, in Jerusalem. We said goodbye to our grandson yesterday and received hugs and an "I love you very much." And more phone calls at night. It is hard to say goodbye but we will see him at Passover though we will not be back, as far as we know, to Israel, for at least another two years, more years of separation from friends and family, more being away from the special place that is Israel.
     Why the title? Well, we actually were lost for a while as we walked from the hotel to a favorite restaurant of ours and found that the whole area had changed. The completion of the light rail project had involved restructuring the downtown area, the Kirya or City Hall area. The Mamilla mall in that area is amazing, upscale, beautiful and crowded with all sorts of people, from Chassidim to teens to Arabs to kids to tourists and the list goes on and all walk together in peace.
     As usual we asked directions and received different ones from each and every person so we just decided to let our feet wander and see if there was any memory of where we were. It was a beautiful remaking of the city area and a wonderful "lost" time and we finally wandered down the right street to our street and then found the restaurant right there after five years away.
     But all the while we have not been truly lost here for we felt at home. New friends and old, the advancement of friends in their careers and our celebrating with them, the anguish of attacks, the worry that someone should be safe, the glory and the grit - all that is Israel and needless to say, our bags are full of new items and gifts and things we just had to buy for ourselves.
     People, there are groups here. There is a lovely and large mixed group from Greensboro, NC, kids groups, Christian groups, simple individual families and tourists, visiting relatives and friends. Come to Israel and have a great experience, physically and emotionally, within your soul. If you have been - come again and if you have not - time to come anyway. It is safe, it is fun, it is friendly, it is amazing.
     Now it is time to return to the USA and here, again, I am lost too. Just where is our country going? Where will it end? Trump as President??!! A battle with Clinton and what about VP spots? And how will the world look at this battle and the soul of America? What will they think of us? For eight years we have had a president who wimped out in many areas, was wishy - washy about others and whose victories like the one with bin Laden were overshadowed by the red lines ignored.
     Where will the world go on Iran. It blatantly violates the treaty and we keep hearing that sanctions will be reapplied but truly what is really being done? Nothing. And meanwhile on the page for visas, the website that is the ONLY authorized one, guess where Israel is? Nowhere!!! There apparently is no Israel as a country and why? Do we dare not offend the Arabs? Is this not acquiescing to the demands of their most evil ones and are we not validating their final goal of destroying Israel totally, nothing to do with territories or mosques - just existential truth?
      What about the environment, the economies of the world, the rising water and the disappearing island nations and the early flooding of our cities - just check with Miami. What about food and water issues? What about health? What about the war torn continents of Africa and Asia and the growing use of child soldiers and the brutalization of women. What about the fear that we have of offending the offenders!! Do we not know that if we do not stand up for truth, for justice, that we, too, will lose it right here in the USA? Why do we allow other countries to get away with appointing people such as Vicki Kirby as an official in Britain, one who says Jews are terrible people who kill others, have big noses, and will make sure her grandchildren learn how evil Israel is? Are we recycling history?
     Lost we are and lost we will remain until and unless people speak up and out, until people are not intimidated by others, until right and justice and fair play and honesty are the rules of the day and the life. And that goes for us here in the Village. How many more times should we extend our hands in friendship, in concern for the Village and get a smack in the face for it? How much longer are we to rein in the anguish at seeing the waste of money as we engage in poor contract and company shopping, as we engage in unnecessary projects and ignore that which MUST be done if we are to remain with integrity and structure.
     Once again, David Israel remains quiet and lurks in his lair, watching and waiting. He plans for a life time role, even having the first feelers put out by a shill, talking of the next presidential election here! Why not make him dictator for life, I ask, as this appears to be his goal? And once again he talks of broadband, an item voted down by the delegates, not "malcontents", his go to scapegoats. Besides the fact of that, we already have it here in buildings and in units and truly do not need it in the middle of our disintegrating roads nor in a back corner of a grassy area if there are indeed any areas that can not pick up the Internet anyway!!!
     And while on the topic, why not discuss the issues that might arise. For example, have we discussed the storage of information and data, that storage for huge amounts is becoming problematic as we talk of exabytes of data, of zenabytes and so on, of the problems of security and the possibility of many of our elderly getting lost in this world of computers, who are quite happy staying out of it and who cannot afford to pay for the increased  payments to pay for this nonsense and who are quite happy without this new world and too old to get involved in it, and in whom this issue provokes anxiety. Or are we to toss them aside so that we an boast of this to younger incomers who can have broadband as much as they want already, by themselves or via their associations. It is the same inhumanity that we have seen exercised within and by this administration for so long.
    So, people, are we to remain lost in every world we live in or are we going to step up and raise our voices in local and world venues? I know what I believe and in what I do. Do you? Join us. Continue the greatest generation's work and build for the future, for yes, we do have a future and we are going to leave that future to our kids and grandkids so think about it. Let us find our way together.