What the hell has happened? Well, for one thing, I was greatly shocked when the most recent column written by Thomas Friedman actually struck home. (I never would have bet on that ever happening.) Basically, borrowing some adages, America is between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, the Rock and the hard place, a lose-lose situation. Friedman compares Trump and Biden, their obvious deficiencies, which, in a saner world would have precluded them from their current situation, running for the office of President of the United States. “Just because we managed to barely survive the Trump stress test to our constitutional order once, does not mean our democracy can survive another four Trump years ... especially if we combine the self-induced stress levels from a second Trump term with the boiling external stresses already building up around us. That would indeed be playing Russian roulette again, only this time with a fully loaded pistol. That's a game only the Devil himself would design.”
(I believe the devil is already here.) He continues:
"If Biden were to win, we'll all need to pray that he can get out of bed every day to carry out his agenda as well as he did in the past. If Trump were to win, we'd all need to pray that he stays in bed all day so that he can't carry out his impulsive agenda which seems driven first and foremost by which side of the bed he gets out of."
The rather troubling conclusion is that " Biden and Trump are both unfit to be president. One is a danger to the nation."
Such is the ugly choice we must make. We must think carefully before we push that button or X that box. Yes, it is lose - lose, but from one lose we can return, from the other grave doubts indeed. One side is rife with corruption, with judges who do not know justice, and legislators, infected with the virus of Trump Derangement Syndrome who swear fealty to their leader rather than to their nation.
Not since time immemorial has the world been so wrecked by reality induced cramps. Nations roil within even as, at the same time, they are engaged in the similar spasms outside their borders. Rather than peace, we have little and not so little wars round the world. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands dying. Bu the bloodshed continues.
The other. day my favorite Pepper... and Salt cartoon presented a confused man saying: “Sometimes I feel like Stone Age guy in Bronze Age world.” I believe that is what we are all feeling. In time and space, out of sync with the reigning philosophies of the time, confused as to how we got here and how the hell we get out of here. If there is even a way to get out of here. The Pollyannish side of me, always hoping that things will turn out to be best for all appears to be losing the battle against my pessimistic side, my Cassandra side, seeing only danger ahead.
My American persona feels unwanted. For the first time ever, as I watched the Capitol Fourth, the worst I have ever seen, I felt no tug at my heart. No pride. No sense of belonging. the music jangled, annoying. I felt counted out. I hate that feeling. I hate losing my country, but I believe my country lost me first.
In my persona as a Jewish woman in a troubled and challenged world, the pessimism is overwhelming at times. Jews attacked on the streets. Spit at. Threatened. Cursed. Prevented from entering their synagogue for an event within. Harassed at work and play, in their homes, Killed. Egregious JewHatred always conflated with an Islamophobia more apparent in its invisibility and non-appearance than in actual occurrence. Chants inciting violence come from the mouths of Jew Haters and not from the assaulted. However, open. obvious statements of hate, racial hate, religious hate, hatred that has any connection to being a Jew, an Israeli, the nation of Israel, the idea of Zionism are tolerated, even celebrated. Right there in your face slapping you upside and downside the head. And so well ignored or downplayed. Hard times.
Another well-known columnist. John Ondrasik, wrote a column entitled "America's Invisible Hostage Crisis". He wrote of times when Americans were held hostage, where the government worked diligently to free them by diplomacy or action, whatever was necessary. When an American was killed or wounded, all went ballistic. As it should be, for a nation must protect its citizens.
Why is it then, that American citizens waiting. deserving of the protection of their government, are ignored, set aside, and await their rescue in vain. Left not hanging but withering, subject. to violence. During the horror of October 7, 8 American citizens were taken hostage. 3 are now presumed to be dead. The remaining 5, consigned to inevitable death, a terrible one, and the nation does nothing. Americans were murdered at Nova, but silence from America and all affected nations. Jewish captives? Feh! Unseen by an American representative or an IRC employee. Merely Jews. As Evan Gershkovich remains for over a year in a brutal prison in Russia, yet another Jew ignored by his government, as was Daniel Pearl, another Jew kidnapped and murdered. Silence reigns, a deadly silence now for these Jewish victims of terrorism.
America does not just have a hostage crisis. It has a conscience crisis. It has a moral crisis. Once a role model for the world, a refuge for the "huddled masses" yearning for freedom and hope - no longer. We have abdicated our ethos and ethics. Hope drains from within me It leaks, even as I try to stem those leeks, it appears to be hopeless. Is there a place for Jews in this world in the future? Will there be room for a Jewish nation? Will there be room for Jewish people in all the countries of the world? Answers unknown.
I wish I had the answers I wish I could read poems or tarot cards or hear a message from a crystal ball or get sent a message from the deep beyond telling me not to worry, to be reassured. Things will improve. Things will be better. People will come back to their senses. America will welcome once again its Jewish citizens, even as it allows them to remain a proud and open Jew and not force them to renounce their own Jewishness. I listen hard, very hard. I seek. and do not find.
The only pathway out is to somehow bring us to our senses. All of us, from every aspect and facet of life. Somehow an impossible task must be achieved. We must find a common element, a common concern shared by each and every nation, by each and every religion, by each and every ethnicity. Important enough to cause us to push aside the differences and work together. If we continue to remain selfish and violent, well, there's nothing to write home about. Nothing. at all.
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OK, Yitzy, you would see how ugly this situation is. You would not have understood this. But please know, though we all miss you so, the plans for the giving of the Torah to the school, for the naming of the new campus, the Yitzy Sutofsky campus, are well in place Many people will be coming together to speak of you, of their love and admiration of you. Know that your entire family will be there. And always you are in our thoughts and wrapped in our love.
Always and forever. Always and forever.
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