BLACK, WHITE, GRAY

     The world is full of many colors. These colors evoke different reactions in people, much depending upon nature, nurture and circumstance. However, more than colors, there is a huge world based on three shades: black, white, and gray. That world can be confusing, particularly to those who are rigid, for better or worse.
     Robert Frost wrote: "...though there is no fixed line between wrong and right, there are roughly zones whose laws must be obeyed."
      Think upon the meaning of those words. Life is not clearcut. Yes, murder is wrong, but what about self defense? What about revenge for a heinous crime for which there appears to be no punishment forthcoming? What about the theft of a loaf of bread for truly hungry children. In days of yore - and not so long ago - people could be sentenced to hang for that, no matter the age of the 'thief'. Where is right or wrong here and how do we know what must be obeyed and what has leeway within its zone?
     This zone is the gray zone. It is not so clear within that space and the lines are blurred. These zones change within different time spans and can be confusing to one studying history or society's changes, particularly if we judge the past by the modern times and its rules of acceptance or not. Moreover, these black, white, and gray areas are to be found at all levels of government, of human interaction and there is no getting away from that  fact, like it or not. If we ignore that, we become rigid, judgemental and progress is halted, if not destroyed. Society becomes stagnant and the whole gestalt is just 'off'.
     On Friday we have elections here within the Village. The sad thing about it is that nothing has changed for ten years. The same faces are in the running, the same arguments are made, and the nastiness, particualrly on one side continues. Activities of democracy, particularly those which encourage citizens at every level to speak up and out, are criticized, even if it is under barely disguised intimations. People here are warned that those who "disrupt" meetings should not be elected. But what are those interruptions other than the words of speakers who waited their turn, suffered through repetitive interruptions by the chair - a major no-no, by the way, - and then spoke up about dissatisfaction, other ideas, new ideas or questions re some very gray areas of our local governing body. Though names might not be mentioned, they are there, very clearly and all this done on a supposedly  thinly disguised blog which purports to be the blog of the Village.
     Last night we receivd a phone call urging the delegate within our household to vote and then the zinger - vote for the incumbent. Okay, so calls are part and parcel of election process, are they not, but there is a difference here. Only the incumbent has the list of the delegates. Only the incumbent had their phone numbers even as requests for these same numbers have always been denied, claiming privacy!!!! Truly? So is it that privacy works only for one side and not the other? Furthermore, it is very unclear as to the physical site of thecalls? Was it from a private home or from the office of UCO itself? Dark gray here, folks, very dark gray.
     There are so many major issues in this round of elections that it would require a book to list and explain. Suffice it to say that there must be change, there must be notes of decency injected into this Village and its governing body and we must insist on more oversight and enhanced transparency. There is too much at stake. Too many futures at risk. We must use the expertise we have here in the Village in a much better way, stop wasting money on outside sources. We must get going already on a major lifeline agreement for our Village that is up very soon and will require great and many discussions and negotiations. There have even been outside governmental offices called in to destroy - or try to- the opposition.Who is to say what will happen during this round for there are no black and white safeguarding lines here at all. Not good.
     And then we turn to the national news. The country is torn. The world is torn. It is in the throes of revolutions on all sides, be they violent or within the courts,  with many of those courts and public officials biased and set up as much as possible. Here in America we are overturning our own Constitution, ignoring the real and present danger to our democracy, stupidly, with great ignorance, cheering on those who are throwing away our guarantees of fair and just government, of checkand balances. Of right and wrong.
      This present administration has been just about the worst ever as far as honesty, competence, forethought and decency. It has been a turbulent four years and I fear the end result after another four years should this continue. We already have much damage to undo, to reverse, if possible, and to try to reunite this country once more so that we are not Republicans or Democrats or Socialists, but Americans. Period. Those who can agree to disagree in proper form, free of vile name calling, of threats, of lie after lie, of honesty and caring, of understanding of consequences. A new wave for the country, once more valuing honor and decency, a return to traditional American values of progress, of social safety nets, of immigration, for like it or not we need new people or our entire system will collapse!
     Rules are rules and laws are laws. One is supposed to obey them for a lawless country is an abomination. However, though something might be legal it is not necessarily moral and it is then that the black, white and gray colors enter the fray. First and foremost, our laws must be moral. They must be made with the best of thought and intentions. They must be flexible and able to be amended. They must be fair and they must think of and plan for the future. This, my friends, we most emphatically do not have at the present time. Instead, we have a supposed leader who is immoral, corrupt, morally perverted and an ignoramus of the first degree. This, at a time fraught with physical and moral danger. This when we have a new disease with no antibodies to it, with a mortality rate of 3.4% - more than the flu -not a good time at all for him and his creepy sidekicks. Not a good time for us.
     One can choose one's boundaries, but know that no one is exempt from the consequences of these decisions. Winning sides become losing sides, anger thrives and grows, burns ever fiercer, and we doom ourselves to a vicious cycle. Please, on whatever level of governmental voting, let us think of the good, the bad, the lines which must not be crossed, and vote the right way, the good way. As simple as that.