I’ve just done my eco-civic duty, putting various types of waste into the relevant recycling bins in the garden - green for compostable, brown for glass and plastic (but not all plastic as there are some types of plastic packaging our local recycling p,ant can’t deal with!), blue for paper and cardboard. Immediately afterwards, doing some tidying up I started to fill the various indoor bins once again. Bins, like washing baskets, are never really empty! For a brief moment they seem to be empty and then you fill them up again.
Of course, there are worse problems in the world to worry about. If you are a politician it must be having to remember whether the microphone is on or off when you’ve been making a speech or being interviewed. I read this morning that President Biden was captured on a “hot mic” saying that he and the Israeli leader will need to have a “come to Jesus meeting”. He was apparently talking to the Colorado Democratic senator Michael Bennet, on the floor of the House chamber in Washington following Thursday night’s State of the Union speech. Mr Bennet urged the president to keep pressing Netanyahu on growing humanitarian concerns in Gaza. To which President Biden replied, unaware that he could still be heard over the microphone: “I told him, Bibi, and don’t repeat this, but you and I are going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting.”
Oops!
Even though it’s easy enough to work out what a “come to Jesus meeting” must be, I decided to google it anyway. This is what I found: “Outside religious contexts, come to Jesus refers to a meeting or moment where one undergoes a difficult but positive and powerful realization or change in character or behavior.”
That’s about right but maybe not the best expression use in this context. Somehow I don’t see Netanyahu turning the other cheek.
Something needs to done though. Last night on the television news I saw footage of masses of lorries waiting in Egypt, unable to get the aid they carry across the border into Gaza. Air drops are not solving the problem. Proposed “sea corridors” might help but it all takes time and time is running out.
Getting back to American presidential matters, I read the other day that singer Taylor Swift has been urging fans to register to vote in the presidential elections, despite her father apparently advising her to keep politics out of her performance. Back in 2020 she endorsed Biden as a candidate. Lately it seems she’s been arguing in defense of women’s reproductive rights. Then on Super Tuesday she said this on her instagram story: “I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent you into power. If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today.” Maybe she’ll persuade younger people to register and vote. Good for Taylor Swift.
I can understand her father’s concern. She’s probably exposing herself to a lot of social media abuse. The Duchess of Sussex, aka the former Suits actor Meghan Markle, in a conference in Texas to mark International Women’s Day, has been talking again about her experience of social media abuse. It’s one of the nastier phenomena of the modern age!
Life goes on stay safe and well, everyone!
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