It’s A Jungle Out There
Remember the TV show Monk? It was one of my favorites, at least, in part, because of the program’s contagious theme song by Randy Newman. I found It’s A Jungle Out There to be clever and amusing. Today it seems all too true. “People think I’m crazy ‘cause I worry all the time. If you paid attention, you’d be worried, too. You better pay attention or this world you love so much might just kill you. I could be wrong now, but I don’t think so.”
This past week, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres had an equally stark assessment of the world. “Our world is in a whirlwind. We are in an era of epic transformation – facing challenges unlike any we have ever seen – challenges that demand global solutions. Yet geo-political divisions keep deepening. The planet keeps heating. Wars rage with no clue how they will end. And nuclear posturing and new weapons cast a dark shadow. We are edging towards the unimaginable – a powder keg that risks engulfing the world. Meanwhile, 2024 is the year that half of humanity goes to the polls – and all of humanity will be affected.” When it is our turn to go the polls – or vote by mail – I hope Americans will vote in significant numbers against the “purgatory of polarity” about which Guterres spoke.
“2024 is the year that half of humanity goes to the polls - and all of humanity will be affected.”
Twenty-four years have passed since I lost my mom. Since then, I have spent a good deal of time sorting through my family’s escape from Nazi-occupied Europe and trying to understand that complex history. At the risk of sounding hopelessly naïve, I hoped those horrors and stupidities, the outrageous lies and manipulative propaganda aimed at one group or another were relegated to history or, at least, to a shrinking segment of society. And yet, here we are. Hate crimes in the US have reached an all-time high. Former President Donald Trump is blaming Jewish voters if he loses the election. White supremacist Neo-Nazi groups cheer as the Republican ticket reiterates an old racist fallacy that immigrants eat pets. The engineering genius, justly credited with the success of Tesla and Starlink, uses his immense social media platform to promote the “great replacement theory” that there’s an international conspiracy, led by Jews, to overrun white countries with minorities. Really?
I am not dystopian by nature, and I want to believe that much of this nonsense will ultimately ebb if Kamala Harris succeeds in winning the upcoming election. I want to believe that even if Trump finagles his way to the White House – through voter suppression, state-led election schemes, and voters who somehow find charisma where I see only a hunger for power and an obsession with self –we will muddle through as a nation and pick up the pieces on the other side. But family history tempers my optimism. There were many optimistic souls in Europe, including members of my family, who were trapped by their hopes. After all, they were veterans of the Great War or assimilated doctors and lawyers, artists and shopkeepers. Who would have believed Hitler was more than a blip in history?
On this upcoming Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, we all need to reclaim the harmony we long for. That is, after all, the origin of the word “atonement: to be “at one” with the earth and each other. In memory of my sweet mom, I hope that there is still time.
You can order my book, In the Wake of Madness: My Family’s Escape from the Nazis, as an ebook or paperback on Amazon. You can also order a print copy at most brick and mortar bookstores. If you are able, please leave a review at Amazon and Goodreads. If you have a book group, I’d love to join you! Just email me at bettie.denny@gmail.com. Thank you!
