LET THE DOLLY OUT!

     Last nite we attended a lovely and entertaining Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers impersonation show. "Dolly" had a great voice and "Kenny", while a tad uneven at times, pulled his weight and even had a wonderful couple of ballads. The audience sang along to many of the songs and a great time was had by all.
      But there was a funny/not so funny when you think about it moment. At a time when Kenny was soloing on stage, a front row member of the audience asked that he "let the Dolly out." Astonished, he quickly came back with a response - "Well, where do you think I keep her?"
   Folks, with dolly in a lower case letter we have the problem of the moment. Where have we kept our dolly now, hidden for the past two years? Where have we kept the emotions that dollies and stuffed animals and yes, even beloved action figures  engendered in us? Where have these emotions gone and how have they been subsumed by the angrier emotions of today's America?
     Today we snarl at each other. We refuse to accept differing opinions, and full disclosure, there are some opinions that I cannot and will not accept, but that does not mean that I have to threaten and bait, curse and demean those who hold these opinions. Yes, we can use strong language, powerful visions, to combat those with memes of hatred, of bias, of violence, and stop the spewing forth of bigotry and misogyny via the Net. Where indeed has the dolly gone? Where has all the softness gone? What has happened to the emotions of love, of friendship, of shared country, of neighborliness. Dolly, last nite, pleaded for us to remember that neighborliness. People clapped, but I wonder how many would put that into action in the real world outside the concert venue.
     Today we have the out of the closet vigilantes who are loading their rifles and heading for the borders. You see, pardner, they are going to defend us from the oh so many criminals among that caravan of mostly women and children. Yup! They will back up our soldiers who should not even be there in the first place and when the first shot goes off, when that first bang is heard and when G-d forbid the first wounded is seen and heard , well, then all bets are off and I, for one, do not want to even imagine the bloody scrum of overwrought and misled civilians and soldiers caught where they are not allowed to act, do not want to see the results and they will be there unless we stop this man who never in his life understood the emotions held for a 'dolly'.
     There is no dolly in this election campaign and certainly the Demented One is not planning to bring one out of where he has hidden it. No, for to him, there are only the lies, the babble of incomprehensible speech, and tweets, and the constant call to arms, calls to hurt others, to see others as "others" and go after them.
      Dolly and Kenny closed the show with the classic Islands in the Stream. They pleaded to ''sail away to another world" and in that world they "will rely on each other". Where in our real world today is there that plan to find a better world for ourselves and our kids? Where are the desires of people to befriend each other? Where is that frontier spirit of cooperation, of neighborliness? It is gone and the question is if we can ever revive it - and soon.
    "Let the dolly out." Yes, we must. And soon. Otherwise the dolly that will be let out, the one that is almost completely out will be the demented doll of Chucky! Let the dolly out. Vote for those who still have a dolly within them, who still have feelings of comradeship, of true patriotism, of sharing in the happiness and woes of others, those who attended the numerous vigils after the massacre of 11 Jews in Pittsburgh and I get the horrible kind of chills just writing those last few words. Let the true dolly out and vote for all that the dolly represents. VOTE!!