WHOSE FAULT?

     "And this is the forbidden truth, the unspeakable taboo - that evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices."
                   Joyce Carol Oates
     Read that again and think. Wonder how it applies so perfectly to our present situation. Evil, wrongdoing, can neither exist nor succeed unless there are people willing to aid and abet, willingly or not, knowingly or not, apathetically or not. It matters not whether the evil takes place in a national arena, a local arena or an international one. All it takes is for people to go along, and these people are just as guilty as those who initiate it, guilty of having blood on their hands, of darkness on their souls.
     Take the arena of least consequence though it matters greatly to those involved and at risk - right here in CV. David israel could not exist in his seat in UCO unless there were people willing to go along and join him in the crushing of democracy right here within the Village. Again, it matters not whether you are actively involved or simply one of the stooges who votes as ordered, without thought of consequence - because the master has so ordered, so ordained.
     And why? Because people like to feel they are on a winning side, allied with the power and are afraid to not be there. So when the Village suffers from problems that get worse rather than get better a la the roads, al a the Atlantic contract, a la the waterways and their scabrous appearance, a la deteriorating infrastructure, a la motel associations, a la etc.,  those who aid and abet are guilty of helping to turn this wonderful place from a place of refuge for Act III into a seat of power for a would be dictator and buddies. Think not that you are immune from the blame. You are not. And you know who you are. And you know where the guilt lies.
     And then again, we have the national debacle, the presidency of Trump, G-d help us all. How did he get here? How did people vote for him? Why? Is he even legitimate, valid in his supposed victory? Is he sane or does he have significant brain atrophy, a lack of conscience, a lack of heart, a cash register where a heart and soul should be? And if so, why does he continue in office, though maybe the future in office is at stake lately.
     Trump got here because he rode in on the shoulders of those who thought it cool to elect a buffoon into office. Perhaps they were angry at the federal government. Perhaps they liked the thought of a man who could yell, "You're fired" so easily and with an evil grin was the right person for the job. Perhaps. Or perhaps there were even more malignant motives. Whatever the reason, the reality is that now we have a man in office, an office so corrupt and stinking to the heavens of greed,  alleged malfeasance, lack of morals, rife with conflicts of interests and the reek of collusion and treason. Nepotism is back in play and I truly believe that there are those amongst this crew who have thoughts of cancelling the Constitution and the Democracy of this country.
     These people who are actively supporting Trump, who defend his lies or worse, deny these lies as lies, these people who take his abuse for the imagined shadow of power it gives them, these people who refuse to admit the error of their ways, these people who are apathetic - you are the enablers, not a good thing to be. It never has a good connotation, so wear it with the truth that it implies. Harsh, but the truth must be told and must be heard.
     So when we have a new chief liar, Scaramucci, who tells Huckabee he wants to keep the hair stylist and make up person, again referrals to women's physical appearances as if that determines who they are and if they are worthy (not that I am defending Huckabee for her part in all this), when we have those who defend him, who try to control Trump - and why should so many people have to work so hard to control an uncontrollable 71 year old man who should know better!
     When these enablers stand by this man even as he turns on them, threatens them with loss of jobs - of position - they still hang on in the hopes of remaining there in his shadow. These people are guilty of helping to turn this country into a deeply divided disaster. They are guilty of enabling. They are guilty. Period.
     So these people have sold themselves and are now being called to testify before Congress, eventually before the outside investigators headed by Mueller, are catching the panic of Trump who rants of traitors, of pardons, of fake news, of anything but the truth. He demands obsessive loyalty but gives none in return and yet the enablers stand there in the hopes that they will be able to remain there, have some connection to the power. They stick by a man who rants that someone else will not release something and yet he is the one who refuses to release his taxes, his true health results - so I ask what he himself has shouted - WHAT ARE YOU HIDING? And I ask the enablers - what are you thinking?
     So you enablers stand there and watch the healthcare of millions upon millions of people vanish into the mists. You ignore the pop up clinics that roll thru the poverty areas of our nation, in states who refused to expand their Medicaid to take care of people, who have so many uninsured, the states where the state houses made it so difficult for insurance companies to do what they were supposed to and you ignore the rest of what Trump will do to make sure that the insurance for healthcare deteriorates even more as he cuts subsidy funds, as he goes along with plans to limit coverage of items such as mental health - yes, again, we are back in the Middle Ages - of maternity care, of contraception, of pre existing conditions and we can go on. You allow this to happen and the blood is on your hands.
     And finally we have enablers in another sphere, in another area of the world, though the State Department just made a statement re this area. A few weeks ago, two terrorists violated the holiness of a place of prayer, brought guns into it and then used those guns to shoot two Israeli officers, two Israeli Druze citizens at that, stationed there at an entry way to the Old City, killing them. No screams from Arab countries, from the Wakf, from Jordan about this violation, these deaths. Only the reaction to the metal detectors that were then put in place to stop these murders before they start again. The fact that there are metal detectors at Mecca and Medina seem to have slipped the minds of all those screaming about the Israeli ones, and shout as of Friday night that there were nine deaths as a result of these metal detectors. Wrong!! So Wrong.
     The deaths and the count. Two terrorists shot dead after they murdered those officers. That makes four. Three shot during massive rioting about this attempt to keep the peace, to honor the holiness of places of prayer and that included the Western Wall Plaza. So now we have seven. And the world crowing like puppets in the hands of their terrorist ventriloquists.
     But we are not done. Friday night a family was eating a Sabbath meal, also celebrating the birth of newborn twins. A knock on the door and opening it to what was surely a neighbor come to join them. But NO!!! It was an animal masquerading as a human, who stabbed to death a proud grandfather, stabbed his wife almost unto death, killed the father and his sister and luckily was then stopped by neighbors who heard the screams. Upstairs, the mother of the five children there, the wife of the man killed defending his family, the sister in law of the one who staggered outside in her death moments, trying to warn the people of the Village, and with her were the five children as she pleaded with them to keep quiet.
     Downstairs, what she saw when it was over, were the bodies of her relatives, her husband, the floor awash with blood, the blood of more Jews. So now we have ten deaths but the world equates the death of these three victims with the death of terrorists. Hence - the world enables this terrorism, this murder.
    And so we tell the world NO MORE!!! Jews will not be slaughtered without consequences any longer. Those days are gone, over, and blood will have blood. There is no other way until the enablers realize that this is what they cause, this is what they enable. And this is what they push off - the way to peace. How can we talk peace when our eyes are blinded by so many tears. And so 10,000 people came to the funeral and burial service of these latest martyrs of this terror, of this hatred, of the world trying to deny that Jews have the right to live in one tiny piece of land surrounded by 27 other Arab and Moslem lands who are allowed to call themselves the Islamic Republic or the Moslem Republic or Country. But for one small state to call itself the Jewish state - why is that so terrible? Why does the world still  enable this murder of innocent souls and then should someone go and do the wrong thing here, driven by grief and rage, then the world will scream. Enablers all.
     No, to be an enabler is not a good thing, not a noble thing. It is to perpetuate the evil of the world. So read the quote at the head of this posting. Read and weep as we destroy our world, as we acquiesce with the wrong, as we ignore the right, the violations of morality and truth. That is what enabling and enablers do. Truth. Word!