It is a warm, humid day as I trundle north on the train, back to Hudson. The Hudson River is dotted with boats and the spray of jet skis. A soft haze lays across the river, so it seems that what I see is in soft focus.
It’s not a bad day for soft focus.
I went into the city yesterday afternoon to have drinks with my friends Nick and David at Le Monde, a French Bistro near Columbia and then drifted from there to Cafe du Soleil, where I joined a party for Bastille Day put together by friends David and Bill. We were festive and the mood was buoyant and I was home and asleep by the time news was coming out of France that a young Tunisian Frenchman had driven a lorry into a crowd celebrating Frances’ National Holiday, plowing on for 1.2 miles before he was killed and after he had killed at least 84 and wounded 202 others.
As I look out of the window of the train, sold out, standing room only, I see the verdant green hills which line the western bank of the river, the beginnings of the Catskills, bucolic, peaceful, welcoming.
The dead in Nice, a pleasant city in the south of France, to the east of Cannes, on the Rivera, home of the airport that serves that golden stretch of land, setting for glittery events and the place of lovely villas climbing the hills to look down on the Mediterranean, include ten children. Fifty others from last night hang between life and death, as medical professionals do their best.
One woman talked for a long time to her dead child. The living and unwounded began to swarm toward the beaches, away from the lorry, in case it was loaded with explosives.
On Wednesday, July 13, in Syria, 58 people died, mostly civilians of war related wounds. Since the beginning of 2016 about 8,000 have died, since the beginning of the war over 440,000. 11.5% of Syria’s population has been killed or wounded.
On the same day in Iraq, 22 died by gunfire, bombs, rockets.
Looking out at the beautiful Hudson River, the Catskills on the other side, with gracious, magical homes occasionally dotting the landscape, it is easy to focus on the green moment and not the black news but today I cannot slip away, into the beauty.
It is all so senseless and all leaders seem to talk about the senselessness of it and do they find the senselessness of it enough of a unifying theme that they commit to actions that will stop it?
One of the books I am reading is “The Good Years” by Walter Lord, describing the years between 1900 and 1914, when World War I began. I am near the end of it, the war is beginning. Devastation was released upon the European continent over the tragic death of an Archduke and his wife, which gave “permission” for the Austro Hungarian Empire and the German Empire to act to achieve political goals they had long wanted and ended up destroying themselves.
Men in power are always playing “the great game,” and as the game is played, the innocent die.
The train is arriving in Hudson and I am winding down. I will say my prayers tonight for all the people who died today because they are pawns in “the great game” and see if I can find a way to work effectively for change.
In the time since I’ve arrived home, run some errands and prepare to go into town for a comedy show, the Turkish military, apparently fed up with Erdogan, is attempting a coup. Bridges across the Bosporus are closed, military aircraft are flying low over Istanbul and Ankara and gunshots have been reported.
“The Great Game” goes on.
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Tags: Amtrak, Bastille Day, Bastille Day Killings in Nice, Cafe du Soleil, Claverack, Donald Trump, Hudson, Hudson River, Iraq, Istanbul, Le Monde, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Nice, Nice France, Syria, The Donald, The Great Game, Turkey, Turkish Coup
This entry was posted on July 15, 2016 at 9:30 pm and is filed under 2016 Election, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Russia, Social Commentary, Syria, Trump, Uncategorized, World War I commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York 07 15 2016 As the Great Game goes on…
It is a warm, humid day as I trundle north on the train, back to Hudson. The Hudson River is dotted with boats and the spray of jet skis. A soft haze lays across the river, so it seems that what I see is in soft focus.
It’s not a bad day for soft focus.
I went into the city yesterday afternoon to have drinks with my friends Nick and David at Le Monde, a French Bistro near Columbia and then drifted from there to Cafe du Soleil, where I joined a party for Bastille Day put together by friends David and Bill. We were festive and the mood was buoyant and I was home and asleep by the time news was coming out of France that a young Tunisian Frenchman had driven a lorry into a crowd celebrating Frances’ National Holiday, plowing on for 1.2 miles before he was killed and after he had killed at least 84 and wounded 202 others.
As I look out of the window of the train, sold out, standing room only, I see the verdant green hills which line the western bank of the river, the beginnings of the Catskills, bucolic, peaceful, welcoming.
The dead in Nice, a pleasant city in the south of France, to the east of Cannes, on the Rivera, home of the airport that serves that golden stretch of land, setting for glittery events and the place of lovely villas climbing the hills to look down on the Mediterranean, include ten children. Fifty others from last night hang between life and death, as medical professionals do their best.
One woman talked for a long time to her dead child. The living and unwounded began to swarm toward the beaches, away from the lorry, in case it was loaded with explosives.
On Wednesday, July 13, in Syria, 58 people died, mostly civilians of war related wounds. Since the beginning of 2016 about 8,000 have died, since the beginning of the war over 440,000. 11.5% of Syria’s population has been killed or wounded.
On the same day in Iraq, 22 died by gunfire, bombs, rockets.
Looking out at the beautiful Hudson River, the Catskills on the other side, with gracious, magical homes occasionally dotting the landscape, it is easy to focus on the green moment and not the black news but today I cannot slip away, into the beauty.
It is all so senseless and all leaders seem to talk about the senselessness of it and do they find the senselessness of it enough of a unifying theme that they commit to actions that will stop it?
One of the books I am reading is “The Good Years” by Walter Lord, describing the years between 1900 and 1914, when World War I began. I am near the end of it, the war is beginning. Devastation was released upon the European continent over the tragic death of an Archduke and his wife, which gave “permission” for the Austro Hungarian Empire and the German Empire to act to achieve political goals they had long wanted and ended up destroying themselves.
Men in power are always playing “the great game,” and as the game is played, the innocent die.
The train is arriving in Hudson and I am winding down. I will say my prayers tonight for all the people who died today because they are pawns in “the great game” and see if I can find a way to work effectively for change.
In the time since I’ve arrived home, run some errands and prepare to go into town for a comedy show, the Turkish military, apparently fed up with Erdogan, is attempting a coup. Bridges across the Bosporus are closed, military aircraft are flying low over Istanbul and Ankara and gunshots have been reported.
“The Great Game” goes on.
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Tags: Amtrak, Bastille Day, Bastille Day Killings in Nice, Cafe du Soleil, Claverack, Donald Trump, Hudson, Hudson River, Iraq, Istanbul, Le Monde, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Nice, Nice France, Syria, The Donald, The Great Game, Turkey, Turkish Coup
This entry was posted on July 15, 2016 at 9:30 pm and is filed under 2016 Election, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Russia, Social Commentary, Syria, Trump, Uncategorized, World War I commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.