Why is Romeo so named? Not that name, actually, but his last name - Montague - which warns of the feud with the family of Juliet -Capulet. So why is Romeo a Montague? Because we cannot pick our families. We are who we are, and the point is, can we remain proud of who we are, loyal to who we are, or do we give in to other determinants, ugly ones, and become, as we heard yesterday, yet another sobriquet for the Demented One, a figurative kin of "the Mad King George", he who lost the American colonies for England in an unprecedented successful rebellion of a colony against the mother country. Yeah, that was us if you can recall our history, but is that who we are right now? Have we lost our name and status, an example to the hopeful, in the process of accepting another, becoming a colony again, ruled by the man with many names and none of them good at that! Who are we and better yet, who is the one who has placed us in a perilous existential threat?
Are we to go up in ashes, along with our lungs, the Amazon forest?
Cindy McCain calls for a return to civility in American life, particularly politics, which has indeed devolved into a pack of snarling curs on the one side - just look at the faces and the words of Republican figures in public forums - and a Democratic Party on the other that has also seemingly lost some of its moral strength and courage as it appears to defend haters in their own party as they condemn their racism in a weak and watered down resolution. Can we do this, a return to civility, a combination of past and future ideals? Can we fix ourselves as the Romeo who does not care about one's last name, the Juliet who sees the goodness in all, rather than judging and limiting by name? The doubts and the hopes weigh equally heavy in the air.
Don Diego or Zorro? Or a combination of both? The courage of the Freedom Riders or the weakness and nastiness of our present day politicians, and yes, I know there are some who are good, but like Diogenes, one must search long and carefully in the intimidating dark. Will we tolerate a self proclaimed "Chosen One", return to the days of yesteryear which were really not so good in all, but yes, in some, or will we become the alchemists of the world, taking the best of what we have, mixing it with the hopes and yearnings we have, spicing it with the courage we need to go forth in this not so brave world, turning all into gold, a bright and shining gold which is pure, no dross, no lead to sour the shining mix. Only goodness and a willingness to try once again, to welcome all who feel the same way, no matter the name, no matter the color, no matter the orientation, no matter the ethnicity, no matter anything, other than the recognition that we are ONE. We live or die together on this planet, whether we like it or not.
I am real tired of a world where we have the government!!! arguing in court that sex discrimination is not protected against under the Constitution, and by the way, that also means that the deputy who said he cannot train a female deputy because it is against his religion - well, follow the broken yellow brick road on that one!
I am tired of a world, a country, a people, who feel that it is not only okay, but preferential, that we throw children in cages, that we abuse their parents, that we cause huge shivers in industries of agriculture, of food production, of hospitality, of small stores, of fresh blood in the professions, and revel as present day Nazi like guards do this job, hunt people down in the night, creating our own nacht und nebel, much to our shame, who claim they are only taking orders, doing their jobs, - uh huh! I am tired of the lies, of the hopelessness, of the grayness which is beginning to engulf the world.
I am tired of a world where once again we all are testing and showing off new nuclear missiles and weapons, taunting others with them, watching nervously, dreading the finger of whichever madman uses it to push the button, and trust me, we have many madmen in power across the globe, including our own home grown one! I am tired of a country which allows its leader, its illegitimate one at that, to co -opt the armed forces, against our Constitution by the way, and, in his own way, aided by other awful people, take apart our government, flush the good down the toilet, and make a farce of our three branch checks and balances system.
A character in a novel wrote such:
"What I have to do now is that which is not easy. That which I most fear. If I keep accommodating my fears, I can only move in reverse....the past is a fortress that cannot be stormed."
Hence, my friends, we need to take that which still exists in the present, the good of the past, not return to the past, and move on to build the future. And just as an aside, the best way to do that is to get an experienced person in office, as President, to move us along to where we need to be, and not rely on old and faltering, perhaps even mad, old men , like Trump, or failing men, like Biden. The world is too precarious a place to trust in such men, though I must admit, I would rather have a leaky memory of a Biden way over the choice of a demented and mean man, one who is selfish, a destroyer, rather than a builder.
And just as an addendum, if one reads David's personal blog, right here in CV, one sees the same machinations. A blog purporting to be private but used as a semiofficial outlet for Village news and doings, edited to protect its blogmeister, censored in who is allowed to post, particularly opponents or those who think otherwise, is once again pushing for his reelection for a sixth term, an outcome possible only after he changed the rules for term limits, and wrapped the reins tightly around his hands. Our finances are shot, our financial outlooks with reserves fall short of covering what will need to be done, the hired Treasurer turns out to be a sweet young man but woefully inexperienced or professional enough to aid us, and appears to be under the thumb of David and Ed Black, who both just about bankrupted us several years ago. At that time we had Dorothy Tetro who pulled the nuts out of the fire, but she is gone now. It is time for new blood here, for 'younger' people, for new ideas, for fresh air, to enter into the administration of UCO and do what must be done before we are subjected to another horrocious duplicate of the present Millenium Agreement. We do not need to bend over once again to Levy et al. We should have done this long ago, but this UCO is overwhelmed and undermanned.
Sweeping the offices across the country and right here in theVillage. That needs to be done. Past work should be recognized but the time to go also needs to be recognized. We are sadly negligent in that area. Much to our detriment.
Wherefore are we anything? We are that which we make of ourselves. Mirror time, folks, and choices. It is time.
No comments:
Post a Comment