crazy is scary

Growing up in the 50’s, yes the mid 20th century, there were many family secrets about family members. We knew something was going on with a relative because the conversation between my Grandmother and Aunts was either done in whispers or spoken in Romanian or Yiddish. Someone was perhaps having an affair a “schmuck” (usually using his penis with another woman other than his wife), or a “schicker” (an alcoholic), a “shyster” (eager to rip off anyone even his mother), or a bit “mishuganah” (crazy).

If the conclusion was that said family member was a bit “mishuganah”, a collective pooh-pooh with a bit of spit on he back of the hand would be said and my grandmother would nod her head right to left and say such a “shundah”, (sin)! If anyone of the younger generation was witness to this ritual my Grandmother would turn to them and say “there is no cure for crazy so always beware of those who are a bit “mishuganah”. She would then use a voice that sounded like Linda Blair of the movie “The Exorcist”(this was of course way before the movie was produced) and then add, “crazy people never think about anyone but their own selfish needs and because they are crazy there is little concern for the evil deeds done”.

Watching the political news during this pivotal election year I have tossed about hundreds of words trying to capsulize for me what the hell is happening in this great nation of ours. And then yesterday I read a few news accounts and like a whack on the side of my head I could hear my Grandmother in a possessed guttural voice say beware, they are “mishuganah” (crazy)!

The sponsor of an Idaho mandatory ultrasound bill state Sen. Chuck Winder, made some highly controversial comments Monday during his closing arguments, suggesting women might falsely use rape as an excuse to obtain an abortion.

“Rape and incest was used as a reason to oppose this," Winder said on the Senate floor. "I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape. I assume that's part of the counseling that goes on.” (HuffPost)

Once again, in the eyes of a “mishuganah” Republican/Tea Party legislator who proclaims God has spoken to him regarding anything female, it is he and the Government who know better and is wiser then women for whom they govern. It is he and the Government who can decipher the Devil’s work and replace the evil with the Grace of God, not just any God but his chosen God. It is he and the Government who know a lie from the truth. And it is he and the Government who maintain the authority to override any decision no matter how painful or emotional made by women regarding their own bodies.

I hear my Grandmother lecturing us saying “crazy people never think about anyone but their own selfish needs and because they are crazy there is little concern for the evil deeds done”. I worry that a case of the crazies has overtaken this nation primarily erupting from the mouths of Republican/Tea Party politicians and the voters who enable them to prosper.

Crazy is damn scary.