Saturday night we attended a fun show wherein the music of the Beatles and the 60's were featured. The band was personable and the audience responsive. Despite a few songs for which the range was not there, they should be invited back. It was truly sweet to see and hear an entire theater of gray heads singing full voice, the refrains of familiar songs of youth, The Yellow Submarine and Sweet Caroline, complete with fist pumps and loud voices, among them. While fun, it also was thought provoking, especially when 2 Vietnam songs were sung and Vietnam vets were asked to stand and receive the welcome and appreciation wrongfully, shamefully, denied them upon their return home.
The contrast of the times, then, now, the topics which separated a nation - all echoing and reflecting each other, even as there were differences outstanding. I am sure that among the audience there were those who had protested, peacefully or otherwise, who perhaps had disrespected the returning soldiers, mere boys doing their duty when called to service. Yet that night, we were all one. Sharp, divisive issues, powerful emotions, yet unseen Saturday night. I, myself, looked upon these men and women standing up and wondered, marveled actually, that they had survived a horrid war, and built a life for themselves. I still can recall, even feel, breath returning to us, a powerful emotion of relief as the risk of draft was aged out.
And I wondered. Were the divisions then as dangerous as they are today? As powerful as they were, as shocking as they were, as soldiers shot at fellow citizens, both sides so young, the battling at the 1968 Democratic Convention, the raw emotions, a nation confused, a disillusioned generation seemingly denying any connection to a standard path, turning on, drifting into drug hazes and lifestyles not conducive to a future as once imagined. Despite all, we healed, and that anomic generation grew up and became us. Not too bad, but - we are also the generation which has turned into boosters of more division within this nation. This current division is far more toxic and corrosive, as difficult as that is to imagine. But we do not have to imagine, do we, as it is horrifyingly, frighteningly real.
There is a return to anomie, those wishing no government, no governing at all, unless it is by their rules. Many of the suggested, proffered set of rules emerge from radicalized individuals and groups originating from both sides of the spectrum, even as that spectrum grows ever longer in extremes. Dissolution of the federal government. The nation. The concept of America, of American. All power to the states, the end of the UNITED States. Coalitions of states calling for secession and then what? Another Civil War eclipsing the first in blood spilled, in more brother against brother than ever, in chasms never able to be bridged. Ever. Intractable statements of the ilk of "You will see it my way, or to Hell with you!" Unthinkable, yet even so, I definitely feel, no, know, that it has already gone quite the distance along that awful path.
This has become a contagious disease throughout the world. To think that authoritarian pseudo leaders are rising once again. To think, to know, that we have an indicted criminal, a morally depraved demented creature running for President. The deluded and evil followers. The viciousness of his i language and plans, cast out for all to see and hear -and yet, there he is.
JewHatred has resurfaced, become quite the approved fashion, even more open with plans to eliminate the Jewish people from the face of this planet, never to return. Isolation, dehumanization, boycotts, violence, co-opting the unknowing, the uninformed and misinformed, presenting foolish dumb as the day is long Jews to the world as justification of their bloody cause. The heights of hate, of violence, a nasty persistence, refusal, to give up their campaigns on campus, in the business world, the athletic arena, to cast Jews out from wherever they are to be found, their advocates along with them.
Even as they whine re islamophobia, actually not very much around, certainly not seen in the vast numbers of marchers wallowing in hate and rabid antisemitism. Certainly not to be seen in their ecstasy and joy upon hearing of an attack against Jews wherever and whenever, the worse the better, gleefully tossing candy to the children. Even as they vow more violence, always planning how they can wreak more evil upon this earth. Even as they rejoice in the animalistic attack of Oct7, the consequences, the hostages, the brutality, and try to disappear it or lay it off on the Israelis, going so far as to accuse them of perpetrating of the very attack!!!
So yes, the army returned the favor, did and will continue to do what they must to prevent any attempts to repeat, and yes, exact revenge, justice, for that is what must be done, for wherever and whatever it takes, the job will be completed. Evil cannot go unpunished. Justice will be meted out to all who played any role or part, complicit or implicit. And make known to the world the truth of the invasion, the civilian participation, and the planned building in and under civilian structures.
It is also time for the peoples of the world to understand what they have wrought with cooperation in creating, nurturing with poison spoon-fed via mis and dis information, swallowed whole. It is happening there and everywhere, including in our homes, our streets and backyards, NIMBY not effective at all. Battles we had long thought won decades ago, now fading, shredded, deteriorating, needing a return to the battlefields. Here and in the world in general, every country pulls away, reneges on its shame and false regret at their silence re the Holocaust and all else from time immemorial. Even as the blatant offenses of other countries, within their own country, are ignored, the world quite pleased to concentrate its venom on Israel and their own homegrown Jews.
To hell with Sudan, Ethiopia, raids for slaves, butchery of ethnics, the Uighurs, Putin and his dreams of an imperial Russia, the threats of China, Iran, the Houthi, Islamic terrorism, Trump for who needs that when we can jolly well sate our lust for blood and cruelty on the convenient Jews. Jolly good! Tally Ho!
Criminal, incompetent, greedy, venial, amoral, immoral demented so-called leaders along with their demented or deluded followers, legislators who have lost sight of their roles and duties, greedy for money and power, corrupt systems of justice, even in the highest courts of the land, the reek of it growing stronger every day, with no end in sight.
No hope for rescue from moderates as they have resigned, taken their marbles and gone home, out of the war, leaving us alone on that battlefield. Are we capable of the energy, the will power, the resistance necessary if we are to gain a victory on that battlefield? It will be hard, bloody, challenging and frightening. But that determination, that good old American grit is necessary if we are to pull our democracy away from the crumbling ridge. That battle begins with denial of office to Trump and his cowardly politicians who cower before him.
We will need to pull together, to scab over the wounds of today as we scabbed over the wounds of Vietnam. Can we look ahead fifty years and see a similar audience to that of Saturday night, see a nation together? I fear that vision will never be. Perhaps our chasms are too wide, too deep, the bridges too rotten and no expert builders around. Not optimistic at all, and quite frankly, I will admit I am terrified of what is so nearby.
The time has come to take a stand, to make a choice. Lord help us if we make the wrong one.
Let us all choose to ride again in the Yellow Submarine as we shout full voice "so good, so good, so good.
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Yitzy, my sweet, golden, gentle boy, I do not know what to say to you, so embarrassed at the behavior of my peers, shamed by their attitudes and immersion in hate. Perhaps it is you and the other young innocent souls who must take up the battle with us. Help the world make it through so they can do better. Help convince the One Above to stand with the righteous or those striving to get closer to that goal.
You are so missed, so beloved.
Always and forever. Always and forever.
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