If Only for a Night

When I was a young boy and my family left to go home after a camping trip, an overwhelming sense of nostalgia often swept over me. I'd walk around the camping spot one last time, noting the twigs and stones I'd played with, the view of the lake through the trees, and the way the grass was pressed down where our tent had been.

Why did I feel so sad after only a week in that spot?

Reading a new dispatch from Bloomberg News about the millions of dollars cities are spending simply to move homeless encampments brought this memory back with disturbing clarity. The actions by city officials may be understandable -- their housed citizens often demand some sort of action -- but they virtually always prove fruitless.

Homeless people will just set up new camps in some other corner of the city.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect at least some of the homeless folks dislodged in this manner must feel a similar ache of loss about changing locations as I did back then. The circumstances are completely different, of course, as I had a home to go back to and they don't. But our common humanity is the issue here, not who is housed and who isn't.

Seeing the expansive rambling encampments here in the Bay Area, I'm struck by how hard people have tried to make themselves a home in the nooks and crannies available to them.

There's some fundamental aspect humanity involved in trying to adapt to whatever environment we find ourselves in. As I watch shows like "Lost" or "Alone" with my kids and grandkids, it is striking how hard the participants work not only to find food and water but just to simply build a little safe spot in the wilderness, if only for a night.

Maybe we need to think about that the next time our elected officials roust another homeless group for no real reason but to get them out of sight. These are our fellow human beings who were just trying to nest, and perhaps they need to say goodbye to a spot, no matter how modest, before they are forced to move on.

Maybe in fact they're not all that much different from you and me.

***

Way down in my curated headline list is an intriguing report on what people think of journalists -- just how much public trust we have lost over recent decades even as our employment prospects have withered and our former outlets have been shuttered.

The survey cited by AP indicates that many people are put off by the obvious biases and slants  expressed by media figures they assume are journalists -- because they appear on programs that purport to be news shows.

Not to pick on anyone in particular, but in this manner the Tucker Carlsons and Don Lemons of the world are destroying the confidence real journalists need to do our jobs. They have a pulpit but they couldn't report their way out of a paper bag if it were placed over their pretty faces.

I've chosen to boycott all such programs regardless of political slant because they add nothing useful to my life. Meanwhile, many decent reporters I know are unemployed or paid for doing trivial stories about trivial matters. While our democratic society deteriorates into polarized camps of ignorant partisans...

***

As Biden prepares to exit Afghanistan, the U.S. cannot ignore the likely fate of Afghan women who have made such strides for equality, once the Taliban consolidate power in that country.

CNN's report from Musa Qala is a cautionary tale. There, women cannot leave their homes with male escorts. There is no education for girls.

The original reason for invading Afghanistan -- capturing Osama Bin Laden and avenging 9/11 -- was accomplished years ago. But the oppression of Afghan women is a moral outrage the world cannot sit by and tolerate.

As is the case with our Israel policy, the U.S. needs to calibrate its foreign aid, military might, and moral leadership to help make the world a better place if that is still possible.

Or maybe that is simply the hopeless wish of a former Peace Corps Volunteer...

***

The news:

* Capitol Police Told to Hold Back on Riot Response on Jan. 6, Report Finds -- Despite being tipped that “Congress itself is the target” on Jan. 6, Capitol Police were ordered not to use their most powerful crowd-control weapons, according to a scathing new watchdog report. (NYT)

* A new study into homeless encampments found that cities are paying millions in clearance costs to move homeless people from one camp to another. [Bloomberg]

* Loneliness is rampant. A simple call, or hug, may be a cure (AP)

* An aggressive Israeli settlement spree during the Trump era pushed deeper than ever into the occupied West Bank — territory the Palestinians seek for a state — with over 9,000 homes built and thousands more in the pipeline, an AP investigation showed. If left unchallenged by the Biden administration, the construction boom could make fading hopes for an internationally backed two-state solution — Palestine alongside Israel — even more elusive. Satellite images and data document for the first time the full impact of the policies of then-President Donald Trump, who abandoned decades-long U.S. opposition to the settlements and proposed a Mideast plan that would have allowed Israel to keep them all — even those deep inside the West Bank. (AP)

* Democrats signal limited patience for GOP opposition to Biden infrastructure package (WaPo)

* What it's like to live in a town where everything is controlled by the Taliban -- Women are banned from leaving their homes without a male companion and nobody dares ask about schooling for girls living here. Taxation, that's sometimes fair and often on the rich but compulsory, can be prey to rival taxmen and lead to beatings and imprisonment for non-payment. Justice is dispensed in mobile courts with adulterers jailed or killed and some reoffending thieves hanged in public. Bread, clothing and even the occasional smartphone are gifts for fighters. This is 2021, in a Taliban stronghold: Musa Qala, a town in Helmand province that dozens of Americans, British and Afghan soldiers died fighting for over nearly two decades. (CNN)

* Biden says ‘we cannot continue the cycle’ in Afghanistan (WaPo)

* World stocks rally to record highs (Reuters)

* U.S. Budget Deficit Widened to a Record $1.7 Trillion for Six Months, as Stimulus Checks Fueled Spending (WSJ)

* What We Know About The Suspect Who Planted Bombs Before The Capitol Riot (NPR)

* The Only Ones Arrested After a Child’s Rape: The Women Who Helped Her -- The assault of a 13-year-old girl in Venezuela and the arrest of her mother and a teacher who helped her end the pregnancy have forced a national debate about legalizing abortion. (NYT)

* Israel plays spoiler in Biden’s Iran gambit (WaPo)

* A Mysterious Suicide Cluster -- Young people in a Missouri college town kept killing themselves. (New Yorker)

* Days after a computer hack allegedly masterminded by Israel caused widespread damage to its nuclear program, Iran said it would boost its uranium enrichment in response to what President Hassan Rouhani said "is an answer to your evilness." [AP]

* China Poses Biggest Threat to U.S., Intelligence Report Says (NYT)

* House panel to vote on slavery reparations bill for first time, supporters are calling it an important milestone (WaPo)

* With massive pools storing wastewater still needed to cool Japan's ruined reactors nearly full, the country has approved a plan to empty the radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean. South Korea strongly objected to the dumping, set to start in two years and continue for a decade. Japan says the waste, containing radioactive tritium, is harmless. [AP]

* As corporate America and Big Law line up against Republican voter suppression laws inspired by Donald Trump's election lies, Michigan -- with a Democratic governor -- has become an unlikely battleground. Despite opposition from big Michigan-based companies, including General Motors, Ford and Quicken Loans, the GOP legislature is poised to ram through restrictions to curb voting by people of color. [NYT]

* The U.S. plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions dramatically in the next decade. Scientists say it's crucial that the U.S. succeed. Still, many of the positive effects won't arrive for decades. (NPR)

* Purple sea urchins have decimated California’s kelp forests, which scientists estimate have shrunk 95 percent. One solution is to eat the urchins. A Guardian writer tried it. [The Guardian]

* A glacier in Alaska is moving 100 times faster than it should (Yahoo News)

* Stephen Curry passed Wilt Chamberlain as the Warriors’ career scoring leader. His postgame total of 17,818 surpassed Chamberlain’s 17,783. (NYT)

* A study of the public’s attitude toward the press reveals that distrust goes deeper than partisanship and down to how journalists define their very mission. The study by the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, suggests ways that news organizations can reach people they may be turning off now. “In some ways, this study suggests that our job is broader and bigger than we’ve defined it,” said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute. (AP)

* Owl Upset After Yet Another Discussion With Parents Devolves Into Hooting (The Onion)

***

Long as I remember
The rain been comin' down
Clouds of mystery pourin'
Confusion on the ground
Good men through the ages
Tryin' to find the sun
And I wonder
Still, I wonder
Who'll stop the rain

-- John Fogerty

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