Two days ago the U.S president took a plane trip from the relative security of Washington, D.C. to somewhere in Israel (Tel Aviv?), which is an active war zone. He did this in order to…I have no idea. Be seen and talked about, I guess.
This morning, I saw a headline about the governor of California going to visit Israel, and I’m mystified. Why? What possible good does this serve?
And then, as I was washing dishes, I happened to think of a bumper sticker I used to see on hippie cars all the time when I was a kid: “What if they threw a war and no-one showed up?” And now, I get it.
That wasn’t an aspirational message, like, “Let’s not spend energy on wars,” but an anxious, fear-of-missing-out message, like, “Oh my god, you mean they went to all that trouble to throw a war and you didn’t even show up?”
Why do these people get elected?
Wait. You’re saying that you don’t understand why it’s a good thing to show up when your friend is in trouble? Even if you can’t fix it, showing support is a thing.