INTERESTING

This morning's quick perusal of the news, setting aside those which I wish to read more in depth, was quite interesting. It was as if the writers of the day spoke directly to me, after taking a quick but deep dive into my soul. Eerie, but interesting. So much validated my concerns or was applicable to them and yes, full disclosure, I felt good. Nice to know that one is not alone in the dark world of present-day politics and political strands.

Very telling analysis of Russian war policy, frightening, inhumane, yet there it is. A policy followed by countries who hold their everyday little people to be of little to no value, other than to serve as sacrifices for the more shall we say, important people. Those unfortunates who are now sacrificial lambs are the conscripts who could not flee in time or were swept up in raids, or were in prison, in the Russian harsh penal and gulag system, and took a desperate chance to get out and perhaps survive. The Chinese did this in the Korean War, and the Russians used this tactic in the desperate defense of Stalingrad in WWII. Yes, you will say, people do die in war, and someone has to be the first ones in. Yes, but to decide that some are of less worth and coldly consign them to death, sending them in unarmed or pitifully underarmed is to be cold, very cold. I wonder how those responsible sleep at night. 

It is comparable to the Nazis who built their home immediately adjacent to the killing camps, saw the ashes, heard the screams, witnessed brutal acts, and petted their dogs trained to kill Jews and hugged their children. It takes a special personality to do that and apparently there are enough to go around and then some. And isn't that special. Take heart that in America we have a big enough cadre of those willing to fulfill that same role of enforcer and evaluator. So lucky, we are! Manifestly not!

Where do we see that calculated coldness, that downplaying of the importance of people, their humanity, even seeing some as "less than", therefore unworthy of protection by law. Rather the opposite, as laws are made to restrict, demean, devalue certain categories, and the enforcers have no compunction, no hesitation, in shredding families, in deporting and resettling, even to killing and abandonment. Where? Read on.

Welcome to Fascist Florida, so proud to be the first state to fully be entitled to raise that flag of blood. Under the retrogressive policies so proudly initiated by DeSantis, enacted by the puppet legislature, supported by the great unwashed masses yearning to breathe free - to kill, to hate, to maim, to dehumanize - and those educated who should know and do and be better, but conveniently leave their morals at the door. 

Then, not to forget, there are the ones who enable the perpetrators, who stand in silence, in perfect 'ignorance'. “It’s way easier to sit there and pretend you don’t see it or hear it.”  However, it is precisely those who go along to get along, who maintain a policy of best to keep quiet, well, the guilt stains their souls as dark as those who actively take part. Look deep within and see where you belong. It might surprise you, good or bad, but in cases of massive inhumanity there are no bystanders. You are either "fer or agin". No middle ground.

Hence the upset of Poland when the Israeli third place winner at Eurovision made a comment: 

 “real victory was putting Israel on the map, leaving a mark and making my country proud of me. Also, to receive 12 points from Poland after almost the entire Kirel family was murdered there in the Holocaust is a great achievement.” with the response of a Polish legislator:

“Does this statement reflect the level of Holocaust education in Israel? Do young people in Israel think that the Holocaust was caused by Poland, over which a young Israeli citizen can achieve a moral victory after many decades, or what?”                                                               and my agreement with Noa Kirel. No, the Polish people did not start the war and there were many who aided Jews, be it out of morality or being paid. And yes, there were Poles killed in the camps. However, Poles also turned in Jewish neighbors, hunted them for bounty, sold them out to the Nazis, enjoyed the bounty of left behind goods and businesses of former Jewish neighbors, friends, workers, bosses, doctors, lawyers, people!

 And yes, Israeli children learn the truth, harsh and brutal as it might be. It is a matter of defense and understanding. It is a feeling which many survivors or descendants, relatives, people who lost so many, where so many Kapos who brutally enforced the Nazi policies were Poles. When I think of my family on both sides murdered, nearly extinct, and then think, marvel, at where my family is now, those who were not in Europe or who survived Hell, yes, there is a moral Victory, a sense of 'gotcha!' despite your best efforts to do otherwise.

And finally, we return full circle to Florida, a battleground for the soul of America. A state whose governor has ambitions to control this nation. It will be a nation which turns on its heritage, which sells its soul, which goes along to get along. Who censor, ban and burn books, imprison and kill people, those dehumanized lesser beings, and cruelly separate families, neglect and lose children, and deport people without thought or care from one place to another, resourceless, dependent on the humanity of those living at the dump site! 

A GOP US Senator said, "I do not want reality!". Neither do a lot of us! It sucks, quite frankly, too often, too much. Yet there it is and we must deal with it - as it is - if we are to make it what it should be. We have turned our backs on our past, the same past which enabled us to be here, to live here, to prosper here, to be safe here. "Us Immigrants" is how one naturalized immigrant put it. They, we, work hard, build this country. Yes, that is what immigrants do. They pick our fields, package them, stock stores, fix roofs, build businesses, send their kids to college, as our parents and grandparents did, go into polities, become professionals in all arenas, invent, grow tech, enrich our culture, do all that nonimmigrants do - because their ancestors took care of that for them.

It perplexes me why too many of us cannot see the shared humanity. Cannot see the need for more population within the nation. Cannot see the fairness of it all. Cannot see the forest for the trees or the individual trees for the forests. We pull apart rather than pull together. We abandon the necessary benefits and advantages of a togetherness which in turn, allows for development of individuality. The security of togetherness allows for that. Somehow, we are blind to that truth. And togetherness falls by the wayside with the one for one attitude destroying humanity. We are the worse for it - as individuals and as a nation.

Together. Together. Together.

Together. Together. Together.

Only together.

Together.

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.