WHENCE AMERICA?

   "Look at the nations and watch -

    and be utterly amazed.

    For I am going to do something in your days

    that you would not believe,

    even if you were told."  (Habakkuk, 1:5)

Ever get the feeling that if one wanted to know the future of the world, all one had to do was read the Bible. There are enough disasters, threats, pandemics, crises, what have you, more than one could imagine. One can read of evil characters and then chase down the rise and fall, the emulations of other evil characters, direct descendants in immorality and wickedness. And if the Bible in all its various books is not enough, then simply turn to secular history and read of the mighty empires, built to last by their founders, or so they thought, that crumbled into dust, with pathetic remnants of past glory. Now? Whence America?

Worldwide pandemic, with most of the world still without vaccines. Miami has to shut down the entertainment district due to wild and unsafe behavior of spring breakers! Defiant, stupidly and dangerously so, anti-vaxxers refuse the vaccine, even though their lord and master took his. Whence America? Mar a Lago shut down due to positive Covid-19. Ha!! What goes around?

Whence America? When so many of the states are engrossed in limiting voting access and rights, well, where the hell are we? Have we not learned from history? Have we not become better than those engaged with hate in the past? Must we fight battles already on the winning paths all over again? Why?

 What is it that persuades those in power that they have the right to limit the rights of others, despite proof otherwise, that the constituents, not the noisy half crazed ones, but the quiet ones who go about living their lives, want no part of this blatant wrongdoing. And wrongdoing it is. It is immoral and no amount of legal chicanery can make it otherwise. It was legal to rob, to kill, to eliminate Jews under Nazi rules, but did that make it moral? Does changing rules re voting access make it moral? 

Whence America? Since when have we resigned membership in the rolls of decent humanity? Since when do we celebrate hatred? Since when do we think it is okay to allow free access to guns that enable mass killings? Why have we not learned from these slaughters. Crying and protesting, leaving flowers, balloons and teddy bears - and what a waste if we do not act, if we do not enact laws that assure the continued rights of all, that limit access to guns to crazed people whose openly stated desires are to kill those they hate. Note, please, that I am not advocating cancellation of the Second Amendment. I believe we have the right to own a gun - though not assault weapons. But there must be rules and regulations that make sense and insure the safety of the public.

"Ultimately this is about who we are as a nation, this is about how we treat people with dignity and respect," she said. "A harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us. The president and I will not be silent, we will not stand by, we will always speak out against violence, hate crimes and discrimination wherever and whenever it occurs."

Those are the words of Vice President Kamala Harris, and I think, I pray, I hope, that she speaks for most Americans. But a whole lot more is necessary if we are to wipe out this plague of hatred, clear it off the books. Too much time has already passed, too much baseless hate, too much violence and whence America? And think not that we have been free of class, nationality, ethnic and religious baseless hatred over the years. Almost every immigrant group has faced prejudice, some violent, upon coming to America, however and why they came. 

Despite all the myths of people today, we were and remain the same. We are all open to harm from the violence of hate. We all were not angels as our people came to America, and yes, oh my, golly gee, I am sure that there were those among these groups who entered illegally for the same reasons these desperate immigrants of today try to get over the border or at least send their children to safety. Not to forget, mind you, that all entering immigrant groups all seemed to have their criminals among them, not only the illegals of today.

There must be a way to order and prioritize immigration in a rational and compassionate manner. No, we cannot simply say, c'mon in, without planning, without safety regulations, without preparation. One of the best ways is to remember that we are part of the nations of the world and the butterfly effect is alive and well. If there is violence and danger, poverty and hunger, in other countries, well, the people will do as is normal and try to go elsewhere, with the Lady of the Harbor standing there with her words of welcome. We are not isolated from the rest of the world and what happens in one, or ten, or twenty nations, no matter how far away, effects us. No amount of wishful thinking, desires to turn away, to ignore, to deny connections, to turn deaf ears to the cries of humanity, to be willfully blind to the horrific scenes of violence and starvation will work in any kind of permanent solution. Fix these problems, fix the immigration crisis.

Whence America? I have a clue as do all of us. I have many clues, as do all of us. The trick is to know which clues to emphasize and which to weaken, to batter down. As always, I remind us all, including myself, that it IS in our hands, like it or not. Whence America? You tell me.