The United States is Going to Hell in a Hand Basket; Going to Hell in a Hand Basket Defined; Is There Any Hope?; An Unlikely Course of Action Proposed,; I am Being Cautious, Thank You Very Much; Supportive Facts Proving That the USA is Going to Hell in a Hand Basket; Coming to San Francisco in 1967; Going to Dubai in 2021

That phrase came to mind when learning of the revolting developments here in the USA,  This explanation and photograph comes straight from Wikipedia to you. ”Going to hell in a handbasket”, “going to hell in a handcart”, “going to hell in a handbag”, “go to hell in a bucket”,[1] “sending something to hell in a handbasket” and “something being like hell in a handbasket” are variations on an American allegorical locution of unclear origin, which describes a situation headed for disaster inescapably or precipitately.

The origin of the phrase although much debated has been attributed to the gold rush where men were lowered by hand in baskets down mining shafts to set dynamite which could have deadly consequences. [4] However, the usage probably dates much earlier with either the baskets used to catch guillotined heads or maybe as far back as the Bible’s account in Exodus of Moses being placed in a handmade basket. As a consequence, the earlier usages date back to the Journal entitled Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome: or, The history of popery, dating from 1862 that stated: “…that noise of a Popish Plot was nothing in the world but an intrigue of the Whigs to destroy the Kings best Friends, and the Devil fetch me to Hell in a Hand basket, if I might have my will, there should not be one Fanatical Dog left alive in the three Kingdoms.” [5] This would make the saying not of U.S. origin.
Even earlier iterations of this phrase are “go to hell in a wheelbarrow” and “go to hell in a handcart”. Evidently, the idea of being carted to hell in a wheelbarrow can be seen on such religious iconography as the stained glass windows of Fairford Church in Gloucestershire and Hieronymus Bosch’s painting The Haywain, circa 1515, and was used in sermons dating back to 1841”

Why do I say that the USA is going to hell in a hand basket?  It can simply be recounted by referring to a New York Times update, there were five significant prognosticators.

  1. “House progressives flexed. President Biden teamed in with them. Now his agenda is in doubt. Progressive lawmakers feared that moderates would vote for a $1trillion infrastructure bill currently before the house and peel away from bigger social policy legislation , so they blockaded the bill. “Etc etc. etc.
  2. “Back on the bench, the Supreme Court faces a blockbuster term. During the new session, which begins Monday, the court will consider eliminating the constitutional right to abortion, vastly expanding gun rights and further chipping away at the wall separating church and state……one poll found that only 40 per cent of Americans approved of the job the court was doing.”
  3. “In Alaska’s Covid crisis, doctors must decide who lives and who dies. Overloaded facilities in the lower 48 states are able to transfer patients to neighboring cities and states. In Anchorage, most of the help is 1,500 miles away in Seattle.As Alaska struggles with the nation’s worst Covid outbreak, doctors are rationing oxygen, treating patients in hallways  and sometimes denying emergency surgery. “Read between the lines, the vaccination rate in Alaska must be utterly dismal.
  4. “As Afghan refugees wait for homes in the U.S. military bases are turning into small cities…Afghan evacuees said they were grateful for the warm reception they have been receiving but tor man the long wait has been grueling. The main problem is with housing and no adequate solution has been found.”
  5. “Migrants are surging at the Mexican border. Tens of thousands are passing through a deadly South American jungle to get there .”

What is a prognosticator? It is a a person who foretells or prophesies a future event. Used in a sentence: There are many prognostications predicting the worst in the United States of America. It is to be remembered that all of this bad news came from the October 3, 2021 edition of The Morning, the New York Times. There is a lot more awful stuff going on in this country but the above is enough.

My impending move to Dubai is becoming no secret to those around me and in the periphery of my life.
She: Be cautious.
Me: I am being cautious do not worry.

But I should have said to her.
Me: You are being foolhardy staying in this country. It is not safe for me anyway. I do not get the respect and support I deserve for the contributions  I have made to this County. I am not safe being a single White Muslim woman without the support of a Muslim family nor a functioning Muslim community. I am cautious in getting out of here.

I cannot blame people for their concern. They do not know that the UAE is in their zenith – it is a land of opportunity. Opportunity for all. I came to the United States in 1967, the Summer of Love, there were hippies everywhere, it was a time of hope, of promise, of a new way of life, not materialistic but peaceful with equality between the sexes and The Joy of Sex everyone’s favorite sex manual. That has radically changed – horribly hopelessly changed. I am going to live in the UAE at a time of hope and promise, women are educated and revered, the economy is booming, the homeless are housed, low income housing is funded in a grand scale. You will hear more of this in the upcoming blogs. I am now dealing with the massive task of immigrating to another country, at my age. Horrible impediments have been raised but I am conquering them. I am so proud of myself, of my fortitude in the midst of this trauma.  I shall speak of the trauma from the safety of Dubai.

Now this is funny. Those familiar with my blog will know that I have said that I would never go to Dubai because I was afraid that I would never get out, thinking that I might be imprisioned in the manner claimed by Princess Faya, wife number six of the Ruler of Dubai. Now I am going to Dubai with the intention of never getting out of Dubai. Well, I intend to visit the United States and other countries – but I do intend to make Dubai my home. I am laughing, I have a strange life and it is all because of this blog. It is an example of a nightmare turning into a dream, not the other way around. Usually, they say, Watch out, your dreams will become nightmares.

My days are spent in establishing the living trust to ensure the education of children at Brandeis School and saying goodbye to the people, places and things that were important to me at times. It is often sad, but I never regret that I am leaving – things are not in good shape and they are going to get worse as people do not have the excellent retirement, that I worked for years to obtain. It is not achievable in these days. Almost everyone will be worried about money, even in this most affluent of counties.

I do have a solution to the problems in the United States of America. If all of the residents became practicing Muslims the problems would disappear. That concept shall be explored in upcoming blogs. A concept is n abstract idea; a general notion. Synonyms are: idea, notion, conception, abstraction, conceptualization; theory, hypothesis, postulation; belief, conviction, opinion, view, image, impression, picture. It is my abstraction, conceptualization, belief and impression that if the United States had the vision, the practices, the idealism, the fairness, the rationality of the Islamic faith, it could emerge from the mess it is in at the present time.

I am going to need some quiet time to think – perhaps on the flight between San Francisco and Dubai – if no one is going to be traveling with me. I guess we shall see, it is fine either way.

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