We’ve lost sight of how to treat people. Period. As for the far-right Republicans, they seem to be suffering “death by a thousand paper cuts.”
Sick and tired of being sick and tired
IT CAN BE assumed everyone is mentally exhausted from reading, listening to, and talking about the Israeli-Gaza conflict. It can be surmised there is the same feeling about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the messy wars and near-wars in Syria, South America, and Africa.
Despite whichever side of the brutal conflicts and political upheavals your mindset has settled on, or if you embrace the historical significance of eons of abuse suffered by the Jewish people, or if you feel the day-to-day conditions suffered by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, or if you have a passionate, or even educated, opinion about any of these global dust-ups … there is no “right” in the situations.
It’s all about one of four things or a combination of them; Turf, territory, title, and ego.
For now, let’s stick with the horrendous violence taking place in the Gaza strip.
There is nothing right about the global target on the back of the Israeli nation or on Jews wherever they live, including here in America, supposedly a country readily accepting of other cultures and religions.
There is nothing right about Hamas terrorists or Iranian-backed groups regularly lobbing bombs or using suicide bombers to kill innocent Israelis.
There is no honor in the terrorists’ attack in Israel last October that saw 1,147 men, women and children killed and mutilated, or in the kidnapping of 236 hostages taken back to Gaza, including U.S. citizens.
What possible reason, except for cold-bloodied hatred and revenge, could there be for Israel killing almost 18,000 residents of Gaza – Hamas fighters and innocent civilians alike – for an act of violence by Hamas terrorists?
There is nothing right about Hamas building a network of tunnels under hospitals and schools and using civilians as shields o protect the terrorists.
There is no right, no reasonable explanation, that excuses any of this behavior.
The inhumane acts by both sides in this conflict is magnified by the rowdy division here and around the globe; college students here and abroad are protesting, some calling for the “extermination” of Jews, others decrying the atrocities inflicted by Hamas, the de facto rulers of the Palestinians.
Our own addled-brained politicians are trying it get re-election points by picking sides, depending not on what’s right or wrong, but on the hot button issue of donors, lobbyists, and biased voters.
What could possibly be the point of elected officials trying to tie secondary issues through fiery re-election rhetoric (immigration demands, changes to voting rights, etc.) except for self-aggrandizement for secure re-election to maintain political power?
When one does not see the “right” in a situation rife with conflict, mayhem, and inhumane treatment of human beings, it is always best to look at the situation with a calloused eye…and call for a halt to any actions that directly lead to the killing of innocent people.
It’s not that hard, folks. The do-right rule of how to treat people never goes out of style.
Death by paper cuts
KNOW THE NAME “Jimmy Breslin”?
The journalist, who died several years ago, was a writer’s writer, an author who invented phrases (and even words) that other writers wished they had typed first.
A first-rate columnist for the New York Daily News, Beslin cut his journalistic chops writing about “real people”, the garbage collector who woke him up at 4 a.m., the homeless man who had a Ph.D in philosophy, and any politician who placed himself or herself on a pedestal. Breslin liked lifting people up … and knocking down those that needed a good literary jab to the nose.
Breslin wrote a phrase in 1974 I will never forget. I have conjured it up a couple of times over the years since Jimmy used it to describe President Richard Nixon’s drip-drip-drip loss of image, power and loyalty of staff and party.
Breslin said Nixon was destroyed “by a thousand paper cuts,” referring to article after article and document after document detailing his evil acts.
The same — political death by a thousand paper cuts — is happening right now to Donald Trump and his corps pf mediocre, melancholy henchmen. A document here, a leaked email there, an abrupt change in strategy by key officials in the TDLC (Trump Delusional Liars Cult)…all are indicative of a slow-walk to political death and obscurity, the Green Mile, so to speak, of a failed political plot to rule in perpetuity in an autonomous regime.
Death by a thousand paper cuts.
That phrase is so appropriate for the Republican cult that counted on paper (ballots) to salvage the regime that would not consider a graceful exit, and opted instead to orchestrate its own public, bloody and humiliating execution.
Even now, the Republican Party is planning to dismember its own corpse rather than its members admitting its failings as individuals and as a party and pledging to right the beached ship of fools and get right with its roots and traditional values.
Trump hijacked the GOP with help from Republicans who didn’t have the backbone, brains, guts, or heart to stand up for democracy and even to this day, shun the rule of law and dishonor the tenets of the U.S. Constitution.
What GOP party leaders had and still have is plenty of… fear. They feared the irrational actions of a bully, loss of power, peer pressure, Trump’s loud and finger-pointing base.
Some are belatedly standing up to the Trump-lord; the hard part will be to start easing true conservatives back from the Abyss of Evil and onto the Bridge of Reason and Common Sense.
All true patriots should hope the time for true, positive change in direction for the Republican Party is at hand.
George Smith views the world from the back porch Bedspring Ridge, a dogtrot house he built in Sutton, Arkansas on old family land on a spot where his great-grandfather’s house once stood. There he lives and opines with his wife BobbieJean and a rescue dog, “Li’l Dawg.” A former newspaper reporter, editor and publisher, he has a master’s degree in business, is a retired director for a global technology company, has been a business owner, student of government and the behavior of politicians. He has been a college instructor, national motivational speaker, community development and festival development consultant and is a published author.