Bad chemistry western-style

A relatively new friend asked what I was struggling to write for days.  I was reluctant to answer given the volatility of the Israel - Hamas conflict, but she pressed a bit.  I figured what the hell and told her.  We proceeded to share our views.  She talked about the Jewish perspective as she saw it and I shared what I learned from my research.  At times, I felt the conversation teetering on the edge of a heated argument, but we never fell into that abyss.  

I was quite uplifted that a Gentile and Jew who barely knew each other were able to do this at such a divisive time.  We had somewhat opposing views, yet through respect, tolerance, and open-minds, we both came away with more insight on the subject.  Why can’t the warring parties and their supporters find the wisdom, strength and courage to do the same?

I asked her if she thought partitioning part of Germany for a Jewish state after WWII would have been a more just solution rather than taking land from the Arabs who had nothing to do with the Holocaust?  Her answer was simple, yet it redirected my thinking. She said Europe would be the last place they’d want to settle after centuries of European persecution and the Holocaust.

At that moment I understood that the current conflict in the Middle East started with a  terrorized diaspora fleeing Europe to a place people often go when things are bleak - they go home.  I’m not suggesting that Zionism’s two-thousand year old claim to the land is valid.  If it was then the entire world map would have to be redrawn, but the land is certainly a historically spiritual place for both Arabs and Jews.  Over time an interesting paradox emerged with one persecuted people feeling the need to persecute another group in order to survive.

The Palestinians had their land occupied by the British after WWI.  Three decades later after WWII, the United Nations divided the land in two, one portion retained by the Palestinians, the other for the new state of Israel founded in 1948.  A short war with the Arabs ensued with a decisive Israeli victory which precipitated the fleeing and expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians from their land.  One diaspora creating another.

I suspect the motives of the West to endorse the creation of Israel were due, in part, to guilt about looking the other way for nine years while Jews were exterminated.  Major U.S. corporations continued to trade with Nazi Germany during this period until Pearl Harbor.  IBM’s German subsidiary, for instance, supplied the Nazi’s with Hollerith Tabulating Machines, a precursor to the modern computer, which facilitated the transport of Jews to concentration camps and the distribution of slave labor.

How would we as Americans feel if a far greater power occupied our land then gave a portion of it to another group of people?  We’d be enraged and hellbent on removing the occupiers.  So given all this we can find ample reasons to empathize with both sides and that’s what we all need to do.

The inescapable reality, however, is that Israel has built a formidable economic and military powerhouse in just 75 years, albeit with massive U.S. support not shared with the Palestinians.  They are not going away.  

You could say the Jews fleeing Europe essentially got what they wanted except, that is, for peace. And the road to peace is not through genocide.  It’s not though the hugely disproportionate assault on innocent civilians and herding them into concentrated  areas.  Even if Hamas is crushed, another group will rise in its place.  If Israel occupies  Gaza, they will move elsewhere.  Military might cannot annihilate a cause and it cannot suppress ideas.  

We may be past the viability of Jews and Palestinians living peacefully together as one nation, but I fervently believe a two-state solution will work; it must work, but that can’t happen without the West jettisoning their anti-Arab biases and embracing and supporting both nations equally.

Both parties need to come to the peace table with hope and a genuine willingness to listen to each other free of distrust, hatred, and anger.  That means no preconditions by either party or the West except the cessation of both the fighting and the building of new settlements.

The U.S.’s wish that the Palestinian Authority (PA) govern Gaza is not the way to start peace negotiations.  Let’s not forget Hamas was democratically elected, the PA was not.  Regardless of the West’s label of Hamas as terrorists, they have proven to be an effective and popular steward managing to keep Gaza functioning amidst the oppressive, 16 year blockade, while the PA has proven to be corrupt, weak, and unable to stop the unrelenting construction of settlements on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem.  Israel and the U.S. cannot champion democracy and then feel they have the right to veto the results and install a weak leader.  They cannot say come to the peace table, but we’ll pick your representatives.  

Much of what ails us in the world today or has ailed us in the past is due to Western governments, principally Great Britain and the United States, arbitrarily dividing foreign lands which they have colonized or occupied with no consideration of national sovereignty or respect for the demographics of the populations affected by it.  Examples of such partitioning are India and Pakistan, North and South Korea, North and South Vietnam, and, of course, Palestine; all creating bad chemistry among the inhabitants, all hotbeds that have generated astronomical revenues for the West who often supply weapons to both sides.

Another impediment to peace is the frequent misconception that Hamas is inflexible and hellbent on exterminating the Jews as expressed 35 years ago in their Charter of 1988.  Rarely is it mentioned that they have long since softened their political rhetoric and revised their Charter in 2017 which is far less incendiary and shows just the kind of flexibility to start a healthy dialogue.  Article 20 states “...without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state...along the lines of the 4th of June 1967...to be a formula of national consensus.”

Certainly the status quo in Israel hasn’t worked for 75 years.  Advancements in weapons technology offer the illusion of safety, but the reality is that technology moves forward on both sides of the fence.  Weapons, both chemical and conventional, get smaller, more lethal, and easier to conceal.  The only thing that changes as a consequence is the increasing amount of innocent citizens who die on both sides.  

The silencing of America

 If a dominant football team ran up a score by a 10 to 1 ratio the public would be in an uproar.  Yet few are talking about the same ratio in lives in the conflict between Hamas and Israel, a kill ratio that will very likely increase.  What does that tell us about society?  Have we forever lost our moral compass?

I am in no way condoning the Hamas attack or the taking of hostages, but what I am saying is that egregious acts such as these don’t happen in a vacuum; they’re usually precipitated by unrelenting oppression.  Real peace will never be realized without objectively looking at both the Israeli and Palestinian points-of-view.

It’s common knowledge that the Israeli lobby has considerable influence in Washington, D.C., but I’m both astounded and alarmed by the unprecedented power it apparently wields as evidenced by what’s going on in the U.S. in the aftermath of the Hamas attack.  The Palestinian point-of-view has been conspicuously under-represented or purged in media, politics, and public discourse.

In a 2006 paper titled “The Israeli Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” John J. Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt from Harvard University concluded “The overall thrust of U.S. policy in the region (Middle East) is due almost entirely to U.S. domestic politics, and especially to the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby.’ Other special interest groups have managed to skew U.S. foreign policy in directions they favored, but no lobby has managed to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical.”

America’s financial and military support to Israel has only perpetuated the conflict.  Not only has it cost U.S. taxpayers $260 billion (adjusted for inflation) since World War II per a U.S. News and World Report analysis, but it has facilitated the oppression of the Palestinian people over decades, and helps Israel to continue building settlements on Palestinian land in defiance of international law.  This massive, one-sided support certainly puts American lives at risk as 9-11 demonstrated.  

According to The Congressional Research Service “Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II” adding that almost all current U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance.  Yet Israel is the only nuclear power in the region and the 10th largest weapons exporter in the world.  They receive more U.S. foreign military aid than all other countries in the world combined according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Every couple of years some Palestinians rise up from squalor in a futile attempt to stop the oppression by this regional juggernaut.  This only serves as a pretext for Israel to further destroy their infrastructure and colonize more of their land.

As a rule anyone criticizing Israel, even when it’s constructive, has been labeled anti-Semitic, but in the wake of the Hamas attack this has taken on disturbing proportions.  American democracy appears to have been hijacked and in its place a climate of McCarthyism has crept upon us.  These sophisticated, dark forces, abetted by U.S. politicians, have managed to intimidate or bamboozle the entire nation, at least on the surface, and consequently stifled any semblance of balanced debate while a genocide unfolds.  

Individuals criticizing Israel or simply offering an alternative perspective are being promptly fired from their jobs for exercising their right of free speech. Petty, yet elaborate, vindictiveness has even silenced protests on college and university campuses.  Students in prominent schools like Harvard and Columbia Universities have been blacklisted by prominent law firms and Wall Street because they signed open letters criticizing Israel.  Solid job offers to top students have been rescinded.

Trucks displaying the faces of some of these students appeared near the Harvard and Columbia campuses.  In New York City the photos were accompanied by the words “Columbia’s biggest antisemites,” the New York Times reported. According to some protestors, the Columbia photographs were taken from a secure, private student portal.  In the wake of such reprisals numerous Harvard students backtracked from their heartfelt beliefs.  Palestinian-American conventions and conferences scheduled before the Hamas attack are being outlawed, moved, or cancelled due to coercion.

Pressure is also being placed on school administrators by pro-Israel donors.  The Israeli newspaper, Jewish Currents, reports “Multiple donors to Harvard said they would cut off their funds because the university had been too slow to condemn the Hamas attack and the student groups’ statement. Some donors to the University of Pennsylvania have also said they will no longer fund the school because of what they described as its ‘silence’ on the Hamas attacks.”

The sophistication and breadth of pro-Israel pressure cannot be fairly compared to your isolated, primitive, garden variety anti-Semiticism that typically comes in the form of spray paint.

The Israeli lobby along with certain powerful Jewish-American citizens wield tremendous, disproportionate power, particularly over politicians, when you consider that Jewish-American adults account for only 2.4% of the adult population according to the Pew Research Center.  However, over 50% say they have an annual household income of a least $100,000, significantly higher than the U.S. average.  Palestinians, on the other hand, have little wealth and certainly no noteworthy lobby in Washington, D.C.

The politicians who do not demonstrate sufficient support for Israel can find themselves voted out of office because of dark money channeled to opposing campaigns. To expect elected officials to be more objective would be like asking a vampire to drive a wooden stake through their own heart.  It’s not going to happen without changing the ways foreign and domestic powers can influence our elected government.

“Three weeks into Israel’s assault on Gaza, only about 10% of House Democrats have called for an end to the bombing,” according to Jewish Currents, yet 80% of Democratic voters believe the “U.S. should call for a ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza” according to a Data for Progress poll.  So who do you think our elected officials are answering to?

I suspect that many of the Americans who do support Israel right now are reacting exclusively to the horror of the Hamas attacks with little or no knowledge of the oppression that has been inflicted on the Palestinian people for decades, especially during the ongoing and unlawful 16-year land, sea, and air blockade of Gaza depriving civilians of basic human needs like food, water, electricity, and medical supplies.  Palestinians and humanitarian organizations often refer to the Gaza Strip as the world’s largest outdoor prison. What would anyone do under such oppression?  

How many Americans are well informed of the insidious building of settlements on  Palestinian land in the West Bank over decades in defiance of international law and world opinion?  

In the months preceding the Hamas attack, escalating violent attacks perpetrated by settlers and the Israeli Defense Forces on defenseless Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, people who have no affiliation with Hamas, were given minimal or no coverage in the U.S. press while they were far more prominent in the international press.  A recently disclosed plan to build 10,000 illegal housing units for Israeli settlers on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem has also been virtually ignored or relegated to the back pages.

Israel has an insatiable appetite for land, simply that, and it needs war or instability as a justification to obtain it.  The claims to need a security buffer requiring more land doesn’t hold up in my mind when you consider they are the only regional power with nuclear weapons and have one of the most technologically-advanced militaries in the world, not to mention the undying support of the strongest nation on the planet.  There’s no better example of Israel’s military supremacy in the region than the 1967 six-day war when it crushed the combined forces of three Arab nations after Israel preemptively attacked Egypt destroying 286 of their 420 combat aircraft and surged through the Sinai with their tanks.

Furthermore, the relentless advancement of technology will make weapons of mass destruction smaller and more deadly as time goes on.  No buffer is going to stop a chemical agent from being released in a crowded city or blown across the border in the wind.  We now live in an age where it’s unwise to stoke the flames of hatred.               

The status quo over the years has not made Israeli citizens any safer as demonstrated on Oct 7th.  It’s in the best interests of Israeli citizens to wholeheartedly seek a meaningful peace which must include a two-state solution.  Completely leveling a city where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped will only encourage anti-Semitism in the global community.

I wonder whether most Americans even know that we are largely alone right now in the global community in our unconditional support of Israel as evidenced by the recent non-binding, Jordanian, UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and adequate humanitarian aid which passed overwhelmingly 121 to 14.  Beside the U.S. and Israel only Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Fiji, Guatemala, Hungary, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Tonga voted against the resolution.

The decades of Israeli’s oppression of the Palestinians is in many ways akin to our own genocidal treatment of native Americas for which we now effusively apologize.  So how then can we now turn a blind eye in the Middle East when we’re the only nation who can likely put a stop to it?

It’s time for Americans to see the true bigger picture both in terms of the suppression of free speech and the genocide of the Palestinian people rather than being led by dark forces down an ignominious path from which we might not return.

   

Medicating for ADHD: The last resort

We live in a world where pharmaceuticals are the remedy for all that ails us.  More often than not we take whatever the doctor prescribes.  If harmful side-affects arise, we notify the doctor and appropriate modifications are made.  However, a child taking psycho-pharmaceuticals like Adderall or Ritilan for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may not be so in-tune with their bodily functions and emotions to make such observations, let alone articulate them. 

Pharmaceutical companies continue to develop drugs for mental disorders even though the human brain is considered the last frontier of modern medicine.  "Although the field has made enormous progress over the past several decades, understanding of the basic principles of thought and brain function are still far more unknown than known," says Michael Tarr, co-director of the Carnegie Mellon's Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition in the Center’s article, “The Last Frontier.”

Like many afflictions of the mind, there is no single diagnostic test for ADHD and even a series of tests is not one-hundred percent conclusive.  Moreover, there are some medical professionals who question whether ADHD is even a legitimate disorder.

Children, as well as their parents and schools, often embrace a diagnosis of ADHD as a convenient explanation and solution.  Consequently, parents are not burdened with modifying their children’s behavior and children have no motivation for self-improvement.

A psychiatrist, Peter Breggin, speaking on PBS's Frontline, offered his impressions on what parenthood and teaching has become: “We now think it's about having good quiet children...We're in a situation in America in which the personal growth and development and happiness of our children is not the priority; it's rather the smooth functioning of over-stressed families and schools.”

Before exploring and accepting a diagnosis of ADHD parents and guardians owe it to their children to explore other equally likely causes for their child’s behavioral issues, as well as child-rearing methods to modify that behavior.

There is considerable evidence suggesting that many children diagnosed with ADHD may in fact have sleep disorders that mirror the symptoms of ADHD. 

The American Psychological Association states that 69 percent of children experience some sort of sleep problem a few nights or more a week. The effect can be profound often resulting in concentration deficiencies and mood disturbances.

A 2012 study published Pediatrics analyzed more than 11,000 children over a period of six years, beginning at six months of age, and revealed “that children suffering from sleep-disordered breathing—including snoring, breathing through the mouth, and apnea, where the child seems to stop breathing for several seconds at a time—had a higher incidence of behavioral and emotional issues such as hyperactivity, aggressiveness, depression, and anxiety. “In fact, they were 50 to 90 percent more likely to develop ADHD-like symptoms than were normal breathers.”

Another study in Pediatrics published in 2006 found that 28 percent of 78 children about to have their tonsils and adenoids removed to alleviate Obstructive Sleep Apnea had been diagnosed with ADHD.  A year after surgery, half of them were no longer considered to have ADHD. 

It behooves any parent to explore testing for sleep disorders before ADHD is considered when a child exhibits problems with attention or hyperactivity.  At the very least, sleep apnea could be exacerbating the symptoms of ADHD.

Medical officials also caution that a missed diagnosis of ADHD for a child who has a sleep disorder can be problematic since many medications prescribed for ADHD like Vyvanse and Ritalin are stimulants and consequently can cause insomnia.

The bottom-line is that the child’s long-term well-being should be paramount, not the parent’s peace-of-mind nor meeting the behavioral expectations of the local school.  We know little about the human mind or the long-term affects of most psycho-pharmaceuticals prescribed to children so it would be irresponsible to accept a diagnosis of ADHD without considering all other options and getting multiple medical opinions.   Behavioral modifications and correcting sleep disorders, even altering a child’s diet, are just some of the alternatives that should be explored before medicating a child.   

https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/facts-statistics-infographic

Why are we sending enormous military aid to a country who exports billions of dollars of its own weapons?

 

For a very long time I was a major apologist for Israel and admired what I saw as its integrity and tenacity, but the protracted situation with the Palestinians over decades has gradually changed my convictions.  And I don’t think I’m alone.

A 2016 report by the Pew Research Center found that while Israeli Jews are skeptical that Israel and an independent Palestinian state can peacefully coexist, most American Jews are optimistic it can.  The report also found that Israeli Jews felt the continued building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank helps the security of the country, while American Jews were more likely to say the settlements hurt Israel’s own security.

If the United States government was clearly objective in the matter, this conflict would have ended decades ago.  But fear of the political consequences from powerful pro-Israel groups and the Israeli government is why this tragic oppression of the Palestinian people continues.

The United States very rarely sticks its neck out in international affairs unless it serves a strategic or economic purpose, nor does it support anyone for purely humanitarian reasons.  So it should come as no surprise that the U.S. has historically favored Israel in the conflict.

Like a mortally wounded animal fighting until its last breath, the Palestinian nation is hanging on for dear life.  Israel’s stranglehold blockade of Gaza by air, sea, and land since 2007; and the ever expanding, illegal settlements in the West Bank are slowly choking the Palestinian Territories to death.  As though these measures were not enough, Israel has repeatedly narrowed the 20 nautical mile fishing zone off Gaza’s coast to just three miles.

Getting bogged down with who started the conflict is like trying to figure out who started a fight in a grade school playground, but odds are it’s the bully who’s the instigator.

Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories under international law has been condemned by the international community since 1967 including the United Nations Security Council.  And the International Criminal Court in The Hague recently launched an investigation into alleged Israeli crimes in the Palestinian territories.  Yet Israel continues to act with impunity with forced displacement of Palestinians in East Jerusalem through home demolitions and evictions, and illegal annexations.

According to The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem), 9,930 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis in the conflict since September of 2000 and 1,268 Israelis (including 440 in the military) have been killed by Palestinians.  When you consider that Israel’s population is almost double the Palestinians, it is about 16 times more likely that a Palestinian will die in the conflict.

A 2014 Voxmedia article notes that Israel’s strategy is often described as "cutting the grass." Israel more or less maintains the status quo, tolerating a level of violence while periodically bombing or invading Gaza to weaken the enemy.  Meanwhile, permanent settlements continue to be built forcing more and more Palestinians off their land.

Between 2016 and 2020, the U.S. continued to be the world’s largest arms exporter, distributing almost double that of Russia, the second largest, and it accounted for 92% of all Israeli weapons imports according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

“Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II” according to The Congressional Research Service, and almost all current U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance.  Israel receives more U.S. foreign military financing than all other countries in the world combined according to Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This is particularly irksome in light of Israel’s per capita GNP which is greater than the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France, and Japan according to the World Bank.  Meanwhile, Palestinians live in squalor and fear because of Israel’s draconian tactics and American financial support.

The current U.S. foreign policy of President Biden offers little hope things will change. It calls for the United States to defend and protect human rights while paradoxically pledging to maintain its commitment to Israel’s military aid.

Most troubling of all is that U.S. taxpayers have been subsidizing the Israeli arms industry for years which has now become one of the world’s leading arms exporters, selling approximately $9 billion in arms in 2017 according to Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  Some politicians defend the policy saying the U.S. military benefits from Israeli technology, but isn’t this another example of sending jobs overseas?  Don’t Americans have the technical know-how to develop such weapons on American soil? 

Once and for all the U.S. needs to unconditionally standup for what’s right at home and abroad.  And now is the ideal time to do so when our international reputation is at an all-time low.

 

If I were black I'd likely be dead

I recently saw a Web video in which a 20-something, white male rants about how wrong it is to portray whites as privileged and blacks as not.  Loaded with falsehoods and generalizations I found it disturbing that some people actually think this way.

To really understand what privilege means in racial terms you have to understand the black experience and compare it to your own.  This means setting aside all your preconceived notions about race.  A constructive place to begin is with children simply because they are blameless and should not be penalized for the actions of their parents or guardians.

I work with black youth which has given me a greater appreciation of the subtle, yet significant privileges we have in white communities which we take for granted.  My childhood wasn’t exactly a cakewalk and yet I still had it far better than all the black kids with whom I’ve worked. 

I grew up with two alcoholic parents with frequent outbursts of reciprocal, spousal abuse.  My preschool bedwetting was likely precipitated by the trauma of hearing my mother’s screams and wails late into most nights.  It got so bad that they split up when I was entering second grade, but got back together five years later.  Even though my mother got sober during that hiatus, the fighting only got worse until my father left for good when I was in high school never to be seen again.

Burdened with six kids and no alimony or child support, my mother lost the house and everything else within five years.  I helped in any way I could financially and with my younger siblings, and still managed to work my way through college with some financial aid and grant money.  As my income rose over the years I was better able to support my mom ultimately buying her a co-op. 

It would be convenient to use my childhood experiences to criticize blacks for not overcoming their own adversities, but that would be as idiotic as the video that prompted this op-ed. 

Let me elaborate. 

Even though I was a marginal C student, much of my relative success in life came from attending good schools and influential community connections, both of which are lacking in black communities.

I benefited immensely from shared knowledge amongst my middle-class and upper-middle-class peers who learned from their successful parents.  My verbal and writing skills were effortlessly honed by association.  I learned about finance and career opportunities, even how to start my own business from them, and all my employment opportunities came through community connections.

None of this sharing of knowledge and opportunities is common in poorer communities because everyone is disadvantaged.  As an insecure teen and young adult I always had some degree of hope that I could survive on my own because I saw viable avenues to success.  That doesn’t exist so much in black communities.  All young children dream, but in the black experience those dreams often fade as they approach adulthood and see the world for what it is.    

Although somewhat advantaged I was still a very troubled, rebellious teen and young adult.  I engaged in all sorts of teenage vandalism, frequently confronted police officers, started doing drugs and alcohol at 14, occasionally dealt drugs, and got arrested for drunk driving when I was 17 just months after receiving my license. 

At 23, I was arrested again for DWI and while the arresting officer searched my car, I escaped into the night while handcuffed in a futile attempt to get to a friend who had bolt cutters.  Soon the neighborhood was swarming with county police and I was eventually found. 

As retribution, the police repeatedly tripped me so I would fall face-first into the concrete sidewalk; each time I would defiantly rise to my feet verbally abusing the officers in a manner far exceeding anything I’ve heard on smartphone videos capturing blacks being arrested and killed. 

In spite of all my transgressions my mother had attorney friends who always got me off with little or no punishment. 

Some of my siblings got into far more trouble and yet all six of us are somewhat  successful, not so much because we possess exceptional characteristics, but because the system is geared to forgive whites and punish blacks. 

If I were black and did the things I did, I’m convinced I would dead.  So when I honestly reflect back on my younger days and compare it to what I’ve witnessed in black homes, schools, and in the courts over decades, I know I was far more privileged than any black youth I ever met.  Privilege isn’t always tangible which is why we sometimes fail to recognize it.  When America wakes up to this reality, maybe we’ll start to see meaningful change in racial equality.

Lost and spellbound in a Montauk fog

When I awoke there was a thick fog engulfing the beach community where I live.  The forecast said it would clear by mid-morning and it did.  I filled my backpack with bottled water, goggles, and a towel in preparation for my routine, long-distance, ocean swim.  The water is still frigid so I slipped into my wetsuit and took Ibuprofen to ward off the aches and pains of aging.    

The swimming conditions were idyllic:  sunny, a gentle breeze, and tranquil water.  It was not long into my swim when I realized a dense fog bank had suddenly overtaken me.  Given I was roughly 150 feet offshore, I could barely see the beach.

The shoreline serves as a reference to keep me on a straight line and prevents me from inadvertently swimming out to sea.  Without seeing the beach a swimmer can easily become disoriented.

Although my initial reaction was to head to shore, the allure of the fog was intoxicating.  Swimming in the ocean is a very spiritual experience for me, and the fog only accentuated the mood.  I was in my own solitary world free of all the unpleasantness I left behind on dry land. 

I chose to continue my swim.  Why wouldn’t I? 

I didn’t want to return to people with their heads in the sand who brazenly ignore medical and scientific wisdom to blindly follow disingenuous politicians and business leaders who suggest we’ve essentially made it through the pandemic. 

I didn’t want to be reminded that the self-absorbed, young adults who recklessly and flauntingly disregard every precaution to stop the spread of the virus will soon be the caregivers for my generation in our final years. 

I didn’t want to return to watch people forsake the greater safety of all to indulge their own selfish needs and desires. 

And I didn’t want to return to the ubiquitous racism that has afflicted us since the days of slavery and the abhorrent behavior of those who devalue black lives. 

I realize I’m sounding like a misanthrope and maybe I am, but how can you not be disheartened by such ignorance, bias, apathy, selfishness, and violence that permeates America.

So I swam further and further.  I couldn’t see the typical landmarks on shore that tell me how far I’ve gone, but I sensed it was further than normal.  There was no fatigue in my stroke.  It was like I could swim forever in the peace and harmony of the fog-shrouded sea. 

I think it’s human nature for us to want to shut out the world when things are too unsettling or threatening which is why I found such solace in the fog.  But, nothing constructive occurs when we escape to our parochial comfort zones while forsaking the greater world around us.

I eventually returned to shore with cautious optimism that we might somehow come to appreciate our folly and turn a brief period of adversity and uncertainty into resolute solidarity and social progress.

Let’s go to the videotape – if we have the courage

Having been born into the white race, the race of privilege in America, it’s easy to misunderstand what it means to be black.  Even with desegregation, the majority of whites and blacks still live in separate worlds divided by wealth, individual biases, and an unforgiving and racially discriminatory justice system, among other things.

Many well-meaning whites simply don’t appreciate the depth of oppression in black communities, but social media affords us an opportunity to see some of the truth. 

Ubiquitous Smartphone images on the Web provide a window into this other world, yet many of my friends don’t want to look.  Maybe it’s because the window also serves as a mirror.  They may occasionally watch a video, but generally speaking, they don’t want to see the plethora of brutal images that conflict with the more sanitized and justifiable world in their mind’s eye. 

The recent, senseless killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd are eye-opening, but so are the more insidious examples; take for instance, the white, somewhat hysterical woman in Central Park, NY who calls 911 falsely accusing a non-confrontational, black birdwatcher of threatening her life when all he did was ask her to leash her dog.

How can we effectively right wrongs like these without fully appreciating the breadth of humiliation, degradation, and terror facing people of color everyday.  Indifference when the truth is right there on our smart devices is unconscionable and ultimately incites the huge demonstrations and rioting we see today. 

Wake up white America and go to the videotapes – if you have the courage. 

Another compelling video shows a Glynn County Police officer confronting a young, black adult who is parked in plain sight on an open, grassy field at the edge of a Georgia park.  It’s broad daylight and he’s chillin’ on music on his day off.  Although he is doing nothing suspicious, he is subjected to lengthy, accusatory questioning, a body search, and several attempts to inspect his car without cause.  A second officer arrives and without provocation pulls his Taser and shoots the non-threatening man.  The gun malfunctions and the man is ultimately left alone. 

Any white person subjected to such treatment would have been apoplectic and a lawsuit would likely have followed.   But, blacks are not readily afforded such options.  They often get brutalized and in some cases killed if they display any dissatisfaction or resistance, and they don’t have the same avenues of justice we do.  They have little choice but to bite their tongues and swallow their pride.  The harassed man, Ahmaud Arbery (also mentioned earlier), did just that and was thereby granted another two years of life before he was killed while jogging this past February by a retired cop from the same police department and his son.

A common reaction of my white colleagues is that blacks may have cause to be angry, but rioting and looting are not the way to bring about change.

Yet, American history suggests otherwise.  Wasn’t the celebrated Boston Tea Party looting?  A great deal of meaningful social change in America has come as an outgrowth of social upheaval like the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the Great Depression, and the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960’s.  There is fertile ground for promising, social change when virtually every American is unsettled by national events.

When blacks do use peaceful means, white society always finds a way to ignore the message and demonize the messenger.  They say it’s inappropriate to deliver an impassioned speech about injustice while accepting an Academy Award or unpatriotic to kneel during the national anthem at an NFL game.  White America is particularly incensed when the unsavory truth invades their comfortable living rooms and disrupts time-honored, American television traditions.

Colin Kaepernick did what few Americans would do:  He put his lucrative and celebrated professional football career in jeopardy for what he believed in.  And yet few applauded his courage or discussed his cause, instead they spent all their time criticizing his method.  Kaepernick was eventually blacklisted from the NFL and essentially gagged by white society.

How can we then criticize the rioting and looting?  If you gag the oppressed too long with apathy, violence will erupt.  Oppressed people need to be heard.

A method to Trump’s madness

Although I don’t believe President Trump is particularly intelligent, I find it implausible that he could be quite so obtuse to believe that now is the time to start reopening businesses.  So why would he pressure the states to do so while ignoring the scientific and medical experts who say it’s premature and likely to trigger a new wave of Covid-19 infections.

The answer is politics.  He has nothing to lose.

In January and February the president blundered when faced with a pandemic he was unfit to handle.  The highly politicized, media-frenetic environment of his own making only exacerbated his infirmity.    

Instead of inspiring the country to work together to fight this formidable enemy, he resorted to divisiveness, denial of science, and passing the buck to the states creating a dysfunctional patchwork of policy.  You don’t win a war by allowing 50 generals to formulate and execute their own war strategies.

Some people have suggested that Trump doesn’t have the jurisdictional authority to control how individual states respond to the virus, but there’s no denying he has the leverage to get states to do anything he wants by controlling various federal grants, aid programs, and the like that they rely on.

So with all this in mind, Trump has dug himself so deep into a hole it’s unlikely at this point he could win in November.  So what would any respectable megalomaniac do?

The answer:  Commit what appears to be political suicide by putting significant pressure on states to reopen businesses.

Trump would likely get reelected if his nonsensical advice has a fairytale ending with no significant rise in infections.  But, in the far more likely event it unleashes a more virulent wave of infections; he’s still afforded two possibilities to extend his presidency. 

First, he could potentially boost his approval ratings by blaming the states for any new outbreak and as a consequence be afforded a second chance to act like a responsible, unifying leader.  Some voters, particularly the feeble-minded, gullible and those with short memories, might actually buy into this giving him a long-shot chance of reelection.

The second is to use the new outbreak as justification for postponing the election.  This would give him time to further his political agenda, particularly in judicial appointments and rolling back environmental legislation.  I realize this may sound absurd to many, but even Trump’s son-in-law and advisor said recently that it is not being ruled out.

So there may be a method to his madness, a diabolical one at that. 

And if you don’t believe the coronavirus is likely to get worse, consider how people typically behave.  If one state or region opens their businesses and an adjoining one remains shut down, where do you think the residents of the more restricted and infected area -= are going to flock for rest and relaxation? 

Furthermore, states don’t have the wherewithal to enforce policies meant to protect the public as businesses reopen.  Some individuals and businesses left to their own devices will invariably bend the rules.  And as we learned from the notorious Westport, Connecticut party that made national news in March, it only takes a single breach to cause a ripple affect of contagion.

Of course, constitutionally President Trump cannot unilaterally postpone the election, but he is a master of causing people to underestimate him and then surprising them.  We cannot afford to let this happen.  At the very least, measures should now be underway to increase and promote the viability of secure, write-in ballots, and to block any other conceivable route the Trump administration may take.

My fear, however, is that Republicans usually outsmart and outmaneuver Democrats when it comes to dirty dealing.