ALWAYS AND FOREVER

  There are things, ideas, feelings, in life which are always and forever. Not necessarily the one where it was simply a good day, fun, family, friends, though I do believe in the cumulative value of such days to heart and soul. There are days, though, which stand out as in the first time one meets up close and personal, the new little additions or similar 'firsts' of equal momentum and/or gravity. However, there are other ideas, feelings, which remain inside, part of one's genetic being, in every ion of one's being. 

I believe that days of such joy are integral to my makeup. However, there are other days, other events which scare the dickens out of me and sort of push the other days askew, out of focus, as the lens of concentration hones in on fears, existential in nature, growing at a fast and faster clip, too fast, to ignore or deny. 

Rod Serling used to say, "The truth is out there." We do not have to go to outer space for that truth. Our truth is down here, mired in the fetid, stinking, detritus of humankind, which never seems to fully evaporate, but instead clings to an ugly life, awaiting a moment of ugliness in the world. It leaps through that opening, widening it, and the ugliness increases in flow and force, now front and center again. Again. And again. 

 Momentum grows, triples, quadruples, as these flawed critters join forces, reinforcing each other's ugliness. A new sense of freedom empowers them to vent their joined ugliness and hatred. The worst of humanity, much to our shame that we have not discarded these beliefs, as the filth they are. Nothing and no one seems to be able, or worse, desire to stop them dead in their tracks. Encouraged, they let loose the dogs of war, and the virus of hatred and ugliness infects the entire world, a pandemic where masks and vaccines are useless. 

Truthfully, I do not know, at this point, after our entire history, how and why this persists in existence, even welcomed by too many who buy into its malicious stinking mass. Yet here we are today as it grows, refreshed by ever growing waves of human critters, the worst of Nature gone awry.   

This is difficult to put into words, but I am making the effort. Its gravitas overwhelms me. The voices of hate resound, pick up adherents, and the echoes of the errors of mankind grow in power, deafening the positive that remains, challenged, weaker, needy. We are in a most challenging moment in time, possibly determining our continued existence.

When I first learned about the Holocaust, why some of my friends had no grandparents or aunts or uncles, why there were numbers on their arms, why there was a suitcase with clothes and food under the bed, I was horrified, terrified. I asked my parents why people hated me, us. We did not know them, never had done anything to the. I have come to believe is that there are people who will never stop hating me, will eternally hate me and mine simply for our existence. It irritates them to the point of not simply hypocrisy of the nth degree, but rather more dangerously -and real, folks, real indeed - to homicidal intent. Whether they admit to themselves or not. Keep it secret - or so they think -or blast it to the world at large. HATE is their operative, determining word in their miserable souls.

Last night I watched a movie on Netflix entitled Bird Box in Barcelona. Actually, it mattered not where it took place, and was very much different than the original movie, but quite meaningful rather than entertaining. I recommend you see it, feel its truth.

In it, people must remain blind as they walk through the streets of their lives lest the 'monsters' cause them to see what should not be seen, portrays ugliness and despair as light and beauty. Those who are lacking a blindfold are forced to see the truth, to know that the monsters are not extrinsic but intrinsic, within our very souls. Impossible to accept, they claim to see beauty and truth and then kill themselves, ugly and desperate. They turn on family and friends. They turn on hope, clinging to the lies. It is brutal, horrific. The viewer comes to realize that those monsters are actually simply pieces of detritus that hang around cities, dirt, reflecting the dirt, the garbage, the monsters within us, that we hold true and close, in our minds and lives. How easily all values float away and when the actual truth arrives, we need to remain blind to it, unheeding or the dismay will induce that suicidal behavior. Finally, the main character sees the truth and dies, saving two, in vain as the rescuers engage in the same kind of hateful destructive behavior. 

Will we ever learn? We will deny the truth forever. Look at this list of names, all members of The House of Representatives and three are many more whose names could be added as well, for they too are critters of hate and malice. They are hypocritical, hijacking words of positive intent turning them into words of hate. Progressive is retrogressive, to humanity, certainly to all Jews, wherever one lives. The mantra of open Jew hatred, "All Jews must die" is their mantra, admitted or not. 

Jamaal Bowman   Ilhan Omar   Rashid Tlaib   AOC   Cori Buh   Pramila Jayapal

Sweden okayed the burning of a sacred Toah scroll. Has there not been enough of that already, for millennia? Wrapped around bodies of Jews and burned together, the words and souls rising together. Enough!!! And yet on it goes. Whether the burning took place or not, the point is that Sweden okayed it. The point is that Netherlands made a big deal of making Holocaust denial a crime, yet then turns on a dime to vociferously criticize Israel with scarcely disguised words of ancient tropes of hate.

One is either in or out. One cannot dehumanize, delegitimize, demonize and then claim to be friends. No, it cannot be. 

Will we ever realize the truth? Will we ever put a halt to its ugliness? Will people stop hating me and mine?

Will we ever be safe?

Truthfully, dismally, I am beginning to, no, continuing to think and feel that it is a hopeless case and once again, Jews will be sent to wander, or worse - and we all know the dire extent that hate reaches.

I cannot bring myself to include Yitzy within this despair. But we all know what must be done.

Thank you.

Fight the evil. Be strong in the truth.