In the year that was

As I acknowledge the passing of another year, I reflect on the irony of my remaining friends and relatives speaking of "celebrating" my birthday. At seventy-one, one does not celebrate the addition of another layer to an already overburdened cake, one regrets its inevitability. In the year that was, I managed to break my leg, further impeding my already limited mobility. Limited because I was forever a poor sportsman, and suffering from "water-on-the-knee" at a rather young age, while attempting athletic promise, relegated me to the bleachers where I remained, uncomplaining, for the decades that ensued. In the year that was, my homeland Belize, has further postponed a referendum on the presentation of a territorial dispute with neighboring Guatemala to the International Court of Justice for arbitration. Further protracting the nation's graduation into the realm of the truly independent, and thereby curtailing its ability to attract foreign investment to its potential. In the year that was, another of my closest friends passed, leaving in his wake, a widening empty space where so many once reposed. In a recent reflection, my mother calculated their number, and lamented that there were so few remaining. Throughout the years, my companions had predominantly been older than I. So now there remain only three, and one is the son of, not the original; and the other two are beyond arms reach, secluded by distance, degenerating health, and matrimonial considerations. there were others less intimate, but they too have withdrawn from proximity, or passed into obscurity. Such reflection aught be relegated to late nights, or the association of a stiff drink, for it only increases the burden of the years, and makes light of the plight of conscience one feels at having outlived the others.

In an election that was of tragic import, America's first Black president was replaced by a caricature, throwing into consternation all those who held that a man of African descent could not perform in the hallowed halls of power at a level displayed by generations of White Commanders-in-Chief. Yet in the year that was, the caricature Caucasian, aka Aryan despot in Washington has progressed the dissolution of the union of the American states by his dastardly attempts to segregate its peoples. Along racial lines, along economic lines, by his willy-nilly attacks on the foundations of the institutions that uphold the principles by which the nation has maintained its position in and atop the free world. Atop the world of integrity, with principled manipulation of worldwide economic strategy. At the helm of moral responsibility in a world eager to exploit vulnerability among the less fortunate. It was through such exploitation that his forebears amassed the fortune he inherited, even as he would have everyone believe that he amassed it himself. Though he has declared four bankruptcies, and it is remonstrated that "everything Trump touches dies". A new report by a Special Council Robert Mueller, has just been released chronicling multiple abuses, but drawing no conclusion on charges of obstruction and collusion with the Russian Federation, simply because standing practices say that a sitting president should not be charged, but leaving open the likelihood of court action the moment he leaves office. A sad commentary on a failed would be billionaire, and usurper of the American presidency. America will survive the disturbing debacle, but it will be put back a hundred years. And the battle for the rights that everyone assumes, will have to be reengaged once again. Alliances long set, will have to be redrawn. Trade and cultural agreements once thought set in stone, will have to be renegotiated. When the captain of the ship-of-state, blinded by avarice, bigotry and incompetence, upends all preset courses, a new direction must be charted. At the conclusion of his tenure, rebuilding from the rubble of his disharmony, consuming assets otherwise predetermined for expansion of existing protocols. A new reconstruction will need to be undertaken. In the year that was, the president protracted his hatred of peoples of color, and of those of alien religious belief. And when a personage of both, Black and a Muslim, and an attractive young woman to boot, was ascended to the congress of the United States, his ire knew no bounds. For the first time, and only in part, the congress came closer to reflecting the diversity of the American populace and experience. But only in part, because the staid old White faces on the Republican side will have no patience with it. Will fight to maintain their stranglehold on the reins of power, even though the ethnological shift is inevitable. How can any reasoning man demand to maintain the status quo, when changing status is the norm of the future, and the bane of those who cannot adjust, or recognize the tide.

This despotic president, ignoring America's traditionally generous, though sanctimonious posture, is bent on discarding all vestiges of humanitarianism in his approach to international relations, especially with regard to less privileges societies. Taking for example, the tragedies unfolding in three Central American plutocracies. This neurotic Nero, not recognizing the desperation of the unfortunate fleeing the destitution, pillage and rape commonplace in the hovels of their homelands, and perpetuated by the avarice of wealth not unlike his own, has threatened to forego the life-giving aid provided by America, if these countries do not deter the deluge of displaced peasantry crawling to America's back-door seeking succor, and heeding the invitation inscribed on the statue of Liberty in the harbor of the great city of New York. And now here comes Bill Weld to upset his apple-cart, historically whenever an incumbent president has been challenged from within his own party, though winning in the primaries, he has failed to secure reelection in the general election to come. And Mr. Weld is thought to be but the first of many in line who plan to present an in-party challenge to his leadership. For though Trump's popularity was until recently, unchallenged in the confines of his own party, the cracks are beginning to show, and the despot may be confronted with insurrection in his ranks, and rejection at the polls. The honeymoon is over, after two years of one party rule, a bulwark has been breached and diversity has been given a chance to reclaim ascendancy.

The bane of Donald Trump's misadventure, Sanctuary Cities promise hope to a tortured subculture. A sanctuary is a hallowed place of relief from adversity. A place of refuge, to which one flees in escape from the madness of a world in revolution. This president so disdains sanctuary, probably because he cannot find it in himself, that he fervently believes that by condemning the hated refugees to asylum in Sanctuary Cities, he will be condemning them to an eternity in hell. And the despicable citizens of those hellish cities who welcome the outcasts, will burn alongside them in an attrition of their own making. Little does he know, fool he, that these metropolises in welcoming the strangers, will be widening their portfolios and creating new opportunity for their own citizens, and for the newcomers alike. Proving once again, that generosity is never fool-hardy, and extending a helping hand to a stranger is good, not just for the soul, but good for the pocket-book as well. Wherever people gather they create markets, and markets demand enterprise, and enterprise proclaims prosperity, which requires harmony in order to thrive. This president in his ignorance, is paving a path to enrichment for the very humanity he despises. And in so doing, uplifting those he would discard. Quoth Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House on the president: "I really believe that no one knows better than Donald Trump himself, that he should not be president of the United States". Pete Buttigeig, homosexual small town mayor of South Bend Indiana, presidential candidate: "it's not about winning an election, its about living through an era!" Putting aside stereo-types of a time that was, new political leaders are forging a vision of hope, diametrically opposed to the dire forecasts of the current, failed administration. As I relate this accounting, one of the great icons of Christianity, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, is burning to the ground, creating great consternation, not only within the Catholic religion, but among all men of good will on earth. Today, MSNBC eulogized the cathedral, echoing the words of the French president, saying that the cathedral that was, will rise again. Equating the cathedral with civilization, and the need for its rebuilding, over and over again.

In the year that was, a British prince married an American beauty with a suspicion of color in her blood, and exposed the hypocrisy of the many who, in the British public, claimed superiority over their American counterparts in their tolerance of racial diversity. The crown may rightfully maintain its magnanimity, but many of her subjects yearn for the old days when Britannia's rule was global, her countenance White, and the colored colonials knew their place. Great Britain today is not the superpower of memory, upon whose empire the sun never set. Britain today is a reluctant member of a larger grouping, in whose membership common sense deliberation dictates continued participation. Great Britain's years of world domination may be over, but her legacy remains a proud one, in which all of the world's free nations hold a share. She may have been at the forefront of colonialism, and of the slave trade, but she was also among the first to recognize these aberrations for what they were, an assault on human dignity, and the first to declaim them. And while some in her former American colony went to war to defend it, others more successfully, fought to curtail its practice. Many of the European powers who today comprise the Union, were along with Great Britain, complicit in colonialism and the slave trading of centuries past. It is most often forgotten or dismissed, that slavery did not begin with African victims. In medieval Europe, in China and India, wherever civilization flourished, the practice of men subjugating and trading each other like cattle, was as commonplace as was devotion to a deity.

The Aztecs of Mexico, and the Incas of Peru and Chile, in the years of their rule, all practiced human bondage with wild abandon. Even utilizing their victims as sacrificial fodder to appease their jealous Gods. In those years that were, before abolition and even after the emancipation, men set themselves up, using color, wealth and military might to overlord their compatriots, and force the less fortunate to grovel for the crumbs from their tables. Man's inhumanity to man is legend, and marks the progression of all his endeavors. Using the weak to reinforce the strong is the hallmark of progressive intercourse, and the glue that binds the wealthy to their thrones while keeping the poor in subjection. Even the Christian Bible commands the slave to pay homage to his master. The concept of equality is alien to human nature, and only recently, in historic terms, contrived to pacify an overcrowded planet and force harmony upon a reluctant and aggressive conglomeration. Were we not forced by overcrowding to live within arms reach of each other, we would far prefer to live in small gatherings. Insular and apart, aggressive if confronted, and guarding the home range from all but invited and initiated newcomers. To avoid inbreeding and its accompanying degradation, such invitation and initiation was necessary to ensure continuity in the clan. And man the accommodating, adapted and adopted mega-cities to convenience his industrial mass-production.

The megalomaniac who in the election past, presided over the despot's ascent to the American presidency, in turning his acquired guile upon another high office, is seeking to perpetuate his influence on world events that are in fact, far beyond his capacity to embrace. Steve Bannon, in refurbishing an old monastery within shouting distance of the Vatican, is seeking to dethrone or degrade the most influential leader in the world. The Pope of the catholic Roman church, the first non-European to hold such sway, has in his attempts to modernize the papacy, attracted the ire of the pestilent upstart. Upset that a Latin-American Pontiff should sit astride a Caucasian stronghold in the heart of a European empire. That such a purulent and debased little caricature could even contemplate such degeneracy, is evidence of the decay of normalcy that precipitates a coming realignment of moral rectitude. That he has been compared to the Anti-Christ of biblical prophecy, brings despair of his hasty demise, though the Bible seldom so openly delineates its purpose. And a figure of such magnitude would surely be clothed in more fitting finery than that of a buffoon who promoted and crowned a despot. When cataclysmic political upheaval occurs, it is most often accompanied by great economic distress, which would seem to predict a coming global financial depression. And freshman, congresswoman Ilhan Omar's assertions will prove astute in the face of current derision. Especially with regard to the state of Israel and its bigoted, anti-Palestinian prime minister. While the Israeli state's right to exist in harmony with its neighbors has never been in question. So do the rights of the Palestinian peoples equate, and American prejudice not withstanding, their plight has mobilized worldwide attention, and reignited the hope of their eventual elevation to the ranks of truly independent people in their own state. As they were, in the years that preceded the Nazi holocaust that precipitated the relocation of the Jews. Who in turn dislocated the Palestinians from their ancestral homelands, as they claimed frivolous, previous occupation of the lands of the Christian Bible, while ignoring the plenitude of the simultaneous occupation by several other peoples. Wherein the Jews were seldom masters of their own destiny, but more-often servants of another, alien superiority, whether it was Babylonian, Egyptian, Roman , or a host of other conquering entities. The equability of the Jewish state must be couched in broader hands, willing to recognize the superiority of a multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-dimensional democracy.

In the year that was, I commented on the efficacy or otherwise, of unfettered capitalism, and the need to monitor the performance of all the -isms, to ensure that the most destructive, extremism, did not permeate the performance of the other, less authoritarian doctrines. In years past, people did not identify their performances, and label their activities by degree of social responsibility. Performance was measured by the level of productivity, and relevant acceptability to the community as a whole. The objective was to promote activity best suited to the ambitions of the individual, while recognizing in the community, the overarching necessity of inclusive interaction. In the years that have past, family was the determining factor, the heart of the community. And the center of activity determining moral equivalence, and weighing the scale of blind justice in favor of continuity. Family ruled the roost, and prescribed collaboration in pursuit of communal progression. Today, family is forsworn, and the dictates of avarice guide the intentions of once upright men. Cowed by the seductions of opulence, rather than aspire to a cosmopolitan pacifism, we struggle in perpetual competition to outdo each other's acquisitions. Family vacations, trips to the zoo, to national parks and monuments, all have gone by the wayside. In Belize there was no greater pleasure than a trip to a caye, sunbathing and skin-diving in the warm tropical sea. Or an excursion to the Pine Ridge, bird-watching and spelunking in ancient Mayan caves. The values that made life special, now largely lost to the hustle of maintaining equilibrium with the neighbors, and labeled Capitalism. If the label made a difference, I would prefer Socialism, it connotes more active participation in the well-being of the community, over the selfish pursuit of personal aggrandizement.

Howard A. Frankson -- Belize