Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 56
The prophet Amos tells us about the 3 things God will forgive different nations for and the 4th God will not. When talking about Israel, ie the Northern Kingdom, Amos states they will not be forgiven because they “sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes”. Does this sound familiar? Isn’t this way of almost every autocrat, fascist, dictator, Monarch, power-hungry asshole, almost every Musk-like person? Have not we watched throughout our lifetimes the rich banding together to get richer and fuck over the little guy? As I am writing, I think of the story and King David and Bathsheba and Uriah. The prophet Nathan pronounces King David guilty of having enough and then stealing what a poor person only has one of, in this case-Uriah's wife and, on top of that, sends Uriah to his death! Every time Trump is being pushed, forced to admit truth, he covers it up, he deflects by causing death, be it in Iran, Ukraine (because he isn’t helping our ally), in the Carribean, and who knows where next!
When we went to war to help Kuwait, it was about the oil/money, when we went to war against Saddam, it was about the oil/money, when we went to war with Iran it is about the oil/money and for the oil/money, we the people have allowed our leaders, our military to commit war crimes and taught our children to hate and shoot first, ask questions later, causing so much mental and moral injury to our young men and women in uniform. People who stood up and railed againt these practices, these actions done for the money, were/are villified, primaried, sold out by members of their own party. We have seen this on the Republican side of the aisle and, now, Mandami, AOC, Bernie are taking the Democratic Party to the other extreme-I keep hearing Pete Seeger’s words: “When will they ever learn”! That Israel is ‘the issue’ for these ‘progressive’ ‘socialist’ democrats is a JOKE! Israel’s beginnings were all about socialism, now that this government has taken the country to the extreme is not what Israel is about, it is what this government is about. According to the logic of these ‘progressive democrats’ the Constitution should not be followed nor should we uphold the principles of the Declaration of Independence because the only way to be eligble for the freedoms provided for within each is to be on their side!
When they had power, especially during the Obama years and Biden years, these ‘progressives’, made bathrooms their Alamo! Unless people would allow all bathrooms to be non-gender they were homophobic, racist, etc! How about the truth that some women don’t want to see dicks hanging out in their bathrooms? How about the truth that some men don’t want women seeing their dicks hanging out when they are using the urinals! This never occurs to these so-called ‘progressives’. They “sold the righteous for silver” because they can’t see anyone but themselves as “righteous”! When it comes to the poor, they use them as spears to attack everyone else-no one does enough for the poor except them! Bullshit-Lyndon Johnson oversaw and initiated the “Great Society” and did so much for the poor-it is the rich bastards on both extremes who keep the poor people down, who sell them out every chance they get! So, mr. mandami, ms. AOC, mr. sanders-what you are reaping is going to kick us all in the ass when you sow! Dan Goldman is a decent righteous man and your opposition to him because he supports Israel as a Jewish State and believes in limitations to the aid given to them, is ridiculous and a prime example of how you have “sold the righteous for silver” and to the people of New York, I ask you: “How could you go against the truth, the decent, the righteous and say you are ‘progressive’ and at the same time ANTI-SEMITIC?
I call BULLSHIT on you Mandami, AOC, Sanders- your so-called socialism is nothing but a new twist on you being the rich and powerful, you doing to your ‘enemies’, aka, decent righteous people who see the both/and of life, what you claim they have done to you and the ‘poor’ people around you. It is WAY PAST TIME for We the People to re-assert OUR POWER, it is WAY PAST TIME for We the People to take back the reins of government, follow the call of Amos and repair the damage we the people wrought by selling “the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes”. We the People are being called upon to find our humanity again, to seek out the righteous for their wisdom and guidance, to lift up the poor so they can make a life that honors their infinite worth and provides them with the opportunity to regain their dignity, to honor the uniqueness of every human being including our own so the world can move forward and each of us can be a little more decent, loving, and join together to find better solutions than come out of just being in an echo chamber. I am, once again, afraid that there is no place for the both/and I live in the American political system!
ACTION STEP:
Find the ways you have sold out your righteousness and the righteous around you for “silver”
Look at the ways you have exploited the poor within you and outside of you
GOD BLESS, Stop Ghosting God, Stop Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark