The Times, They Are a-Changing      #199

By Hank Silverberg

Happy Chanukah!  Jews around the world this week are celebrating the Festival of Lights, a commemoration of an ancient rebellion (around 167 B.C.E.) against the suppression of a

particular religion. It is the first recorded historical event of a war centering on religious freedom, though certainly not the last. The rebellion lasted almost a decade. It has meaning not just for Jews, but for humanity as a whole. 

For those of you who don't know, Chanukah has nothing to do with Christmas, and it's celebration at this time of year is purely a coincidence.     

But it is a reminder that freedom can easily be taken away, unless you are willing to fight for it. Sometimes, like with the ancient Maccabees, that fight can be against overwhelming odds. 

In the United States we are blessed with a Bill of Rights, which not only protects our freedom of religion, but also freedom FROM religion. 

I am reminded of all this as the holiday begins, but also because of a book, a birthday gift from my daughter, that I started to read this week. 

Tom Brokaw wrote BOOM, Voices of the Sixties, back in 2007.  Mr. Brokaw, a distinguished journalist, looked back on how the world had changed over his 40-plus year career focusing on the critical period between1968 and 1974.  He looked at the Civil Rights Movement, the war in Vietnam and the protests it spawned, the Watergate scandal. They had all turned the America he had grown up in during the 1950's into a very different place--some of those changes good, some of them bad.  

But the book was published before Barak Obama was elected our first Black president, and before Donald Trump's revolting entrance onto the national political scene. 

My career was also 40-plus years, and though I can't claim to be in the same distinguished category as Brokaw, I do have a sense in how this country has changed again in just the 14 years since his book was published. Brokaw takes 615 pages for his review, but I will take only a few paragraphs to fill in those 14 years of more reactionary change. 

First we had "No-drama Obama," who provided us with hope that race had finally been buried as a division in this county. Most of us, especially people of color, knew it hadn't. We also had a Republican party which had abandoned the Reagan revolution and firmed itself up as the "party of NO." No to universal health care, no to any reform on immigration, no to a more reasonable approach

to the public safety net, and no to the concept of bi-partisanship in government. We had a Senate Majority Leader named Mitch McConnell who said right from the start that he would block any    legislation that came from Democrats.

The art of bipartisan negotiations which had worked, though difficultly, in the 1960's and 70's on things like The Voting Rights Act or environmental legislation was gone forever.  

 The Obama years seemed peaceful enough even though the cracks in our racial divide slowly started to get bigger. The Afghanistan war, which would become America's longest war, started after the trauma of 9-11. It continued to drag us down both economically and politically, with the legacy of Vietnam always under the surface for those old enough to remember.  

Then in 2015, a red-haired buffoon walked down an escalator and declared that by electing him president we would get rid of the rapists and murderers who were crossing our border. All we had to do was build a wall.  

The racists came out from under their rocks and supported him, much like they had supported George Wallace in 1968. But this time the party of "No" had splintered into factions with no idea what to do but to let Trump bully his way into the Republican nomination. 

Unless you have been on Alpha Centauri (see blow) the last four years, you know what happened after that. Trumpism has trickled down to state legislatures, city councils and even local school boards. It has invaded every aspect of our lives and will last long past the man himself. 

We were just about tired of that mess and maybe ready to return to our senses as a people and as a world leader, when a microscopic virus called Covid-19 came along. 

Like the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy and the Vietnam war in 1968, the worldwide pandemic of 2020-21 is changing us again. 

Covid has killed more Americans than any of our wars. It has highlighted the racial and income divide that lay hidden and unresolved for two decades, and it has placed science in the crosshairs of politics like never before. 

 All this has been spread at warp speed by the success of the internet and social media, like no communication system in human history. It has been moved along by faux journalists who ply their trade for profit and political gain. They no longer practice the profession for the public interest and watchdog role that had been the norm through Brokaw's career and most of mine.  

Never has so much false information reached so many people so fast, feeding conspiracy theories to the radical right and the general public that culminated in a deadly attempt to overthrow the government last January 6th. Even the radical left of the 1960's, though they talked about it intellectually, wasn't ready to go that far.  

No one could have predicted how much the world would change in the last two decades, and I have no suggested solutions or ideas on how to fix it. Unfortunately, our political system is so chaotic right now, even if someone came up with something, whether they be a politician, educator, private citizen or an enlightened entrepreneur, he or she would never be heard over the roar of misinformation. Joe Biden is trying, but it appears he is still on the Amtrak Metroliner he used to ride home from the Senate while everyone else is on the Acela train headed for derailment on the poorly maintained tracks. 

Variants!

Basic biology: all living things, including bacteria and viruses, have the capability to mutate. So it is no surprise to infectious disease scientists that yet another new mutation, or variant, of Covid-19 has shown up. It's called "omicron," and it first appeared in South Africa. 

There is some worry that this new strain may be more resilient and could be more transmissible than the other forms of Covid-19. And it presents differently. Extreme fatigue is a major symptom and there is fever, but there is no loss of taste or smell like in the earlier versions of the illness. 

There's no certainty yet if the vaccines will protect you from the new strain. 

Omicron variant spreads in Europe with at least 13 cases identified in the Netherland (msn.com)

But what bothers me most is not the new variant, but the reaction to it. Some politicians here in the United States have suggested it's only being revealed now to keep the pandemic going as a political tool for fear or oppression. That is frankly both a ridiculous and appalling claim. 

To Boldly Look Where No One Has Looked Before!

The search for ET continues, even though it could take a while. A private group is going to finance a telescope that may be able to find planets in the nearest star system to Earth. It's called the TOLIMAN project, and scientists hope the telescope will be able to detect planets around one of the binary stars in the Alpha Centauri system that are similar in makeup and size to our Sun.  

It's only about 25 trillion miles, or four light years away, close in outer space terms. No planets have been detected near the binary stars so far, even
though more than 4,000 planets have been detected elsewhere in space. Two have been located in the Alpha Centauri system near a third star that is not considered compatible for producing nearby life.  Planets are detected now by using calculations and objects crossing in front of hundreds of thousands of stars which block the light. Suggestive, but not full proof.  

(Courtesy of NASA) 

In this case though, the TOLIMAN telescope, which should be operational by 2025, will use a  new technique with specifically etched mirrors to create what is called a "diffractive pupil" effect. Then if a planet is found near the binary stars, it can be scanned for "biosignatures" that could help determine if there is any kind of life on the planet. Sounds a bit like something out of science fiction, but they have the technology. 

All this doesn't mean the life found will be like ours. But life is life. 

It seems very logical to me that with the trillions of  stars in our galaxy alone, there must be life somewhere else in the universe. But don't expect the Vulcans to make first contact any time soon. 

Dumbest Quote of The Week!

This quote was so bad that you have probably heard about it a lot this week, but it is also the dumbest. It's an apology that is not really an apology. It comes from Colorado's ditzy and scary Congresswoman Lauren Boebert.

Here's the quote: 

"I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep Omar. I have reached out to her office to speak to her directly. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction."

Note no apology to Omar directly about the original comment. Earlier in the past week, Boebert told constituents she was heading for an elevator in which Omar was already riding. 

"I look to my left, and there she is: Ilhan Omar. And I said, Well, she doesn't have a backpack. We should be fine."

There's video to prove she said this. It implies, of course, that Omar, an American citizen who was born in Somalia, is somehow a terrorist.    

On the House floor earlier last week, Boebert had referred to Omar as a member of the "Jihad Squad."  

Please. If you live in Colorado, get rid of Boebert in next year's election, or she might lead to another interpretation of Rocky Mountain High.  

(Your suggestions and comments are welcome) 

(Copies of my latest book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:

HankSilverberg@gmail.com  for instructions on  how to get a copy at a reduced price and with my signature.                        

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796