Blog Episode 444: Grandparenting In A Dimly Lit Room

I am grandparenting. I am sitting in a dimly lit dining room because Little Miss is asleep on the couch. Young Sir, however, went down in his own room right on schedule and I've not heard from him since. 

So here I sit trying to finish this final episode for 2018 that I started yesterday. 

This is my 444th blog episode. 

That's 8.5384615 in widow years. 

This whole thing got started because ....because.....oh, I don't remember. I think I started out wanting to write about being a widow, and then it was just a stomping ground for my own opinions....and then it got political. By the way,  I'm not sorry about that at all.

As this years slips away and a new one comes crawling in, my thoughts turn to the world at large. The US is rapidly becoming a third world country, where infant mortality is high, maternal mortality is high, and people ration meds because they can't afford to buy them even with insurance. The stripping away of environmental protections undoes decades of work to clean up our air, water, and toxic waste. The undermining of the judicial branch shames the United States; we look more like the Philippines than Western Europe. Our allies are no longer our allies, thereby opening a door to provocation from North Korea, China, and Russia. Who would stand with us against an attack? Certainly not the nations who have been trashed by a schoolyard bully.

At the end of 2018, the only thing I can say about my country is that I am deeply ashamed of what We, the People have become. As Americans, We, the People, can continue to buy into the rhetoric as so many already do. As a Jew, it's hard to miss the handwriting on the wall. 

I'm sure the Jews of Berlin and Munich and Frankfurt saw the same handwriting in 1932 and chose not to believe they were in danger. That was then. 

This is now. Antisemitism remains the safe hatred even after all these years. Nothing much has changed. Doesn't much matter what minority or majority you are, you can always find antisemitism right beneath the surface. It's the only hate that is sanctioned  by silence. It's the only hate that is conveniently shared by diverse groups who don't even understand they're antisemites...they just want a better price...like the Jews get. And it's the only hate that victims tend to give a free pass: Oh, it'll blow over. 

It never does.

My grandkids are asleep under this roof. Their parents are at Orchestra Hall listening to a concert of Bernstein, Copeland, and Gershwin. Jews, all of them. Dead, alive, it doesn't much matter. What matters is that we have survived in the past. What matters is whether or not we have the koi'ach, the strength, to fight this fight before it's too late. Unlike the last time. 

I'm going to stop here. 

My heartfelt thanks to all my readers, and honest wishes for a happy, healthy, prosperous, and peaceful New Year,

The WP

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Hugs your loved ones a little tighter.

We're not off the roller coaster yet.