There are conflicting moods today. On the one hand there is optimism. We have a sane President and a chance of passing some needed legislation, of turning back the clock on disastrous legislation from Trump. We hope that newly restored relations with our allies and a sterner attitude towards Russia and China will turn them off their dangerous paths. We hope so. We pray.
On the other hand, there is a dangerous tide of hate that is overwhelming our defenses against it. That tide threatens us all, to a degree such as not has been seen since the Holocaust, though certainly the slaughter of Rohingya, of Tutsi, of Uighurs, of women and children targeted in Afghanistan, in Nigeria, all ring the bell that tolls for us all. Hatred persists, still rings so many bells with its awful deeds and consequences.
Add to this murky soup, this ocean of despair, the events of Nature. Parkay used to say, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature." Well, we have tried to do that for too many years and are now reaping the unfortunate and tragic results that ensued. Slam after slam of extreme weather, from drought to flood. Volcano after volcano. Melting Poles and rising oceans. Pollution of food and waters. Rampant disregard for our environment.
And of course, the worst of all, the twisting of the souls of so many people, allowing them to be filled with hate, or to absolutely disappear, enabling the former owner of said soul to act as a human devil towards others. A Zombie Apocalypse in real life, with living Zombies, as contrary as that seems. As dangerous as it is.
I have just read one of the best memoirs of a survivor that I have come across. Short, to the point, no fancy writing, just powerful in its content and style of writing. It packs a punch - more than one. It is by Eddie Jaku, " The Happiest Man on Earth". Read and think. Internalize the questions and statements, apply to our days. Then wonder, deeply, can we actually descend to these dark depths again? Or have we already done so.
"This is what made what happened to us so crazy to me, why I will always ask why? Why? I still can't understand how people with whom I went to work, with whom I studied and played sport, could become animals like that. How was it that Hitler could make enemies of friends, turn civilized men into inhuman zombies? How is it possible to create such hate?"
"There is no medicine for your morals. If morals are gone, you go."
"Under the Nazi regime, a German man was not immediately an evil man, he was weak and easily manipulated. And slowly but surely, these weak men lost all their morals and then their humanity. They became men who could torture others and then still go home and face wives and children....how they took children from their mothers...I don't understand..."
Lest you think this is only a German phenomenon, just look around and within yourself and your country. How many times have we seen neighbors and friends, even family, turn on each other for one flimsy excuse or another? Have we not seen this poison spread through America, a growth industry of mass shootings, of beatings, of violence based on racial, religious and whatever 'reason' can be dredged from the depths of Hell?
Substitute the name of any bad to the bone leader, from Trump to Orban, from Putin to Stalin, the choices are seemingly infinite, substitute the fitting nationality, and there you go. Was it not Americans who wrestled infants from mothers' arms? Was it not Americans who shot their new neighbors or former or current co-workers? Was it not Americans who marched for hate, with hate?
It appears to me that when one opens the door to a bad leader, meaning a supposed leader, one with hatred and evil in the heart and soul, then the country tends to follow. Stating new awful policies, scapegoating a group or two or three, inducing paralytic fear into the very air, and hatred wins. Murder wins, evil wins. And people die as others morph into demons.
Now ask yourself why and understand the answer. It is only if and when we realize that humane behavior, friendship, trust, and allowance and acceptance of and for the dignity of all, only then does humankind have a possibility of turning its back on its errors, mending the harm done, and internalizing the fact that it is all in our hands and on our shoulders. Choose wisely and well. Then we can finally call from the depths of our fall, from the new heights we have reached, and hope that G-d will then hear us and answer us. Aneni, answer, we pray. But first we need to put in the effort. No other way.
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