It was Fifty Years Ago Today

It Was Fifty Years Ago Today…

June 26, 1971. Fifty years ago, I stood at the front of Temple Beth El as a Bar Mitzvah and led our congregation in prayer. While I had Rabbi Gerald Schuster for back-up seated behind me, the bima was mine. Read the prayers for Shabbat. Read from the Torah, offer a d’var Torah (think of a homily- an explication of a current event based on the week’s reading), lead the closing prayers, and offer the blessings over wine and bread before the luncheon. It’s a big deal, the Bar Mitzvah, whether you’re 13 or 73, and you’re glad when it is over.

I was born in 1958, the same year the US launched its first satellite, and a nuclear submarine went under the North Pole for the first time. The average cost of a home was $13,000. Ten years later…

1968 – Around the world, massive protests and upheavals mark the year. The Viet Nam war is in full-swing. The Pulitzer winning photo of a Viet Cong officer being executed in the street by a South Vietnamese officer with a handgun bullet to the head draws the world’s attention. Leading the news every night, I can recall watching TV with my parents and seeing the horrors of that war. In addition to anti-war protests throughout the US, civil rights protests sweep the US. There was Stonewall. The Tommie Smith and John Carlos statement at the Mexico City Olympics. I can see them standing, with fists in air. I got it. Dr. King is assassinated.

1971 – June 26 – my Bar Mitzvah. Numbers, Chapter 16 – Korach. Idi Amin comes to power. Apollo 14 is our 3rd Lunar landing. The Weather Underground explodes a bomb in a rest room of the US Capital. Mariner 9 is launched at Mars. Bangladesh is born. The Pentagon papers are published. Voting age is lowered to 18. The first email, via ARPANET, is sent. The Concert for Bangladesh is held. The Montreux Casino burns down during a Zappa concert, without which, we’d never have Smoke on the Water.

1978 – Jonestown – I was in college and the shock was evident on student faces around campus. Spain officially becomes a democracy again, after 40 years of Franco’s dictatorship. The Camp David Accords. Sandinistas seize the Nicaraguan Palace. The first Unabomber attack.

1988 – The idea of the World Wide Web was first discussed at CERN by Tim Berners-Lee. IRC was put in use, and not surprisingly, the first virus came to light, the Internet Worm. Russian and Afghanistan are at odds. The IRA and British Army continue to battle. Al-Quaeda is formed by Osama bin-Laden. The US Space shuttles resume, after the Challenger disaster. I was riding my wind trainer in front of the TV on Jan. 28, 1986, as the Challenger exploded. An independent state of Palestine is proclaimed. Benzair Bhutto becomes the first female head of state in a predominantly Islamic nation.

1998 – The journal Nature puts forth compelling genetic evidence that Thomas Jefferson impregnated a slave, Sally Hemings, and had a son named Eston. Osama bin-Laden led terrorists bomb US embassies - hundreds die, thousands are injured. The Oklahoma City Bombing suspects are brought to justice – This hit close to home – several of the suspects were from the Lapeer, Mi area – not far from my hometown of Flint. Serial bomber Eric Rudolph is arrested. White supremacy terrorism is on the rise. School shootings become commonplace. A Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Dallas is settled for $24 million. Google is founded. Matthew Shepherd is tortured and murdered for being gay.

2008 – Barack Obama is nominated for president and wins the election. I can’t recall having been so exhilarated by an election. This was tempered the next morning. I posted a photo of our new president on the powerpoint screen in my classroom. A student walked into at 7:25 am, just before class, and said to no one in particular, “Somebody gonna shoot that N*gg#% before his 4 years up.” A global financial crisis starts in the US and quickly spreads. It creates the worst economic conditions seen in dozens of years. It becomes one of the three worst financial crises in world history. Over $2 trillion in global assets are lost. Unemployment soars to its highest rate since 1992. The CERN LHC fires up a proton beam. Black holes do not destroy the Earth. Bitcoin is invented. School and public area shootings continue to rise.

2018 – NOAA reports that 2017 was the costliest year on record for weather-related disasters. Trump asks why people from shithole countries are being let into the US. Larry Nasser, a serial sex abuser physician of women on the US Gymnastics squad and MSU, is sentenced to 175 years in prison. Cambridge Analytica comes under deserved fire for data manipulation. School and public area mass shootings total 346 incidents for 2018. The Trump administration continues to hack away at safeguards for marginalized communities. The murder of unarmed Black men by police takes center stage in America. The time between 2016-2020, I will remember as the worst era in my American memory. But there is still time in the future.

2021. A quick look back at the last few years. In 2005, I had metastatic melanoma. It came back with a vengeance in 2006. I’m fine now. My brother developed a horrific case of oral squamous cell cancer which killed him in December of 2012. I also developed a clotting disorder which damn near killed me with pulmonary emboli in August, 2012, and again, in January of 2013. I now look forward to my daily dose of warfarin. My Dad died, a conscious decision to end his dialysis, in January, 2019. “I’m tired of always feeling like shit when I wake up and knowing it’s not going to get any better,” he said. We should all go so well. And here’s an inside tip – when you stare death in the face a couple times, you become fearless.

White terrorism: against all people of color, against Asian-Americans, against Jews and Muslims, members of the LGBTQIA+ community spikes. The QAnon silently and secretly grow, like a badly infected wound. Like that wound, it will soon explode, as it shoots pus all over the people trying to heal the world.

Yet, I am optimistic. Cautiously, as they say, but still, optimistic. These last four years scared the hell out of a lot of good people. Reasonable people. Fair people. We’ve seen fascism and hatred at the highest levels of our government. It has been exposed – it’s our neighbors, our colleagues, even some (ex) friends. The next three decades will be a massive fight for fairness and diversity. It will cost lives, money, and relationships. It might mean war. The Dark Side is that powerful and seductive. War would mean the end of the American Experiment.

For those of us on the right side of history, those who sing of freedom, this battle has two fronts. One, of course, is that battle against those who would install fascists, or worse, into positions of unending and unlimited power. But more urgently, the battle is against complacency. Just as Obama’s 8 years in office brought out the hate in many, and gave rise to POS45’s reign, Biden’s term will not eliminate those who target marginalized peoples. It’s waiting, folks. And it’s angry.

Here's the plan.

1) Heal the world. By whatever means necessary. Tikkun olam, y’all.

2) Speak out and stand up for those folks who can’t speak or stand.

3) Be nice.

4) Except to nazis. Punch nazis. Kidding. Don’t punch anyone. At least, unless they punch you first. Then, kick their ass. Best thing to do with the haters is keep asking them “why?” “Jews are bad?” “Why?” Cos’ they hate Jesus.” “Why do you say that?” - go through this a couple times and either heads explode, or they walk away.

5) Celebrate your silo. You know what the “Other Side” believes. You don’t need, or want, those folks in your circle of trust.

6) Don’t be a dick.

7) Repeat as needed.

BTW- the average cost of a home in Michigan today is around $205,000. That $14,000 you spent on a home back in 1958 is worth a meager $131,000 today. It’s not getting any easier these days, is it?

It’s been an interesting 63 years. I’ll catch you up on how this all works out in 30 years. See you in 2051; I’ll probably have my holographic blog up and running by then.