Having had a bit more time to think these past two days, rather than running around with the minutae of life, I contemplated some points. Now I am no Plato or Socrates, so if you expect that , then I refer you to The Republic. Still and all.....
Of late there has been much, and finally, long time awaited, shall we say, throat clearing and after that, conscience clearing, at least to a point. The dam has broken and all the rats are leaving the ship, other than those who cannot seem to be able to thrive anymore in a world based on ethical values, kindness, and progress. Does it sound harsh, too judgemental? Perhaps, but those of us not caught up in the mania, and it is a mania, of Trump and his riotous and yes, evil rallies, can look and say but for the grace of G-d, goeth I.
It is easy to be caught up in the mindless rushing to somewhere that a mob allows and encourages. It allows one to lose oneself , one's identity, one's responsibility, and surrender all to the mob. It is good, one might feel, to let go, to become one with others and let the anger flow, the fear flow, and damn the consequences.
Look at the face of Trump as he speaks at these rallies, these campaign rallies redux, wherein old information is retread, rechewed, and the mob cheers. Yes, a mob, and not an audience. His face is ugly, not an unusual result from words of hate, as the inner ugliness comes forth and once again, watch and say to oneself, there but...goeth I.
It takes moral courage to go against a mob, to go against a ranting madman, particularly one with power, of politics, of money, of fear, of, yes, of evil. It is frightening to stand there in the face of a sludge of ugliness coming one's way, fear of being overwhelmed, lost within its darkness, and somehow, being or getting punished by someone.
This is what has happend all these years with Trump, and yes, most probably in his Trump Organization as well, for the tiger does not change those stripes. And so, along with Trump went the rats, following the tune of the Piper's flute, being caught and lost in the seemingly appealing future he promised, a future where all would be fair, where the "swamp" would be cleared and cleansed. Perhaps some people went along with the promise of hope. Well, we were all misinformed, and badly so, were we not?
And the dam has broken. It was a flimsy one, built of sins, offense, fear, lies, a dirty swamp regenerated and repopulated with lobbyists, with greedy and incompetent people who looked out for themselves and for Trump, and who either entered soulless or exited soulless, for sold them they did for momentary power. They succumbed to the false promises of a false prophet, the green grass on the other side, the grass that was meant and promised to be only for them.
We forgot ourselves and who we were supposed to be, what America and Americans were supposed to be for themselves and for the world. We stood by and allowed the detritus of such a society to pile up. So we began to step over bodies prone on the sidewalks of great cities, for they no longer could afford to put a roof over their heads as the cost of rent, never mind buying, was prohibitive. Apartments went empty for most of the year while their spoiled and self indulgent uber wealthy were elsewhere.
The homeless are not just drunks, or druggies. Some are mentally ill with conditions that can be addressed, but we have cut those funds, tossed people out on the streets, defenseless and hopeless. Others are traveling with their families, for there is apparently no inn for them, never mind a room. There are people who have been walloped by life, by illness, by natural disasters, people for whom help was not there at all or minimal and there we have it. These are the homeless, the living from check to check and the check failed to come or became woefully inadequate.
Now we shout and scream, get them away, hide them somewhere in a back alley, rather than face up to the fact: there but for the grace of G-d goeth I. And thee. And thee. And we, all of us. We blind ourselves to what is here, not coming anymore, but here. Think we have coverage for all who are lucky enough to have reached Medicare? Well, think again. Yes, I bless it every day, for it allows me to live, but, a great big but, I am beginning to find inroads in this coverage. Times for testings are being lengthened. Medical prescriptions are being ignored. Here is a recent one: Told to check my blood sugar two or three times a day, requiring a minimum of 300 test strips for three months, and remember, these testing devices can misfire, so another strip is needed, we were told, nope. You get 100 strips and tough bugs. So says Medicare. Screw you and the doctor. Other medications have to be argued and fought for, tests - ditto, and the situation will only get worse. Medical coverage yes, it is a human right, but for Heaven's sake, let us do it right.
Let us call that minor, for we will fix it somehow, even with private funds, but it is costly at several hundred dollars, repeated ad infinitum until death do us part! Or cannot afford it as the cost of other medications are increasingly not covered or lessened. Screw you is the attitude and will continue to be while soulless people remain in office, as safety regulations are thrown out and more people will be on the streets, literally, as they are destroyed, broken, by medical costs.
We need to think. We need to make this travesty of an administration an example for the future. Instead of threatening poor thinking by parents as they tried to ease a road for their kids, the wrong way, but it was not to the level of racketeering, federal charges of bribery, worthy of 20 years on each charge!! Surely the wrongdoings of the Trump administration are far more foul, far more long range, far more harmful to our sovereignty, to our security and where the hell and why the hell are we persisting with this imbecilic and dangerous mishandling of crimes, ignoring the far more serious while dallying away the lives of so many?!
Yes, there but for the grace of G-d, of fortune and fate, goeth I and thee and we. Is it not time that we do something about this? Time that we demand far more strength of character from our representatives overseas, in Congress, in the West Wing, in the State Department, wherever and however they are meant to be servants of the people, not their destroyers.
Time to take stock, to evaluate, to reevaluate and to plan and act better. We need to remember that we are all people.We need to stop villifying groups of others. We need to return to the road of progress, of caring for our Earth - we have no other home, do we? We need to punish the wrongdoers, the complicit in these misdeeds and teach the kids of today that yes, adults can do the right thing, and pass that lesson along to a future we hope we could and will have.
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