REALLY? REALLY

     "People everywhere just wanna' be free.
       People everywhere just gotta' be free."
    
     Remember that song? It fit the time but now I begin to wonder. Do people even understand what it means to be free, the responsibility that devolves upon one's shoulders, the necessity of working together, of constant slogging away to keep it going? Looking around - I have grave doubts.
     It appears that many countries feel a need or have a need for a strong hand at the till and they are right in that, for a weak one leads a country to vacillating and that is not good for the country nor the world if it is a powerful country. That is what we now have in our country and, I believe, that is why there are so many "protest" votes for Trump, whose "You're fired" appears to portray him as a determined and strong-minded individual, perhaps the strong person we need as a leader. Yet is he? Or is he rather another error of our body politic?
     What to do in a country undergoing vast and rapid change. We have beach side property that is literally going under. We have droughts and we have overdevelopment, even right here in Florida and right by us here in Palm Beach County. We have fewer acres for growing food, less land available for drainage, over demand on facilities and this is replicated all over.
     And the world? Well, let's see. We literally have an exploding and disintegrating Middle East. Syria is for all intents and purposes no more and no talks in Vienna, if they ever really do start, can put it together, any more than the Kingsmen and Humpty Dumpty. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan - all at war or facing constant bombings and explosions. Shia, Sunni, Yazidis, Houthis, Christians, Jews - all in a murky soup, with clans and families claiming loyalty within the groupings and with some groups having little or no power and who appear to be mainly dying, rather than fighting. No democracies, all with strong men or groups at the head with poor results, except for Israel, the only democracy in the region. So really, do people truly want to be free? Do most of them even know what it means as they have lived lives, for generations, of strict rules governing religion, clans, families, men and women.
     Africa is no better. The tribes which were jammed together in countries that have no relevance to them are exploding, with their own mini versions of ethnic cleansing. Colonial powers created artificial borders and they have only led to growing tension until they explode in fierce fire. Growing desertification, Arab vs. black conflict increases and pieces of history are destroyed as are the values that are supposed to be part of humanity.
     Asia is no better with countries having strong dictators or weak democracies that carry no power. We have a major nutjob playing with nuclear missiles in North Korea and China playing chicken with our planes and ships.
     The artificial drawing of borders after WWI and WWII did not help Europe either as they finally exploded in racial and ethnic warfare and even as strongmen were overthrown, as Soviet Russia was kicked out, the seeds of more conflict were laid. Freedom led to some years of democracy but the disintegration is building up - or rather throwing down - the results as more strong men appear and more extremist parties grow in power. And as for the elephant in the room, the old Russian power, the old Soviet power - well, there were a few years of democracy and then we are back with a Putin. It seems that throughout history in that area, the Russian needed a "Little Father', be it the Tsar or a dictator and democratic strivings had weak roots in the populace. So who wants to be free and more important, who can insure that freedom? Really and truly. It appears to be a question without answer.
     And now we have these mass numbers of migrants roaming around the waters and lands of Europe or stagnating in Turkey, a quickly developing situation there destroying Kemal Ataturk's accomplishments and returning to a dictator with strong religious overlays. The EU is shaky and countries threaten withdrawal or non compliance. The migrants are almost antithetical to the current populace of Europe and how to integrate them, incorporate them, remake them?
     And here, within our own country we are at a seeming war as well, sometimes with words and sometimes with weapons of murder and death. White and black backlashes. Ever narrower interpretations of religion. Black entitlement. White entitlement. The rising Hispanic population and power. BDS on campus. Is this a return to a protest society, protests that became violent, that led to bombings? I hope not but am worried. And our leaders, or potential leaders? Go find them. Any one of them with a brain appears to opt out of the political circus or turns to the money making arena, where they leave their "Americaness" at the door and turn into servants of the corporation, downsizing and outsourcing, engaging in shady practices and not so repentant when discovered. They appear to ignore the ancient saying that whatever is done under cover of darkness is eventually exposed to the light.
     Our parties scream at each other and have lost loyalty to the electorate and replaced it with a dumb loyalty, an unthinking loyalty, to the Party. Should we not replace that capital P with a lower case p, properly reordering things and status? Even here in the Village, there appears to be a lack of loyalty and responsibility towards the electorate, the residents, and more of a loyalty to a people cult, a personality cult, and to personal demands. Lanny today talks of the deterioration of Channel 63, what it does not have. Well. It used to have that, but when people like the Greggs are forced to resign for honor and principles - well, no "tape" is going to help. Here, as well as in the larger world, democracy and freedom have deteriorated. People have signed off, allowing strongmen to enter. No one wants to accept the onus of work that is required to keep democracy going - not here and apparently fewer and  fewer in the world at large.
     So really, where are we? Have we lost the desire and the knowhow to keep a democratic government going? Have we lost the trait of caring or are we all deteriorating to people who either want power or who want to be left alone. And yet, that does not work out well either for then we have enslavement, oppression, women enslaved, enshrouded in yards of clothing, prejudice in the job market, downgrading of the contribution of workers and the emphasis on control and money.
     If people really and truly want to be free and got to be free - well, then they have to work at it. Really.