THE RAW TRUTH

  Gene Bailey, the pastor of a huge evangelical church stated thus:

"The raw truth was on Nov. 3, 2020, President Donald J. Trump won the election."                "There is a payback coming!"

The raw truth is that the threat to America actually arises from what used to be a sane and balanced Middle America, but now consists of a great percentage of maddened, unhearing, unheeding evangelicals pumped up to think and act on once unthinkable thoughts with once unthinkable deeds. Apocalyptic thinking began to rule the common everyday thoughts and behavior. Entitlement to rule as white conservatives with a deep, albeit twisted belief in G-d and His actions ruled the day and here we are. Truly, if we were to call out "Alice, Allice" near a tree hole, if Allice responded, when she saw our reality, she would quickly turn back to that crazed world, stating that this world, our world was just too much to tackle. Back she would flee. The asylum was safer than outside its doors.

Truly, what do we say when the raw truth is that we conflate the names and deeds, the ugly words and threats of such as Gaetz, Greene. Bobert, Cruz, Trump - senior and junior, Cawthorne, Hawley, Jonson, Perry, the list grows daily, loaded with self-aggrandizers and power-seeking weaklings, anxious to get theirs; in this haphazard world we live in. A world which they helped enormously to bring about, to twist and destroy.

The raw truth is that we try to fool ourselves with words and then take pride in that accomplishment, false though it be. We are 'winning' in Ukraine we are told. The tenth Russian General has been killed. The Ukraine army is almost invincible as they fight against massive odds, truly a tiny mouse against a maddened elephant. And I apologize to elephants in that comparison. The raw truth lay underneath. Yes, Ukraine armed forces are unbelievable in their strength of resistance and determination, in the face of all that has happened. Their country is pulverized. Many towns, village, even large cities are no more. They lay in ruins, a piece of clothing fluttering in the wind, a lone person venturing out carefully, frightened, but needing to find food and water for the family below. What is winning if we end up with nothing. What is 'us' winning if we are allowing others to fight our battles, newfound representations of the wealthy young men who bought a substitute during the Civil War here in America. Simply a modern version of an old tradition.

Even more disappointing, for it affects the very fabric of our country, is the politization and yes, the destruction, of the Supreme Court. It no longer renders decisions based on law, but on political viewpoints of the judges. It no longer holds its decisions secret, as we now have a published decision rending abortion right, the right to choose, to control one's own body, moot. Yes, our Supreme Court, with its insane majority of the insensitive, ignorant, and retrograde thinking, has turned upon the people of America, ignored the quiet majority, ignores the frenzied planning of those in favor of Roe v Wade, of the right of choice, of equal rights for all, not lesser if one is encased in a female form, This backwards viewpoint is reflected in other critical decisions. The raw truth is that our very government structure has been attacked by the very people who are, were, supposed to, vowed to, keep it safe, from all enemies - within and without. They have failed abysmally and worse, participated in the very actions they were supposed to prevent. The raw truth is ugly indeed.

The very rawest truth is the open, virulent return of antisemitism. All sides feel it okay to blame the Jews for all the ills and woes of our world. Economy issues - blame the Jews. Media? Oh, the Jews control it. Banking. Hollywood. Streaming. Little stores. Big stores. Education. Whatever comes to mind is accepted with open arms and vicious heart. A soul barely breathing. Once again the canard, usually unstated, but present, now delivered openly by a Russian, that  “For some time, we have heard from the Jewish people that the biggest antisemites were Jewish.” Of course, blame the victim. Truth is shoveled right out the door and hatred welcomed with open arms and drooling mouths. Hitler was Jewish we are told. Uh huh. Guess he was a self- hater, right?! When, when, will people end this hideous practice of blaming all on the Jews, using this hatred to make political hay? When? I, and many, many others are so tired of it. Using the Holocaust to advance these thoughts - way over the top. I cannot even speak of the heights, the depths actually, to which that is so wrong!

So raw truth is here. Alice fled to her refuge, but where refuge for the rest of us? Doubts grow heavier, larger, each and every day. Raw truth. Difficult to take, to absorb, to accept, but there it is.