DIDJA'? DIDJA'? DIDJA'!

 Well, didja'? Did you indeed ever think that we would be in such a mess these days? Did you ever think that after such an amazing century, where we went from horse drawn carriages to rockets and space rides, from Jim Crow laws to .... well, there we have gone the wrong way. But the meaning is clear. We have made such progress in so many fields, stand on the threshold of curing once horrific death sentences of disease and afflictions, of finally tackling universal problems and injustices and then - here we are back at the hitching post.

Apparently, we long for those days of old, the ones we color in Hollywood and Bollywood overtones. The ones we created out of thin air, never thinking through to the end of the truth of those olden, golden days. We forget the dangers, the injustices, the inequities, all the demands crying out for attention, never understanding that the pace of life would increase so rapidly that too many would be left behind, too many problems remaining unaddressed, too many problems of which we never ever had any inkling of existence. 

Confused, challenged, at times giving up, giving in, we too often returned to a good old faithful tactic - we turned backwards, twisting our thoughts, denying the warnings of our souls, rewrote our morals, and well, just look around. Didja' ever? Instead of 'fixing the world' we have actually subjected it to such abuse that we have literally just about sent it down the path to irreversible damage and loss of any possibility of human habitation. 

Turning our backs on what we have achieved, we   harked instead to the voices of those who fear progress, who depend on hatred to fulfill their nightmarish dreams, and indeed, "Lord, what fools, these mortals be". We have indeed earned our just rewards, have we not? Didja' ever think this is where we would be now? Yet here we are. And where do we go from here? Is there even anywhere to go?

 We need not have earned this disaster if we had paid attention to the words of ancient wise voices, those of the Bible, those of Greece and Rome in their glory days, those of world figures who spoke words of wisdom and warning, but deaf we were and deaf we remain. Until it is too late? Could very well be, particularly given the rather odd talent we humans have of inflicting the worst nonreturnable, nonrefundable damages upon our own selves.

Long ago these were the wise words of a leader:

"In his Fire Sermon the Buddha identified three poisons or three fires, the negative qualities of mind that cause all of the world's problems: greed, hatred, and delusion."

The confession of a leader in Florence who convinced others he had a direct channel to the voice of G-d, is eerily reminiscent or foretelling of a confession we should hear from another false leader, this one of our own makings. We do bite off more than we can chew, do we not!? Our learning process seems doomed to contain within a fatal flaw which prevents historical imperatives and their truths to be invisible to our eyes. Hence, these are the leaders we reap.

"I lied.

I am no prophet.

I have not received messages from G-d.

I said these things to get power. 

I lied to you.

...I lied to you all."

So said Savonarola and so should Trump.  

Unfortunately, too many continue to believe these lies and act accordingly. A totally truth denying disaster inviting Project 2025 of the GOP, unhinged, foretells a hastened ending of humanity upon this earth. The Good Lord Above promised we would never again be faced with a flood of His making, but we were free to achieve that all by ourselves. Arrogant and stupid enough to create our own cataclysmic conjunction of existential threats all by our own oh so clever selves. Dismantle every clean air program. Bring back fossil fuels, overheat this world beyond any possible degree of survivability. Fill the pockets of the uberwealthy of the GOP. Didja' ever!!!!!

When tasked with the awful consequences and the truth of the harm of such a proposed enacted Project, G-d help us, the answer was that the 'leadership' of the Party agreed on it. Of course, backed by the Heritage Foundation, that bastion of backwards thinking arrogant creeps who wrap themselves in a flag of false patriotism, but the other, reversible side is colored red for greed and green for money. No room for us there at all. But we will be the ones who are called upon to pay the IOUs to Mother Nature racked up by them. 

The evil wrongdoings are pervasive and add life to ancient hatreds never vanquished. The murderer of 11 Jews in synagogue was sentenced to death. Well-deserved but will be long delayed in implementation. But the hate is not delayed nor allayed. We are warned that this hatred is rampant and virulent in social media, feeding filth to eager open ears and mouths and blood seeking hands.  We are told, chillingly, of that which we already knew, that "it was too simplistic to declare the growth of these trends means there will be more horrific tragedies. But...we should prepare as if there will be more."

 As if? Really? A bit simplistic I agree - and a comfortable foolish softening of what is already here in full power, in all its bloody gore. We can only hope the good people are able to resist the ugly lure of anarchy and lack of reins on behavior and morals. Optimistic? Not at all, merely hopeful? Wishfully thinking so? Time will tell but time has never been on our side - ever. It always ran out on us. A nasty game of Beat the Clock.

In June, 1998, Robert "Evel" Knievel said, "I created the character called Evel Knievel and he sort of got away from me,"

Let the evils in our lives not get away from us. We have too much to do to save this world, and, you know the drill-only together. Only that way.

Together. B'yachad.

Together. Together. Together.

Together we can heal the nation.

HEAL THE WORLD.

HEAL YITZY!

Yitzchak Elimelech ben Chana Sarah

May he be granted refuah shelaymah bimheyrah beyameinu. 

 AMEN. AMEN