War Musings #71 Real Life Under Attack

 

My simple battery alarm clock

I first posted this as a "rant" on my Facebook page and then realized that it needs wider exposure. I know that some people won't agree with me. I want to make it clear that we don't have a "safe room" certified shelter in our house, but our house was built relatively well, double outer walls and a ceiling prepared for a second floor. My husband and I are both "elderly" and don't run out of the house when there's a siren. We go to inner walls away from windows, but when sleeping in bed... we rarely do more than cover ourselves. Sorry that's the truth and the situation with many people I know, even if their homes are more fragile than ours.

Another important point is that the alerts, which come by cellphone, are 5-10 minutes before a missile may reach our area. Most of the time, even when followed by a siren 5-10 minutes later, the missile was destroyed by the Iron Dome. And many of the missiles would have landed miles and miles away. 

"Last night's "alerts" were the last straw for me. I had gone to sleep early because of total physical and emotional exhaustion, but a couple of hours later I was awaken by a serial of alerts via my cellphone. Except for Shabbat and Jewish holidays, it's kept on -not just during the war- and within grabbing distance of my bed. It's also set with an alarm for those super rare nights I sleep late.

The alerts we get are supposed to give us time to get to a "safe" location, just in case the "sighted" missile may land nearby; if there actually is a missile close by the siren will shrill. A very high percentage of the warnings are NEVER followed by a siren. So last night I was woken for no reason at all. None of the sensed missiles ended up near Shiloh. We weren't actually in danger.

That's it for me. I plan on turning off my phone at night and turning on my simple battery alarm clock. When I wake in the morning, I'll turn on my phone."

My Mother, SAHM Did Not Mean Just Folding Laundry

Officially, you could say that my mother, Shirley Spiegelman, was a SAHM, Stay at home mother, but she really didn't stay at home much, except to run the various groups and organizations she joined.  I learned how to fold by folding flyers she had to distribute for those groups and whatevers. 

She was president, secretary, chairman, in those days called chairwoman when female, and on a rare occasion a more minor position.  Every PTA, Sisterhood, the National Council of Jewish Women, Bell Park Gardens Day Camp and groups I never knew about were on her "CV."  The deal my parents had was that he would earn the money and she would care for us and run the house.  It worked for them and always seemed ideal to me. I never looked at "not working" as an inferior life.  I was hoping to have the same arrangement with my husband, but in the end I had to find ways to get paid.

Besides all of the organizational work, my mother loved the stage.  She'd take dancing lessons and also acted, first in the Fresh Meadows Community Theater, when we lived in Bayside, NY, and later in the Great Neck Community Theater.

The make-up artist in the Great Neck Community Theatre complained that there was no way to make my mother look as old as she was supposed to look for that role.

My Cousin Mickey, who had Cerebral Palsy, used to love to tell how my mother kept him entertained by dancing for him when he suffered through painful physical therapy when he was a little boy.

One summer when I was in college, friends of hers insisted she teach them "exercise to music," the predecessor of "aerobics."  It was actually my specialty; I had been training with an expert, Alan Wayne.  So she convinced them that I should be her assistant to demonstrate the exercises.  What we really did was that she would tell people to do what I did, and then we both got paid.

When my father retired, they liked to go to the musical performances there were for free in Great Neck.  I once went with them.  My father would inevitably fall asleep for the whole show, and when he got  up he'd say:

"That was the worst music I've ever heard."

Actually, he did the same thing this past winter in the senior citizen place they were then living in.

One thing for sure.  No matter what types of jobs and occupations and hobbies one has during one's active years, nothing really prepares us for the difficulties of old age, when we may have no choice about staying home* or going out.

*whether it's "home" or an "old folks home" where we have little control over our lives

Are We Being Hoodwinked? More About the Israeli Election Campaign

 

Sometimes, OK, more often than that, I think that election campaigns all over the world are no more than con games by scam artists.  We really don't know what we're buying, do we?

Politicians actually sell dreams, hope, encourage us to believe the impossible, such as if the government lowers your taxes, it can give you more services. 

Israel's Left has been on the "Hope" campaign for decades.  Failed Prime Minister wannabe Tsipi Livni is at it again. Somehow she has rich backers who are financing a new party, named for her which is telling the Israeli public that they shouldn't be afraid of the hope that Tsipi can come to a non-violent peace agreement sic with the Arab terrorists who aren't shy about their ultimate aim, the destruction of the State of Israel and the banishment of Jews from The Land.  If that isn't a prime example of mind over matter, I don't know what is. That's why she tells everyone "not to fear hope."

Another of this year's Israeli Election scams is that the very veteran, traditional Ashkenaz (European) Chareidi party Agudat Yisrael aka United Torah Judaism is campaigning as a senior citizens party.  That's the main issue they focus on in the television ads.  It's a smart move, since although the typical chareidi family has many children, they are not supposed to have televisions, so they aren't being targeted.  Apparently the pre-election surveys have shown that the Israelis who do watch the television campaign are the elderly, whether secular, traditional or religious.  That's why Shas is also making a strong effort to get that vote.  At least Shas is also admitting in their ads that they are a religious party, aways including their Rabbia Ovadia Yosef in their ads. ג slurs over the fact they are chareidi.  It's hard to catch it in their ad.  And for those of us who know how they work, we know that they take care of their own first.  The chareidi neighborhoods are densely populated, crowded apartments, lower than average incomes and they need the most help from the government for their elderly.

Livni's The Movement Party and Kadima are the only ones on the Left that is strongly campaigning about security peace.  The other Left wing parties are concentrating more on economics and "social issues."  Unless I've missed something, Kadima says just to trust its leader Shaul Mofaz as a security expert and we're not told what his policy and plans actually are.

Why should we trust politicians who are willing to say anything just to get elected?