WHAT HAS HAPPENED?

     In 1994 there was a firebombing of two train cars with horrific consequences. Several days ago there was an attempted suicide bombing in the subway. In 2001 there were three planes who flew into buildings and one into the ground. Now the downtown memorial is seen by an entire new generation as a nice place to eat lunch. Does anybody remember Sandy Hook or even Vegas? And will anybody remember the future ones to come, for come they will, or have we grown a protective coat of terror fatigue, of sympathy fatigue - that is, until and unless we are personally involved, G-d forbid.
    Those were local or national ones to name a few and let us remember that there were and are massacres taking place on a daily basis, sometimes hourly, overseas. Massacres in France. The "old" genocide against the Tutsi by the Hutu. The ongoing horror against the Rohingya, the denial of their existence!! The fatigue when another horrific event happens in Israel, another family slaughtered, another policeman slain, another kidnap attempt, another bomb on a bus or in a restaurant. We have all grown blasé, negligent and the world has suffered for it.
     Terrorists try to top their last attack and we, the rest of the world either pay it no attention or watch it on the news until we have terror fatigue and turn to YouTube or Netflix. So why is this happening and why is it important? Simple. It is our humanity that is at stake and almost to a one Americans now believe that our country is riven with distress and schisms, with opposition that is emanating from deep within the American psyche and some even wonder if there is an American psyche any more. That is how far apart we have become, how little we care about each other.
     What has happened? We have lost our way. A huge complex of people, organizations, businesses, educational institutions all cry out against the terrible tax plan which is almost upon us. Our hopes are pinned on counting the absences of individuals or on the very slim hope that several Republican senators will remember that they are there to serve the people of the country and not Trump, not themselves and their wallets, not their big donors, but the people!!!
     We have grown a layer of movers and shakers who only move as dictated by their baser instincts and are then shocked when it all comes out. We play innocent, unknowing, yet it comes out that so many knew and stood by and did nothing. Sound familiar? Standing by and doing nothing leads to the ignoring of an individual's responsibility towards society, fellow citizens of the country and the world, and an indifference to the horrors of people going way beyond the pale, way beyond the acceptable and excusable.
     We have deemed acceptable those who have hidden inside the woodwork and allow them now to expose their putrid and poisonous views to the world, march for them, allow them to run for office, to support slavery, for G-d's sake!!! We have a true creep as President, a man without morals, a man who makes sure he will benefit greatly from new regulations or lack thereof, a man who believes that the wealthy, the 1% deserve special treatment and the rest of society - tough! Take what you can get. And be grateful for it.
      Our officials have become corrupted. Right now there are investigations growing on a Federal level of local law enforcement and when one reads the stories, when one reads of the misdeeds of local sheriffs throughout the country, we wonder what has happened? Are we returned to the world of the frontier when one never knew if the one who wore the badge was truly a lawman or truly an outlaw?
     We care nothing for the health care of those who need help to afford it and that incudes most of society as the care is expensive. Should one have a chronic illness or two or three - well, forget it!! Buy the cemetery plot, for this administration has no care nor concern for you. Have children who need to be watched while the parents work? Well, the rich will get child care funds but as for those who need it - forget about it. Your babysitter or day care service simply does not rate against the nanny.
     We have a morally offensive molester at the helm, a man who cannot keep his own administration in working order, changes aides and Secretaries in a manic manner, is rude to former workers, practically tossed a woman out of the White House and yet there he remains, he of the admitted molestation, of misogyny, of fake pictures, of lies, lies and more lies, of incompetence and collusion with Russia - and even that was done clumsily!! 
     What has happened? You tell me and then tell me how we get out of this morass, how do we save ourselves? What has happened? We have gotten lost, have become Hansel and Gretel in the woods as the birds ate up the bread crumbs, erasing the past path as we have done, forgetting our heritage, forgetting that our heritage includes the new blood we have welcomed into our country, the sharing of cultures, the blending of cultures.
    What has happened? What has happened? Write while I might, I, too, am lost and unable to truly define what has happened, why it has happened and for how long, what is next. It is just that overpowering and moving now on and of its own volition. Either we stop that rolling snowball, filthy with the much and mire that now permeates American political and civil life or we write off America. What do you want? I know what I want.