God and Humans

 I am sitting there watching the BBC report on today’s news. First, they are reporting on the grand celebration of the 80^th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. For those of you too young to understand, Auschwitz was but one of many Nazi Death Camps during World War II. In apparently, January 1945, the Allied troops opened and thereby liberated that Death Camp. And what is a Death Camp you might ask if you are very young?

Well, World War II was heavily about Germans capturing Jews in Germany and moving them out of their homes and  into camps. And why did they move them? Well, because, once they were in the camps, their Nazi rulers began murdering them by placing them in gas chambers, after which they burned their bodies.  Why did they do that? Well, Hitler and his Nazi followers thought that Jews were evil people and had to be eliminated from Germany, and maybe even the World. Why did they think that? Well. Apparently Jews were too successful and the less successful Germans thought that Jews had some evil powers ( I think it is now called brainpower). So, to preserve the German core of mediocrity, they began that war on Jews. Eliminate All Jews, and only then would Germany be successful.

And then, in addition to their War on Jews, the German Nazi’s decided they should also rule the World at large. And so Nazi Germany began invading and killing folks from other neighboring countries. And that’s what triggered World War II.

And so, all the non-Nazi’s of the world gathered together and decided that Germany and its allies (Mussolini down in Italy had taken a liking to Adolph and so joined forces with the Germans. ) should try to occupy and thereby control territories beyond Germany—like France maybe?? And then, of course, for odd reasons, Japan joined forces with Germany  and began bombing places like Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and then by invading China.

And so it went on.  Until they exceeded their ability to control and also because they annoyed too many people—like Russia and England and finally America.  Those folks got together and finally beat the crap out of the Germans to the point that Hitler and his BFFs had to say, OK, we give up,  Now by then, the Germans and Japanese had killed  somewhere close to 85 million folks. Here from Wikipedia:

“World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million deaths were caused by the conflict, representing about 3% of the estimated global population of 2.3 billion in 1940.^[1] Deaths directly caused by the war (including military and civilian fatalities) are estimated at 50–56 million, with an additional estimated 19–28 million deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilian deaths totaled 50–55 million. Military deaths from all causes totaled 21–25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war. More than half of the total number of casualties are accounted for by the dead of the Republic of China and of the Soviet Union.”.

And then, of course, there were something close to six million Jews killed in the Nazi Death Camps, just cuz they happened to be Jews. Now what was that all about again? Here again, is the Wiki take on The Holocaust:

“The Holocaust (/ˈhɒləkɔːst/ ^ⓘ),^[1] known in Hebrew as the Shoah (שואה), was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chełmno in occupied Poland. Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to encompass also the persecution of these other groups.

The Nazis developed their ideology based on racism and pursuit of "living space", and seized power in early 1933. Meant to force all German Jews to emigrate, regardless of means, the regime passed anti-Jewish laws, encouraged harassment, and orchestrated a nationwide pogrom in November 1938. After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, occupation authorities began to establish ghettos to segregate Jews. Following the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, 1.5 to 2 million Jews were shot by German forces and local collaborators. By early 1942, the Nazis decided to murder all Jews in Europe. Victims were deported to extermination camps where they were killed with poisonous gas if survived, while others were sent to forced labor camps where many died from starvation, abuse, exhaustion, or being used as test subjects in experiments. Property belonging to murdered Jews were redistributed to the German occupiers and other non-Jews. Although the majority of Holocaust victims died in 1942, the killing continued until the end of the war in May 1945..

But then it all ended. Maybe God had decided that enough was enough??

And then, as I continued to watch the BBC news reports, they turned away from their coverage of the Holocaust, and moved onto that little war thing in the Republic of Congo. Yeah, apparently the folks who live in the African state of the Congo, What’s that you ask?

Here,

“For decades, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been the scene of one of the world’s longest-running conflicts. In the latest iteration which began in May, its army has been fighting the M23 rebel group, which is waging its most sustained offensive since a 2012-2013 insurrection when it seized vast swathes of territory.By area, the vast Central African state is the second-largest country on the continent and the 11th-largest in the world.That space, especially its mineral-rich eastern region, has been the battleground for more than a hundred armed groups fighting for control of territory there or using it as a base to launch attacks into some of its immediate neighbours – Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Rwanda and Uganda.Consequently, that has led to the death and displacement of many Congolese citizens.This month, the Norwegian Refugee Council declared the situation in the DRC as the world’s most neglected refugee crisis – for a second year running. At least five million people are internally displaced and one million more fleeing abroad, the aid group said.”

And then their report ended. But did they switch to news of a peaceful rally of folks somewhere celebrating something happy? Ummm, not yet. Nope, their coverage moved onto Gaza where Netanyahu is trying to bring calm to the storm that is Israel. Well, some understandably think that Bibi is beginning to emulate the Nazi’s, but that is but one opinion. At any rate, the BBC report was on the folks moving, walking mainly, north to get out of Gaza without being killed there.

And then I began thinking about God. So, God invented humans?? And you folks seriously worship that God?  Seriously??? Have you never any doubts about your belief system and your following of a God that allowed such awful things to happen? And then, I think about little kids, our Great Grandkids for example, running around giggling and bringing joy to their family. Yeah, those kids. How wonderful are they? Well, maybe God has nothing to do with any of this stuff, wonderful or awful. Maybe, we need to pay attention to what is in front of us. Give Love. Be helpful whenever help is needed. Try to spread love instead of Hate. If our leader of the moment (Trumpie) is always spreading Hate, then maybe we who don’t follow him should spend our time countering with Love and helpfulness.

So that is my take-away message from watching all that awful stuff. Don’t blame God. Look to Humans. And, instead of following awful creatures like Trump, try to follow those who spread Love and Help. Be kind. It works people. Spread Love. Be kind.

Scary Thoughts

It’s interesting how various social media seem to both follow you, and, sometimes to look like they are forecasting. I note especially on Facebook. Lately, I have been noticing an increasing number of postings from various folks on who has recently died. I turned 90 last December. Since then, I have been observing an increase in the articles about famous folks, or just folks who have died recently.

But then I just noticed a couple of postings about people who are writing about being frightened about death—should we be scared? Are we scared? My reaction is . . . hmmm, should I be frightened about dying? I mean, I am now over 90, and way beyond the age at which everyone in my family cashed in their chips. My mum, my grands, my sis and bro, my aunts and uncles, all cashed it in by their mid-80s. So, what am I waiting for?

And then, there’s that frightened thing. Should I be frightened about the likelihood of dying “soon”? Well, why? I assume if dying included some horrortale—pain, or something awful one had to go through in the act of dying, then I assume one might be frightened of that act. But, short of some nasty disease, the act of dying itself seems to be an empty set. One simply stops being aware. And is the absence of awareness frightening? I am thinking, NO.  I suppose that thinking about the act of dying might produce some nasty thoughts, but the act itself?? Hmmm, I don’t think so,

And so, we go on.

But thinking about nasty thoughts, there is that awful thing coming up on Monday, January 20^th, Inauguration Day. Now that is frightening. Why you might ask? Well, that day ushers in a new era in America—four years of Donald Trump as President. Now that is scary. I know. I lived through four years of him from 2016-2020. Still not sure how we survived that era. But, now, with me being 90, four more years of Donald Trump?

And I think that the nasty thoughts somehow exceed the Trumpie himself. The coming era signals something truly nasty about America. People in America, knowing what we all know about Donald Trump, decided that they wanted him to be their chosen leader. They wanted him to shape our Federal government.  And shape it he will. RFK, Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services??? Seriously? He doesn’t even believe in vaccines for God’s sake.  He may well dismantle FDA. Oh that would be grand, huh? And how could he cope with NIH—brilliant scientists working to define the relationship between human physiology and diseases. Or simply how the human body works? JFK, Jr.?? Really? I assume he is just dumb, but maybe he is also evil. That is the main two characteristics of Trump and his BFFs—ignorance and Evil.

And then, Defense? A drunkard??? Running our military? Seriously?

And being 90, I also have developed a fondness for Social Security, and for Medicare. Yeah, turns out, I like getting a monthly check from our government, one that I have already self-financed through my payments over some 50+ years. And then, health care. Have you ever checked out how you might pay for health care without your Medicare? Yeah, but now I am hearing rumors about how Trumpies want to cut taxes by gutting Social Security and Medicare.

I am unsure  how Trump has managed to become BFFs with such a truly bad set of pseudohumans. Of course, he is getting some help from dudes like Elon Musk.  Yeah, talk about evil dudes. Elon is Right up there at the top of the list.

So, does death make me scared? Well, no, but Donald Trump scares the shit out of me. Does that make me want to commit suicide? Well, no, but it does make me want to migrate to . . . maybe New Zealand, or even next door to Canada. But given my age and absence of readily available cash, I doubt those folks would want me. Would I go were I, say 35? You bet.  Now that is worrisome too. How many of our 35 year old wonders might consider migrating away from America?  Too many I think.  And then there are our grandkids and great grandkids. What have they done to deserve this mess we created? Donald Trump? Seriously?  No, they deserve way more than that. They surely deserve at least the America in which I grew up in, say 1965. Yeah, we had problems. But No, we did not have an idiot-malenfant like Trump at the top of our heap. Now that scares me.