FIFTEEN YEARS

      Fifteen years ago a favorite holiday became tainted. Its joy was tempered by the death of a parent, my dad, on the night of the fourth candle. He loved Chanukah and all its trimmings. He loved the family get-together, with the kids running around, the laughter, the hugs and kisses - remember those - the food, the rituals, especially the lighting of the candles and the singing of the holiday songs. He even played dreidel with the kids and somehow, in a game of pennies, they ended up with bills, which they triumphantly paraded before their parents.

Thus, perhaps it was fitting that he died on Chanukah, imprinting the holiday permanently. Perhaps it was fitting that the last conscious act of his was the night of the first night, as we lit the candles in his bedroom. I was there, having flown up from Florida, knowing it was imminent, along with my daughter, my mom, his wonderful nurse's aide who helped my mom take care of my dad as she herself was not exactly the picture of health.

 Together, with him sitting in a chair, we lit the candles, sang out the blessings and sang the songs. Tears ran down our faces even as we smiled with joy. Why? Because my dad, who could barely sit in that chair, who could no longer open his eyes, who could no longer speak, was moving his hand in tune, in exact tempo of the music, of our voices. His favorite holiday and its observance. Three days later he died, dimming the lights of Chanukah forever. Perhaps he was emulating the death of his father who died so long ago on the last night of Chanukah.

And I lost a pillar of my life; the whole family lost that pillar. To this day the great-grandkids even remember him, the games they played together, the joy in his face as they came to visit him. Semi living in my daughter's house at that point, with visits to other homes of grandchildren, he was a permanent fixture in their lives. Today, all important family events, personal events,  are told to him and my mother, with invitations, notices, all left there at the site.

I wonder what he would have made of this mess of a country we now have. He was a patriot, loved the idea of America, appreciated the home and the opportunities it provided for his family, as new immigrants and native born citizens. He took pride in what the country represented. No idiot by far, he knew the reality of politics even as he went to the Democratic Club, standing up for honesty and honor, for civil rights, for the opportunities that should be available to all. 

A friend to all, black and white, brown and whatever color you wish, he knew no distinction, proud to be a friend to so many and they felt the same ties, as they flocked to his funeral, Black and White, Jew, Christian, Moslem, Hindu. Young and old. Overflowing the rooms of the funeral home, paying their last respects and then almost 24/7 continuing to pay respects over the next seven days. A never ending flow of people during Shiva, the mourning period.

I continue to mourn his passing. Even when we remember and tell the stories, we laugh and cry, we celebrate and mourn. His dying left a great huge hole in the family, and left my mom bereft of her soulmate. It left us all bereft, but determined to continue on his path, treasure his legacy. So today, as I argue against corruption, inaptitude, cronyism and the like, I feel as if I am honored, channeling him and his virtues, his paths of honor and honesty, of respect for the good, for all people, for America.

Take care of Mommy up there, go continue arguing with G-d, help Him to see the light, as we used to tease you. Miss you. Love you. Forever. Happy Chanukah, Pop.

MOTHER JULIAN

      I first came across this historical religious figure while reading and found her fascinating. She lived in Norwich, England, during medieval times, shut herself up in a cell and existed on donations of those who came to hear her advice. Her most well known and oft used line: All shall be well and all shall be well. Think about it. Think of the import of those words and why so many followed her devotedly - and why this simple, perhaps puzzling statement is relevant to our times.

Different emphasis changes the applicability of the sentence parts. All shall be well. What a significant assurance from a beloved and cherished holy figure. All will be okay, soon enough, a statement of power, a statement of belief, for if Mother Julian said it, then surely it would be true. Through famine, drought, floods and illness, rebellion and starvation, always, one knew ALL would be well - in time, so wait it out.

When the last word, Well, is emphasized, think of that powerful assurance. At a time when  the population of the world was being decimated, not once, but over and over again, with yearly bouts of the sweating sickness, smallpox, other diseases that killed so many, with constant civil wars going on,  here is the assurance that all will be WELL. Healing will take place.

So .... what is the relevance to present times? Just about everything! What an unbelievably strong statement of faith and reassurance during a time of great uncertainty, when one literally is fighting to avoid a deadly disease or spreading it to loved ones, or when the supposed head of country suborns overthrow of said country, when citizens are doing exactly what I predicted - fighting in the streets, blood flowing, and statements of rebellion, of secession, of ripping apart this union of states - well, all shall be well and all shall be well.

If only. If only. Wish I could share in that strong and simple faith. Oh, I can hope, we all can hope, but reality appears to intervene and at the very least, will push off the benefits of that statement. The vaccine  doses are heading out - but not nearly enough. Who will get it, how will we value life, will the 'rich and mighty' cut the line - these and many other questions remain to be answered, including the very process of getting an assignment of dose time. 

Question. Will there even be able to be an orderly process or will yesterday's fighting in DC, with the Proud Boys, disgusting, hateful, white supremacists who purport to represent patriotism, simply and truthfully the Brown Shirts of Hitler in modern reincarnation, well, will they and their kind rule the day. Are they? Is that what we want, what we will allow? Is it?

Well, with 127 Republican legislators on the federal level and among the highest ranking in the Party, signing off on a treasonous attempt to overthrow the government, to negate a pillar of our nation, of our democracy, well, what can one think? When 17 attorneys general, supposedly educated people, sign off on a dangerous suit to SCOTUS, well, what can one but think? All shall be well? Not yet. Not yet.

The dangerous idiot from Texas rants about secession. He is answered succinctly and powerfully.  "My guy Abraham Lincoln and the Union soldiers already told you no,". But words do not always carry the day, especially when dealing with unthinking, hypnotized people, suffering from mob behavior and belief. A figure going along with the mob resigns personal responsibility, consciously or unconsciously, and participates in behavior that otherwise would appall them. Their individual responsibility takes a vacation, much to the detriment of the nation.

The next generation or two will ask, as they always do, what one did during the time of danger? Did they participate? Did they stand by the side? Did they struggle to retain our country, our nation? What did they do? What did you do, Daddy, Mommy, Grandpa, Grandma? What did you do - or not? The truth, please. As one character in a novel put it: "Things have a way of swimming up into the light. It doesn't matter how far you've clawed your way up the ladder, the bodies never stay buried forever." In other words, as I, and others have long maintained, the truth will out. It always does, always will and when the whole truth does come out, when consequences are assigned - then, indeed, all shall be well and we can then hope that we can combat future illness; thus, all shall be Well, - we hope.

Vigilance is required. Understanding, education, civility, civic responsibility, true patriotism, equality, humanity - a few of the concepts that are required to be present and alive if our country is to make a comeback. We have been severely damaged these past five years, from the time of the institution of the campaign till defeat and the next President. What a job he has. Hopefully, what a job he and Kamala and associates will do - along with the necessary cooperation of all of us.

For now, we must all speak out. We must speak up about the so wrong elements of society, the support of those who violate their oaths to this country and its citizens. "To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all." So warned us Elie Wiesel. We must take it seriously. All shall be well and all shall be well - if we truly wish to fight the good fight and make it so. Would that we will. Would that we shall. We have the power within us to do so.

"When we have much to lose, but still choose to do the right thing, we uncover the nobility that is within all of us. "

 The greatest and most heroic figures of history - often the common person who rises to the challenge - knew that we have to actively participate in making our own lives what they should be. Simply to state that all will be well, as noble and hopeful and faithful as that is - in all religions - where assurance is always given - well, one has to stand up and help oneself as well. Then, and only then, will all be well - in any interpretation of it.

DONALD AND RONA

      So you know Donald, that most annoying and least admirable man ever. You might ask who the heck is Rona. She is the diminutive name given to the coronavirus. Why? Beats me. Making it less dangerous, perhaps, less threatening? Stupid, as it is not in the least  and continues to remain a huge threat to us and the world at large. Of course, the rest of the world seems to have a quicker reaction and decision time than the USA, and have cornered some of the very scarce vaccine doses that we will need. The race for the citizens of countries has begun and it will not be pretty. Not even the insane Executive Order of Donald, that other countries recognize "America First" will do the trick! Not at all.

But think how similar these two things are. Forces of Nature? Enemies of Mankind? Both are ripping through the world, killing and endangering billions. Both seemingly have no true end in sight, remaining around to continue to wreak havoc upon us. Both are phenomena inimical to the very survival of mankind. And both seem to be highly impervious to attempts to shut them down. Billions around the world wish them away every day, multiple times.

Perhaps, though, we have begun to find the way. Despite all the damage this man continues to rain down upon us, upon Democracy, upon the world, upon decency and humanity, he has a due date stamped and clear. Jan. 20, 2021, this man needs to walk out, be carried out, thrown out, whatever works, but out of the White House whose dignity he has tarnished and demeaned lo these past four years. 

Not soon enough. Nor do I like hearing talk of not prosecuting him for federal offenses in the name of unity. People must learn that there are consequences and stupidity and lack of thought must be seen for what they are and what they allowed - a would be dictator in the White House, an end to this country they professed to love. Let them see their leader shamed in an orange jumpsuit, stand there and hear his sentence. Cannot happen soon enough for me and a whole lot of people.

What is the connection between these two unnatural phenomena? Simple. Both are man made in that we allowed them to flourish. The 'Rona was and should have been tackled much earlier than it was. It was kept secret, to no avail. We find it was in our country way earlier than we had thought. And we found that the dangerously egotistical Donald refused - what a shock!- to face reality, get with the program, and start a fight against it, a campaign to keep our citizens safe and healthy, prepare for those who fell victim and protect their caretakers. But he did not do that, and  'Rona loved him for that. So he laughed and ate and played golf and raged insanely and inanely on Twitter, as hundreds of thousands of his constituents died. A lot he cared!

And on 'Rona rages. Surely she will be passing the 300,000 benchmark of dead over the weekend, scrambling up the ladder to 16 million infected, and we are still arguing over the order and distribution of the vaccine, wringing our hands over the lack of foresight - again, such a shock! - of Trump and his enablers, so that we will be forced to stand and twiddle our thumbs in a deadly wrong game as we wait for more doses. And wait to die.

Today there will be more raging, more lawsuits being thrown out of court, even the Supreme Court refusing to hear the nonsense, even as states begin to combat other states, even as the divide grows ever deeper, ever more irreparable.

 We hear rumors and read essays on how this man will continue to try to overturn the election results. We hear the dangerous chances of success. We read of rebellion, even as the GOP in Arizona asks if their members are willing to give their lives in defense of Trump!!! Yes, you read that right, and if that is not suborning rebellion, overthrow of this government, then what the hell is? The "Rona is inanimate, unthinking, I hope, and so is this man, unthinking,  or rather uncaring, of what he has done to us and continues to wish to inflict upon us.

Nope, come to think of it, I am insulting the "Rona by placing her in the same breath as Trump. He is the far more dangerous in the long run, even in the short run. He has enabled the disaster of the coronavirus. He has been complicit and implicit in the deaths and infections. He has attempted to overturn this country. Federal, state, local - I could care less, but someone, somewhere, must stand up for our rights, to show that crime does most emphatically NOT pay, especially for him and his cronies. Give them a family and friends cell for all I care, but punished they need to be. And in the meanwhile, perhaps Biden and associates will be able to gain upon the virus, despite all of Donald's efforts otherwise, and get the country back on track.

Meanwhile, be safe, act safely and wisely out there, wear your masks, and pray for the country and the world. Pray for wise and capable leaders and cooperative constituents. And wish Biden and associates all the best as he readies himself for a very hard journey. We will all be with him - we must be.

THE NAIL AND THE HEAD

      

From whence does nonsense arise? Does it come from the dimmer bulbs of society, from the wiliest ones, or from a dastardly combination of both, along with situational input from the world at large? I believe it is all three, along with a willingness to self delude, as long as the delusion appears to be beneficial for oneself. Unfortunately, that delusion rolls all through, down and up, at all levels of administration, from right here in CV all the way to the top.

Here at CV we still have the lessening numbers of true believers  of David Israel. They still fall for his grandiose images of himself as the savior of the Village, even as he and his enablers have brought this Village to its knees more times than have been acknowledged. In fact, this group denies facts - the near bankruptcy, the terrible planning, the imaginative dating of necessities: i.e. the road lasting another ten years! This, as we walk around and slip not only on the deep cracks, not only on the not there huge ponding areas, but also on the ever growing sand and pebbles of the deteriorating crappy cement. But who cares, right? So a few people will fall. A few bike riders will lose traction and go over. Serves them right, correct, for certainly they are at fault! That is the cockeyed thinking we  have had in the  Village for way too long.

Our finances have gone to hell in the proverbial handbasket, especially due to the careless and unthinking  disposition of the monies we do have, forsaking all opportunities to place the monies where at least some interest would be paid, little as it is. It all adds up. We have allegedly now signed contracts of great amounts without approval of delegates as David refuses to hold these meetings! Great governance! This administration does not fight for the rights and needs of the Villagers, and then puts on a shill for Benenson to explain why we need to keep paying all fees to them, and even more, as the cleaning continues. Why all the cleaning anyway, as no one was allowed in the vast percentage of the Clubhouse, the cleaning appears to concentrate on those guardhouses, forever and ever, and on the UCO building, into which one must apparently have the special code in order to get in!

Certainly, Lori Lightfoot's comment applies not only to the country in general, but also to us, right here in the Village. Denial of reality, refusal to acknowledge the needs of the people, the evident truths, the coverups, the obvious lies and desperate attempts to retain power, to the point of inciting rebellion, obviation of rules and regulations, and in terms of the country - right unto the point of suborning treason - well, as she so aptly says, " Dear G-d, stop the nonsense."

People are dying. They are dying in greater and greater numbers and these numbers are expected to keep growing. We have crossed the Rubicon and surpassed 3,000 deaths a day already, weeks and months before we were supposed to!! The deaths and even the  infections are grueling, painful, lonely, and long lasting. The country is being decimated, right into the very cores of cities and to the most distant farms and hamlets. There is no escaping it, no denying it - unless you are a dyed in the wool Trumpie and thus cans deny reality. A hoax? How dare people keep putting this statement about? They are contributing to the deaths of thousands, and we will be breaking yet another record, over 300,000 dead, before end of week. Nonsense? No, murder. Plain and simple.

What is so difficult or political about wearing a mask? What is so difficult to understand that we must protect each other? What is so difficult to see the truth, to understand the neglect, the criminal neglect, of Trump , McConnell, McCarthy and other shooting their stupid mouths off Republicans, like Cruz and DeSantis, to name but two. Oh, not to worry about them, for when they test positive they get the best treatment, the latest drugs and recover they do, even as the poor schnooks of this country die - alone, afraid, in agony. And leave behind so much loss and grief.

Lightfoot says we are hurting all over the country and all we get is posturing. But we get more than that, do we not? We get a deluded and deranged man refusing to accept his well deserved loss of an election. We have those moral cowards refuse to admit the truths, denying to themselves the truth so clearly to be seen and understood. They are undermining this country, this democracy and even their own futures, their own seats they are so desperate to retain. Goose and gander, going around, put doubt on one election and the taint, the stink of that drips down through all the elections and well, dictatorship here we come, right into a country torn to pieces by the venality and cowardice of its own supposed to be sworn protectors!

So all the while, through the deterioration of this country, and contributing to it, we continue our self destructive behavior. We keep shooting the unarmed, the mentally ill, assign capital punishment to lesser crimes, and twist the government into the arms and as a  tool of the corrupt, those wishing to retain their filthy grip upon us. So a brave woman blows the whistle on Florida and its corrupt  Republican government, trying to hide the true numbers from the Department of Health, even raiding her home, even as her kids slept upstairs. What the hell are we doing? What the hell are we allowing? And as long as we do allow this, we are just as complicit as those who actively participate in it.

But, okay, here is as bit of humor - I think! Maybe not. Fox News is going to open their own weather show. So here we go. As the latest monster hurricane batters all the Gulf Coast states, and the entire southern coast line, Fox weather reports on some minor showers in the south, reassuring the audience that the showers will be heading off to Mexico soon enough, punishment from a wrathful G-d because they refused to pay for that ugly Wall. Proof, they shout into their mics, that G-d is on their side! Maybe not so funny as there are definitely going to be true believers!

In any case, the help, the path to fixing this mess we have allowed to grow, to fester in our midst, will not be cured nor stopped by G-d, but rather by active input by people. By brave people. By bright people. By simple people who recognize the truth. By true Americans, not greedy nabobs of corruption and cronyism. By people who are concerned for the future of this world, not only their bottom line!

Hard work, a hard slog to come, but unless one wishes to hear Fox Weather, one needs to do this.

Enough already. Enough nonsense, dangerous nonsense. Enough! Trump lost, Biden is #46 and the rest is treason. Plain and simple. Clear as day, though perhaps not the days to be predicted by Fox. The right hammer, the right hammer wielders, and the nail to be hit on the head. As many times as necessary. As long as is necessary. Simple enough.

TOLLING BELLS

      I cannot speak for others, only for myself, but surely there are people out there who also hear the toll of the bell. The knelling of those bells speaks loudly, clearly, and yet, there remains a thick cloud of smothering deafness over this country.

For five years the entire country has been laughing and shocked at the antics, craziness, and moronic behavior of the president of this country, the same man who lost the popular vote to Hilary by over 3 million. The same man who seeks to deny that his most recent opponent won both the electoral votes, by a large margin, and also the popular vote by over 7 million. As the ruinous years under his awful reign went on, the truth, though, came out, and those who understood the end plan of this man and his cohorts, stopped laughing, began to wring hands and finally, finally, too little , too late, began to speak up.

A new language arose, straight from the dystopian society books of Brave New World and 1984. the shocking world presented by Roth's book The Plot Against America became ever so real and realistic and if you have not seen the HBO presentation of it, do see it. Trumpism. Trumpian. Trump-like. Trumpsplaining and splainers. And the sheer back bending to accommodate this man and his twisted thinking - if one can use thought in conjunction with Trump in the same sentence - well, my bones hurt at the sight, the hearing of, the reading about, the loss of backbone by the GOP as they catered to the lowest ranks of society, as they allowed the dregs of that society to rise to the top, as cronyism, greed, corruption, power seeking and maintenance, manipulation, all the negative verbs and actions, became the favored acts of the day.

So most of us were greatly relieved when he lost the election. Perhaps we were now to have the chance to restore the ideas of the true America. Liberty and responsibility. Care and concern for others. The enabling of dreams. The welcoming of immigrants and the renewal of a humane policy, no more stolen children!. We hoped we could undo the damages he has inflicted upon the environment, the sheer existentialist danger he has wrought upon the face of this country and the world.

How wrong I was, how hopelessly naive I was. How , perhaps hopelessly, how deeply, we are mired in the filthy swamp of his making, along with the disgusting complicity of the GOP. One by one, all the mannikins of the GOP drank the Kool-Aid, succumbed to the twisted siren song of a world where they maintained their presumed offices and power, even as they tossed that power over to the executive branch of the government, as they packed the federal benches with corrupt, disqualified members of the bar, condemned by the ABA. As we began to be ruled by Executive Orders, no more legislative voting possible, as the country was riven by a deep divide, by red/blue division, by the forgetting of the credo of America, of the unity to be found in our very name.

The worst blow is still unfolding. For the first time in our history, worse than any other previous election, even that of the Civil War time, we are in absolute danger of throwing away our country, of hearing no whispers any longer, but shouting of, rebellion, of civil war, of arming and protesting in the streets with those arms, of a deep and bitter division within this country that has thinking people wondering, terrified, fraught with horror at the very thought that we could be the end of the best governmental and philosophical experiment ever done on this earth. And here we are, throwing it away in our arrogance, in our apathy, in our cowardice, in our inability to see either the forest or the trees. For our willful blindness, morally vacant behavior.

And it never stops. An entire huge segment of the population has fallen under the mass illusion and hysteria of those who refuse to give up the best years of their lives, - and the worst of ours -  as McConnell, McCarthy, and others, the legislative members of the GOP,  refuse to admit their candidate lost, that Biden will be #46, that the people have spoken. Just yesterday they  refused to pass a resolution stating that very same statement, that Biden was to be inaugurated in January. Sheer and open defiance of the facts, of the truth, of the very core of America.

The man himself is soliciting rebellion, seeking to overturn the Constitution, suborning treason, and yes, that is what it is. He has enabled corruption to smother this country with moral sludge, so sad, so frightening, so awful, and so unfathomable, as so many have taken up his cudgels of hatred, of inefficiency and incapability, of corruption and lack of concern, for the tunnel vision of bottom line society. Worst of all is the fact of how many and willing are the people to pick up those same  lines of violence and lack of independent thought, of automaton behavior, and beat this country to death.

Yesterday the man himself, so dangerously demented,  trumped his own Trumpian behavior, demonstrated his hubris, as he tried to cover up for his multiple errors as he refused to buy more doses offered by Pfizer, the same company which refused federal funds as they raced to find a vaccine. He lost his bet on that one, and in his pettiness, his moodiness, his toddler temper tantrums, his lack of caring and concern for others, for recognition of the truths of life, refused those offers. Now we are sunk. Now we are way back in the line, watching as Britain opens their own mass vaccination program, as we stand and watch, sitting on our thumbs, or his thumb of his rather small hands, and rotate, So his answer to his mess? An Executive Order to the world to put "America First" in the vaccination protocol. The man is crazed. The man stands right alongside the mad dictators of world history. Shamefully, too many of our countrymen stand alongside him as well. Still.

The leadership vacuum of this country over the past four years has deeply harmed us, cut into our very foundations. Now we have a negotiator, a mediator, a man of calm, of bipartisanship, a man attached to reality, G-d willing, and American minds reopening, ears hearing again, eyes seeing again, thinking becoming an approved action once more. With a great deal of effort we can blockade all those erroneous and dangerous paths of the past four years, of the threatening vistas they present, and follow the right paths, the ones not taken under Trump and his evil, yes, evil, cohorts.

Perhaps when the bells ring out on Jan. 20, 2021, it will be a joyful sound, one signaling a new and hopeful era, one to be filled with hard work and hard times, but with light at the end of that tunnel, with a return to a proud and reformed America as the prize. As I head off now to get some concrete in my spine to fix some fractures, hopefully, we can inject some moral concrete into the moral spines of those so sadly lacking it over these past four years.

HEY, THERE'S ALICE!

      No, not the long suffering Alice of Ralph, but rather the Alice of Through the Looking Glass, she who went through the rabbit hole, the looking glass - take your choice of the version -  and found herself in a world gone mad. If you look carefully into the mists you might actually be able to see her, just ahead of us, just as confused and lost as we are. Along the way we might find additional seekers of direction, as we meet Hansel and Gretel, Robinson Crusoe, Dr. Livingston, and all the rest of the fictional and actual characters who were lost, in concert with the rest of the world, in more ways than one. But somewhere, somehow, there has to be a map, a person who actually might have a clue as to how to get to where we need to be.

Throughout history we have always heard, been warned, by versions of this: "To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all." Elie Wiesel.

  Time and again we have been asked, pleaded with, just to speak up, do something, say something, as the modern version goes. But perhaps we have done something far worse than silence. Perhaps we have encouraged too much talk, and instead of sense and morality, got a whole lot of bluster, hot air, which not only did not give out the right words, but actually pushed us into more of the morass of incivility, immorality, and could give a damn for anyone but me attitude! Positivity was drowned out by the vicious and virulent negativity. Not good.

We lost our good silence in a din of nastiness and the din goes on. Yes, more truthful words are beginning to come through, but they are still dimly heard, undergoing great stress for another 44 days. While we are now being reassured that science will lead the way now, fight the pandemic properly, we are also told that once again we have been shafted by the madman and his cohorts. 

In June, offered additional doses of vaccine to buy, to get into the arms of Americans, we now are told that the offer was refused. Now, instead, we are hearing more sound and fury signifying nothing, (thank you, Shakespeare), as the man blusters away, rounding that damned corner again, as we bump up against 300,000 dead, 15 million infected, 3,000 dying a day, shouting Americans first, even as England vaccinates her citizens - first. Once again, we Americans are lost. This time, lost in the weird world will signify death for too many, and the tears of joy and hugs of December reunions, will sour, turn into the tears of grief as the toll rises.

How do we get out of this mess? How and where do we find an exit, make a right turn into sanity, into truly doing the right thing. How do we remake ourselves so that we actually do the right thing as matter of habit, of course? It will be hard, and we might have to restart the engine with the kids, those bewildered kids of today who are confused as to the actions of the supposed adults in the room.

First we need to relearn, to reteach, how to evaluate our actions and responses, and like it or not, choose the right course of action. A person, real and a character in fact based fiction, stated, "If you choose to do the right thing, it's a conscious decision at first. Then it becomes second nature. You don't have to think about what is right because doing the right thing becomes who you are, like a reflex. Your actions with time become your character." It is the opposite of the mob rule and psychology encouraged by the GOP of today, the Party of Loeffler, a liar of the first order, and a bad omen if she is representative of new people in politics, particularly of the GOP.

Where is the AAA of the moral world? Where are those clever people who seem to know every route along the byways of America, showing us the right path to reach our destination? Where are they? Well, there are a few remaining ones, but are thin upon the ground. We must learn to be our own leaders. We must learn to recognize and accept truth, like it or not. We must learn to discern right from wrong. We must learn to accept that doing the right thing is not always easy, but is necessary. We must learn that the world is not only black and white but also a whole world of gray in between. Shouting and rigidity does not obscure that fact. That gray world is the world of sensitivity, of justice, of spirit, rather than only the word, of love and consideration. Of knowing within oneself that the right thing is being done.

Unlike authors, we cannot write our way into a happy ending in the last chapter or pages of the book. We cannot say or parrot some phrase and crow about finding the answer. No, we have to slog our way through, fight our own lazy or not so positive instincts. We have to learn to be good and then will be good, but it could take years. Meanwhile, what do we do with the other lost people? Do they remain in NeverNever Land or do they come with us, even against their will?

There are hard decisions and hard times ahead of us. We will be, are being, confronted right now, with difficult situations, with answers not so clearly seen. We will need to have patience, to relearn trust, to lose that mob psychology. To become people again. To hear and listen. To speak and reason, to compromise so as to progress and teach those who deny, that progress is good.

Finally, unfortunately, we are in that most difficult position right now in that we must undo much damage of the past five years before we can even begin to dismantle the  blockades on the roads going forward. Only when we have done that, at least even partially, will we be able to begin the true renewal of America, a chance to renew by reaccepting the values of the old America, the America of errors, some grievous errors, but the America that was willing to move forward, and it was, until it was not. No more. Enough. Ignore that "corner" and ...  Forward!

HOW TO BUILD A TABLE - OR NOT

     To build a table. If someone would have asked me if I could even contemplate building a table even just a few months ago, I would have laughed and asked if they were okay. I had been brave enough to buy and resurrect some tattered shadowbox drawers, fill them in, and just yesterday, finally was able to hang them on the wall. Beautiful! But- a table?! A table! Kidding, right?

I had even gone as far as buying a worn, paint stained stepladder, hoping to renew it with some paint and wood, and use it as a small display piece and it came out better than I had expected. Frankly, I love it and can take pride in actually having created or renewed or given new life and purpose to items otherwise declared pfft! And thus, the quarantining actually had at least one positive effect for me. And Gerry, as he was pulled into the ersatz woodshop as I needed some of the tools to be held in steady hands. We loved working together in new ways with new outcomes.

But a table? A table! No, not a dining room size table; nor even a bistro size one. Nope, I tempered dreams with reality and settled on a side table size. Then the preparation. Read as many articles, watch as many videos as I could find about such a creation. And my head spun! So many. So many different choices, ranging in difficulty and I had to rein in dreams with reality.

Along the way I fell in love with the infinite beauty and variety of wood. I learned new terms,- blanks, burls, knife scale, hairpin legs, and all the many ways to attach legs to a table. After all, the idea was to build one that did not collapse when a glass of water and a magazine was placed upon it! And the choices - of wood, of size and color, the very formation of the top, one or two layered, accents, whatever! The head continued to spin, but a nice spin, not a dizzying or frightening one, but in fact, rather encouraging. Empowering, actually and not to forget, no big tools to drill holes, to have fancier leg attachments, as all had to be done by hand and with hand tools. The mere thought of going into the woodworking shop here and learning to use those larger tools was rather intimidating. So, nope, hand tools and hand power all the way.

I began to sketch out the layout in my mind. I rummaged through my wood supplies and ordered more to enlarge the choices. Now having a beautiful selection of gorgeous wood  from all over the world, including Japan, Hawaii, all over America, natural and used, planed and rough, barn wood and cedar, all just calling out to be used. And now to work.

And then life intervened. Bad back, two major falls, a fractured hip and a compression fracture in the spine, a procedure for that this week, limited energies and stamina, and there sits my beautiful wood, my table real only in my mind, as I have figured and refigured it over and over, always trying for a better effect. And it will happen. It will be built, all the better for the delay, for the fine tuning prior to execution of the proposed design. Meanwhile, I enjoy looking through the beautiful selection of woods, marveling at the infinite variety and beauty, wondering why I had never known all these different woods before, never appreciated the beauty to be found in an old piece of barn or fence.

So a different reality intruded again. A procedure required new steps, testing again for COVID-19, staying close to home so exposure was limited, medication planning, care planning, being careful so the fractured hip would heal without surgery. And then, again, I began to wonder. If one simple person had to do such planning for a one day visit to a hospital, or for building a table, and then for a delay in that, then why was it not so assumed on the federal level, on the state and local levels, and on  the street level, that this pandemic needed planning if we were to conquer it, and prepare for the next one coming down the line.

 Yes, there will be more, for we have crunched the world together, brought about configurations never ever seen or imagined before, as the world of humans, of Nature, of animals and birds, of the microbe world, all met with outcomes not always positive. Hence, the virus, hence, the rest. We will need precise planning, and enough maneuvering room within those plans, to be able to adjust to differences, and save people from infection and /or death. It can be done. It should have been done. It was not.

Perhaps we need to include a new course in the syllabi of master programs called Building a Table 101. Complete the project, criticize its completion with suggestions for improvement or why one method was better than another. Then expand that planning to a world problem. Perhaps a simple exercise in planning, in forethought, in anticipation, in contemplation of results, in following the thinking through before actually taking a physical step in the real world. Perhaps that would help. 

Perhaps then we will not have to read the following. 

"I think by the end of the year we'll be at about 300,000 deaths and by the end of January we could be pushing 400,000 deaths. We're going to see consistently probably 2,000 deaths per day and as we get into January toward the peak, we're going to see over 3,000 deaths per day unfortunately, and maybe get close to 4,000 deaths per day. So this is going to get a lot worse before it starts to resolve."

“There are, of course, many other people, unfortunately, that have comorbidities that live outside of care facilities, that it will take more time to immunize them.”

Perhaps then we will not literally have to plan for a seriously real danger, get our lives in order, accept the fact that we, or a loved one, might die alone, in agony, without comfort, other than a tired and devoted nurse or orderly or anyone, someone who might have found the precious time to be there, to hold a hand, to enable a final video conversation.

So, go, plan a table. Plan for its completion and for every step in between. Demand that our legislators go back to school and take the course. Exhibit the finished products along with the written evaluations of them, along with suggestions for improvements and smoother planning and procedure. Simple enough, yet we, along with so many others, refuse to plan, refuse to accept reality and necessity, and thus, our tables are collapsing, that glass of water and magazine proving too much for its delicate balancing stance. Shame on us. Shame on us for not planning, for not understanding and for allowing others to get away with it - in the world, in the country, in the state and in Century Village.

Loeffler dodges question on Trump's election claims

US Coronavirus: As daily case average nears 200,000, experts say 'behavget our lives in order, accept the fact that we, or a loved one, might die alone, in agony, and without comfort other than a tired and devoted nurse or orderly or anyone, someone, who might find it possible to be there, to enable a last conversation. For us, for me, for the elderly, for those with comorbidities - a new term I could have lived without learning - the risk is great and there but for lack of planning for table building we find oursleves..

We can do better. We must do better. Those figures presented to us, that fortune told, is simply not acceptable. It cannot be allowed. 

 

THE DARKNESS AND THE LIGHT

      "And the Lord said let there be light.....and He saw that it was good." Yes, light is good. It clears the corners of the mind, of the psyche of a nation, as the light bares all to see, for the truth to emerge, for humanity to improve itself under clear conditions. People engage with each other in the light, it emboldens them to start new ventures, while the dark intimidates, creates new boundaries unseen in the light. So which have we chosen and where are we now?

Well, last night I watched a program that contained many folk songs and I loved singing along, though I must say that I have heard better presentations. But the spirit was there, so I sang. And then I pondered. I remembered the enthusiasm, the hope, the idealism, with which we sang those songs as teens and young adults. I remembered those hopes, the dreams we had, the light we thought we would bring to the world, to those whose thinking needed the sunlight, to be exposed for the ugliness and falsehood it embodied.

And it became dark. Oh, the screen of the computer shed light, there was another lamp on, and ambient light from other rooms, but the darkness was still there. And the numbers of darkness rolled by. 46 days. 145 mad tweets. 180,000+ dead. 450,000 predicted. Almost 15 million infected. Millions unemployed and even more millions hungry, cold, hopeless. So, as the words rang out to "The Times They are a Changin'," I wondered. Are they really? Or are we still in the same old, same old rut, that dangerous rut of life which is actually more welcoming of despair than life.

I recalled the song wherein a line went with the stream of hatred - one group of people hating another, who hated another, who hated another, unending, everlasting, the same issues of color, of religion. The same stupid issues which forget that underneath those differences, we are all the same, physically, and with the same need for the same basics of life, along with the trimmings of hope and a future for their kids, a better life for the next generation. So are we there yet?

 No, we are not. In fact, I believe that we are further and farther away than ever. The hatred encouraged over the past four years has taken apart much of the machinery of a better world, created even deeper divides among people, stressing differences, even false ones, and no, the times, well, no, they are not changing at all, unless it is going down the wrong direction.

The darkness invading the thoughts grew even more as "Blowin' in the Wind" was sung. The same old damned questions. The same old damned weaknesses and wrong judgements of humanity. The same futile hopes and the same dashing of those hopes. The same issues that are never approached correctly, never to be solved, as we whirl around in the same eddy of hate, of war, of hopelessness, of denial.

 how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?

No matter how many times we try to answer that question, the only answer that comes to mind is that these cannonballs cease to fly when there are "better" substitutes for them, as the missiles fly, as the anti missile missiles fly and on it goes, war too often the preferred approach to problems.

The seeking dove cannot find peace, and the very earth crumbles into the sea. How predictive was that, as we now watch the cities and countries of the world become inundated by floodwaters of the encroaching and devouring seas and oceans. And yet, there are still the deniers, even as they wade through chest high waters.

Freedom, reality, light and hope, a better life, a freer life, a life of compassion, of equality, of security - all mentioned here. And of course, the eternal question - when will mankind ever see the truth, ever realize that one cannot hide from the truth. Adam could not hide from G-d, Cain could not hide his crime from his Lord, the people of the earth could not hide their sins and neither can we. The only difference is that our sins are multiplied by increasing technologies, allowing us to murder not one, but thousands, tens of thousands, millions, and we never stop. We continue to deny, to look away, to avoid the truth, to change the truth, distort it into what never was.

How long will humanity remain deaf and  blind to the deaths? How much longer can this continue? How many roads, we are asked, must a man, a person, walk down, before he realizes the manhood, the humanity, of all people? It seems there is never an answer. The darkness increases with the last question. 

how many deaths will it take till he knows

That too many people have died?

  That answer is blowing in the wind

                       the answer is blowing in the wind 

 -as lost, as hard to grasp, as any of the others, for it, too, is blowin' in the wind, that fickle, everchanging strength and direction wind.

So let us sing those old songs, for they remain as relevant today as they were fifty and sixty years ago. But let us add a chorus, a new refrain, as we add in a true answer, a deliberate attempt to reach into that wind and grasp the answer, no more to be blowing in the winds of the world, of life itself.

We have that opportunity now. We have a long and hard road ahead of us. But we can do it, if we but put our collective minds and energies together, strive together, succeed together. Put hatred behind us, forget the divisive and acidic lies, and move on into a brighter and better world. a lighter world, where darkness has its place, but not in the extinguishing of the light of hope, of progress, of shared humanity.

Am I a hopeless dreamer? Perhaps. But dreamers move the world. Improve the world. Dare to ask not only why, but as RFK said, ask why not, why can we not make it better. We must. That answer is not blowing in the wind at all. It is stark reality.

"CANCEL EVERYTHING"

      This was the order of LA. For safety. For life. And it appears that people are actually listening, as LA became a ghost town. It seems reasonable for the rest of our afflicted country to do the same, as we breach, daily, the most horrific record numbers one can think of. Warned of numbers of 3 to 4 thousand deaths a day, we thought we would have to be deep into the winter for those numbers. Yesterday, we hit 2,879 dead for the day. Darkest days of winter have not even been reached yet. Over 14 million cases that we know of, and climbing by leaps and bounds, as we bump up against a record breaking 280,000 dead. The numbers are numbing, but we must react with pain and determination each time we hear them, for if not, we are consigning ourselves to death, for so many, for too many. 

It matters not any more whether we lay blame for this runaway pandemic on Trump and crew or not. The fact and the reality are that we are in deep trouble. Even as we began to feel some hope, a vaccine, more than one, coming down the pike, we hear that Pfizer is slashing its expected shipments of doses in half, due to supply chain problems. That will not ease as the pandemic grows, as more people fall ill, as more companies shut down, as unemployment grows.

So to whence do we look for aid in this terrible time of ours. Well, we could place all our diminishing resources into the pandemic fight. But evidently  Trump and his numb supporters feel that building that Wall along the border, crushing the rights of property owners, ruining migration trails for animals, cutting off cities and towns from resources, are far more important than saving lives. 

For sure, there are far more important, urgent, critically urgent things, that Trump could do, leave just a tad of a better legacy. But he is too busy ranting and raving insanely for 46 minutes. He is too busy playing a useless musical chairs game that will evidently last till Jan. 20, 2021. He is too busy raising dollars that need to be spent in places other than paying down his campaign expenses or subsidizing the just about treasonous behavior regarding the election and its outcome.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we evidently have continued our move into high school politics and bad behavior. Not enough that we have two sororities fighting each other, all the time during which there are enough women issues to unite the two groups. Nope, now we have that idiot, Rubio, fighting a most ridiculous war of words that he is bound to lose as he is dealing with AOC who has far more brains than Rubio, though she needs to learn where to employ them better. But there they go tweeting away at each other, comparing deeds, falling into this juvenile behavior encouraged by Trump and his own tantrums of a toddler.

"It's going to be hard," says Biden. There are certainly no cakewalk paths around and he knows it. What we need to do is face reality, as he is doing, tempering his goals and paths to those goals in such a manner as to reach at least some of them. This is the man we elected, the man who can talk with both sides of the aisle, make deals, and move this country along to where it needs to be. Glamorous? No. Exciting? No, Charismatic? No. But these are not what we need and we are getting what we need from him and Harris. There will be airtime and discussion time for things other than the latest outrage of the deranged man and his supporters.

Those deranged include McConnell, who is refusing to state publicly that Biden will be number 46. I wonder just what his point is? Does he think that like a toddler, he can make things happen if only he wishes hard enough and long enough, if he promises G-d to be good, whatever that means to him!? How blind and uncaring and egotistical can he be and for how long? Evidently forever, he thinks. Much to the detriment of this country.

This willful blindness, this persistence in doing the wrong thing, believing the wrong thing, the dangerous thing, the harmful thing, runs like a stream of poison through the body politic of this country. States, counties, cities and towns all have their naysayers, their truth deniers, the enemies of democracy, the wannabe petty dictators, and so, too, do we here in the Village.

We. too, have many issues that have grown progressively more dangerous and serious to our future over the past ten years or so that David has pulled the strings. The needs of repair to infrastructure grows by leaps and bounds as he persists in the piecemeal manner, wasting monies we do not have to waste, unable to get a proper contract going because he wasted all that money over the years, with that elephant in the room always there - the unbelievably awful paving contract he and Black foisted upon us. That almost broke us, saved from that by Dorothy, may she rest in peace. I remember how that brave and determined woman stood up in meetings, at Executive Board meetings - remember those - and faced down all the nastiness, the lies, the questioning of the truth.

David Israel has used the pandemic as a cover to shore up his weakened control over the Village. The last election victors from the Executive Board have never met, are as useless as a piece of paper in a rainstorm. We apparently can meet for movies safely, but cannot meet for an assembly of delegates in the same room. We are deemed useless, inimical even, to his mad desires and plans, as we watch the Village spend where it need not, must not, and not have the funds where they are so desperately needed. We are walking into a dangerous time as we negotiate the next multi year contract, but what is going on, what has been discussed, what are the provisions, what about answers to deep concerning issues of and to the Village - nothing! And that falls squarely upon his shoulders. Even as Ed Grossman, Olga Wolkenstein, a candidate for VP in the March election, even as they fight on, determined to break that blockade of the road for us, David continues on, coopting The Rag, denying rights to residents, refusing to show his face anywhere in public, maintaining a siege mentality in the UCO building.

Time for all of us to pick up our feet, perhaps march on his building, or circle the UCO building, announce, openly and forcefully, our disgust and dissatisfaction with the current situation and demand change. So fill out those biographies, flood The Reporter email with them,  run for office, and let us get back on track, back on the path to success and a future. Here and in the country.

Let us all stay safe, behave wisely and well, discern the sham and the charlatan from the real deal. It is within our power. There is nothing to fear. I hear tell that David has announced more than once that he hates me - and I wear that badge with pride. So should we all until we finally rescue our beloved home.

GOTTA BE THE WATER! YA' THINK?

      Ever look around now and wonder what the hell happened? How did the entire population, or close enough, of America turn rabid? When did reasoning rush out the door and insanity come pouring in through the back door and all the windows? How is it that an entire segment of humanity is able, willing, and even eager, to turn off the dial for reasoning , for truth, for desirable behavior, and turn up the dial for utter craziness? Gotta be the water!

Pardon. Excuse me. Sorry. All words that go together, many times used when something is not heard, or misheard, during a conversation. Yet these are also words that should come together when talking of pardoning one's misdeeds. Rationality says that one can be pardoned for crimes, for wrong actions, if one is guilty of doing such deeds. Can one be pardoned for anything and everything with no confession or admittance? Taking a plea deal in court involves confession of what one did wrong so how does that not hold here?

How can the entire Trump family be pardoned if they have supposedly done nothing wrong? Well, yes, we know the corruption, the bribery, the cronyism, the stock manipulations all that went on that should not have. However, they have always denied their guilt and complicity in these misdeeds so now a pardon? Great way to do business. Do whatever and not to worry, for I will pardon you. Good dad lessons to children! NOT! And yet, there it is. No excuse me. No sorry. Just give me the bag and I'm off for more. Nothing changes.

The insanity rages on. A month and a half till we get rid of that man, at least from the WH, and still he rants and raves and threatens firings, the latest being Barr, who evidently forgot for a second or two that he is supposed to play the big, cuddly, loyal teddy bear to his owner, Trump. So big deal if he is fired. It is not like that job he is in right now has a long term future beyond Jan. 20, 2021. And yet the world claims shock. Why? The man has been doing this for five years, and before that too, in business, and will till his last day on earth or at least till all realize he is incompetent to run his own life. We need to stop reporting his every insane move, stop the attention that he craves, and get on with normal life - and check that water in the WH!

We have more serious problems that cannot be blamed on the water we drink, but apparently on the air we breathe. The numbers are runaway figures. They change in horrific amounts by the minute, with each number disappearing, with the import of them vanishing into the air itself as we forget that each number is a life, and the surrounding lives, a catastrophe in so many ways.  Over 100,000 in hospitals and the shock to the system, the damage it will do to health care in general, the statement that by sometime in January we could reach 3,000 to 4,000 dead a day, well, yesterday we already hit 2,700 dead! Closing in on 14 million - 14 MILLION - infections and over 270,000 deaths. And the 'good' news keeps coming, even as there are idiots who still refuse to mask up, who maintain this is a hoax, or just a bit more severe flu. No big deal. Uh huh. Right up until they lay there gasping for breath or are staring into a screen as they watch their beloved parent, child, friend, sibling die alone, a hard and lonely death. So is it the water? Is it the air? Did we all get hit on the head with a steel pole and lose our sense?

People are beginning to talk of the vaccine, almost with a sense of messianic fervor. But there will be months before the vaccine gets to all and some, some will be gone before the help arrives. Some will be unable to be helped by the vaccine. Others will suffer severe or even mild side effects. Some will breathe a sigh of relief. But there is so much time in between now and the promised, hoped for end. So much space there and so much distrust.

We have lost our faith in our government. We have lost our faith, perhaps naive, that the representatives we sent to office would hold their responsibilities, their sense of duty, deep within their hearts and do what they swore to do. We were were wrong too many times, especially these past four years. Perhaps we need to clean the pipes, check all the plumbing, filter the water, filter the air, and filter the thinking - or lack thereof - that goes on or not in our minds.

We need to use those words - pardon, excuse me, sorry, far more often, with real and true emotion and promise behind them. With that, we can drink deeply of any water, switch to soda or juice, for it should not make a difference. The blame and the cure lie within us, always have and always will. Let us own up to the facts, ask for pardon, for forgiveness, make apologies that come from  the heart and let us get started on the path to rebuild this nation, to save the population, to do the right things.

Why? Because we must. Simple as that.

THE COST OF THINKING

      Sometimes, especially in the middle of the night, as the world is in darkness and the eyes and minds of people are closed for a time, I lay there, staring into the darkness, brain wired up and firing away, and I think, maybe, it is better to be able to turn it off rather than have it on nonstop at the wrong times! So I try, but it is an effort doomed to failure, especially if I pick up a book in the hopes of dozing off, for the midnight books often lead to more thoughts and off to the races we go! 

Of late, what with the discussions going on as to which group gets the vaccines first, I have been thinking. Surely the health care providers in hospitals, the COVID wards, the orderlies, the EMT, the Urgent Care providers all deserve that shot. Front lines must be protected. But has anyone wondered what would happen or will happen should all get it at the same time? All down with the same side effects, the same fevers, the same fatigue?! Not good, to say the least. So has anybody taken that into account?

And the next group? Will everyone suddenly have heart conditions or COPD or diabetes, or whatever qualifying condition they can find, thus cutting into the line? Does the government have any plans as to how to prioritize, fairly, responsibly? Doubt that. No, make that highly doubt that.

In the present world, where all our chickens of the past apparently have come home to roost, much of the nighttime thinking runs along the lines of reevaluating the past and making connections between life lived and life being lived. One evaluates the worthiness of the life lived and wants to make sure there remains a relevancy to the present and future. Being a women of a certain age, shall we say, living in a community of similar people, does not make us brain dead or irrelevant, and thus, the thoughts.

In fact, I believe that we waste so much of the ideas and the experiences of our seniors. I look around at the former teachers, medical personnel, insurance specialists, law enforcement personnel, crafts people, artisans, shopkeepers, etc. and I wonder why retirement means write offs of valuable resources. Why is it that we think the past is that - the past - and there is no further use of it or of and for partakers of that past.

Contrary to that way of thinking, of writing off and discounting the past, here are three lines from a novel just finished. "The past shadows us. The past defines us. In the end, the past claims us all." Think of the truth and the wisdom found in those simple three sentences. We cannot ignore nor outrun the past. It is who we were and who we are and quite realistically speaking, who we will be. Yes, people can change their lines of thoughts, can reevaluate, can atone, or turn wrong, go down the wrong path, but there is always a connection, always a line running through one's lifetime and one's thinking.

Lately, it appears that people are trying to negate this common sense realization. To them, there is no past, only a constant now, and there is no connection, at least logically speaking, truthfully speaking, honestly speaking, between one present and the next present. Thus, we have all that newspeak language wherein on Monday at 9 AM one sentence is uttered and on Tuesday at 10 PM a contradictory statement is made and no reference to the first one is made at all; in fact, it is as if it were never made in the first place. The same with actions or inaction. There is thus no responsibility, no accountability, and apparently, no consequences coming due, at least in the damaged  minds of these thinkers, if I dare use that word in this context.

So Barr corrupts the complete Justice Department with false claims of fraud and desperately needed investigations, and then he says the opposite. A bit more moral spine, perhaps, but too little too late. However, the present is always the present in their minds and there is no past. People refuse to connect the lines, refuse to see the anger their behavior has stoked, and the consequences coming due as the bills are marked past due. Red striped envelopes, third time warning. Last chance.

The same goes for all those who bought into the deranged statements and theories, the outrageousness of Trumpian statements and who now are upset that they are being castigated by that very same hero and role model. Now they say they are innocent of fraud, have done their jobs right but the taint of the past/present is always there. One wonders how trust can ever be trusted again as it turned from a  stout principle of ethical life into an ephemeral wisp wafting through the air of the past/present. Of the future? Forget that!

Whether the one at fault is on the federal level or state or local, of Village, they are all guilty of this deluded thinking, of taking along other souls with them, of deluding and mesmerizing the mobs, and of refusing to step down when finally recognized for what and who they are. Trump threatens he will return in 2024. Who cares at this point. How many more of us will be dead by then, by one means or another? How will the world have changed by then, and how will the man have changed? How bad will his dementia be by that time? Can he ever outrun his past, his horrific uncaring and damaging actions towards all? I doubt that.

In my mind I wonder if we can ever undo the damage of the past few years, on whatever level. Nationally, we are truly teetering and tottering. The workload is enormous, the country divided, the extremes of the right leading to extremes of the left - action and reaction - and no one is talking to anyone else. The dead wood remain in their seats of power, such as it is, refusing to read the writing on the walls and scram! Eventually, one way or another, by Nature or Man, they will be out but the damage done in the interim, well, just look around, be it at the nation or at our own Village here, the work neglected and the work needing to be done.

So who is at fault for all this, for the downfalls and the downturns, for the impossibly stupid and dangerous thoughts and actions? Well, the author, Connelly, states that there is a law of innocence. That law states that one has to find the guilty party in order to prove innocence of blame, not just a not guilty verdict. I wonder, though, can that be done here? Does it really matter? 

Yes, for there are those among us who are more inclined to take the low road, to disregard the needs of others, the right ways, the ethical ways, but there are those of us who simply looked away, wanting not to be bothered, or worse, agreed with those amoral and immoral people. Who is to blame and who is innocent? We all are and no one is. Put that in our pipes and let us smoke that and finally come up with better thinking, better understanding of past, present and future, of the importance of using all sources, of the critical need for truth, honor honesty and morality in our governments. And the realization that our pasts affect the present and go well into the future. 

We are who we are. We are who we make ourselves out to be. We are who we let others force us or convince us to be. The choice is ours, difficult or not.

 And that is what happens when one cannot sleep at night. 

FOR REAL? TRULY? BACK IN NEVER NEVERLAND...

      Yup. Truly. Almost a month after the election results, the last two states certified the ballot count results, and yet we are still fighting the fight, an alley cat's fight in a barrel with the lid trembling on top, threatening to fall off, change the balance and then - it is anyone's guess. Will the barrel roll? Will the lid shatter? Will other cats become involved? Has this ever happened before?

Well, folks, hate to break the news, but we are not done yet; there is new tree growth in the forest of denial, in the recreated court of the mad King George III in the persona of Trump. Denying reality does not change reality, but it sure does create an atmosphere of anxiety, enmity and instability. This, in the once proudest and most stable nation in the world. And yet, the thrills keep coming, one after the other and it is easy for one to wonder if somewhere there was rift in the time/space continuum and we fell through to another world, similar, yet so different. 

Now prepare for the last ditch stand of the more insane, least attached to reality GOP members who will push for an attempt from a joint meting of House and Senate to change the electors and deny Biden his office. I doubt it will work but it will add to the angst, to the worry, to the uncertainty, and then, when it fails, then what? Revolution? Blood in the streets? When does it stop? That barrel is rolling around, off balance, ready to tilt and it will be us, doing the tilting.

Well, like it or not, this is the world we now have and we must learn to adjust. Never again will we be able to trust all our people, for some, including government officials, appear ready to sell out the country, to give way to personality cults and dictatorial rulers. We have reality deniers, so sure of the reality they have conjured up that they foam at the mouth in its defense. We have absolute facts denied, with others following along, from minor to major. Does anyone really care that Trump now needs to insist that the first all female team of advisers was theirs and not Biden's? Where does this pettiness end? Next up? The challenging sorority of Congress - the Freedom Group v. the Squad. Really? Will we have pledge week, hazing, will they have to wear beanies, with rotor blades? Wear colors? What the heck are we doing?

The GOP remains quiet in the face of the facts and the demented ravings and actions of Trump. The numbers are horrific, and there is still arguing over who gets the vaccine, can it even be trusted and how to distribute as the requirements are out of the capability of primary care doctors. So, what then? Nothing is worth anything on paper unless it can be translated into facts on the ground and this administration does not believe in the value of facts! How will it mesh with the program and plans of Biden? Check with me in another month and a half if we are all still here! No LOL on that either!

So the President is sent to voicemail, accuses a former ally of all sorts of things, funny, if not so sad, and the numbers keep haunting us. Going on to 14 million infections, 93,000 in hospitals and governors pleading for medical personnel to unretire, come back, for they are desperately needed. We are bumping up at the edge of 270,000 dead and expect to pass that in a day. How can we be expected to right this country, to stabilize that wobbly barrel, to quiet the cats' chorus and futile fighting even as we need to save our people? How? Way above my pay grade, though agreeing to put down arms, agreeing to cut the sorority week, agreeing on priorities would be a good few steps. Meanwhile, 40,000 children starve in London and guess how many in the USA! Shame on us all!!

I think I would rather be over there in Never Neverland, though even there, danger was around and struck at the most unexpected times. There is apparently no place safe without a great deal of hard work, major input of energy and ideas, of enthusiasm, of trust building, of planning and of honesty. And that goes for all levels of government and administration. So once we fix up that little thing called federal level government, or at least get it started on the right highway, we can turn our attention and efforts to the other guys, the ones like here in CV or the state levels, wherever they think they can hide and ignore their responsibilities and consequences of actions and inaction. Take your choice. Please!

No vacation time around here and elsewhere. We are responsible for making this world a better place for all, for ourselves and for others. We need to get out and off that wobbly, untrustworthy barrel, find firm ground and build, rebuild from there. That is the reality we need. Truly.

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE.....

      To be what, exactly? The season where we are to be jolly, merrily rolling along, overspending on nonsense that will shortly be stuffed in closets, to be donated or regifted a few months later. Part and parcel of the whole season, along with the intricate planning and logistics necessary to gather the clan. This year, though, is different. A space wanderer who left earth a year ago would not recognize the season here and would wonder what the hell happened.

What happened is that the chickens came home to roost or the wages of sin were fully repaid, or any other cliche or idiom that all state the same thing: We goofed - major. We are now reaping the crop of what we planted, and it ain't fun, is it? We pushed, shoved, encouraged, and developed a society where we forgot the others of the world. Smug and snug, or so we thought, in our own little pods, before the pods of today, we pushed away images of growing homeless encampments, including the growth of family population of said camps. We stepped over the increasing numbers, once again, of those sleeping on the sidewalks of our cities, in doorways and on subway grates. Oh, a time or two, or in a fixed routine with a "pet" beggar, we would throw in a few coins or bills into a cup, a hat, or an instrument case and marvel at the talent one finds in subway tunnels. And on we went with our lives.

But life tends to catch up. Nothing is for nothing and bills come due. We are now in  the bill paying phase of life and it is a struggle, not a pretty scenario. Frankly, I wonder if and when we can ever get out of this phase, how long it will go on and should we be lucky and talented and wise enough to rebalance, to fix and mend, to unite in  a search for a fair and equitable society - well, will we? Ever? Or have we totally lost our way, beyond all bread crumbs, GPS and Waze help, no British accented sexy voice to guide us home or to whatever destination we aim for.

The milk of human kindness. That is the ingredient we have shed along the way. We ignore the fact that some "improvements" crush the hopes of others. They trash the dreams of others. That need not be. For the sake of a few dollars or even millions, why do we cede to the corporations the right to amass revolting amounts of money, even as they lay off people? Why do we tell people to tighten their belts, to buck up, tough times are coming, are here already, even as there is overconsumption by others to the point of nausea? Why do we throw out such excess food while other families are staring into the windows, the hunger gnawing away at their insides, the hunger not only for food, but for a life, for a future for their kids, for a fair shot?

We have allowed elected officials to degenerate into a crowd of incompetent, selfish, corrupt individuals whose interest in governing grows only as it attaches to their bottom lines, be it in power or wealth. The people they represent are of concern during election and campaign season and then back in the closet of who cares they go, not even to be regifted! 

We have elected and then enabled a deranged man in the throes of growing dementia to rule the day, to drag along the moral weaklings of the GOP who to this day cannot find their spine, their balls, their moral point of gravity to call Joe Biden the President-elect. They allow the utter dangerous nonsense to go on, to challenge the foundations of our democratic society. All because they are afraid of that deranged man. Worse, they continue to give him credence and allow him airtime to spout his dangerous garbage.

Even as there are good people who struggle to care for others, for themselves, to keep a steady hand on reality, there are so many that fight against that. In one place they paste up stickers that they are all around, along with their swastika symbols. In another they leave nooses, drawn on walls, or hanging from a doorway. Or we hear about the brown criminals ruining our society. Well, do I have news for you! And no, it is not raining men - though we could use some real men right now! It is we, us, who are ruining our society, from top to bottom, from left to right.

So from a petty dictator in the Village, along with other petty people to madmen in office, brother! Do we have work to do. An editor of a useless piece of propaganda here in the Village styles herself as the lord of all that is printed. Never mind the motto of a free press, for she favors censorship, particularly censorship of anything that might smack of criticism of her Lord and Master, David Israel, even as he descends more and more into a paranoid state of secrecy and opaqueness of mind and action. And meanwhile, as nothing of opposition gets printed, letters to the editor thrown out, the Village descends into perilous times.

People who are encouraging reform, pushing for a better society, are demeaned, called names and one name in particular puzzles me. That is the term socialist, which  has come to be a pejorative one. People are 'accused' of being socialist. Well, okay, one can differ in thinking, but those who shout the loudest are the ones who benefit the most from that 'socialism'. Medicare. Social Security. SNAP. Agriculture subsidies. Federal education funds. Funding for infrastructure. All taken even as they shout socialist, with a venomous tone of accusation. They forget that it was the socialists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fighting and shouting in the streets, striking, even as the scabs and the cops beat on them, even then, they persisted and to them we owe the thanks for the better life that we have been lucky and blessed enough to have. Should we turn back the clock on all this because some call it tainted, 'socialist' - ooohhhh! Should we send the kids back to work for ten hours a day?

And now, we are in an era that is losing it all. We shoot missiles at other missiles, so other countries build better ones, even as people starve, lose jobs, fall ill and die. We marvel at the huge and many homes of the absurdly wealthy, the conspicuous consumption, even as too many in the world live on streets, shacks and shanties, tin sheds and cardboard boxes. We argue over trillions of dollars even as a few dollars would help so many back onto a ladder of life, of hope, of goodness and dreams. 

So 'tis the season to think, to evaluate, to come down strongly on the side of humanity. Let us give the gift of life to those who need it so. Let us remember the true values of Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanza, a triumvirate of holidays with moral, ethical, and human rights underpinnings - if we continue to recognize those values.

There is always hope if we but look for it in the right places. Let us certainly give gifts, but make them gifts of purpose, of fun, and yet gifts of seriousness and commitment as well. That will indeed be a good season and despite that deranged man's rantings - A Happy Holiday Season to all - Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanza and any other seasonal holiday that I have missed or do not know of. We are all G-d's creatures and so our holidays remind us. Let us share those reminders, share in their values and spread the joy.

 

DOES IT? REALLY?

     What is it that really matters? Probably everything at one time or another, though much of the "mattering" is temporal, fleeting, though of critical importance at the time. Especially to the individual. An example of such would be the anxiety dialed up into the stratosphere when one has to take a major qualifying test. That anxiety begins to fade as soon as the last bubble or essay is finished. Done and over, cannot undo and it is out of one's sphere of worthy worrying over items.

  However, there are things and concepts worth worrying over. Such a concept is integrity. We are told by an embattled Republican that "Integrity does matter." And he stuck to his guns. Finally. A GOP member who decided that it was time to stand free and clear from the lies and madness of Trump. Hopefully, he will stand as an example of courage in a world gone insane, led by insanity rather than humanity, an era where the emperor did not even have to tell people he wore clothes. They imagined it all for themselves.

So Biden won, by the largest popular vote edge ever in our history, but then again, he did not win. Uh uh. Trump won by "a lot" in Trump's own words and deluded mind. That is bad enough, worse, even, when no one in that GOP party, inside that WH, had the integrity to say out loud the word - deranged, demented, insane, lack of reality. The choice was clear, but the choice was never made, as the staffers and Party members became part and parcel of the shame, of the horrifying scenario we presented to the world. Integrity was invisible.

Now we need the return of integrity to the nation. Enough of this nonsense. Two idiot women, of course with FOX ties, made this insane and inane statement.  "Voter fraud is: impersonating people at the polls, false registrations, duplicate voting, fraudulent use of absentee ballots, buying votes, illegal assistance at the polls, ineligible voting like illegal aliens voting, dead people voting, altering the vote count, ballot petition fraud. Those are some of the fraudulent activities,"  Every single one of these supposed pathways to fraud cannot take place and certainly while errors might happen, it is nigh unto impossible to do this on a mass scale and do so in such a restricted way as to cherry pick one candidate and not affect the down slate. It is just nonsense. 

Dangerous nonsense. Poisonous to our democracy, our trust in our supposed to be guiding principles, and just not able to be implemented. I worked polls and know that, know the safeguards, know the poll workers who come out, work hard, and aid in the  most basic of all rights- the right to vote in a free and clear election. The right to trust in that truth.

So enough with that. The votes were cast, the die was cast, and now we have enough problems in reality to deal with. Predictions are being made of 4,000 deaths a day and G-d alone knows the total bottom line by the time the vaccine is fully ready, distributed, and works with no serious side effects - like death! It also needs the trust of the people in this vaccine, despite all the lies of the prior President, all the filthy politics that went into this program along with all the neglect and incompetence. Trust. Integrity. So important and so noticeably absent these past four years.

So why the continued belief in the fake reality ginned up by the deluded and enabled man? Because people are lacking the courage and integrity to admit they made a mistake. They chose the wrong dude, fell for his tricks, became part of the unthinking mob, searching for an answer, an easy one, for targets to scapegoat - and now, to admit that failing  ...  well, that is hard to do. But it must be done if we are to return to being one nation, one America. Then, and only then, can we look towards victory in the war against the pandemic, victory and success in helping people now going hungry and homeless and hopeless and fixing our economy, reversing the damage done to us all in every which way by the prior administration. Integrity needs to rule.

We must not forget, however, the integrity that has gone missing in the local areas. Here in CV we are seeking integrity from UCO under every rock and clump of grass. We are finding very little, as integrity loses the daily battle there. What are they doing there? What decisions are they making that will screw us short and long term? Where does one go for information as we are blocked from UCO. Why are we not using Zoom? 

When and how are the elections to be held with David Israel and henchmen refusing to have assemblies and meetings, blaming it on COVID. Wrong, so wrong, especially when proper rules and spacing are so possible and the theater is now open!!. Yet the chief liar, the chief integrity-less one there, persists in office and the deluded keep voting him in, by smaller and smaller margins, but still there. Yet there is some hope, as more and more people are talking of his troubled behavior and statements but what about this year's election? Finally, the information is in that propaganda rag, the Reporter, and separated by ads. Brilliant!!

As far as we know right now, the only things going on in UCO are investigations, hanging out, eating lots of our paid for candy, idling and lolling around, the work falling on the few who value integrity, and of course, the barrier building of Fausto. Great, thanks for volunteering for that, but is that the best use of your time? Surely there are many here who can do that, the woodworking shop is now open and perhaps now is the time to open this Village again, open UCO, open elections, have some integrity in ongoing form and for the benefit of the Village.

 Infrastructure. The new Agreement? The schedule for opening the Village? Refunds of rent money for buildings we could not use - a la the Millennium Agreement? Crumbling roads and walkways and wasting of more money in piecemeal manner, done and brought to you by the very same people who screwed us the last paving job. Why, that would be David Israel! Who else? What is going on with the golf course property? What will be with the drainage should a development be built? What will be with the toxic dust? Where the hell is UCO and its officers?

Right now we have Ed Grossman fighting the good fight. Let us send in Olga Wolkenstein to work with him, as VP. She knows the agreements cold, knows what the Village needs, is a long time and experienced Village resident and member of UCO. Run for office. Run for Executive Board. Demand answers. Demand input. Demand accountability. Demand integrity. 

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