"NOT LOSING HOPE"

So states the latest soul caught in a Russian web of treachery, arrested as a 'spy'. Yet another innocent victim caught in a mess not of his/her own making, merely a pawn in a deadly game of chess. Imprisoned, awaiting 'trial' and sentencing, an inevitable ending to his mis-arrest, he bravely states he is "not losing hope". Yes, at some point, he will be ransomed by the USA after they agree to some unbalanced trade. That might take a week, a year, or decades, as other unfortunates have discovered, much to their dismay and the agony of their families. 

However, look around at the rest of the world and wonder if we can keep on hoping, or have we reached yet another point of no return, similar to the environmental cataclysm awaiting us. Have we allowed another life change to overtake, to destroy whatever hope we had, or might still have, that there is time to turn around the existential threat to democracy. Can we still turn aside the retreat into the autocratic past into which too many of the ragged disgraceful remnant of the GOP wish to reside.

Roadblocks proliferate at exponential speed. Soon we will be back to those infamous 'test' questions given to potential Black voters in the segregated South. Soon we will completely disenfranchise college students who vote at their colleges and universities as they tend to vote democratic and Democratic - anathema to that tainted GOP.

Retrogressive bills are passed every day. Abortion access denied, criminalized.  Backward states take on the federal government in attempts to cut off safe alternatives. Rights of women - and their life partners, families, are given no choice at all, in this case or in the world of transgender people. The rights of LGBTQ+ are being shredded, returning to the days of Stonewall. Their marriages unrecognized, their right to be parents denied and even their existence negated as to utter the word gay in too many schools is a major sin! Come to Florida, that not so sunny state under the advancing fascistic thumb of De Santis. We are even banning books, engaging in wholesale censorship - and will we be returning next, with the burning of people to follow, as night follows day, arresting those who displease us, asking for informants and spies to report 'offenders'?  

Think this is over the top? Think again. Take a look oh, some ten, fifteen years ago and then compare to today. What has changed? What unthinkable events have become real, even approved, aided by supposed defenders of the nation. Think of the complicity of Justices of the Supreme Court, now pants baring their oh so ugly rear ends as past offenses come to light. And yet - there they remain, in all their glorified, partisan ignorance and stupidity. Along with those incompetent judges appointed by that alleged traitor and indicted criminal, Trump. There the traitors of the J6 attempted coup live in splendid positions, supported by our tax funds, even as they conspire to destroy America as is or was, as is always meant to be.

These are the same people who wish to undo the social advances we have made, the safety net which catches the food insecure, the mentally ill, the unemployed, those needing medical care, so expensive, those caught in a mess as they attempt to build better lives for their families, as they immigrate to this once welcoming country. Now, the lamp of the Lady of the Harbor grows dimmer, falls lower, day by day.

And I wonder. My grandson, Yitzy, struggles day after day, wondering why this is happening. He grows sad, thinking perhaps it is somehow his fault. He has no appetite to eat, and so fades away day by day. Think of a life where one has no choice but to go every damned day to a place where your body is given treatments that wrack it. Now repeat the next day and the next and the next and on and on.

Hating the work week is not comparable. Sorry, folks. Nor is this easy to explain to a child, even as it is so difficult for an adult to begin to fathom the life changes involved. And yet, what is the choice. So, parents, against every atom in their bodies, take their aching children to a place where more aches, pain, will be inflicted. I admire beyond words the courage of the parents, the determination to follow through and cry later.

Tears are an integral part of life today. I can cry as I watch our country disintegrate, as some actually cheer it on, refusing to see past the trees, to the forest of truth. And I cry when I am told Yitzy is sad and I cannot do anything, nothing, to ameliorate the situation. I cannot take his pain upon me. I have tried and pleaded for that but nope, nothing doing. No toy, no book, no game, can erase that sadness, that bewilderment, the grief that his day for bar mitzvah approaches, yet no party, no public celebration. It will have to wait. We are determined to make it happen and double rejoice at a positive conclusion after 42 weeks of treatment. 

42 weeks!

But we too will not lose hope.

For all that time we ask that you stick by us, with us. Your good intentions, prayers, vibes, whatever, have helped. We know so! Continue to remain with us as we all attempt to -

HEAL THE WORLD.

HEAL YITZY!

Yitzchak Elimelech ben Chana Sarah

May he be granted refuah shelaymah bimheyrah beyameinu. 

May he be granted a timely and complete healing.

May Hashem hear all our voices raised in prayer. 

Amen. Amen.