Social Study

It was eighth grade, Miss MacAteer, was my Social Study, teacher, among the many theories she held tightly was that before any of her students became a freshman in high school, ALL of them would understand the value of democracy, the value of the US Constitution, and that this nation’s best attribute was its expression of equality, albeit, she would add, sometimes it seemed that not ALL of us experience equality the same! Miss MacAteer also, stopped her lesson plan one day, when one of the kids sitting in the back row, (Miss MacAteer) believed short kids were at a disadvantage so we sat up front, while the taller kids who were given a different kind of gene sat in the back, because they could still look at Miss MacAteer while she stood in front of the class) shouted God Damn It when his notebook fell to the floor. It was at that moment when Miss MacAteer introduced the classroom to another one of her theories; being that even though this nation was based on the conditions of Separation between Church and State, no one, who calls themselves a good American would EVER say God’s name in vain.  (Most of the classrooms had cloakrooms, but somehow Miss MacAteer’s room was without, so instead of being sent to the cloakroom for punishment, Miss MacAteer wrote a note sending the trouble maker Eighth grader to sit the rest of the class session in the Kindergarten. 

It was a teacher like Miss MacAteer who motivated my interest in the history of this nation and what I had thought were decent morals and values. This was the 1960s, the beginning of changes, our nation had not witnessed for a few generations. People were beginning to question the status quo, and making statements like where do I fit in. President Kennedy’s quote “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”, had meaning for me, and I believed that democracy was an EVERYMAN concept. Many of my teachers, held strong beliefs that America could be great, that we were made to be great. In Gym Class we participated in Presidents Fitness challenge, with Mr Pittman, and our music teacher Miss Cyphers taught us every single Patriotic song, along with as many verses that were written for them. Why, we even had a ceremony for Flag Day! By the time I made it to high school I did indeed have appreciation for my country. But that was then, and here we are in 2017!

If I hear one more talking head, rub his or her eyesore roll them and say, just when you thought Trump hit the bottom of the barrel, suddenly there are even lower levels to hit. If I hear one more talking head announce yet one more Trump associate meeting with a Russian. If I hear one more lie, proven to be lie by either audio or video, by Trump. If I hear people say remember your freedoms because one day soon, as long as Trump is in the White House, they may disappear. How stupid as a nation have we let ourselves become. The GOP worries about Trumps base, the lowest of the low of American, the media still debates simple questions about which moral is worse. The Talking Heads debate about laws passed or not passed, but refuse to add by a man illegally, and illicitly elected into office. Where are you Miss MacAteer, someone needs to be sent to the Kindergarten, someone is very bad, and something is very wrong in America! 

Pooh-Pooh

Growing up in the 50s, included a very large nuclear family, extending to second and third cousins. I had no idea of the significance of which numbered relatives they were, but figured out there were a lot of people I was related to. Whether it be the family poker games, the celebratory events, likes weddings or bar mitzvah’s, and even the holidays, Jewish and American, members of my family would gather, some speaking in English, some when telling a dirty joke, speak the punch line in Yiddish, and when a point had to be made with great precision, Romanian would be the line of communication used. My family, at the time still included immigrants to the USA, many who had lived in this country for years, but many who also harbored bits and pieces of Romanian superstition. Often time the first generation of relatives would explain to their parents, that in this country we are safe, and there is no need to assume the boggy man (some Romanian government official) would break through the door and cart anyone off to jail. There was some agreement regarding that, but there still remained on superstition, that sadly to this day still resonates within my psyche. It was my GrandMa Braff, I believe, who first introduced me to the Pooh-Pooh People. An invisible tribe of demon like creatures who hovered around humans, waiting for the human to say something nice, praise or reward a good behavior, or even have the audacity to say something nice. My GrandMa Braff, was certain that if you embraced just the good and were never cautious regarding the negative, the Pooh-Pooh People would step into the future and actually fuck thing up for you. (GrandMa Braff never said fuck up, but she would pull your cheeks toward her turn your head as she did hers to the left and then the right, and whisper, just loud enough for you to hear the word KAKA, then she would add such a shanda!

(KAKA was her term for fucked up, and shanda was sinful)

The only way, according to my GrandMa Braff to not fall into the trap of the Pooh-Pooh People, was to either never acknowledge something good might happen, OR, if you did want to KVELL (brag) after speaking of the positive, you immediately had to say Pooh-Pooh-Pooh, then you turned your head left to right then up and down. For good measure my GrandMa Braff would place her right index finger over her lips and sigh. There were many superstitions traded and shared as I grew up in the 50s, and most I chuckle over and find hard to believe I actually believed in them. But to this day, I still work and wonder about the Pooh-Pooh People.

Each new day is like the movie Groundhog Day. I ask did World War 3 start…I count how many Tweets Trump had created…I hear just how many more Trump Campaign, Administration or Family members have been connected to the Russians…The GOP, still wanting one success no matter the cost to their constituents…Trump lying…and Americans pretending that what the hell, since he is sitting in the Oval Office, lets just deal with it. I then imagine, how much different ALL of this might have been if only millions of us would have taken my GrandMa Braff’s advice and just said Pooh-Pooh-Pooh. 

dreary noise

I was told by a friend of mine, when I was a counselor at Emma Farm Camp that the only time you notice the wind is when a breeze slowly brushes the leaves, jiggles some of the hair on your head, and swoons past your body as if it just hugged you. Once the gusts become bigger, and all nature around you seems to crack and creak, you no longer hear the wind, and you are left with noise, causing your brain to tune out and not tune in.  I also remember walking toward the campers cabins, when the same friend pulled a thorn from a raggedy bush, asked for my hand, then proceeded to prick my little finger, she pricked her little finger and said, our souls are now eternally entwined. I was confused, as I began sucking my finger to stop the blood, but as I did so, I recall, as if it happened just now, a quick swish of wind, dancing around my body almost moving my T-Shirt from left to right; I must have looked astonished as my friend laughed adding the wind just spoke to you and said congratulations. To this day, when the wind is slow and casual, and I am standing alone, and a bit of a breeze brushes ups against me, I say out loud, I know you are telling me something, but what!

We make noise in this nation, loud ripples of bullets finding frail targets of flesh, insecure booming men bragging about their sexual prowess, insincere religious zealots ready to murder for a God they say is strong, but seems to be too weak to defend itself. When natural events occur providing death and destruction in the hundreds, we clamor and can’t wait for the myriad of videos, sob stories, and contrived here say to explain what happened. Politicians speed through the halls of Congress with throngs of reporters shouting, begging, screaming questions. Innocents get shot by police, crowds gather, police get shot by self appointed assassins, tons of SWAT teams arrive in with canons and tanks. The response toward an event that hinders, harms, hurts the innocent, soon becomes as loud and massive as a Hurricane, and within all of that noise, it seems we as a nation, do nothing more than try to shout into the wind to solve the problem, but none of our words are really ever heard.

I am frustrated, disappointed, saddened, shocked, and pissed that in 2017, we as a nation have seemed to forget the terrible lessons from the past, have demonstrated total disregard for the values of our Constitution, and have decided that free, and equal are not what the Founding Fathers of this nation wanted, nor the wishes of some of the various Gods to which we pray. A breeze blows by, instead of listening, or trying to learn a lesson, we become loud and create our own gusts, which churn and turn and honestly provide us only with noise, deafening, dreary noise!

Giving Thanks

For many, today, we give thanks, and for many we are able to include those we love in our hearts and thoughts. There is good in the world, and there are those who try each and every day to piece together the deeds and duties of the days which have arrived before, onto a chain that will await one more link for more charity, clarity, concern, and conscience to be added for tomorrow. We give thanks, at least that tomorrow, will provide promise.

If it was just about politics, a man made phenomenon, similar to a circus, which arrived in town on November 8, 2016, we could laugh at the demonstration of stupid, superficial and sinister. We could ooh and ahh at the parade of clowns, and the most bizarre antics of the animals demonstrating all of the principles of self-serving, and selfishness. But we have discovered politics, is just the ploy, the path to undermine any future of giving thanks, and sadly for some having much to be thankful toward.

For many, today, is a chance to become inclusive, involved, invigorated and ignite the powers of people by bestowing love. For some, it is one more day, and the goal is to survive. In giving thanks we ALL must remember that the future is fragile and we must all fight for its fortunes. Have a Great Thanksgiving! 

we are learning

We are learning a tough lesson about life. We are learning that greed is good, religion is a weapon of politics, capitalism does not correlate for the poor, learning history is a lost art, lying is acceptable when the liar is on your side, the way we used to do things is NOT in the past tense, and that power is a priority not to improve the lives of others but to maintain a firm grip to remain ahead of the others! 

We have black lives that didn’t matter, we have innocent lives of school age children, movie patrons, concert goers, that were deemed less important than the use of guns. We have pretended that immigrants were NEVER an important part of a making of this nation. We have decided that some Gods are good and others bad. We have demeaned those who love differently, see themselves in their own bodies as someone else. We have been invaded by a foreign power, without the use of nuclear weapons, and pretend that since the fall out is not atomic particles, there is nothing to REALLY worry about. And now we are speaking aloud about harassment and abuse of a demographic who since the early days of this nation have been considered chattel and nothing more than and extra rib from Adam.

We are learning new norms, none of which contain morals or values. We have discovered the weakness of democracy due to the weakness of the men and women empowered to protect it. We wait each day for some other Earth shattering Tweet, Response, Lack of Response, Lie, and Refusal to take action. How many of us wake up each day, and before we touch our phones, tackle our computers or turn on  the TV wonder…has the Third World War happened, has there been a coup in our government, who is now the newest enemy, and is Trump still in the White House and WHY?  I rant I rave, I blog, but I do so because honestly without attempting those three things I am afraid I will not breathe. I feel smothered…like those horror movies when the main character is in bed and some unseen demon or spirit is placing a pillow over the characters mouth. All I feel I am doing to save myself and the world is lashing out, pushing the pillow away from my mouth. I wonder just how long i have to do react this way. We are learning a tough lesson about the disregard for equality, fairness and of course the pursuit of happiness.

worry wonder

I wonder, just how many leaders of the Republican Party have been compromised by Putin and his KGB. I have to wonder this, as it seems the Republican leadership has found little energy to ignite a sufficient fire in our government to find resolve toward the relationships, between the Trump Family, the Trump Campaign, and the Trump Surrogates. All roads have led to Moscow, yet the GOP has been trying its hardest to build detours, knowing that democracy will die, but Tax Breaks for the 1% and Corporations/Politicians will be compensated by selfish donors/more activism Christian Conservative Judges will be placed for lifetime service in Federal courts, and Roe V Wade will be some pipe dream of long ago. I have to wonder, how with all the evidence discovered by most legit newspapers and professional reporting about the deals, the money laundering, the secret meetings, the business deals, the Republican Party continues to say the words Hillary, and has impeded as best they can any facts of the Russian War against the United States.

I worry, that each day, we wait, because WE THE PEOPLE, are playing by the rules of the Constitution, how much closer this nation becomes an Authoritarian Regime, because those in the majority, the Republican Party leadership enable Trump to NOT play by rules, permitting him to invent them as they choose, and change them when they wish. I worry each day we await the next shoe to drop from the Mueller investigation, the Trump cult becomes stronger, the Russians become cozier, and the lack of moral leadership becomes hazier and hazier. I worry, when is it too late to make a difference.

How much more money does the donor class need? How much more influence must the donor class have on its Republican puppets? How many times must we permit the Trump Administration and the Trump surrogates to lie, lie again and lie once more and have none of them NONE of them pay the consequences of treason and perjury? Will we be become like the average German citizen in the time of Hitler who, once the war was over, looked into the cameras and said, “I had no idea?” “You mean our government imploded, I was just trying to survive?” I wonder, why the Republican leadership decided to give up on America? And then I have to wonder, where is the outcry of the republican voters demanding we bring back democracy. 

oranges to oranges

Not every “right” is the same, and not every “wrong” has equal barring. The Republican Party and their propaganda machine has been quite aware of this idea, and throughout the Clinton/Trump Election Campaign have danced a very cunning and convincing dance, with enough savvy and sophistication as to trick the media in trying to present both Political Party’s as the same.  Currently, the Media is being manipulated into  playing a well oiled game  called ‘tit for tat’ or as Fox News so well lies about it, something called “Fair and Balanced”

Harassment and Sexual Aggression against women IS wrong. No debate, not reason to argue. Women are not chattel, nor are they second class citizens or should ever be. But currently, with the assistance of a smart and (we will get even with you) attitude, the Conservative propaganda machinery has begun to deploy a version of a game called Trump 2.0. During the Presidential Campaign, whenever the Trump Campaign lied, or its candidate said yet one more stupid and ingenuous statement, the Media felt the obligation to then find some comparison to the Clinton campaign, presenting to the viewer that BOTH sides were actually equal in how they played the political game. As Trump lied, suddenly a vast conspiracy team of experts popped up appearing on ALL of the Media Talking Heads programs and found false facts that proved Hillary lied just as much as Trump; and in fact they embellished her non-lie into an enormous ‘Buyer Beware’ moment. Suddenly, with the all the truthful evidence against Trump, Hillary, via here say and the Media thinking all kinds of wrong are the same and all kinds of rights are the same, made a sham of the truth, and bought tempting lures used by the fishermen of the Republican’s casting into the sea of social media doubt.

Senator Al Franken was a pig, a nasty male who used a women for a joke, thinking her body was no more than a tool for his comedy. It was as if the woman did not matter. Senator Franken was caught, he tried and apologized (not dismissing his actions), but he also stated that since that time he had discovered that women are equal to men and always should have been considered so. Roy Moore, has been accused of groping, touching, seducing and engaging women and young girls into sexual submissive situations, that is not only an arrogant and insidious behavior, but true and illegal act. Donald Trump has orally bragged about his tactics in demeaning women, and has proudly compared women as if he was hunting on a safari, and they were nothing but trophies. And now with a visual aid of Al Franken touching a female, the Conservative Media is ONCE again, playing the Media its game of “Well if the Republicans do it, and the Dems do it, then isn’t it a moot point, after all!

NO, NADA, NOPE. What happens with the manipulation of the definitions of right and wrong, by the Republican Press defines the discussion of the act and makes all of the actors seem the same. And as awful and disgusting as were Al Franken’s actions, Trump and Moore are awful in a different way and deserve a different kind of discussion and a different end result. Lets, look closely at just how sincere or insincere these men have or had been in their actions. If we play the Republican game of Its all the same, we never EVER look at the PERSON, or place responsibility on HIM. We did this once before, between Clinton and Trump, and none of it was as the adage goes, comparing “oranges to oranges”.