Are You Prepared to Explain?

This trenchant letter arrived over the weekend:

Are you prepared to explain to your  grandchildren where you were that you stood by as the Lily Ledbetter Act was  repealed, thus giving employers the right to pay less money to women for the  same amount of work?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when  
Supreme Court justices nominated by President Romney overturned Roe v Wade and back alley abortions have become more common place with many women dying and their doctors being imprisoned?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when “Don’t Ask Don’t tell” was reinstituted in our military?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when laws  depriving our LGBT citizens of basic rights and the protection of the 14th  Amendment became part of numerous state constitutions and even possibly the federal one?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when  
Article 5 of the Voting Rights Act was repealed?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when the cost of access to birth control became prohibitive to poor women?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when the auto industry faced another crises, but this time was allowed to go bankrupt with tens of thousands of American workers losing their jobs?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when the US got into another war which would be paid for by a credit card?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when  
Obamacare was overturned and once again insurance companies were allowed to make obscene profits?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when  
Obamacare was overturned and someone in your family got sick and the resulting bills bankrupted the family?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when  
Obamacare was overturned and people with pre-existing conditions could not get healthcare?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when one ecological disaster follows another with no effort being made to combat 
global warming and the pseudo science of denying its existence became the mind set of those in power?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when an  
anti scientific attitude prevailed in the White House?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when home foreclosures became the norm because our president felt that this was just the way that market forces should work?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when  
middle class people continued to pay (as their grandfather does) 30% in Federal  taxes and FICA and the wealthy pay next to nothing because capital gains taxes have been eliminated?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when the United States cruelly arrested and deported thousands of children whose only crime was to have been brought here illegally by their parents who were seeking a better life and economic future for their family?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when the party out of power gained power though lies and non specificity of promises made (caveat emptor)?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when the party out of power was allowed to make President Obama’s support of Israel seem weak, when in truth it has been extraordinary and has been praised by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack and former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when they  wonder why in this election people did not look at the abysmal record of Romney in the state of Massachusetts?

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when  
Dodd/Frank was overturned and another financial meltdown like the one in 2008 occurs, but this time it is even worse? 

Are you prepared to explain to your grandchildren where you were when  
despite the real evidence available from European countries, an austerity budget put our country into an extremely severe depression, causing people to lose their houses, their savings, and their retirement funds?

As for me, I will say to my grandchildren that I voted against this  
happening and encouraged others to do so. As for me, I will say that I fought hard against the efforts of Big Oil and Big Business though the Citizen’s United Resolution, to buy this election.

As for me, an existential question was asked of Adam when God asked him  “Adam. Where are you?” When in years to come my grandchildren ask this 
question of me, I will not answer as did Adam who said, “I was afraid and hid myself,” but will answer as Abraham did when an angel called to him by saying "Here I am--Present and ready to do my part to take this country into a future built on economic justice, compassion, vision and peace!”

--F.E. Shemtov