I hope you had a wonderful Chanukah and Christmas and will have a happy new year celebrationn. I’ll see you again in 2024.
Please see letters regarding my comments in our last issue about washers and dryers in our schools. I was completely wrong in what I said. Never too old to learn new things.
I was reluctant to comment on the Hamas/Israel situation but have decided I will.
First, this all started with Hamas attacking Israel. Hamas’ main (maybe only) purpose is to wipe Israel off the earth. If it means killing all of them, that is what they would do. They are a recognized terrorist organization.
When attacking Israel, they killed parents (some by cutting their heads off) in front of their kids, they raped, mutilated, they burned down homes and kidnapped at least 1,500 people as young as 3-years-old.
Israel did the only thing they could, which is attempting to destroy Hamas. In doing this have they committed atrocities? Yes, they certainly have. But war is not like a checker’s game – it’s not clean without awful things happening. Good guys do bad things – look at some of the atrocities the US did during Vietnam.
Many are calling for a cease-fire and for Israel to leave Gaza because they have done enough collateral damage. They can’t do that until their mission has been accomplished. If they left now Hamas would just reorganize and attack Israel again, and again and again.
Winston Churchill signed a peace treaty with Hitler before WWII, and you know how that turned out.
Former President Donald Trump has said that as president on his first day he would order all the military to the border and build a big wall to stop illegal immigration.
Wait, doesn’t he know that he was president? If this is such a good idea, why didn’t he do it during his 4 years in office? Republicans are blaming Biden for the border problem, but he is no more to blame than Trump.
If immigrants were never allowed to come to this country I (and millions of millions of others including most of you reading this) would not be here. My grandparents came from Russia and Romania. Where did yours come from?
The Colorado Supreme Court has declared Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race.
In a 4-3 decision they stated that Trump had engaged in insurrection and therefore was barred by the 14th Amendment which bars insurrectionists from federal office, including the presidency.
The U.S. Supreme Court will probably reverse this decision 5-4. The Supreme Court is supposed to base their decisions on the constitution but that is nonsense. The Court is now divided sharply along partisan lines with justices appointed by Republican presidents taking increasingly conservative positions and those appointed by Democrats taking liberal positions.
Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document explaining a radical change in Vatican policy by insisting that people seeking God’s love and mercy shouldn’t be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” to receive it.
The document from the Vatican’s doctrine office elaborates on a letter Francis sent to two conservative cardinals. In that response, Francis suggested such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they didn’t confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage.
Does this mean same-sex couples can go to heaven and not hell? By the way I don’t believe in either of them.
And now we welcome the new year.
Full of things that have never been.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
