AND SO IT GOES

     But where does it go? Anyone ever had an answer to that or a specific destination or direction? Well, I think that we have discovered the answer to that - we are going to hell in a handbasket. No! Stop the press! Change the verb tense. We are not going, but already have gone. And folks, like it or not, we are there because of one thing, and one thing only. All else is subordinate to the major cause and that is the man, or what purports to be a man, sitting not in the Oval Office, but in his hidey hole in the residence, obsessively watching TV, pushing the start of the day off to midday while the country goes to wrack and ruin.
    Yesterday we had the wonderful experience of watching an excellent performance, as usual, at the Broward Center. Hamilton was as good as we have been led to believe. I was a tad leery at first since it spoke in rap manner for much of the play, but it was great. It was a genius who took an obscure and misunderstood or little understood period of time in the formatting of our nation, a period of time which put many students to sleep. Well, now the names of Hamilton and Burr and others  and a basic representation of the issues and the manner in which compromise (gasp) allowed political enemies to work together and even admit when they were wrong, is all out there. (Gasp again).
     What a quaint idea. Don't you think so? Washington warned the nation and its founders that partisanship was not the way to go. He was so right and he must be gnashing his wooden teeth while looking down and seeing what a mess we have allowed the country, the nation, to become.
     Most interesting, of course, was the fact that so many of those fighting for the nation, through revolution and troubled first years were (gasp yet again) immigrants. Say that word in a whisper lest Trump dig their bodies up and deport them from whence they came! And yes, for those of you with the stick up...well.. anyway, who think that immigration rights should have stopped with your family's ancestors entry into the country, had better think again and had better learn to check out the words and statements re this issue from that pursed up sour mouth of the orange man.
     But this is not enough for that creature and his minions, the slavering hyenas of the hate everything party. Nope. Now we are going for denaturalization. Taking away the citizenship of naturalized citizens and never mind who or what is caught in the tsunami of disaster, of shredded families, of destruction of lives built over decades of contributing citizenship, of taxpayers. Nope, never mind that for off they must go! So says the would be king! And so he sends forth his troops to seek out these "enemies", and they crash into courthouses, skulk around the entrances of churches and synagogues, wait for the drop-offs at school, or catch their prey at supermarkets or riding the Greyhound bus. So much so that Greyhound has published a rights protocol for its passengers. What a world!
     Be afraid, people. Be very much afraid, for this does not stop anywhere. Nope, for hatred, anger, injustice, all know no boundaries and the words of the pledge, with "truth and justice for all" are drowning in this sea of lies and injustice. I have much admiration for this country, but cannot take pride in it right now, not the way it is nor the road it is upon nor the direction it is taking. When a tantrum prone individual who is most apparently demented serves as President and we are told that his behavior needs or calls for a "daycare staff alert", well, "There's trouble right here, right here in River City " - by any other name!
     And so it goes? But where and for how long? We now have a total governmental apparatus of biased, ignorant, incompetent, inexperienced, venal, greedy, selfish, corrupted individuals for the most part, led by the worst of the lot, one who is not even in the right state of mind! The lies abound and let me fix one lie right now. Reagan did not call for a wall nor to stop immigration. Here is what he did say: “Rather than talking about putting up a fence, why don’t we work out some recognition of our mutual problems? Make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and they, while they’re working and earning here, they’d pay taxes here. And when they want to go back, they can go back. They can cross. Open borders both ways,” he said in 1980.
     So when a woman is in the throes of being forced to return to a country after decades here, a citizen

of our country, one who said that when she took the oath she knew, she felt that "I became an American. I am an American." No more and by the way, remember - no one is safe out there at this rate. No one.

     So as we all celebrate at this time of the year, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza or any other holiday and of course the ringing in of the New Year, let us all pray for a better one, a more secure one, a fairer one, a more united one, where truth and justice indeed reign, where we can point to our public servants with pride, with hope and with trust. Kinda' a pipe dream, I think, but there is always hope, though it does grow dimmer at times, does it not?

     Happy Holidays, folks. Enjoy the family but remember there are other families out there living in desperation. Our folks came here for the same reasons - a better life, a better future for their kids, for asylum from violence and hatred, for economic impossibilities in the old country, to join with others of their families who came before and were able to send for them -hey, like Melania did with her parents (cough, cough). Think she knew somebody who could cut the line for them with a positive result? Today's immigrants are the same as yesterday's, just maybe a tad darker of skin, or poorer, or shorter, or maybe not. The point is , it does not matter and calling all who want in on the best of humanity rotten names such as terrorist or druggie or rapist or whatever twisted minds gin up, does not change the truth, does not change our heritage - a nation of immigrants, built by immigrants, and in need of more immigrants for the future. Amen.