Revenge and Retribution

 

                                    "Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall

                                    Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

                                    All the King's horses and all the king's men

                                    Couldn't put Humpty back together again."

So begins the Trump presidency, poised for disaster in 2025. When a man who dreams of being king sets his primary goal on ridding the country of all of his enemies, he--like Humpty Dumpty--is setting the country on a collision course that is terrifying and doomed to fail. He has an enemy list that includes several media outlets he abhors, and the likes of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, among others, and he has appointed unqualified people to his cabinet who will do his bidding. After all, it is alot easier to destroy an institution than to build one.

Let's start with Kash Patel, who in his 2023 book GOVERNMENT GANSTERS is going to head the F.B.I. and "has named 60 people as members of the executive branch deep state"-- "a cabal of unelected tyrants who posed the most dangerous threats to our democracy." He wants these political, military and media people to be dealt with "criminally or civilly." (NYT, Sarah Isgur, 12/14/2024). There are many people on this list, such as Bill Barr, who served as one of Donald Trump's attorney generals; John Bolton, who served as national security advisor; and Pat Cipollone, Mr.Trump's White House counsel." If you have spoken any word against the incoming king; if you are perceived as the opposition, you are part of the "deep state" and, according to Trump and his henchman (the future Federal Bureau of Insanity), you deserve jail time, at the very least, or the death penalty for Retired General Mark A. Milley. This is an absurd travesty of justice. Trump repeatedly said during his campaign, "Revenge and Retribution" and as professional journalists and politicians said, "Believe him!"

This insane premise would be fine if there were other guardrails, a criminal justice system that would safeguard folks against baseless prosecutions, but those are quickly disappearing. Once the Supreme Court granted Donald Trump, a clear-cut criminal, immunity under acts he committed when he was president, all gloves were off. We already know the Supreme Court, with its six Conservative justices, has given Trump a get out of jail free card, so what hope can there be for them to protect the innocent people who dare to question his authority. Plus, he has a whole cabinet of equally unqualified people, including Pam Bondi to head the justice department, who, aside from denying the results of the 2020 election, wants all "woke radical leftists" fired from the DOJ. This  spells the end of freedom for a democratic voice.

Let's not forget freedom of speech - they want NPR to end as well as newspapers who speak the truth to Trump's numerous lies. Just today Trump annnounced "I am not sure if grocery prices could be lowered for a very long time," a baseless campaign promise which people who saw through his charade knew was a bogus claim. That is what he does. But right now, as he begins policies to help claim  his demagoguery, who could possibly stop him?

Finally, there is Kari Lake chosen to serve as director of the federally funded boadcaster Voice of America, where America's achievements are boadcast worldwide. "Mr.Trump's thoughts of the media are clear: he calls reporters enemies of the people, derides critical news coverage of him as fake and muses about stripping broadcasters of their licenses" (NYT, Kate Rogers, 12/14). Ms. Lake, a former television anchor who lost her own elections, has often disparaged the press. Journalists are already reeling regarding the possibility of voicing free and independent coverage. This fear is justified. A man who bullies senators to support his appointees by intimidating them with fears of not being reelected will surely attempt to squelch all opposition, and he will likely succeed.

Yet, having such supporters and their undying pledge of allegiance to the king has an obvious pitfall. There will come a reckoning, one day, which will cause some of his minions to disagree with him. Already he and Musk are at odds with contrasting points of view about the government. History has repeatedly demonstrated all monarchies may have their day in the sun, but inevitably fail. And when, hopefully, this presidency comes tumbling down because of revenge and retribution, there will be no one left in his government to pick up these pieces based on hate. Hopefully, we can start over, perhaps in two years, when people realize the emperor is naked and was indeed so the day he first walked down the golden stairs of Trump tower.

The Free Press

 "You may be going to jail," my husband said the other day after reading my latest blog.

"You think???" I said, laughing.

"Of course, since you are admonishing the man who would be king/dictator."

I laughed again, knowing my blogs, soon to be posted on substack, are small potatoes. However, the non-laughing matter is he will surely go after the big presses. Freedom of the press may be a thing of the past. It was bad during the first term, but this term will be arguably worse. In his first term he went after CNN because of its coverage about him, and apparently tried to push The Department of Justice to block AT& T's acquisition of the Network's owner at the time, Time Warner. He has frequently ranted and rallied against the press, calling them "the enemy of the people." Since he is a media creation, this feels ridiculously ironic; they have given him too large a platform, freqently pushing his lies as facts.They have normalized an insanely abnormal man, a terrific injustice to the American public who believe him.

This second term will be worse. According to a piece in THE NEW YORKER, "there is a fear he will ramp up the deployment of subpoenas, specious lawsuits, court orders and search warrants to seize reporters' notes, devices and source materials." The threats are so large that THE WASHINGTON POST and THE L.A. TIMES refused to endorse Kamala, their candidate of choice. Joe and Mika went down to Mar-a-Lago to try to reconcile with him. Afterwards, he made fun of them for trying to get back in his favor. It is a terrible move to try to gain favor with a man who is so unhinged, so newspapers and media, beware of your kow-towing. Stop bowing down to him; it won't work!

Indeed, retribution is in the air. Trump has already opposed a bi-partisan federal bill that would allow journalists to withold the identity of confidential sources. "Republicans must kill this bill," he has said. Already Kash Patel, a Q conspiracy theorist and potential F.B.I director, has said, "We are going after American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections," while on Steve Bannon's podcast. Trump's lawyers have already threatened or taken legal action against THE TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, ABC, Penguin Random House, and others. With one of the authors of 2025 (the 900 page document Trump knew nothing about), Brendan Carr, who is ideologically aligned with Elon Musk, to head the Federal Communications Commission, freedom of press may soon be obsolete.  Indeed, the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 proposed ending federal funding for both NPR and PBS.

We are now like Putin's Russia. Another irony is just the other day, Russian television mocked America's chaos and disarray, clearly happy to have Trump and his chaos in office. It will only make Russia stronger as American power weakens. This is, after all, "the arsenal of a would-be-autocrat who seeks to intimidate his critics, protect himself from scrutiny and go on wearing away at the liberal democratic order." He desires the silence of the opposition, which is why it is critical for people to raise their voices of dissent high over the rooftops of every building, all over the world! And so I will.

*Acnowledgment is given to "The Talk of the Town," NEW YORKER, December 9th

Disqualified

 If one were doing a search for the president of a university, a hospital or a law firm, they would scrutinize a multitude of resumes. Unfortunately, little was done when the Republican candidate was chosen.  This one man, in particular, has a HUGE fan base who would go to bat for this man, which includes, perhaps, a call to arms. His base loves him so much they will fight, destroy the U.S. capital (if need be), but they will get their man in. They will lie, but so will he; he lies so much, it is a challenge to decipher truth from disinformation. It doesn't matter; he is loud and entertaining and a classic bully. He is certainly not a role model for workers, teachers, doctors, lawyers or students. My God, parents would punish their children for doing far less. His behavior is unacceptable. Plus, he has 34 felony convictions. There would have been more charges, many more, but he has relied on massive delaying tactics. He lies to those interviewing him, but they like a strong man, a powerful man; they don't mind his derision. In the "real" world, he would never be hired. He wouldn't even get a second interview. But it is this man who was selected to be president of the United States; you can't make this level of debasement up. It is parody at its worst. No one reads the news anyway or is truly that informed, so there are zero guardrails to reign him in. He is on a mission to destroy, and indeed he will.

The plot thickens. Now this man is in charge of putting together a charlatan cabinet and staff, and he does it with speed and with one goal and one goal only: loyalty to the chief. It is like a hospital hiring the worst doctors and staff and nurses because they will honor this "fearless leader," and do whatever he wants, even if this means seeing patients die right before their very eyes. This is retribution against your enemy time; not a government. Let's start with Pete Hegseth's nomination as defense secretary. Even his own mother wrote to him in 2018 saying he was an abuser of women and a misogynist. No surprise. He is also an alcoholic, with several ugly scenes to his credit. In addition to no expereince, he wants to ban women from combat operations. Seriously? But he loves Donald Trump, so what else matters? Joining him in the list of challenges is Putin-lover Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, sure to make foreign nations keep many secrets from our country. She is putting our national security at risk. Foreign leaders are already banning together to ban America from sensitive information. Who could blame them? R.F.K. Jr our possibly soon to be our secretary of Health and Human Services, is the man in part responsible for discouraging vaccines in Somoa, which resulted in an outbreak of 5,700 cases of measles and more than eighty deaths (many of them children) as a consequence. Personality doctor Dr. Oz, who lost his gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania, has now been chosen to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Between one bogus scientist and one non-scientist, what more could you ask for! 

Yet, there is still more. Kash Patel, whose only goal is to take care of the Don, wants to trash the F.B.I., a task he will have no problem with. He is an election denier consipracy-theory junkie, who has bounced from job to job with a level of gross inefficiency, in truth on par with everyone else. His goal is retribution. Let's not forget Kristi Noem the current Govenor of South Dakota who is well-known for two things: shooting her own dog who was a nuisance, as well as a goat, and dancing for thirty minutes at a rally with the Don, because he forgot he was supposed to speak and not dance. She is now pegged to be Director of Homeland Security, who better to serve in such a role.

Other cast members include seven people who worked on the 2025 Project, the distastrous more than 900-page document that seeks to destroy all our norms, all our institutions and all the progress we have made as a nation in the past decades. I shudder at this "shadow" government, that selects Massad Boulas (his credential: daughter Tiffany's father-in-law) as advisor to the Middle East and Charles Kushner (Jared's father) a recently pardoned criminal as ambassador to France.

I am so glad Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, and to say otherwise, as an appalled Republican or citizen, indicates how much you have swallowed the Kool-Aid; hypocrisy is now your middle name. What Hunter did to break the law is NOTHING compared to this lowly group of sycophants who DARE to lead our government. This is not the Twilight Zone; it is not a dystopian novel; it is not even a successful parody. It is that bad! I would laugh-out-loud if I weren't crying and mourning whatever this country wants to call itself, not anything that bears any semblance to reality. Each day's selection is a new disaster.

What Will Doctors and Women Do?????

 Two years ago, after Roe vs. Wade was overturned, my husband, a retired physician was asked by a family member to prescribe abortion pills for a young pregnant woman who lived in Ohio, and was past the six week abortion mandate adopted by many states. As a New Yorker and a very humane doctor, his immediate response was, "Of course." However, he needed some questions answered: 1. Was it an ectopic pregnancy? 2. Would someone care for this woman afterwards and finally, what COULD happen to him if the state discovered he had written the prescription. The response? "Jail time, a fine and a possible loss of his license." He offered an alternative: The woman could come to New York (he would cover the cost); he would find her a clinic and she could stay with us in New York. Apparently, someone had offered the same option in Pennsylvania, so the girl was helped and saved.

What will happen as more sates fail to approve this insane six-week aboortion ban, and physicians and health-care providers are forced to turn women away who are having a severe medical crisis from the fetus they are carrying? Just yesterday in Georgia a woman died since no one would treat her bleeding from a miscarriage; this is now commonplace. It is also a gross miscarriage of decency which compels health-care providers to turn their backs on women in distress.What will happen in 2025, when this new adminstration, not to be trusted, perhaps decides to enact a federal ban? 

Immediately, more women may potetially die; others will lose the opportunity to ever have children again and some women will select to have children they can not care for. I just finished a terrifying article in THE NEW YORKER: "The Texas Exodus." Many decent ob-gyn physicians are leaving the state, because they are no longer thought of as health-care providers, but as criminals if they help a woman who seeks to have an abortion, even when medically justified. "From a medical standpoint, the treatment for aboriton and miscarriage is the same--and so, even though miscarriage care remained legal, physicians began putting it off or denying it outright." According to the author of the article, Stephania Taladrid, "After Roe was overturned, the laws in Texas were tightened further, so that abortion was banned at any stage of pregnancy, unless a woman was threatened with death or substantial impairment of a major bodily function. Violations could send practioners to prison for life."

Texas is not the only state where ob-gyn doctors are leaving. Any state that has criminalized the care of women's reproductive health has propelled a mass-exodus of its medical establishment, and now this is SO MANY states across the country. Not only that, according to the article, medical schools are discouraging students from going into these fields. Where, after all, can they safely practise medicine according to the Hippocratic Oath they sought to preserve. How many states will survive this political execution??

I find myself filled with grief and fury on so many levels. First of all, I am enraged with the many MEN who made these laws, and the indecency of the dysfunctional SUPREME COURT that over-turned the law of the land. WHAT WOMAN  COULD SIGN ON FOR THIS AT THE BALLOT BOX????? I am angry at all the governments--state and otherwise, who have AGREED that this is acceptable. Are ANY of these men, these people, prepared to take care of all the unwanted children being born, particularly since 2025 is poised to CUT many of the needed social services for improverished children. I am angry at a country that saw the clock turning backwards and still elected this man to be president. And I feel, with a heavy-heart, what it must be like to be a woman who is impotent when her body betrays her, and there is no one around to offer medical or emotional support. I feel for the doctors who have trained for years, those who only wanted to help, and now who could be faced with possible criminal conviction. The moral compass of this country is GONE, and I, too, am impotent as I watch our world slowly slip away. It is not a world I signed on for either!

New York

  "How could we live here?" 

  This question resonates inside me daily.  New York is not, after all, the easiest place to live. It is not always clean. It is way too crowded, especially in the theater district, and I love the theater. There can truly be wall to wall traffic. It is also at times dirty. The garbage, though picked up, sometimes still lingers on the streets, an ugly reminder you are a New Yorker, since you have learned to live with it.

And yet, and yet....I can't imagine living anywhere else for any prolonged period of time. I love its energy, even though it is hyper energy, it suits me. I love that there is so much to do here. Today I took the train to Canal Street and went to a very incredible museum, The Banksy Museum. I have discovered with TDF and groupon how to do things inexpensively. And yes, New York is terribly over-priced: the rents, the food, the amenities.

Everywhere I go, including in my building, there is a vast array of faces, religions, ethnicities, genders, ages. My own building feels like a model U.N. I love this, but even more so, I feel safe here, that the liberties of freedom of choice, a woman's right to reproductive care, the safeguarding of my DACA students, the books I read, the bible which will not appear in my public schools, my libraries which will be stocked with every book; in other words--at least for now--I feel like living in New York is living in a state where one's freedom is not inhibited, one not granted in so many states across America. I can only pray the federal government does not change this, but for now, my ob-gyn does not have to think about leaving her city and state to practice safe medicine. My local librarian can stock the shelves with any book he or she chooses. New York has many things which do not work, but its city and state municipalities do not adhere to any draconian rules.

And so, New York is my imperfect home. And as they say, there is no place like home!

And here is my love letter to New York

Overgrown Garden: A Love Letter to New York

Dear New York,

I should have left you

when it was easy

could have traipsed

into a spring of sunshine and sparrows

where miles of clean beaches

beautiful sunsets

and the stores

you might take me to

shelved with caviar, Perrier

simple breath

home baked bread

radiant of light and bright

a costume of white,

still

I allowed you

under my skin--

sweat of summer sidewalks

too much garbage

lingering like an open mouth

spewing a restless mass.

You were gritty

and dirty

feverish

without any relief,

at the corner bodega

you bought me a Slushy

and the voices

of language--

English, Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, Hindi--

a meandering queue

of faces and places

made me dizzy

with desire.

New York

youe frantic air is sifling

yet you pull me into this frenzy

of taste and smell and color;

how could I ever leave you?

Evn the daffodil

loves to linger

in your overgrown garden.

Travel

When I was younger, I imagined traveing the world. I waited until I was an older teen to travel, when I could truly appreciate the wonders and magic of new places, and also when I had the money. I thought of myself as "somehwhat" of an adventurer, traveling with a backpack to England, Scotland, Italy. There were many more mysteries just beyond the horizon.

Indeed, I traveled to many other places-other European cities; other American cities; Mexico; Canada;  Vietnam; the Philippines; Iceland; Caribbean Islands. I always went with an open heart and wide-open eyes. I was never disappointed. I imagined retirement as a time when I could travel far and wide. 

Yet, here I am, and the world has grown smaller. Places such as Russia, Poland, China now seem off limits.It feels like there is more time, but less desire to travel extensively. I am more tired and I like staying home. Air travel is more fraught.

It doesn't mean I am done. I still have a bucket list of Europen cities as well as Australia, Africa, Japan. How will I fare with a twenty plus hour plane ride? I am not sure. The magic and mystery of foreign soil still beckons, but the body (and mind) are fatigued. So, too, do I feel that way with American cities whose politics I abhor. Do I want to give my tourist money to those cities? My husband says no, but for me I am not certain.

There is much uncertainty as I travel in the future. All I can say is onward and upward. To where I am not sure.

The Sorrows and Joys of Getting Older

     "What is good about getting older?" a beloved family member asked at Thanksgiving.

        "I could say, NOT MUCH, since there are so many things, not good, but there are some rewards in turning seventy and retiring.

        "What are they?" She was clearly puzzled. I, too, was puzzled by my response, since I have been feeling somewhat down since the election, thinking this political landscape is NOT the life I wanted to have during my twilight years. My moral compass has only grown stronger with age, so 2025 America is a far cry from a decent world I take pride in. I find the cabinet choices alone to be reprehensible. My God, even Pete Hegseth's mother wrote a piece published in the TIMES in 2018, where she accused her son of mistreating women for years. She said, "he was an abuser of women." In my world he could not hold ANY position in any capacity. Yet, my guess is many members of Congress will not care, so I will have to simply sit on my sorrow.

The sorrow goes deeper. My body can not do what it used to do in so many ways. Head-stands are out in yoga, but so much else is out too, including very active aerobics. I don't swim as many miles as I used to, since I can't. I used to never take public transportation, since I walked everywhere. Now I often take the bus or the subway. My knee and my hip hurt. Plus, even as I am writing this, it is Saturday afternoon, and I feel really tired. I slept well last night, which is often NOT the case for me now as a senior. Adding insult to injury, I am now totally gray-haired, by choice, so when people look at me they see an older woman. I am!

But here is the good part, too. I accept my limitations like I never did before. I push myself, but not too hard, and that is a good thing. I have gotten off the treadmill and I no longer want to get back on it. I appreciate the leisure of a planless day like I never did before. I still exercise, I still write and read, enjoy culture and am inspired to take political action, but I do so at my own pace, no one else's. I don't want to be anyone else but myself, and though my life is not perfect, I am free to be me. That same freedom means I will call you out if you disrespect me, if I don't appreciate what you are doing or saying. There is no one I am afraid of, no one I will kow-tow to. If you don't like me as a result, that is okay, too. Not everyone appreciates this style, and that is fine, which does not mean I won't make sacrifices, especially with my immediate family, particularly my grandchildren, since it takes a village and I want to be part of that village. I have learned to keep quiet and when to use my voice. Plus, at this point in my life, I need not be friends with people I feel little in common with, though I never mind challenges or differences. I am not going to be connected, ever again, out of obligation, since what I really value now is authenticity, even if your authentic is not mine.

I would like to grow old with peace and serentiy, and sometimes that will not be possible, since friction and tumult and the unexpected are always on the horizon, like this past election, which I did not prepare psychologically for in any way.  And there are health issues, too. So, as I grow older with my wrinkled face and gray hair and flab on my stomach, I have to be cognizant--even more so--of the little control I have to map the future. I will do, what I can, to make it the best possible one, and try to ride the waves of sorrow that sometimes might make their way onto my map. But the map will always be mine, so I am prepared for the sorrow and jubilation of the journey.

        

Levi

 He is new to our world, little Levi Nat, and he had his first Thanksgiving, 2024, with aplomb!

Levi, four months old, gets his own poem.

Levi

Little Levi-

lovely

smiles sunshine

kicks legs and hands

in joyful celebration;

he is 

a baby blessed

in blankets of love,

may he grow

into the world

with bountiful beauty

that he will make

even

if it isn't there.

He and his cousins, Ella and Jake, are our future!

The Composition, for Ella's Tenth Birthday!

 Ella is a force of fury-psssionate, loving, kind. I have watched her since she was a little baby, so I have watched her grow. And so, I celebrate the joy of knowing such a special little girl with this ghazal:

The Composition, For Ella, Age Ten

Ella plays the violin

music in the wind

laughter plucks the strings of joy

music in the wind

sometimes sorrow sings a dirge

music cries the wind

the notes don't know where to go

music cries the wind

but then a smile, the highest scale

music blasts the wind

laughter louder than a whale

music fast in wind

the happiest of compositions

her music makes the wind.

Trick or treat, but she is always a treat!

Jake and Ira, a poem

 You already saw the picture of Ira, "pop-pop" Reiser. He and Jake have a very special relationship. Here is a poem for these two guys:

                                            American Dream Amusement Park

The ferris wheel

never stops circling

when Ira and Jake

sit inside;

like another planet

whirling up and down

around the sunl

these two boys:

seven and seventy

Jake and Ira

live in the orbit

of love and laughter

in a galaxy

uniquely

their own.

Ira

 He is my my friend, my husband, the wonderful father to my children. We have been married for forty-six years, and I have grown to admire him more each day, as I come to deeply understand his kindness and compassion. My joke is he should be made the director of Health and Human Services in the new adminstration because he would consistently help and never harm people. The joke is he would never be asked, nor would he ever work for such a corrupt adminstration. He has an extraordinarily strong moral compass and integrity.

     HERE IS MY POEM FOR IRA: View from the Bridge, Eastside Manhattan, 36th Floor

The bridge

of kindness

you've built

with patients

even when there's no money

to pay you;

the water

too cold to swim in

(you never swim in cold water)

but in June

you plunged

in the pool

since your six-year old grandson

was waiting

for his Pop-pop;

Pop-pop

one of the words Jake speaks

said loud and clear

as does nine year old Ella.

Pop-pop

a prayer

a psalm

to the small building

surrounded by many toweing ones--

the man

you may notice,

but brick by brick

tile by tile

has given us a fortress

(we, his family),

so the bridge may fall

the river may flood

fears may ferment

from a world

we never expected to turn so ugly,

but Ira

is there

and nothing else matters

                                                

Giving Out Food

 Today Ira and I volunteered at a soup kitchen for the breakfast shift 6-7:30. Usually there are, perhaps, 120 people, but today, thanksgiving week, there were one hundred and eighty-nine people. I had to over-step a psychological hurdle looking at the line. When political rhetoric established the duality of "them" and "us", I invite those politicians to join any line where food is being distributed and obseve how many people looked like me and Ira, but because of food scarcity, must get meals elsewhere. It made me weep inside, since I shudder to imagine what will happen in 2025 when the new adminstration takes over and Musk and Ramaswamy execute their plan to cut, cut, cut. There is already talk of cuts to many social networks, including CHIPS, medicaid and medicare. My friend said school lunches might be cut. What will children do who can't get fed? Feeding the stomach helps to feed the mind; the mind can't function without the necessary sustenance.

For today, my only focus is on tzedukah. My friend said the only way to transcend this "brave new world" is to do good where you can, with a few pet causes. Indeed, this will be one of mine with Ira by my side.We will feed the poor, the hungry, those people who fell off the grid--if only for a short while."The highest form of wisdom is kindness," according to the Talmud,

I invite you to be as kind as you can be, and as smart, and with compassion in your heart recognize without migrants to farm the land and without social services, that the streets will be flooded with physical and psychological hunger. When you give thanks this thanksgiving, feel free to be blessed with what you have, but remember, even those who worked hard and came here for the sake of their children, as your families once did, that there are too many people walking around who will have to snake around in long lines for the possibility of one meal to sustain them. Please bless them, too!

Happy Thanksgiving

To one and all! This is the time to count my blessings, which is what I will do. I say this during what is a challenging time, since as a senior blogger, this is not the world I imagined, seen through the lens of HIS vision of darkness, and those people and institutions he and his team have decided are irrelevant. They are relevant to me, so I am blessed to be a woman with strong convictions, married to a man who has equally strong convictions. We are both figuring out how to negotiate this landscape, and what we will do.

I am lucky to have friends and family, like-minded people, who understand this quagmire, so I need not explain why I am feeling the joy of the season, but some sorrow, too. They feel it. As my friends have said, "One can't live in a bubble."

I am glad and feel blessed to know I am not alone in wanting a better world, where health, safety, education, compassion, empathy and humanity are paramount. I am appreciative that we--my friends-- share so many values, and are honest and authentic in the way we appraoch the world. We strongly believe in separation of Church and State. We don't believe that lying and hyperbole is any way to run a country.  Another friend said, "You can't change the ugly choices that this adminstration has made, but you can work on one or two pet causes, and do whatever you can do." I will and will do so with my husband by my side.

I revel in my children and grandchildren, their choices in partners, the children they are raising, the times we celebrate together. Thus, I celebrate today with Amanda's folks and the delcious food I know Amanda and Craig will prepare, and when we fill out our piece of paper, "What are you thankful for?" my answer will be "For all of this! For all of you!" This includes the ability to try to make what is not good better.

My Three Munchkins

No, they are not munchkins, but they are out of this world special, each in his or her own way. They are my remarkable grandchildren.

Ella is number one, as in the first one born, and now, the only girl. Each time she sees me, she runs into my arms as if she has not seen me in years. She is wildly passionate, creative, warm and funny. Sometimes she seems wise beyond her years, and other times she is just a young girl. She always makes me laugh, in her stories and the way she looks at the world. She loves gymnastics and can spiral into a move in the middle of a conversation. She loves her beauty creams, but also reminds me, "to take care of saving an animal from extinction" when it is time to celebrate her birthday. She fills me with joy.

Jake, too, fills me with joy as the number two grandchild, and the first grandson. Though he is non-verbal, he has his own ways of communicating--wth his hands, his eyes, his board and his body. He, too, is funny, and makes me laugh because he has a terrific sense of humor. He loves when I read to him, and can listen to ten books at a time--too many for me, at times. He loves music and loves to dance to music, and is good at it. He has a special relationship with his "pop-pop," what he calls Ira. Jake is fearless, and when he goes on the rides with Ira, I feel like I am star-gazing at an extraordinary relationship.

Then there is little Levi, Samantha and Josh's four-month-old, the newest member of our tribe. He gazes at the world with wide-open eyes. When he is on his back, he kicks his legs in delight. Though he is so little, he, too, seems to love books and music and engaging with people. The word which comes to mind is delicous. I am eager to see what he will become.

I am blessed to have all three in my life. When I feel the darkness of these times fill my brain, I try to replace the negativity with the positivity of their special smiles, and I am reminded of all that is good, and why I should work extra hard to make this world one I would like to see them grow up in.

My Children

This blog is intended to record what is sorrowful, but also what is sweet, and in this landscape I must talk about my grown children. They are really quite remarkable, sometimes sweet, sometimes not, but always people I admire.

I begin with Craig, my eldest, almost forty. I love standing at the sidelines and watching how he is with his wife and children; in particular, in those moments he thinks I am not looking. I love the way he hugs and kisses spontaneously. Though he rarely calls (he is not a phone person), when he does call it is often to talk--and really talk. When I get glimpses into his open heart, I marvel at what's inside. Most importantly, he is such a hard worker, and provides diligently for his family. I am proud of him at work. The best part is the partner he has selected. We love Amanda as our own, and she is such a terrific yin to his yang. She is an amazing Mama, a terrific person, and she grounds him in remarkable ways.

And now to our Samantha, a new mother, a marvel. She, too, is a hard worker, and loving to a fault to those she loves. She is a passionate do-gooder, and this translates into a job where she is helping those in need. She has easy access to her feelings, and this is the way she consistently relates to those around her. She loves her family-- all of us--the way Craig does, too. Josh, her husband, is also a wonderful partner; they complement one another. They are both wonderful parents.

My children have been launched in positive ways, so they really don't need me that much--which is great. But, if Ira or I needed them, they would be there with open arms, as would their partners. And that is as good as it gets!

A Divided America

 Clearly, this country is so divided that East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. I am quite certain if politics were left out of the conversation, we could chat amicably about our lives and the things we love. My husband plays cards in an atomosphere where half of the people voted one way, and the other half another way. The night is just about the card game, nothing more, and they can kibbutz and have fun. However, this division sometimes comes into play-rarely, only when someone dares to bring up a wild conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen and the response is, "No it was not." Then everything stops.

This is what I know about the other side. Some voted because they like disruption; they don't want conventional political leaders. It does not matter that he has selected cabinet officers with little to no experience; hence, they don't trust government, and some of this is true. They also say that prices have gone up--they have, not realizing in recent months not only have prices gone down, but the economy is doing way better in terms of jobs filled, gas prices lowered and a stock market boom. But they don't watch the same news that I do. They watch Fox, deemed, worldwide, entertainment, not news; plus, they have been sued millions for all the alternate facts they have created. Alternate facts don't bother the other side, so they tune into social media to get their news. Elon Musk invested millions to feed the Trump campaign and did so strategically; feeding the two sides of the Israeli conflict different information, so each side would feel placated. He fed into the image of a "Woke" other side, depite the fact that Kamala's campaign did not dwell on some of these issues. This created an empire who felt the fabric of their communities was being destroyed--the books their children read; gender idenity; immigrants who were all taking over their jobs, forgetting we are all immigrants. Women (53 per cent of White women) fell into the trap,"Women, I will protect you." It did not matter that his running mate was so clueless as to suggest all grandma(s) could care for their grandchildren; women without children were "childless cat ladies." It did not matter that Trump is an alleged serial sex offender. It did not matter that he insulted women based on their looks. It did not matter that he said Hatian immigrants were "eating the dogs and cats." Nothing mattered but the macho and bluster he presented, but people liked the performance. It worked. He won over people in this election. It became a them and us in their world view.

There was no them and us on the other side. We are all a nation of immigrants, human beings, and ones who want to work across the political divide. The other side read newspapers and followed stations such as CNN, which reported news, which meant mostly facts. This side created a campaign that we are all Americans and we need to curb our guns, we need to aim for truth, we need to believe in science, people who stormed the capital were not patriots, women need to have their reproductive rights, health and safety need to be safeguarded, children need CHIPS and school lunches to eat, and you can't do away with a DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION because if each state does what it wants, all that red in the middle will be using the bible as a text, won't use texts that have even an iota of FACTS in them, will ban books in the classroom, won't allow the very diverse voices of America, including religious freedom (no, we are not just White, Christian Americans), won't allow marriages of Gay people, nor will it allow them to adopt the surplus of babies now that abortion will mostly be illegal. Also, social security and medicare are not entitlements; I paid into them my whole life. "We are not going backwards," was the mantra of the campaign on this political side.

But indeed we are going backwards; pity the children and grandchildren of the next generation, one where the military is coming to take migrant children away from their parents, even those who have lived here their whole life. They voted in a man without morals, scruples or character, and if they are poor and suffering, if they are women,  if their health insurance is taken away, he has nothing on his agenda that will help them. This divide will grow and like Jesus said, "forgive them father, for they know not what they have done." If the humanity and decency gap grows larger, which it already has during this campaign, I am not so sure I will forgive them; it might be too hard. He consistently showed what he was about--a charlatan, at best--and more. And they voted for him anyway.

No Man is an Island

      "Can you be happy when you see the horror unleashed on other people?" my friend asked me the other day.

        "Of course not!"

        "So what do we do?"

        "I don't know."

        I wish there was an answer. During these times, I think a great deal about my emotional well-being as we forge ahead to the new adminstration in 2025. It does not look good, just based on cabinet choices and alleged policy decisions he has made so far. Mike Johnson may say, "the popular vote indicates the people wanted to shake things up." Did they? Wait! When they lose some precious rights, what will they say then? And what about a basic moral code? How can one think of himself or herself as a moral person when the "other" is brought down--Trump's campaign mantra. "I am searching out the enemy within."

        I return to John Donne's poem,  "No Man Is an Island.":

                        No man is an island,

                        Entire of itself;

                        Every man is a piece of a continent,

                        A part of the main.

                        If a clod be washed away by the sea,

                        Europe is the less,

                        As well as if a promontory were:

                        As well as if a manor of thy friend's

                        Or of thine own were.

                        Any man's death diminshes me,

                        Because I am involved in mankind.

                        And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls

                        It tolls for thee."

       I know we have a broken immigration system. I know the world is filled with dissenters. But to imprison your enemies, deport millions of decent people, separate families is no solution. To be crass and crude in your humanity is among the worst sins. I remember proudly singing in elementary school a version of Donne's poem, "No man is an island/no man stands alone./Each man's joy is joy to me/each man's grief is my own./We need one another/so I will defend/each man as my brother/each man as my friend."

Yes, indeed, I will find a way out of the despair in the inhumanity that awaits, and I will defend, whatever way I can, my brothers and my friends, since this is what is means to be humane and decent. Isn't this what we all learned we should do early on?  THE BELL TOLLS FOR THEE--just remember!

    

Conclave, the movie

 In my desire to depart from politics, I am going to recommend a MUST SEE movie.The film's focus is on the papacy and the need to find a new pope after the demise of the current one, who apparently was a good, even great one. He had an extraordinary amount of  humanity, and was not trapped by the pettiness and politics of the papacy; in fact, quite the opposite. He was open to the changes in society, and moved forward "outside the box:" without corruption. In other words, he was decent and moral.

With an amazing cast, including Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini, it expores the undercurrent of politics in the papacy, including the fact that there is a right and left wing in the selection of the newest pope. Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Fiennes), investigates the secrets and scandals of each candidate, as the college of cardinals gather in seclusion for a papal conclave to choose a new cardinal.

Did I say this was not political? I suppose I am wrong, since in exposing the treachery and lies of religious figures, what is startling is a real similarity in the way politics and religion are marriage partners  in distorting truths and the norms of decency. I don't want to give away what happens, but suffice it to say I weeped at the end, perhaps in a good way, but I can't share--or you won't bother seeing this wonderful movie, one with strong convictions.

Dear Kamala and Tim

 Now that the Democratic party has lost everything, I want to write a letter to you to let you know what a terrific campaign you ran in just a few months. It never, for a second, relied on insults and derision. You did point out truths about the other candidate, but they were undeniable. He said what he said that was dark, ugly and dishonest, but clearly it meant nothing to so many people.  At your rallies, people cheered with joy and happiness; I was one of them, cheering as I watched on television. You shouted, "We are not going back," a wonderful mantra, which I and half the country had hoped for. You gave new meaning to the flag; you made me feel patriotic. It was not your fault that the messaging of Joe Biden's adminstration was not loud enough. In fact, he did more for working people, and at the end of the day has done so much for the country. It was a challenge to separate yourself as an individual from a president you admired, as did many of us. Yes, he should have resigned earlier; this would have given us an open convention and maybe you would have been the candidate anyway, Kamala, but perhaps people would have felt it was a fairer process. But that didn't happen, so you had three months to define yourself-- clearly not enough time. But in that short time, you and Coach Walz filled the hearts of so many people with a vision of a brighter future where we were all working together. There are so many reasons the strong man won, least of all wonderful qualifications. I know race and gender was one of them. It is sad in 2024 that these things matter at all, but this is America. They can now have their guns and their derision and whatever else they think they can get. Billionaires and millionaires can now get taxed at a lower rate. The ACA may go, and there is only a concept of a plan to replace it. Already his potential cabinet is filled with wholly unqualified people. For my personal sanity, I will cherish the memory of a different world, and only look ahead to 2026 to have decency return to the political landscape. This is no fault of yours, Kamala and Tim; you did a wonderful job. I wish people had awakened to the possibility of a brighter tomorrow instead of what the future holds in store for us, and it is not good!

My daughter, son-in-law and baby on the campaign trail for the two of you!

More on Joy

 In Margaret Renkl's wonderful editorial in the November 13th NYT she states," there is no cure for grief, but beauty and tenderness can walk alongside it." This really struck a chord last night when we discussed, at dinner before the theater, what do we do about all this grief as we catch the government flip over on  its axis? My friend's husband, whom we adore, even went so far as to say," I don't want to talk about politics." I get that. We are all in our "golden years" and the erosion of all our norms is terrifying. Many of us, me among them, are talking about politics too much.It is easy to say, this will not effect me, but it does and it will. How do you remain "happy" when people you know, some of whom are model citizens, are taken out of this country? Why do you think you are safe in your financial cocoon, when, perhaps, your medicare may be taken away and a non-scientist holds the cabinet position of health and human services, and one who is  ill-equipped to handle the next possible pandemic or oversee the numerous agencies under his jurisdiction.

I think the response is, you don't deny the grief, nor do you dwell on it 24/7, as I know I have done. There are no easy answers, nor is there the "proper" way to grieve--tears, anger, militant actions, denialism. Renkl says there is no cure, but to not allow the "braying winners to turn us into impotent shadows with stones forever lodged in our throats would be to let them win even more surely than they won at the ballot box last week."

What she says is we need to tap into joy, whatever that may be; we need to give ourselves a respite. I spent weekend last week with two of our grandchildren, going to the Museum of Natural History with our grandson and the theater with our grandaughter. They are warm and funny and filled me and my husband with great pleasure. I taught a pre-k class of poetry in my cousin's class, and the children were so charming and deligthful that I felt the sheer pleasure of the experience.  Our youngest grandson is starting to gaze at the world with his beautiful open eyes.

Renkl goes on to tell us that "For me, there will be more watchful stillness. More walks in the woods to watch the still heron standing one-legged in the shallows; to watch the still deer; waiting to see that I do them no harm; to linger in the stillness of the lake itself, a perfect mirror giving back to the sky." What Renkl wants, which is what I supopose we all want, "is to remind myself again and again not to wait for the world to give me a reason to sigh with relief. I will give myself respite. I will remember not to keep waiting for sweetness and rest to arrive on their own."

As my friend said last night, "How do I keep myself --all of us--from calcifying during this time of grief and the stress that goes with it?" I suppose we allow all the feelings to invade us at once. We hug the family and friends we love, and take in the JOY and SWEETNESS of having them in our lives to hug. This is surely not a solution, but it does offer a small moment of grace, which in itself is something. Beauty, tenderness and grief can all live inside of us, as well as the blessings we have in one another.

Dismantle, Destroy and Joy

 When I woke up this morning to the news that RFK Jr. was to be given the position as the head of health and human services, I exclaimed, in disbelief.

        "Seriously??"

        "Did you really expect him to nominate anyone good to his cabinet? He thrives on chaos," said my husband. He added, as a physician, he is personally offended to have a man who disbelieves in science to be at the helm of this agency

        "Not really, but I DID expect some level of thoughfulness. At least an iota."

This week has brought such insanity to the selection of people to head up important, federal agencies. It is probably the most unqualified group of individuals to be in a presidential cabinet in history, with the likes of Matt Gaetz as the head of the Justice Department; Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News Host, as the Defense Secretary; Tulsi Gabbard, famed Putin-lover for Director of National Intelligence; and the likes of Elon Musk; Vivek Ramaswamy; the list of Trump-cronies who will be loyal to him is astounding. What is terrifying is their lack of skill and their inability to do their jobs effectively puts our country at great risk.

            "Maybe they won't be confirmed," I sighed.

            "Ha," my husband laughed. "Teflon Don gets everything he wants. They are kow-towing to him for fear of excommunication. He said on the campaign trail he would punish his enemies, so they will confirm during recesses and avoid consent and approval by the senate. He is now the king. He makes the law."

        "But it does not make sense. This will destroy the government."

        "Exactly. "Dismantle and destroy the administrative state as he outlined repeatedly during his campaign."

        "For what purpose?"

        " To demonstrate he is the ONE in power, and all government is all but irrelevant --aside from him."

            "So many people will suffer."

            "And maybe," he said, "this will give pause when they think of the man they voted in."

DISMANTLE AND DESTROY.  He is right. But how do I and others like me make it through the next few years as I watch a government caricature of a real government? How do I keep my faith? How do I support my good friends and loved ones who feel as I do, somewhat hopeless? And who are the people who understood what he was and voted for him anyway? I am so disappointed in this electorate, this country.

My husband says we will fight when we are able to, and find joy where and when we can, in those small moments of grace. I have already zoomed in on my friends and family, like-minded people, already befuddled and searching how to make sense of this election. I don't want him taking up the same space he did since 2016, when each crime he committed seemed like he would surely be nailed, and the coffin would be shut. Now, I know he can walk away freely from anything and for whatever insane reason, people vote for him and love his blatant disregard of norms. The nastier he is, the more they cheer. For Vance, too, who during his campaign week dared to call Kamala "garbage."

To exorcise Donald Trump from my head space, I will focus on my children, my grandchildren, my friends.  But I will also do the things I love, which give meaning to my life. Just this morning I taught poetry to a class of three- and four-year-olds in my cousin Jackie's class. I had two City College poetry mentors shadow me, Miguel and Mateo (Frida), both of whom energized the room. I asked Miguel to pretend to be a dog, while I read dog poems. The children were so excited to write a group poem. It filled me with joy. It also reminded me, I can try harder to find the positive anchors in my life, which give me happiness and meaning--and I will.

JOY I will create, and when the time is ripe, for the sake of our future generations of lovely, smiling children, I will FIGHT to bring back the kind of world these childen and all our children and grandchildren deserve.

        

            

Anti-Semitism

 Just the other day, a theatrical version of Anne Frank was performed in Michigan. Outside of the theater, a group of people were waving Nazi flags--and no one took them down. This has now become a norm in America, and around the world. People have taken to painting Jewish stars on people's homes in France. In Amsterdam a bunch of people terrorized Israeli soccer fans in droves. As Brent Stephens says in his editorial on 11/13, "It wasn't merely just overflowing anger over the war in Gaza. It was something altogether darker." On a popular app, people were using the term "Jew hunt." In an Oslo station it read, "Hitler started it. We will finish it."

For anyone who has family who perished in the Holocaust, to anyone who was raised with the good values of tikkin olam--actions intended to improve the world-- (which is why I know all but the right wing Jews voted for Kamala, since they  are into repairing the world, not destroying it); to anyone who has reached out to humanity at large, many Jewish people--like myself--were raised with integrity, to a revulsion for what is ugly and vile; hence, read between the lines: Trump used awful antisemitic tropes in his speeches. So, as Stephens says," they are like generations of programists before them--out to get the Jews. Antisemitism in Europe has "now reached the point where the future of many of its Jewish communities is seriously in doubt. They want countries "free of Jews." Isn't that what White Nationalism is partly about? "Jews will not replace us," was chanted on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017--during Trump's first presidency. And his response,"There were good people on both sides."

No. This is not a situation of duality. Antisemitism is never good. I ordinarily do not agree with Stephens, who I sometimes find too conservative, but now there is a warning if we don't pay attention as Americans. "If we stay on this path, the Jew hunt of Amsterdam may be upon us, too, and sonner than we think." Sadly, it already is.

The Ocean

 I walk along the beach; its sands are endless white and go on for miles.  I love the ocean, any ocean. I am at Lido Beach; Aruba; Turks and Caicos; Greece, Split. Everywhere I travel, there are oceans, and I am always drawn to endless stretches of sand and aqua waters. I am no longer the beach swimmer I once was, but I still love the feeling of its water swiming over my feet. It is here, at the beach-any beach, but particulalry off-season, when I find the most serenity. I love to swim, too, and when I am in the pool (not the ocean), I can swim endlessly, which I do over the summer. It is the quintessential meaning of peace.

It is here I offer my prayer. They say sea and animal life is in danger because of water pollution. It is also said that we are in danger, particularly in coastal communities, of terribly dangerous storms which could destroy many inhabitants and their environs. We have seen these natural  disasters wreak havoc on Florida and North Carolina. Please save our planet from the destruction of global warming. I know the head of the EPA in the new administration will most likely adhere to the political ideology of no global warming, even in the face of clear indications otherwise. But it is science, science is real and you can't diminish the power of air and water pollution, storms which have destroyed communities.

Please protect our oceans, our sea and animal life, the land we live on. You need to save the earth we live on. This is not about politics. It is, instead, about love. Without love of your people and this planet, what is--at the end of the day--left to save?

Amen!

GOD and Jesus and PRAYER

 As far as I know, there is separation of Church and State. Recently, there is a movement across our country to do away with this. Now that 2025 will bring about a new administration, I fear this separation will be eroded and people with other religious denominations will be forced to pray to one God. Not only that, I am afraid that White Christian Nationalism has already solidified their priorities, so that one bible (The Trump bible, still for sale) and the ten commandments will be daily discourse in our public schools. This is already happening. And these same people-a fairly large electorate, has declared Donald Trump the new Jesus Christ. They pray to him, they prayed he would win this election, they threatened violence in case he did not win, but alas, their prayers were answered.

Let's be clear. This brave new world stands in sharp contrast to Jesus Christ. Want to start with the ten commandments? Donald Trump has broken every single one of these, and his only religion is OF THE SELF. If Jesus is extolled as kind, compassionate, humane, and cares for the poor, sick and hungry, the sheer hypocrisy of this is unbelievable. Let's be clear: you are praying for millions to be deported, jailing of enemies, separation of children from their parents, doing away with supports for women with children; doing away with care for a woman bleeding out from a miscarriage. The poor, the sick, the hungry? My God, he wants to do away with the ACA.  What will you do when your health care is gone?

So please, spare me your prayers and evocation of God; this will be the most uncompassionate adminstration in recent history. It is the furthest thing from care and compassion. A true believer could never say this is a kind, Christian administration that will soon be in office; it is the opposite. A discussion of God and Christianity has no place in a discussion of the terrible deeds about to be unleashed. By the way, there was a Maga-rally(why, they won?) with the red hats and incorrigible signs: get out of our country. They hurled insults against people strolling through Bryant Park on a beautiful day. What would Jesus say???

And let's get real. There are many religions in this country. Pray to whomever you want. Meanwhile, please, please don't talk to me about God and Jesus and kind, compassionate Christianity if he achieves even a fraction of what his policy goals are. This is where autocracy begins and Democracy ends. Spare me the hypocricy when you are talking about such blatant disregard of humanity. If there is a God, my guess is he or she is weeping at this world.

Women and Men

I got on the elevator yesterday morning with a family I know had voted for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. They were with their two younger daughters. They were angry, more so at a country who could vote in a man who is "a terrible example for my young girls." He proceeded to share his feelings about this election, a conversation that went beyond thirty-six floors.

"As a father of two young girls, I want them to look up to our country at a president who represents dignity, integrity and respect. As a Dad who truly respects women, they should know that men think of them as equals, as young women who can do and be anything, not just in the kitchen at home, minding the children. If they select not to do that, and not have children, they are not 'childless cat women.' Men who respect their mothers, wives, daughters, nieces, could never vote for a man who assaulted and insults women, perversely rates them based upon their appearance, uses profanities on stage (as he will in meetings and with his staff; he has already done so) and says he will protect women whether they like it or not, though women are strong enough to protect themselves. This is so condescending.

You want to talk policy? What is his policy aside from deporting millions of immigrants; taxing millionaires and billionaires at a lower rate; tariffs to possibly increase the deficit; withdrawing aid from Ukraine; doing away with the affordable care act; taking away women's reproductive rights. More women who have obstectrical issues, miscarriages, for example, will die while not being treated. This is a man who cares nothing for the needs of poeple who are suffering on the grorcery lines. I know people like that in the midwest--family--all of whom recently started doing better and still voted for Trump. He is a charalatan, a liar, a convicted felon--everything I don't want my daughters to be. I would never allow this man ten feet near my girls when they grow up. Only a weak, insecure man who needs to prove he is 'macho' would vote for him. If he were a man of color, he would already be behind bars. He couldn't even vote, let alone be president. These men were SCARED of a strong, intelligent woman of color."

His wife chimed in, "What about families with sons? Wouldn't they want a president who is stong, while vulnerable, does the right thing for the public good, is humane and doesn't talk with a sewer mouth? Don't they want their boys to know how to treat people, without the bully pulpit? Don't crimes matter, crimes like lying, causing an insurrection and calling poeple who smashed windows, defecated on the floor and screamed to 'kill Mike Pence' in the capital? What about women, yes; is it okay for your boys to speak and act this way? Is this the model you want for your sons or daughters? As a mother, I am feeling constant, chronic grief, and can't figure out how any self-respecting woman could vote for him. He put you down, women, as did his vice president. Where is your pride in who you are as a female?"

The conversation ended in the lobby of the building. It ended with a hug and the final comment from the five year old, "He is a mean and ugly man."

Words and Deeds

There was a university professor who once shredded the norms of decency. He had poor impulse control, and often exhibited signs of abnormal hostility, particularly toward students. Sometimes this included verbal assaults; other times it was physical, especially with women. He had no problem calling students stupid; telling them they had low IQ(s); this was often done with a sneering facial expression. He punished students who were not loyal (who said they were going to report this behavior) with bad grades.  A few fearless students reported him, and within months, he was fired, and this record of behavior was recorded permanently. I assume he never got another job again, nor did he deserve one.

I once reported a student to academic probation because she plagiarized, not once, but three times. She got expelled, and I felt this was justified; I never tolerated lying in the classroom (her denial).

My husband, who worked as a vice chairman in the department of medicine at a hospital, shared a story about a physician who was a womanizer on the job. This same doctor came onto me at a hospital celebration, and when I said, "Do you know who I am?" he said, "I don't care." I walked away. This behavior, which also had preceded his time at the hospital, was reported in a local newspaper, and he was subsequently terminated.

Words and deeds matter. We have watched the downfall of media personalities because of their terrible words and deeds. There is  no way a CEO of a company would be allowed to stay at his or her job if that person verbally or physically assaulted a fellow worker--or many workers. Nor would a convicted felon be hired for any job whatsoever.

Yet, America, has elected a president (over 51% of the country) whose words and deeds would not be tolerated even in the lowest paying job. As a convicted felon, he was allowed to vote. Ordinary citizens have been thrown off of the voting roll for way less. He has committed crimes which will now be irrelevant, including retaining top secret documents which were required to be returned and being the bullhorn behind an insurrection. He has sexually abused women, and denigrated people of color, migrants, politicians, with a litany of disgusting words, even profanities. No company would EVER hire him, but now he will be our president. This public behavior is unacceptable in a civilized society, but I would think calling the qualified woman running against him stupid and ugly should not be tolerated--nor should he be.

Over the past few months we have witnessed the parameters of what is acceptable be destroyed. The WORDS of this man and his running mate (who called Kamala garbage) are so beyond the norms of decency, and such ugliness has transformed an electorate who now also find it acceptable to join in with verbal and physical indecency. He continues to threaten his opponents with jail time.

Yet over half the country voted for him, so this goes beyond the price of groceries and gas, which--by the way--is getting lower. This is about character. Our values demand we be moral and decent people. Is it moral to vote because you are a millionaire and want to be taxed at a lower level? It is not dollars and cents that propelled so many voters to cast the ballot for him.

Then what is it? I can not comprehend this America that selects a president whose words and deeds have proven immoral. What does it say about this country?

Shock, Dismay and Sorrow

The country knows Donald Trump, even more so than when he was president four years ago. They know he governed impulsively, cozied up to dictators, was a habitual liar, had no regard for the rule of law, broke the law, caused an insurrection, elected super-conservative supreme court justices who overturned Roe, and exacerbated a great divide in our country. To quote him I can stand on Fifth Avenue, "shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters."

Four years later, it has gotten worse--his ugly rhetoric, his barrage of insults, his blatant disregard for laws, his disregard for the norms of government, his misogyny, his racism and his hunger for vengeance. Every day for the past few months, he monopolized the television with promises to continue all this--and more. He is waiting to dismantle the government, so he can put lawless cronies (Steve 

Bannon, Roger Stone, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk) into office. My God, Robert Kennedy will have a position as the Head of Human Services, overseeing our public health and well being. One of Kennedy's positions, aside from being an anti-vax person, is to take flouride out of water, the very element which protects our teeth against cavities. Forget it if there should be another pandemic. He could not wait (he and his lethal running mate, J.D.Vance) to jail his enemies. Believe him; he will. All the cases now offered in a court of law will go away, and he will release the January 6th prisoners who broke into the capital. Women, people of color, people with disabilities are insignifcant in the eyes of the new government. He is old, probably demented, and what is left is truly ugly.

YOU all knew this, you meaning over half the country; you knew this at a time when our country was beginning to gain back some off its lost esteeem and when our economy was among the best in the world, getting better daily. Accordingly, my biggest disappointment is the America I once knew is now gone. Were you that scared to have a woman of color in office? Over half the country voted for him, including in most swing states. These are the same people who would punish their children for being a bully, yet they voted for one, and for someone who has no moral compass, no integrity, no decency, and will make the world an awful place for generations to come. He will do nothing to avert climate change. He will make the rich, richer; the poor, poorer. He doesn't care about you, but who are YOU--so many people, who could vote for a would-be-dictator who has no problem deporting ten million immigrants, might cut social secuirty and medicare and cares nothing for the well-being of our planet. 

I am shocked and deeply sad that there are so many people in this country who have signed on for this, who now are extremists, maga people. I can't imagine a regular Republican (is there one?) would find Maga acceptable, but clearly I am wrong, so all I can say is I am disappointed in the American people who find this behavior acceptable. YOU carry the burden of lethal possibilities into our future, so all I can say is I don't know or understand this world. As an idealist whose heart is now broken, I can't comprehend  how YOU can look your children in the eye when the world spirals, and say this is  anything but indecent. The enemy is within, but not just in him, but now it's on your shoulders, too. I join my idealistic friends and family, all of whom are now weeping for the new world, one I do not know--nor do I ever, ever wish to know-- to mourn with me, the death of a dream of possibilities.

Batman, The Joker and Gotham City

 All my friends and family know how passionate and positive I am about this coming election, so it is with sorrow and some resignation that I share the "fear and trembling" of the upcoming election, and the real possibility that Trump may win. I just finished reading Adam Gopnik's wonderful article in this week's NEW YORKER "As Bad As All That," and it cemented my anxieties that there are many people who #1, Believe his lies and #2, The lies don't matter. Every day is a new revelation. Just the last two alone SHOULD be sufficient in moving --at the very least--swing voters and independents--to vote for Harris. First he said he WANTS HIS GENERALS TO BE LIKE THOSE HITLER HAD.  He had a copy of MEIN KAMPF on his nightstand, and this is not the first time he has sounded like Hitler.  He speaks about people, immigrants in particular, as rats and vermin. And speaking of denigrating people, the number two outrage--revealed just yesterday--was his promise to pay for the funeral of a murdered soldier, but after-when he found out the cost, he exclaimed, "I am not paying that amount for a f.....k...g Mexican." And he didn't.

Clearly he has mastered the techniques of a gangster; indeed he is Teflon Don; he uses profanities at every rally, even when there are children there; he blames bad policy on "the other" candidate, when it is, in fact his policy. Every day is a new barrage of insults and injury: the Hatians" who eat dogs and cats;" January 6th, which was a "love fest;"  FEMA, who is not helping, but instead hindering relief efforts by giving money away to immigrants. How could he continue to spew such blatant lies and get away with it????  To quote Gopnik in his piece,"Trump's politics may be ugly, foolish and vain, but ours is often an ugly, undereducated and vain country. Democracy is meant to be a mirror; it shows what is shows." Trump is a vile and spectacularly malignant political actor (Gopnik 16). 

What fills me with grief is that this matters so little to the American people, some of whom say, "I dislike him, but like Vance," another villain in the making, already poised to deny the American election if they don't win. Gopnik says people are mesmerized by the villain; they have a particular charm and a strong cult following. Villains in fables-Ursula, Scar, Hades, are rarely grounded in any cause larger than their own grievances. Bane is blowing up Gotham because he feels misused, not because he has a better city in mind.

Trump is that villain (a concept of a plan for healthcare?), but once he comes, he stays. "He will tell another lie so preposterous, malign another shared decency or just engage in unhinged behavior" but he is here to stay. HIS CHARACTER AND BEHAVIOR MATTER LITTLE TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC. Their claim that they love his policies is irrelevant, since when I have asked people--what policy--they don't have an answer.

"The dark comic-book movies are part of our great cinematic history; our monsters from the id fill the franchise." But where is the hero to save us? He has already said, I am not leaving. Once he is in and upends all our norms (believe him!), the lunacy will only escalate. "It is a Gotham gone mad, and a Gotham against all settled rules of fable-making, without a Batman to come to the rescue. Shuttling between the comic-book villain and the grimacing, red-faced and unhinged man who may be president in a few weeks, one struggles to distinguish our culture's most extravagant imagination of derangement from the real thing. The space is that strange and the stakes are high" (Gopnik, 16).

Welcome to America!

The Legacy Museum, Montgomery, Alabama

I have just returned from Bryan Stephenson's esteemed Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and I can't stop thinking and writing about it. Poems have been pouring out of me. It is the unfathomable horror that those in power could be so cruel-- unimaginable cruelties starting with the Middle Passage when people were forcibly taken from homes and lives they loved, forced into ships, shackled (naked) by their arms, legs and torsos, sent in the underground belly of the ship where it was brutally hot and they received ONE meal a day and ONE glass of water. It took months to travel by boat under these deplorable conditions, and many died on the ship or jumping overboard when they could escape the shackles--two million to be exact. Still , ten million made it to port cities ftom the East coast all the way down South to Florida. There were 24,000 humans enslaved in New York alone and a huge number in Baltimore, Maryland. Wrap your head around this: these men, women and children were bought off as property, and as such treated to whippings, floggings, up to ten people in a one room house where they slept on the floor, often had nothing to keep them warm, had little light and very little food. They were forced to labor for rich plantation owners under the worst conditions: fields of tobacco, rice, cotton, building trains and roads and buildings. If they were "lucky" they were indoors cooking, cleaning, raising children, while their own children--as young as four or five, were outside laboring in the hot sun. And this did not end with the Civil War. Reconstruction saw a blood bath unleashed when African- American people dared to reclaim their "personhood", which included getting educated, voting, starting businesses and purchasing land. There were chronic, constant threats of violence and ugly name-calling: vermin; rats; words which suggested dehumanization. Let's not forget the victims of mass lynchings, which were still on-going into the 1950's. Just remember: Emmett Till was killed in the 1950(s). America was born out of this history of violence, name-smearing and other ugly atrocities.

The horror of this legacy is that it is not over. In fact, Donald Trump, in his run for the presidency in 2024,  is constantly engaged in inflamatory language, and has stoked a political climate of "fear and trembling." More precisely, his platform is built on lies, terror, accusations and ugliness, every step of the way. He has employed the word "bloodbath" on several occasions. He has threatened his political opponents with jail time and executions. Just last night, in his political rally where many children were present, he used the word, S...T in his description of Kamala, and had the children chanting it repeatedly, so reminiscent of Nazi-Germany. This legacy of violence has sought to disenfranchise voters of color, so it is beyond my comprehension why any AFRICAN-AMERICANS could possibly vote for him. This is the New Jim Crow. Also, what Jewish person in his or her right mind would vote for him, when Tump's rhetoric utilizes horrible anti-semitic tropes. HIS LANGUAGE IS THE LANGUAGE OF THEM AND US.

And who is them? Immigrants are his first target, though his ancestors were immigrants, who left their homes to make a better life for their family. Every issue comes down to immigrants, including awful inventions of people eating dogs and cats, violence and crimes, which--according to him--are all the result of illegal migrants, a disclaimer proven entirely false.

But THEM is also, according to an answer he gave to a Latino man questioning his veracity as a potential president, the police officers who had guns to protect the capital on January 6th. When the man said, "there was much violence that day," his response, "THEY had guns, We did not."

So I end where I began, the Legacy Museum, a reminder that the world of violence, disenfranchisement, a call to arms (a January 6th will surely happen again if he does not win), is here to stay.  And sorry folks, Vance is no better: he is a wolf in sheep's clothing, also one of the inventors of the Hatian immigrant lie, and an author of the introduction to the 2025 project. This ticket has already gotten the support of White Supremacists who have called for another Civil War if--like they said in 2020--their man does not win. And who is THEM? All of us who agree this is not the kind of world they want for themselves and their families. I would think everyone is on board for hope, positivity, morality, integrity and decency, not a constant barrage of insults, negativity and lies.

Fatherland

Ira and I went to see Fatherland at NYC Center, the true story of an 19-year old son who turned his father in to the FBI after the Dad's active partcipation in the January 6th storming of the capital. It uses actual transcripts of court testimony: The United States vs. Wesley Feffitt, the jury trial held before the US District Court in Washington, DC. This was a son who had a very loving relationshop with his Dad in his younger days, but when Trump challenges the result of the 2020 election and sends out a call to rally at the capital building, urging his fans to "fight like hell or you are not going to have a country anymore" things change. The proudly reactionary father arms himself for battle and drives from Texas to DC by car, (with weapons), while the son contacts the FBI and records his Dad on a cell phone, so the young man's testimony will be believed. The Dad had become a changed "Maga-man" drinking heavily and physically and verbally threatening his wife and child. He totally bought into the incendiary extremist ideology of the Far-Right Three Percenters Militia Group. But the son's decision ends up, ultimately, splitting up the family, so right now no one talks to the young man, who is on his own in college, while his Mom left with her two girls and his Dad is in jail. The Dad admits, at the end of the play, that he would do it all over again, since it was his patriotic duty, but so would the son do it, even though he feels guilty and anxious every day. This is a heart-wrenching decision based on morality and conscience. Everyone's life has been changed forever.

But I have to say, I have nothing but admiration for this son. The Dad's decision to storm the capital, the "insurrection" was dangerous, and the rhetoric of today's politics is ugly, divisive and threatening. How brave it had to be, but also scary, for this young man to face the truth of having a Dad whose belief system was immoral: the killing ("Hang Mike Pence") and desecration of the U.S, capital, all in the name of a HUGE LIE that the election was stolen, though all data had proven otherwise. The moral courage to turn a parent in is astounding, since no one wants to act in a way that would send a beloved family member to jail. Yet, this boy knew the ugly war his father was raging was corrupt and morally reprehensible.

To have raised a child who is willing to sacrifice all of his family anchors in the name of justice is an act of bravery. I would be proud to have a child like this, who puts RIGHT OVER MIGHT, and moves forward with his or her conscience. But even as I say this and feel he did the right thing, it is a lonely road he now walks on, yet a road paved with decency and integrity and morality. It is the final act of courage.  Still, he is only nineteen, and now he walks alone. 

This is a story that would make you weep!

Morality and Character

 

                                "If you stand for nothing, you will fall for everything"

                                            Carl Laskin, 1964

                                "My Pammy, be a good person. Nothing else matters."

                                            Solomon Laskin, 1964

I grew up with two very moral men with impeccable values, a father and grandfather who told me my signature meant everything. By signature, I mean values--the way you live your life. Their values were grounded  in being a morally outstanding citizen. If that was lacking, you could not be a person with character. That meant, for example, my grandfather, as a pharmacist, gave away medicines to neighborhood folks who had no money. In modern day political rhetoric this would define him as a socialist, a word the Republican party has co-opted to equate with evil. To care for those who have less then you, to react with kindness to the elderly, to be good and humane and generous to poulations who have suffered, to care for the disabled, to be honest and decent and not lie (to be truthful most often), to not speak in a degrading way about fellow human beings--all  this and more was part of character, and I have put in my best effort, not always with success, to be a morally outstanding citizen. I step into the shoes of other people, and think about the world and the future world I want my children and grandchildren to grow up in. 

Which is why I can't wrap my brain around candidates Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.  And why I also can't understand how people who are decent and moral and dream of a future would either not vote, not discuss voting or vote for Maga values--and they are immoral values. Since this party has no real policy, aside from deporting immigrants, tariffs, cozying up to dictators and getting rid of many laws and norms we have grown accustomed to living with, what is the justification? I know THEY  know he has lied, is demeaning, hateful, set on punishing his enemies. They know and understand January 6th was not an abberation, and violence is encouraged today. They know he lost the last election, he was not assasinated by Democrats and Hurricane Helene was not a Democratic conspiracy. I know, in my heart of hearts, that half the country couldn't possibly be immoral or lacking in character.

Kamala Harris may not be perfect (no one is); she may still be enigmatic to you, but what you do know is she has characer and morality and has shared a vision of our future, beyond hate and division. She has the respect of foreign leaders and will not upend every institution that stands in her way, since that is not what presidents do. She would never question election results, since she has respect for the rule of law, and does not think she can get her way with feckless law suits and bullying. She regards the Constitution. But her highest regard is for humanity: not to dimish, but to elevate every human being, so there is more of a level of equality, decency, even patriotism.

As my father and grandfather taught me, I will forge ahead with empathy, courage, decency, restraint, morality and stand tall for everything that is as right as it could possibly be. I could never stand for violence and guns and evil, degrading language. Character and morality mean everything at the end of the day, and something everyone should expect from a president. Don't fall; simply RISE!