the thin blue line

I was originally going to title this...NYPD blue...but something went off in my brain...and I opened my folder of blogs going back to 2012...and there it was...a blog about the murders of Detectives Ramos and Liu back in December 2014...that time the perpetrator...again, with a stellar rap sheet...did us a favor and killed himself...and the political leaders from both sides...did the mea culpa tango...flash forward almost 10 years and here we are again...Officer Jonathan Diller...wake today and tomorrow...funeral Saturday...political leaders angling for ways to ease their collective conscience...forget them all... this is about his young widow...his beautiful baby...a police partner...all whom will never recover from this...Diller was a Long Island man...I lived in Suffolk County nearly 20 years, and now Nassau County for nearly 12...there is a real six degrees (or less) of separation out here...Diller was 31...my daughter, Lauren, 32...as the days since his murder move forward, she keeps finding friends of friends who knew him...as a mother, that hits hard...the sorrow is palpable...there will be time for finger pointing...and there's plenty of blame to go around...but it does not bring him back...the same day that Diller died...an innocent man was pushed on to the subway tracks in Harlem...to his death...a mentally ill man...with a rap sheet...was arrested for this senseless murder...in an endless loop of subway and street violence in New York...and all of this on the cusp of the holiest weekend for Christians...so...Christian, or not...whatever higher power you believe in...ask for blessings for the soul of Officer Diller...and that man in Harlem...and for this city...my city...which I always hope can rise from the ashes of its current state of relentless hate...and for all that we say...amen

from the river to the sea, what is it they want from me?

almost six months into the Israel-Hamas war...and as an American Jew...everyone wants a piece of me...according to our former President...a cancer that keeps evading chemo..."any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves"...gee, I don't remember any other religion or ethnic group being held up and threatened...and Biden and Blinken cannot win with this one...certainly not when the youth of this country get their news and stats from Al Jazeera...Gaza is an atrocity...Hamas is deeply imbedded and protected and will likely grow out of the ashes...the United Nations called for cease fire...referencing Ramadan...where the hell was the United Nations when Israelis, and non-Israelis, were slaughtered October 7th on Simchat Torah?...no Jew is surprised...but rising antisemitism has its tentacles around the voices and hearts of American Jews...we are damned if we do, damned if we don't...we are held accountable in ways no Christian can ever understand...here's the thing...I am an American Jew...this is my homeland...how safe I feel here...that is my motivating force...and the entire political system...red to blue...has let me down...I matter every four years...and then I am thrown to the wolves...I have no answers to this Mideast conflict...but when Jews are targeted in this country...my country...let me hear your plan...cause the old ones haven't worked...under every administration...blue and red...hate doesn't thrive in a vacuum...it is passed with the potatoes at dinner...in unchecked sermons...in unchecked adjunct professor lectures...in election year dog whistles...like the brilliant Oscar Hammerstein wrote in South Pacific..."you've got to be carefully taught"...

Queen for a day...

the paper shamrocks are being swept away...the spilled beer hosed down...revelry receding in the rear-view mirror...for Jews, this next weekend gives us Purim...late this year...overlapping with Palm Sunday and hopes for spring to assert herself with budding trees and warmth...I have to admit...these last few months...since the October 7th Israeli massacre...which occurred on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah...literally "joy of the Torah"...let that sink in...all Jewish holidays are wrapped in sorrow...knowing that there are fellow Jews held in captivity in Gaza...if they are...there is a deep part of me that thinks they are all dead...and so in a few days, we celebrate Queen Esther...and the resilience of our people...or as we would joke before October 7th...they tried to kill us, we won, let's eat...but as I look away from the news...the tragedy of the hostages...the total lack of recognition from women's groups and leaders around the globe of the rape and mutilation of Israeli women (Michelle Obama, anyone?)... and to the tragedy of civilian loss and starvation in Gaza (Egypt silent as a mummy about the closed border)...I wonder...the news always shows male leaders and their mouthpieces digging in their heels...across this globe...and mothers crying silent tears...the amount of women in Palestinian government is pitiful...it's not much to brag about in Israel either...Golde Meir is but a powerful twentieth century memory...maybe women should step forward...if they could...in Gaza, give up their murdering and raping husbands and sons...form a women's coalition to negotiate in good faith...and in Israel...form a more moderate coalition...not caving to religious fanaticism or corrupt leadership...I know...just a pipedream...a crazy thought...but something to think about before you bite into that hamentashen...

one for the ages

The Gilded Age...The Roaring Twenties...The Great Depression...I got to thinking a few days ago about "ages" and how they got their names...did the names properly convey what life was like for the average Joe...or Josephine...we know that not much was really "gilded" in the later nineteenth century, except for the very wealthy...and despite social change...which was significant...the twenties roared...into the Depression...not much to "flap" about...which brought me to this...what will they call the first 20-30 years of the 21st century?...my first thought was The Age of Entitlement...we certainly aren't sitting around that proverbial campfire singing kumbaya...no one takes responsibility for their actions...the fault always rests on the shoulders with those who you violently disagree with...come to think of it...maybe this time period will be referred to as the Age of Discontent, or Disconnect...chose your word with autocorrect...technology outpacing humanity...invention over intention...can't finish the blog...no worries...it's AI...AI...go...