Who you gonna call?

Many years ago, there was a movie made about people being haunted by ghosts, and with no one else left to help them, they called a company called the Ghostbusters (the name of the movie as well) to get rid of the evil that surrounded them. While the film was comedic, it made the phrase, "who you gonna call?" a common parlance. In its humor the movie pointed to a malaise that seems to have become a new pandemic. Since there was no one dependable or trustworthy to deal with an infestation of ghosts, the ghostbusters needed to be brought in. Today, it seems, in the absence of having no one reliable or trustworthy to call to deal with the evil that surrounds us, we have no one to call either. It seems there are no ghostbusters for real life. The progressive erosion of trust is like a new pandemic. And it has permeated every aspect of life. The list is enormous: the woman who has been wronged by the one she loved has no one left to call; a child ignored by the parents is hapless in a nuclear family with no one to turn to; a mother waiting to connect with an estranged child has no phone number left to try, and a community who has lost one of their own has no institution that can be trusted to bring justice. This is the moment, as I have said many times before, when the desperate call of "Where Art Thou?" is not answered. The otherness of the self is emphasized and a social death, no - a murder, happens in every moment of the silence and the helplessness of knowing that there is no one. No one to rely on. No one to trust. No one. On the face of it, it would appear that there is no ghostbuster for the ghosts that haunt our every lived moment. But as Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, "life finds a way." The dinosaurs bred in the fictitious park against all the guard rails set up by the scientists. They multiplied. Just as the abandoned and the silenced eventually find a way. Be it in the form of a friend who would stand by you in every moment of grief or the community that comes together to seek the justice that is deserved. Even though the forces that surround us - those who bring forth the pandemic of distrust - want to retain control, there is always a way. Someone comes along - always - and says, "Here I am," it may not be the person that was sought, but someone else, someone who can be trusted, someone who can be relied on, always seems to show up - always. Sometimes, it is not only a person, but it can also be an entire community that comes up and stands by you and says that you are not alone. That is also the moment of crisis for those who want to isolate you, and emphasize your otherness, those who want to point out your aberrance; when the ghostbuster shows up those who were doing the social murder have to step back and realize that they are indeed not as powerful as they want to believe. Life finds a way. It is a process that unfolds in every aspect of life and has for eons; these ghostbusters have allowed us to move forward, to evolve, to find a new meaning, a new faith, and reminded us there is still some ghostbusters still left in the World where we live. We thus know what Ray Parker Jr. said, "If there's something strange/In your neighborhood/Who you gonna call?" There will always be ghostbusters who will say, "I ain't afraid of no ghost." These are the real-life ghostbusters. Call us.