Category: 2021

These first ten days of the Biden Administration have certainly seen a swirl of activities, a whirlwind of decisions with Joe occupying my TV with his foot on the accelerator! I was hoping to get a reprieve from news! Not happening, it seems! However, it is quite a stark difference from the previous Tweeter-in-chief and a refreshingly serious and calming presence. Quite productive, I must say! It appears that the mood of the country is shifting upwards, although many dangers are still lurking! Inshallah (God willing, as we say in Arabic) Upwards We Continue!

My Best, Cherished and Most Lovable Two Moments From these Past Two Weeks are what almost everyone else has been commenting about:

Bernie Sanders’ Mittens! I just LOVE this guy! And talk about an image, a moment in time that goes viral as this one has! Not only did it go viral domestically, it went across the air waves internationally! Wow!

Dr. Fauci’s Smile! The Liberated, Unshackled, Freed Scientist! That smile told me stories of a guy who kept at it, dignified, proud, sure of himself and the science enough to put up with . . . you know what! Respect! Wow!

Now it seems that everyone agrees that we are back to Normal, right? Normal is an adjective which means: Conforming to a standard; usual, typical or expected . . . and after four Trump years of non-conformity, unusual, non-typical and unexpected . . . Normal is IN! It’s HIP! It’s TRENDY! It’s refreshingly, nostalgically just the right pathetically low-bar medicine for an exhausted nation, and a relief to the world.

The nation, and the world, were glued to their televisions watching the start of the Inauguration Festivities which began with a beautiful and somber evening memorial against a backdrop of red, white and blue flags fluttering, while the lights from the 400 luminaries lining both sides of the Reflection Pool came on to honor and remember the 400,000 humans taken by a lethal Virus. Just an incredibly touching and lovely scene!

The next morning and against the backdrop of a city under siege and with National Guard and Police ensuring that the bad guys stay far away, Inauguration Day presented us with the usual and comfortable display of fanfare, decorum, dignity, traditions, music, singing, poetry and speeches as politicians from both sides of the aisle joined Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama with their wives (President Carter and Rosalynn could not make it) while they greeted the incoming President Biden, his wife Jill, as well as Vice President Harris with her husband, Doug. It all went smoothly, efficiently and beautifully as I teared up all through! And yes, unusually for me as it is, that day I applauded the Glitz and Glamour! Indeed, it was Democracy on full and exultant display, and a proud moment for a battered nation. Well done, America!

President Biden promised that the United States will lead by example, which made me think of things that might seem trivial, simplistic and superficial to many, but that offer a clue as to how others emulate us. The first is the Presidential lectern with American flags as a backdrop and our President making a presentation and then responding to media questions and answers. This staging has now become standard fare all over the world from leaders of the tiniest to the biggest countries; from the democratic to the least democratic. The second are some of our laws that have become universal: LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, women’s rights, disability rights, minority rights and voting rights just to name a few. These rights are still debated and contested right here in our nation, and have not yet been adopted by all the world’s nations. However, they have inspired citizens across the world to lobby and demand them. This is huge! This is how we lead by the strength of our example, and there are hundreds of other big and small instances!

One of the the very sad and disconcerting aspects of how we lead by the example of our strength has been our behavior as a nation, especially since that fateful 9/11 whence we have been showing the world an ugly, militaristic, cruel and vengeful side of our power. In that case, our aggressive leadership, war mongering, torture and murder of innocent civilians have invited other leaders to follow that horrid example resulting in the unfathomable proliferation of arms sales across the world; occupation of other people’s lands and resources as acceptable conduct; creating mass uprooting and expulsion of citizens from their lands as inevitable collateral damage and on and on. This has not only damaged our own standing and reputation, but has caused misery to millions of people, including members of our own military who are suffering from PTSD and a sad number of suicides. This is Not a Normal that is acceptable, nor one we should aspire to go back to. So President Biden can make all the terrific speeches he would like – I have heard much oratory in my life that ended up being Words! Just Words! – but if he really wants to lead by the strength of our example, he will have to reverse that ugly manifestation of our jingoism that has poisoned international, as well as domestic relationships! Will he?

As to our foreign policy, I cannot quite tell from these first few weeks how this Administration will handle such matters. From the initial sounds of things it seems to be reaffirming that this is a Traditional Administration and it will continue to follow our Traditional Foreign Policy where nothing will  change drastically from decades ago except for some cosmetic non-earth shattering enhancements! That does Not bode well for me! In fact, I was hoping for some novel approaches and creative diplomacy with which to calm and embrace the rest of the world. We’ll see!

This new chapter in our nation’s history is in the process of being written. Time will tell how it will unfold, and how the world will respond and react. There is no doubt, that I am daring to feel slightly more optimistic and hopeful! I need that. The entire Planet needs it also! Might we be able to inspire our own and other citizens, world political leadership, organizations, institutions and corporations to do what is Peaceful, Equitable and Just? Could we really and truly be leading by the strength of our example, or will it be back to leading by the example of our strength? We will all be watching, and only time will tell! Meanwhile: Inshallah!

These past two weeks I have been feeling as if I am one of the thousands of Extras cast in an Epic Movie, although while watching the ugly Hordes of Attila’s Huns storming our Capitol, I was helpless to rewrite the awful script, recast the horrid actors, or fire the Producer and Director! It has been quite surreal!

The whole world was watching in disbelief and alarm, and I wonder what World Political and Corporate leaders were thinking behind the scenes, away from the microphones and photo ops? Were they worried that the Trump Virus will cross the Atlantic and infest them while anticipating their own Zealots aping the US events? Might any one of them say to themselves: Let’s Rethink It? Let us Rethink that corrupt script with which we have been conducting our affairs on our Nationals, as well as Internationally, for far too long? That script which is causing so much turmoil, anger, insecurity, and inequality all over the world? Yes, different people may express their protestations in different ways; in other parts of the world they might rally under a different umbrella; they might have varying mantras and reasons; but, at the heart of what has been going wrong and driving people to act out in ways that are threatening all of us is the fact that the Political and Corporate Leadership of the World has been failing us dramatically thus leaving the door wide open for Opportunistic Strongmen to step in and pretend they are White Knights! It really is high time to Rethink It!

The demands of people all over the world are really simple:

1. A Decent Job that can provide them and their families with Dignity and Self Respect.
2. Short of a Decent Job, providing a Living Wage through which human beings can pay for sustenance  and a roof over their heads.
3. Guaranteed Medical Care.
4. Equality and Justice across the board.
5. An Environment that provides clean air, clean water and organic sustainable foods so that they won’t succumb to avoidable diseases.

It is Really, Really Simple and Achievable, if only there was a moral Political and Corporate Leadership with a willingness to serve the People before they continue serving themselves and the institutions they have erected to support their selfish, greedy and arrogant endeavors.

As Attila’s Huns went on their anarchist rampage, I thought of all those other Protestors worldwide. Throughout our modern history when People’s Discontent flowed onto the streets there were those with pure intentions and valid demands who were inevitably joined by those with bad intentions, with infiltrators, with rebels-without-a-cause who are in it for the thrill, and with other hangers-on and bad actors. It has happened in all the protestations and revolutions that I have been witnessing throughout my life. What happened in Washington, DC was no different. I am absolutely certain that of the 74 million (or so) who voted for Trump – whether it is because they are die-hard Republicans, or Conservatives, or because they approved of some of the things that he said and did – most were appalled and repulsed at the horrific nightmare evolving in the heart of the democratic world. Nevertheless, it is the nature of coexistence and the essence of conciliation not to exclude them from the nation’s catharsis going forward, despite their misguided, racist, supremacist and fascist thinking.

At the end of the day, the democratic world has mostly embraced multiculturalism rendering extremism and extremists out of fashion and not tolerated anymore except by dictators, strongmen and the henchmen that advance their sordid agendas, such as we have been witnessing in Washington, DC as well as elsewhere. Ordinary people have had enough violence and hate in all their wicked forms. More than at any time previously, it seems that this is becoming a lawless world, a dangerous world, a world where many are in it for themselves regardless of consequences, and their role models, unfortunately, are the corrupt leadership on every level of society! This has to change right away, because, obviously, corruption has been trickling down!

Last weekend, my daughters, granddaughter and I took a drive down to Washington, DC. We drove all over so excited by landmarks that we used to frequent, places we used to work, or have activist meetings and events at, and the theaters and nightclubs that provided terrific entertainment. We were feeling nostalgic for a past during which we enjoyed so many aspects of our Capital. We felt pride in belonging at such close proximity to what has become the world’s symbol of freedom and democracy, a symbol that  the glaringly immature Attila’s Hordes wanted to eradicate in order to replace it with a racist, fascist, uncivilized regime. How embarrassing! How shameful! How very sad! For myself, and the many immigrants like me who had self-exiled due to strife, insecurity and lawlessness in our home countries, it is even more sad and disconcerting.

Lastly, let me just state that I hope Amtrak-Joe (one of Biden’s aliases according to some who have witnessed him riding the train – and not a limo – from Delaware to DC for umpteen years) will disappear from my television and just do his job as humbly and unobtrusively as he rode Amtrak; that he will Not Twitter at all; that he will do something about the inexcusable Supreme Court decision that “Corporations are People” which has corrupted and tainted all our political process; that there be no scandals, or dramas to raise my blood pressure every morning while giving the MSM actors and stuffed shirts – who have been royally profiting from Trump’s Presidency, – ammunition with which to continue bombarding me with their emoting, sensationalism, bias and feigned indignation! I hope Biden will just continue being a Nice Guy and play Nice with the rest of the world, because the whole planet needs a reprieve; a recess, a pause to recuperate while it heals itself from a draconian climate onslaught; a lethal Virus that is continuing to ravage it; and a whole lot of mourning, grief and insecurity that is gnawing at its very core, as well as an unsettling sense for its billions of humans that Equality and Justice are only meant for the Chosen Few! That’s just not right, not fair, not moral, not humane, not democratic! Unacceptable!

From Palestine to Kashmir, from Venezuela to Lebanon, and from London to the US human beings are simply exhausted by not being heard, acknowledged, addressed. It is reprehensible, unfathomable and uncivilized. It has got to change! I cannot change it. You cannot change it. The Power of Responsible and Ethical Political, Corporate, Religious and Media Leadership must lead the way and Rethink It! Rethink the whole way we have been dealing with each other as people, as nations and as a planet. They must have the Courage to call out Corruption wherever they see it – and we have had quite a few Brave and Moral Heroes and Heroines who have done exactly that recently. May their numbers multiply! Meanwhile, let us all Rethink It while fervently hoping that the next week in our nation will go by without Attila’s Huns bloodying us all!

Stay Safe and Stay Strong!