WHAT TO SAY, WHAT TO THINK

   

    I sit down every morning, usually at ridiculously early hours of the morning, (thank you, insomnia!), and write something. Sometimes it is a summary mixed with my thoughts. Sometimes it is simply a thought piece on a more personal level. Sometimes it is on a national or international aspect of life and other times it is more local, usually another piece criticizing the deeply misguided and poor leadership of David Israel. But today is different.

     No international. No national. Nope, not even David Israel. It is just that the world seems to have disintegrated so much that today is a down day. When people discuss the finale of Scandal more than the real scandal in Washington - well, that says something, does it not? When people scream diametrically opposed statements about the same thing - why have we reached this point and why have we allowed it.

     When we have people threatening to 'lock' up others because they say something that displeases, then we have truly reached a bad and dangerous point. Ten years ago would a sitting President have ever said that? Five years ago? 200 years ago? And what about the future?

     I think we have all lost sight of the value of taking a stand, a righteous stand, a stand where we place people or ideals above us. We need to stand for something. We cannot just go thru life moaning and whining. We must know that there are higher callings, a better way to live.

     We also must know that there are those who have paid the ultimate price either by their own death or by the death of others. I believe that we, our country, the USA, is now sacrificing our young, throwing them into the maw of enemies that will never stop, who profess ideologies, but act as thieves, crooks, murderers, kidnappers and just all over nasty and cruel people. Military defeat means nothing for there are always the deluded and the forced who will give up their lives to take others down with them. What is another way? Sorry, way above my pay grade. Need more facts, more input, and that input must come from the disengaged, meaning those who do not have a finger in the pie on a personal basis.

     And then I think of the country of my heart, Israel. I think of how I felt when Gerry and I stepped off the stairs of the plane and actually stood on the land of Israel. How we felt when reciting a prayer commemorating the destruction of the Temples while sitting on the ancient tiles and ground at the Kotel, the Western Wall. How we felt to see the kids running around free, unafraid, proud to be Israeli. How beautiful it was to meet and begin long relationships with family members , people who were of the surviving remnants, people who defied the British and came over, saving their lives, out of the murderous hands of the Nazis. And now I think of the sacrifices that have been made in the name of the survival of this Jewish state.

     Are there issues? Yes. Are there questions which seem to have no answers? Yes. Can I have difficulty understanding the attitude of some towards Israel, their at times statements and thoughts that revert back to medieval times? Yes. Can I wish for someone to come along and solve it all? Yes. But who? When? How? Will people even be willing to listen? 

      And I read and listen to the videos and articles that talked and spoke in recent days of the sacrifices that Israelis have made. I heard the voice of a mother mourning the death of her kidnapped son, how life seems to have stopped, how she is still watching for him to come through the door. I hear the words of an 18 year old girl who lost her father to terror and who is first now beginning to understand who this man who died at age 29 was and how he is and always will be her Abba, her father. I watched the entire video and the tears came and the words in my heart were anguished.

     Golda Meir said that peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us. Has the State of Israel not been perfect? Of course, but think of double standards and think of the times when Israel has done or said something and the world, including the ridiculous UN, shouted to the heavens, but then turned around and did the same thing and then justified their actions or just ignored criticism.
     So what is the answer to the world? For the world? In Biblical times it seemed that there were times that a 'voice was heard from the heavens'. Would that we would hear it again. Would that the whole world would hear it. We can but dream, can we not.