ECHOES ECHOES ECHOES

     ECHOES...….ECHOES...….ECHOES...….ECHOES...….ECHOES...…..
     Shhhh. Quiet. Listen deeply, intently. Do you hear it? Do you hear the echoes of the past as they reverberate in our own time? Do you feel the tremors of history and the threatening fear of repetition? Do you smell the sulfur smell of the devil in the deeds and words of his minions?
     How many times have we been warned by historian after historian after philosopher after social scientists? How many more times must we be told that if we remain ignorant, willingly ignorant, of the dangers of the past, then we will be doomed to repeat those errors of thought and humanity, and perhaps even to a worse degree?
     Evidently we do not hear so well or we choose not to hear these warnings and that is even worse. I watch videos and news snapshots, news reports, that show Trump in that damned red hat, a color that is becoming aligned with his dangerous quackery just as much as the brown shirt became aligned with the murderous militia of Hitler who went around threatening Jews, Socialists, anyone who did not heil, who displeased them.
     I hear the same statements of Hitler that he was going to make Germany great again. I hear the echoes in Trump's false and needless promises to make America great. What both of them are guilty of is taking their respective country down to the depths of hell before they are done or will be done.
     I hear the same demonization of the 'others' and the definition of 'other' depends on the pace of demonization and progress in their schedule of ridding the country of those they deem unsuitable - that is, unless they are needed for slave labor! So the list of undesirables grows apace as the hate grows, as the country sinks into a morass of ugliness and murder - yes, murder.
     I see the echoes of the past in today's world as people choose to follow a sociopath, a cruel and malicious man who has not one drop of humanity within. I see the echoes of the past in the lies, the ever growing count of lies, the lies upon other lies, and the growing danger evident in these very same lies. Claims of a booming economy are made yet if investigated just even a tad, we see the falsehood for what it is. We hear the dehumanization of citizens of the country, those who have been here for generations even, and they are attacked in every which way one can think of.
     And I wonder. I truly do, but now actually I do not have to wonder any longer. For me to hear how my little grandson explains to his sister that he was locked up because they were in a lockdown as they prayed on Saturday, even as fellow Jews were savagely murdered a few blocks away because they were Jews who dared to come together for prayer and rituals of the newborn, for me to hear that.... I cannot describe the awful and terrible chills and echoes that raged through me.
     Nationalism is not patriotism. It is a dirty offshoot of history, one that rears its ugly head too often. It is in the murder of Jews right here in our own country. It is in the starving people of Venezuela. It is in the broken state of Brazil. It is in the growing extremism of the right, of the nationalists in Europe.
     The echoes of the past are everywhere. It is in the arrogance of the ruling elite as they spend $95,000 for an overnight visit of Melania, the stiff model, to Egypt. Money that could have been used to feed hungry people right here in America. It is in the arrogance as Trump, as did Hitler, challenges the Constitution, negating Amendments on or of his own volition, talking in his ignorant and discombobulated sentences. I cringe as this is what represents us to the world and I cringe to think that just as did the Jews of Germany, of Austria, of France, of Holland, of Belgium, of Lithuania and on and on, the Jews of America will one day - and conceivably not a too far distant day - will also be rounded up and subjected to new rules of life even as they choke on a new advanced poison gas! Sound unlikely? Ask the survivors that remain. Ask their children. Peruse the pictures of athletic clubs, of family gatherings, of school pictures of 1935, say, and then compare them with the fate of the pictures as of 1940 and then tell me what is likely or not? Jews will never be massacred here in America…..oops, guess we were wrong.
     And we were wrong because we allow the President and his spineless followers, his cringing Republicans, to echo the terms of his, the 'globalists', the Hollywood people, the false media, the dangers they present to this country. We now see the attacks, the organized attacks on George Soros, on Michael Bloomberg, on Tom Steyer and why? Because they are prominent Jews and make great targets. So historians out there, everyday people out there - getting the chills yet?
     Need more? Go to the border and stand aside as the 15,000 armed combat soldiers begin to lose it, begin to shift those guns, to take an armed and militaristic stance, as they begin to shoot those known terrorists - that dangerous 3 year old, that terroristic looking pregnant woman, that teenager running from the gangs, that man shepherding his family to a better life - or so he hopes. And if that is not enough, why then just put out the most racist campaign ad ever in this country, at least in modern times, so vicious as to bring us back to the days of yesteryear, not of the Lone Ranger, but of the KKK, the lynch mobs, the home grown terrorists who preyed on the 'others' of our country.
     Where are we going? Why are we denying the ever growing echoes? Why are we deaf as they get louder and louder? Why do we not choose to see and heed the danger signs? I cannot  answer those questions. All I can do is call out and hopefully get some more to pay attention. It can happen here. It certainly can and has already done so in many instances. We have lost respect for each other; we have demeaned many in our thick fog of prejudice and hatred, and the snickers of nastiness grow ever louder and bolder.
     These echoes must be stopped. For the sake of us all. And for that alone - get out there and vote and before you pull that lever or press that button or check the box or insert that ballot - take an accounting of your true mind and heart and do the right thing. Vote the right way, the way for the future that we all want. That we all need. Put aside the primitive emotions that have been appealed to by Trump and his. We must if we are to overcome those echoes.