Knowledge makes us no wiser
We used to take it for granted that news reporting was factual and adhered to principled standards. We didn’t need to hear the agency proclaim their reporting is “fair and balanced.” We used to take it for granted that Israel would work out a two-state solution with the Palestinians in their midst, that the two cultures were both committed to coexistence. We used to take it for granted that our fellow Americans had the same values because we share the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Now we know better. But this knowledge has not meant we are any the wiser. Indeed, I would say quite the opposite. The problems of the media have only grown: we know there are many who are daily taking in only the information their chosen source shares, be it online or in print, that there is zero tolerance for opposing voices.
We know Israel has repeatedly shown, by electing far right leadership, that their fear of Muslims and the loss of their tiny foothold in the Middle East, they have zero tolerance for a solution that provides the 2 million Palestinians a viable future.
We know the founding principle of separation of church and state has been buried under an evangelical fervor that supersedes all rights of the individual. You are gay? Your pregnancy is not viable? Your child is curious? Your skin color is not white? Better watch your back, the culture is coming for you.
No solutions will be forthcoming. However, if each of us does our part to be kind, to listen to others, perhaps we can emerge from these troubled times with some hope for our nation, our world.
Zena Hartung
Moscow
Solidarity with Jewish Americans
In the face of Christian nationalist assaults on our civil rights including by a captured Supreme Court, it is important to express solidarity with Jewish-Americans facing anti-Semitic attacks throughout our nation.
Growing up on the East Coast and living in the upper Midwest as a young adult, I had the privilege to count as friends many hundreds of Jewish-American people, who to a person demonstrated outstanding integrity, moral character, and political and ethical evenhandedness.
That some college students and faculty are asserting the full and equal humanity of thousands of Palestinian children and other civilians now being killed in Gaza following a massive terrorist attack in Israel is being latched onto by domestic propagandists to provoke and further divide our society.
As an alumnus of the University of Virginia, I know with certainty that the Unite the Right rally that took place there in 2017 with chants of “Jews will not replace us” in no way reflected the sentiments of the campus community. Rather, the university and the city of Charlottesville stood as a hub of anti-racism, making them the target of an event that resulted in the death of anti-racist activist Heather Heyer.
Chris Norden
Moscow
