THE DICHOTOMY OF LIFE

     Fancy title, huh? But all it basically means is that there is a split in life and it is not always in sync with each other. At times it is enough to drive one up the wall and down the other side!
     So we have gotten heavy into the roots search,  who my ancestors were and where they lived. When did they move and in many cases, where and how did they die. But as we chase through the ages, we realize that no matter how many enemies we Jewish people had, no matter how many wished to destroy the Jewish nation, they failed and G-d willing, will continue to fail. Through the pogroms of Europe Through the 'casual' killings along the roads. Through the hard lives of the shtetls and cities of Europe and the Middle East. Through the Holocaust. WE survived and proof of the pudding is my own little search and what joy it has brought to us, what excitement and what future knowledge will we gain.
     Late Friday afternoon we were fiddling around on the computer, searching, and lo and behold we found modern day people with the same family name as my great grandfather Wow! We searched for a contact method and found one and made the call and hello cousin!!! OMG!!!!!!!!
     Roots were found and grown. The family of this survivor, who thought he was alone, the lone member of his family to survive, who searched in America for my grandmother or any other family member when he arrived several years after the war, this man's family knows they now have a larger family. My grandmother and he never connected, no computer matching then, only chaos, lack of records, and loneliness for those left alive.
     And now, the future. The families will mesh, the branches will form a canopy over the growing generations. And what is even more fantastic is that I received an email from one of the very two people who helped so much and was told that we are related!! Somewhere beyond the 6th great grandparents, we had a common ancestor and I will find that one, I hope. Six degrees of separation? I think not!
     So in the midst of this joy, where is the dichotomy? Simple. Just pick up a paper, turn on the news, read online and see what is becoming of this great land, this country that took in so many and gave them refuge even as they gave this country new energies and ideas and success. All the progress seems to be failing day by day and I wonder if we will be able to fix it.
     Climate change, poisoned air, great big natural disasters, huge forest fires, heated summers in which or during which people die from the heat and lack of relief from it. Now the man and his minions wish to take back the reforms which demanded that factories dial back on the CO2 they spewed into the air, so get out your gas masks and oxygen tanks, folks. That is how bad it will be and not just for us, but for the atmospheric purity or lack thereof in the world's air. And watch the evil synergy as all the safety rollbacks combine in effect and this man, this man and his minions, - I cannot even vent enough and wonder what the hell is he doing? Does he have any idea or is he so demented that it is hopeless? Does he believe in the statement of  Machiavelli that it is better to be feared than loved? I do not fear him; only his disasters that he foists upon us, but the Republican party fears him and have lost their integrity, their courage and their minds as well as they give in to him and lay their responsibilities, deserted, alongside the shoulders of the roads, the roads to disaster that we are now walking.
     We see the incompatibility of his thoughts and plans with that of the normal people. He generalizes hatred so one bad immigrant means all are bad so does one ICE agent who raped women make all the ICE agents rapists? Interesting thought and theorem there, right , Donald? Do you see the stupidity and the danger you have wrought?
     We see the hypocrisy of a man who cries patriotism yet takes away the protections we have given our armed forces, protection against those who would rip them off. Where is the patriotism in that? Simple - it is not.
     But we also see the rats deserting the ship, leaving the ranting and railing lunatic more and more isolated, for they are now looking to protect their own rears, realizing that Trump has thrown them under the bus and will blame them all for his misdeeds, and yes, his alleged crimes against the nation. So , yes, bring it on. Wipe the floor with them. Show the American people that we still have it within us to turn the tide, to yes, Donald, make America Great Again in a true manner, not in your twisted plans.
     The dichotomy of life. Joy on the one hand and disaster on the other. Which side do we choose? What values will we choose? It IS up to us, in the long road and the blame and the praise will devolve upon us. Choose, folks. Choose and the sooner the better.