It took a week
before I could even link the horror in Paris with my little site. Then, in my head, I formulated a tribute to Paris, But it turned out, I had written it, last January. http://www.georgevecsey.com/home/nous-sommes-tous-francais I cannot write another one about the deep shuddering joy of being in the City of Light On a Friday evening. One ex-pat friend, Living in La France Profonde, wrote me, “No one does life better than the French.” That’s why they are targets, he added. Another friend is flying over, next week. “It'll be my little contribution to saying %$&# you to the murderers who tried to take the city away from those of us who cherish it and what it represents.” I won't write about the narrow streets Or the aroma of coq au vin in the mist. Better I write about the French people Who spoke to us in English after 9/11 and made room for us on the Metro. Now I watch survivors like the beautiful couple on Anderson Cooper, the woman's face haunted the young man (a model, I looked it up), volunteering sympathy for Syrian migrants, who have their own misery. Another man lost his lovely wife In the music club and wrote a tribute to her, And promised to live without hatred. Is it possible?
JEFF FROM JERSEY, YES NEW JERSEY
11/20/2015 09:38:14 pm
There have been many examples of Profiles In Courage. With his letter to those who killed his wife, Antoine Leiris joins this legion of brave individuals who have taken a stand. His words will become, no, have become a part of French history and of being human.
Brian Savin
11/20/2015 09:52:53 pm
I have a friend named John who has visited me every month or so for the last few years. He comes with a holy book and often with a friend. All my life I have welcomed John's predecessors as well as the youngsters who do mission for another group. I believe in domestic mission work. I respect them and profit by their visits. Everyone of them I have met I am certain is a force for good. John has been special. He is an older Black man who I suspect has seen much in his life that informs his thoughtfulness and intellect. He truly believes that there is an evil force in this world that can't be reckoned with. Remember the stories about the Devil from childhood? John believes they're true in essence and spirit. The more I listen to John the more drawn I am to his sophisticated simple beliefs. He asked me recently, what do I think about his view that there is Evil in the world. I said, John, it's certainly hard to argue with. That's my view. I'm not built to abide moral relativism. And I don't think any human is.
Sam Toperoff
11/21/2015 06:04:58 am
So wise and good of you to put Antoine Leiris' challenge at the top of your essay. It is one of those rare, rare moments in life when true words are acts of courage that will sparkle like stars to guide anyone who chooses the difficult path to human transcendence. And of course such a path is a choice. When I first read it and he said he has no time for murderers because his son was waking up from his nap, I lost it.
Mendel
11/23/2015 02:19:43 am
"The way to defeat a death cult is with an affirmation of Life. No?”
ThorALarsen
11/24/2015 10:52:29 am
Thor A. Larsen( thoralarsen@aol.com )11/24/2015 08:44:19
George Vecsey
11/24/2015 10:57:23 am
Thank you all for your comments and the reaffirmation of life. What we feel about Paris goes beyond the basic senses and into an appreciation for being.
Gene Palumbo
11/25/2015 01:52:44 pm
Antoine Leiris's words brought this to mind: Comments are closed.
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QUOTES
Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online. The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal…. After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness. The progress stems mostly from three factors: First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot. Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.) Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year. “Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.” That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.” That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data. One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines. Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks. Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths. The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions. Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately Republican and white. Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.) *** From the great Maureen Dowd: As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop. But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels." --- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing. *** "Putting out the paper," we called it. Much more than nostalgia. ---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html |