Faith can be defined as trust. It can be defined as reliance. It can be defined as belief. It can be religious, or secular. It can be in oneself, and it can be in others. It can, in fact, be a combination of any and all. What is incumbent upon us is to pick and choose carefully, mighty carefully lest we get tangled up in false and dangerous faiths and loyalties. I have a faith in myself to be true to myself, to not sell out my principles but to remain with them through storms and floods. I have a faith in a tradition of thousands of years of Judaism and the beneficial role it has played in this world, the structure it has given to my life and that of my family. I hold it proudly.
Some might misinterpret or disapprove of how I express or present my faith. However, last time I looked, this was still a free country. though perhaps it is teetering on a ledge where it should not be. In any case, all individuals are free to have a faith of choice and comfort. Faith that harms or demeans another faith is not a true faith but rather a misinterpretation of its words or a purposeful twisting of its contents. Hence, all extreme views claimed as an immutable doctrine of faith are wrong. Period. Yet in full disclosure, there are those who drive me to the brink in this matter, so bestial are they.
There is a difference between Faith and faith. One is real with true meaning. The other is a great big blustery, outward presentation of the currently trendy faith, the one that provides advantages and legs up, the one that demands nothing of Honor, of Justice. of Care. It is a faith of lies and unfortunately, too many advocate for it these days, and most regrettably that includes my two countries - the USA and Israel. Do we adhere to a true and beneficial one or do we loudly espouse it with loud voice and a different presentation on the inside? Or are we quietly, strongly, deeply, immersed in a faith which gives us hope, even in times of woes or troubles.
Within all faiths, by whatever name, by whatever God, by whatever professed tenets, there is good and bad among the worshippers. We are, none of us, perfect and we commit errors, large and small, by accident or on purpose. There is that which is understood properly, and that which is misunderstood. Perhaps on purpose. Too often we choose to engage in nitpicking and fault finding in other religions and forget the faults within our own, mostly due to our own errors of thoughts and/or faulty comprehension of our own. We are all humans.
People of true faith can look into the mirror, see the planks in their eyes, feel the weight of their errors upon their shoulders and know what they must do. Atonement. Do we? Not as often as we should nor to the degree and level it should attain.
And now we return to our current topic, albeit we segued a bit. But still on faith and why this man and his coterie of cowards are dangerous, why our swallowing it, abiding it, encouraging it, is so manifestly misplaced faith, a lack of seeing deep into his tainted and charred soul, battered and sold and resold to the Devil many times over, and see, feel, the truth.
No, I see no true faith within that man. He has faith only in his own nastiness and his apparent expertise to frighten the shit out of cowering cowards. Well, that's his problem. That is their problem. I will not make it my problem. We are not meant to stand quiet when we see evil, when we. see cruelty. We are meant to stand up and say something. Do something. This man wields a power of fear that WE have given him. The same as adherents of Hitler gave to him. WE are at fault in this and upon us will be the consequences of our misplaced trust and poor evaluation of character - or lack thereof.
Indulge me and peruse and understand the following scenarios, ones that are taking place all over this nation and growing in number, exponentially so. Where will you be when this takes place? Will you turn aside? Will you stand tall? Will you defend what is right? Or will you subject yourself to the fear that this man has instilled within this nation, a nation now ruled in the main by felons and perverts, by drunkards and the confused, of monsters of no care for others. Even a convicted felon as president. Who is demented, seeing hallucinations i.e. in the form of a massive giant faucet able to be turned on and off in California and questioning as to why they did not turn on this faucet to quench that horrible, horrible fire!!! Or to be able to make a wish and whoosh! disappear FEMA and exactly who will manage these crises? Him? His greedy followers? His befuddled and confused? Perhaps RFK JR will establish more slave farms - oops - drug addiction farms. Who is the demented President now and who has been such for many years already.
Now the delayed scenario. Will you hear the shouts and desperation of our ancestors, not long ago who cried out for permission to immigrate to a country of hope, a nation of immigrants, a promise to the world from inception?
Father: Son of two illegal immigrants from Mexico who brought him in as a child of four. Despite all the red tape he faced he has managed to support his family as he runs a small bodega and educated his American children. Citizens of this once great nation. Engineer, factory owner and contractor.
Mother.: a child of legal immigrants from Venezuela. She is now a nurse in an oncology unit. Presently existing in an environment of terror. Her family, her husband, her children, have a gun pointed at their heads. Every day is a day is of fear whether he will return. Her beloved husband will be ripped away from them, shoved into a bus, held in a, yes, a concentration camp. Lost to them. A deep loss for them and for us as a nation.
Children: Three of them. All of them born here, citizens by birth as they are the offspring of a citizen. But according to Trump and his followers, they are tainted as their father is one of the dreamers. So, are they citizens? In fact, do they have Native American blood, for according to Trump, the demented, Native Americans are not native Americans!! So, who is? Is anyone? And that includes you!
As with the books where readers can choose their own ending, you pick out the ending that you think realistic, preferred, good for your soul and a ticket to enter the Above. Your soul is being judged. Will you stand aside? Allow them to drag this dreamer who has spent all his life here other than the four years after his birth? Will you deny the contribution he has made to this nation, to the taxes he has paid, the social security taxes he has paid and will not get - but we will. Will you say to his family just get the hell out if you wish to remain an intact family? You also have the genes of crooks and criminals and disease. So go!!
Or can you, will you choose another ending. Allow this family to remain, to continue their beneficial and positive role in society, to accept their citizenship, by birth or by long term positive existence within this nation. By simple humanity. Will you work to better our system of immigration? Will you work to better the incorrect situations we all now face?
Will you stand there as I am dragged away? Will you look away from the concentration camps? Renewed right here in good old USA. Will you dare to take in someone to hide? Will you be afraid of the consequences that already are being spouted as in the threat "if someone disobeys or enables an immigrant to stay and so on and so on and so on.
All of us out there, all our ancestors at some time, somewhere, someplace, somehow all faced discrimination. We all faced times of terrible bloodshed. We all were trampled beneath the feet of those who ruled us. Those self-selected and elected elites with no faith other than in their own superiority. Are you going to join the enemies of your people? Are you going to become the violator rather than the violated?
The choice is yours; the conscience is yours. The lessons from history learned or not, spurned or not, are yours. The faith is yours. I know mine. I am comfortable in mine, but I do not and will not force it upon anybody else. Are you willing to do so? I hope not.
For the many morrows to come....
For the sake of us all ....
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