Archive for the ‘Daesh’ Category
June 14, 2016
Yesterday, as I suspect most people did, I woke to the horror of the Orlando massacre. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I kept wondering if I was actually reading what I was reading.
Of course I was.
Not long ago I emailed a friend, now living in Florida, that I felt furious and, at the same time, numbed. I am angry and do not know a single thing I can do that will actually help affect any kind of real change. A New Yorker, both my Senators support more stringent laws regarding guns. It will do no good to write them. Obama sits on my side of the issue.
And any letter I write to a Republican, I fear, will lend no weight. I have tried. Somehow I end up on their mailing lists, thanking me for being a supporter. When Bush was President, I wrote a letter demanding he not invade Iraq. For years, I received Christmas cards and photos of W. and Laura, thanking me for my loyalty to them.
Same with my local Congressman…
They are not listening.
It is twilight here on Martha’s Vineyard. A few boats skiff across the harbor. From where I sit, I can see the Edgartown lighthouse. I am sipping a glass of wine, lost in the quiet and the beauty, furious and numb.
As I was not needed at Edgartown Books, I headed out in my car today, turning left at the end of the driveway and letting fate take me where it will. For awhile, as I drove, I listened to NPR programs doing an exegesis of yesterday’s tragedy, the worst mass shooting in the country.
As he holed up with terrified people, Omar Mateen, the shooter, called 911 to let them know he was doing this because he was pledging allegiance to IS, calling the Boston bombers from its Marathon his “brothers.”
As I listened, the portrait of Omar Mateen was beginning to reveal itself to those who were attempting to figure out what had happened. He was American born, apparently radicalized via the Internet, probably bi-polar, an abusive husband, worked for a security firm, had been interviewed at least twice by the FBI because of statements he made or actions performed.
He bought his guns legally. He bought his guns legally, after all that. He killed 49 people and died himself. 53 others are wounded.
He was offended by seeing two men kiss. But his parents didn’t think he was unhinged.
Trump tweeted in peacock pride about being right about Muslims except Omar Mateen was born in America of Afghan parents. He was a US citizen by birth, no act would keep him out. He didn’t come here perverted. He was born here and was perverted by God knows exactly what…
He attacked a gay nightclub, Pulse. It is Gay Pride Month. It is also Immigration Month. It was Latin night at Pulse. Kill two birds with one stone? Hate amplified?
As I drove the island today, I felt lonely, in the way I felt lonely when I was young and watched as Viet Nam unfolded before me and about which I felt powerless until I played hooky from school and joined a march against the war.
We have no marches these days. We don’t gather together to scream against the violence. Perhaps that is why I felt lonely today; I have comrades but we do not come together, we do not march together, we do not sing songs of protest together against the outrageousness of the time in which we live.
Sitting here, watching the pink tinged sky while a small boat motors across the harbor, I am still numb and I am still furious. What do I do with this?
And in the back of my head, all day has been the thought: where have all the flowers gone?
Tags:Boston Marathon Bombing, Donald Trump, Edgartown, Gay, Gay Pride, Hudson, Immigration Month, Iraq, IS, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Obama, Omar Mateen, Pulse, The Donald, Where have all the flowers gone?
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Daesh, depression, Gay, Gay Liberation, IS, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
June 4, 2016
The sun is laughing down Main Street in Edgartown, with cars slowly moving down the street, toward the water but without the congestion that is coming toward the end of the month when “the season” really gets going. Across the street, Sundog, selling clothes, is as empty as we are.
A few people have wandered into the store and have wandered out, rarely with a book in hand. A lovely mother and daughter came in, the mother buying her daughter a copy of “A Man Named Ove,” by Fredrik Backman, a book she insisted her daughter read before they left the island next week.
It’s been interesting, watching people come and go, looking at books, some are wildly enthusiastic, some are just looking as they look languidly at titles, hoping something will spark their interest.
As I said to someone yesterday, I have a whole new respect for those who work in retail.
The morning was foggy, the afternoon sun blessed. Music from the 1960’s plays gently in the background, the soundtrack of my youth. It is easy here to put away the woes of the world and believe in the loveliness of life.
Unfortunately, the reality is quite different in the off island world.
Muhammed Ali is being mourned everywhere. A figure in my youth, I watched with fascination, not quite understanding his moves but also not being bothered by them. If he no longer wanted to Cassius Clay, then why not? There were days then I didn’t want to be Mathew Tombers.
Many of his moves outraged the world and shook people up. All for the ultimate good… Rest in peace, Muhammed Ali, rest in peace and may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Bernie Sanders has announced he will contest the Democratic Convention, fighting down to the last moment.
In France, floods are beginning to recede but not until after claiming three more lives. My friends, Chuck and Lois, who have an apartment in Paris, are somewhere else with friends, waiting to get back to their place when the waters do recede. Guards are standing watch at Louvre and artwork has been moved to higher ground as a precaution. It has been nearly 34 years since this kind of flooding has been seen in the City of Lights.
It has been determined that Prince died from an accidental, self-administered dose of fentanyl, a pain killer 100 times more powerful than morphine and 50 times more powerful than heroin. One doctor described self-administration of fentanyl as playing with death; it is not to be used outside of hospitals.
The opiate crisis is enormous. Even here on bucolic Martha’s Vineyard, meetings are being held to combat the island’s heroin problem. Everywhere you turn right now, opiates are a critical problem. It may be that Prince’s death will be a catalyst for change.
It is the 27th Anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square and tens of thousands have gathered in Hong Kong to commemorate the event, shunning the official memorial because it has become too “Chinese” oriented.
In the Mediterranean, with the beginning of warm weather, more migrants/refugees are risking the sea to reach Europe and what they hope will be a better life. It is believed a thousand have drowned in the past week alone. It will only grow worse.
Many are fleeing IS, which now finds itself fighting on four fronts in Syria and Iraq. The unofficial capital of IS is Raqqa and Syrian forces, under the cover of Russian airstrikes and with help from Hezbollah have reached the border of Raqqa province.
Attempting to follow who is fighting whom in that part of the world is not easy. IS is struggling for control of a town called Marea, which is controlled by the anti-Assad Nursa Front, which is associated with Al Qaeda. There is also heavy fighting around Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city and commercial center.
The sun is beginning to set in Edgartown. The streets are still quiet. Anita, who works in the shop, has gone home as we are completely quiet. Last night, after everyone had left and I was closing down, I had the most remarkable moment of peace, surrounded by books with the walls resonating with the laughter and voices of the people who had passed through yesterday, just looking for a good read.
Tags:A Man Called Ove, Al Qaeda, Aleppo, Bernie Sanders, Chuck and Lois Bachrach, Donald Trump, Edgartown, Fentanyl, Fredrik Backman, IS, Louvre, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Muhammed Ali, opiates, Paris Flooding, Prince, Tiananmen Square
Posted in 2016 Election, Airstrikes, Daesh, Elections, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Hillary Clinton, IS, Life, Literature, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Music, Political Commentary, Russia, Social Comentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
May 16, 2016
This is one of the most enjoyable moments I have in a week, sitting at the dining room table, jazz playing in the background, the sun setting, looking across the deck to the wild woods across the creek, pulling together my thoughts as the sun slowly sets.
This morning I re-read my last online post [www.mathewtombers.com]. In the last part I wrote about Islam and the West having to come to terms with each other and as I read it I thought: whoa, Islam must come to peace with itself. IS is mostly killing other Muslims. Those numbers dwarf the numbers they have killed in Paris and Brussels and New York and London. They die by the hundreds and thousands in Iraq and Syria alone. Not to mention Yemen, which seems to be to Sunni and Shia what Spain was to Fascists and Republicans in the 1930’s.
We note with great care and deep exegesis the murders in the West and the daily drumbeat of death in Baghdad, Aleppo and Yemen is a footnote. Muslims are mostly slaughtering other Muslims.
Not unlike the way Christians slaughtered other Christians in the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries. We had the Thirty Year War, which started as a religious war and became so much more. The Muslims seem to be having their Thirty Year War and it is much scarier because technology is so much more advanced.
And while they fight amongst themselves, some of them rage against the West, those who are Fundamentalist Muslims. They see us as abominations.
One late night here at the cottage I wondered if I was living a bit like a Roman in the 2nd or 3rd Century CE, knowing the darkness was coming and unable to prevent it so enjoying the present as much as possible.
That’s a bit melodramatic I suppose. Events are still playing out. Outcomes can be changed.
The forces at work in our lives are terrifying. We have a saber rattling Putin, who denies everything negative, and a major religion that is going through an existential crisis, manyßåå of them thinking nothing of killing as a policy.
In college, I took an Honors course on Medieval Islamic Civilization and they were civilized. Something has gone very wrong there and, hopefully, for all of us, they will sort it out.
In the meantime, the rest of the world keeps moving.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
Not being mentally healthy is a debilitating stigma many carry. As someone who has been in therapy since he was sixteen, I empathize. It is not, in many places, åstill, now, acceptable to talk about.
And it saved my life. And in the years between then and now, many members of my family have taken me aside to thank me for having broken the dam. I was the first and I was pretty loud about it too. Everyone knew. Everyone rolled their eyes at me, then they began quietly to look for their own therapists.
We are still dealing with racial issues and we are still dealing with mental stigmas. So good there is a Mental Health Awareness Month. We need all the mental health we can get.
Our politics continue to look like a sideshow. Friends who live in Japan, Australia, Europe ask me what is going on? I don’t know. Does anyone? There has been nothing like this in my lifetime and it is a bit scary.
I have been reading articles about the raucous Nevada Democratic Convention and I haven’t parsed the events quite but there was a showdown between the Bernie supporters and the Hillary supporters. Hillary won but her supporters are worried about a similar scene playing out at the national convention.
It has grown dark now. The sun has set. While it is mid-May, the temperature is going down to 34 tonight so we are not actually in real Spring yet. I had to turn up the heat tonight. I might yet light a fire.
The jazz lures me to a quiet place of introspection.
Tags:Bernie Sanders, Claverack, Donald Trump, Fundamentalist Muslims, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, IS, Isis, Jazz, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mental Health Awareness Month, New York, Obama, Putin, Red Dot, Russia, Syria, The Donald, Thirty Years War
Posted in 2016 Election, Brussels terror attack, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Daesh, Elections, Entertainment, Greene County New York, Hillary Clinton, Hudson New York, Iran, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Nazis, Paris Attacks, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Taliban, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
May 14, 2016
It is Friday the 13th, a day feared by many as unlucky. It has neither been lucky or unlucky for me, so far…
The cottage is ripe with the good feelings from a lovely dinner party last night. There were six of us. We had appetizers, soup, salad, fish, lamb or pork or both, baby gold Yukon potatoes, sautéed carrots, green beans with butter and ice cream and berries for dessert. People arrived at seven and left after midnight. A good time was had by all.
I am now in my fourth load in the dishwasher. We had cocktails, champagne, white wine, red wine, cordials. It was a long, delightful evening of food and wonderful conversation. It was a moment of recognition of how lucky I am, to be in the cottage, to have friends, to be alive.
As I returned from the city on Tuesday, I got a text letting me know that Vinnie Kralyevich had died the night before. He was fifty-two, was on the treadmill, collapsed and could not be revived. He was someone I worked with a lot about nine years ago and I was staggered to learn he had passed. I am older and there was another moment that reminded me of my own mortality.
I am at an age when mortality is knocking at my door. The people who mentored me are growing older and are leaving the scene. I have younger friends who are cursed with terminal diseases and are leaving me.
For more than fifteen years my friends Medora Heilbron and Meryl Marshall-Daniels have had a weekly call to check in and support each other. It’s a phone support group. Medora ran development for USA Network when I was out pitching shows. Meryl got me involved with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. I was on the Board of Governors when she was the Chair of the Academy. Medora reached me on 9/11 just before I lost phone service to check on how I was.
It is a deep and rich sharing, once a week, except when one of us is out of the country.
Medora shared today that Bruce Lansbury, brother to Angela, a producer of great renown and who gave Medora her best break in the business, was suffering from Alzheimers. Angela and Medora live in the same Los Angeles neighborhood, run into each other in markets but Medora had never introduced herself to Angela but, for some reason, she did this week at the Whole Foods in Brentwood. She was devastated by the news that Bruce was alive but gone.
It is what all of us fear. I do.
While I write this, on a day which has been dark and drear, a soft fog is descending around me, enveloping the creek, the end of a rainy, dismal day. And the view in front of me is a bit magical. One could imagine woodland nymphs dancing in the distance.
However, there are no woodland nymphs dancing tonight in American politics.
Trump has a butler who is now retired but still gives tours at his estate in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, built for Marjorie Merriweather Post, a cereal heiress whose daughter, Dina Merrill, was an accomplished actress.
He called Obama a “muzzie” who should be hung. The Trump campaign is working to distance itself from those comments. A “muzzie” is a Muslim, by the way.
I had a long chat with my client, Howard Bloom, who has just finished a new book, “The Mohammed Code.” It is an exegesis of the roots of fundamentalism in Islam. We have battered back and forth about the book because it exposes the roots of ISIS and I am hoping will reflect the differentiation between fundamentalist Muslims and the majority of Muslims who have renounced the ugly parts of their religion.
This is the great conversation of today. We must come to peace with Islam and they must come to peace with us. Not easy but must be done…
Tags:Angela Lansbury, Bruce Lansbury, Donald Trump, Friday the 13th, Howard Bloom, Mar-a-lago, Medora Heilbron, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, Muhammed Code, The Donald, Trump, Vinnie Kralyecih, Whole Foods
Posted in 2016 Election, 9/11, Claverack, Columbia County, Columbia Greene Community College, Daesh, Greene County New York, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
April 25, 2016
I’m not sure where the term “dog tired” came from but that’s what I am today, “dog tired.” When I woke it was a grey, chill day, unremittingly grey. At class I was struggling to get my rambunctious students to pay attention while I was helping them fill in the background of what they needed to know about media history.
Most of them are graduating in three weeks and there are only four more classes for them and you can sense them stampeding toward the doors.
Leaving them, I went down to Relish, the little cafe by the train station and had an egg white omelet, reading a mystery by Louise Penny while eating. Coming home, I did a conference call and then prepped for some interviews I am doing for our community radio station tomorrow.
The American Dance Institute has purchased a rundown lumberyard in Catskill and is converting it to performance spaces and living quarters for artists while they’re in residence. It’s an exciting project…
I am talking to Chris Bolan, their Community Relations Manager, tomorrow about the project.
So right now, I am listening to jazz, sipping a much needed martini and working on figuring out kitchen organization. I have more stuff than space. What goes? What stays and where does what stays, go?
One of the reasons I felt tired or maybe a bit depressed was that as I was walking toward my class, the phone pinged and the BBC reported a leading gay activist in Bangladesh had been hacked to death, not too long after a liberal blogger had been similarly dispensed. I felt sad, angry, helpless, wanting to do something to change the tide of hate sweeping the world and not knowing at all what to do about it.
The afternoon brought news that a Canadian in the Philippines has been killed by an Islamist militant group. His name was John Ridsdel, described as brilliant and compassionate; he was a 68 year old tourist from Calgary, Canada. Beheaded, of course, in keeping with tradition.
On the American political scene, Cruz and Kasich made a pact to stop Trump by Kasich withdrawing from Indiana in favor of Cruz and Cruz withdrawing from Oregon in favor of Kasich. After great fanfare this morning, it seems to have fallen apart by the afternoon.
It was not a good day for the New England Patriot’s Tom Brady as the courts upheld his suspension from the first four games of the season. Deflategate has not gone away; its repercussions are still being felt and Brady’s legacy is at stake. He could still appeal but his chances aren’t good. The NFL may well have won.
Hard for me to figure this out as I am not a football fan; never a big fan, I was totally lost to the sport when the concussion revelations began to happen.
It is a mellow night at the cottage. It is 7:30 and the sun has not yet gone away. There are buds on the trees and the rhododendron are starting their bloom. The jazz has energized me and I am happy now. Somehow, in writing this, I have shed this day. And I am grateful.
Thank you.
Tags:ADI/Lumberyard, American Dance Institute, Chris Bolan, Cruz, Dog tired, Gay Activist hacked to death in Bangladesh, John Ridsdel, Kasich, Louise Penny, New England Patriots, Relish, Tom Brady
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Daesh, Elections, Entertainment, Gay, Gay Liberation, Greene County New York, Gun Violence, Hudson New York, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 25, 2016
Darkness has descended on the Hudson Valley; it is pitch black outside though I am heartened everyday by the weather person’s announcement we had three or so more minutes of daylight today than yesterday.
I’ve adjusted the timers on lights to accommodate the increasing daylight. I rejoice as I am sure everyone does.
My dining room table is scattered with recipes from which I will choose the ones being made for Easter. I am getting it organized. I bought upgraded plastic silverware for Sunday. Since I am doing this, I want it to be a little special — or a lot special.
In the morning I will winnow down the recipes and head out to do my shopping. My friend Robert has given me eight dozen eggs from the chickens who live at his house down in Rhinebeck. I had some for lunch. There is nothing like farm fresh eggs!
While I am typing this, Christ Church is celebrating Maundy Thursday and I wasn’t feeling very churchy tonight so I didn’t go.
Probably feeling more churchy than I do, or at least one would hope so, is Radovan Karadzic, the former Serb leader who was convicted today of genocide during the horrific Serbian conflict twenty-one years ago. Eight thousand Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in a town called Srebrenica. Justice finally has been done though it will not bring back those men and boys whose only crime was that they were born Muslim.
At the time, when it was revealed, I felt horror and I feel it today. There was a time when such things happened to Christians; indeed, they are happening today to Christians at the hands of IS. It is things like Srebrenica that make IS feel justified.
It’s been a happy day for me, feeling far from all the world’s troubles, tooling around Columbia County, collecting mail, a couple of meetings with organizations I am volunteering with, a haircut, bumping into people on the street and having a good conversation with them.
While I was doing those fun things, the police in Paris foiled an alleged terror attack in advanced stages. Obama apologized in Argentina for some of our policies and actions during their long and very dirty internal war. I suspect we turned too blind an eye to some things.
Belgium and Europe in general are struggling to balance freedom and safety in the fight against terrorist attacks.
In America, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are exploiting our fears in their campaigns; loudly criticized and, I think, rightly so, by Obama. And I think by Hillary and Bernie, too.
Syrian troops loyal to Assad are in the suburbs of Palmyra in the early stages of reclaiming the city from IS, which has this year lost 21% of the territory it controlled. The monuments destroyed are gone and it will be good if the city can be liberated. It has suffered terribly.
At the same time, Iraqi troops are advancing into Mosul, using lessons from the recapture of Ramadi to help them win back this important Iraqi city. Many of the historical treasures there are gone also, never to be seen again.
I do not live in their mindset and cannot come close to comprehending why it was necessary for them to destroy the heritage of the planet. But they did. It ranks up there with the killings at Srebrenica. Maybe it doesn’t. At Srebrenica those were living beings that were destroyed. At Palmyra and Mosul, it was the artifacts of the past that helped create the world in which we now live.
There are echoes of that world here in the cottage. I have treasured artifacts from the past and things that echo them. Someday, when I am gone, all this will be scattered, some thrown away but in the time they have had with me I have been grateful for their presence.
There is a small collection of masks, a recreation of a bust of Athena from Greece, a painting from India that evokes Alexander, a Renoir re-strike, a wonderful painting from a Provincetown gallery of Alexander.
We need the past to build the future, to connect ourselves from where we were to where we are going.
Tags:Alexander the Great, Assad, Christ Church, Christ Church Episcopal, Claverack, Columbia County, Donald Trump, Easter, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Iraq, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mosul, Obama, Palmyra, Radovan Karadzic, Srebrenica, Syria, Ted Cruz, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, Brussels terror attack, Claverack, Columbia County, Daesh, Elections, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Hudson New York, IS, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 13, 2016
It is grey and overcast outside; warmish but not so much as yesterday, a bright and beautiful day in the Hudson Valley. Yesterday, with my friend, Pam, I went down to the Farmer’s Market, still held this time of year in the Parish Hall at Christ Church, purchasing a ganache for dessert, a freshly baked baguette and a few other things.
Since I have volunteered to lead the charge for Easter Brunch at church, I tarried while Sally Brodsky, the chief kitchen person at Christ Church, showed me how to operate the stove and ovens, which had befuddled me.
As I type this on Sunday morning, I am sitting in the living room with shards of sun slipping between the clouds. Pamela is showering and Tory is catching a few more winks of sleep. In a bit of time, I will be taking them down to the Hudson Train Station, sending them off to New York, where both have business this week.
They have been together for twenty-six years; Tory and I have known each other for thirty-one.
As everyone does these days, we talked politics as the fantastic scenario of this year plays out.
Trump rallies have grown violent, left wing protestors and Trump supporters clashed in Chicago. Conservative reporter Michelle Fields has claimed that Trump’s campaign manager assaulted her when she tried to pose a question to the candidate.
Marco Rubio is making Tuesday’s Florida primaries a make or break it for him, as Kasich is doing in Ohio. If they cannot carry their home states, what hope is there?
Just moments ago, former Speaker of the House, John Boehner, endorsed Kasich.
There seems to be an effort by many Republicans to rally around Ted Cruz in an effort to stop the Trump momentum, a thought only slightly less scary than having Trump as the Republican nominee.
Hillary Clinton made an appearance at Nancy Reagan’s funeral and absurdly praised the Reagans for their leadership in the AIDS crisis which unfolded during his administration. Anyone who lived through that era, and I did, will remember that they were famously silent on AIDS.
What was Hillary thinking?
While all eyes here are focused on the race for the presidential nomination for the Democratic and Republican parties, there are major elections happening today in Germany, a major test for Angela Merkel’s open door to refugees and migrants.
I don’t think of the Ivory Coast as a vacation spot but in that country, Grand-Bassam, is a popular destination for Ivorians and foreigners. Gunmen roamed its beaches and killed many; the number still undetermined and for reasons still unknown.
Suspicion, of course, goes immediately to IS for this kind of attack. At the same time, it has been revealed that IS is forcing females to use birth control so that pregnancy will not interfere with their use as sex slaves. You can’t rape a woman if she’s pregnant, so birth control is being use to prevent pregnancy and allow for continued rape.
The world’s oldest man is a 112 year old survivor of Auschwitz, a former confectioner, living in Haifa, Israel. It took awhile to confirm his status as so many records were scattered during the war. But he has been now affirmed, a living monument of a terrible time. The oldest living person is a 115 year old American woman, who was born in 1899. What they have seen…
Not so long ago, the head of IS’s chemical attack force was captured. It did not prevent them from launching a chemical attack in which 600 were wounded, a child died and thousands fled their homes.
I’m home now, after dropping Tory and Pam off at the train station for their trip into the city. We had lunch at Vico, on Warren Street, where we all had a great burgers and wonderful fries.
In the time since I’ve left home, now about three hours, the Ivory Coast has confirmed 14 dead and there has been a suicide bombing in Ankara that has killed at least 27 and wounded 75.
So the world beat goes on, while I am now seated on the deck, looking at the creek slowly passing by, a mallard having just taken flight to the north, bleating as it ascended into the sky.
When I came here, there were hundreds of mallards. Most are gone now. It is quieter but somehow less peaceful.
Tags:Amtrak, Angela Merkel, Ankara bombing, Auschwitz, Claverack, Donald Trump, German Elections, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, IS, Isis, Ivory Coast Killings, John Boehner, Kasich, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Pamela Carter, Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tory Abel, Trump Rallies, Vico, World's oldest man
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Daesh, Elections, Entertainment, Gay, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
November 15, 2015
Paris. Hollande. IS. Daesh. Bruce Thiesen. Christopher Hitchens. Hitler. Stalin. Mussolini. Afghanistan. Alexander the Great. Russia. Viet Nam. Democratic Debate. Jihadi John. Marco Rubio. Fox News. Libya. Pope Francis. World War III. Genghis Khan. Fred and Ginger. The Great Depression. The War to end all wars.
When I finished blogging yesterday, the body count in Paris was below thirty. Today, when I woke and reached for my iPhone to check the news, 129 were dead, 350+ injured with 99 of them in critical condition.
Friends of mine, Chuck and Lois, have an apartment in Paris and spend a good part of every year there; thankfully they were not in Paris yesterday.
All morning I felt grim, unbelieving and so very deeply saddened.
Last night’s event has touched the world in a way nothing has since 9/11.
Hollande has all but declared war on IS or Daesh, using the Arabic acronym for the organization. Countries around the world have lit their most important buildings in the red, white and blue colors of the French flag.
There is the weight of tragedy in the air. The events were on the mind of ever thinking person I know.
Bruce Thiesen, a fellow blogger, posted this quote from Christopher Hitchens: This is an enemy for life as well as an enemy of life.
Truer words were never spoken. It all harkens back to the horrors of World War II, of men like Hitler and Mussolini and Stalin.
The events of last night have infected my day as they have for everyone I know. It came to me as I was shopping, for tomorrow is my day to do coffee hour after the 10:30 service, that Hollande is correct; we are at war.
I’ve felt that since 2003, when we invaded Iraq. We are at war. We have participated in wars without really involving the American public. We fought but the public was to go on with their normal lives, shopping and eating at restaurants and not think about war.
I think that was a mistake. In some way, shape or form, we should all be engaged if our men and women are fighting.
We should be actively supporting them in some way.
It’s a favorite rant of mine. I wanted to be asked to sacrifice if they were being asked to potentially make the ultimate sacrifice.
Now, we are years into this. Afghanistan is our longest war ever, a place that has bedeviled military leaders since Alexander the Great, the place that was Russia’s Viet Nam, a place the British couldn’t hold at the height of their power.
Tomorrow there will be another Democratic Debate. Really? I’m exhausted already and can’t imagine all the campaigning yet to come. But because of Paris, the debate will be focused more on terrorism and how the candidates would respond.
Jihadi John, the British terrorist who beheaded a number of men, is apparently dead in a drone attack. On Friday, the head of IS in Libya is believed to have died in an air attack.
At the gym today, the TV at my treadmill was turned to Fox News and I actually didn’t change the channel. I wanted to know what they were saying. They brought on Marco Rubio who decried events and blamed them on Obama and said as President he would take the fight to them.
Yes, I do think that will happen. Probably right now we’ll be led by France which, in righteous anger, will attack Daesh in every way it can.
More war. Pope Francis suggested we are fighting World War III now, in bits and pieces. He may be right.
Rubio said it was a “civilizational war” and he is not wrong.
IS wants to destroy the West. It hates our civilization with a passion and a fervor not seen, I suspect, since Genghis Khan who swept all before him before he and his Empire became dust in the wind.
It is dark. Floodlights illuminate my beloved creek. I am going to make myself a martini and watch a movie that, I hope, will transport me beyond the ugly realities of the day, the way Fred and Ginger lifted the hearts of Americans during the Great Depression.
We may well be now fighting the real Great War, the war to end all wars.
Tags:Afghanistan, Alexander the Great, Bruce Thiesen, Christopher Hitchens, Daesh, Fox News, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Hollande, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mussolini, Paris, Poper Francis, Russia, Stalin, The Great Depression, Viet Nam, World WarIII
Posted in Daesh, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Paris Killings, Social Commentary | Leave a Comment »
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York via Martha’s Vineyard 06 13 2016 Numb but furious. Where have all the flowers gone?
June 14, 2016Yesterday, as I suspect most people did, I woke to the horror of the Orlando massacre. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I kept wondering if I was actually reading what I was reading.
Of course I was.
Not long ago I emailed a friend, now living in Florida, that I felt furious and, at the same time, numbed. I am angry and do not know a single thing I can do that will actually help affect any kind of real change. A New Yorker, both my Senators support more stringent laws regarding guns. It will do no good to write them. Obama sits on my side of the issue.
And any letter I write to a Republican, I fear, will lend no weight. I have tried. Somehow I end up on their mailing lists, thanking me for being a supporter. When Bush was President, I wrote a letter demanding he not invade Iraq. For years, I received Christmas cards and photos of W. and Laura, thanking me for my loyalty to them.
Same with my local Congressman…
They are not listening.
It is twilight here on Martha’s Vineyard. A few boats skiff across the harbor. From where I sit, I can see the Edgartown lighthouse. I am sipping a glass of wine, lost in the quiet and the beauty, furious and numb.
As I was not needed at Edgartown Books, I headed out in my car today, turning left at the end of the driveway and letting fate take me where it will. For awhile, as I drove, I listened to NPR programs doing an exegesis of yesterday’s tragedy, the worst mass shooting in the country.
As he holed up with terrified people, Omar Mateen, the shooter, called 911 to let them know he was doing this because he was pledging allegiance to IS, calling the Boston bombers from its Marathon his “brothers.”
As I listened, the portrait of Omar Mateen was beginning to reveal itself to those who were attempting to figure out what had happened. He was American born, apparently radicalized via the Internet, probably bi-polar, an abusive husband, worked for a security firm, had been interviewed at least twice by the FBI because of statements he made or actions performed.
He bought his guns legally. He bought his guns legally, after all that. He killed 49 people and died himself. 53 others are wounded.
He was offended by seeing two men kiss. But his parents didn’t think he was unhinged.
Trump tweeted in peacock pride about being right about Muslims except Omar Mateen was born in America of Afghan parents. He was a US citizen by birth, no act would keep him out. He didn’t come here perverted. He was born here and was perverted by God knows exactly what…
He attacked a gay nightclub, Pulse. It is Gay Pride Month. It is also Immigration Month. It was Latin night at Pulse. Kill two birds with one stone? Hate amplified?
As I drove the island today, I felt lonely, in the way I felt lonely when I was young and watched as Viet Nam unfolded before me and about which I felt powerless until I played hooky from school and joined a march against the war.
We have no marches these days. We don’t gather together to scream against the violence. Perhaps that is why I felt lonely today; I have comrades but we do not come together, we do not march together, we do not sing songs of protest together against the outrageousness of the time in which we live.
Sitting here, watching the pink tinged sky while a small boat motors across the harbor, I am still numb and I am still furious. What do I do with this?
And in the back of my head, all day has been the thought: where have all the flowers gone?
Tags:Boston Marathon Bombing, Donald Trump, Edgartown, Gay, Gay Pride, Hudson, Immigration Month, Iraq, IS, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Obama, Omar Mateen, Pulse, The Donald, Where have all the flowers gone?
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