Today is December 7th,   the date of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that changed America’s life path in too many ways to count.   I  look at America today,  and I see that even in the short 12 months since the last Memoral Day for this event,  there have been increasingly radical changes to our society…and few of them, alas, are good.   In the political arena,  the rhetoric from the Right-wingers is becoming more and more incendiary.   Donald Trump,  who, I would not have bet a dime on still being in the race, has not only jumped in feet first,  but, is the clear leader for the nomination of the GOP.   At last poll I saw,  he was leading the closest opponent  by upwards of 10%.    This is disconcerting,  as he has been, from day one,  the voice of truly radical,  fascist and Dictatorial speech.   It is amazing to me that he can go out and malign a given social group, and the polls show him jumping up each time.   For example,  he said, early on this year,  that the undocumented workers sneaking into America were mostly criminals – rapists and murderers.   UP jumped his rating.   He claims that Pres. Obama is doing nothing to secure the border,  in spite of the documented fact that the President has deported MORE undocumented aliens than any other president per year, and, he has bumped up the staff of ICE by 30,000 officers.   The Donald claimed that he saw video of thousands of Muslims dancing in the streets of New Jersey after the planes hit the World Trade Center on 9/11.  This is a known lie.  There were, at most EIGHT guys who were arrested for this sort of activity.   But, he not only sticks to his lie,  he doubles down on it, and claims that it is a huge conspiracy of the News media to hide the films.   Fianlly (although I could go on for hours),  today,  the Donald came out and said that he wanted a total freeze on the movement of ALL Muslims in and out of the U.S.  This includes tourists, citizens, etc.  It does not matter to The Donald.

     I wish I could say that the other 14 candidatates for the GOP were better, but, alas, while none of them are running the huge train wreck that the Donald is,  they all are working from a fantasy world that has no contact with reality, and are calling for (and demonizing) other groups.    Overall, the GOP which used to stand for CONSERVATIVE attitudes,  is moving to the radical Right, and becoming dangerous.

     This is the world that the brave men and women died for at Pearl Harbor and during the rest of World War II?   I rather think not.   They founght and died to preserve America from this sort of attack…the Fifth Column that destroys from within.

     In spite of the very dark place that America is in right now in too many areas (and I have not even touched on the increase in documentation about the LEOs injuring and killing civilians that they are either chasing or (in too many cases) have restrained and in custody)   Not all is completely ugly.  For example,  one of the shameful episodes of World War II was the sweeping up and internment of many Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor,  simply because they were Japanese.    They were held in these prison camps for much of the war,  and lost everything they had worked for.   Well,  in the past year,   George Takei and others have been instrumental in bringing a play about this situation to Broadway.   Titled “Alliance”  it looks at one of the families whose life was disrupted by this abrogation of the Constitution.  The story is based on George Takei’s famly,  so it is quite appropriate for him to be playing a big part in it.   This story was ignored completely by hisotrians and textbooks through the 1980s,  although I had read about it quite some years before and so was aware of it.   Finally, though,  with this play,  more and more Americans are learning of this obscene act, and hopefully seeing that it is an important warning that we should never let this happen again.   It was an ugly chapter in American History (one of many, alas),  so it is good that we are exposed to it and learn from it.

     Pleasant Dreams

     Bee Man Dave