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I'm often asleep by 10 these days. Last night, I finally fell asleep about 11:30. Not too terribly late; it happens. But right now it's 2:45 in the morning. Usually I'm fast asleep this time of night. But the Georgia runoff election was last night and the results were not pleasant. Of all the elections this past November 8 (the official election day), this was one of the elections that I really wanted the republican candidate to win. The Democrat candidate (the "barely" incumbent senator) was a man who personified all the worst traits of the worst members of the Democratic party. He's a race baiter -- he's a black man who hates white people and seems to hate us Jews more than he hates anyone else. He supports abortion up to the last day of pregnancy. He's a minister (so he says) who acts as though religion and G-d don't exist. And he also seems angry all the time.
His opponent, the Republican, is a "country boy", religious, refers to G-d often in his speeches, is against abortion unless the mother's life is in danger, doesn't seem to hate any group. He's a former college and professional football player who started out poor and made a name for himself. He always seems to be smiling.
Now, I know some of those things are just my "3 o'clock in the morning -- haven't gotten enough sleep" voice but that's how I see things. I also see them as a death knell for conservatism in our quickly dying republic. The time for cautionary tales such as "Animal Farm", "Brave New World", "1984" and "Logan's Run" is gone -- these books are coming true and describing our current situation.
We have always been the "flip side" of communism in this country, always been the antidote to totalitarianism. We always felt secure in living in a country where our constitution would always protect us.
But the constitution isn't protecting us anymore. Our justice system has been weaponized by our weak and ineffective president. People, who have had to endure eclipsing of our G-d given civil and human rights for two years as a precaution that didn't even work in limiting the spread of a relatively minor disease made worse by a potentially lethal vaccine, are being targeted for their beliefs. The former president of the United States has endured harassment from the moment he became a candidate. He and his family have also braved libel and slander from the supposedly free press and "Jean Valjean" type chasing by the governmental "Javert". Their voices are being silenced, the words they do manage to say are being twisted at every turn. And the current "president" instead of standing up for him is the one leading the persecution so as to prop himself up.
The people who are supposed to have been elected by the citizens have been playing fast and loose with the rules, turning elections into suspicious events and leading the Democrats to accuse the Republicans of disenfranchising their voters all the while restricting polling access to Republicans. Three consecutive elections have been marred by "monkey business" and "hanky panky". And when the cheated candidates try to sue or try to call for a recount they are called "election deniers" by a party who has denied the elections were fair whenever in this century one of their candidates magically lost.
I'm losing my hope. I'm losing my security. I'm losing my country. We're losing our grip on the best, finest, richest, freest country that ever existed on the face of this earth. Crime is on the upsurge; spending power is slumping . Suicide is skyrocketing, confidence in ourselves and our government is plummeting. Our enemies are attacking our allies and disrespecting our place in the world. Our Constitutional Democratic Republic is eroding right along with our rights. People who belong in jail are roaming the streets, stealing and killing with impunity, while peaceful protesters are rotting in jail for almost 2 years with no trials, no sentencing, in some cases prohibited from seeing their families or talking to their lawyers.
The world is upside down and our "president" and other "western" world leaders are lauding and lionizing the totalitarian regime of our most vicious and credible enemies. Pronouns are more important than military readiness. Children are being abused and used as weapons. Each step the Democrats take against us, we fight legally, but they have already turned the legal system against us.
Each day I see examples of this legal system. They call it "two-tiered" but I think of it as a marketplace where the value of my eye is not equal to the value of "the other guy's" eye. The inequality in our judiciary is obvious but ignored. And those of us who see this, who see the disparities are mocked and becoming more and more dejected.
I don't know about you, but all I keep wanting to know is what can I do. What can I do to make things better, for myself and for my country. John F. Kennedy's words, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country," keep ringing in my ears. But all I see are people who say, "What's in it for me?" The few who aren't in that category, my former president, some states' governors (but not my state), some senators and representatives (but very few and their numbers are shrinking). I'm lost in a world where I and people who agree with me are the moles in a whack-a-mole game. I can turn to G-d but G-d helps those who help themselves.
So where does that leave me. Still awake and still concerned and still wanting to help in some way. And that's where I sit.
I know one thing, the answer is NOT to stop voting. The answer is not to stop fighting. It's our nation, we need to take it back -- legally, peacefully. Never stoop to the level of criminals. Never use coercion. Convince people by being a good citizen. Be strong, be American, be patriotic. And don't allow the direness of the circumstances dishearten you. They can only defeat us if we let them. Let's not let them.
