Trickle Down Effect??

The news over the past several weeks has been bleak and bleaker on all fronts. From a spike in the homicide rates in several key cities; to mass shootings on school campuses; record foreclosures of homes; oil prices hitting $105/bbl; the dollar hitting historic lows vs. other major currencies; gasoline prices going sky-high; hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children murdered by precision weapons of war wielded by the Israelis in occupied Palestine; a revenge-seeking suicidal Arab entering a Jewish seminary and murdering 8 students with an automatic weapon; random gang shootings of rivals and innocent civilians on the streets of our cities; the layoffs of 85,000 American workers in January and February alone, along with unabated outsourcing of key jobs; large arson fires set by radical environmentalists; Ralph Nader running again for president as a spoiler rather than as a real candidate; and on and on and on.....!

It seems to me that there is a general air of despair and uncertainty in the air, brought on by the horrific news reports from so many different sources and in so many different areas. These all have had an overall unsettling effect on the moods and the emotions of our citizenry, contributing to these eruptions of mindless violence and other signs of extreme negative stresses.

It would not surprise me that this is the trickle-down effect of the illegal war and occupation, we have now been waging for 5 years on the people of Iraq. With all the massive deaths and costly destructions we have waged over there, the universe cries out for justice, and requires that we reap here, some of the things we have sown over there.

This reaping is manifesting itself in these awful, horrible news events at home and abroad, as we go from one terrible crisis to the next one. The economy is teetering and barely functioning, unemployment is at record levels, the rich are getting insanely richer with unseemly corporate profits, while the majority of us continue to get poorer. Our human rights are being eroded, we are and have been spied on illegally, those doing the spying are being given immunity from prosecution, while those ordering the spying are successfully evading censure and impeachment, and.........

I don't think Reagan envisioned this kind of 'trickle-down' mess, but he started the ball rolling with his phony economic theories and his ripping-off of the working classes. This is the logical effect of his voodoo economics and the ongoing illegal wars of empire and rapacious covetousness that have followed - these all have brought us to this insane point.

Persistence of Survival

As this year swiftly comes to a close, and looking back, I'm aware that I have acquired skills that all those who went through the Vietnam War era, also surely acquired. As the death toll in the current war continues to mount, I'm reminded that the military base that I was once assigned to, was one of several where the bodies of returning servicemen were logged-in, before being forwarded to their families for burial.

Forty odd years later, I still tend to drive towards the middle of the street, as if to avoid some deadly hazard that might have been planted at roadside. In a restaurant, I invariably sit with my back against the wall that allows me to see and face the front door when possible. I'm quick, usually much quicker than the average person, to hit the ground at the slightest sound that smacks of danger. I also tend to withhold and guard my emotions, which I think is a defense mechanism against the multiple tragedies that the war produced. Also I'm quick to size up a situation and give it a red or green light in my mind - in a fraction of a second, relative to the danger it might pose to me and others near me.

These skills persist and don't go away - they can't, because they become a part of you. Psychiatrists are just learning to identify them and how they affect one's life, persistently. I bet the vets who are returning from the war in the Middle East, have acquired these same skills, and have to learn as we did, to adapt them to this far different environment when they come home.

This persisting survival mode has served me well and has carried me through to another year. Certainly, of course, I have God to thank for all this, for without Him, I wouldn't have made it this far.

And now, I've been blessed and privileged to climb to the mountain top, and I've seen the promised land of 2007 - Happy New Year to all - it's going to be a great one!