Long, Long Ago, In A Mindset Far, Far Away

U of Mn. May, 1973.
Ziggy is somewhere in there. 

Long, long ago, in a universe far, far away, children rose up against the government to protest a war. Children took to the streets. Okay, we weren't technically children, we were kids; high school and college students mostly, but not all that many were grown-ass adults...although there were a few out there. Whatever. We rose up because we believed that we could change their world. We could make our voices heard, and we were a force for good to be reckoned with. 

Sorta. Kinda. 

Four dead in Ohio made a lot of us realize the world wasn't as simple as we wanted it to be, even if that didn't stop us from taking to the streets, the campus quads, and the administrative buildings. Other forms of protest, often very tiny ones, were embraced; we believed if we stopped paying the federal excise tax on our phone bills we could topple the government. We couldn't, and maybe we were naïve (yeah, we were very naïve) but we were full of the idealism and optimism that came with youth. And the US did ultimately pull outta Vietnam. Maybe they heard us just a little?

In the aftermath of that tumultuous decade, a lot of us believed we had, in many ways, changed the official life of these here United States. After all, the voting age changed from 21 to 18 in 1971, which meant guys being drafted could vote. Roe v. Wade brought reproductive freedom to women when, in 1973, the Supreme Court decided a woman had the Constitutional right to choose to have an abortion. And finally, in 1975, US troops were withdrawn from Vietnam. Kids may not have directly forced those three things to happen, but it was clear our raised voices were being heard. 

Shame it didn't last. 

Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States announced a woman did NOT have the right to self-determination of her own body, that the state does, and she must abide by the laws of any state in which she resides. We, the Women, are deemed incapable of determining how our own bodies should function. Keep in mind, the same mindset that overturned Roe V Wade is now attempting to exclude contraception from Medicaid coverage. Which makes one wonder what the real intent is here. 

They talk a great pro-life game, those GOP'ers, but not really. They refuse to prevent killing people outside the womb by refusing to pass sensible gun legislation. It was bad enough the House of Representatives seated a man who lied about everything on his resume, and still gives him committee assignments, but to assign Marjorie Taylor Greene, denialist and supporter of the insurrection to the House Homeland Security Committee is simply terrifying. Here is a woman who is supposed to represent her constituency in Congress, yet she advocated for the overthrow of the government she is sworn to uphold. What scares me most is that she was re-elected even after she did that. As much as it says about her, what does it say about the mindset of those who sent her back to congress after she rallied for its overthrow?

Don't even get me started on classified documents. Yes, documents were found in Biden's possession. Why they heck he didn't have his houses and offices thoroughly searched immediately after the Feckless Files Debacle...or at least when the first pages were found... is beyond me. Plus, the delay before the midterms was just plain stupid. Someone had to know it would come out that the pages were turned over before election day. He's been around long enough to know he just set himself up for impeachment. As my mother would say, "Dumb, dumb, dumb."

So, here's where I get to say that I may love the United States as my country, but I do not love nor support actions by my government that are childish, potentially damaging to democracy, or just plain stupid. In other words, Congress should neither be a playground nor a sandbox lacking in adult supervision. Where are the adults in the room? Clearly not in the House chamber. Instead of tending to the issues of governance, the entire congress sounds like a bunch of chronic complainers. The GOP, especially, complains about everything yet never offers a potential solution. The only thing they are aiming to do right now with their one-vote-out Speaker, is to tear down and topple our government. How the hell did these people get elected?

Or maybe the real question is how dumb are We, the People, that they were elected?

And speaking of governments, here comes the really tough stuff. 

I cannot support Israel's government under the leadership of Bibi Netanyahu. He, along with his coalition, is damaging the state part of the State of Israel. His apparent desire to alter the judicial system in order to circumvent his own criminal charges is abhorrent. 

The naming of ultra-right wing ministers to determine who is or is not a Jew, who can or cannot make aliyah, or what is taught in secular schools, rends the already delicate fabric of Israeli daily life like a mourner's ribbon. They throw rocks (literally) at Reform Movement and Masorti Jews, they deny women the right to read Torah or pray in a women's minyan at the Wall, and have their own terrorist gangs harassing Arab Israelis. They claim to be defenders of Israel, but it's not the State they are defending. Most ultra-orthodox men do not serve in the army, work outside the study hall, or contribute to the Israeli economy while they accept public assistance in the form of government subsidies. It becomes the job of the rest of Israel's secular population to protect them when they will not lift a finger to protect the state. And if they say the rest of us are less than Jews.....?

Secular Israelis have had enough. More than 100,000 of them poured into the streets of Tel Aviv, (and even more if you count the demonstrations in other cities) last Saturday night to protest this hard right turn of the government. Secular Israelis are correctly concerned that once the far right has tasted what power in the Knesset can do, they will not be satisfied until they wrest greater control from the centrists, turning themselves into a new Taliban. 

For 2000 years we dreamed of ending our exile. The State of Israel was supposed to be a beacon of hope for Jews worldwide, a place where we could be just us, Jews, living in a place where we didn't have to explain ourselves, our customs, our holidays, our calendar, our food. Israel was supposed to be the place where we were welcome and welcomed. The Mosque of Omar might sit on the Temple Mount,  but it's still where our Temple once stood, the place were Jews came to gather, to pray, and yeah, to make sacrifices. But it was our sacred place. We may share the space and some history with others, but that history begins with us. 

I don't want it to end with us.  None of us do. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you have family and friends in Israel, give 'em a call.

Ask them to explain what's happening in their world.

Don't offer comments or solutions.

Just listen.