Let's Not Take it Anymore!

My mind is awash with thoughts – there are so many things I want to write about. It has been a head-spinning week! I could write about so many items in the news of recent days. As I tried to sort out the myriad events of recent days, both here in the US and in Israel, there has been one image that has come to mind again and again. It’s an image, and a cry, from a movie which I actually tried to locate in the Berkshire libraries and online in recent days. It was released back in 1976, and I am reasonably certain that anyone who was a moviegoer back in those days remembers it pretty well. In fact, the film went on to win 4 Academy Awards – for Best Actor (Peter Finch), Best Actress (Faye Dunaway), Best Supporting Actress (Beatrice Straight), and Best Screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky). Network is likely ingrained in the memory of many who saw lo those many years ago, at the very least for the lingering image of Peter Finch’s main character, Howard Beale, a network news anchor who is fired by his network.

Writing about the film a quarter-century after its release, the late film critic, Roger Ebert noted, “Strange, how Howard Beale, ‘the mad prophet of the airwaves,’ dominates our memories of "Network." We remember him in his soaking-wet raincoat, hair plastered to his forehead, shouting, ‘I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore.’ The phrase has entered into the language.” Indeed, pieces of Finch's Howard Beale rant even sound as if they were written for our mind-bending times.

I find myself trying hard to understand this week's "main event," the meeting between our highest elected American official and the President of Russia. That the meeting even took place in the manner in which it did is astonishing enough. The press conference which followed Monday's confab in Helsinki, Iceland added to the surreal and confounding reality that grabbed the entire world's attention. In the days since Monday, the dizzying events just seem to keep spiralling out of control. I find myself trying hard not to view the events through the prism of my own partisan preference. I am simply trying to make sense of how we are not seeing and hearing an across-the-board, bipartisan outrage at the clear lack of honesty and transparency from the highest level of leadership across our nation. With the ever-changing interpretations emerging from the White House, and the nearly unanimous assessment from our Intelligence agencies and officials which completely contradict that narrative, it is hard not to join Peter Finch, throw open the windows and scream. Indeed, there have been many such moments in these past eighteen-plus months when hundreds of thousands have taken

to the streets of cities across our nation to take up just that message: The Women's March, The March For Our Lives, the responses to the recent outrageous actions wherein parents and children were cruelly separated in the name of Border Security, and more. Indeed, the events of this past week, and the constant stream of changing words, explanations and narratives, along with the latest twist wherein Vladimir Putin has been invited to our Nation's Capital to

"continue the conversation" should have us all screaming "We are mad as hell!" We must make it clear to our elected officials in DC, in our State delegations, and even on the state and local levels that not only are "We mad as hell!" We must make it clear that "We are not going to take it anymore." What is happening in these days is simply beyond any reasonable explanation and it is time for us to join hands, hearts and minds across political divides to demand an end to the insanity that is playing out as our Orwellian reality.

This means writing and calling our Senators and Representatives - even those of us who live in what we consider states and districts wherein we know our Senators and Representatives agree. They still need to hear from us!  We must mark our calendars and make certain that we vote in forthcoming primaries and elections - and I am speaking to all who are registered, irrespective of your party affiliation. If we don't all participate, then we have no right to complain about the outcomes. We are living in an unprecedented time and it demands an unprecedented response from those of us who are a part of this great nation. 

I am preparing to turn from this chaotic, disturbing and deeply alarming week towards Shabbat. I know that our prayers for peace will resonate ever more powerfully this Shabbat. With Shabbat's end tomorrow night, Jews around the world will turn to the observance of Tisha B'av - the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av when, according to history both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, in 586 BCE and 70 CE respectively. It is a day of fasting, mourning and reflection. For my part, I will be marking the day as part of the Eisner Camp community. I have been asked to offer study sessions for those staff and older campers who may be fasting as part of their observance. Recent events, both here - and in Israel (about which I will write at another time) make this year's Tisha B'av more relevant to me than in many recent years.

But I am also entering Shabbat for a pause so I can reflect on this past week, with a commitment that I, too, must act in the week ahead. These have been troubling days. I am mad as hell - and I do not want to watch this catastrophe continue to unfold even one step more. Our leaders need to hear from us - loud and clear - that what is happening is dangerous, and that it is unacceptable. I hope you will also arise from Shabbat and Tisha B'av (if it is your day of commemoration) and move to action. These may be the lazy days of summer. We can ill afford to be lazy in the face of the outrages being played out at the highest levels of leadership in our land.

First, a pause - then, action!  Shabbat Shalom!