SANDBOXES

  Do you recall the sandboxes we used to play in, especially the huge ones found in city playgrounds? There we exercised our imagination, our building skills, our patience and cooperation as we all worked together planning a highway system or city or castle complex. 

The fun the water added to it as rivers and canals came into being, magically and wonderfully. So proud we were, that sometimes we even dragged parents out of the houses to admire our project. In the summer, if we became too dirty, well soon enough the sprinklers were on and there we were, all clean and refreshed. So simple was life. So enjoyable. So innocent. No one cared if one was wearing named clothing or whatever. We were all too poor to notice - and who knew we were poor? We were rich - in friends, in fun, in free play time. In short, we were allowed to be kids, to have fun as kids, to live and breathe freely and to grow into adults who understood the importance of cooperation and civility.

Today's kids are bombarded with scheduled activities, so many, so much, so many hours, that kid time is a vanishing idea. No one climbs monkey bars - too dangerous. No one plays in sandboxes, now deemed unsanitary and anyway, who wants to get dirty? Sprinklers are a dying species, and who cares anyway as texting all day long is the done thing, or following strange people, texting even if the friend is right beside us. Truly, there is a major difference in so many ways from today's child to yesterday's. Not necessarily for the better.

The entitlement of kids these days are reflected in the entitled thinking of too many adults. Shout and scream rather than work, do the hard stuff and reap the rewards. Feel pride in oneself and one's accomplishments. Work together, work with others, exchange opinions rather than shouting them down. Respect the rights of others, know that all are deserving of equal rights. Open hearts and souls, expand the mind, care for those in need, and continue to live the words of Emma Lazarus on the Lady of the Harbor. Truly love this country and what it should stand for, what it means to the world. Where has it all gone?

A character in a novel said that truth, justice and forgiveness are synonyms for love. Think about it. How do we feel about those traits? Do we respect and follow their signposts along the highways and byways of life? Do we truly pay the dues of patriotism and loyalty to our country, or do we ignore it, step on it, do the treasonous deed because it benefits us monetarily or power wise? Where are our standards? Where, for that matter, is our shame?

Unfortunately, much of the shame and dirt of this country has become a basic part of the GOP and its adherents. Any of those within who buck the awful extremism within the Party, who dare to think for themselves, who dare to recognize truth, are isolated and attacked. Those who turned traitor to the rules and laws of the country now deny their hidden cooperation in planning a coup, in suborning others to fight, to invade, to overturn the legal results of an election. Senators. Representatives. Senior aides to the president. The President's children. The President himself. All engaged in treason. All are traitors to this country, to their oaths to serve this country, not themselves. All knew, even encouraged violence, murder even, on the opposition. Shameful. Disgraceful. And certainly deserving of severe punishment. Jonson. Greene. Boebert. Hawley. Cawthorne. Gohmert. Perry. Meadows. Junior. Eric. The President  himself. Even Generals, a most frightening thought. Picture the army of this nation in the streets, nabbing, shooting, harming, destroying. Our very own domestic invasion.

It is time for us, the nation, as a whole, to pick themselves up and give ourselves a great big shake. Time to realize the truth of the situation, where we are and in how much peril we are and will remain until we change. We may have no more community sandboxes, but we can remember the lessons of our childhood, the good feeling when we pledged at opening hour of school, of singing the patriotic songs with gusto, knowing every word, of pride in our roles as Americans. Pride as we realized errors and worked o correct them.

Today we must hang our heads in shame. We are giving aid now to a besieged country too little, too late. We extol their bravery, but essentially have left them alone to undergo the worst brutality exhibited in Europe since the end of WWII. We allow others to fight as our proxies, even as we know, if we do not stand up for what we should, there will be consequences. Sandbox or not, perhaps we can create new ones, relearn the values of old, the acceptance of correction, rather than a turn to the past and its inequities. Perhaps. Maybe. Not hopeful.