IN THERE SOMEWHERE

 The wife of Jack Hanna remarked that though he is increasingly lost within the terrible darkness of Alzheimer's, he is there, inside somewhere. I am not sure how much comfort or truth there is to that statement, but perhaps it might give comfort to the dear and near of the afflicted. However, no euphemisms can explain away the terror at the thought of this miserable end disease, any type of dementia, whatever the cause. The results are the same: the person is lost. 

Does that person have a consciousness of what once was? Apparently, while first falling open victim we need to understand that the dam has been breached, the destructive flood freed to wreak its horrors. What remains are the bits and pieces of a life, with mop-up duties remaining. The comprehension of the victim, knowing he/she is descending into that long dark night, lessens with time, thankfully. The invasion has taken place and we are only now recognizing that fact, with the gems already long gone. Call it what you will, call it neurologically diverse, it is what it is, a permanent irreversible change has taken place. No one benefits from this other than the nursing home owners who fill their beds with the helpless, those careening down a steep hill with the inevitable crash awaiting. The hapless caught up in this tragedy can do nothing but keep the victim comfortable, free of pain, treated in a humane manner, and remember the being that once was and is no more. 

With difficulty and sacrifice, we manage, even as the circles grow within the roiled waters of dementia. However, what do we do with the growing pandemic of national dementia. Nations and their caretakers, the population within, are also increasingly lost as their past history is perverted, their future disassembled, ever farther away from positive possibilities. Be it Fascism, authoritarianism, megalomaniacal leaders, skilled manipulators of society, or frightening terrorizing dispensers of brutality. It results in increasingly demented behavior on a national and international scale. The megalomania of the head of state consumes the ethos, the legal and moral backbone of the nation. Left behind is a manifestly ugly broken scenery, remnants of a 'once upon a time'. Nor can we make it 'comfortable', neither in the short nor long run of it all. This afflicted nation begins a dangerous harmful shamble through life, taking down other nations with it in a growing, seemingly impossible to avert crisis of pandemic catastrophic measure.

However, using the somewhere in there philosophy, we can hope that on a national basis, we can successfully, though not without difficulty, combat, defeat the infection before it blossoms into irreversible life shattering proportions. We must delve into our pasts as a nation, remember the pride we had on its founding, the improvements made over the years.

We must recall and reinstate a time when we wanted, demanded reform of our legislative, executive and judicial personnel. When we rebelled, revolted, at the imposition of laws while legal, were definitely immoral. It was on us to cancel those criminal laws and refresh the air and ethos of a nation. Hitler's laws were illegal, no matter the attempts to disguise that. Slavery was and is immoral and certainly not legal. Neither is human trafficking in whatever form it dons. Corrupt officials, from former should not have been President, or crooked legislators, or immoral justices of every level openly either solicit or receive bribery in many formulations and all decry attempts to right this wrong, claiming immunity via their position. The murderer of his parents and then claiming deserved mercy as he is now an orphan.

A growing international network of far right extremists gathering the reins of power must be halted. Ever growing bodies of laws which legalize hatred and seek to turn back the clock to evil times must be stopped in its track as we remind people of the power for the good that laws can serve. When legal wrongs are revealed, the curtains pulled back and the lies bared for all to see. So slavery was abolished. Women were given the right to vote. Child labor was outlawed. Social safety nets were enacted, as we grew into a better nation.

However, the virus, the causation of dementia on a global scale proved too powerful to fully eliminate. It continued to grow in so many places, inducing despair for its captive audiences. The only positive way to defeat and continue to defeat this virus is education, open, free, complete. Uncensored, with open discussion, ideas allowed entry room and air to breathe. Education which will help children develop critical thinking skills, swift, insightful minds, an ability to discern truth from lies, and a huge capacity for recognizing - and accepting - the humanity of all. Then, and only then can we slog toward victory, as these new citizens work together as responsible adults, with an understanding that we, the inhabitants of this embattled besieged threatened and challenged planet must commit to working with togetherness, denying the ever growing demented thought that we can do it alone, go it alone on this path that will break us all.

Somewhere in there we have the memory of better times, of better leaders, of a caring, non-fractured nation, of a time when we knew we must always strive to improve, to grow as people, as nations, as a unified planet. 

Together we can find those memories, those curative ideas and pathways. 

Together. Only together.

The future is so not a go it alone path. Rather, it  must be walked together. Learn to talk together. Repave, rebuild, expand - together. The strength is generated from within, by the synergy of the many, far more powerful than a sole vice barely heard, drowned out by the cacophony of the universe. Yes, the individual must be bold and inspire others with that shining courage and morality. The power of one + one + one + one is more than four as it joins together, melds, and morphs to form a new, more powerful, louder entity.

Together. Together. Together.

We must act together, in concert, in harmony.

Together - Together we can achieve it all. 

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 he always remain on the road of faith, healing and strength.

May we all walk on that same road.

May Hashem hear all our voices raised in prayer. 

Amen. Amen.