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!

Bad Faith, Ugly Politics and Wishes for the New Year

 I just finished watching the documentary on Prime, BAD FAITH, and I find myself filled with dread and terror. It is a must see! It traces the rise of Christian White Nationalism, and how far these folks will go to make this nation White and Christian. Indeed this means no Jews, Muslims, Hindus --any religion aside from Christianity. However, this is not the Christianity of goodness, kindness, compassion, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is a vision of an apocalypse, where perhaps, as one gentleman interviewed suggests,  there will have to be another Civil War, so the nation can return to what it once was. "Start storing your guns," he shouts to the congregation, and they respond, "Amen." They feel the world has been taken over by non-White, non-Christian people and the world is binary: THEM and US, where God and Satan are engaged in battle, and the messiah can rise once again in  Donald Trump returning to the White House, a man who will help bring their vision to fruition.

I am not saying all the Trump base are engaged in this verbal assault and warfare, but if January 6th is any indication of what his core base is willing to do, you, too, should be terrified. Trump has already said the country should engage in a Day Of Bloodbath if the fails to unseat Biden--now Kamala (he is proud of his angry rhetoric, so my guess is Fox News people have heard this, too).  He spews hateful rumors about immigrants, when FACTS have proven that crimes are most often the result of  people who are American citizens. He elevates violence in his speech, so that his base feels entitled to violent speech and actions; this, as Tim Snyder says, is so reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

But that's not the biggest threat, but what is are all the under-handed ways the party is playing in order to help Trump win. The G.O.P. is filing a deluge of suits over elections. My guess is he could not win the popular vote, but with the Supreme Court on his side and the lower courts and state courts already in place, we are in a heap of trouble. There is an onslaught of litigation for an election that has not yet occurred. He is poised to turn to these law suits if he does not win, like in 2020 (disproven coast to coast), he will go to the state courts to engage in recounts and establish cases to prove he is the annoited king. Right now there are states where the electorates may make the final decisions, since they are in Republican hands. People are being thrown off the voting rosters in these states, since states with Republican electorates have the ability to make their own decisions. This past Sunday, I went out with a few friends where I heard of such a threat. One woman explained she got a letter from the Florida board explaining, WE NEED TO RE-CERTIFY ABSENTEE BALLOTS, SINCE IT IS TIME FOR THEM TO RE-DO THEIR ROSTERS. This letter was sent to seniors, most of whom are Democrats, so they will, perhaps, not vote, since it is too much of a hassle. Voter intimidation, fraud, hassles--all this and more to get their man elected. My friend is astute and saw through this charade. But what about those who are not? What then?

Which brings me to the Jewish New Year. I am not religious. I no longer go to shul, but I feel throughly Jewish, which to me means I live giving tzedakah, good deeds, and believe in decency, integrity, humanity and compassion, the way many righteous people of other religions live. I live with GOOD FAITH, not BAD FAITH, where people will do the right thing, not vote for a dictator who spews hate and venom, not look at the world through his prism--destruction, deportation, jailing your enemies. My wish for the world this New Years is to discard your sins in the water, in the spirit of goodness and redemption, and help to build a better world, one of goodness and joy. And when you vote in November, rely on the humanity with which you have raised your family, with which you regard your neighbors and friends. You may not know her (Kamala has shown herself to you, so I don't buy this), but you know him!

Happy new year. Search in your heart for all that is kind and generous. Amen, with health and happiness. And, in good faith, Shana Tovah!