Never did I claim to be a political columnist, nor did I ever pride myself on my knowledge of government. Yet I have difficulty understanding the latest most talked about current events.

(even beating out COVID). Who can explain to me what the Afghanistan situation is all about?

First the American government sends in thousands of troops to beat the Taliban. Then a decision is made after many, many years to bring the troops back to the United States. As the troops have withdrawn, the bad-boy Taliban are laughing it up and immediately, with what seems like not much of a struggle, take over the entire country of Afghanistan. People are terrorized in their homes and on the streets of this war-torn country.

Now the U.S. is sending 3,000 soldiers back to where they came from. Another Vietnam, where people are seen hanging onto airplanes trying to flee the atrocities to no avail, with some dying.

How is the United States government able to, for one thing, explain this to the thousands of families that lost bright young and older military family members while they were stationed in Afghanistan? How are they able to face the world amid this obvious travesty? Think of all of the dollars spent that could have been put to much better use on the poor, the health care system and everything else under the sun.

It is not only in the world of politics that I do not understand what is going on. Could someone please help me understand the “idiots” who refuse to get vaccinated? Do they make any sense? I listened as a woman was interviewed on the news as her daughter was hooked up to a respirator and she was bemoaning the fact that she listened to the skeptics and refused to allow any of her family members to become vaccinated. The physicians informed her that there was little chance for her child to recover. Doctors in the ICU are reporting how many patients are admitted to the hospital with serious issues due to COVID and the first thing that they request is to now get vaccinated. Sadly it is too late for them. I, and I am sure many of you, know of people who appear to be intelligent and worldly who are refusing to take the vaccine.

I have good friends who are overcome with despair because their son or daughter-in-law refuses to be vaccinated and requests that their children not wear masks at any time. In places where the Delta variant is rampant and masks are suggested, there are people who have the knowledge that a person or people will be attending a party or function with autoimmune disorders and they refuse, nevertheless, to wear their masks on principle. Is that not totally selfish?

Finally the pièce de resistance. A group of “prominent” rabbonim have the audacity to publish a garbage-appropriate “sefer,” with each writing a few lines of why one should not be vaccinated. I am not sure where they got their list of who should be receiving this. Fortunately we were one of the chosen few who did not receive this masterpiece. Please someone explain to me how these “gedolim” could consider printing their disparaging words on paper? Shame on all of them.

There are many other things that are too philosophical about life that I for sure do not understand and know that I probably never will. I guess that my list is quite long when it comes to realizing how many things I do not understand. The very few that I mentioned above are totally perplexing to me. To watch people running to jump onto planes that are sitting on the tarmac, to actually hear people proudly stating that they will not follow the rules of COVID and, more astonishingly, knowing people who have explained to their children why they do not need to adhere to all of the rules of the past year is mind boggling to me.

Honestly I do not understand.

By Nina Glick