I’m SO with you on this one. Even thought those who know me well would say I’m not a foodie—if it tastes good, I am happy to eat it over and over, no variety required—I am always aware of having far more than I need and than most have. So I donate to food pantry where the food ain’t great, but at least it’s available. Not true in Gaza and so many other places.
Thank you for your support, Betsy. This turned into a somewhat contentious exchange. I can't see how making sure that people are fed could possibly be subject to debate.
I hadn’t read comments but when I did, I jumped in. I come from a tribe called the fighting Irish. I’m an American because my great grandparents were starving. Thank goodness for the US immigration policy toward the Irish 1850-1920.
Such a great historical perspective on suffering. Overall historical memory is poor, don't you think? Undermining people's way of understanding the world is a time-honored way of trying to shut people up.
I agree. From personal conversations and reading I have learned that many people who emigrate against their will don’t like to dwell on it, especially if the country they end up in played a role in their forced emigration. Let sleeping dogs lie—for the sake of children.
This was beautiful and made me cry. There's just so so so much that needs our help, isn't there. I think it's imperative to remember that we can do small things right here that make a difference to someone else and I have to believe that a single drop in the bucket of alleviating human suffering is a valuable drop.
I agree and I think it's important not to devalue that drop by telling yourself that you did it because it makes you feel good. That misses the whole point. The point is that what each of us does affects all of us, for better or for worse.
This was beautifully written and really touched my heart. I too am a food lover and recipe porn addict and I feel a similar shame and anger that anyone in this country and beyond is hungry, ever. Thank you for your lovely writing.
I am a fan as well as a former reporter for a major international news outlet. I was enjoying your latest column until you got to the gratuitous--and false--political commentary about Netanyahu and our government using starvation as an instrument of war. You, my dear, well-meaning as you are, have been manipulated, as have many, by some very biased journalism and the distortions that arise from it. The Wall Street Journal, to name one mainstream outlet, is doing a much fairer and better job than The New York Times, among others, in revealing the endemic corruption of UNRWA as well as the fact that any number of Arabic-speaking journalists reporting from war zones in Israel are or have been employed by Hamas, even in military capacities. I urge you to read stories broken by The WSJ about how UNRWA's Hamas roots have been known for a long time and that Israel continues to permit supplies into war zones--most of which are promptly taken over and looted by Hamas operatives. I urge you to broaden your sources. And to desist from spreading mis--and dis--information. Thank you.
Thank you, BL, for your nuanced considerations of the situation in Gaza and for your courage of speaking out when I suspect your point of view may sometimes seem to be in the minority. In the end, I'm interested only in whether large numbers of people are starving and, if yes, whether this is "just the way it is" in a war zone or whether there is more intentionality involved....or at any rate callous disregard for human life on a large scale. At a certain point, I have to rely on my gut when it tells me "this can't be right."
If you were, as you claim, "only interested in whether large numbers of people are starving," you would not have used your forum as an opportunity to speculate about who is at fault for why that is so, as well as to promulgate your opinion. When you "rely on [your] gut to tell you this can't be right," you'd do well to trust that gut to tell you that war is, indeed, horrible and that everything is far more complicated than it seems. Wars are won and lost not only on battlegrounds but in the media, Ms. Kaufman, which you are part of. The fact that a majority may hold a particular view does not make that view objective fact even if the media one chooses to believe say it is so.
As a reader of seventysomething, you must know that I write about "memory, aging in amazement, and the inner life." As such, I am interested in (and qualified to speculate on) our experiences of standing in the midst of the rubble of the 21st century and trying to understand what it means to be approaching our last years in a time of such violence and confusion. The anguish that I know about in particular is the anguish of Jews in the diaspora
I know what I've seen you write about in the past, which makes today's smug editorializing seem all the more incongruous. You are 'way out of your wheelhouse in assigning blame for what is happening in Gaza for reasons I've already stated.
I’m SO with you on this one. Even thought those who know me well would say I’m not a foodie—if it tastes good, I am happy to eat it over and over, no variety required—I am always aware of having far more than I need and than most have. So I donate to food pantry where the food ain’t great, but at least it’s available. Not true in Gaza and so many other places.
Thank you for your support, Betsy. This turned into a somewhat contentious exchange. I can't see how making sure that people are fed could possibly be subject to debate.
I hadn’t read comments but when I did, I jumped in. I come from a tribe called the fighting Irish. I’m an American because my great grandparents were starving. Thank goodness for the US immigration policy toward the Irish 1850-1920.
Such a great historical perspective on suffering. Overall historical memory is poor, don't you think? Undermining people's way of understanding the world is a time-honored way of trying to shut people up.
I agree. From personal conversations and reading I have learned that many people who emigrate against their will don’t like to dwell on it, especially if the country they end up in played a role in their forced emigration. Let sleeping dogs lie—for the sake of children.
In this way, migrating people collaborate in their own collective amnesia.
That they do.
This was beautiful and made me cry. There's just so so so much that needs our help, isn't there. I think it's imperative to remember that we can do small things right here that make a difference to someone else and I have to believe that a single drop in the bucket of alleviating human suffering is a valuable drop.
I agree and I think it's important not to devalue that drop by telling yourself that you did it because it makes you feel good. That misses the whole point. The point is that what each of us does affects all of us, for better or for worse.
That got me right in the gut, Susie.
This was beautifully written and really touched my heart. I too am a food lover and recipe porn addict and I feel a similar shame and anger that anyone in this country and beyond is hungry, ever. Thank you for your lovely writing.
Thank you Renée. It's a quandary that so many of us fortunates have fallen into. Important to give voice to it.,
I am a fan as well as a former reporter for a major international news outlet. I was enjoying your latest column until you got to the gratuitous--and false--political commentary about Netanyahu and our government using starvation as an instrument of war. You, my dear, well-meaning as you are, have been manipulated, as have many, by some very biased journalism and the distortions that arise from it. The Wall Street Journal, to name one mainstream outlet, is doing a much fairer and better job than The New York Times, among others, in revealing the endemic corruption of UNRWA as well as the fact that any number of Arabic-speaking journalists reporting from war zones in Israel are or have been employed by Hamas, even in military capacities. I urge you to read stories broken by The WSJ about how UNRWA's Hamas roots have been known for a long time and that Israel continues to permit supplies into war zones--most of which are promptly taken over and looted by Hamas operatives. I urge you to broaden your sources. And to desist from spreading mis--and dis--information. Thank you.
Thank you, BL, for your nuanced considerations of the situation in Gaza and for your courage of speaking out when I suspect your point of view may sometimes seem to be in the minority. In the end, I'm interested only in whether large numbers of people are starving and, if yes, whether this is "just the way it is" in a war zone or whether there is more intentionality involved....or at any rate callous disregard for human life on a large scale. At a certain point, I have to rely on my gut when it tells me "this can't be right."
If you were, as you claim, "only interested in whether large numbers of people are starving," you would not have used your forum as an opportunity to speculate about who is at fault for why that is so, as well as to promulgate your opinion. When you "rely on [your] gut to tell you this can't be right," you'd do well to trust that gut to tell you that war is, indeed, horrible and that everything is far more complicated than it seems. Wars are won and lost not only on battlegrounds but in the media, Ms. Kaufman, which you are part of. The fact that a majority may hold a particular view does not make that view objective fact even if the media one chooses to believe say it is so.
As a reader of seventysomething, you must know that I write about "memory, aging in amazement, and the inner life." As such, I am interested in (and qualified to speculate on) our experiences of standing in the midst of the rubble of the 21st century and trying to understand what it means to be approaching our last years in a time of such violence and confusion. The anguish that I know about in particular is the anguish of Jews in the diaspora
I know what I've seen you write about in the past, which makes today's smug editorializing seem all the more incongruous. You are 'way out of your wheelhouse in assigning blame for what is happening in Gaza for reasons I've already stated.
Why I must ask is Susie out of her wheelhouse, but you have the truth?