Summer Wonders Beyond the War, the Wildfires, the Violent Rhetoric of the Extemist Right
STRANGE TIMES, MAD TIMES, times like never before… The news is brutal. It can be breath-taking; it can hold one spellbound for hours on end. After all, should the Russian army bomb Europe’s largest nuclear power station, World War III could erupt. Should the Chinese army launch an all-out invasion of Taiwan, all bets are off again. Should Trump be indicted and hauled off to some Federal facility in handcuffs to be formally charged for any of a number of crimes, watch how his most ardent, violent, extremist supporters will try to trigger a civil war across America.
Meanwhile, the summer sun blazes forth and for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere, this is high summer. The beauty we may see at this time of year is beyond equally spellbinding. Great green forests abound, there are mighty rivers, magnificent mountains, brilliant blue oceans and vast golden deserts to explore and enjoy. The colors are so pristine and radiant at this time of year that they can seem almost preternatural in nature.
Only they are not preternatural, they are perfectly natural; they are of this earth and we humans are blessed in too many ways to count because of it.
What we have here in our midst is paradise.
Too many, however, cannot see that for some reason and we are not talking about those unlucky persons who happen to be enduring a war, a wildfire, flooding, drought or a tornado. What we are referring to here is the self-absorbed or narrow-minded soul who erroneously thinks that life is working against them when they are neither a victim of some natural disaster or a government that is out to get them.
On this latter issue, perhaps the fault lies with the numerous ill-fortunes of a certain fallen ex-president. A man who keeps doubling down on his lies, who keeps shouting his same old tired lines about a “witch hunt”, a “hoax”, a hollow litany of legal woes which he describes as being “politically motivated” when he was the one who carried out the most egregious of politically motivated clandestine activities in recent times in an effort to foment a coup and stay in power after losing a fair and free election. This man, Trump of course, claims that he is the most “persecuted” political figure in U.S. history. He keeps insisting that he won the last election and cannot offer even a shred of proof of voter fraud, or not enough anyway that it would turn the tide on his defeat.
Meanwhile, he hides a horde of classified documents at his home and subsequently cannot fathom why those who run the Department of Justice are forced to “raid” his private quarters in order to get those documents. Meanwhile, again, he travels to New York City to be deposed for a legal investigation into his company and does nothing but plead the “Fifth”. He never claims to be innocent, but always and only a “victim” of some politically motivated Attorney General who is “out to get him” and bring him down.
Oh, summer of wonder and beauty, why must we endure this season of madness; this season of runaway wildfires, floods and droughts, these days of climate change hell in the midst of our heavenly home? Why must we have to keep listening to the ludicrous rants of politicians who refuse to see the obvious nature of Trump’s crimes? Why must we have to read the violent online rhetoric of the disgraced ex-president’s extremist supporters who want to assassinate the Attorney General of the United States or “Kill all Feds”? Why must we think about these things when we could be having civil political discourse or, even better, innocent fun on the beach or trekking through the mountains; when we could be white water rafting down some beautiful river or just chilling in a chair in our backyards and exulting in the glory of the season?
Why? Oh, why?
[Photo by Nick Dunn]
