... modern times, I wonder how modern we have become. Or is it that we have simply repackaged the past many times, taken its worst and reintroduced it as something other than what it actually is, always was, and for what it will always be. Repackaging hate and placing a pretty bow on top does not hide nor disappear the truth that lies beneath. That ugly truth permeates so much of the world, yet we are apparently incapable or unwanting to combat it and defeat it, vanquish it and its havoc for once and for all.
Today the world is revving up for the Olympics. It is the event for which athletes train many. many years all for the sake of a few seconds or a few minutes. We cheer them on. We cry with them. We cry for them. We celebrate their victories and sympathize with their losses. And we watch as fierce competitors turn to each other at the end of the race or event and hug each other, sharing in the efforts which had led up to the moment. That behavior is part of the purpose, the aim, the goal of the Olympics- to demonstrate how competitors can be cooperative and appreciative of each other. Too bad that the ugliness of hate interferes, and the shine of the Olympics is tainted and darkened.
Unfortunately, world politics has insinuated its nasty persona into the Olympics. Not that this is new, for it has always been so. More so during some Olympics than others, as in Munich,1972. Sadly, tragically, national politics devolve upon individual competitors and the ugliness breaks through, dimming the Olympic flame and the integrity of the circles of the Olympics.
This contagious virus,is 'ennobled' by the falsehoods of the haters, of the murderers, of those who would take advantage of the world's amnesia regarding Jews and their history, their oppression and their slaughter and their isolation throughout the millennia. Even those who purportedly are “supporters” of Israel, call themselves our friends, G-d spare us and help us. Indeed, when we have friends like this, who needs enemies? An example? Sure. The statement of a self-declared friend of Israel: "...not just the future of Israel, but the future of American Jews. Not just safety, but their ability to thrive and prosper, as they have in this country is conditional upon one thing and that's a hard meld with Christian nationalism." G-d spare us from such friends.
To share in the glory of the Olympics and the world does not mean, or should not mean, that one must give up one's identity. What it should mean, but too often does not, is the embodiment of the goals of the Olympics, to live and work together, to compete with each other without physical bloody warfare. It is the combined unified efforts of the nations of the world outside of war, the favored exercise of temporary cooperation of nations, only to be refought, inevitably, down the line in a not-so-distant future. Unfortunately, too many use the Olympics as a billboard for hate, in particular issuing their threats to national teams. Totally anathema to the meaning of the Olympics. As usual, directed mainly at the Israeli team.
How quickly the world forgets. It loses sight of the failures of the millennia, as to persecuted, slaughtered in paroxysms of hate and in the name of the church, the mosque and the state. From literally being thrown to the Lions to being burned alive, there is no method that has not been tried and perpetrated upon the Jewish nation. The shock and the horror of October 7 are simply part of this awful ever-present truth. Thousands of terrorists and abetting civilians with only murder and hate in their hearts wreaked bloody havoc as they fell upon the victims.
The world as usual cried crocodile tears for much of October 7. However, by the dawning of October 8th with the fighting ongoing, the world began to turn on Israel, morphing it from victim to oppressor. The more Israel resisted, fought back, and then shifted to offense as part of their defense, the world reverted to its eternal nastiness and turned upon Israel, ignoring or minimizing its anguish, its kidnapped hostages, from a 3-month-old infant to elderly octogenarians. When it became clear that part of defense must be offense, to clean out the poison, the world went berserk.
Oh yes, Israel had the right to defend itself, but not to kill others in defense of that right. Surely talk and cooperation could bring about peace. Well, surely not, for these vicious creatures of Hamas waged war not only upon the dream of peace, but on the dreamers of that peace as well. For such were the residents of the communities, the very communities they attacked. Evidently no good deed goes unpunished, and the world bought into the garbage spewed forth from Hamas, and consistently minimized or totally ignored what was happening within Israel, under attack from all sides. Oh yes. The world sympathized - for all of about 30 seconds.
Back to the Olympics. Athletes have always been held up to be heroes and role models, even as their flaws were there, easily seen. Boys and girls hero worshipped these athletes and to find that some of these athletes have violated, abandoned, their roles is truly sad. It is beautiful when champion athletes of one generation pass advise to the next generation and they in turn pass it to the next in line, for that is what it is supposed to be all about. This is athletics competition at its best. Too bad we do not have enough of this. Winning is a desired goal but so is sharing. So is accepting responsibility, for we, none of us, neither individuals nor nations live in a vacuum. Our space must be shared. Positive goals must be shared. Humanity must be shared. If we do not share, then we will have lost everything. Can we find that which has been lost? Do we even want to? That is a question for the ages.
Increasingly we have set aside personal individual goals, values. and ethics. We have sacrificed all of them to ambition and power. We worship those who wield batons of power, who have climbed those nasty rungs to their deeply desired ambitions. In doing so they have lost the meaning of life. They have lost the challenges and the joys of life granted to us. Sadly, rather than gain by these actions and twisted thoughts we lose. We fall down the ladders. We are crushed by those climbing around and over us. We watch our dreams crumble into dust and then we wonder why and how.
To answer those questions all we need do is look in the mirror. All we need do is look back and take account - of our behavior, of our actions and our statements, our courage and our cowardice. It is not some vague historic pressure which oppresses us. Yes, it is there, but it has been generated by the actions of individuals whose negative devious ambitions or misinterpreted misshapen dreams pull us into an inescapable morass. We create the pressures, not the other way around. It then sweeps so many into its dangerous inescapable currents.
Hence, speaking of all that afflicts the world, all that we allowed to do so, all that we refuse to combat, all that we endorse explicitly or implicitly, by action or neglect - what the hell are we doing? Where are we going? Why are we going there? Why are we using this path? Why can we not see the obvious future and the turns we must make to better the prospects for a better, fairer world?
I came across this statement the other day.
“The best way to protect the future is to create it.” Sounds like a hell of a good idea. Maybe we should try it. We might actually like it. Wouldn't that be a pleasant surprise? If only?
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Hey, Yitzy. Perhaps appealing to the better side of humanity, pushing the truth and the benefits of actually doing the right thing might actually work. Worth a shot, is it not? Perhaps if we had a better world, you would still be with us. If only.
Love you -
Always and forever. Always and forever.
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