This Just in – As expected, something terrible has happened.
The devastating attack on Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas has (rightly) taken over the news cycle since last Saturday and in watching the many interviews with family members of those killed or kidnapped, it’s abundantly clear that we are in the most serious of times. Suddenly, it feels like September 12th.
One such interview was with a mother whose son was attending the “Love & Peace Music Festival” when the crowd was suddenly surrounded by gunman who opened fire on them. At the time of her interview, she did not know her son’s whereabouts.
She was observing the sabbath, she said, and as such, had her cell phone turned off. When she learned that something terrible was happening, she turned on her phone to find two text messages from her son. They read “I love you” and “I’m sorry.”
Her son knew that something was happening that would cause his mother terrible pain and worry, at the very least, she said.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman offers some important insights about these events, but none more on point and insightful for Americans than this – this are extremely serious times, he says, and President Biden’s experience and maturity as a leader is on full display. We must awaken each morning and ask ourselves “What does my enemy want me to do?” and then we must endeavor to do the opposite, says Friedman.
Friedman has covered the Middle East conflict for decades and has three Pulitzer Prizes to show for it. He observes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, with rare exception, surrounded himself with foolish sycophants and made the weakening of the Israeli judicial system his top priority (to help him escape corruption charges).
The parallels for Americans are clear. We have a leading candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination who is an egregiously incompetent, corrupt narcissist. He routinely and brazenly attacks the remaining institution that can hold him accountable – the judicial system. He is supported by singularly unserious people.
We cannot do this any longer. We don’t have the luxury of flirting with antisemitic, racist demagogues.
Everyone who is running for office … ANY office … must condemn this advocacy of hateful rhetoric and tolerance of vitriol in the public space in the name of free speech.
Much of what spills out at a MAGA rally microphone is NOT protected speech. I routinely argue that that cure for offensive speech is more speech, but the antisemitic, racist movement, which is the beating heart of the MAGA monster is of a different character altogether.
One thing we earned from the 9/11 attacks is that the issue of terrorism is not limited by geography. The intelligence failure in securing Israel is theirs and ours. The implications are staggering. Terrorism operates on many fronts now. We must be vigilant and resolved.
Finally, if you have children who are on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, please suspend their activity (or better yet, delete them if you can). It’s very likely that in the coming days and weeks, there will be videos of unspeakable brutality brought upon the hostages taken by Hamas. We can expect that they will be distributed on these platforms and will pop up in feeds with deceptive clickbait to hook young users into watching.
Silly season is all over. It’s September 12th again.
(feature photo via AP Photo/Adel Hana)
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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