She manufactures false outrage while Gaza burns
Alzheimer's requires constant vigilance
Listening to the rat-a-tat of the questioning of three college presidents by our congresswoman, Elise Stefanik, made me wonder if there is any extreme of death and destruction in Gaza that would give her pause.
She wielded the word “genocide” as a club against the muddled heads of the college presidents, too befuddled by legal advice to simply say “yes” when asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their university’s code of conduct.
It was a hypothetical question. Stefanik didn’t have any examples of students endorsing “genocide,” and none have been reported.
But it’s hard to miss the irony that, at the same time Stefanik was backing the university presidents into a corner, the bombing of the Gaza Strip and killing, wounding or displacing of its more than 2 million inhabitants was continuing.
It is not necessary to use the word “genocide” to acknowledge that what is happening in Gaza is appalling.
From a distance and without knowing the reality of the fight on the ground, it has become difficult to justify the manner in which the Israelis have responded to the horrors perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7.
The challenges are huge when pursuing a terrorist organization infiltrated into a dense civilian population. But if, like me, you have defended Israel, It is hard now not to have misgivings.
Israel had no realistic choice but to retaliate, but must the devastation it is wreaking be so indiscriminate?
Meanwhile, our congresswoman is surfing the wave of attention brought on by her questioning. She has promised an investigation of antisemitism at the three colleges — Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania — whose presidents testified.
While our weapons are used to kill thousands in Gaza, Elise Stefanik will be making sure more congressional witnesses don’t get to finish their sentences.
Is this all because, two years ago, Harvard removed Stefanik from a committee for promoting lies about the 2020 election?
This is what she wrote on X this past week:
“Veritas is divine truth, moral truth. Let me be clear, Veritas does not depend on the context. This is a moral failure of Harvard’s leadership. President Claudine Gay should have been fired.”
“Veritas” is Harvard’s motto. Elise Stefanik’s invocation of it is rich.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, I supported invading Afghanistan to pursue al-Qaeda. (That invasion, by the way, began on Oct. 7. Is that a coincidence?)
“We had to do it,” I said to my mom. “We can’t not respond.”
“But what if this war drags on for years?” she said. “Will it still be justified if people are dying years from now?”
It wasn’t long before I saw she had a point, and after the 19 futile years we spent in Afghanistan, I and almost everyone else wanted out.
Now we face agonizing questions about Gaza, much of which is already in ruins. Still, the human catastrophe could get very much worse. More than 2 million people are in peril.
But our congresswoman has a cause. She is very angry three university presidents would not condemn a word their students never uttered.
Adventures in Alzheimer’s
Each day, Bella and I have to figure out what to do. It’s not that easy. Home projects, for example, are out, because Bella can’t remember what she is doing from one second to the next. Carrying a plate from the dishwasher to the cupboard two steps away is an exercise that often goes awry.
But we both enjoy going out to walk with our dog, Ringo, around Glens Falls, and going to other communities like Saratoga Springs, where we went on Thursday morning.
We parked where Broadway begins as you enter the city from the north and walked in. It was cold but crisp and sunny. Ringo was excited, insisting that we stop every few steps so he could sniff the base of a tree or the corner of a wall.
We walked all the way down the west side of the street then back up the east side, looking for a place we could go in with Ringo to warm up. We found one at Saratoga Marketplace, a small indoor mall, and went down the stairs to Comfort Kitchen, which has tables in the hallway, and ordered coffees and a plate to share of potato hash, which was delicious.
On our way out, we stopped to use the restroom.
“I’ll sit right here on the bench with Ringo and you can go in,” I said.
I showed Bella the door to the ladies room and walked with her to within two steps of it.
But I got worried after a couple of minutes. Next to the ladies room was a short hallway, leading back to what looked like equipment and utility rooms. A sign said “Employees Only.”
I opened the ladies room door — no Bella.
I ran down the short hallway with Ringo, turned a corner and found a man who had just arrived for work.
“There’s a back staircase that goes to the street,” he said.
I ran back to check the bench and peer through the windows of the nearby shops and yell into the ladies room. Then down the hallway again and up the stairs, out to the sidewalk. Ringo was frantic.
We looked around, and there she was, half a block away, hovering on the curb of a cross-street. I shouted, and Ringo, pushing against the sidewalk as he ran toward her, came near to dislocating my arm. A crisis was averted.
But what if she had turned that corner before I made it to the street, and what if I, not seeing her, had turned to search in the other direction?
Being a caregiver for someone with Alzheimer’s is, in some ways, like continuing a longtime relationship in a manner similar to other retired couples. But in other ways, it is like watching a toddler, with the same need for vigilance and the same panic when your vigilance fails.
Wanderings
On Friday, Bella and I and Ringo were back in the Shirt Factory, where we discovered a new art gallery called Hub, which opened about a month ago. Shane and Heather Johnson moved here from Montana, seeking a place with more of an appreciation for contemporary art, they said. They display and sell their own works and the works of other local artists they know and like.
The Shirt Factory is coming into its own after years of gradual development, drawing crowds to its special events and during the Christmas shopping season. And the same thing is happening with the city of Glens Falls.
Stefanik ran a campaign ad on replacement theory, had a social post with an extreme far right white nationalist slogan, was silent on the Buffalo racist mass killings. The woman is a white nationalist and panders to them. Why would anyone ever believe her concern about antisemitism is legit?
Again-hypocrisy. Wouldn't it be nice if Stefanik would aim that disgust at her own MAGA group of haters? She will never do that of course because they are her road to the White House.