This well-known photo was taken by an AP photographer of me and my three children about 25 years ago in Washington D.C. at a pro-Israel rally.
Steve Ornstein – I Really Need To Speak Out
I really need to speak out. I can not hold these feelings in any longer. I use Facebook to share israelseen.com posts. I have never in my life read so much hate speech from all sides of the American presidential election. It is unbearable to read such indescribable rants that my skin crawls with what only can be described as total darkness. Hate from all sides. Name-calling from all sides as everyone in their self-righteous indignation feels justified resulting in an almost impossible return to dialogue, discussion, listening to each other, and their views.
Civility has been lost to the evilness of being and capitulation to the extremes on the right and the left that leaves me wondering if once again this is a new beginning of radicalization and intolerance of the “OTHER”?
You hear cries of “traitor” and “uncle tom”. Young African American’s that have chosen to defy the majority and support Trump get trashed in such hurtful ways mostly by so-called progressives and mostly by whites. Jews on both sides hating each other because of the way they perceive and support the candidates. Brother against brother, parents against their children sister against sister all for disagreeing about who they support.
I am not spared these reactions here in Israel. While not as intense as in the States, at the moment, it is very clear that having a discussion of differences is a rarity.
This height of insanity has reached to the core of being and must be changed if we as human beings are to reach the heights of caring, and love with moral and ethical values that enrich rather than destroy of fabric of society and the soul.
BREATHE, I say to myself! Be Here Now. Never thought those words would ring so loudly today as never before. I sit and meditate and pray, as my tears pour out remembering my love that has recently died after 48 years together. This wonderful woman amazingly “enlightened” being, that impressed everyone that met her. She would remind me and say to me to Be GRATEFUL for everyone and everything that has enabled you to be who you are at this moment.
So quietly I weep missing her presence and being. Breathing, with feelings of sadness in a world of great potential for peace and understanding. Sitting quietly as my mind slows down the endless thoughts that pass through like a hurricane and then the silence of being. I have been saved from the lunacy of my own making and begin once again, in the beginning, one breath at a time.
Then the door opens, and I hear a child-grandchild saying Saba-Grandpa I love you as we hug in the endless, timeless space of thankfulness.
At that moment Tikkun-repairing of self is actualized and the world is seen from a perspective that once only psychedelics provided me allowing for my redemption. Nothing I did except to be SILENT and to LISTEN to the heartbeat of life penetrating through every cell of my body.
Thank you, family, friends, and God/oneness of being/transcendence or whatever other words you may use to describe, the indescribable.
