September 29, 2002 – One afternoon in the spring of 2002 I was sitting on a bench which overlooks a beautiful little beach on the island of Maui. It is one of my favorite spots to get contemplative. The restaurant nearby was not very busy that day so the beach was almost empty. I was having one of those moments. You know the kind. Your head feels like a crystal ball and all subjective “boundaries” dissolve into this moment of waves rising and falling in their primordial rhythm, encompassed by a sky which feels forever open without any content whatsoever interrupting the blessing of it all…
“Would you mind if I sit down young man?” I turned from my contemplation to see a diminutive but very spry ninety year old woman. “I mean I don’t want to disturb your reverie, but I would like to get off of my feet.”
“Of course sit down. It’s not my bench and even if it was you would be more than welcome.”
“Thank you. You look very peaceful but not spaced out. You know what I mean?”
“Sure.”
“I mean sometimes you see someone looking like they are trying to look like they think they should look in meditation, but really they just look self conscious and like they have abandoned ship. You know what I mean?”
“I do indeed.”
“You really do, don’t you. I know the difference you see. I have had a very real life, unlike a lot of people in this country. I have seen very real suffering happen and I had to make a choice not to let what I experienced turn my own blood into bitter poison. I mean I learned to pray, really pray at Auschwitz and that is how I survived both physically and spiritually.” As she said this she extended her arm toward me to show me her internment number. “You’ve seen one of these before haven’t you?”
“I have.”
“I am not showing you this to get your pity. I mean we are both sitting here at this beautiful beach enjoying God’s gifts together and where ever our lives have taken us we can enjoy that and be grateful for that.”
“Sure”
“You know young man, it was seventy years ago at about this time of year when Heir Hitler took over. I have heard a lot of people, even people I knew who were there with me, who survived like me by nothing less than Grace and right up until the time of their death they say things like,” How could God have let this happen to us?” “You know what I tell them?”
“No, I don’t”
“I say, what are you talking about? God didn’t let this happen. We let this happen to ourselves. By our denial we let this happen. We had no vision.”
“Do you know what is happening right now in this United States of America? Did you notice how the Republican Party just took over in spite of the Election last year? It is just like ’32. We elected Hindenburg but we got Heir Hitler. We got brown shirts and black shirts and then after a little while… we got hell. I mean really! We got Hell. I was there. I was in Hell.”
“One day I am a wealthy Jewish businessman’s daughter just turning twenty-one, working on my degree, living in my parent’s very nice home and then just like that (she snaps her fingers) I am being shipped off in a rail car to a concentration camp. And what is worse, we were warned! But people like my father and may God forgive me even I ostracized the people who tried to warn us because we were afraid, you know… that, well we didn’t want to get in trouble with the Nazi’s. I mean, we thought we could lose everything!”
“I am blessed to still be alive. But it is a blessing and a curse because now it is all happening again. In America!!! We elect Gore and we get Bush! It doesn’t matter how long you look, you will never find Democracy in the Bushes. You know what I mean? They just pulled the strings of their little puppets in the Supreme Court and voila! The little jerk is President. Just like Heir Hitler.”
“And do you think the Democrats do a damn thing about it? I mean the little jerk tells Tom Daschle to his face that his ideal form of government is an absolute dictatorship with him as the absolute dictator and little Tom just laughs nervously like a kid in the playground being attacked by the school bully. I saw this on TV! I saw this on TV and nobody had the chutzpah to say Coup! Coup! Not even Joe Lieberman! What a disappointment!”
I’m telling you this is bad for the economy. The people in Europe know we had a Coup. They know what a coup is. They wouldn’t flunk the Jay Leno test. What’s going to happen to our international credibility when no one in the world trusts us because these bastards have taken over and the American people just sit on their butts?”
“And I’m thinking as I watch these guys take over and they are making friends with the Jews, you know, because they need our support to pull this off, because if any people on the face of this Earth should recognize what is happening, it is us.”
“And I am watching all of this on my TV and I am thinking. So who are going to be the Jews this time? Who is going to be the enemy within? Who is going to give these new Nazi’s the lever to polarize this country right into one big concentration camp?”
“Then one morning last September I decide to go pick some things up at the store. It was a beautiful morning and even though I am blessed to own a really nice, large apartment in a very nice neighborhood I thought I’m going to go take a walk and get some air (the sky was actually blue for once) and I am about seven blocks from the World Trade Center and I hear this jet and I look up and I watch as this jet flies right into the first tower and the first thing that comes to my mind, as God is my witness is… That’s it! That is how they are going to do it! There is the new enemy. I mean, where were the helicopters that patrol the skies around the WTC every day of the week. We all hear them you know, ever since the bombing in ‘93. It’s like they are waiting for something to happen from the sky. Where were they?”
“Every week that goes by I get more worried. The Democrats have no chutzpah (they had better find some soon) and the Nazi’s are taking over and my youngest daughter, who is probably younger than you, is telling me, “Mom, don’t talk like that. They are going to think you sympathize with the terrorists and I’m thinking, I have seen this all before… You know what I mean?”
Adam Trombly
Institute for Advanced Studies at Aspen
www.Project Earth™.com
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