So now some of you are scratching your head, wondering what sand shortage? Will the beaches be none existent this year due to a severe sand shortage? Or will they - meaning the authorities, whomever they are - truck in more sand from somewhere else, perhaps inducing yet another sand shortage. That would be typical - solving one crisis by inducing another.
The powers that be think that these temporary solutions are the answer to sand erosion, the beaches shrinking, even as they take part in the bigger sand shortage, as they overlook the fact that a more permanent fix would be to tackle the larger problem of ongoing environmental damage. But, a huge but, a universal but, there is another sand shortage, the sand that people use to bury their heads!
Here is one blatant example that people have known about, yet ignore, as its import to the very existence of some towns is simply pushed to the side. There are towns - in California, New Jersey(!), and other states that are shrinking, literally sinking into the ground, in some cases as much as 11 feet a year. Think of your home and what would be. Imagine the city of NY disappearing downwards every year, more and more. While some might think that a great idea, others certainly would not. The reason for this downward trend? The overuse of water drainage from underground, giving the land nothing to hold it up, hence - down we go! But never you mind: just continue to hide heads in the sand, ignore the sinking and bury the head in whatever sand is near you.
But seriously, I am not referring, for the most part, to the sand shortage at beaches. I am talking how the world is at a loss to find enough sand in which to bury their heads, to ignore the danger that the shifting of politics has wrought, and the danger of over reaction to one prejudice manifestation, inducing yet another, deeper, more widespread and violent prejudice. But not to worry, for we have become so adept at burying our heads that we can comfortably do that even as we pat ourselves on the back for our new "woke" position and what the hell is 'woke' anyway? Does it really have any true meaning or revelation to us, for us, beneficial in any which way to us? I think not. Or certainly not as it is manifesting itself right now.
Prejudice has been with us since the beginning of time. We have overcome some of it yet it remains, always there, waiting to rear its ugly head ever and always. What we have done in our time, is wake up more devils than we know how to handle, and the ugliness of prejudice, its contagion, is overwhelming us, even as we bury our collective heads in the sand, running out of that burial sand as we ignore consequences and truth.
Forcing others to "acknowledge" implicit prejudice, whether it is there or not, to 'admit' their bias, whether it is there or not, to take the blame for thousands of years of wrongdoing by the world, rather than tackling the problems of the present - well, I am confused and so are many others. Why has it come to this, that we have Communist style self criticism meetings, and the more extreme, the better it is. Bowing one's head in public 'shame' even as others are buried in the sand, is just not good. We ignore the damage to society, to the ties that are meant to bind people together as they strive for similar goals.
I will probably get some nasty comments for this, but I do not feel guilty. Do I have prejudice within me? Yes, most certainly. I hate violence and those who perpetuate it, allowing, causing, it to serve their selfish purpose. I hate hatred of others, particularly for "hate crimes - crimes in which perpetrators act on a bias against the victim’s race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or other categories." But why should I take or assume guilt for that which I never did? While slavery was ongoing, an abominable practice -and remember, my people were slaves too- read about that in the Bible! - the Jews were being chased from pillar to post all over the world, being slaughtered, burned, demonized, persecuted, starved, on and on, continuing into present time, even growing once again. Why, therefore, am I assume guilt for crimes of the past by others, offenses which have been taken against me as well, simply because I am not Black, nor Brown, nor Native, nor Asian, even as me and mine have suffered the same things.
But we continue to bury our heads in that ever present sand, though its shortage increases. Pushing hatred is not the answer. Excusing all for wrongdoing because of color, ethnicity, or any other category is also wrong. The intense effort to introduce a curriculum which will pile on guilt, which twists history into yet a different ethnocentrism is not any better than another, as it continues to push a different prejudice, even as all prejudice remains an offense against humanity, no matter who is the hater or the hatee! As usual, though, we bury those heads, again and always, disregarding the backlash, the growing divisions where there were none before, or small, weak ones of no consequence.
We attempt to usurp the power of people to think for themselves. We make people feel guilty for a natural tendency to live with those who are more familiar, follow the same customs, but certainly, also be able to live wherever one wishes - if you can afford it! I would love to live in a huge beach house, with a guest "cottage", have employees to take care of the daily needs of life for me, work hard on planning vacations, check my growing stock account, send my kids to the best schools, no school loans to be hovering over us, and on and on. But I cannot. The fact of that is not a result of either prejudice of "white privilege", of "white entitlement' or anything else. My standard of living is based on the salary for my work. Another time we will talk of gender prejudice in the work world!
Meanwhile, our heads, buried in the sand, raising irritation of society rather than using sensible balm practices, do not see what else is going on. 11 cowardly Senators absent from the critical vote on investigating Jan 6, an armed insurrection. Cowards, one and all. The 35 Senators who voted against it, still afraid of the demented one, Trump, still avoiding responsibility for their words that lit a spark, 5 years ago, a spark that fired up the engines of hate, making it okay, even accepted, admired in some twisted minds.
We ignore the growing anti - Semitism, from the right, the left, and the middle as well. Do not accept excuses of imbecility for acts that were wrong -as they are trying to do re Jan. 6. Make the world see the truth when "ethics" are a tool of anti - Semitism. Hey, even the FBI is "woke" to this. About time. Even as the head hiding continues, we have people forced to retract statements protesting anti Semitism. The Human Rights Council of the UN is a joke, a sad, seriously misguided, dangerous joke.
I close with this statement “Regardless of what state or which side of the political spectrum antisemitism comes from, we must respond forcefully and immediately. We cannot wait for another attack to turn deadly before we respond,” “We find our nation in a tense moment …. We come together to urge a strong response to the rising antisemitism spreading in our country.”
It should be coming out of the mouths of all, though at present their mouths and minds are interred in the shrinking sands. As a Jew, I detest prejudice, hate hatred for any reason other than causing harm, intentional and malicious. Once attention, "wokeness", shall we say, is paid to this everlasting and longest prejudice in the word, an existential prejudice, then we can finally realize that we cannot separate hatreds, for they all are together in one stinking, disgusting manifestation of the worst of mankind.
Let us pull the heads out of the sand and get on with fixing the other, remaining problems of this world. If we do not, we will all go down with the ship. Get the heads out - Now!!
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