These are frightening times, especially if we see only the dark of an evil night and overlook the signs of light, the shining sun that breaks thru time and time again. Last nite I received my new T shirt and wore it to Girls Only at the Rinker Playhouse at Kravis - note: go see it. The funniest ever and relies on humor rather than raunchiness.
In any case, the shirt engendered many comments and even the few Trump supporters there - how could there still be those around! - even they loved it. Sun shining thru.
But we must continue to fight the good fight wherever we are and we must make sure that the turnout for elections is massive, no taking anything for granted. Not when you have people such as McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, telling people to ignore the personalities and vote for change. Huh! Change? For what? To what? Change for change alone is not a good idea. At work it usually leads to chaos and in politics, well, we all know where empty slogans go. Anyway, I love the reactions online as well and the laughs that we shared.
But there is more to life than the campaign on the national level. There is the need for us to take closer looks at our smaller worlds and push for truth and light there as well. Yesterday, while walking around the cul de sac at Wellington, I noticed the amount of sand piling up in the area near the first pool, where the cul de sac curves. This, my friends, is the devolving of the road, not good for unsteady legs and not pretty either. I know that it can and will be cleared up now since I mentioned it here and I appreciate the effort to do that, but it does not obviate the fact that the roads are falling apart. Nor does it take away the realization that Mr. Israel, our esteemed leader, is still pushing his pet project, broadband, even though he is not entitled to make that decision and there are so many ideas and facts that rule against that idea. Just yesterday I read an article entitled Why Google is giving up on its dream to bring super-fast broadband to everyone. Interesting title is it not, and one reason is that the expense of doing this, of expanding the broadband is too high and the usage of it is in any case not so much - not so much! We should pay attention to that.
There are many areas here in the Village that need change so why not work for the change here. Some people are stuck in a rut, such as Gracie who cannot get past the thought that I write of what I do because I am running for something, but No, I am not, Gracie dear. The only thing I am running for is a better Village and how about this one, dear. Constructive criticism - go look it up and understand that even when we see the faults in something we love it does not mean that we stop loving it or them. Not such a difficult concept is it? For most people anyway.
Ezekiel, 7:23, states that we need to "Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence." Well, one could say that is true when we look around at the conditions that exist all over the world but we can break the chain of evil if we all work together. Why do we have a liar such as Trump telling the African American community that he will be their champion, saying that yesterday in North Carolina. Shudder, shudder. With champions like that.... My friend from a Mexican background, though not an immigrant - as if that mattered to Trump et al, - asked me jokingly what I thought of his being from this background and I asked him if he was a "bad hombre" and that is what we need to do - take the hate and ridicule it, again and again.
But how does one combat such hate. We have seen over and over again that there are Trump supporters who are rabid anti Semites. Here is a new guy with the same old garbage. He talks of the Rahms as "Jewish Mafia" and continues "I mean it’s not that Jews are bad, it’s just they are the head of the Jewish mafia in the United States. They run Uber, they run the health care, they’re going to scam you, they’re going to hurt you,” and Trump says nothing, for I believe he believes the same things as this man states. We now have the student senate of Portland State University approving BDS even though the President of the University opposes it and in practical terms it means nothing, but the sentiment, the hatred.... And we must ask ourselves if the very first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, would stand by a party that is trying to prevent minorities from voting. How things change - not always so good, is it?
So when things get bad I try to remember the sun and the day and the knowledge that the night will pass. This morning I read and actually heard about the becoming a citizen of a 100 year old Holocaust survivor who after the war was denied entry into the US and finally succeeded and just yesterday took her oath. She was determined to vote in this election and with a big grin stated her choice - Hillary! Daylight and sunshine.
We have the ability still to find a good book and by the way, I highly recommend Claiming Noah and I also recommend that you all go and see the movie Denial. Hard to watch, one squirms in the seat at the garbage that people spew, but needs to be seen and is a true story or event. The good guys won here. There are rays of light; it is just that at times we need to work really hard to find them.
Night has indeed touched all of us and we twist and squirm as we try to avoid it, defeat it, and defeat those that prefer the night. And we must always remember that we always have the chance to change the night, to turn it into day - if only we try, if only we care enough.
"Dear Children, trust the night and have
Faith in tomorrow.
That these hours of ambiguity and
Indecision may be also
The hours of healing."
W.H. Auden (English poet)
We can vanquish the nite. We can turn its darkness into light, into an asset - if only we care enough. So ask yourself just where you stand and understand that the darkness of night expands if one does nothing. We all have seen that and we know that is true right down deep into our very bones. I am trying for the sun and for the healing side of the dark as we reach and struggle for the light, for the sun to shine down on all of us. Trump is funny, yes, a joke, yes, but maybe not so funny when we realize what he is all about and who hangs around him and who will be in that West Wing with him. Let us make sure that the night takes him along with it as it is vanquished by the light of day.
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