Socrates led the way with his Socratic method. That is to ask questions, always questions, for questions lead to other questions and eventually questions do lead to answers, hopefully productive, positive and responsive ones. At the very least, it would force us to think and to rethink and to hopefully move forward. Unfortunately, some questions are not asked. Why? Beats me as at times those questions are not the one elephant in the room, but rather the entire herd and the cousins and extended family are coming right behind them.
Here are a few elephants. Perhaps someone can find some answers so that we can engage in some worthwhile and beneficial culling. Yes, Joe Biden is old. So are many of us. Donald Trump is 77. As one near that bracket, I know there is no difference between 77 and 81. Both are old. Period. However, distinctions remain in other areas. We don't count ourselves out, nor do we allow others to count us out. We all realize that age has brought about a slowdown. We move slower, less fluidly, constrained by aching bones and stubborn muscles. We think or rather respond in slower manner. We take that extra second or two to respond in a responsive and thoughtful manner rather than shout nonsense, or worse, hoping that volume will conceal ignorance and/or untruths. That pause does not mean dementia nor incompetence. It means someone is taking the time to do the right job the right way.
Be that as it may, neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump is the ideal candidate. In fact, they are far from it. However, if we are forced to confront that choice, we must make a choice from what is and not from what we wish it to be. Joe Biden is imperfect. I don't like that wishy washy business re Israel. If one promises to stand with us, then stand with us. Stand firmly alongside and air differences at home, not in public. On the other hand, I do like many of his domestic policies. I do like that he understands that the United States of America is part and parcel of a world of nations. To isolate ourselves is to attempt to turn back the clock. People have tried that before and it does not work out well. I believe he's basically a good man with flaws - as we all have. And now we need to move on to his opponent.
With Donald Trump we are up against a future of totalitarianism in this country. Democracy. Freedom of thought, of speech, even of religion. Gone. The federal government so decried and booed by many of Trump's base who refuse to understand that if he were to win election, Project 2025 would be installed and enacted. The federal government would be everywhere, its fingers in every pie, in every drink, in every breath. Even religion and to wit - two states now rule that the Ten Commandments be in every public schoolroom from top to bottom.
One man is evil with an inner core consisting only of ugliness and darkness. There is no compassion. There is no empathy. One man is well meaning though most definitely capable of errors. However, I have never seen within him any of the evil and sheer nastiness which fills Donald Trump to overflowing. Like it or not, this is the choice we face, and we must choose. We must choose the one who lives in light rather than darkness. We must choose the one who thinks of others as well as himself rather than the one who is consumed only by and with his own concerns and needs.
More elephant questions. Why is Trump never called out for his lies? Why is Trump never called out for his own form of the Parkinsonian spectrum? Why is cognitive testing never demanded of him? Why are everybody's eyes turned only upon Biden? Why and why and why? Aggravates me like the Dickens. Worries me greatly. And Trump's perpetual smirk is nauseating, a display of his belief in his own superiority. The man who would be ruler vs. the man who would be President. The Constitution vs. Project 2025.
Here are some more questions, some more elephants stomping around. Where are we going here in this country? Why and wherefore have we left our brains? Why have we handed over the exercise of our intelligence to those who would lock it up. Keep it far, far away. Never to be returned. Why are we suddenly ignoring the immorality of not only Donald Trump, but also that of the crooked judges of the Supreme Court - Alito and Thomas and Kavanaugh and all them right down the line. Canon who probably has a picture of Trump pasted on her mirror. Any other person charged and convicted of his crimes would already be clad in a lovely orange jumpsuit. Where are the streams of media? Where are we, for that matter!
Never short of questions, we move on to the world. What is going wrong with the world? Has there been some kind of E. M. P. of the brain? Suddenly the people of the world are behaving and reacting as robotons with defective AI. Someone pushes a button, and we all scream. Someone pushes a button, and we march. Someone pushes a button, and we hate. Lies have become the currency of the day.
There is no talking anymore. The only thing we do with our mouth and our brain are to further enmesh ourselves in the stinking fetid swamp of hate and violence. We threaten and demand. We seek violence and we reanimate old tropes which long ago should have been declared illegal immoral and simply dead, dead and buried deep, deep within the ground. Unreachable. Instead, we have defeated ourselves and become our own conquerors. We think of rude and crude chances to hate. We threaten. We demand. But we also demand that there be no consequences. We hurl words of hate and ignorance and do not even understand. from whence these words appeared.
What has happened to the middle? Why have we decided that we must split ourselves with a huge abyss between, a chasm which can never be plumbed nor bridged? What happened to compromise? What is happening with discussion? What has happened to decency and diplomacy? Why have all the people in the world from top to bottom adopted hatred, ugliness and violence as proper pathways to walk through life. Why, as a Jew, am I being asked, demanded, to kindly eliminate myself? ASAP.
Is there any way out of this morass, our perverted self-made cesspool? Is there any way to delve deep within and reconnect with and revive sunken morals and principles? Can we reinvigorate the ability and willingness to talk, to compromise, to rethink, to adjust, to set goals of betterment and righteousness? Or have we lost it all already. Beyond any possibility of return and revival?
Why and why and why. Lots of elephants indeed.
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Yitzy, some world we have down here! Got any suggestions? We could use some, and are in fact, in dire need of such!
You were, are, of such golden life and goodness. So how could you even try to comprehend the nastiness suffusing the world at present?
Much better that you remain our pure golden boy. Always loved, always missed.
Always and forever. Always and forever.
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