So much evil in so many places

 

Due to the advice of family and friends, I am limiting the time I watch or listen to the news. However, it is impossible for me not to see so much evil in so many places, including our own supremely pernicious court. Putin reeks of evil, and it shows in his snake eyes. But more worrisome are the insurrection and climate deniers in my own country. What seems to matter to so many people are their own views and personal gain. When I was younger, I was somewhat like that, but I do not think I ever tried to deny obvious truths. My views on the war in Vietnam got me into trouble when I was an intelligence office in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Al Gore senior came to my rescue and I managed to escape from that madness. Gore senior later urged me not to lose faith in my country in spite of some faults that I saw. Gore senior was a rare politician … not many like him these days. There used to be men and women of integrity on both sides of the aisle. Not so many these days. A few come to mind, including Liz Cheney, whose father I abhorred, and Amy Klobuchar, for whom I voted, and perhaps a dozen more, mostly on the left side of that aisle of despair that threatens our democracy. That supremely divided court seems determined to return the country to the unhappy days of an imaginary past. I am slowly coming to understand one thing in the Jewish bible that my father could not adequately explain to me – namely why the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children and children of the children for several generations to come. I seem to recall my father telling me that was simply a description of human behavior … what was likely to happen based on human behavior. The point was to be a beacon of good as a parent so that one's children would do good all their days. Perhaps my father was right. I cannot recall anything wrong he ever did … I cannot even recall him ever cursing although my mother could curse up a storm when upset. So I wonder about the childhood of Donald Trump and Valdimir Putin and Clarence Thomas and teens with AR-15s and so many others who seem determined to spread hatred and violence in what I used to think of as a beautiful planet in my youthful backpacking days. I have seen much natural beauty and met some amazing individuals, but as I age I worry that those sights and special people are being systematically lost and put down and destroyed. I really wish I could ignore all that is happening these last few years, but it seems to me that what I regarded as beautiful in nature and righteous in people is being destroyed by a minority of misguided bigots. I write to try and rid my self of these thoughts … to no avail. What gives me hope are my children and grandchildren ... the children are our future. 

 

Mike Spector

July the first and hopefully not the last, 2022