Reeling from Reality

             

There is nothing I can say about the election, or Trump or Clinton that has not been said and is still being said ad infinitum. All I can say is what I see and what I feel.  The following is an example.

A Facebook “friend” (not a personal friend, just someone I know) posted a response to the now-famous picture of the white nationalist gathering where the attendees had raised their hands in the well-known “Heil Hitler!” salute.  This man’s comment was “that is ‘heil Trump’, not Hitler; there are no Nazis today”.  There was a back and forth string about that; excellent and respectful writing by two intelligent college students.  Of course, I jumped in as well.  I know Nazis are still alive and well.  This man’s last paragraph is what chilled me.  He said that he was fine with people doing their own thing, as long as they didn’t infringe on his rights (e.g., take away his guns).  “And if they do, my response will make Criminal Minds look like Romper Room”. 

What’s frightening about that?  He didn’t say what those rights were, or what constituted infringement. We have a new administration that defines immigrants as a danger to our country.  We have people toting loaded weapons in all public places.  We have a health care plan in place that has afforded coverage to millions who never had it before that is threatened with extinction. Environmentalists have become the enemy while global warming is proceeding at an unprecedented rate. 

What will this administration and its blind followers define as infringing upon their rights?  Being a Muslim?  Being an immigrant?  Not being a Christian?  Having bumper stickers on a car?  Speaking out against the POTUS? Same sex marriage?  Transsexuals? Advocating for the poor, the disabled and the disenfranchised?

I have read that conservatives or at least the right wing have different brain processes than liberals.  I don’t know that I believe it’s biological but it is beyond my understanding for sure.  I know that facts and logic no longer work, but being silent is a very slippery slope. We can hope that when the things that were promised come true, reality will hit and will hurt when it does.  Truly, wishing ill will seems reasonable at this point.  When someone who thought it was amusing to mock the disabled finds themselves disabled—or has a child with a birth defect.  Maybe when someone’s daughter experiences “date rape” because it is now ok for a man to force himself on a woman.  When an uninsured person faces a deadly disease and can’t afford the care and treatment. Maybe.

I’m all for the vote recounts, but I know it won’t change the outcome we have to live with.  I know all the memes and Biden jokes and safety pins and Pantsuit Nations will make us feel better for a while, but won’t change the reality we are facing. I blocked that Facebook “friend” but that doesn’t make him or those like him go away. I don’t have any answers but I know I will not keep silent—and hope I’m not alone.

 

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

 

 

So this is my official “Dear John” letter to politics in Waycross, Georgia.  I have tried, really, to make it work.  We had our good times; two election nights with revelries worthy of a rock concert.  The love was felt, the love was real.  But the love has died.  The vitriol is in the air and the rest is quiet as death.  The signs are on the roadways.  No one speaks aloud because you can no longer trust your neighbor.

I have to think that people must have felt this way in Germany around 1939.  In the 1941 movie “To Be Or Not to Be”, set in pre-war Poland, it was still possible to make fun of the Nazis, even with the undertone of horror.  It is getting harder and harder to make fun of Trump.  He finally announced he was done with Saturday Night Live after previously going along with the joke.

I know there are many people out there being politically active, talking, canvassing, recruiting.  Not here.  I can’t change that.  I can’t change the minds of people who don’t see the danger or even think electing “he-who-must-not-be named” is a great idea and so much fun!  I’m not even going to bother here with the facts and the adjectives; if you read this, you can recite them yourself.

This is what happens when good people do nothing.  In all likelihood, Hillary Clinton will be POTUS next year; but what has already been started will not go away.  I’m also not going to bother here by reciting the unending lies and conspiracy theories about her.  If you care, you can do the research; “the truth is out there”. 

It’s too late to change what has been put in motion.  There is evil among us in the hatred of “the other”, denigration of women, intolerance for diversity and outright threats of violence.  There are still choices to be made, regardless of the outcome of this election.  The future of each and every one of us remains at stake. 

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemoller (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...)

Who Am I?

I am angry at my own naiveté; you’d think by now I’d know more.  Anti-Semitism is alive and well.  I admit I had a rather insulated childhood, growing up within a Jewish enclave in Brooklyn.  My schools were predominantly Jewish; the schools were virtually closed on the high holidays.  Catholics were the other religious group I knew, generally the Italian and Irish children of immigrants.  We were never religious, but we were definitely Jewish. 

So what does that mean?  I will digress from my topic for a paragraph and offer definitions:

 Race, as a social construct, is a group of people who share similar and distinct physical characteristics.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} First used to refer to speakers of a common language and then to denote national affiliations, by the 17th century race began to refer to physical (i.e. phenotypical) traits. The term was often used in a general biological taxonomic sense,^[7] starting from the 19th century, to denote genetically differentiated human populations defined by phenotype.  (You should be able to see by this that the term does not refer to anything real in the physical world).

 Ethnicities:  an ethnic group; a social group that shares a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like.

 

Religion:  belief in a god or in a group of gods

·         : an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods

·         : an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group

These terms are frequently use synonymously which clearly should not be the case.  E.g.:  I am Caucasian by the loose definition above; American by ethnicity and essentially do not adhere to any religion.  However, by ancestry I am of Eastern European Jewish descent.  I categorize myself as a “secular Jew” or “cultural Jew” because of my heritage.  My ancestors grew up in Jewish villages in Russia and Poland and experienced the hatred and “pogroms” practiced by the Czars in Russia.  In the late 19^th and early 20^th century many Jews from Eastern Europe immigrated to America because of the dangers and discrimination they experienced in their homelands.

Of course, this is no different from other groups that also came to this country looking for a better life:  Irish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and Germans.  More recently we have had many other immigrants including Hungarians, Cubans, Vietnamese, Africans and those from several Mideastern countries.  Most of the larger American cities are homes to many different cultural and ethnic groups.

Jews, however, remain somewhat distinct in their presence and impact on American life.  They are not from one country, but many.  They are not a distinct ethnicity or race.  Broadly they are of one religion although that varies considerably as well.  The other distinction is that 6 million of them were exterminated over a period of several years by the most notorious political and military regime in the 20^th century.  It was an extension of historical anti-Semitism which painted Jews as horned Christ-killers, greedy merchants and thieves and baby-killers. 

How can it be that there are still those who say it never happened?  There are pictures and testimonies from survivors, soldiers and rescuers; there are psyches damaged by their own and family remembrances and experiences.  In my childhood it was not uncommon to encounter survivors identified by the faint numerical tattoos on their arms and wrists. 

Silly me, I thought that was all in the past.  I have never thought of myself as a serious target of discrimination.  After all, I went to college, graduate school, had decent jobs and lived where I chose.  I have never been profiled by the police or called names (to my face, anyway).  But……

Recently a medical professional told me (in all seriousness) that I must be wealthy because all Jews were.  Someone else told me that she guessed I was Jewish because of my nose.  And, just today, a family member presented evidence of the Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.

It ranks with the infamous “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” widely disseminated by Henry Ford in the 1920s and adopted as gospel by Adolf Hitler.  The speech (available on YouTube) is by Benjamin Freedman and is entitled “A Christian View of the Holocaust”.  Freedman was a “successful Jewish businessman of New York City who was at one time the principal owner of the Woodbury Soap Company.  He broke with organized Jewry after the Judeo-Communist Victory of 1945 and spend the remainder of his life, and at least 2.5 million dollars, exposing the Jewish tyranny which has enveloped the United States”.  The speech goes on to give a skewed view of history which paints the Jews and Zionists plotting world domination and essentially causing their own well-deserved destruction.

After I responded to this speech, the family member questioned why someone would turn against his “race” and have his mind so “twisted” to have all this hate (obviously implying that there would have to be a valid reason).  Why, indeed?  Why do people hate the “other”?  Why do people make up stories to support their hate and shower endless stereotypes on those that are different from them? 

I could come with a variety of explanations, any and all of which may or may not apply; most likely, some combination would explain it.  The most likely is what is taught by family and society.  Other reasons include poverty, discrimination, and abuse.  Children who are deprived and unloved tend to be angry and seek a target for their anger.  There is also a statistical correlation between a lower socioeconomic status and prejudice.  That may not totally explain why Adolf Hitler or Benjamin Freedman acted as they did or believed what they did.  That is neither my responsibility nor expertise.

What I must do to justify my own conscience is expose and attack hate, prejudice and discrimination wherever and whenever I find it. 

I’m guilty of overlooking anti-Semitism because I have been focused on the racial profiling and anti-Islamic sentiment that has been prevalent and noted.  Talking about anti-Semitism in no way diminishes that reality.  Like many other middle class Jewish people, I have become complacent about my position in society.  I address and then dismiss the small slights and references in the interest of maintaining my relationships in the community and workplace.  I think it’s time to be louder.

We can’t “agree to disagree” or say it’s “just politics”.  It’s who we are and how we see each other.  Adolf Hitler was not “just another politician”.  Neither is Donald Trump.  I don’t apologize for that comparison; it doesn’t diminish the horror of the Holocaust, but rather brings it home as a real and present threat.

Rage Against the Corpocracy

What do you do with rage?  It’s pretty clear what the results are if you take to the streets and/or shoot people.  If you rant and rave, you are either locked up or run for President of the United States.  Write books?  Letters to the editor?  Letters to your legislators?  Even if you self-publish a book, good luck on getting anything read. 

I believe I’ve heard that our government is for the people and by the people.  Which people?  Theoretically Donald Trump is a person.  Apparently corporations are people also but I don’t think that’s what the writers of the Declaration of Independence had in mind.   We have a multi-layered justice system from small city courts on up to the Supreme Court of the United States that is supposed to ensure that every citizen of our great country has voice in their fate and future.  People still get away with murder while people with minor trespasses get locked up for life.  Does it have anything to do with the color of your skin, where you live, the size of your bank account, or who you’re related to?  What do you think?

So right now someone I know is locked up while another is walking free; if justice is real it should be the other way around.  I’m sure there are millions of stories like this in the rest of the country and maybe in other places I could find an outlet, a voice of reason or a platform.  But in many of these places people of color or unpopular gender identity live in fear of assault or death just because of who they are.  It’s the year 2016 for crying out loud!  Things are supposed to be different!  I marched for civil rights and against war in the 60s, and here we are in the middle of civil wrongs and constant war. 

To top it all off, everyone has guns and a living cartoon is running for President of the United States!  A former President is caught on tape obviously inebriated during a solemn occasion and defended while the current President is chastised for being caught smiling on a solemn day.  Every day I deal with an out of control health care system which like everything else is subjected to our government system of corpocracy.  So here I am, with the only outlet my own personal bloglet that no one ever has to read.  And Facebook, of course.  I can continue to post amid the pages and ads and cat pictures until everyone blocks me.

The ABCs of POLITICS

pol·i·tics ˈpäləˌtiks/

noun: politics

The activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.

I have heard quite a few people proclaim “I’m not interested in politics”, “I don’t vote because all politicians are crooked” or “all politicians are the same”.  The problem with that line of thinking is that whether or not you like the politicians, they ARE in control of your life.  Even in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”.  Even when you don’t vote, you are casting a ballot.  The following is a dictionary sampling of all the areas of our lives that are determined by “politics” (sorry, nothing for K, X, Y and Z):

A – Agriculture, aviation

B – Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives, bankruptcy courts

C – Consumer product safety, Customs and Borders,

D – Defense, disability

E – Economics, environment

F – Finances, Federal Law Enforcement, Farm credit administration

G – Geological Survey, Grain inspection

H – Health, Homeland Security

I – Intelligence, Interior

J – Job Corps, Joint Forces Command

L – Labor Department, Library of Congress

M – Military, Medicare

N – Nutrition (schools), NASA

O – Occupational Health and Safety (OSHA), Ocean Energy Management

P – Pentagon, Peace Corps

R – Rural Development, Railroad Retirement

S – Securities and Exchange Commission, Social Security Administration

T – Transportation, taxes

U – United States Post Office, US Mint

V – Voting, Veterans

W – Women’s Rights, Weather Services (NOAA)

 

Of course, this isn’t everything.  It leaves out much of what is under the State, County and City governments, such as roads, schools, police, sheriff, traffic lights, stop signs, hospitals, emergency medical services and local transportation.  If you are a hermit and live in the woods and grow your own produce and kill your own meat then none of the above (“politics”) applies to you. The rest of you are clearly, inevitably, unequivocally and inextricably part and parcel of the POLITICAL process.

 

Don't You Know It's Gonna Be All Right?

                                                        

 

I feel like I grew up in the shadow of revolution.  I learned about the Bolshevik Revolution from my parents and to my mother Russia was the homeland.  Her father had gone AWOL from the Tsarist army and the revolutionary fervor seemed to be part of family history.  My parents remained leftists throughout their lives so my childhood was filled with words like “Red” (good) and “Reactionary” (bad).  McCarthyism was horrible and the execution of the Rosenbergs broke my heart as I thought of those their two orphaned sons.

In my teens I marched for civil rights and peace in Viet Nam.  I truly believed in those causes and that if enough of us spoke up, the revolution would happen.  In college, I saw mounted policemen drag off long-haired girls protesting the military recruitment booth on campus.  At that time, there was no tuition at the schools of the City University of NY, and we protested the threatened end of that—“Our position, No tuition!”   No tuition sounds like a fantasy now.

The young people who are currently passionate about Bernie Sanders call for revolution.  I think they honestly believe that one person can bring about equal rights for all, free education, healthcare and an end to war.  I really do know how they feel.  But it’s time they pay attention to history.  Politically our country has bounced around like a red rubber ball.  During reconstruction, former slaves achieved positions of power and wealth—briefly.  The new revolutionaries should read not only the stories of the Civil Rights movement, but the hangings and slayings of black people in the earlier part of the 20^th century.  

And while we’re on the subject of history, the rise of Hitler is not just a story on Facebook.  Pre-war Germany was a fantasy land of equality.  Hitler knew just how to capitalize on the fears and economic woes of the population and stir up a frenzy of support that got him to a position of power that ultimately threatened the survival of the Europe.  Yes, I know the Berniecrats don’t support Trump—but neither do they have a clue as to the danger he presents.

The unchangeable part of our government is the corporate base that feeds it.  I grant that Bernie is the only candidate who says that out loud and sees it for what it is.  If, by some miracle, he became President, I know he would give it his best shot.  However, it would take an uprising along the lines of the Bolshevik Revolution to completely change our form of government. 

The greater reality right now, this year, is that our worst fears will be realized in the form of Trump moving into the White House and destroying all the achievements made toward social and economic equality over the past 100 years.  That sends chills through me as it should through you.

Revolution takes a lot of people and a lot of bloodshed.  Berniecrats, are you really ready to be martyrs?   Ready to be shot in the street?  Are you really?  You say you want a revolution?  “Well you know, we all want to change the world”! 

LBGTQ.....LMNOP...XYZ

Apparently there’s something wrong with me because I am really not interested in the genitals of whoever is in the next bathroom stall.  As a rule, I don’t frequent men’s rooms (unless the ladies room line is endless and someone is on guard at least).  I’m glad I don’t get to watch other people pee on a regular basis. 

I have to admit I don’t quite get the varieties of sexuality that are professed by people; maybe they were always there but not talked about.  Maybe they weren’t talked about because no one knew what to call them.  I think that’s still a process.  We’re up to LesbianBisexualGayTransgenderQueer; but Gay and Queer used to be synonymous and Queer used to be a slur, like Faggot.  But everything can change. 

I think it’s fascinating and it doesn’t upset me.  I think everyone should be who they truly are even if everyone is not happy about it.  Who am I to tell you how you feel or how to dress?  I am uncomfortable when people expose too much of their anatomy within my sights, but I see that at Wal-Mart anyway.  I can just walk away or avert my eyes.  Or not go to Wal-Mart.

As far as using public restrooms, most of us hate that anyway.  I can deal as long as I can close a door.  Sexual predators?  They may or may not have been in the vicinity of my children in many places they were.  Reality is we can never be with our children all the time.  We have to educate them and make sure they tell us about anything that worries them.  I am more worried about legal loony tunes with guns than pretend transgenders in public restrooms.  Or any kind of transgenders.

There are lesbian and gay transgenders and no-genders (the only correct pronoun being “they” for that group).  Babies come in rainbow shades now, not just pink and blue.  We used to think that in some future world you would be able to choose the sex of your child-to-be or even have designer genes for the characteristics you wanted in your offspring.  If this ever happens, look at all the choices there will be!

Years ago, a co-worker told me she had a family member who was transgender.  The part that bothered me about this was that this was a closely guarded family secret.  The spouse of this person did not know the truth.  I couldn’t help but think of the children (obviously created through non-sexual means) who would find out one day the biological reality of this parent.  At least today, people are being open and honest.  In the past, people who were not heterosexual led double lives and paid a terrible emotional price.

Lighten up America!  Embrace the rainbow and let your colors fly!

For the Tweety Birds

                                                                

You can’t tell from the graphic, but the bird in question was noted to be a house finch by an Audubon expert.  Of course I googled “house finch” and learned a few things from this website:  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Finch/lifehistory.  Of note, they are vegetarians, which is actually rare for a bird.  They’re not loners, and they tend to perch on high places (not sure how high the podium was).  The males have red heads (the redder the sexier—to female finches) so Bernie’s bird must have been a female.

Did the bird have a message?  From where or whom?  Clearly not the significant sparrow, and finches don’t seem to be popular totems or spiritual guides.  I agree it was cute, though.  The thing is, the Bernie people stop at nothing.  The Bird is clearly now the Word (apologies to the 1963 group The Trashmen, wherever they are).

The finch is a rather common bird, so maybe that’s the point, if there is one.  Representing the 99% of birds, as it were.  What is totally fascinating is how things catch fire and blaze through cyber-space.  My Facebook pages are now completely inundated by posts from Berners/Birdies/Berniecrats.  The innocent little bird has started a third political party with its own symbol. 

So now we have two parallel lines of strangeness running through our country.  He-who-shall-not-be-named representing the right-wing crazy minds blooming like fungus throughout our country and a frizzy white-haired old man representing the left-wing.  Actually, Bernie is representing a lot of folks who didn’t know they needed a wing—and ended up with the whole bird (groan!).  By the same token, the gun-toting bible-thumping racist fascists didn’t know they would fall in love either.  They have found their hero and found their proper place in the political spectrum.

I am going to echo what many others are saying (shout out to Tom Strait and the Strait Line!).  We, the 99%, the ones who understand the danger you-know-who represents (honestly, I can’t stand to see his name in print—it makes him seem too real), must stand firm and do whatever we can do to stop evil from taking root in the very foundation of our nation. 

The idea of Bernie Sanders claiming the nomination, and even the Presidency, is amazing and thrilling to me, truly it is.  However, I can certainly live with the idea of Hillary Clinton taking on that role.  No, she’s not perfect; yes, she has strong links to corporate politics.  Her revolution would be in her gender finally occupying the Oval Office.  Make no mistake peeps (and I use that word in all its meanings), that is a revolution.  Unfortunately, many of you have chosen to tie your support of Sanders with the demonization of Clinton.  In addition, many of you are perfectly happy to trash the Democratic Party.  

But—and it’s a big but—Bernie Sanders is representing the Democratic Party.  He has been a part of Democratic politics for his long and illustrious political career.  He is NOT running as a third party candidate.  Can that happen?  Maybe.  Can a third party candidate in the USA in 2016 win the Presidency?  Probably not.  Can T---- win the Presidency?  Bite your tongue!

A revolution is successful when a large group of people work together to accomplish their mutual goals.  If it would do any good, I would stand on a street corner and beg people not to vote for T-----.  I would also beg all of the tweety birds out there to positively support your candidate but be willing to accept reality if he doesn’t get the nomination.  That’s all I got!

Politics Un Usual

 

I have probably been politically aware from an earlier age than most.  This is because it was always a topic of conversation at home.  My parents were leftists, union activists and under surveillance by the FBI.  I knew about the Rosenbergs’ trial and execution and I felt much empathy for the children they left behind.  There is a group I follow on Facebook called “The Rosenberg Fund” started by one of their sons to help children who are victims of political imprisonment and persecution. 

If things go as bad as they might, this fund may either be busier than usual—or find themselves being persecuted or disappeared.   I, and many others, truly believe that there is a distinct possibility the worst could happen.  Two parallel and equally historic movements are currently in process in our country today.  Donald Trump has come out of the farce of reality TV to being a likely candidate for POTUS.  It feels like saying the name of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in the Harry Potter series to link his name with that office. 

The other co-existing movement is the grass roots eruption of Bernie Sanders.  As a civil rights and anti-war activist from my generation, he previously seemed to be a mild-mannered, steadfast, liberal legislator without veering from a fairly straight path.  He is now an idol to youth who didn’t know they needed one and a firebrand preaching revolution to the masses. 

I hear a lot of people comparing these two movements as somehow in kinship with each other.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Trump’s campaign is corporate and political, driven by mass media and preying on the worst emotions of the angriest Americans.  Sanders’ campaign is grass roots and appealing to the deepest American hopes and desires for justice, peace and equality.  Yes, they both represent a divergence from mainstream party politics—but that is all they have in common.

Like many people, I want to sit down with “Mr. & Mrs. America” and talk some sense into them.  I want a huge loudspeaker to broadcast the dangers the Republican front-runners propose for our country.  I want to ask them if they value their health and the well-being of their children; the right to be compensated for their labor; financial security when they become old and/or disabled; and last, but not least, if they value their right to be who they are and express how they feel.  Move these questions away from the campaigns, and most will agree.  The dissonance presents when you talk about the real ways to achieve these things, such as guaranteed health insurance, minimum wage, and government assistance.  It is also present when you talk about immigrants, Muslims and LBGT rights.  Like the Harry Potter series it seems like Republicans will issue us all magic wands which will ensure we will all be financially successful and all “undesirables” will be escorted from the United States of America.  With this magic our country will consist of self-sufficient, native-born white Christians (I may have missed the part where they talk about native-born Native Americans who generally are not white and maybe not even Christian).

As usual, I don’t expect my words to change anyone’s thinking.  The most I can hope for that it makes someone angry enough to start a rational discussion and accidentally learn something along the way.  I hope there are a few that will agree with me.  But mostly, I write for myself because it is the only thing I can do.

CHILL!

 

                                               

It’s cold.  There were even a very few snow flurries in Waycross, Georgia.  There are blizzards throughout the northeast.  Please, please, understand that this does not mean global warming has been rescinded.  2015 was the warmest year in recorded history; that dubious honor will be passed to 2016. 

I am thrilled to have cold weather; it reminds me that there is still a balance in nature.  It allows me to wear my jackets, scarves and cozy pajamas.  It makes my black lab Artie very happy.  Plus, I know all too soon it will be hot again and the heat will go on and on and on…..

Yes, I grew up in the north so maybe that’s why I like the change of seasons.  I truly do believe that change is good and balance is needed.  Forgive me, but I get really annoyed at people who are always freezing and saying “I just can’t wait for summer!”  Like summer is a rarity?  Summer begins in May and goes through November in South Georgia.  We have approximately two weeks of actual coldness.  Come on, people, deal! 

I miss snow.  I probably wouldn’t enjoy trying to get around in a blizzard, but then they have snow days when it gets really bad, or at least everything is forced to stop for a while.  For that short space of time, everything is white, clean and silent, certainly a rarity in New York City.  I know right now my daughter is not particularly happy about knowing she has to trudge through cold wetness to get to work and she will probably be happy if a southward move is in her near future.  Bless her heart, as they say down here, she grew up in the South. 

I think you appreciate warmth more when you’re cold for a while.  I appreciate a chill in the air after months of heat.  Yin and yang, black and white, up and down, hard and soft….  It’s the way things are supposed to be.

I hate to think that future generations may have a world without polar ice caps and with more flooding and weather extremes.  I’ve read science fiction stories that involve humans cultivating new planets after trashing Earth; it makes one hopeful.  But that is fiction—we are trashing our planet without another one to go to. 

Take the cold weather and the snow as the way things are supposed to be.  Those of you who can’t wait until it’s hot again—be careful what you wish for…

The Jewish Unicorn

Bernie Sanders is MY Barack Obama.  Let me explain.  I remember the complete elation I felt when Obama was elected; the unbelievable had happened!  I was jumping up and down and screaming, in a group of people who were doing the same thing.  Comparing him to Sanders in no way diminishes how the pride I felt then and still do.  But Bernie could be my uncle or cousin.  An old, white, Jewish Socialist.  My people!  It would be another miracle, another occasion to scream.

But truly, that’s not why I like him.  Barack Obama being black is obviously not his only desirable quality either; after all, Ben Carson is black as well, and I don’t think he is generating that degree of interest in the African-American community.  I don’t even know if Bernie is polling well with Jews—certainly not with conservative Jews.  I like Bernie Sanders because he brings back the idealism of my youth.

I believed in peace and brotherhood as long as I can remember.  Anti-war rallies, civil rights demonstrations filled me with a spiritual sense that all things were possible.  I believed in a future with unicorns and frolicking lambs---no, not really.  But I did believe that if we stayed true to a goal and continued to work hard, amazing things were possible. 

Somewhere along the way, I lost the fervor and the drive.  I ignored it all the years I raised children, worked and did all the daily mundane things one does.  President Obama’s election was the rebirth of and I really hate to let go of it.  Not as much as I’d hate Trump to be President, but somewhere close to that level of emotion.  Bernie Sanders has kept that fervor all those years, despite living and working in the middle of political reality. 

I think that’s why he has generated the support of young people—young people much like my own younger self.  Even if you don’t agree with me politically, even if you believe he doesn’t have the chance of the proverbial snowball in hell, allow yourself to dream of the world we coulda shoulda have.

Are You Just Gonna Stand There Sitting On Your Behind?--Idella Landy, "Purlie Victorious"

 

 

I try not to think about getting older too much, but in a week when two famous people, exactly my age have died (prematurely, I think) it’s hard to not think about one’s mortality. 

At this time in my life, age does not bother me (well, except for the various aches and pains that sometimes remind me), but the idea of time running out does.  There is so much to do!  How much can I do?  Will I see any of the changes I so desperately want while I’m still here?

All of which leads to the nagging question “Am I doing enough?”  There will always be those who do more than me, and those who do less.  I sometimes envy people who remain oblivious to the wrongs in the world and exclusively focus on themselves and their own little space in the cosmos.  These are the people who “don’t care about politics” and dismiss everything by saying “All politicians are crooked”. 

Like the hard line right wingnuts, these people are impervious to logic, reason, discussion and information.  What they don’t know is irrelevant and therefore can’t hurt them.  Frighteningly, many of them actually do vote. They vote via the Pavlovian rule of politics—if it rings a bell, it must be the right choice.  For these people, a candidate needs to be in the news (read—Fox News) a lot or invest in a lot of huge campaign signs. 

The question often asked by my friends and by me is what can we do to push people into the real world; how can we help them see what is killing them and what can save them?  As my clear-thinking friend Tom Strait pointed out in his recent blog, if we don’t recognize the danger being done to our earthly environment on a daily basis and take significant action to stop it, everything else really doesn’t matter.  How can anyone think for a nanosecond that global warming is a theory?  Each new year is the hottest—globally—on record.  “They” say it is a natural fluctuation; “They” say what about the snowstorms?  “They” don’t take the time to understand what climate change entails or how long it takes to occur naturally.

And then there’s everything else—health care, wars, corporate control of our country……  This election year is probably the most significant one in my ever-growing-longer history.  What can I do?  What can you do?

The 4.2 people who read this will probably agree with me.  In that case, I’m speaking to you.  The only thing you can do is speak out (calmly and rationally) all the time—and join others that do!  Become active in the political process in any way you can, by joining a group that is doing things and support your candidate.  Post on social media and write letters to any and all editors that will print them! 

In recent years, my passion has been theater as a medium for messages; “Purlie Productions” is our modest way of carrying on the work of hometown hero Ossie Davis for the current and future generations of our community.  Ossie, like so many others, left his hometown years ago so he could actually achieve his goals.  It’s a sad fact that so many home towns do not allow that to happen.  So many, right here, have no voice in their present or future.  So many think that change is not possible.  I truly wish I can see the proof that they are wrong.