CHANGING LANDSCAPES

     We live in a world that is changing so fast that it is hard even to remember some signposts. Physical landscape, political landscape, international landscapes - one hardly knows where to turn for reassurance that at least some things remain the same and some things will never change. Hard to find these days.
     Let's take the physical landscape first. When one leaves West Palm for a week or so and then returns one can be quite confused. Beautiful and large stands of trees will have gone missing and in return are replaced by busy machines piling up the trees, dead bodies in the war of Man against Nature, lush  soil is dried out as it is baked by the sun and then we suddenly have another development of 6 homes on a small plot to thousands of homes on larger ones. Never mind that the commercial buildings on the next block over are still empty or that there are thousands of homes already built, beautiful homes in lovely developments and neighborhoods that are standing and decaying rather than being rehabbed and resold. Whose fault? The banks? The political entities that run Palm Beach County? The greedy developers? The lack of proper and thoughtful urban planning?
     We have a great example of this lack of forethought right here in our own golf course or what once was a golf course. Never fixed after the hurricanes, losing its driving range - the driving force of the economic viability of the course - its determined owner planned to do what he has done before and turn an open area which breathed, which provided drainage, which when run properly served a great purpose and was deemed a part of the whole of the Village - in perpetuity - meaning that the people who bought on the course had that right to have that view in perpetuity and the course was to remain as such. We have issues of drainage with a system that is totally integrated with the Village and just wait and watch. There are problems already, but imagine a cement city in our backyard, an ugly crammed area full of multistory buildings, even higher than any in our Village, imagine a storm and where does the water go? Well, just watch our lake rise and rise and the canals rise and rise and the exterior lakes rise and rise and then overflow and well, you get the picture? I think both sides of this issue who live in the Village want only to improve the Village and its area, but care must be taken.
     Multiply this by ten and twenty times and mourn the farmlands that are going missing all around us, the watershed that is being challenged by development that is unwanted except by the pockets of developers and those who go along with them. Think of the food that can no longer be grown there. And if you think that this is a local problem only, think again. NY, city and state, are concerned with this very same issue. Think it will be nice to have all these homes and no food for those who live within it? Think about it. New land is not being generated and indeed the oceans are devouring old land, so where do we grow our food, where do we get trees to exchange the atmosphere, where do we have beauty and G-d's creations?
     That same lack of care about Nature is seen in the political landscape and its lack of care for people as well, for truth, for rights, for peace, for cooperation. The violence is growing and there has been fighting at several Trump rallies, including the one just held in San Jose. Clinton made a caustic speech about the ill suited fit of Trump and Presidency and right she is. This is not a leader, not for now and not for ever! And yet the hypocrisy grows. Paul Ryan just endorsed Trump. Ya gotta be kidding! But sadly, we are not. Even as Republican after Republican is stating a planned absence from the convention, this guy endorses him? The same guy who insulted an governor for her ethnic background and now is trying to gain her support? This man is dangerous in the extreme.
     And lest one think that we do not have a problematic landscape here in the Village politically speaking, think again. We just had Memorial Day, a day when besides the sales that sprout all over, we are supposed to remember our warriors, no, not warriors, but our civilian soldiers, for most of them are just that. They fought for us, for their country and paid severe prices even unto death. So when an event was held here in the Village what did the President of UCO do? He banned any publicity for it within the paper, on Channel 63 - OUR Channel 63, our funds, and no one from his administration shows up. They make a big deal of the Honor Flights but when the celebration and memorial is here , where are they? No where! No where to be found. He does miserable things and they all follow orders, like lemmings and like more dangerous situations that we have had before in the world.
     And then of course we have the wonderful international diplomatic corps that is now holding a conference in Paris over peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Besides the fact that there are truly no Palestinians as an ethnic or national group, it is a made up categorization, these people think that peace can be imposed. Incidentally, the true "Palestinian" state is that of Jordan, its country and king being created almost 70 years ago at the same time as the establishment of the State of Israel. No mention of Palestinian terrorism and incitement. No mention of their lack or their refusal to recognize Israel and to recognize it as a Jewish state, like it or not. No demands on the Palestinians at all and they are even promised all sorts of goodies should this whole nonsense fail as is doomed to happen.
     The masquerade that an imposed settlement will work and there will be kumbaya throughout the land is nonsensical. The riots in the Arab lands have nothing to do with Israel and all to do with their religion and their tribalism and their clans and their religious sects. The attacks of Moslem forces in Africa have nothing to do with Israel. The anti Semitism that is masquerading as anti Israel feeling is just that, a masquerade, as we face blood libel again, physical attacks, again, fear of openly walking outside as a Jew, again, kidnappings and curses, accusations and ancient horrific portraits again showing up even in mainline media. Accusations of the "rich Jews", the Communist Jews - all at the same time. Accusations of their "otherness" and the world is so twisted, the young Jews lacking knowledge of a life lived under such feelings are getting lost, even subsumed into the very networks that will have done with them too at the end of it all.
     Changing landscapes. A dangerous proposition of our times. Change can be good. Yes, it can, if done properly, with thought, with care, with love for others and concern for our Earth and the people who live upon it. Change? Yes, but change for the good not for the name of change. It is not always a forward movement.