WHAT ME WORRY

“And to them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a “yad vashem")…that shall not be cut off” (Isaiah, chapter 56 verse 5) As jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem safeguards the memory of the past and imparts its meaning for the future.

I had the opportunity in my early career as a Communal Worker, being the lead  Counselor, taking teenagers to Israel for a six week stay in that country. For three concurrent summers 40 teens would discover this part of the world, expanding their universe learning about life in the Middle East. Each summer as a part of the six week experience, we would find ourselves visiting Yad Vashem.  Exhibitions at Yad Vashem were curated in order to promote dialogue about the Holocaust…its universal lessons, and the relevance to the daily life of the 21st century. My experience with the teens I took to Israel, was more…it begged such questions from them as…how did people not see how restrictive the Nazi’s really were…why was it all a surprise, causing a reaction rather than action…where were the smarter people, the ones who could have stopped Hitler’s rise…why were lies substituted as truth, never questioned. When our group visit ended, and we boarded the bus heading for our next site to visit, without hesitation, each year I took the teens to visit, Yad Vashem, a discussion would ensue, motivated by the teens. It would always begin with the concept that WE are too smart, NOW, to let anything like the Holocaust happen again.The teens became defiant in their voices, stating that only dumb people won’t learn from history, adding that even dumber people look the other way if the bad part of history is permitted to be repeated.

All the citizens of the nation, Jewish or not are confronting a rise in bigotry, hate, xenophobia destroying our lives slowly like the run off from the waste water of a faulty nuclear facility. We saw it happening at the Trump rally’s. The media permitted it to ebb and flow like the tide, pretending that to be balanced in news coverage, all they had to do was ignore the racist overtones of Trump. The GOP, afraid of real democracy, knowing one person one vote would eliminate many of the their politicians, looked the other way, always pretending that Trump DOES NOT represent their values. The Democrats, with their usual lack of backbone, looked the other way. The Evangelicals satisfied that their Lord and Savior only cared about the Gays not marrying, or the ladies not having abortions, aligned with Trump and ignored and of the other Thou Shalt Not’s. WE ALL saw it coming, and pretended that THIS IS after all AMERICA…we know about history, and Alfred E Neuman would say, “What Me, Worry!”

Oz

Remember when Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and of course Toto, followed the Yellow Brick Road, right to the door step of the Great and Powerful Oz… remember how filled with wonder, and awe, those characters were, entering Emerald City! They were going to see THE GUY, the man who could and would make dreams come true. Dorothy and her Crew, were stupefied, mesmerized, astonish-fied, at the opulence, the luxury, the green-ness of The Emerald City, not too sure they were good enough to actually speak to the Great Wizard himself. And then Toto growled and the curtain was drawn, and the man standing behind THAT curtain was nothing but a Con Man, a Flim Flam Guy selling snake oil. But until he was discovered as the sad sack soul-less fool he was, he CERTAINLY knew how to entice the Munchkins into believing bigger was better! He could market the shit of a cow and sell manure for $1000 a dropping.

One by one they come to Trump Tower, taking the EXPRESS elevator (On the East Side to that deluxe a-part-ment in the sky, George Jefferson), Its like Oz, the Trump Tower, the Gold billowing in the Manhattan sun. The Press on hand to watch the peons pride themselves in kissing the ring of the man behind the curtain. But this Wizard saps the courage, heart, and brains from anyone who enters. He is holed up, attached to a phone his fingers menacing, as the next new TWEET is conceived and conjured up. As long as he has KellyAnn, holding the curtain in place, he knows he can make as many promises he desires, to the mindless,  knowing they will not mind his businesses as long as he makes things seemingly look good. He is HYPE personified, really good at that and of course hyperbole (Even though he doesn’t really know the meaning of that word). He lies, and those whose hearts have holes in them who worship his every disingenuous deranged desire, complete the lie, laughing about just how dishonest a person can become. 

The Media thought him as good joke, a ratings bonanza…the GOP liked the fact that he continued the Republican lies, permitting them to destroy democracy…the Bigots found freedom in his sinister words…the Russians understood his narcissism, and how easily blackmailed he could be…BUT now we all must suffer the consequences and the menace this man provides…We must RESIST him and ALL of those who place party or person country. Trump is a dangerous fool, and we can’t let him have the last laugh!

Fame and Fortune

I am beginning to understand Melania Trump a little bit more, and have to hand her the credit for being one of the Trump kin, who understands her limitations and abilities. I am sure she does not want any disruption toward her son’s experience in his current school, and if she was any other person except the supposed soon to be First Lady, I would applaud her for her nurturing abilities. (If Trump was a real family man, he and his third wife would have discussed the move to DC and either agreed as a couple to do so, or, Trump, caring about the welfare of his wife and son would have declined the move in the first place) I believe that Melania is smart enough to know that she ISN’T smart enough to have the camera on her while she is at the White House and would rather ignore the daily limelight as long as she can. Melania, I believe, has seen the glare of the microscope on Michelle Obama, and certainly knows she is and never will be the people’s First Lady as Michelle Obama has left a very high goal to reach in that capacity. Living in NYC, is still news-worthy, but the privacy of the Trump Tower is a great palace from which to cancel out the news! And for ALL the Trumps money is no object, so who really cares if it will cost the tax payers $1million a day, for this dysfunctional family to remain in dysfunction. 

Melania, understands fortune, she married into it. She had grasped the concept of fame, but was able to use her husbands need for all the limelight to never become famous, Trump managed to do that for both of them. Moving into the White House will expose Melania to opportunities in which fortune nor fame can redo, any ignorance of the job, of being sloppy in performing said duties, duties which women like Eleanor Roosevelt, Roslyn Carter, Bette Ford, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama handled with percussion, knowledge, perseverance and professionalism. I believe Melania demonstrated her inabilities to assume the role as First lady in a few occasions and failed miserably. She understands her weaknesses, and most likely with her palaces, her bangles, her bling and supposed billions of dollars does not have to work any harder. I believe Melania, unlike her husband, gets the fact that having money makes life easier, but it sure doesn’t make you into something you just are not supposed to be. Perhaps, she should be satisfied with that, because her husband isn’t…and ALL of us will suffer those consequences.

A facade

Holidays with our extended family was a lot of fun, growing up in the 50’s. After a few whiskey’s or peach schnapps, many of the cousins who were of my grandmothers generation, would reminisce about their experiences of arriving in America, and the expectations prior to their arrival, followed by their real time experiences. My grandmother’s family came from Rumania, having lived in the Jewish ghetto of a town called Brailia. Life was, good, then bad, opportunities once, then taken away, and all of the Rumanian relatives had the desire to come to America, where they were told (via postcards, or second gossip, or personal letters from their kin), is the most perfect place. “Paved in Gold…” were the quotes from the relatives, then adding, “… not all streets, but if you walked a few short blocks from the tenements, you needed sun glasses because the site of the gold would ruin your eyesight…” There were great smiles on the faces of my cousins, as they related the adventures they supposed would happen in America, and to the person would add, we thought, it was so.

Some of my relatives found their gold like life and did well in this country. Others, it seemed were better off then living in complete persecution for being Jewish, but the finding of the Gold Streets, most still had that dream. Perhaps it was the whiskey bottles emptied by the men, and the ladies who drank the peach schnapps, catching their now drunken heads nodding on their chests, who almost in unison at the end of holiday visit, I remember hearing, would curse “…we all should find that golden street tomorrow!” To make sure THIS miracle would happen, some salt was thrown over their right shoulders.

I understand that Trump has spoken to and motivated the bigots and racists, I get that, I want to assume that some others who voted for him still have ounces of morals and values inside their souls (Supposing they have not sold those to the Devil), and I want to believe there was a positive reason for doing so; and then I realized how something this horrible could happen. Trump is like the old wives tale from the old country, where everyone in the village was told that Streets of Gold exist in America. I suppose the rural folk who voted for Trump were impressed with the gold Trump Tower sign, the bedazzlement of the neon lights as camera’s flash. Trump’s opulent life style (The lifestyle he owes tons of money to live), his glamour wife in extravagant garments. I think some, who are not haters believed as my relatives did so, before arriving in America, that all you had to do was walk a few streets away from your own ghetto to find the gold. Trouble is, that like Trump, the gold is only a facade. 

Before it's

Feed them frenzy…Riddle them with wily rhetoric…Reassure them that revolution may be necessary, BUT do so, coyly, calculating how much calm is needed before they riot. Ridicule the foe…Remain defiant…Ruminate that some rules must be broken, to set FREE, the real agenda. Wrap the speech in a colors of Patriotism, BUT, be particular which persons are permitted…Define democracy as something different than before… Detail in dribs and drabs, who deserves to benefit from the new world order…Never be specific, create suspects, certain, poor souls, it will be their turn to take control…raise your hand high, illuminate their illiteracy, illicit their ignorance of anything different…keep them dubious of the Devil…Almost sounds like the play book of Fascists from history…BUT here in America, we are witnessing the rise of Trump as he pretends his victory lap is no more than a thank you…BUT in fact is MUCH more of a containment, to try and keep discontent alive, and democracy in disarray!

Still not fearful the direction this nation is taking? Still glad you voted for Trump?Still certain your freedoms will be in place come 2017? Still closing your eyes, hoping this IS nothing but a nightmare? Still going to say I did nothing because they were not coming for me?  HERE it is AGAIN, right in front of your eyes…and if you do nothing, but notice IT, it will be too late to change YOUR course of history! We must resist the intentions of not only Trump but the disturbing array of people promoting his fascist frenzy….before it is too late!

MY FLAG

I don’t want to burn the FLAG…I never have! BUT my question about the FLAG is what exactly is it standing for at the moment? If you salute the current FLAG and stand with men in White Robes or Swaztika’s on their jackets all holding a Bible stating that this FLAG represents an only white citizenry, who must be Christian, who must keep their ladies in the kitchen or lying on their back…what kind of FLAG are you honoring? Be honest, if the current FLAG we are to honor is held by people who are homophobes, misogynists, racists, anti-Semites, xenophobes, what is the purpose of that FLAG? Is it not my duty to question why this nation of Immigrant’s (except for the Native American, the original people), suddenly hates Immigrants, waving the FLAG as if it is theirs alone? Should I hold the same FLAG as a bunch of people do, who have decided that this is ONLY a Christian nation, and not just Christian but Evangelical Christian? How can I hold the FLAG proudly when I am told if I don’t like this nation I can leave it?

I am confused, how many of us can honor a symbol and forget what it actually was supposed to symbolize! We started out as Revolutionaries, and discovered that even as mavericks we too needed to change. Our Founding Fathers and Mothers had to realize that their Revolution could not last as a static movement. The Negro was a real person. the Female no longer a piece of chattel. Worshiping one God or any God, or NO God at all, not necessary to work or teach or live in this land. Separate ANYTHING’s did not help the nation become a melting pot. There was a common good and that COMMON, part of the GOOD, required growth, compassion and INCLUSION. We learned that what we accomplished was more important than with which gender we made love to or slept. We had to move ahead, so the FLAG we held so dear had relevancy!

DO NOT chastise anyone about the FLAG if indeed you voted for Trump, unless you have become tone completely ignorant of his machinations and his marionettes of angry white Christian people who have made it VERY clear this country AIN’T big enough for a rainbow of beliefs, colors, nationalities and gender. What is happening in America is alarming, and Trump and his bigots DO NOT represent MY FLAG. So, unless you agree with the Anti Everything Trump has stood for and continues to do so, you have no right to talk about the FLAG. As is, the current FLAG will no longer be what a true American holds with pride!

Resist

I honestly wonder, I really do, how come the Democrats in Congress refuse to play by the rules the Republicans had set during the years of the Obama Administration? Seriously, do the Democrats in Congress, have a sign on their backs that first reads, I have no backbone and then follows with the sign stating, kick me and kiss me I like to be kissed as you stick it to me? Please don’t answer, by saying then nothing will get done in DC…because even if Trump selects one tenth of the Cabinet nominees, whatever MAY get done in DC will be nothing but cronyism and graft. I really have to NOW worry about how Democrat the D’s in the House and Senate will behave. Do these men and women believe anything the Republican’s promise? Have these elected officials contracted a sever case of amnesia? For one minute are these lawmakers even considering that any law that does not improve the life for the 1% or the Corporations known as People, or the Trump family and their cohorts will be passed?

If we are to take back this country from the GOP enemy, we should be learning their tricks of the trade, it is really easy… Lie, lie again insisting that the first lie was not a lie. Then blame your lie on someone else. Then hire spokespeople so much smarter than the brand of so called TV Journalists we currently are stuck with, but make sure that talking head NEVER answers a legit question, and always end the conversation with Trump bad, Trump crooked, Trump mean, Trump nasty.

I am a part of the Resistance, but worry a whole hell of a lot that the majority of Democrat Congress People, other than Bernie and Senator Warren, are just a bunch wusses! I understand the Democrats are supposed to be better than the gerrymandered pay to play Republicans, but who gives a shit right now. Fight back, Act, don’t React, Resist!