This morning, if I had the capability of flying off to some other planet, I would do so. There is such a frightening lack of morality, of justice, of compassion, that its very emptiness fills the air. There is, instead, increasing efforts, succeeding too often of late, to restrict humanity, to attack humanity in every aspect. Warnings have failed, hatred has triumphed and here we are, sitting and rotating on our thumbs. We are either wrapped in apathy and a who cares attitude or so mindlessly tethered to lies and nastiness that we hesitate to admit our errors and misconceptions, where and when we have gone and done wrong. - Too embarrassed perhaps?
Instead, we try to bury, excuse and ignore all the danger signals and blindly refuse to understand, to "get" that the new roads we are building are actually old, corrupted, decadent and deteriorated ones, now uncovered, open to the air and infecting and misdirecting all who see, hear, and ignore or are caught up in a mess not of their own making. We have allowed, encouraged and ignored, enabled rogue waves to hit our ship of state.
Evidently, we have too many minds bereft of any cogent thought. Rare moments of sanity are quickly drowned by the oncoming tidal waves of hate and dysfunction. Turn the clock back is the mantra of the day, particularly among the pathetic remnant of a true GOP. AI is touted, embellished and polished, even as more people are understanding its danger, the existential threat its uncontrolled development poses. To our remaining alive and inhabiting this planet. Perhaps one can argue that we have so damaged it already, almost to the point of no return, that we deserve such an end. Still, thoughts of robots controlling all with the intelligence we granted them frightens the dickens out of me. Now the ability to READ the human mind! Next up - the conviction of people guilty of the crime of independent, oppositional thought? Wouldn't DeSantis or similar creep love to lead that charge!
We are at a crossroads of existential decision. We choose the proper fork or we lose it all. We shatter our humanity upon erroneous choice. Espousing the fork of evil and villainy, we imitate in life the villains of literature - the arcs of Shakespearian powerful villains - Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, the daughters of King Lear, the murderous usurping King of Denmark, Richard III. Worse, we emulate mankind's worst specimens - Hitler, Stalin, Putin, Jordan(?), Hawley(?) Greene(?) and their comrades in evil. Bottom line - in red for all. No joy in any Mudville.
On the other hand, we can opt for the perhaps more difficult fork, the one which teaches us, inspires us, endows us with a great understanding and revelation. To know "If you choose to do the right thing, it's a conscience decision at first. Then it becomes second nature.... doing the right thing becomes who you are, like a reflex ... Your actions become your character."
We all face that same choice of fork in the road of life, in one form or another. It is all on us, the individuals, the groups and hopefully society to opt for the initially more difficult choice of fork, but inherently the better, more rewarding and beneficial one. Sydney Harris tells us: "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."
Elie Weisel sums it up, succinctly, with an implicit understanding that to do nothing, to say nothing, is to have actively chosen wrongly. It all comes down to us, to our backs and shoulders. To our minds and moral souls. To our humanity.
"To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all."
"THOSE WHO DO NOT LEARN FROM HISTORY ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT." George Santayana.
It is only with a true engrained, deeply internalized understanding of the precepts above that we have any hope remaining to salvage our earth and our souls, to remember the best of humanity, resurrect that which is lost and rebuild even better than before. That can only be done together.
Together.
Together we can fix this damaged, struggling world of ours. Together we can fix it, now, as we all toil together, for ourselves and for others. Separate we are as nothing. Together - we are mighty and can work wonders. Now, for work is not to be pushed off when need is clear.
Together we can bring home our captives, shut down the aggressor nations of the world, stymie violence and its incitement, clear the governments of corruption and spend our funds elsewhere, with better results. Together we can
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.
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