New Horizons by Max Roy

       Burning Books And Witches In        America, And The Jewish Problem. Strange days in the New World, with the cross-currents of history leaving tracks on the American psyche difficult for observers to comprehend. On the Right we see and hear with talk of “woke”, fostering a denial of history and the removal of books and teachings, as well as an inherent misogyny, the Right’s modern version of burning witches. On the Left, in Congress and in policy, a discourse promoting the denial of the merits of free enterprise appears to be the program. Turning their back on any offer of policies that might touch on bread and butter issues, the economic welfare of their constituents, like health care, immigration, jobs, infrastructure repair and inflation, the Right is focusing on denying American women the right to control what happens to their bodies, and removing elements of what is being taught in the nation’s schools, and which may be available in its libraries, to which they might ob

                      A LION IN WINTER* I came across this phrase in reference to Henry II who was the King of England in the twelfth century. He expanded England’s French holdings and improved the kingdom’s administration. In his later years he ran afoul of a recalcitrant Archbishop, (Thomas-a-Becket,) a very bright and ambitious spouse, as well as rebellious sons. The above title refers the challenges he faced as a ruler in his older years of failing capacities. I liken it to the challenges we may have to deal with during our advancing years in 2023, while managing our environments as some of us experience declining powers. We older types may not see ourselves as lions surrounded by snapping jackals, but the analogy has some relevance. The environments we are facing in our current days are a far cry from conditions we dealt with during our heydays when we had full possession of our faculties. Kings, queens, or commoners, no matter how masterful we were way back when, we may fin

    75 th Anniversary of Israel’s Independence                Blood, Tears and Survival The Day that Israel’s independence was declared, May 15,1948…. forces from seven Arab countries entered the country to drive the Jews into the sea! When we examine the present in 2022, appreciating Israel’s prominence now, its contribution in so many fields being out of all proportion to its economic and population size, it is a shock to examine its early beginnings, and its fragility, when it issued its Declaration of Independence. In the year 2023, Israel will mark its 75 th anniversary with its population approaching ten million. In 1948, armies of seven Arab countries invaded to join internal Arab resistance to Israel’s existence. Many countries placed an embargo on the sales of arms to Israel. The war continued for ten months, through three ceasefires called by the UN, as the Arab side saw their hopes for a quick victory reversed. Proposed changes offered by the U.N representative

                            BEING ALIVE We don’t talk about that very much. But we surely think about it. Don’t we do that when we experience particularly joyful moments, or very sad ones? Mundane or marvelous, it is central to what we are about. How can we not think about it, write about it, agonize over it? We tend to keep those thoughts to ourselves unless we are sharing with those who are very close to us. Opening up to our feelings in a public way creates vulnerabilities. We may be laughed at or even ridiculed. It can be so much easier to do with strangers that we will never meet again. It takes more courage to do it face to face with those with whom we share our lives. But we do so with the hope that in exposing our vulnerabilities, we will be shared with in return and our trust will not be abused. There are sensations of being alive that are almost impossible to describe, that we, nevertheless, attempt to capture in some way. Some try to explore the outer limits of that by

               Good News, Sort of!! Do any of you out there take an interest in the state of our world? I know I do. I think about it a lot. There’s a lot out there to be gloomy about, I know. But what if we lift our head from the steps immediately before us, and look further ahead? What can we see through the fog presenting itself as our future? Even as a Canadian, I am distressed by the chaos I see developing south of the border. I can’t help feeling that our fates our closely bound up with what happens there. They are, after all, our most important trading partner by far, besides being the place where most of us go when we travel out-of- country. For the past many decades we have relied on the U.S. to be the bulwark behind a stable world order. It had its origin in America’s overwhelming military power, but its economic heft as well. Most of us didn’t appreciate that an important element of this was America’s energy dependence, and its importance as an energy buyer. Owing to t