Disqualified

 If one were doing a search for the president of a university, a hospital or a law firm, they would scrutinize a multitude of resumes. Unfortunately, little was done when the Republican candidate was chosen.  This one man, in particular, has a HUGE fan base who would go to bat for this man, which includes, perhaps, a call to arms. His base loves him so much they will fight, destroy the U.S. capital (if need be), but they will get their man in. They will lie, but so will he; he lies so much, it is a challenge to decipher truth from disinformation. It doesn't matter; he is loud and entertaining and a classic bully. He is certainly not a role model for workers, teachers, doctors, lawyers or students. My God, parents would punish their children for doing far less. His behavior is unacceptable. Plus, he has 34 felony convictions. There would have been more charges, many more, but he has relied on massive delaying tactics. He lies to those interviewing him, but they like a strong man, a powerful man; they don't mind his derision. In the "real" world, he would never be hired. He wouldn't even get a second interview. But it is this man who was selected to be president of the United States; you can't make this level of debasement up. It is parody at its worst. No one reads the news anyway or is truly that informed, so there are zero guardrails to reign him in. He is on a mission to destroy, and indeed he will.

The plot thickens. Now this man is in charge of putting together a charlatan cabinet and staff, and he does it with speed and with one goal and one goal only: loyalty to the chief. It is like a hospital hiring the worst doctors and staff and nurses because they will honor this "fearless leader," and do whatever he wants, even if this means seeing patients die right before their very eyes. This is retribution against your enemy time; not a government. Let's start with Pete Hegseth's nomination as defense secretary. Even his own mother wrote to him in 2018 saying he was an abuser of women and a misogynist. No surprise. He is also an alcoholic, with several ugly scenes to his credit. In addition to no expereince, he wants to ban women from combat operations. Seriously? But he loves Donald Trump, so what else matters? Joining him in the list of challenges is Putin-lover Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, sure to make foreign nations keep many secrets from our country. She is putting our national security at risk. Foreign leaders are already banning together to ban America from sensitive information. Who could blame them? R.F.K. Jr our possibly soon to be our secretary of Health and Human Services, is the man in part responsible for discouraging vaccines in Somoa, which resulted in an outbreak of 5,700 cases of measles and more than eighty deaths (many of them children) as a consequence. Personality doctor Dr. Oz, who lost his gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania, has now been chosen to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Between one bogus scientist and one non-scientist, what more could you ask for! 

Yet, there is still more. Kash Patel, whose only goal is to take care of the Don, wants to trash the F.B.I., a task he will have no problem with. He is an election denier consipracy-theory junkie, who has bounced from job to job with a level of gross inefficiency, in truth on par with everyone else. His goal is retribution. Let's not forget Kristi Noem the current Govenor of South Dakota who is well-known for two things: shooting her own dog who was a nuisance, as well as a goat, and dancing for thirty minutes at a rally with the Don, because he forgot he was supposed to speak and not dance. She is now pegged to be Director of Homeland Security, who better to serve in such a role.

Other cast members include seven people who worked on the 2025 Project, the distastrous more than 900-page document that seeks to destroy all our norms, all our institutions and all the progress we have made as a nation in the past decades. I shudder at this "shadow" government, that selects Massad Boulas (his credential: daughter Tiffany's father-in-law) as advisor to the Middle East and Charles Kushner (Jared's father) a recently pardoned criminal as ambassador to France.

I am so glad Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, and to say otherwise, as an appalled Republican or citizen, indicates how much you have swallowed the Kool-Aid; hypocrisy is now your middle name. What Hunter did to break the law is NOTHING compared to this lowly group of sycophants who DARE to lead our government. This is not the Twilight Zone; it is not a dystopian novel; it is not even a successful parody. It is that bad! I would laugh-out-loud if I weren't crying and mourning whatever this country wants to call itself, not anything that bears any semblance to reality. Each day's selection is a new disaster.

What Will Doctors and Women Do?????

 Two years ago, after Roe vs. Wade was overturned, my husband, a retired physician was asked by a family member to prescribe abortion pills for a young pregnant woman who lived in Ohio, and was past the six week abortion mandate adopted by many states. As a New Yorker and a very humane doctor, his immediate response was, "Of course." However, he needed some questions answered: 1. Was it an ectopic pregnancy? 2. Would someone care for this woman afterwards and finally, what COULD happen to him if the state discovered he had written the prescription. The response? "Jail time, a fine and a possible loss of his license." He offered an alternative: The woman could come to New York (he would cover the cost); he would find her a clinic and she could stay with us in New York. Apparently, someone had offered the same option in Pennsylvania, so the girl was helped and saved.

What will happen as more sates fail to approve this insane six-week aboortion ban, and physicians and health-care providers are forced to turn women away who are having a severe medical crisis from the fetus they are carrying? Just yesterday in Georgia a woman died since no one would treat her bleeding from a miscarriage; this is now commonplace. It is also a gross miscarriage of decency which compels health-care providers to turn their backs on women in distress.What will happen in 2025, when this new adminstration, not to be trusted, perhaps decides to enact a federal ban? 

Immediately, more women may potetially die; others will lose the opportunity to ever have children again and some women will select to have children they can not care for. I just finished a terrifying article in THE NEW YORKER: "The Texas Exodus." Many decent ob-gyn physicians are leaving the state, because they are no longer thought of as health-care providers, but as criminals if they help a woman who seeks to have an abortion, even when medically justified. "From a medical standpoint, the treatment for aboriton and miscarriage is the same--and so, even though miscarriage care remained legal, physicians began putting it off or denying it outright." According to the author of the article, Stephania Taladrid, "After Roe was overturned, the laws in Texas were tightened further, so that abortion was banned at any stage of pregnancy, unless a woman was threatened with death or substantial impairment of a major bodily function. Violations could send practioners to prison for life."

Texas is not the only state where ob-gyn doctors are leaving. Any state that has criminalized the care of women's reproductive health has propelled a mass-exodus of its medical establishment, and now this is SO MANY states across the country. Not only that, according to the article, medical schools are discouraging students from going into these fields. Where, after all, can they safely practise medicine according to the Hippocratic Oath they sought to preserve. How many states will survive this political execution??

I find myself filled with grief and fury on so many levels. First of all, I am enraged with the many MEN who made these laws, and the indecency of the dysfunctional SUPREME COURT that over-turned the law of the land. WHAT WOMAN  COULD SIGN ON FOR THIS AT THE BALLOT BOX????? I am angry at all the governments--state and otherwise, who have AGREED that this is acceptable. Are ANY of these men, these people, prepared to take care of all the unwanted children being born, particularly since 2025 is poised to CUT many of the needed social services for improverished children. I am angry at a country that saw the clock turning backwards and still elected this man to be president. And I feel, with a heavy-heart, what it must be like to be a woman who is impotent when her body betrays her, and there is no one around to offer medical or emotional support. I feel for the doctors who have trained for years, those who only wanted to help, and now who could be faced with possible criminal conviction. The moral compass of this country is GONE, and I, too, am impotent as I watch our world slowly slip away. It is not a world I signed on for either!

New York

  "How could we live here?" 

  This question resonates inside me daily.  New York is not, after all, the easiest place to live. It is not always clean. It is way too crowded, especially in the theater district, and I love the theater. There can truly be wall to wall traffic. It is also at times dirty. The garbage, though picked up, sometimes still lingers on the streets, an ugly reminder you are a New Yorker, since you have learned to live with it.

And yet, and yet....I can't imagine living anywhere else for any prolonged period of time. I love its energy, even though it is hyper energy, it suits me. I love that there is so much to do here. Today I took the train to Canal Street and went to a very incredible museum, The Banksy Museum. I have discovered with TDF and groupon how to do things inexpensively. And yes, New York is terribly over-priced: the rents, the food, the amenities.

Everywhere I go, including in my building, there is a vast array of faces, religions, ethnicities, genders, ages. My own building feels like a model U.N. I love this, but even more so, I feel safe here, that the liberties of freedom of choice, a woman's right to reproductive care, the safeguarding of my DACA students, the books I read, the bible which will not appear in my public schools, my libraries which will be stocked with every book; in other words--at least for now--I feel like living in New York is living in a state where one's freedom is not inhibited, one not granted in so many states across America. I can only pray the federal government does not change this, but for now, my ob-gyn does not have to think about leaving her city and state to practice safe medicine. My local librarian can stock the shelves with any book he or she chooses. New York has many things which do not work, but its city and state municipalities do not adhere to any draconian rules.

And so, New York is my imperfect home. And as they say, there is no place like home!

And here is my love letter to New York

Overgrown Garden: A Love Letter to New York

Dear New York,

I should have left you

when it was easy

could have traipsed

into a spring of sunshine and sparrows

where miles of clean beaches

beautiful sunsets

and the stores

you might take me to

shelved with caviar, Perrier

simple breath

home baked bread

radiant of light and bright

a costume of white,

still

I allowed you

under my skin--

sweat of summer sidewalks

too much garbage

lingering like an open mouth

spewing a restless mass.

You were gritty

and dirty

feverish

without any relief,

at the corner bodega

you bought me a Slushy

and the voices

of language--

English, Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, Hindi--

a meandering queue

of faces and places

made me dizzy

with desire.

New York

youe frantic air is sifling

yet you pull me into this frenzy

of taste and smell and color;

how could I ever leave you?

Evn the daffodil

loves to linger

in your overgrown garden.

Travel

When I was younger, I imagined traveing the world. I waited until I was an older teen to travel, when I could truly appreciate the wonders and magic of new places, and also when I had the money. I thought of myself as "somehwhat" of an adventurer, traveling with a backpack to England, Scotland, Italy. There were many more mysteries just beyond the horizon.

Indeed, I traveled to many other places-other European cities; other American cities; Mexico; Canada;  Vietnam; the Philippines; Iceland; Caribbean Islands. I always went with an open heart and wide-open eyes. I was never disappointed. I imagined retirement as a time when I could travel far and wide. 

Yet, here I am, and the world has grown smaller. Places such as Russia, Poland, China now seem off limits.It feels like there is more time, but less desire to travel extensively. I am more tired and I like staying home. Air travel is more fraught.

It doesn't mean I am done. I still have a bucket list of Europen cities as well as Australia, Africa, Japan. How will I fare with a twenty plus hour plane ride? I am not sure. The magic and mystery of foreign soil still beckons, but the body (and mind) are fatigued. So, too, do I feel that way with American cities whose politics I abhor. Do I want to give my tourist money to those cities? My husband says no, but for me I am not certain.

There is much uncertainty as I travel in the future. All I can say is onward and upward. To where I am not sure.