IN A BETTER PLACE

  Generally speaking, the title is a phrase used to try to comfort one mourning the loss of a loved one - or not, as the case may be. Better than what? Apparently this world of ours, used from time immemorial, throughout the centuries, wherever there was belief in an afterlife. In this crazed world of ours, gone atilt in a major way, there is, we suppose, comfort in that phrase, though not  really, for at that moment we want the person back. Never mind about "a better place".

Frankly, I wish we would stop using that phrase and rather than words, actually do something to make this place, this world, this reality, a better place. I suppose that is what we initially set out to do, twenty years ago, after the first emotional moments of revenge were over, but bottom line - is Afghanistan a better place for our being there. The answer is up for grabs.

Like most things there are two sides to the story. Did we help bring the country into the modern world, into a society that recognizes the humanity of all people? Yes, and there are women who are grateful for their release from the prison of extreme Islam. Schools, jobs, pride, a better country with a better future. Yet, not really. That better place has died, brutally, gone the way of too many nations with whom we were enmeshed. What remains? Endemic corruption, loss of hope, and a fear to the very marrow of their souls, of too many, left adrift in an extremely threatening reality. Better place? No, manifestly not there when a nation dies, when a future is strangled.

The overriding question now is where do we, America, go from here? Are we, too, headed for that 'better place'? Often it appears as if we are in that perennial handbasket on our way to not such a better place. Look around and wonder, just how the heck did we get here? Is that instant iconic photo of the last American soldier leaving Afghanistan to be the telling summary for history? Is it a visual representation of the words of a journalist ?

"Hey, hey, hey, .... We're going to check in ... just to make sure all is well. There's a lot of crazy out there, a lot of crazy." ....disrupted by some wacky guy." 

The wackiness, the craziness, is immediately visible wherever one looks. It force us to rethink those words. Wacky, generally used in a situation with some humor, strained as it may be, and clearly that is lacking when a disturbed man in the throes of a monster hurricane, goes off track and attacks a reporter. No humor in the the terrible disruptions - to say the least - of society by the supposed leaders of that very society. When a President seeks to overthrow his own country's government. Or a Governor imperils the very lives of children, an entire education world. 

Has our country become a sitcom of wackiness? Are we to place huge DANGER signs on our borders? Are we to shrug, with a tinge of nastiness, when we read of crazed anti masks, anti - vaxxers, COVID denying delusional 'conservatives' die from COVID? Yeah, they probably got their just desserts, the consequences of their own ignorance, and dangerous decisions, but now - are they in a better place? Are they now better off for the errors of their lives? Are we, too, to do something to hasten this 'better place' for all of us? You tell me. Are we not supposed to make this reality, this society, a better place? In the here and now? Must one die before we gain such a blessed residential address? 

No power in Louisiana and a waning power of sanity in the world at large. A man gone to a 'better place" gobbled down by an alligator, now swimming joyfully in new hunting territories after Ida came visiting. New hidden dangers. Unanticipated by most, and now what? Will we ever understand the immediate necessity of life changes or are we destined to be consumed by new alligators in their new happy hunting grounds?

Wackiness a plenty? Oh, yeah. Funny? Not so much. A better place? Do we not, can we not, make of this world a better place, and then think how beautiful the next 'better place' will be. If only.