Fall Hunter Moon
This dismal fucking election. Sorry, but that’s how I feel. At its apparent resolution on November 8th, according to Nate Silver’s 538, as many as 44% of voters will have cast their ballot for Donald Trump. 44%. It should be zero. But it won’t be. And the vote rigging rhetoric of the Donald’s now desperately pitched end game has the potential to create chaos. 44%. It should be zero.
Unless a Clinton wave sweeps Democrats to control of the House and Senate, the actual political result, in terms of governmental non-function, will be for Congress to be as it has been for the last six years. That combined with a large swath of angry white voters who believe Hillary stole the election could make the next few years awful. Perhaps even dangerous.
“Ruth,” I said yesterday, over breakfast, “Presidential elections are not usually like this. This one is a real aberration.” This precocious ten-year old looked up at me and said, “So I’ve heard.”
I suppose it’s similar to coming to political consciousness during the Vietnam War, or, later, during the Watergate mess. Being young when the impeachment of Bill Clinton was the big news. Or, when 9/11 happened. These were big moments in our recent history, each one with a totalizing grip on the news when they occurred. A child of those years could be forgiven a cynical attitude toward public life, just as Ruth, if she develops one, could be.
Yet. And this is incredibly important, they could be forgiven, but not encouraged. It would be possible for a child of the 60’s like myself to shake my head, sit back in the recliner, take out the remote and disappear into the realm of others’ imagination. However, my recent immersion in matters Jewish has offered a different way of framing all this.
Here is a bit more from commentary about Rabbi Tarfon:
“How can we possibly achieve tikkun olam, a repaired world? To get there, we will have to overcome the enemies of life: poverty, hunger, oppression, discrimination, war and sickness.”
“Rabbi Tarfon teaches: Do not be arrogant; do not think that you alone can finish the job. Trust in your children and generations yet unborn to take up the task. Know that you are part of the living chain of people who have dreamed, worked for a better world…” voices and visions
This is a plea for humility, no matter the times into which you are thrown. The arc of history is long and we are only a small part of it, a moment in time, yet our moment is important to that arc and we do
