You Deserve That!

Do you remember that lovely song by Guy Mitchell at the very end of the fifties – and after him by so many artists – titled: Heartaches by the Number, Troubles by the Score? I loved it back there when! However, I am not waxing romantic on you this morning even though it was just Happy Valentine’s day yesterday. It’s just that there are so many Heartbreaking events and Troubles going on that made me recall the opening lines of this song. I sometimes feel that my heart can’t contain them all anymore!

Where do we start? The catastrophic Earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria with thousands dead, thousands homeless, starving and cold? Heartbreaking stories! However, amidst all this catastrophe, good Samaritans, Volunteers, Organizations, Associations and many Nations stepped up to help, and even poor Lebanon opened up its ports and airways to facilitate aid getting to the stricken. How Heartening!

And shall we continue on to the Raging Fires in Chile? The Unprecedented Snow in the Northeast of the US, plus hurricanes, raging storms and fires shattering people’s lives, over and above the daily shootings and crimes, the latest in Michigan? Unconscionable! The Ilhan Omar Racist, Bigoted Vendetta orchestrated by the Radicals in Kevin McCarthy’s Congress? Environmental Activists and Investigative Journalists being continually targeted and murdered in some places? Trey Nichols and that senseless horrible crime committed by Cops? Really? The Balloon, which the hyperventilating media said that China was spying on us? And then another “object?” and others yet? Notwithstanding that no country should do that to another, isn’t Spying in all its forms something that almost every nation is indulging in? Let us simply hope that Sane and Mature Minds will prevail, and that incidents like these won’t throw us all into a disaster?!!

And then we have a bigoted State Department that has been throughout every Administration mouthing words from both sides of its mouth, as after Blinken had told both Israelis and Palestinians to “de-escalate,” and hardly had he got on the plane and fastened his seat belt when the Israeli Government resumed mowing down young Palestinians. Oh, wait! Aren’t those Fed up, Despairing, Frustrated, Colonized Humans? Not according to Israeli Government Spin that designates them all as Terrorists and Militants! Are they not fighting for their Freedom from Oppression and Colonization, like, for instance, the Ukrainians? Right Blinken? Right Biden? Stop your Obfuscating! Take Moral and Just Action! I have been witnessing and living this saga since I was five years old. I am now nearing eighty and it still goes on? How can that be? It is simply horrific! Nevertheless, why should I be shocked that this continues to go on? That Palestinian Humans continue to be shot, incarcerated, their land expropriated, their homes demolished, their aspirations suffocated and still far from achieving their Human and Legal Rights? During this Black History Month of February when minorities in these US are still far from achieving their Human and Legal Rights and are still being discriminated against and Colonized by White Supremacists, I should not be Shocked. However, It is Just Plain Wickedness that continues inflicting this pain on Palestinians and on Minorities in these United States, as in so many other places! Will it get better? Sadly, I am not holding my breath!

Heartaches by the Numbers, Troubles by the Score!

I know that You, who are reading this, probably know Facts, however, the approximately 142,000 Voters who elected George Santos (and the millions like them across this nation who vote for such specimens) obviously do not, but were only swayed by a glib tongue that spews out empty promises and lies galore! Or, a Solomon Pena who lost his Republican candidacy and decided to order a hit on four of his Democratic Opponents? Are such sorry examples our Representatives in Congress? No theatrical flop could be worse! Ordinary Humans from the Left, the Right and the Center – not Politicians, not Experts, not Journalists – are basically fed up with the same issues of Inequality and Inept Politicians who cannot seem to Rethink and Reset the Same Old Ways of Conducting Themselves and The Policies that affect our Very Existence. Ridiculous!

I have two small booklets that I read now and then and weep. Yes, weep. They are the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” as adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948, and the “Constitution of the United States of America.” Should you take the time to read them, you will not only Weep, you will Bawl Your Eyes Out, because there is No Nation on this Sorry Planet of ours that is applying the stipulations mentioned in these two important documents! Not even in this Bastion of Freedom and Democracy: the United States of America where we continue to haggle, re-interpret and mis-interpret our Constitution! Seventy-five years after the UN Declaration was adopted, and Two Hundred and Thirty-Six years after the US Constitution was written! Think of that!

You, and I, and All of Us Deserve the Rights, the Dignity and the Respect outlined in the above mentioned documents. We certainly Deserve Those! Everything else that we are told by Runaway Consumerism and Capitalism and by the Marketing Sharks that write their Come-ons to continue peddling their Mostly Useless “Stuff” are only Feel-good things that we might Like, or Want, or even Need, but None of Us are Special Enough to Deserve Them! And, thank you Bernie Sanders, the one Selfless Hero amongst our mostly rotten Politicians for talking about this and about Runaway Capitalism and all the Inequalities in our system! We all Deserve Values that Elevate Us, not simply those Outlined in Speeches, Written Documents and Constitutions, but Applied! Actually Applied! Tangibly Applied!

And, thanks to all the Activists, Organizations, Associations, Lawyers, Moral Police (not all of them were trained on Israeli tactics!) and ethical FBI Agents who continue to fight every day against those who want to sow bigotry, chaos, hate and disruption. They, too, are Heroes and Heroines! They are also a resoundingly terrific manifestation of how despite it all, our Democracy, frail and faulty though it is, Works! It is Alive, Strong and Well! I hope we can keep it that way! We all Deserve its Protections!