FASHIONS OF THE DAY

  There are so many fashion demands on anyone out there. An African might be dressing in traditional clothing and vary greatly from a member of another tribe. The same goes for so many countries, particularly where populations are heavily mixed, with members coming or originating from separate, disparate cultures. Even here in America, one's dress often signifies one's association with a group or two. A traditional Amish dresses in one way, yet varies within Sects. The same with Mennonites. Or varied sects of members of the Jewish faith. The same goes for the youth of the day. Just think hippies, Goth, grunge, etc. As one grows, one changes, as do the clothes. Just go to your closet and find the remnants of the stages of your life. Even the clothing of a woman, in the before, now and wishful categories, change with the years and experiences undergone.

The question then is - does clothing truly make the person? Do we behave differently as we change manner of dress or not? Personally, I believe we do. Casual dress sets us free from some constrictions that more formal dress imposes upon us. Good and bad, but certainly significant, differing in impact and dress within varied societies. What we must remember though is that old, but telling adage: Wolves dressed in sheep's clothing.

See, we must look deeper into the minds and mores of clothed people. We must imagine them as within, dressed accordingly, as befits their inner beliefs. The red MAGA hats, the black clothing of protest groups, the angry slogans that accompany them, as part and parcel of expression. Or the sane looking people in everyday clothing, their winter jackets closed tightly around them, who stormed our Capitol and stood as the first armed rebels in this country for lo these many a year.

But what of those who wear one set of signs and belonging but speak another tongue, one meshing with almost completely diametrically opposed groups? What do we do, how do we recognize the changes that people have gone within, or even without, as they bow to the various "fashions" of the day politically, socially, religiously. As they spout yet more of the same drivel - just change the names they now supposedly espouse even as they desert long time allies and friends, marching to the drum of others, the popular other fashion of the day; be hypocritical, hypercritical, as long as it draws the powers that be to your side.

The frightening part is that while people change clothing to match the day, these changes are lifechanging for some. Even as the 'changed' people deny it, deny the facts, the facts create their own reality and the harm is done, ongoing, given a new lease on life when it should have been long ago buried, deep and irretrievable. But we humans tend to hold on to dark trends and thoughts, irrational feelings and philosophies, particularly when they give us comfort, false as that comfort might be, in times of great uncertainty and danger. Particularly when these strange thoughts are revived and renewed by powerful voices within the community. Their espousal of these dark trends leads to the acceptance and even rabid support of others.

Anti - Semitism. An ugly head that insists on eternal life, even if outer expression of it becomes unfashionable for a while, a hypocritical while, for there it remains growing steadily in fertile, fetid soil, implanted there by either ignorance or political experience but always with a tragic result. The same, actually, for all prejudices, always waiting to tear a country apart. Look at Sarajevo. Look at the society at large in Israel where so many, Arabs Jews, Druze, Christians, all, work together as in hospitals, treating the thousands wounded by the shells of the enemy, be they of one ethnicity or religion or another. Even as outside the doors the horror ranges, within, there is a harmony and a complete and whole society. All wear the dress of the hospital. Does that impose and inform them of the required behavior for that fashion, for that clothing? Perhaps. Seems logical. Does that harmony within  follow them outside? Perhaps. Makes sense.

And now for the false clothing worn by anti-Semites. Anti Zionism is anti Semitism. It is merely a differing layer of clothing which reeks of the same rot. How to tell? These are the same people who sniff at the Jewish family moving into their enclave. The same ones who make sotto voce comments re 'jewing' someone down, or that is "what they always do", or they are too much in control in -----fill in the blank as to your opinion, but there are too many who espouse these thoughts and even act on them. They are the same people who go further, act in violence, as they chase Jewish people down in the streets, deface Jewish institutions, kidnap and kill Jews, cut them no slack anywhere, and deflect the hatred of Jews to the category of anti Zionism, all to gain the wholehearted support of society. 

How else does one explain the frightening burgeoning of acts of anti Semitism all around the world. It amazes me how powerful we are supposed to be, this minority wherever they live, a minority whose need, whose existential need, whose right, inheritance and tradition, written within a book that the world supposedly espouses and follows, yet refused by so many, denied, washed with the blood of Jews through the Ages.

Nope. Fashions of the day are not harmless and give many clues as to the standing and level of society. Where are their values? How do they do they indeed, uphold and support these values, pass them on to the next generation. Does their clothing, within and without support one view or another, expose hypocrisy or truth? 

Where is the world in this Project Runway of life? I think it is in not such a god place, with the runaway rotten to its core, with the mold eating away at its underpinnings, with people overwhelmed by the odor, the rot, the supposed benefits of the oncoming ugly fashions.

So you decide what fashion you espouse. Do so in all honesty. Lies do not hold up too well in the long run, do they? Even as they leave havoc behind them, there is no future in them either. Folks, we have got to do better, for this hatred of others, this increasing tendency to extremes, the use and approval of violence, these lies denying the truth, will only harm us - unto death and tragedy, for hatred knows no bounds. Remember that, for they will come for you as well when they run out of others. Hatred needs to feed on something and all of us are eligible to be that something.

CAN IT BE?

  Yesterday I had a serious talk with my daughter re the current situation, not only in Israel, or here in the USA, but around the world, the resonating of it through the very bone marrow of every Jew within this world, whether they are aware or believe it or not. It is history repeating itself on a massive scale and frankly, I am more frightened for survival than ever before. So deep is the terror, the risk to survival.

Books, treatises, rants, fake accusations, threats, pogroms, bias, rules and regulations limiting Jewish rights as regular citizens and on and on. Right up to and including death as a recognized and approved technique of dealing with a country's Jewish population and then the world's population of such 'sub-humans'- for so they have been deemed. The frantic attempts to deny this, to deny the reality, the probability rather than the possibility, are for naught, for the truth is evident, right out there for all to see. 

But, as I spoke with her, I explained how it is no longer almost an intellectual discussion: can it be, again, despite all the sloganeering that it will "never again" happen. Well, it can, and it is, already begun. Where, you ask? Well, fly over all the countries of the world. See the asterisks in space denoting all the countries where anti Semitic acts, unto murder and torture have taken place. Then note the numbers over the Arabic and/or Moslem countries, so many, and that is fine, if they were allowing freedom within their countries - but they are not. Now notice that tiny blip of color between Asia and Africa. Yes, that one, that tiny, narrow, endangered country, the only one with a Jewish spine, where all are welcome, where Arabs supposedly under  apartheid rules walk the streets, buy, work everywhere, go to school, live successfully and in peace -if that is what they want.

Now look at the flashes over the country, so many of them, most exploding in the air. Those are rockets, aimed clearly at civilian areas, but luckily, Israel has the Iron Dome, wherein these rockets are mostly intercepted; thus the ones that get through can do limited damage to life and property. But make no mistake about it. Were these rockets to get through, the toll in Israeli lives would be horrendous, unacceptable, but not to the world. Apparently then there might, and I stress might, be proportionate damage? Maybe, for since when has the amount of Jewish blood spilt ever been enough to satisfy the haters and their blood lust, or to get the apathetic to move, to care, to act? The answer is - never; for the most part. Those who did care were the exception, the rare ones, so few.

So what does the world want? That we Jews should go quietly, accept our fate, exhibit our bravery as we walk to the chambers, the killing places, the common graves of Nature, already ready and waiting, and stand there? Should we comfort our young and elderly as we await death, trying to give them ease in their last moments before a violent death? Should we accept the restrictions, ever growing, ever more unlivable, that are placed upon us? Should we accept our untermensch status uncomplainingly, and accept the strictures of this barbaric world placed upon us as we place family above individual survival? Do we walk through a barbaric life singing songs of defiance, even as we fall down dead? What does the world want? Will they be satisfied if we gave a specified number of Israelis or other nationality Jews, every day, to die so 'proportion' can be had? What is the level to be named? Why and why and why is the world like this, for all eternity it seems.

So, yes, I told my daughter, I am frightened. Not so much for me, but for your generation, for the grandchildren and the great grandchildren. Then I stopped. She asked if I thought the situation would improve by then, and my answer was , "No, I simply think there will be no more "Jewish problem" after that to worry about, for we will finally be destroyed, a memory that will fade in time to nothingness". Perhaps G-d will finally desert His people, aiming to restart the world. 

Wherefore has it become okay to kill all Jewish Israelis? When has it become wrong for Israel to defend itself and its citizens, even as they attempt the impossible- to destroy the tunnels of terror, the weapons, the rocket launchers, the stock of arms and ammunition hidden there, all aimed at the Jewish state - trying as best as possible to limit civilian casualties even as the terrorists of Hamas use human shields as their picture to present to the world. The accepting world. The unthinking world. Or perhaps it is the grateful world which loves to see the Jews getting their 'just desserts"! Why and wherefore is Israel to institute a ceasefire of unilateral imposition, then what stand there in  silence as the rockets land, as the casualties mount, as the blood turns the streets red? Are they not allowed to defend themselves? Is the world order to turn over only on the heads and bodies of Jews, of Israel, anywhere they live? Is it to be open season all year, all the time?

Can it be? Can it really be again? No, say the future members of the Judenrat. No, say the unthinking fools of J Street. No, cry out the idiots of Jewish Voices for Peace, the group that sees peace in the elimination of themselves, indeed all Jews, and especially the State of Israel. Perhaps, they inanely think, that they will be accepted, finally, as full and loyal citizens of their respective countries if the State of Israel did not exist? Foolishly dangerous thinking. There are always fools, dangerous fools, who are willing to sell out their people for some reward, some sign of pleasure from those who control their lives, their masters! There are always the turncoats.

Can it be? Oh, yes, it can. Sadly, unfortunately, murderously so. I pray not. I pray that there are enough brave and honest souls out there who will come to their senses, see the truth of it all. I pray that G-d remember His promise, His unending capacity for forgiveness no matter how egregious the offense -or offenses, in plural. In great plurality! But can it be? You think on that, honestly, deeply and then answer. Can it be? Will it be? Do you want it to be?

DEAFENING

  The silence is deafening. Or no, it is not, as the world shouts out re proportionate deaths and damage. The world demands 'justice'. The world forgets who always and forever stood and stands at the head, the front lines, the first lines, in all marches, all demonstrations for equality, for justice, for the rights of all. And that is great, no complaints against that. No complaints either at the contributions that Jews have made and continue to make to the world and for a brief recap of that, just read Mark Twain's comments on that issue. 

But I am in error. The world does complain. We are both capitalists and communists or whatever name is given to foes of capitalism. We are scoffers at religion, even as we persist in keeping our religion alive and well for lo these many a millennia. We are blamed for too much influence in the media, in the film world, in banking, in politics and government, in finance, in just about any area one can mention. As for lawyers, hear the bigots suddenly scream for a Jew lawyer! No, there is no silence there.

So where is the silence? It is there when for years, for decades the world ignored the slaughter of civilians in Israel. Families were butchered. Children were beaten to death with stones. Terrorists and terrorism claimed the lives of thousands and wounded many more, maimed for life. And the world stood still and the world stood silent. Or even subsidized the terrorists.

Why the shock? Actually, no shock, for did they not stand silent at the genocide of Jews under Hitler, made so much easier with the collaboration of members of the affected countries. With the refusal of the Allies to bomb the train tracks, a simple thing that could have saved the lives of over half a million Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz in 1944, along with those in the camps already. But silence was much better, for the Germans were apparently doing a public service in this area. The world ignored Jan Karski and his proof early on. They ignored the proof smuggled out at great risk and danger. They buried stories, if there were any, deep within the pages of the paper in tiny comments and paragraphs.

And the world stood silent, deafeningly so when returnees to their destroyed homes were shot at, stabbed, tortured and killed, chased out once again, cursed for surviving, as they stymied the desires of much of the world. The same world that called itself based on Judeo-Christian values, the same world that read the same Bible, the same world that worshipped a Jewish carpenter, the same world that ignored, or even helped, stirred up the anti Semitism, in church sermons, in all areas where demonizing worked just fine.

And the world stood still as ragged, crisis ridden survivors went to the land which was theirs from time immemorial, where their presence had lasted throughout the millennia, where they lived in peace with their neighbors. But the world stood still when the nabobs of Syria stirred up the Arab peasants there, lest they realize what they could and should have done in their lives, on the property they rented from these nabobs. And so Jews died again. No, they were slaughtered again. The 1929 Hebron massacre. The slaughter that took place along the road to Jerusalem and in the Old City. The guilt of the British as they confiscated weapons from the Jews and the Haganah, but armed the Arabs, looked away from their murdering rampages. And the world stood silent.

The world stood silent in 1948 as the UN approved Sate of Israel came into being, where Ben-Gurion welcomed all, specifying Arabs by name and as the Arab nations attacked. With a miracle or two or thousand, Israel defied the silence, did not go away either quietly nor  noisily. But the world remained silent as the terrorism and the murders continued, as the country was blockaded, as the nations of the world meekly recalled their ships and left Israel alone, to die.

But we Jews are stubborn people. Very much so and we will not die to satisfy the bloodthirsty whims of others. So we triumphed in 1967 and survived, barely, in 1973 when we were attacked once again, where the enemies were so close to the center of Israel, where thousands of our soldiers died those captured tortured, murdered. But the world stood still, until, miraculously we began to turn the tide and thanks to Nixon, who sent over arms. The world stood in silence when we were losing, but then demanded a ceasefire when the Egyptian army was surrounded and the tide had turned.

Now we are called into the woodshed for yet another spanking, another demonstration of how ornery we Jews are. Jews not Israeli are called out for "dual loyalty", are smacked again by that vicious canard of blood libel. We are warned that our deaths and woundings are not proportionate.  Did someone make an algorithm on death. Are we to play the game of handicapping as in golf and horseracing? Ae we to take our citizens and stand them under incoming rockets so the "score' can be evened out? "So, guys, move over three feet to the left. Yup. All the better to be hit by the rocket! It will be quick. The world might be happy then."

Yes, there is civilian damage but that is because  Hamas and Islamic Jihad build their terrorist infrastructure within and under the civilian buildings, knowing the world will scream and shout as these buildings collapse as Israel bombs the war related areas. The world ignores the fact that Israel knocks, calls, sends leaflets to warn of incoming rockets but the world ignores that.

The world stands in silence as they forget the flattening of London in the Blitz, the destruction of Dresden and the bombing of the entire city of Berlin. All in the name of victory and so it is. So it should not be as we should have evolved beyond this need to fight each other. But we have not and there is no proportionality, no measuring of it for that. No, for there is only a decisive victory and a true and blessed silence. This is what Israel has been denied. Even as Arab citizens and non citizens, are senior diplomats, judges, members of the civil service, students at all universities. They are in the entire pharmacy industry, heavily into all hospitals, have successful stores, shop alongside Jewish citizens, serve in the army where they reach high ranks.

There is no apartheid here. There is only a hope to live. To have a silence which is not deafeningly pro death to Jew. A silence that will stifle the bloody threat of "From the river to the sea" as they appropriate all the land in-between as Arab, as Palestinian, a nation which has been invented in the late nineteenth and twentieth century. A people that actually already has a 'Palestinian' land - called Jordan, a country which did not exist until the late 1940's.

But the silence is deafening. When will the world speak out for the right, for the just, for the truth? When will they speak out about the 800 Rohingya killed or the Myanmar slaughters, or the slaughter and bombings of Hazara children, preferably girls. Or the constant invasions of Russia to snip off pieces of land from their neighboring countries Or the Uighurs? Or South American countries which are in a state of havoc. The terrorist attacks on Jews all over the world. Or anywhere there is violence. But no, the world is silent, focusing only on this area of the world. Now one and all must ask themselves  - Am I anti Semitic? Do I detest the Jews? Do I think it a good idea to rid the world of them or at least take way their country, let them shift for themselves once again in countries still rife with bloody anti Semitism?

What is the truth here? I apologize to those who stand with the Jews, who do not understand this hatred, who oppose it, who took and take action to get out the truth. But the truth at this point is that it is almost a hopeless situation, for the world enjoys its silence, its hypocrisy, and will only cry and shed crocodile tears if and when the country of Israel is destroyed once again. 

But know the truth. We have survived all the enemies, all the attempts to wipe us off the face of the earth and we will survive this. We have reestablished the state many times, be it in kingdom form or parliament format. 

"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?....When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of G-d shouted for joy?" (Job, 38: 4-7)

We are all the sons of G-d and we have spoken so throughout the millennia, always denied, always the enemy. But remember -

Am Yisroel Chai!!! The people of Israel live.

MEMENTO MORI

  Remember your death. How appropriate an article was the one I read yesterday in the paper. On a day when around the world there are mass killings going on, how appropriate. How much more befitting could it be than if we were to remember and keep in mind the deaths of so many and our own impending death, for from the moment of our birth, we begin the dual process of both living and dying. You do not get out of this world without this tandem two.

Most religions and ethical movements remind us that we should live and behave with our possibility of death always in mind. Some stress the worldly behavior as in "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die." Other more ethical ones, state, "Where am I headed and where do I want to end up?" Some version of that question and its implications is found in just about every religion in the world. The answers vary, as we well know.

Death has been more and more on my mind. No, not desperation or depression, but simply a realization and acceptance of the meaning of the ever more rapid turning of the calendar pages. In June, one more leaf turns and I suddenly become a year older. What does that mean? How am I affected in my thinking and behavior? Can I even define that difference, if there is even one to be defined? Is there a day when I am to think that there are no more new topics for me, no more queries and investigations into new ideas? What then do I think re my new hobby of wood working which has given me such joy, an extension almost, on life?

And no matter how we strive, between diet, exercise, new habits of daily life, the body will eternally and inevitably degrade and death will be upon us. How will we meet that inevitability? How will we approach the end of our days? Will we suddenly and radically change or will we remain the same? Will we contact people we wronged or who wronged us, close the file or do we ignore it all and move forward as much as we can?

I have no answers that befit all; nor do I have the right to impose my thinking in this area on others. We each, individually, must do as we feel right, as we must by our inner urgings and perhaps, the pricking of our individual consciences.

The question of death impacts us within the world as well. It seems that there has never been a time in the history of mankind where there has not been any kind of conflict, many massive, drawing in hundreds of thousands of people into its hungry maw. And it seems, that this situation, this condition, continues right till today and certainly into the foreseeable future.

One area of particular concern to me and so many others is the conflict in the Middle East. Once again the rockets and projectiles of war are flying through the air with their goal of death and damage. Once again the world seems to focus on this inappropriate hypocritical 'equivalency' of death and dying. Why are  there an x number of dead and wounded on one side and no matching figure on the other? Is that fair is the implied question. Really? 

Since when has conflict been concerned with equivalency. One side must defeat the other and that means that more damage and death will impact that losing side. Do the USA and other countries not count and boast of their 'body counts' of the enemy? Does slaughter  and mistreatment of so many Uighurs, Rohingya, Hazara, protesters in Myanmar, and on and on not go on, not continue and where is the rage, the oh so righteous indignation of the countries and the leaders of the world?

Where? Focused on that one little country so narrow that one can cross it up of down in a matter of a few hours. It is the one country where Jews are welcomed and as the world turns, certainly that appears to be more of a necessity, an existential necessity, than ever. Jews must die is the seeming motto of the world, left or right. More must die to counterbalance the dead Arabs on the other. Until that happens, evidently Israel must stop defending itself and its very existence.

"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." The chant of the Palestinians as they demand a new reality of no Israel anywhere in the world, preferably, no Jews either. The desire of anti Semites throughout history. No different here, no matter the excuses made up. Jews are attacked all over, as the war extends into the world and oh, the crying over the dead in Gaza, some of whom they kill with their own incompetence, or with their use of civilians as shields. But the world remains quiet on their flaws and cracks and focuses on Israel. The same Israel that makes phone calls to tell people to get out. The same Israel that makes it, by law, a requirement of new construction to have safe rooms, for shelters to be available to people in the streets where all are welcome within. The same Israel that is first in place at areas of destruction and disaster, all over the world.

Think of death we are told? Well, imposed death from the human enemies rather than by nature, has been the status quo of Jews for millennia. We thought that it was done, the violence of that hatred over with, but Hitler proved us wrong, and evidently, once we defeated all the opposing armies in 1967, despite the abandonment of the world, we were then to become the target of rage as we forgot our role - to serve as the scapegoat of the world, to accept our imposed deaths of hatred and go quietly, never to protest, never to fight back. At the very least we should allow for equivalent deaths!!

Well, screw that outlook and philosophy, for Jews are finished with going quietly. They are finished with accepting their fate to be consigned to death chambers or fight to the finish in embattled areas of cities, forests, and deserts too. Enough. It will defend itself and its citizens, whoever they are, and if more die on the opposing side, on the side of the enemy shooting thousands of rockets deliberately into civilian areas, well, so be it. We are done with dying in numbers that please the world.

Individual approaching and inevitable death is one thing. Death by violence of an entire nation - no go!!We Jews always have Memento Mori with us. The world allows us no peace in that area.

ERRANTCY

  I do not even know if there is such a word, but be that as it may, it means, in my lexicon, a state or condition where the status quo has gone desperately awry, to the point of danger such as we have never been before. On so many fronts too.

Where to begin. Take the errant philosophy now governing the standing GOP, the theory of denialism. Say something never happened, ergo, it never did. It brings up the images and paragraphs from the dystopian worlds of Huxley and Orwell, where the news was erased on almost an hourly basis, constructing 'new' truths as wished. Deny, deny, deny taken further with deny followed by a 'new' reality.

The rewriting of history is found in that world. It is when the insurrection attack on the Capitol physically, and the government in theory and practice, is denied, metamorphed by GOP apologists and blatant liars, as no different than "a normal tourist visit". Wow, for how many school trips did I go on to DC and never, ever, did we engage in such "normal" activity! Nor did anyone else!

Further denied, accepting that some violence did occur, it assumes the disguise of a few people who behaved wrongly, but mainly, the mob, was an anti fa one!!!! I kid you not, even as the overwhelming amount of Trump flags, MAGA hats, shirts, banners, and weapons - guns, spears, flag staffs, shields - and sheer power of body bulk, appeared on the screens of America. There was no "hugging and kissing of Capitol officers" as Trump lied, but rather the embrace of beatings and death. Truly, a state of errantcy to an infinite depth.

Graham admits that  "If you try to drive him out of the Republican Party, half the people will leave."  That shameful truth, that ceding of decency, of truth, of loyalty to America, in exchange for cult loyalty to a damaged, deranged figure, mad on the scale and danger of a rising Hitler, has taken over the GOP. Finally, too little and I believe perhaps too late, some resistance, trying to uselessly chase those horses already escaped through the open barn doors, we have the open statements and attempts of some GOP members. "Enough is enough and we need to offer a commonsense coalition for this country and a more unified alternative vision than what we're seeing from the present GOP, which has now become rotten to its core with its persistent attacks on our democracy," ..."So our message is it's time to either reform or repeal the Republican Party." Well, hallelujah and amen, but is it enough? Time will tell but meanwhile this country sits on an already lit powder keg.

And then, and then, we come to a topic of errant thinking, eternally wrong, eternally so wrong, that it has persisted through the centuries, refusing to die and has appeared once again in full and open view. The right wing of Trump supporters, on their new media tool, Newsmax, has the open accusation of that old, yet continuing to be dangerous and false, canard of accusations of dual loyalty of Jews, in this case, American Jews, "If you are Jewish and you are a Democrat and you are living in America today, how do you support an administration that turns its back on your home country?" This is already transferred onto Jews in all countries of the world. These are countries where Jewish soldiers have fought and died for their respective countries.

“Home country”?

The United States is the “home country” for American Jews. The suggestion that Jews owe their fealty to a nation other than the one they live in is a vile centuries-old antisemitic slur.

 Where they have contributed much to these same countries, far above what their minority status in numbers would realistically suggest. And yet, it continues.

So how much longer do we tolerate this philosophy and battle tactic of errantcy. Do we go down this dangerous road, laughing at its outrageousness until we suddenly find ourselves imprisoned, denied liberty, living in a truly dystopian universe? It is that simple. That easy to understand. And so difficult to face down, apparently, as it keeps rearing its ugly medusa like heads, ugly in theory and fact, as people grow tired of hearing the truth, of a ceaseless, exhausting battle to insure that truth and sanity prevail.

We need to wake up. We need to seriously, for once and for all, take on the falsehoods of those dangerous liars, left or right. We need to root out the canards of history on all sides. We need to realize and live the fact that justice, humanity, must prevail else we are lost. I am tired too, so very tired of the unbelievable hold of Trump on people, of the willingness to believe outright lies, to turn their backs on themselves. It is almost too late to combat this, but for whatever little help and voice I am and can give, until I can do it no longer, I will maintain my maimed warrior status! Join me and the rest of those who will continue on. Join or forever lose what is valued - the right to live in peace, safe from hate and harm, free to think, to worship as one wishes, to raise a family with hope for and of the future, where care for others, true equity, and a safe environment exists. How I so wish for this to be true. Don't you? Really?

HELL BENT!

  According to many people, asked about the various crises of the world, well, the direction it appears to have chosen is down, hell bent. Hell bent on what? Apparently on destruction, of self and of others. We are so immersed in our violence, in our own grievances, that we cannot see past them, see the connections between them, never mind trying to find a path through this thicket of thorn bushes that we have created for ourselves. The same thicket we are feeding with the blood of too many, literally and figuratively.

Liz Cheney was pretty much executed in public. Even as her head remained attached to her neck, it was seen rolling down off the Republican platform, bloodied and abused. The Republicans are, according to one observer, "eating themselves, devouring themselves" in their rabid and rapid deterioration. They have become a cult, worshipping one man, bending the knee numerous times to his rages and path of destruction. They have engaged in lies to obfuscate the truth. People were hugging and kissing the officers! Ask the poor guy beaten nigh onto death as the video clearly shows. But nope, all denied so it never happened. Soon enough, given enough rope, this insurrection of Jan. 6 will be written out of history totally unless turned into a love fest! I can hear Deborah Kerr singing "Toads, toads, all of you people are toads!" If the shoe fits....

This absurd questioning of the legitimacy of the election is corrosive. It is eating away at the very underpinnings of our nation, refuting the principles of the Declaration, of the Constitution, of the Bill of Rights and all Amendments. Rights will revert to privileges for the privileged, not for all, no more government of and by and for the people. Lincoln? Not his GOP any more even as McCarthy states with a solemn face that no one is questioning the legitimacy of that election! Really? Truly? But then again, truth is alien to this emerging GOP.

Meanwhile, across the sea, the blood is flowing once more on already blood soaked land. Close to 2,000 rockets thrown at Israel with 400 of them landing in the territory of Gaza, harming themselves but blaming it on Israeli attacks. Yes, some civilians were hit, but that is on Hamas themselves as they surround their arms and rocket setups with their own families, knowing the hypocritical voice of the world will be raised against Israel for this, with, as usual, the deaths of Israelis, of Jews, discounted once again, always of little value to the world at large.

The destruction to be found in the cities and fields of Israel are terrible, even as the amount of rockets held by the enemy is seemingly endless, supplied to them, paid for them, by Arab and Moslem nations. Money meant to ease situations, to build an economy are instead reverting to leaders of terrorist organizations, buying arms rather than food, building arsenals rather than schools or hospitals, encouraging children to grow up to kill Jews, rather than grow up to contribute to the world in a positive manner. So on they go, shooting rockets deliberately into the cities, to harm more, as many as they can, and on the Israelis go, 'knocking' on roofs, making phone calls to warn of a rocket on its way towards them. Who the hell does that, warning the enemy, other than Israel and yet the world accuses it of imaginary war crimes, of actions beyond their control. And the world spins on.

Hell bent, I agree. Ransomware attacks, panic in the streets. At least we have a President willing to speak to the public, to answer questions, to have a calm demeanor, to speak words rather than shout threats in an illiterate and crude manner. Still, is that enough to stop our slide downwards? I truly doubt it as everyday seems to bring yet another crisis even as the ones that came before are still among us, quite active, too.

I dream of the times when we can have an innocent girl singing of the "owls, hooty - hooting above" singing that she is in love. The only owls we have are the ones hooty- hooting the warnings of the wise. Sit up! Stand up! Thinking caps on! Brains functioning! Mouths shut as ears open. Simple directions and instructions, yet evidently too difficult for most of us. So hell bent it is. Maybe, maybe, we can stop it. Maybe.

LESSONS UNLEARNED

  Will we ever learn? Will we always play dumb and then look astounded by the turn of events? How many more warnings must we receive and ignore before we learn history's lessons? George Santayana said it well when he warned that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Now I read an apt statement attributed to Mark Twain: "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

Any which way you put it, the point is clear. Keep making the same mistake under the repetitive stupidly ignorant or purposely ignorant standpoint but do not expect anything to change, unless it goes from bad to worse and even more worse than that. Nor does it matter in what area or field one perseveres in that behavior. Keep an increasingly incompetent president in office in Century Village and do not expect things to get better nor policies to change. Run after a dictator wannabe, pump him up, insert fear into the equation, and add hatred innate in us all and we get another Hitler, another wannabe looking to succeed a la Trump. Keep on holding to false thoughts, wrong stresses and we will produce yet another repetitive tragedy of history. Yet another bloody turn of history.

Throughout history Jews have been targets for all sorts of reasons. They had the nerve to stand aside, separate and believe in one unseen G-d while the rest of the world worshipped wooden statues who desired firstborns to be burnt in their name. They refused to die, outliving all the vast empires and conquerors of history, this tiny, poorly armed, perpetually short of funds nation stubbornly holding on to their heritage and identity.

Exiled from their homeland, there was always a Jewish population throughout the ages who remained there, while many traveled at great risk through the centuries to pay homage, to mourn, at the last remnant of the two Temples. Taken by force, or invited in to help organize a government, or settle an economy needing help, always, always, there came a turn on them. Be it the rulers who borrowed money and refused to pay back, as Edward II did, or envious people who resented their success, or the Church that ranted and raved re false accusations about Jesus, or blood libel, or needed to turn attention from their own faults or the faults of the government, of the hunger and deep poverty of the people, or release of holiday tension, such as Easter or Christmas, needing a pogrom or two, an expulsion or two, the violence took place. And it never ever stopped.

Even here in America there were covenants in housing which banned a Jew from buying a home there. There was great prejudice in hiring and employment, in acceptance to universities. Leo Frank was lynched here for a crime he did not commit. Of value to every country in which they lived, prospering despite all attempts to stifle them, finally achieving in the nineteenth century some recognition as citizens, yet not everywhere, they realized that there was only one hope, one answer. That was to leave these countries and return to their own. Desperate enough to take any offer, these failures resulted in the understanding that there was already a homeland - the land under the Turkish Empire's control, known as Palestine, a play on the word Philistines, a people which once was part of the population there, then disappeared in the veils of history.

It was a land of desolation. Traveler after traveler, writer after writer, men of religious vocation, all wrote of the nothingness there, the empty lands, the marshes and the deserts, the small and miserable populations of some Arabs and some  Jews. The Jews apparently were rebuilding, trying for a life where they were free to live without fear of bloodshed, but sadly that never ever really happened, did it? Massacres by incited Arabs by the lords of Greater Syria who resented the growing presence of Jews, who showed that the land could be repaired, that  there was hope on these sands, founding Tel Aviv on the dunes of a beach. The riots of Hebron in 1929. All the intifadas where the population was incited, rewarded for killings, for terrorism, and always the rockets, the bombs, the physical attacks of assassins, no distinction between military targets and civilians.

To this day it has continued. Give back the lands and there will be peace. Well, we did. Sinai was returned. Sharm el Sheikh was returned. Lebanon areas were returned and there was no peace. Offers were made that were refused and even when they had the land there was no peace!!!

Stop the apartheid and there will be peace. What apartheid. Visit Israel. See the Arab population walk with no fear, with interest only in stores and purchases. They are on Rehov Yaffo. They are in the pharmacies. They are doctors and nurses, head administrators in hospitals, not Arab ones either. They own stores, attend national universities. They have special aid programs for Arab women, for the youth, all to encourage growth and education. They are teachers, members of Knesset and on and on. Apartheid? Where. No building permits? Go take a tour and see the handsome palatial three story homes they erect.

Bah, humbug said Scrooge and so say I. True, there is violence, True, there is hatred. True, there is the poison of ages, the presence of Big Lies and always, forever and ever, history repeats itself. Trouble in the land - blame the Jews. Kill the Jews. Massacre that family at the Sabbath dinner table and yes, even unto the infant. Never mind truth. Never mind the fact that while there are over 27 Moslem countries this is the only Jewish one, the country that takes in refugees of even faint Jewish ties for no one else wants them. The country where the Arab population lives better than in Arab countries.

Lies and historical hatreds always abound and rebound. Not even a century has passed after the exposure of the horrors of the Holocaust, of crazed prejudice taken to the extreme, of the Western powers, the Allies, ignoring the known facts, refusing to bomb train tracks, and still- kill the Jews, blame the Jews, be it here or Israel or wherever there needs to be  a scapegoat.

The violence today is not over a house in one area, but rather over the right of Jews to have a land of their own, an historically appropriate land, one where there were numerous Kingdoms of Israel and Judea, where always, Jews lived. Where the blood of Jews fertilized the nation, where people visiting or arriving to safety, for the first time, fall upon knees to kiss the ground. It is over the intransigent attitudes of Arab countries who need this supposed Palestinian people as a valued aid in turning aside people's attention to their faults, their inequities, their violations of rights, of their war crimes, and on and on.

 No, we do not learn from history. We continue to make excuses re the murder, the persistent attacks of violence upon Jews wherever they are found, including France, America, Russia, Britain, wherever. It seems there is a new word in the lexicon of prejudice - invisible. Groups claim that others do not see them, that they are invisible to others, ignored. Well, we Jews wish that we were invisible, rather than being kept in the public's eyes, all the better to serve as scapegoats that save their nuts from their proverbial fires.

Please, ignore us, allow us to live in peace wherever we live, in Israel or countries around the world. No more throwing an old woman, a survivor, out of her window after beating her. No more attacks on schools, stores, on the streets. No more. Hear the truths of history and understand. Please, let us be invisible to the wrong eyes.

And despite it all, we will survive. Through it all, through all the historical attempts to get rid of us, to take our properties and lives, to steal our children and baptize them, to crush us beneath the feet of rulers and the duped members of their nations. Please, let us be invisible. We do not wish to compete for the crown of who is the biggest target of bias. Just leave us alone. We are invisible - and invincible - in history. History has shown the truth of that. Invisibility - a blessing surely to be prayed for. Invisibility that will allow us to settle problems without the eyes of the world turned hypocritically upon us. Invisibility. Ahhh....

CACOPHONY

  What is cacophony? It is defined as loud and strident noise. It is not the soothing music that calms men's souls, but rather the noise that precludes any real hearing and listening. Cacophonic is defined as unpleasant noise, with an example of a henyard's noise, or indistinct noises of people talking at a time when they could not be heard distinctly. If ever a word fits the times, well, this is it. 

We here in America, and in fact, all over the world, are so busy screaming at each other, ramping up the volume higher and higher, talking over each other, that nothing is heard other than the negative and hostile tones that come through very clearly. Supposed new deals, historical statements and supposed progress, is muted, as the participants revert to the old, hateful ways, ranting and shouting, as in yesterday's rocket attacks on Israel, on its civilian population.

While in a politically sensitive area, the question yesterday is a matter of a sale of a parcel of land to a Jewish family by an Arab family years ago. Banned from that property for years, until 1967, the land was sold after years to a Jewish organization, one that  believes in settling the land. Period. A private matter belonging in court, now played out in the court of the streets. Arab teens, goaded by older men of terrorist organizations who then hide away from the physical consequences, gathered a supply of stones - not pebbles, but big rocks and concrete blocks, thrown by hand or powered by deadly slingshot energy, enough to kill or seriously maim the wounded. Hamas, always ready to strike, then shot rockets, continuing to do so, at anyone they can hit, including civilians while Israel hits military targets warning the occupants about it!! The new 'friends' of Israel now shout out against Israel and here we are again, embroiled in cacophony, all the old enmity coming out in the open, the faces of monsters reappearing beneath their obfuscating masks. The winners? The haters on both sides are in this loud and strident - and deadly - noise.

There is much cacophony among the nations of the world, blustering like little boys in the schoolyards during recess, only these 'boys' are bolstering their verbal attacks with deadly weapons from guns to ships and planes. Cacophony!! Can anyone hear the voices of reason here? Can anyone hear the consequences in this deadly showboating? No, for the cacophonic results block all off.

Here in the USA there is new cacophony, so loud and unpleasant that we refuse to hear what is being said. Lindsay Graham tells us “Can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no,” Graham said.  I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.” Are you frightened yet? Do you read and hear between the lines? We are being told that the GOP has willingly and consciously gone with the fascism ,the personality cult, the deranged hate mongering that will only grow under more Trump control. They have chosen a demented man as their leader and pace setter. G-d help us. G-d help America and the rest of the world.

Now we have the shouting of the "critical race theory" threatening to upend our entire educational system and a whole lot more than that. Has there been racism in America? Of course. That racism went both ways as we all refused to accept the 'others' as equal to us, whomever 'us' is at the moment. Every single group has faced racial hatred, ethnic bias, some worse than others. The hate seems to hide beneath the surface, just below, always ready to peek out. However, has that racism defined our country, underlay all that we have done and propose to do? Absolutely not!!Most emphatically not!!Most newcomers came here to build a new life for themselves, their families, to find hope, education, to live. To save their lives from the violent hatred back in their former homelands.

Sure, they faced and still face bias, but it does not underlay it all. That theory is demeaning, and consequently will have bad results. White people are being made to feel guilty for being born with lighter skin, to examine their every breath for implicit bias, so radically the same effect and philosophy as self criticizing meetings demanded of citizens in communist countries and other dictatorial areas. It is fascistic, communistic, just part and parcel of all anti democratic philosophy. It is wrong. So wrong. So dangerously wrong.

Sure, improve the content of our history classes, but think not that this is a new issue. It is not. States have been revising their history texts for years, depending on where one lives. Wrong? Yes and no for it depends on the revision!!! People change, we hope become more enlightened. But c'mon! An entire country based on imposing racial bias and hatred on others? An entire country to nitpick its every action and policy for connection to bias, particularly against the group of the day? Trying to read the minds of people long dead? Really? Think ahead and wonder at the cacophony resulting, the cacophonic noise that will preclude any positive, clear thinking to approach the problem of bias.

McConnell seems to have reformed himself. It precludes anything and everything that does not fall into the category of 'defeat the Democrats". Block access to vote? Yup. Deny needed injections of money into the economy? Yup. Destroy the environment? Yup. Why yup to these and more? Because he has signed on with the Trump Party, with the imitation Jabba the Hutt, accepted its revision into America's fascist party, with one goal - defeat the Democrats. Then quiet the noise with an America that is no longer America.

Can we all just settle down, take a deep breath, use our indoor voices for once, possibly hear each other enough to try to hear more? Can we do that? Dora the Explorer will say, "Yes, we can!" Perhaps we need to revert to another childish aspect of ourselves and hear the optimism expressed in children's talk. There has to be a path to follow, a good one, a rational one. Doesn't there?

OH, HECK!! SOMEONE'S GOTTA' SAY IT.

  Tired. Everyone's tired. These past fourteen months and still counting, still being warned of new dire future possibilities and probabilities. Confusion about truth and lies in the body politic. American values seen discarded on the roadside. Major changes domestically as well as in foreign policies. A world spinning so fast that even were one to want to get off, it is nigh unto impossible. Enough! Enough with the overkill re racial feelings, anti racism, and all the buzzwords that now just about kill us and any interest we have in remedying racism and its consequences. I am not even sure we know exactly anymore what racism is and when to cut it out already. Enough with the Big Lie and the lie theory of government. Patience is at short shrift and yet we keep trying, pushing the envelope, testing the boundaries.

First, I read of blood chits and yes, I agree, we are way behind in honoring them, in paying our debts to those who have helped us, courageously, put themselves in the path of danger, unto loss of life and harm to their families.  Basically, this is what a blood chit says: "Help me return to friendly territory, and my government will reward you."    We have disregarded and dishonored that promise through war after war and then wonder why no one wants to help, serve as interpreters, guides or simply a friendly face. It is because when we pull out of a country, we leave behind detritus. We  sell billions of dollars worth of equipment as scrap, letting it fall into the hands of the enemy, and costing the taxpayers of America billions and trillions as we replace what should never have been lost!

Worse, when the planes pull out, all the threats  to those friendly forces of locals come true, the exact reverse of the fairy tale wish of living happily ever after. We leave these people behind, disregard our promises, blowing them off, ignoring their panic, at their misplaced trust in America, as we leave them, desert them, abandon them, to gruesome fates and awful debts. Blood chit? Bah! Humbug!!

This pattern of lying, of accepting lies and false promises has become a plank of the GOP platform. A growing number of politicians disregard the voters and their votes and spout the Big Lie, our own homegrown Hitlerian imitation, the one that leads to peril, to American Fascism. No, Trump did not win. No, Trump did not even come close. No, there is no merit at all in these baseless claims and lawsuits, all being thrown out of court by increasingly irritated judges. Yet, there it is, creeping and  crawling into American lexicons, debates and worse, conviction of its truth and the accompanying lies about Jan. 6. That lie maintains that it was either an anti fa organized violent attempt at rebellion or it was peaceful, no big deal and everyone's memories to the contrary. The GOP has fallen to the level of the very perpetrators, now claiming innocence, peaceful origins, lying through their goddamned teeth!!

Finally, we come to the fatigue hitting America. Yes, there is racism, overt and covert. Yes, true as it is, there has been progress. More is needed. DWB cannot be a capital offense. Law enforcement need some retraining. But..... people are tired of the growing victimhood that is the new meme. Everyone is now claiming this status, pushing their own troubles, forgetting that it all stems from the same dank and moldy source.

We need to remember who we are - all humans on the planet earth, all subject to the same whims of Nature, the same threats to our existence, the same consequences to our actions. That is all. We are more alike than not. That is the lesson. That is the simple cure. Overwhelming us all with page after page of black faces in ads, in TV shows, in movies, in articles, all saying and claiming the same thing, the overuse of the term 'invisible'. Now Asians.

 Perhaps if we stop using these terms, stop the overkill, stress the similarities, publish the accomplishments of ALL peoples, all races and ethnicities, by groups from other ethnicities, perhaps then we would realize that by emphasizing the likes rather than the 'unlikes', we can make progress. But now, now we are in for a tiring overkill, testing the already tried patience of those who already know the truth, riling those who do not, and just about forgetting the positive goal - acceptance and appreciation of all by all. Simple, yet so difficult. Seemingly even further away from being reached than ever before. Even as we ignore all the positive that has already happened.

So, gotta' say it. We are losing our way. We are on the wrong path, the wrong instructions being followed, and the consequences are dire. Can we all take a deep breath or two, pause the rhetoric, think about what is and what is not of value, what we wish for, hope for? Then find a new set of directions, cut off the Fascists at the proverbial pass and remember, take pride in being America.

Let us honor the blood chits we so lavishly doled out. Let us honor our word as Americans, recognize those who have done well for us, both within and without the nation. Can we at least try?

NOT ALONE, BUT IS IT ENOUGH?

  Sadly, I believe it is not enough, and it scares the dickens out of me. For years I have been writing of the turn of America towards the side of fascism, call it by any name you wish. Fascism is fascism and no name calling or Big Lie or demented tactic is going to change that. Most frightening is the turn of so many once moderates, relatively speaking, from that position to one of backing Trump, demented, deranged, as it is. 

In fact, it boggles the mind how many formerly intelligent and independent, moral persons have learned to ignore the vast litany of wrongs committed by Trump and his backers, the danger he poses to democracy, his unbelievable lack of morality, both he and his supporters, many of whom are well known. These behaviors are condemned when manifested by others, but Trump somehow gets a pass.

In any case, I have been told by some that I was overstating the issue, that this was a typical campaign, a typical disagreement between parties, and I was overly frightened for naught. This, even as the demands and the outrageous statements began coming down the chimney, in the doors and windows, and in the minds and mouths of too many, especially when expressed in and by physical violence. Sadly, some of the opponents of this egregious behavior settled for the low standards of the Trump fans and used violence as well, though not as accused of by the extreme right.

What induced the seeds of panic and fear for the future of this country was how the otherwise normal folks began to be won over to the extreme memes of the new GOP, a partisan political party disguising itself under an old and respected name. However, inside, in truth, they were increasingly voicing and becoming a fascist party, with threats to the 'out of line" members, the need to impose restrictions on opponents, the demonization of opponents and the extreme demand that all follow the Party Line as embodied in the Party Leader, found in the body and damaged mind of Trump, followed and touted by his off the wall progeny and backers.

Now we have the added , very strange, dangerous vocal backing by extreme Christian evangelical pastors, or who claim they are. Trump was 'prophesied ' to win, ergo he did, making the results  a lie. So they crazily insist. Trump was seen with some golden object, hence he is the leader. An attempt to do a Mormon replication? This new Party takes whatever it wants, touts whatever it wants, twists whatever it wants, all in the name of The Party and their cult Leader, Trump. He was supposed to win, so in their bizarre world he thus won; the vote was apparently tampered with, mass violations taking place, including Asian ballots smuggled in. These unbelievable, outrageous statements are accepted as etched in stone, of divine origin. Trump is now the equivalent to G-d in their newly organized Parthenon of gods, twisted, demented, heretical, and oh so dangerous.

Apparently, it has taken time for others to join in the calls to be wary, to be watchful, to be of concern over this turn to an extreme right that has not been seen here in years, in decades, other than by a limited group. Today, it is becoming more of a norm and too many are so blind, not seeing or not caring. Claiming that they ignore politics because it is too unpleasant enables the monsters of today's American politics to dissolve our Declaration, void our Constitution, negate all the values we have heretofore chosen to champion, and overturn all the progress we have made in social care.

Now, finally, we have people speaking out, openly stating that while Trump is a clown, his politics and political influence is not comical, but rather dangerous. Stefanik, once a moderate, now backs Trump, all the better to gain power in the Fascist GOP, engaging in the same willful denial of reality, denying his crimes and connection to the Jan. 6 rebels, denying the proofs of his engagement with the enemy over the years, excusing his immoral behavior and imbecilic imitation of a toddler in his emotions, spoken rants, and his writing!!!

Liz Cheney warns the GOP that they had better learn that they must back freedom, democracy, choose the moral path. Call after call now to remember that we are Americans first and always, not GOP first and only. We do not pledge allegiance to a man, but rather to the country and its standards. We do not push the Big Lie, a la Hitler, but rather face and accept reality, work to change it if we do not like it, but do so within the law. We do not try to reimpose old and hateful restrictions on members of the country because we do not like them or their politics. We must remember history, know that hatred keeps on going, like a demented energizer bunny, from one group to another, for fascism demands victims, always seeking to sate its greedy maws, devouring all in its path. We must remember that democracy is still endangered and so Thomas Friedman wrote in his recent essay, warning those who think we are past the crisis. We are most eminently not.

No, I am no longer alone. Others, far more well known and powerful, influential people, have finally stated the same things. But are we enough? Are we strong enough to withstand the pressures, push back on these new fascistic laws being foisted upon us? Can we restrain the new limitations on our freedom to choose, for our decisions in life to be ours, not imposed on us from the top by those from the bottom who have climbed their way there over all they left behind, over all they have devoured in their crazed wish, need, to dominate, to hate, to immorality, to negation of all that is good and wise. 

Those walking dead that we are told to fear, well, they are not only on TV screens, are they? Our walking dead are right out there, only in real life. We are the devoured ones, unless and until we speak up, fight back, end the America First fascist tour, cancel the hatred and lies spewed forth by the Real America's Voice, impose truth on our politicians, negate the culture of lies and hate espoused by those such as Bannon, or Dobbs or  Carlson. Insure that there will be no more threats to impose military rule in this country. Try so hard to become the role models our children need to see, hear and emulate.

No, not alone, but are we enough? Are we? Can we do what we must? Are we strong enough? Determined enough? Watchful enough? Are we enough? Time will tell. Whose watch does the timing and the telling - .........

GOTT IN HIMMEL!!

  G-d in Heaven! A statement of a belief? A fact? A plea to whomever? A statement of despair, at a wondering based on shock? Try all of these, apply where applicable and then sit down and try to think how the hell we ever got here and how do we find an exit. I do not know that we will even find a hint of an exit now. We are so deeply mired in the bog of our own making that there is nary a soul left to extend a branch to pull us out. As we go under, as America leaves behind the United States of America and becomes America First, we wonder - does anyone even care to at the very least move their eyes in a minimal effort to find a possible branch for aid. There are times today that I doubt even that.

Tomorrow is the birthday of one of the most caring people I have ever met. He would have been 101 and I miss him every day, even as we laugh and tell a story or two, anecdotes that tell of the man inside, of his quiet charity, of his intellect, of his caring for others, of his feistiness and willingness to debate anyone for a cause, write a letter, speak out, and the deep depth of confusion he would feel now if he came back. Middle schoolers pulling guns out of backpacks and shooting. Two Fascists who are in Congress no less, go on an America First talking tour. For what? To push sexual depravity? To celebrate the turn of America to fascism, to  restrictions that were once banished? Where has his country gone? What has happened to its ethics, its values, its principles?

We have lost them over time, mostly in the past five years and we continue to allow this evaporation of our souls, of the soul of the country. A man touted as a leader in contention for the next Presidential campaign shuts out the media. That is anyone other than Fox, a biased and slanted outlet that has long ago traded off truth for what is now called "foxitis" and "foxmania". Well, true, they send out lies all the day long, but we are at fault for simply not turning the dial, as we used to - or now just punch another time on the remote and find truth.

We cannot lay off all the blame on the dangerous idiots, or the dangerous creeps who know better, yet persist in their efforts to pervert the country. State after state, those dominated by Republican legislators, are blocking voting rights, laying on layers of restrictions and roadblocks. Gerrymandering is worse than ever. Corruption in GOP led administrations has grown drastically in the wrong direction. Dynasties are openly spoken of, and what, are we looking at a proposed imposition of an absolute monarchy? A Trump return? Gott in Himmel!!

I just finished watching a video recording of a road stop as a woman used a cellphone while driving. Legit, absolutely. Instead of behaving, much to my shame as an educator, as she cursed the guy, made derogatory and prejudiced remarks, provoked the man beyond all boundaries, even as he stood there calmly, speaking in an even tone, she boasted of being a teacher!!! Those teachers we do not need. Those teachers perpetuate the wrong ideas, encourage the destruction of our system of government, of the democracy we are, of the values we stand for - or stood for.

My dad would have been flabbergasted and then would have rigged for battle. Alongside would be me, proud to be and stand with him. And so I do, every day that I write on my blog, when I support America and despise the Amerika that others wish for. We must all speak up, find the proper heroes and role models and when if we find few or next to none today, then we must become those missing heroes, those missing role models and resurrect the values of humanitarian standards, of democracy, of the Statue of Liberty, of the best part of humanity rather than the worst.

Why does mankind always find a way to revert to the worst level it can find? Why are there always to be found those who willingly, with relish even, dare to kill others, to demean and torture, to crush beneath their feet? Gott in Himmel! Where have we gone wrong? How have we gone wrong? How do we fix this? Gott in Himmel - help!

And Happy Birthday, Pop!!

HELLO? HELLO!! ANYONE HOME?

 Well, folks, I am not sure that there is anybody home. Not anymore, or at least not very often. I wonder at the ignorance displayed by people who should know otherwise or at least know to fact check before they open their stupid mouths, the mouths that push lies, that adhere to false stories, that commit themselves to fabrications of ridiculousness and should instead be committed to some kind of mental rehab facility. Such is the state of leadership today and such is America today. What a shame.

 Every fifth grader learning American history discusses the Constitution and the formation and acceptance of certain formulas and viewpoints, the 3/5 compromise being one of them. That allowed for the inclusion of slaves as 3/5 of a person. Notice that they were not accorded even that nonsense when other rights of a human were discussed. It was a shameful concession to the southern states and has haunted us ever since, etching certain distorted values into the psyche of too many, destroying lives and potentialities of too many.

Evidently Justin Lafferty, a state legislator from Tennessee was not present for that term or was asleep at his desk, for he says he was running on his memory rather than fact checking before he spoke. Anyone have a spare American history textbook, worksheet, stored lecture, a vial of common sense?A vial of decency and the minimum smarts needed to know what was wrong and what was right? Evidently not, much to our dismay and the ever widening crack within the American people.

Oh, here is another one where evidently no one is home upstairs. The idiots, the dangerous idiots in Arizona, who are endangering the right to vote, the surety of voters that they will not be harassed as they vote a secret ballot, well, these same morons are actually looking for bamboo shoots and fibers and 'Chinese' paper to support their 'brilliant' theory that 40,000 ballots were replaced by the same number of Asian ballots that were allegedly illicitly smuggled into the country and then exchanged! I kid you not! Anyone home there? I think not. Yet there they are, with the chief dangerous idiot shouting as he continues to try to steer the ship of the American state right on to the rocky shoals.

How about those who think that the Supreme Court's job is to mediate private arguments or that being a publicly traded company means certain demands are applicable. Nope, wrong on all counts, and yet here we are with the Court ringing in on it. The same court that epitomizes the rabid attitude of the GOP with government in the lives of American citizens. Guess the people on the first floor forgot or neglected to caucus with those of the second floor; hence the absence of anyone in the attic!! Hello? Nope, nary a soul. Not even a whisper of one. Not anymore, anyway.

Then we have the what? The basest of ignorance and prejudice coming out? The fallback to old stereotypes, ones that leaned on backward thinking memes? When a GOP Representative calls another one "Buckwheat", well, then he wonders why that Representative yells at him!? Another empty vessel speaking dangerous nonsense, along the same vein of thought and attitude which enabled the /35 compromise to be inserted into a most forward thinking document of world history. An empty vessel can bring about a whole lot of noise which obscures the truth and instigates violence and more hate and ignorance.

Then, of course we have the local supposed leaders who seemingly have also gone away on long term vacations, thinking that no one will challenge their decisions - to overdevelop, of changed funding, of opaqueness in government, or the increase of the danger level due to politics. Or those who think that not talking to someone is a mature attitude. Nope, no one home. Hello? Hello? Uh-uh, not the Adele hit song, but a plaintive query about the state of America today.

We need to heed these words, an echo of the shouts of the Vietnam protesters, the one that went "The whole world is watching."

Today's version: "History is watching Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process."

Ahh, someone is finally home.

The rest of us? Hello? Hello?

 

WAZE AND GPS

  Ever look around and wonder whether you are in the midst of a nightmare, the supposed dream actually being reality? Ever feel that discerning the true line that separates reality from non reality has become and grows even more difficult? Then one turns to find advice, for aid in solving the dilemma, and finds none, or such 'help' that is being offered is of little or no value, or is actually even more misleading than the original problem.

See, there is no Waze or GPS for real life. The errors of those two systems can be remediated- make a u-turn, disregard, or read a real map. Yup, that can be done. However, the maps for real life, the role models, advice as to proper and righteous behavior, directions for finding the right path, the correct route - nope, all gone, disappeared into the ether and all we have in return are flawed, imitative personalities wherein adults engage in fantasy play, returning to the days of yore when they were children in the schoolyard.

Now, you wonder, if this is reality, do I want to wake up or stay asleep? If it is a dream, well, the same question, I guess, depending on where you stand on truth vs. the Big Lie, on decency vs. hatred, on progress vs. regression. How do we find the truth when we hear a judge accusing Barr of obfuscation, of knowingly hiding the truth, defending Trump from his just desserts? Indeed, how do we know which road to take. Cheney for being independent, refusing to back down on the truth re Trump, about Jan. 6 and the insurrection. McCarthy and McConnell have long ago lost sight of their directional signals of right and wrong, of truth and lies, of decency vs crippling and cruel societal downturns. Josh Hawley is way down the road already, deeply immersed in fascistic behavior, always at the ready to deny truth and support the Big Lie.

People, we have a job to do. We need to wake people up, reminding them, advising them, warning them, that the dream is a living nightmare, is only going to get worse unless we all stand up in opposition. Truth is not falsehood. Democracy is not denying people the access and right to vote. Society is not improved by consigning segments to hunger, uncertainty, despair and death. The USA is not supposed to emulate the worst countries of the world, but rather to be a role model for them, a proper role model of democracy and progress, of justice, of caring, with a vibrant economy powered by a smoothly running government.

How have we come to this low level when supposed leaders are of the miserable caliber of a Ted Cruz, a Donald Trump along with his progeny, a DeSantis, who cares naught for safety of citizens, only on the importance of defying rationality, appealing to the basest of bases, encouraging more to lower themselves into that category. A Taylor Green who is an open supporter of QAnon, a denier of truth, of the rebellion. A Matt Goetz who is simply disgusting!

Nope, our social and political Waze and GPS systems are majorly on the fritz. The big question here is whether there remains hope of remediation, or repair, or is the breakdown too intense, too deeply enmeshed within the system and cannot be denied any longer. It is an evaluation we must make and must be honest while doing that. Then we must make a choice - ceding control or resisting, fighting back against this vicious tide of cruelty, of regression, of hate, of anti democracy, of suppression of rights, of DANGER AHEAD!! warnings in screaming red letters being ignored or even cheered.

Time is running out. We must make a turn in our directions. We must remember our roots, our paths till today. We must ignore the new mechanics if they are so wrong as to destroy us, who we are, what we are supposed to be. Nightmare or dream, reality or not - your choice, but that time for choice and reversal of wrongly stated directions is growing ever slimmer. Tick tock. Tick tock.

Who is the "enemy within" - the accused - the Democratic party -  or the accuser - the GOP?

 

“We believe the right to vote is sacred. When more people participate in our democratic process, we will all prosper,”

The right to vote is key to it all, to the directions we are getting  or rather the misdirections we are getting. Tick tock again, folks. Tick, tick ,tick.

 

OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  I am so afraid! Not! I am most frightened. Not. I am offended. Well, maybe, but not so much for me as for someone else, a target because of a connection to me. Yes, apparently guilt by association is a crime here in the Village. Have doubts? Well, let's see.

So, first a little history. It was apparent years ago that David Israel was not the President for this Village of ours. Financial shenanigans and incompetence brought us to the brink of bankruptcy, $11 being the amount left in the accounts until their nuts were saved by Dorothy Tetro, may she rest in peace. Our roads were a disaster, physical needs of the Village were neglected, opaqueness was the designated word associated with the administration and rules and regulations were flouted daily, as David violated rules of assembly, engaging in partisan behavior from the stage, interrupting, threatening, even to the point of calling in armed  deputies to stand there at the Assembly, threateningly posed. Wow! I guess those walkers and canes are actually too threatening to some people!

In any case, I put my money where my mouth is and despite being mostly unknown in the Village,  chose to run in opposition to David for President of UCO. I did not expect to win, was not running for that purpose but rather to draw attention to his lacks, his faults, his falling down on the job and the need for change or better supervision, whatever would work for the betterment of the Village, for its residents.

He pulled out all the stops, even calling down the authorities on the synagogue across the street for allowing me to use a fence area for a sign, just as is commonly done in all elections. Nitpicking, desperate, the man called out authorities to threaten the synagogue for violations of ridiculous things, generally ignored, unless pointed out by people with malicious intent. 

New rules were initiated by David and cohorts so as to preclude any meetings on Village grounds to discuss the election issues, no more poolside meetings, no more anything, even to the point of allegedly threatening people to do damage to them via the Internet as he was so  proficient on it, so we have been told. Guess the age of Zooming has  proven to be too much for him though as it was not used to have meetings of the Village during this past year.

Anyway, the man has been steadily going downhill, to the point of even formerly 'loyal' believers beginning to whisper about his apparent growing list of lacks and faults. He refused and continues to refuse to do the right thing and resign, go home, take a break, read a paper, watch a streamed show. take a walk, and give us a break! But no, he continues to misgovern and misdirect, keeping negotiations for a new contract with Benenson a deep, dark secret. Nothing has been presented to the Executive Board nor the Assembly, to the Village, for discussion and voting throughout the entire year. Contracts? Say what? Nothing given over to us as he took over the reins as an open dictator. 

Even as he was forced by the improving health situation to actually call for meetings, he then adjourned them almost as quickly, allowing for no discussion or even presentation of any important, vital issues of the Village, keeping on his path of no transparency, no sharing, no anything! However, this is what has upset me now. 

David, never having been married, apparently does not understand that a good and solid marriage between two independent thinking adults who respect each other, who understand the independence of each, the individuality of each, is possible. In any case, it has worked for us for 53 1/2 years to this point and G-d willing it will continue.

Aha! So why now? Apparently, at the Executive Board meeting so quickly adjourned yesterday, the first meeting in over a year, David, responding, after the meeting, to a question by a member, said that David will not speak to him because of me and what I write in my blog. Wow! Does he think one of us controls the other or must walk lockstep, together? Well, it does not work that way. I am me and Gerry is himself and there are very few people who do not like him or value his opinions, with many turning to him for advice or aid. I think he is too nice at times, but if one has to have a fault, that is not a  bad one at all, is it?!

So David, acting true in manner to his apparent behavioral age of toddler years, will 'punish' me through Gerry, thinking that what? It will shut me down, close my mouth, stifle opposition? I am one voice, sometimes musing in my thoughts, or writing of a national or world situation, or about the Village and yes, about David, if appropriate. So tough!! Remember that old but wise adage about the kitchen and the heat, David. No one says that being President of UCO is an easy job, but if one undertakes a responsibility, one must fulfill all the obligations or get the hell out of the way and allow others to do it right.

So, do me and everybody else a favor and grow up. Gerry has nothing to do with me in this instance. He has his thoughts as I have mine. I do things one way and sometimes he does it another way agreeing and disagreeing as it happens. It is called being independent, thinking adults. Imagine that! People can get along even if there are differing opinions and who disagrees on what is none of your business as far as the Village is concerned. So grow up already. Accept criticism, positive criticism, concern for the Village, from whence it comes. Stop using guilt by association as a rule of thumb, direct from whatever dictator you model yourself on. 

Seriously, enough of this nonsense. You are not talking to Gerry? Really? So stupid! So infantile! I can hear the echoes of schoolyard fights and disagreements. Talking is the path to progress. Not threats. Not regressive behavior. Not threats. Just plain old adult behavior. Try it, David, and maybe you will even like it. Grow up!!

RED DAWN, THE SEQUEL

 Do you remember the movie? It was a stock film, Grade B, which became  a cult favorite, commanded a sequel and imitations, and became a talking point for many. The USA was invaded by Soviet troops, I believe, and heroic teens and the adults inspired by these youngsters, managed to set a challenge, light a spark in the defeated people of the nation. They defeated the collaborators. It was a film with action - of the time - no fancy CG tactics or techniques and did its job in entertaining and making people feel good by the end of the movie. All well and good.

 However, today we are facing, living through, actually, whether we realize it or not, our own version of Red Dawn as the GOP loses its soul and commits itself to a cult culture, serving up their own 'cancel culture' movement. One GOP leader states, quite telling, that  "We Republicans need to remember that we are united by fundamental principles such as belief in personal responsibility, individual freedom, opportunity, free markets, a strong national defense. Those are the principles that unite us. We are not a party that is just led by one person."  This, after Romney was booed at a Utah meeting, and GOP candidate after candidate in so many races swear loyalty to Trump, becoming  a Party of ONE, no different in behavior and intent from historical fascist dominated countries. 

This, after they have forsworn these principles, spoken by their own actions or lack of action. Yes, we have Red Dawn once again, only this time in real life rather than the movies. This time it is not foreign intervention, though we have seen much evidence of foreign interference in the Trump administration, but rather the insider attack by the GOP members of a Party who have sold their souls and mortgaged the nation to Trump. 

We have created our own Red Dawn. We are self defeating, carrying out attacks on our own democracy, throwing away all that was and is good in the nation, posing an existential threat to the leading democracy of the world, denying it a future, and busily engaged in cutting noses in spite of faces, as they unbelievably turn on a dime in order to remain in power. An example of such nose cutting? There is a bridge in McConnell's state that badly needs replacing and he has fought, unsuccessfully, for years, for the funding necessary. Now that Biden's infrastructure bill has funds allotted to it, he protests that very fact! Weird. Ridiculous. Unbelievable. And dangerous. There is no more thought, only partisanship and the people of this country be damned. 

Voter rights attacked. Restrictive laws passed wholesale, despite all historical knowledge and lessons to the contrary. Gerrymandering of the most egregious and evil inspired plans. Hatred abounding. Anti-Semitism . Anti Asian. Anti people of color. Does it ever stop? Principles of democracy, uniquely American tenets, being discarded, the Lady of the Harbor tarnished, as Emma Lazarus cringes at the defiling of her welcoming poem etched on the Statue. Citizens in need neglected, religion becoming extreme and demanding, interfering in politics, supporting lies without compunction. Lies after lies after lies, with only 23% of GOP members agreeing with the truth, the facts, that Biden won the 2020 election. The introduction of mistrust, distrust, in our democracy, setting us up for the culmination of our own native born and supported Red Dawn.

How has it come to this? Biden asks that we become united, act together as a nation, but how can that be? We still cannot talk politics in a civil manner, continue to have families and friends divided along deeply etched lines in the soul of our nation. We condone attempts to overthrow this country's legitimate government, attack its own leaders, falling to the level of corrupt countries who see no harm, nothing wrong, in murdering their heads of state in order to replace them with their own cult figures.

Red Dawn in the morning. Or the evening. Or whenever, but we are well on our way there, with the colors of the country changing drastically, faster and faster, as we give away our own rights, cede it all to Trump and his rabid, unthinking followers, traitors to their own oaths of office. One Republican, trying to show that it is wrong to blindly follow one person, says, no, our loyalty needs to be to the Party. Really? What happened to loyalty to the nation, to its population? Gone, with the red, white and blue overlaid by the layer and colors of Red Dawn.

What have we done? What have we allowed? How have we reached this point, denying our heritage, turning our collective backs on the values of this country, negating the efforts of the Founders, of the Reformers, of its soldiers who fought and died for it? Have we become willfully blind, deaf, to its agonies, to the cracks thundering louder and louder in the nation's strained psyche, to the dangerous words and behavior of supposed leaders of this country? What have we done? Is there still a way back? You tell me. You do not want my opinion, the expression of my fears, my answer, in blunt words.

OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE...

 ..."shall not perish from the earth." This was Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address when the nation was in twists of agony, the same category of agony which is twisting us today. Only today, we are closer than ever to negating that last sentence of his. Yes, democracy is certainly in danger in these United States of America. The very name of the country has turned into a bitter farce, for in no way are we the "united" states. In fact, the divisions within this nation have led to the closest we have come to the negation of democracy, to the rapid, extreme turning back of the clock to days that should never be repeated.

 Yet repeating them we are, or at least attempting to do so with mighty heaves pushed along by waves of hate, of violence, of lies galore. We have descended into a nation that is divided within itself, not necessarily along the lines of the Civil War, but lines nevertheless. These lines are growing, in depth, in intensity, in ever growing distances, nearing the tipping point, the point of no return, every day, in every egregious violation of that sentence that rings through the centuries.

This country was founded on the principle that people needed, deserved, to have a voice in their government. True, those deemed worthy of that right were limited to men with various qualifications, others denied this "right". But the country moved ever forward, correcting this error over the years, adding more men, white men, then Black citizens, then finally women. At last!

However, on paper and in reality often do not mesh. Attempts to deny these legislated rights, these 'natural' rights, lived on. Jim Crow laws. Violent opposition to women's suffrage. All here, yet we persevered, more people voted, and our legislators became more diverse. Not perfect, not nearly so, but at least ever approaching it, as much as humans can demand improvement and perfection!

And so we moved, in jerky movements and motions, forward - until we hit a wall, a wall of hate, of obsession with power, with money, and a growing trend to overlook those that need help. We allowed huge holes to develop in the social safety net. Corporations became more valued, of more importance, of protection and favoritism by law than humans. We fell down on the job, and the years of Trump, campaign and administration, and its aftermath, still heavily with us, just about leveled all that we had done. Strong attempts are being made to remove this right to vote, to have a voice in one's government. Combine this with the determined opposition to this, to the deeply rooted values that made America, and we got trouble!!

The noted author, Flannery O'Connor, wrote in The Habit of Being: Letters, that "Around here it is not a matter of finding the truth but of deciding which lie you live with better." How true. How shameful. How existentially dangerous. How dehumanizing. Yet we go on, with more and more outrageous attempts - successful ones - to limit access to voting, to inclusion, and to the growth of violence against people caught up in danger fraught situations. But the excuse that there might have been an infraction does not allow for the imposition of capital punishment for any offense deemed worthy of it by operating officers. The system that allowed this, that continues to allow this, though there is finally some open disclosure, is one that harms us all and must be changed - immediately.

All this as more and more legislation is rushed through by GOP members, members of a party which has forgotten its origin. Members of a party that have the use of lies as an unofficial platform plank! A party which condones violence, condones an attempt to overthrow this government, to subvert the vote, the policies and operating principles of this nation. So access to voters is limited. More and more cuts are made to voting procedures. Even the very act of handing bottles of water to those waiting in the burning heat, of southern states especially, is now being criminalized! Sounds strange, yet here it is, in more and more states. Including in the benighted state of Florida with its growing ever more dangerous man, DeSantis. Another Trump, only one with a brain, damaged as it is in its thinking.

America First, a close cousin to any Fascist party in history. The same words, the same principles, the same angry people, the same lies and delusions perpetrated upon the nation.  The same desperation of downtrodden to find a way up not blocked off to them. The same anger that then gets diverted to the wrong places and people and the damage that ensues is beyond repair.

Many of us are bewildered by all this. How is it possible that so many are so grossly deluded. How is it that heretofore intelligent people fall for the fake promises, the awful statements, the raging and growing hatred for 'others', seemingly not understanding that the category of 'other' grows to include more and more - including them!! Jews in Italy who had joined the Fascist Party there, early on in its establishment, found themselves mocked by their own beliefs, their own pride, as they were oppressed and killed by that same Fascist Party of Mussolini- the same one they had joined.

We can so easily forget truths, eternal and universal ones, in our seemingly blind quests for power, for money, for what we deem success, leaving behind our humanity. Nick Cave, in One More Time with Feeling wrote a simple sentence which says it all.

 "I don't know what the chords are. They keep changing all the time."

We have broken the instruments of society, forgotten to tune them on a regular basis. We have forgotten to keep a check on the ambitions of those who play the music, who determine what sounds emanate from these instruments. The music becomes atonal, discordant and unpleasant. We do not understand it nor how to work with it, or get rid of it. We ignore the music of Prospero, the one that calms the beast in all of us, the Caliban within. We do not know the new chords and their constant changes are demoralizing and paralytic to society. And so here we are.

Anyone remember Abraham Lincoln?

Anyone for music lessons?