India!

India began voting this week.  Nearly a billion people exercising their freedom.  Seeing long lines waiting their turn took me back to when I was living in India (60 years ago) and witnessed this process firsthand.  It was a moving experience then and it is moving now as I remember.

That was a long time ago and today's India is in many ways a very different place, not all of which is positive.  But setting aside the Hindu-first politics and authoritarianism of today's leaders, much is for the better or endures.  And an example of what has endured is peaceful democratic elections.

Inspiring! 

Crime in the City!

In the last few years we keep hearing how messed up San Francisco is.  Crime.  Homelessness.  Drugs.  And more, all bad.  Yes, there are problems that need to be addressed.  But is it as bad as the critics say?  My instinct tells me that it is not.  But every day when I read the local press I see that the negativity receives a lot of attention.  It becomes a self-fulfilling reality.

Here are some headlines in the stories from the San Francisco Chronicle today.  All this in the first few pages of the main section:

Mystery problem stopping Coit Tower elevator service

Hate crime victim advocates for empathy

Man charged with hate crime in vandalism of S.F. mosque

Woman badly injured in S.F. Tenderloin beating

Man convicted of murder in 2021 BART shooting

EPA fines East Bay cities, utilities for releasing sewage into S.F. bay

S.F. police say they have adopted reforms

Biotech firms to lay off more than 500 workers

Richmond man charged in fatal shooting

San Jose State student faces charges in string of arsons on campus

That's just today's stories.  It is like this every day.  No wonder so many think our wonderful city is not a great place to live.

Mis/Disinformation!

I've been following discussions about the increasing number of AI generated faces, voices, ads, etc.  As the election season picks up speed we will be seeing more and more of these.  So the question is how can we tell what is real and what is fake?

The answer, regretfully, is for the most part we can't.  The experts talk about different possibilities for protecting ourselves from being fooled or manipulated, but the sorry fact is that we're mostly helpless.  What can we trust?  What can't we trust?  Don't know for sure.

What we do know for sure is that this phenomenon is going to be more prevalent and the skill to hide the true source of what is being put in front of us is going to improve.  I'd like to say this will happen before our ability to spot what is AI generated improves, but there is no sign that we can get ahead of the process.  Bad news!

Related item: I found the difference between misinformation and disinformation.  Misinformation refers to false or inaccurate information that is spread unintentionally.  Disinformation is also false or inaccurate information but it is spread deliberately with the intention to deceive, manipulate or influence people.

Thoughts For Today!

I'm noticing that every day in the local paper several pages are filled with stories of local tragedies:

A hit and run death in downtown San Francisco

A murder-suicide in Hayward

A gang shooting in Oakland

An old lady beaten up in El Cerrito

A string of drug store robberies

And so on . . .

Am I just imagining that it used to be more like:

Successful Girl Scout cookie sale

Local boy gets scholarship to Harvard

Nuptials over the weekend

Missing dog found in Golden Gate Park

Yes, I'm just imagining stuff.  Do you find it tough to be optimistic? 

Aging

I've got a birthday coming up in a few days.  I'll turn 91!  That's old, man.  By any measure that's very old.

So how do I feel about it?  My feelings range from being grateful for my blessings to being shocked at being so old.  There has been a lot of talk about how old Biden and Trump are.  Can they handle the job?  Is their cognition going downhill?  They should get out of the way and let the next generation take over.  And so on . . .

Here I am more than ten years older than these two and doing OK, thank you very much.  I don't see any signs of mental deterioration.  I don't have the energy I had in the past, but I'm mobile and able to walk or drive OK.

Then there are the obituaries.  I scan the papers every morning and note the ages of the now departed souls.  Most are younger than I am, some by quite a bit.  So how does that make me feel?  I am conscious of facing the future with a limited time frame.  Will I be around to see who wins the next election?  Will I make it to the next World Cup?

I take nothing for granted.  I live in the present, not dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.  It is definitely one day at a time.  And I am a happy, grateful guy. 

Headlines!

News of the Day:

Secretary of Defense goes missing for a week.  Doesn't tell anybody, even the President.

Support for Ukraine from the U.S. and Europe is declining.  Russians on the offensive.

Israel continues to unnecessarily kill innocent Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Congress deadlocked again.  Government shutdown looms.

State of Emergency in Ecuador as the army confronts drug gangs.

Chaos on our southern border as tens of thousands of immigrants storm the gates.

Trump continues to lead no matter how much seemingly bad news comes his way.

The Warriors show no sign of getting out of their slump.

Good economic news of no help to Biden.

Am I focusing too much on bad news?  It's possible to see it that way.  Let's look for something better tomorrow.  Until then, have a nice day!

 

Antisemitism!

Antisemitism has been in the news a lot recently.  While there are many ways to show that this phenomenon has spiked up dramatically since the Gaza war began, I saw something in a Bret Stephens column that got my attention big time.

He wrote: "A Harvard-Harris poll conducted this month finds that 44 percent of Americans ages 25 to 34 and a whopping 67 percent of those ages 18 to 24, agree with the proposition that "Jews as a class are oppressors."  By contrast, only 9 percent of Americans over 65 feel that way." 

These are shocking numbers.  Two thirds of our young people endorse antisemitism!  It doesn't take a genius to see what the future holds in store for us.  Even if some of the young ones modify their views as they grow older, we're still in trouble.

And by 'we' I don't only mean Jews.  For sure, this kind of prejudice against the 'other' will spread into other areas, against other people.  It's not going to be pretty.