Sunday, May 12, 2019

OF LOSS AND SADNESS

     Lately life has been full of smackdowns. The market slams downward, our future as a country true to its past and its hopes for a future  is shredded daily, life is changing in many important ways almost imperceptibly, and worst of all, there is the loss of friends.
     It is with great sorrow that I write of the passing of MARILYN POMERANTZ this past Friday. Marilyn was a wonderful person, a true friend and a devoted worker for the benefit of the Village and has held several positions in the administration. She will be greatly missed. May her memory be for a blessing.
     Marilyn was a tireless fighter for the causes she believed in and was a role model for many. She was exactly the kind of person we need both here in the Village and out there in the wider world of the country, always fighting for improvement. So must we all.
     I think at this point that we might need to drop some party affiliations and formal names as there is much in both parties that disturbs me and others greatly. It appears as if the Republicans in Congress have ceded their future to a dictator, the first one in our history. They ignore the Constitution with its separation of powers and checks and balances and have put our government in great jeopardy as they dance like puppets on a string to the tune and directions of Trump, one of the most spectacular liars, immoral and selfish individuals I have ever come across.
     The Democrats also have forgotten much of their past, forgetting that those thousands of immigrants, including amongst them the thousands of Jewish immigrants, joined the Democratic Party, believing and hoping that it was the best choice for their future, for the future of their children. Now this same Party has forgotten its roots and allowed deep hatred to rear its ugly head in Congress via the mouths of Omar and Tlaib and the ignorance at times of AOC.
    Why do they allow this blatant expression of anti Israel and avowedly anti Semitic filth to go on? Simple. They blindly oppose all that Trump and minions stand for, and ostensibly, at this point anyway, Trump supports Israel so …… Democrats have turned away from that stand, many keeping quiet, Jewish Congressmen keeping quiet, because of Trump's opinion and current stand and because they are afraid to speak out against Moslem haters, not quite PC ya' know.
      Because of that, many Democrats are turning away from the party, knowing that to not support Israel, to not recognize and speak out against  very thinly veiled anti Semitism disguising itself as anti Israel statements sets a dangerous stage for us. So they ignore the immorality, the perversion, the lies and the frauds, the appeals and approvals of the extreme right - yet accept the hatred coming from the extreme left - and there is no difference in the end, mind you - ignore the incompetence, the edge of danger that Trump has maneuvered us to, the threats to our continuity as a democracy - they ignore all this and say they must support not so much the Republican Party but rather the safety of Israel, for that is the country of refuge, of hope for so many.
     I have sent emails to so many people in the Democratic Party. I ask them why they are choosing this dangerous path. I tell them there will be no donations this year from me unless I hear condemnation of hate talk from within their own party, condemnation of anti Semitism, condemnation of aggravated verbal assault on Israel, unless I  get a response from them. To date - nothing and no action. to date - no donation. And no, I have no great funds to donate, but understand that I am not alone out there in my thinking, in my actions and dollars add up, do they not as does the loss of those very same dollars.
     What is one to think when Pence goes out there and warns against anti Christian sentiment, when to oppose their twisted attitude towards a woman's right to control her own body and her own health decisions is to gain the name of anti Christian. We are supposed to separate state and religion so what is this? Why are we pushing the supposed beliefs of some over and above the beliefs of others? Why are we going backwards into a world that is sinking into tribalism, tribes of religions, of aims, of targets? To believe is to have a private belief and no right to foist that religious belief on others. And yet, here we are, ever so clumsily retreating to benighted ideas of the past.
     We have administration friends going to actively seek out help from foreign countries, and this immediately upon the awful interference of Russia in the previous election! So now we go to the Ukraine!!!!!! What the...…. Public opinion at least has stalled this attempt, but what are we doing, what are we allowing? What losses have we decided to accept in the name....of what? In the name of encouraging further erosion of our country's foundational principles? In the name of oppression of women, of minorities, of hate? In the name of making it ever more difficult for people to vote? To vote!!!!! I thought we had established the wrongness, the evil of that. Guess it is one more of our losses that we must either do something about or watch it recede into the past.
     We are fighting for the soul of America, for a time when a healthy discussion of politics was a staple of any gathering of friends and not a topic that must be hushed up in the name of peace! Our souls cry out for something better, so why have we instead allowed something worse to take its place?
      Losses are hard. They leave great gaps behind. Some cannot  remedied. But others can and it is those which we must fix, fill the gaps, and replace the soul of our country with a clean one, one without the rents in its fabric that we have caused.
     I am up for that. Anyone else?

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