IN MY OWN LIFETIME

 In the play The Rothschilds Hal Linden sang that very sad, yet hopeful song. A song of hope and a song of despair. A song of life's achievements against all odds and a song of bitter knowledge of the ease of instantaneous disappearance. It is a song of the eternal truth. No matter how high, how well integrated into society, no matter how long they have lived within that nation, the certainty of it remaining in place is actually a delusion. History has taught us so time and time again throughout the millennia.

We are living in times easily comparable to earlier times of terror time. Times of massive death. A raucous conglomeration of harsh hate fueled voices   echoing the past and threatening the future. A constant flood of maxims of hate and violence. A once again reawakened and revitalized tactic of blaming the victim. Once again Jews are cast as threatening outliers determined to take down society. The very nation which has given so much to the world and continues to do so, is portrayed via horrific verbal and actual grossly frightening portraiture as the foe of civilization. 

Never in my own lifetime did I think I would be rejected by my nation. Always there was no conflict between the parts of me which made up the whole.  Jewish. American. Woman. Contributing member of society. Raised a family with the same attributes. Educator. Friend. Zionist. Never did I ever feel a conflict among these delineating facts.  No cross purposes. Always my identity was comfortable in the resultant mix. And why not?

However, an ugly muck of the past has managed to ooze its way through the cracks in time and found a comfortable niche where it can reside in safety. There it will also nourish itself, fed by the leavings of a sick and troubled society. Increasingly, its stinking corrupted rotting tentacles of hate are breaking through, more and faster.  In direct relationship my shoulders are rising ever closer to my ears. It is a reaction of fear, tension, uncertainty, and confusion. It is in fact. a reaction to reality.

Once I thought that despite very visible aberrations, society was well on the path to a better, finer, world of true civilization. People embraced their creativity. They understood more and more the interconnectivity of humankind. It was understood that we all shared the same fate on the same planet. Yes, there were huge gaps. Yes, there were many deniers. Yes, there were and are many backward thinking people. But yes, there was a fresh pride, a growing optimism. Look how far we had come and how open was the road ahead. 

And then we tanked. In our own lifetime we began to reject the good possible, so close to us. The bright light of the sun and enlightenment turned instead to the darker side of humanity. Why? That is for wiser heads to answer. To parse, understand, explain, and perhaps avoid repetition. Those efforts are being increasingly waged in a world dimmed of light, threatened by ever lower, ever darker layers of clouds. 

In our own lifetime we have seen a rejection of progress and a growth of negativity. New ideas and patterns of thought are deemed harmful. Increasingly we are banning, destroying, rejecting the best of the past even as we resurrect the uglier segments. Once again, we are burning books. Once again, we are having the ironic and so very sad case of creative minds calling for the boycotting of other creatives of the world. In our lifetime we have turned back to the idea of the limitation of rights. In our lifetime we have taken the beauty and the faith of religion and grossly perverted it. In our own lifetime we propose once again to highly restrict all immigration, even legal. The echoing sound of knocking fists and pleading voices of the denied continue to ring loud and clear, even as we remain deaf. All of us must think where would we be, even if we would be, if our ancestors had been denied entry in time of desperate need. Think also of those consigned to be returned to the killing fields of the world because this nation is selfish.

In my own lifetime. In our own lifetime.

A world of sun and hope. 

A world united in humanity.

In my own lifetime.

In all of our own lifetimes.