For the most part, today has been sunny and warm, not too humid, the sun slipping in and out between the clouds, more out than in. I’m sitting at the dining room table at the cottage, looking out at all the green that surrounds the cottage.
For two days, I didn’t write a Letter From New York. I had a feeling I had run out of things to say or that what I had to say wasn’t all that important. Perhaps it was just a case of emotional inertia but as the afternoon wore on today, I wanted to put fingers to keyboard and see words appear on the electronic white page on my MacBook Air.
Waking early, I had coffee, scanned the Times [NY], dashed off a few emails and then ran errands. I picked up prescriptions, I dropped off shirts at the laundry, went to Lowe’s, had the car washed, filled it with gas, all pedestrian things that need to be done, usually Saturday chores but done today because I was home.
Last night was my first night at the cottage in twelve days and I reveled in being home and in my own bed, surrounded by the coziness and my books. I finished reading “My Townie Heart” by Diana Sperrazza; I sent off a congratulatory email.
The surveyor came and I paid him for the work he did on seeing if can get me from needing flood insurance. We chatted for a while and then I went off to mail some things to my cousins and headed into Hudson for a long, leisurely lunch with Peter Spear, who does market research. We haven’t sat down in years and it was good and fun.
As I did my errands, I heard the cheering on the radio as the Confederate Flag came down in South Carolina. There were eulogies for Omar Sharif, who passed away today in Cairo, best remembered for his role as “Doctor Zhivago.” It is in that role that I first remember him, a breathtaking film that made me curious about the period in Russian history when the Empire gave way to the Soviet Union.
The markets were buoyant today, as it appeared to many that a Greek deal would be done. The Germans are still not convinced but we will see what the weekend brings. There will be more meetings. Greece is taking up a huge amount of Europe’s political bandwidth.
There is an argument to be made that Greece today is worse off than the US during the Great Depression. Then the US joblessness rate topped out at 26%. Greece is at 28% now and it could conceivably go higher.
The deal Tsipras is selling to the Greeks is essentially the one they rejected last week but it feels, in the news reports, like they will go along with it.
Dylann Roof, who allegedly killed nine in Charleston, SC, bought a gun to commit the deed. It was revealed today by the FBI that he should not have been able to buy it; he should not have passed the background check. He slipped through the system.
Prevented from falling through the system was a young, homeless seven-year-old Filipino boy. Photographed studying on a stool by the light of a local McDonald’s, the photo went viral and aid is being delivered to he and his mother, enough money to get him through college. He wants to grow up and be a policeman.
Tunisia has declared a state of emergency to deal with terrorist threats. Some tourists are leaving, cancelling trips to the country and at least one cruise line is not going to be calling there this year and next.
Shanghai, the largest city in the world by population, is battening down the hatches in advance of Typhoon Chan-hom, which will be upon the city tomorrow. While not a huge storm it is the first time in near 65 years that a storm this size has hit Shanghai.
Angela Merkel of Germany and Hollande of France, when not dealing with the Greeks, are putting pressure on the President of Ukraine, Poroshenko, to begin giving autonomy, promised in the Minsk Accords, to the rebels in the East, something he is dragging his feet on doing. Merkel and Hollande are becoming very blunt about it, something that usually doesn’t happen in diplomacy.
The sun is setting in the west, light is filtering through the trees and I will soon head down to Hudson for a light dinner at the Dot. It’s been a lovely day.
It was good to write again. Hope you enjoyed it..
Letter From New York 11 14 15 The Real Great War to end all wars…
November 15, 2015Paris. 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 »