The Sword
The night was restless. It was as if I awakened every hour or so, unable to be sufficiently comfortable to drift off into sleep until morning. Awake at five AM ceasing attempts to shake the foreboding which had invested my mind since the early evening, I gave up the quest for sleep. I got up. Starbucks opens at six AM. At least a positive start of a new day with some writing, will help put the undefined but palpable feeling of dread in the rear view mirror, at least for a while.
The snippet of news heard in the late evening continued to trouble me. According to AP News a shooter in Lewiston, Maine has killed sixteen people. The shooter is a firearms instructor who has struggled with mental health problems. Will we Americans ever have enough strength to collectively shout, “enough”? Or will we settle for arming ourselves to protect ourselves from neighbors who are also armed? When will we amend the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, or even rewrite the entire document? It is the 21st century after all.
My mind is also numb to consider what it is like to be a Jewish anywhere in the world. Given the events in Israel is antisemitism to reignite? Also the Palestinians, a people without a country, are living a nightmare. It is likely the Netanyahu-rightist government is going to unleash the IDF to slaughter thousands of civilians in Gaza in order to be rid of Hamas. What conditions give rise to sociopathic organizations such as Hamas? Did past and present American administrations play a part? Is an open checkbook without conditions ever a good idea?
The Sword of Damocles hangs by a frayed horsehair thread.
More than ever, globalized humanity, everywhere is linked to everywhere else. The action of each effects everyone else.
Sometimes the sword falls.
