Not My America

Among the benefits of getting shot (and yes, there have been benefits) are the connections I've made with people I would never have encountered otherwise - news people.

It started with Amanda, your friend at the Associated Press.  She started every conversation that way.  It made me smile.  She was writing the first draft of American history, and she wanted to get the facts straight.  Then there was Brian Williams, now semi-disgraced for embellishing a story but then very much in high esteem.  He was genuinely interested in us, in how we came to be the people we are, how the shooting dented that construction.  His questions opened new ways to think about The Event.

And then there was Sarah Garrecht Gassen.  She waylaid me in the hallway outside one of the first court hearings, identifying herself as a stringer for the New York Times.  Since the NYT had just printed an error filled article  (starting with misstating my age)  about me, I said No, thank you. I'm not interested in talking to the Times, and kept going.  I also represent The Star, she went on, and I stopped.  I'll always talk to the local news.

And so it began, an unlikely friendship between a short Jewish grandmother from New York and a blonde, small animal loving, tri-athlete from the midwest.  We found ourselves finishing each other's sentences.  She didn't mind lengthy answers and I didn't mind intrusive questions.  She quoted me directly and placed the quotes in context.  She never made me look like a fool.

That was 7 years ago.  We continue to have breakfast crepes at Marcel's even as we've stopped trying to improve our gait. 5K's were fun, but life gradually overtook our free time.  We discovered Bananagrams and now her journalism students are addicted.  She's gone from reporting to editing to becoming the Editorial Page Editor.  I read her columns and her editorials, laughing with her using my What's not to love? rant about Christmas (c'mon - babies, farm animals, love, stars, visitors with gifts - what's not to love?) and sagely nodding when she touches directly on the truth.

Sunday's editorial landed there, solidly, emphatically, with passion.  I liked the print headline better: 
Out of ideas, US leaders give child cruelty a try.  Using words like feckless, desperate, complicit, and traumatizing, the editorial agrees with me - Is this the United States we want?  We say loudly and firmly: No.  Taking on Jeff Sessions and Congress, the Star places the blame where it belongs (emphasis added):

The broken immigration system and the need for change are adult problems  Adults separate ourselves into countries, with borders.  All children know is they reach for their parents with the same heartbreaking, human cry.

Can't you see why I love her?