Blinding news

I love to read, mostly quality fiction. I’ve been a devoted bibliophile since I learned how to read over 80 years ago. But, and here’s the thing, these days I am so overwhelmed by the news, the breaking news, the special reports, the TV news, the computer news, and the radio news, that I have hardly a moment to sit down and read for pleasure. And that’s while ignoring all the nuisance reading like X, Tik Tok, Facebook, Instagram, and whatever drivel Trump is currently misspelling on his own dreadful site. If I wake up in the middle of the night, the very first thing I do, whether it is midnight or 2 a.m., is check my phone to make sure I haven’t missed anything important from the Times of Israel, the Washington Post, the New York Times, or the Guardian, among others. With the world’s time zones distributed, well, worldwide, if something is happening in Jerusalem at 9 in the morning, it’s 2 a.m. hereabouts, and I am compelled to know about it.

Yeah yeah. I don’t really need to know, I suppose. The world would stay on its axis if I slept through the night. But life in this absolutely insane universe doesn’t promote that luxury. We truly do not live in the best of times. And even though I’m retired, a supposed woman of leisure, with ample opportunity for nice hobbies, you’ll never find me knitting, sewing, or playing with LEGOs. I’m simply too busy using my moments to follow the dreadful exploits of many of the so-called leaders of our world. Many of the worst just happen to be destroying the countries I care most about.

Just look at Israel, for example, a land that’s fundamental to my life, my heart, and soul. Is there possibly a day when there’s not a major article about it in all the papers I read, a subject so benign that I could ignore it and go to my book? Never. The latest news is always something to challenge my mind and destroy my equanimity.

Now it’s Bibi, after all these years of proclaiming he’s innocent of any crimes, saying he wants a pardon. Huh? For what do you pardon someone who is not guilty? Do you make something up?

Actually, as we all know, Trump was and remains the leader in this pardon movement. Gotta listen to that guy when he says something that sounds off the cuff. Those are his worst instincts coming to fruition. So, one day, in a televised fit of bro-love with Bibi, he tells President Herzog to pardon the PM. To forgive him. This is not the space to talk about all the egregious pardons Trump has ordered and the simple fact that he needs lots and lots of pardons himself. Another time!

Now, I am a big fan of Herzog. After all, his father got our family through the Yom Kippur War, and a son of his was a fellow paratrooper alongside our own grandson during the Gaza War.

Back on that horrible Yom Kippur of 1973, we were a family of Jewish Americans, two parents with four little kids and a confused and sick ancient dog, all residing at 3 Rehov Etzel on Jerusalem’s French Hill. We were accompanying my husband on a special 14-month assignment for the Israeli government. Our Hebrew was certainly disadvantaged then, since we had spent only a half year in Ulpan when war erupted. Listening to the daily English radio news became a requisite. The reporter was none other than Chaim Herzog, the current president’s father. We didn’t mind his Irish-inflected English and we always listened intently, heartened by the perennially positive spin he put on the day’s reporting. He made us feel safer every single day, and ultimately he was right. Israel did win the war with a resounding, if very painful, victory.

President Herzog, at this moment, is resisting the pardon idea, even though Bibi himself has come aboard supporting it. Who can fathom Bibi’s thinking? It is very doubtful that he will accept a pardon and simply disappear, although that ultimately would be very good for the nation. I shall, as usual, keep myself reading in the middle of the nights for this one.

But let’s take a glance at America and the disaster that Trump has wrought. No, not for himself! He and his family have made a giant cash cow of our land. His greed is infinite, and his methods for earning wealth compromise our nation and our people in ways that are truly beyond anything ever seen in human history. Our president is for sale, and we all know it.

But he is surrounded by incompetently vetted members of a cabinet populated by the most unqualified, dishonorable individuals ever assembled in U.S. history. We just don’t know in which direction to focus our shock and dismay. Do any of you actually disagree? Or do you support Kennedy’s direct attempts to weaken the healthcare of our children, yours and mine? Do you agree with Hegseth’s attempts to look strong by random and cowardly illegal acts of war? Etc., ad infinitum!

Should we look at Bondi or Kennedy or Hegseth or Patel or Noem or Gabbard or Vance? Each is clouded by scandal and incompetence, with fealty to our country irrelevant. Each of them shakes and quakes in trembling fear of Trump. Our Constitution is betrayed. As are our departments of Justice, Health, Homeland Security, Defense, FBI, and all the rest. In less than a year, we have become all that we feared and never thought possible, and we have wrought this on ourselves by electing this government. Being Jewish has become a dangerous liability in a land that we all thought was our sanctuary.

Here’s a P.S. Did you get your invitation to the vice president’s Chanukah party yet? Hope you didn’t throw it out in error. Easy to understand how you might have, since it said “Celebrating 50 years of Christmas at the vice president’s residence.”

So don’t wonder why I can’t sleep. It seems pretty obvious to me!

Rosanne Skopp of West Orange is a wife, mother of four, grandmother of 14, and great-grandmother of nine. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. She is a lifelong blogger, writing blogs before anyone knew what a blog was! She welcomes email at rosanne.skopp@gmail.com

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