Elise Wilson on Feb. 28, 2026.
On Saturday, February 28th, 2026, we journeyed to San Antonio to watch granddaughter Elise play in a volleyball tournament. The tournament featured the CTX (Central Texas) team, not the school team, but the short snip of Elise playing with her Valor School team at the bottom of the page will give you an idea of what the past three years have meant for her as volleyball player/Captain of her school team (and for us as spectators and fans). We really enjoy seeing her play. I’m so lucky that volleyball was the game of choice, as my enthusiasm for soccer, hockey, et. al., is not nearly as high.
As senior year approaches, we will miss watching Elise do so well as a team member of two volleyball teams. She played very well again on Feb. 28, 2026. I’m sure she will benefit from everything she has learned about teamwork during these last three years. Another tournament in Reno beckons in May.
View from our Mariott AC hotel in downtown San Antonio.
San Antonio is about an hour’s drive away. The location of the tournament was quite a long way from the downtown Alamo tourist spots. After the last two games ended, (which Elise’s team won), we checked into a Mariott downtown with the name AC (which instantly made me think of Air Conditioning).
As my husband went to check us in, he left me in the car with the window open. I was sitting there minding my own business on this balmy night when a woman with a group of passers-by began telling me “Jesus loves you.” I responded, “Good.”
A few more of the group began “chatting” (if that is the right term) with me through the open window ( I am IN the car, waiting for the spouse to check in; the group of 10 is on the sidewalk). I was not in any way indicating that I wanted or needed a sermon right from the streets of San Antonio, but that is what I got.
After the religious talk ceased slightly, I suggested that the members of this random group vote in the March 3rd primary election (They seemed harmless, but later that night, in Austin, a gunman shot and killed 2 people on 6th Street and wounded 14 others, so...). James Talarico is squaring off against Jasmine Crockett to see who runs against a GOP opponent in November. The MAGA crowd is much more concerned about a male opponent than a Black female friend of Kamala Harris’s. Likely MAGA candidate will be incumbent John Cornyn, so we may be witnessing another Beto O’Rourke moment. Or not. Who knows?
Dining along the Riverwalk.
If Texas continues to attract voters from other states because of its beautiful winter weather and its reasonable cost of living, could it represent ALL Texans, including new ones from other states? [Assuming we have fair elections that aren’t rigged and that aren’t called off because of a power grab from the top.]
Maybe some day we could have a few Democrats in office other than just GOP Trump-friendly folk? Is it time to loosen the GOP stranglehold on this very red state? Maybe we could have a different governor than Abbott, who has been in a wheelchair for years from a long-ago accident when a tree fell on him while he was jogging.
Abbott brags about how he went to work every day with the sole purpose of lodging lawsuits against Barack Obama during Obama’s two terms. There seems to be a lot of anger that we elected a Black President who did a good job, tried to help the average citizen with a Healthcare program, and whom most people liked. A God-fearing happily married husband and father who represented us articulately abroad, but was castigated for not wearing a flag pin on a tan suit, as though that were grounds for impeachment. And please get rid of Texas’s Kenneth Paxton. His own party seems to have disowned him. His whistleblower staff outed him. His wife divorced him. (Etc., etc., etc.)
Riverwalk.
Maybe don’t vote for the guy who brags that he has voted with DJT “99% of the time.” (Cornyn) Maybe don’t vote for the guy who puts MAGA in the middle of his campaign slogan (Middleton) and is totally down with things going on in places like Minneapolis or Venezuela. (I did not say “Or Iran” because we can debate Iran’s nuclear ambitions and their stated national goals, but now we’ve martyred their 37-year leader at a time when the experts say there was no “imminent” danger of nuclear weapons being feasible. How popular will we be with Iran’s devoutly religious average citizen whose cities we are busy blowing up?)
It seems that the goal for the incumbent 47th President is to leave a huge mark on the U.S.—and an equally huge mark on the world scene— by throwing U.S. military weight around as bullies and barbarians at the gate, an image that we spent over 60 years trying to undo. ($20 million a day just to float around off the coast of Iran; the need for an excuse to cancel elections and distract from the Epstein files really loomed large.) Plus, there’s the tacky gold redecorating and the proposed Arch de Triomphe that would dwarf the Lincoln Monument (not to mention the embarrassing pleas for trophies and the Nobel Peace Prize and that FIFA monstrosity.)
DJT seems to be arbitrarily instigating decades of war to re-emerge, despite such world wars in Europe involving the U.S. being dormant (because of NATO and negotiating and diplomacy) since 1945 (Remember: Now it’s not the Secretary of DEFENSE; it’s the Secretary of WAR. And it’s not the Gulf of Mexico, either, if you want to rewrite history. Which seems like the goal here.) Putin is pleased that, as a nation, we are repeatedly shooting ourselves in the feet.
Tearing everything down was always the goal of the corrupt Steve Bannon (guilty of fraud) and his interview with Errol Morris should be required viewing if you love our democratic norms and the Constitution that DJT tramples on daily. [2018 Steve Bannon interview “American Dharma”] It’s the blueprint of Project 2025, which DJT always claimed he knew nothing about—until he began following it to the letter.
A good Christian candidate in the Democratic primary March 3rd for Senator is Democrat James Talarico, who is studying to be a Presbyterian minister. His grandfather was a Baptist minister. If Jesus/God loves us (me, anyway, according to the woman on the sidewalk) why did She let the current occupant of the White House wrest power back in 2024? [THAT was a bad move!] Why select a convicted malignant narcissist racist misogynistic felon with pedophile tendencies who has appointed only incompetents and enriches his friends and family while doing little for the rest of us? As another huckster (P.T. Barnum) once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
DJT has appointed Cabinet members like Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce. Lutnick was also linked to Jeffrey Epstein and admitted to having lunch with Epstein on his island (and he took his wife and kids!). And THAT guy is still around and showing up in international negotiations, sadly. Or RFK, Jr., who is bringing back measles and whooping cough and shutting down research on mrNA vaccines and childhood cancer. Or the woman who shot her dog (Ice Barbie, Krsti Noem, former Governor of South Dakota) who is now supervising the group (ICE) that is shooting citizens in places like Minneapolis. Or Crazy Eyes Kash Patel, widely considered an incompetent buffoon within the FBI/CIA ranks–with good reason. The list goes on and on.
Trump’s kakistocracy (look it up) doesn’t inspire confidence. Makes me less positive about the Deity’s judgment, but nevermind. Talarico believes in the separation of church and state and so do I. I also believe in the Constitution, which is being completely trampled on at the moment on so many levels.
I’m not cool with alienating all of our allies and bombing boats and countries, even if the countries, themselves, as Lindsey Graham has long believed, needed a good old-fashioned bombing. Cutting off the oil to Cuba and China sounds good until you realize that China, if it seizes Taiwan, will be controlling all of the high-end computer chips that our technology must have to function. (We have ignored this warning for years about Taiwan making 90% of the high end computer chips.) And what if the Chinese were to start in on our currency situation, as Michael Moore warned about in his 2009 documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story.” I suggest you watch it, too. (Too many documentaries; too little time.)
Downtown San Antonio from our hotel.
The bombing of Iran will not only keep MAGA from continuing to ask those pesky questions about DJT’s best friend, Jeffrey Epstein (or so he hopes) but will probably cause Trump to try to suspend mid-terms for a “national emergency” that he totally created, since there is data to support the position that Iran was already tottering on its damaged feet and incapable of using nukes against us (too far away). I’m okay with bombing the nuclear sites, but didn’t DJT tell us they were “completely obliterated” quite a while ago? Apparently not, if you need a distraction from the Epstein files.
And let’s not forget: anything to seize power and install friends and family in positions of leadership if you’re Donald John Trump. You want a pardon? Hit him up—for a fee. How about the money Melania pocketed for her quasi-fashion-documentary? (No corruption here—right? And I haven’t even mentioned the Qatar jet plane.) And now the GOP faithful, falling into line behind DJT and spending pots of money, has set their sights on buying up media (CBS, etc.) and distorting our ability to receive real news, just like in Russia, where Putin set about putting the media under his thumb to seize and keep power. (*Note to Fox fans: when lawsuits were underway recently, Fox News claimed to be an entertainment channel, not a news channel, as a defense.) We have already seen Stephen Colbert bite the dust and the Washington Post is dying in broad daylight, rather than in darkness. Can Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyer be far behind?
Soon we may have WWF wrestling on the lawn of the White House to celebrate the years since 1976 to 2026, our Semiquincentennial (250th birthday). Trump’s already ruined the Kennedy Center, so there goes any U.S. claim to culture [with more downgrades to come.] Remember when Pablo Casals played at the White House, November 13, 1961? No? Well, I do. Casals played in the East wing (now torn down by Trump without any permission and with LOTS of money pouring into Trump’s hands from “donors” to build—the wall?). I was 16 years old and JFK’s time in office was the epitome of class and culture for the Presidents I have known, which go back to Truman. And Donald James Trump represents the tackiest and least competent President—even eclipsing “W” of all time. (Which is going some!)
| External audio | |
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 You may hear Pau Casals performing Antonín Dvorak‘s “Cello Concerto” with George Szell conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1937 Here |
Under Trump, for culture, you have to content yourself with a third-rate country singer or Kid Rock or KISS–except that one of them recently died and KISS retired but got the Medal of Honor along with hate-monger Rush Limbaugh— so, yes, DJT is old, as well, and hardly “cutting edge” regarding culture in the U.S.
We may well have Vince McMahon of the WWE putting on a wrestling tournament on the White House lawn, instead. After all, Trump has already appointed McMahon’s wife, Linda, to be in charge of the SBA (Small Business Administration.) Linda McMahon: another member of the kakistocracy. (How very presidential of DJT.)
Netanyahu and Trump are a lot alike in continued clinging to power and favoritism (and pardons) for their cronies. Yes, the avowed Iranian post-Shah mantras were (1) Death to America (2) Death to Israel (3) Women must wear head garb and never have a say in government. So, not waiting until the already 86-year old died of natural causes probably looked like a good idea (especially since there were many more like him to come), but will the Iranian people agree? It isn’t as though this administration, which unleashed DOGE on us, surgically figured out a way, Maduro-like, to off the Ayatollah. Not at all–thanks to the influence of the Lindsey Grahams and the Benjamin Netanyahus, we are still bombing Iran.
Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran’s oldest son, in 2025.
It appears that the Shah’s son—long gone from Iran after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s overthrow in 1979—may be being groomed to return to Iran and rule. In a “60 Minutes” interview tonight the Shah’s son denied any desire to be a King or a President. He just wants to be a “transitional leader,”since 48 Iranian leaders were killed in the very recent bombing. Of course, the Shah’s now-grown son also admits to consulting with the White House and being in touch with Congress. Hmmmmm…
Meanwhile, San Antonio beckoned. Good idea to get away.
We had a lovely meal at an outdoor venue, enjoying the eighty-degree weather. It’s hard to believe that we are going to have weather this warm for the next two weeks with nothing lower than seventy degrees. And yet when I turn on my television, I see blizzards in the Northeast, temperatures in the single digits in places like Minneapolis (the “nice” neighbors in Minnesota who are standing up for their Constitutional rights while they still have them), and not-very-warm readings in cities and towns like Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and Independence (Iowa). But the worst of the weather has been the massive amount of snow in places like Central Park (NYC) and Massachusetts and even the cold temperatures in Florida. (“But there’s no global warming,and all of the brakes on carbon emissions have been kicked to the curb.”)
So, enjoy volleyball while we all wait for the other shoe (or bomb) to drop. Here are my two lovely 17-year-old twin granddaughters, Elise (blonde, left) and Ava (brunette, right) eating ice cream on the Riverwalk.
Elise & Ava in San Antonio.
San Antonio Riverwalk.
I just spent 3 days getting to and from Dallas (from Austin, Texas) in order to take in an exhibit of the Surrealist painters.
What I know (knew) about the Surrealists would literally rattle within a pea, but I do vaguely remember that Freud’s dream psycho-analysis methods. when they became popular and emerged upon the scene helped instigate it.
My friend Jackie (pictured on a cool scooter device) knew MUCH more than I do about the Surrealists and did fill me in on some famous names that I actually recognized, including Picasso, Lichtenstein, Magritte, Miro, Salvador Dali and many others. Jackie actually has a lovely Miro painting in her home that she pointed out I had complimented her on; I do remember this painting, but, no, I did not remember it was by Miro.
So color me ignorant, but willing to learn.
One of us read every word beneath every painting.
One of us read the words connected to the better-known artists and took some pictures of their work(s), which I am now going to share without much commentary, because, after all, what do I know about the Surrealists? (A: Very little.) Plus, I had no scooter and took every opportunity to seat myself on one of many benches and rest.
This failure to know enough about art is why I had to drop out of Davenport (Iowa’s) Art Museum docent program early. Did not know enough and got stuck taking a bus-ful of students from Dewitt High School on a tour through “the big room,” (when I had been told I was leading a tour through the Isabelle Bloom display, about which I had a great deal of knowledge, none of which the students on the bus nor their art teacher cared to hear.) It was one of the most embarrassing half hours of my life and seemed to go on forever, so, without further ado, here are some paintings from the display in Dallas. I feel confident that you will be able to pick out the Picasso, the Lichtenstein’s (sp?), the Magritte, etc., better than moi.
Enjoy!
William H. Foege, eradicator of smallpox, dead at 89.
William Herbert Foege[1] (/ˈfeɪɡi/ FAY-ghee;[2] March 12, 1936 – January 24, 2026) was an American physician and epidemiologist who is credited with “devising the global strategy that led to the eradication of smallpox in the late 1970s”.[3] From May 1977 to 1983, Foege served as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Foege also “played a central role” in efforts that greatly increased immunization rates in developing countries in the 1980s.
This 6’7″ son of a Lutheran minister in Decorah, Iowa, is credited with banishing one of the most feared diseases in modern history: smallpox. He became interested in working in New Guinea when he spent months in a body cast at the age of fifteen, and his technique of finding the infected patient and isolating him and inoculating those with whom the patient had interacted is credited with the successful campaign to eradicate the disease, as of the 1980s.
One of the methods Foege used to convince natives to come learn about the smallpox vaccination was to tell them that they could “come see the tallest man in the world.” Foege died at age 89 of congestive heart failure in Atlanta and expressed his opinion of Robert F.Kennedy Jr.’s stewardship of the Department of Health and Human Services saying, “Kennedy would be less hazardous if he decided to do cardiac surgery. Then he would kill people only one at a time rather than his current ability to kill by the thousands.”
A still from Seized by Sharon Liese, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jackson Montemayor.)
The 94-minute documentary “Seized,” directed by Sharon Liese, which screened at Sundance, is a timely story out of Marion, Kansas (population 1,890). On August 11, 2023, local police chief Gideon Cody raided the offices of the Marion County Record, demanding all electronic devices be handed over. The police chief and several other officers also went to the home of the publishers of the paper, Eric Meyer and his 98-year-old mother Joan.
Eric Meyer is an exceptionally well-spoken former journalism professor and the publisher of the Marion County Record. Eric said, “I knew it was going to make news.” When his 98-year-old mother died the next day, Eric knew that “a really good story just became a great story.” Eric’s Mom says of the men in her house, “Do you understand how big a shit-storm you guys are in? Newspapers have got power, too.”
Do they, any more?
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
This story of the abuse of the 1st amendment freedom of speech, the 4th amendment and a possible conspiracy was cited recently in a similar case, where Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home was raided and her laptops and mobile phones were seized. The Washington Post commented that Trump’s FBI had “stomped on a once-inviolable right,” making this documentary about a successful defense of Constitutional rights both a legal precedent and, hopefully, cause for hope in the ongoing fight against encroaching totalitarianism.
As the 98-year-old Joan Meyer said (on videotape) to the men in her home, “Nazi stuff. The worst I’ve ever seen. You’re nothing but a bunch of bullies.” As we all wait out the assault on Minneapolis, those observations ring truer than ever.
PUBLISHER ERIC MEYER
Seventy-two year old publisher Eric Meyer of the Marion,, Kansas, Marion County Record.
Eric Meyer already was on bad terms with Marion’s Mayor Mike Powers. That hostility comes through loud and clear, from the moment that the mayor showed no interest in meeting new reporter Finn Hartnett right through to the final sit-down interview.
Eric said, “I’m a stubborn son-of-a-bitch. If you back me into a corner, I’m not going to back down.” Finn Hartnett, the new kid on the block agrees, saying, “Eric is a stoic, proud man and he is very committed. He is committed to leading this kind of life as a pariah.” Finn jokingly tells Eric that “the highest award in journalism is getting shot by the CIA.” The joke falls flat in 2026 Minneapolis, where two citizens were recently shot by federal ICE troops while exercising their right(s) to protest peacefully.
RAMIFICATIONS
In Trump’s America, it has been made clear that the owners of large media firms should expect much friendlier regulatory treatment if they bring their journalists to heel. Paramount’s CBS News has already stifled a story on “Sixty Minutes” about the inhumane El Salvador prison where Trump is fond of sending illegals. CBS has canceled Stephen Colbert’s Late Night Show. ABC removed Jimmy Kimmel from the air briefly. (CBS: Channel Bull Shit was heard used during one late night program.)
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos replaced that newspaper’s opinion columnists with right-leaning columnists and editors. Bezos’ Amazon (and Blue Origin) takes in billions of dollars in federal space and defense contracts. Bezos is concerned that Trump could cut off access if displeased. Amazon rolled out the movie “Melania” recently, a glossy $40 million dollar documentary focusing on our Russian-born First Lady. The film had ten times the budget of most documentaries and lists Melania Trump as Producer. It also is directed by Brett Ratner, recently charged with sexual harassment and pictured in a just-released Epstein document, seated next to Epstein and two unidentified women.
Bezos has not made any comment about the illegal raid on his own Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson‘s home, which may indicate who’s winning the war on journalism. Keep in mind that Eric Meyer’s raid on his newspaper took place in 2023; the court case and eventual victory dragged on for two years into 2025. Would Eric Meyer prevail, as he ultimately does, in today’s climate?
Much depends on the courts doing their job and not being bullied into doing the bidding of those in power. Recently, the FBI raided a Georgia election headquarters and seized voter records from 2020. Where are they now? Why aren’t the courts demanding their return? What is being done with those confidential voter records? Why was Tulsi Gabbard spotted loitering in the area when and where the records were seized? Is history going to be rewritten, as it has been in Russia? All valid questions when the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts skews conservative and seems to believe in the concept of giving the executive branch much more power than it previously possessed in our democracy.
Shark investor Mark Cuban just put out a warning to legacy media, noting that today’s youth are more likely to get their “news” from websites like YouTube or podcasts, many of which are often slanted. The traditional journalism of my day ( I was a Ferner/Hearst Journalism Scholarship recipient), which is the journalism of Eric Meyer, has given way to slanted news from a variety of sources. Add to that the streaming of movies undercutting theater audience attendance and those who report news or make movies may be in trouble (especially if they attempt to really investigate the truth of a situation involving powerful people.)
THE CAUSE OF THE MARION, KANSAS NEWSPAPER SEIZURE
You have to pay close attention to find out what, exactly, was the cause of the raid on Eric Meyer’s newspaper. There’s no doubt that Eric Meyer’s frosty relationship with the mayor played into the situation. There was, also, the expressed opinion from the mayor that newspaper journalists who are simply trying to do their job are “the enemy.” The Fourth Estate, as journalists have long been known, can ruffle feathers when they disclose truths that others would like kept private. Certainly the Epstein files are a good example.
In the case of Marion, Kansas, there was a feeling that Eric Meyer might write an editorial.
“There are forces at play that are diametrically opposed here. People are afraid to speak out because they are afraid that he will write an editorial and come after them if they speak out.”
Eric Meyer’s response was, “You don’t get into this business to be loved. It’s just part of the game. You feel a little isolated.” Nate, Eric’s son, noted, “They (the town fathers) picked the wrong people to go against. My grandmother was absolutely not going to back down.” Said Eric : “It’s a taboo in American democracy to raid a newsroom. We’re going to sue the living daylights out of this.”
ERIC’S STATEMENT
Sharon Liese, director of Seized, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute.)
“What Marion’s got to hope for, at this point, is that we were the place where someone attempted to abuse its power, and we were the place where it stopped.” He added, “It’s about a system that didn’t function right because someone felt it was time to be the bully.”
LAWSUITS
The raid on Eric’s newspaper apparently arose from a romance between Police Chief Gideon Cody and a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell. Kari Newell wanted to secure a liquor license for one of her establishments, but her former best friend Pam Maag (a Linda Tripp if there ever was one) sent a record of Newell’s drunk driving arrests to the newspaper and the police and alleged that local law enforcement was turning a blind eye. Kari Newell’s ex-husband also claimed to have told the police that Kari was driving without a valid driver’s license, but claimed the authorities said they were not going to do anything about it. Upon verification of the information, the Marion County Record did run the story, which caused Sheriff Cody to get a warrant signed by the Honorable Laura Viar, a judge who did not live in Marion and did not read the document before signing it. Text messages (“What’s up, Buttercup?”) between the two indicate that Chief Cody may have decided to extract retribution, which we’ve seen at the highest level of government lately.
OUTCOME
At the end of this interesting and timely documentary both Eric Meyer, Director Sharon Liese and Finn Hartnett (who now writes for New York’s The New Republic) were asked about the outcome.
With Bernie Rhodes as attorney for the Marion County Record, a state judicial panel heard the case twice and advised the judge that she should read what she signs before she signs it. The Honorable Laura Viar was removed from Marion County. The newspaper sued for $10 million in damages, knowing that the town only had about $2 million in insurance. Meyer said, “We went to some pains to make sure that the amount would be there and also to secure the little statement that admitted wrongdoing on the part of the Sheriff’s department…The maximum of this charge is going to be probation for Gideon Cody. It will just take longer to get it done. He’s not going to get a job as a police officer, anyway, The biggest disappointment was the number of places where this could have been stopped.”
Added Eric Meyer, “It’s convenient to say that it was all Gideon’s fault. He was rightfully run out of town. But so many groups that were there to protect our rights were so blasé about the whole thing. It’s a story about the abuse of power against Americans.”
The insurance company paid $3,050,000 to the newspaper, $50,000 more than the town’s insurance covered. The $600,000 that Phyllis Zorn received from the settlement allowed her to retire. Nicholas Semrad’s charming music adds to the already excellent storytelling, and the final outcome might give all of us in America a small measure of hope, when it comes to standing up for what is right against allowing what is wrong to continue to dominate.
CONCLUSION
Said Eric Meyer at Sundance, “I would hope that people would think that I believed in something and I didn’t give up on it.”
A timely sentiment from a terrific documentary.
- This blog contains the full transcript of a special address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, delivered at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos.
- Carney emphasized the end of the rules-based international order and outlined how Canada was adapting by building strategic autonomy while maintaining values like human rights and sovereignty.
- The Canadian PM called for middle powers, such as his own, to work together to counter the rise of hard power and the great power rivalry, in order to build a more cooperative, resilient world.
This transcript was produced using AI and subsequently edited for style and clarity. The edits do not alter the substance of the speaker’s remarks.
Thank you very much, Larry. I’m going to start in French, and then I’ll switch back to English.
[The following is translated from French]
Thank you, Larry. It is both a pleasure, and a duty, to be with you tonight in this pivotal moment that Canada and the world going through.
Today I will talk about a rupture in the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality, where geopolitics, where the large, main power, geopolitics, is submitted to no limits, no constraints.
On the other hand, I would like to tell you that the other countries, especially intermediate powers like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the various states.
The power of the lesser power starts with honesty.[Carney returns to speaking in English]
It seems that every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.
And this aphorism of Thucydides is presented as inevitable, as the natural logic of international relations reasserting itself.
And faced with this logic, there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along, to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety.
Well, it won’t.
So, what are our options?
In 1978, the Czech dissident Václav Havel, later president, wrote an essay called The Power of the Powerless, and in it, he asked a simple question: how did the communist system sustain itself?
And his answer began with a greengrocer.
Every morning, this shopkeeper places a sign in his window: ‘Workers of the world unite’. He doesn’t believe it, no-one does, but he places a sign anyway to avoid trouble, to signal compliance, to get along. And because every shopkeeper on every street does the same, the system persist – not through violence alone, but through the participation of ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false.
Havel called this “living within a lie”.
The system’s power comes not from its truth, but from everyone’s willingness to perform as if it were true, and its fragility comes from the same source. When even one person stops performing, when the greengrocer removes his sign, the illusion begins to crack. Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs down.
For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, we praised its principles, we benefited from its predictability. And because of that, we could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection.
We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.
This fiction was useful, and American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods, open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.
So, we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.
This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.
Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.
You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.
The multilateral institutions on which the middle powers have relied – the WTO, the UN, the COP – the architecture, the very architecture of collective problem solving are under threat. And as a result, many countries are drawing the same conclusions that they must develop greater strategic autonomy, in energy, food, critical minerals, in finance and supply chains.
And this impulse is understandable. A country that can’t feed itself, fuel itself or defend itself, has few options. When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.
But let’s be clear eyed about where this leads.
A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile and less sustainable. And there is another truth. If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate.
Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships.
Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty.
They’ll buy insurance, increase options in order to rebuild sovereignty – sovereignty that was once grounded in rules, but will increasingly be anchored in the ability to withstand pressure.
This room knows this is classic risk management. Risk management comes at a price, but that cost of strategic autonomy, of sovereignty can also be shared.
I’ve been reporting on Sundance non-stop for the past week.
As the stated topic(s) on WeeklyWilson are movies/TV AND politics, it’s time to condense for you some world views of the situation with our current administration, as articulated by various international political commentators.
With close friends in Minneapolis (who have an adopted South Korean son who now has to carry his naturalization papers with him at all times, for fear ICE will harm him), I’m upset by what is going on in our country. There should not be federal troops in ANY American city, and most definitely not simply to intimidate and punish
Killing two citizens and then trying to blacken those citizens’ reputations by portraying them (inaccurately) as trouble-making terrorists is inexcusable and a technique that would only be employed by an administration led by someone without any ethical or moral center. Since that is the very definition of the man and the Trump administration, it follows that Trump will try to “spin” the truth to benefit himself, without any regard for reality. After all, that’s how he got elected.
ICE agents are responsible for 2/3 of the murders in the city of Minneapolis this year (2 out of 3). Sending more ill-trained troops simply to terrorize and punish the populace for being a blue state is the very definition of bad government and divisiveness. Greg Sargent in The New Republic put it this way: “This is a campaign of deliberate terror designed in part—yes—to encourage illegal migrants to self-deport. But mainly it’s to send a warning to ordinary Americans that if we resist Trump’s agenda our citizenship will give us no more protection than it did Renee Good.”
Here are the views of world leaders on the heels of the Davos Conference in Switzerland, where Trump repeated his plans to take control of Greenland. Addressing a packed conference hall at the World Economic Forum Trump repeatedly referred to Greenland as “Iceland.” Nations including Britain, France and Norway sent troops to Greenland in support of Denmark. In Denmark’s capital of Nuuk some of the 57,000 residents of the island demonstrated, chanting “Yankee, go home!”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (whose full speech should be required viewing here in the U.S.) received a standing ovation for his speech in which he declared, “We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.” (For a translation of Carney’s remarks, I will append it in a second post tomorrow.)
Trump seemed to reverse his constant messaging about owning Greenland, one way or another, but, as Eli Stokola and Diane Nerozzi wrote in Politico, “So while the immediate crisis may have been averted, Trump’s retreat did little to reverse a deep-seated sentiment among Europeans that they can no longer consider the U.S. a reliable ally.”
Lauren Aratani in “The Guardian:”
Trump’s semi-retreat from his previoust repetition of how he planned to take over Greenland came after his tariff threats alarmed Wall Street and Europe, which said they refused to be blackmailed and that they might have to unleash a trade bazooka that would further damage U.S. economic interests. Bloomberg, in an editorial, said “lasting harm had been done.”
Said Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. in the Wall Street Journal, Greenland is “Trump’s white whale, calling his obsession with taking over Greenland “foolish” and a sign that “he needs more therapy.” Jenkins also said that it may be a sign that Trump is “flirting with cognitive decline.”
Paul Krugman said, “To read Trump’s unhinged text to the Norwegian prime minister, full of false claims, self-aggrandizement is to see hard evidence that America’s president is deeply unwell and getting sicker…America and the world are being held hostage to the whims of a petulant, violent, and deranged individual.”
Andrew Sullivan (Substack) wrote: “The imposition of one man’s will on an entire policy with no checks, balances, or even reasons cited to back him up” is insane. “A U.S. takeover of Greenland is an insane idea that no Greenlander wants and that three-quarters of Americans oppose. Trump himself has given no coherent rationale for wanting it.” He’s spoken of the “psychological” benefit he’d derive from “owning” the territory. “Essentially, he’s upended the Western world out of pure solipsism and pursuit of personal glory. That’s really all this is.”
Jack Blanchard (Politico): “Even if Trump’s step back from the brink holds, something much bigger and unstoppable is now underway…For 80 years allies have viewed American military protection and U.S. respect for a rules-based order as articles of faith. Even if Trump’s Greenland adventure ends without a hostile takeover, that illusion has been shattered and there’s no going back.”
Donald J. Trump & Ghislaine Maxwell.
From The Guardian:
“Less than two weeks before Jeffrey Epstein’s death in jail, his lawyers and Manhattan federal prosecutors met and discussed his potential cooperation, several documents within a cache of newly released investigative files state.“On July 29, 2019, FBI and [prosecutors] met with Epstein’s attorneys, who, in very general terms, discussed the possibility of a resolution of the case, and the possibility of the defendant’s cooperation,” an FBI document titled “Epstein Investigation Summary & Timeline” stated.”
To sum up, here’s what Kevin D. Williamson wrote in The Dispatch:
“Donald Trump aspires to be the sort of man Xi Jingping is, the sort of man Vladimir Putin is, the sort of man Li Peng was when he ruthlessly suppressed the Tiananmen Square demonstrations—a vicious act of repression that Trump has spoken of admiringly. The acts of unjustifiable violence and extralegal threats carried out by his agents are, manifestly, to Trump’s taste. He is fundamentally totalitarian. And he seems to desire violence. Why wouldn’t he? He has the guns and the gun thugs. Where there are genuine acts of violence being perpetrated against federal agents, those carrying out the acts are giving the Trump administration what it desires: a pretext for escalation.”
Donald & Melania Trump , Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell,
To that end, Minnesota (and, particularly, Minneapolis residents) keep on keeping on in the admirable way you have behaved in the face of ruthless and unprincipled behavior perpetrated on the pretext of making us “safer” from our neighbors and friends who came into this country years ago (and have been model citizens ever since, in most cases.) The world and the majority of Americans salute you and stand with you. ICE in Minneapolis is NOT the way we aspire to behave in the United States of America I’ve lived in for eight decades. It is un-American behavior on the part of the corrupt administration of a convicted felon and probable pedophile.
Don’t take the bait organized by the Steven Millers of the world. You’re better than that. I, for one, am proud of your Minnesota Nice behavior in looking out for your neighbors.
A still from Nuisance Bear by Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Gabriela Osio Vanden.)
In 2021 Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman made a short about polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, which is known as the Polar Bear Capitol of the World. The remote and frigid area first caught the attention of the filmmakers in 2015 and their 2021 short has now become a 90-minute documentary. I remembered enjoying the short, and I enjoyed the 90-minute documentary version, as did the jury at Sundance, which proclaimed it the documentary winner on January 30th.
SOUND
The sound design by David Rose and the original music by Cristoabl Tapia de Veer helped the overall impact of the film, with Andres Landau editing film shot by six different cinematographers. Two of those shooting the bears up close and personal were the directors, but they were also aided by Michael Code, Jack Gawthrop, Samuel Holling and Ian Kerr, who got shots of the bears from unnervingly close range. (Code is also listed as one of the producers.)
Voice-over narration in the Inuit language is from Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons, to whom the film is dedicated (1943-2025). The Indian narrator tells us, “This story about a bear is a story about us.” He goes on to say that no story is ever simple, but stories are like mazes. They lead us where we least expect to go.
TOURISM
Gabriela Osio Vanden, director of Nuisance Bear, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Gabriela Osio Vanden.)
This Inuit native of the area explains that the polar bears stay on land looking for food until the ice freezes. The longer they stay on land, the more powerful and dangerous the situation becomes for humans. A polar bear is described as “ a visitor from the past navigating the maze of the present.” We learn that polar bears are gradually losing their hearing because loud noises are frequently used to scare them away. We also are told that caribou have very poor eyesight. The tourists that are aboard the Lazy Bear Expeditions buses (I saw 8 full buses in one shot) are encouraged to wave their gloved hands in the air like antlers, as the caribou might even join them, thinking they are fellow caribou.
We see a bear trap (and watch a polar bear outwit the trap to succeed in eating the fish used as a lure) and learn that the southern town of Churchill is more welcoming to polar bears. They often trap them and relocate them to the wilderness—or what’s left of it— after tagging them. If you head further north, northern hunters live in fear of the bears. We hear one Inuit hunter say, to applause at a town hall meeting, that if a nuisance bear bothers him “I will put it down.”
DANGERS
Among other problems the bears pose, there are government regulations about hunting. Halloween night is the night that has been given over to hunting for polar bears. One wonders if this is to protect the small ghosts and goblins out trick-or-treating. Indeed, one of my favorite images among so many gorgeous ones of the bears in nature was a shot of children in Halloween costumes, silhouetted in the headlights of an automobile on the night that the polar bear draw leads to the killing of a bear we saw being relocated to the wilderness, tagged, and left with a distinctive green paint mark. The northern hunters do not cater to tourists and prefer a more hard-line approach to controlling the bears.
TWIST
Jack Weisman, director of Nuisance Bear, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jack Weisman.)
Quite far into the documentary we get a surprise twist when the narrator says: “Not long ago, a man was attacked by a polar bear. He sacrificed himself to save his children. That man was my son.”
CONCLUSION
I liked “Nuisance Bear,” but it was not my favorite of the documentaries I saw this year. However, it is worth mentioning that every single Oscar-nominated documentary for this year’s Oscar race came through Sundance (my favorite: “Mr. Nobody Against Putin”) and, in the past decade, six of the winners have been Sundance projects.
A still from Hanging by a Wire by Mohammed Ali Naqvi, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute.)
“Hanging by a Wire,” a 77‑minute documentary by Mohammed Ali Naqvi, follows the terrifying ordeal of eight passengers—six of them teenagers—left suspended in a cable car after one of two supporting cables snapped. What began as an ordinary school commute across the mountains of northern Pakistan on the morning of August 22, 2023, became a day-long fight for survival. The boys were left dangling 900 feet in the air, 5,250 feet from their destination, with the world watching and praying that rescue crews could reach them in time.
Like other disaster documentaries involving trapped miners or the Thai boys’ cave rescue, this story carries the same desperate plea: “Tell the world we want help.” What unfolds is a series of competing rescue attempts—some heroic, some chaotic, and all marked by the urgency of lives literally hanging in the balance.
SKY PIRATE
The first rescuer to reach the site was Sahib Khan, a self-styled “sky pirate,” who arrived around eleven in the morning. He successfully rescued one boy before being ordered to stop. As he explains it, “After I rescued the boy, I got a call telling me to shut the operation down.” Sahib was disturbed by this and said the reason was “ because I am poor.” Despite that, he later shares that people in Pakistan now recognize him and thank him for his bravery.
HELICOPTER RESCUE
Sonia Shamroz Khan, the district police commander, called in an experienced helicopter pilot, Lt. Col. Zain Ali, after four and a half hours. One of the boys, Irfan, was the only passenger eventually lifted out by helicopter. Unable to secure the harness that was passed down to him, he held onto the rope with his hands alone. Before attempting it, he told his father, “Dad, whether I live or die today, I’m going to jump.”Irfan’s father said, “When they told me he had made it to the helicopter, that’s when I opened my eyes.” A second helicopter arrived later, but the downdraft from the rotors violently shook the cable car, nearly flipping it. Another boy, Niaz, told his father, “I might die today.” Once rescued, Niaz said simply, “There was pure joy when my feet finally hit the ground.”
A still from Hanging by a Wire by Mohammed Ali Naqvi, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute.)
ZIP-LINE RESCUE
Next came Ali Swati, a gym owner and zip‑line operator whose father once scolded him for not joining the Army. Determined to redeem himself in his family’s eyes and save the boys, he made a dangerous attempt shortly after dark. Ali was selected as the third rescuer because of his experience with his zip-line business, money and the equipment he already possessed.
The initial efforts by Ali were challenging. The wire shook under his weight; the car shook. Terrified, the boys screamed, “Why do you want to kill us? Why are you putting more weight on the cable car?” Tensions flared between Swati and the sky pirate perched on top of the car, but ultimately the priority became getting the boys out alive.
RESCUE TIME-LINE
A real‑time timeline heightens the film’s tension. Brendan McGinty’s aerial cinematography captures both the beauty and danger of the remote terrain and there was ample film footage of the crisis taken that day, which is used.
The boys were eventually saved, but their trauma lingers. One says, “We feel like we’ve been given a second chance to live.” Rizwan shared that he still relives the incident in nightmares and added, “I still feel scared whever I pass by the cable car.” Irfan continues to avoid the site, saying “There is a fear in my heart.”
Most remarkably, the ruined cable car still remains suspended from the damaged cable today, a grim monument to the day eight lives were left hanging by a wire.
“Joybubbles” at the Sundance Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.)
Joe Engressia is a name that you might not recognize. Joybubbles, which legally became Joe’s name in 1991,is a name that might also leave you in the dark. You can learn about Joybubbles in this Rachael J. Morrison documentary at Sundance and simultaneously take a look back at the telephone of yesteryear.
BACKGROUND
“In the dark” describes Joe Engressia for his entire life, as he was born blind. His life path, however, was so unusual that Director Rachael J. Morrison gathered archival footage of Joe as a young boy and as an adult to tell his story in a charming 79 minute documentary. It tells the story of a young innocent blind boy who decided that he didn’t ever want to grow up. Joe even established a church, the Church of Eternal Childhood, getting an online minister’s degree. Its motto “We won’t grow up.”
Joybubbles’ Peter Pan mind-set stemmed from childhood sexual abuse during a brief stay with his also blind sister at a school for the blind in New Jersey when he was 6 and ½,. Joe demonstrated high intelligence (some reports reported an I.Q. of 172), graduating 33rd out of over 800 students, and he discovered a unique ability to whistle tones with perfect pitch. He was, therefore, able to make long distance calls for free.
TELEPHONES
Phones became Joe’s way of reaching out to the world. We’re not talking cell phones, since Joe was born May 15, 1949. As someone who predates Joybubbles, I can personally testify that long distance phone calls were very expensive and a Big Deal. My own mother basically forbade ever making long distance phone calls unless someone in the family had died, as the hourly wage back then was $1.25 and a long distance phone call could easily run $15 a pop (or more.) In defense of AT&T, which comes off as the $90 billion dollar unpopular monopoly it was for decades, the quality of land lines far surpasses that of cell phones. They’re a vanishing breed, but I still have one.
Joe found the phone to be a real equalizer for a blind person, since you can talk to people without them seeing you. When he learned to make the whistling sound at 2600 mhz that triggered long distance calling, (thanks to his perfect pitch), he earned local and national notoriety. He could make long distance phone calls for the others in his University of South Florida dorm for free. That led to Joe being reported to the phone company and facing charges that were eventually bargained down from federal charges to misdemeanor nuisance variety charges.
LIFE PATH
A near-death experience after Joe contracted what sounded like pneumonia in 1959 at the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship camp for the blind, when the temperatures for the native Florida boy, were in the fifties, Joe may have hallucinated thoughts about bubbles (Joybubbles). He also dreamed of becoming financially independent and living in a high rise with a swimming pool. He continued to want to be embraced by total love. To that end, Joe/Joybubbles placed an ad in the local newspaper and, later in the phone book for Zzzzyerrific FunLine. Strangers could phone to hear his half-hour musings on many subjects.
In 1982 Joybubbles moved to 22 E. 22nd St. in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and began regressing to heal himself, traveling to the Mr. Rogers Collection of videotaped programs at the University of Pittsburgh. He watched all of the Mr. Rogers programs on videotape, which took him days. There was a primal innocence about everything Joybubbles did, which may well have “saved” him, as he listened to his inner philosopher.
WISDOM
Rachael J. Morrison, director of Joybubbles, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Michael Worful.)
Joe—or Joybubbles, as he came to be known—shared many words of wisdom. Here are a few: “If you love something enough, it’ll love you back.”
“In the process of being an adult, you have to find out what works for you and what doesn’t. You have to realize that you’re an adult and sometimes you have to gamble,”
The head of a smaller phone company that ultimately hired Joe to work for them (Millington Telephone Company in Eureka, Tennessee) felt that Joe should be shielded from the many requests for interviews about his unique whistling ability. Joe felt that, “I could be my own person, be a real citizen.” Joe told his boss in Tennessee, “I feel that I’m human, and that’s where our philosophies differ.”
And then he quit.
Joe/Joybubbles moved to the Service Center in Denver in September of 197. to Minneapolis in 1982. He felt he “just needed a way to get loads of people to phone me” and attempted a classified ad, with a number that did not work. He finally settled on the last entry in the phone book and provided weekly updates for those who called in, one of whom was Steve Wozniak of Apple.
Said Joybubbles: “It was quite a realization that somebody could love me and I could have friends.” Others, such as CBS News Correspondent Steve Hartman, who was sent out to do a story on Joybubbles was also asked to take Joybubbles to the movie “Big.” To Steve, the movie seemed a reflection of the life Joybubbles was trying to live.
PERSONAL OBSERVATION
I lived with a blind roommate in my second year of college. Susan (Willoughby). Susan and her siblings were all born blind to a sighted couple. What made Susan’s story even more unique was that two sisters married two brothers. Susan and her brothers and sisters were born blind, while the other couple had children born with normal sight. This interested the University of Iowa, which immediately conscripted the families for further study. Susan was majoring in Cane Travel when she and I roomed together. She was studying Cane Travel and Orientation and was very smart. She was able to beat me at any card game you can name, and she knew when it was me coming down the hall just from the sound of my footsteps.
I was drafted to help Susan match outfits (color coding on the clothing existed, but sometimes a tag would go missing) and, also, to take her to movies. I was told, later, that the University had hand-picked me to be Susan’s roommate. I remained her roommate all year, despite the fact that the books for the blind were so huge in those days that there was only a narrow path left to wind your way to our bunk beds. Our room became a “hangout” for other blind students and it was not unusual to enter and find a blind student “seated” (if that is the right word) in the waste paper basket, a rather large industrial strength version. I learned braille, but to learn it without sight is a much bigger achievement.
CONCLUSION
Joe Engressio was a remarkable human being who was the Peter Pan of Phone Phreaks. They became known as PhonePhreaks between 1969-1971 when the Captain Crunch cereal whistle opened long distance fraud opportunities to others without perfect pitch whistling skill.
As “Joybubbles” underscores, “Joe Engressia was a joyful person; he wanted everyone else to be happy. To that end, Joe’s simplistic world view was: “The essence of genius is being able to hang onto the mysteries of childhood for as long as possible.”
When Joybubbles was not heard from for a week, friends initiated a wellness check. Joe Engressio, (aka Joybubbles), was found dead in his tenth floor apartment on August 20, 2007, of congestive heart failure. His final thoughts: “Love me enough to let me go. Remember: every day is a gift.”
Good advice for us all in a thoroughly enjoyable Sundance documentary.
A still from American Doctor byPoh Si Teng, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Ibrahim Al Otla.)
“American Doctor” is a Sundance documentary that follows three physicians grappling with the unbearable gap between what they’ve witnessed in Gaza volunteering at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis and what the world is willing to acknowledge regarding the reality of what is going on in Gaza. As I watched this documentary I recognized the familiar feeling that, when those in power lack human morality and compassion, the real life crises you are witnessing feel hopeless. The doctors’ concern that their efforts are futile is just one more battle to be fought.
It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about senseless violence in the Ukraine, Gaza, Iran or Minneapolis, the feeling is the same. As articulated at one point by one of the doctors in this powerful documentary: “There’s an institutional trend to silence and speaking out about this. From the boards of every single university, from the boards of hospitals: they just don’t care at what cost this is achieved…Most American physicians are horrified, but they are too frightened to speak up….” Consider that documentary statement as it relates to January 6th, Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, and victims of senseless violence in any ongoing war: “They don’t give a shit about anybody else as long as they kill the person they’re after.”
CINEMATOGRAPHERS
Director Poh Si Teng keeps the cameras closely focused on the work of three American doctors in Gaza at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, letting the doctors’ exhaustion, anger, and quiet despair speak louder than any narration. Cinematographers include Ibrahim Al-Otta, Ramzy Haddad, Arthur Nazaryan, Chris Rentaria, and Poh Si Teng, with editing by Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Christopher White.
The result is a film that radiates a specific kind of helplessness — not the helplessness of uninvolved bystanders, but of experts who have seen the consequences of violence up close and personal and still can’t get anyone to listen to them. We see the physicians returning to the United States to speak to representatives at Chuck Schumer’s office, John Cornyn’s office, Ted Cruz’s office—all for naught. This feeling of tilting at windmills is so widespread, so ubiquitous, that you walk away from the experience of this film overwhelmed by the realization that Kelly Ann Conway’s “alternative facts,” when truth is what is required in society, has contributed mightily to the mess we are all now mired in.
THE DOCTORS
“The American” doctors followed in the Sundance documentary are (l to r) Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Dr. Mark Perlmutter, Director Poh Si Teng and Dr. Fereze Sidhwa. (Photo from AFT)
The doctors are Dr. Fereze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon from California and a Zoroastrian who actively wonders whether his inability to let the injustice of this genocide go on without protesting proactively in perpetuity is what is keeping him from finding the girl of his dreams. Dr. Mark Perlmutter: a Jewish orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina. As a Jew, he is more at liberty to speak out against the repressive far right regime of Benjamin Netanyahu, and he does so. He also shares that his father was a physician who helped concentration camp survivors in World War II, upon arriving with U.S. forces. The third doctor is Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian-America from Chicago who is an Emergency Room doctor in real life with a wife and two darling children. He encounters more hassles than the other two doctors just to be allowed to enter Gaza as a volunteer, often being left at the border by red tape just hours before entry. (“It’s a degree of inconvenience that’s essential. The Israelis choose to notify you that you are not being allowed in literally the night before.”)
All three are risking their lives to go into Gaza and attempt to treat dire injuries under the most primitive conditions. Since the Israeli Army intentionally targets hospitals, there is nowhere for the trapped populace—especially the children—to seek care. The doctors banded together to write an opinion/editorial entitled “As Surgeons We Have Never Seen Such Cruelty Like Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.” The X-ray machine at Nasser Medical Complex has been broken for 11 months; there are only 2 operating rooms.
THE TASK
The three weary doctors are followed amongst their colleagues in Gaza through the halls and operating rooms of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. In the 1 hour and 33 minute film, the hospital is hit by Israeli forces three times. In the film’s finale, a rocket hits the second floor men’s surgical ward, incinerating a 15-year-old boy whom the doctors had just saved. We see two little boys, aged 2, dead and brought in carried in their grieving father’s arms. A ten-year-old has no pulse in her left arm and shrapnel injuries to her foot. If she survives, she is going to lose both legs and her left arm. Early in the film, the doctors remark on the number of children brought in with gunshot wounds to the head, which they say cannot be simply accidental. The killing of children here is 600 times that in the Ukrainian conflict.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest civil rights and advocacy organization, has called for streaming platforms in America to carry this documentary, saying: “This important documentary shows, through the eyes of three heroic Americans, the reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. All Americans should see this film. We urge all streaming services in the nation and worldwide to host and promote the film.”
POLITICS ASIDE
Poh Si Teng, director of American Doctor, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Marcus Yam.)
After Dr. Ahmad appears with Dana Bash on CNN, he received a particularly hostile e-mail cheering for “Hamas to renege on the hostage deal before the Sunday deadline so that Israel can finish the job of eliminating the presence forever of every single Palestinian member of Hamas. Chew on that, Doctor.” The Israelis have protested that the Palestinian Hamas forces often hid their headquarters under hospitals, to avoid detection. Israel used that as their justification for bombing hospitals. We are all aware of the precipitating event when 251 civilians in Israel were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Dr. Ahmad’s response is: “I’m not a spokesperson for anybody. I’m not ‘pro’ anything. I’m a Palestinian who wants to see babies that look like my babies not being killed any more.” Over 1700 health care workers have lost their lives in Gaza since Israel launched its retaliatory attack on Gaza. 94% of the hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including the Nasser Medical Complex.
The U.S. has provided $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and took 251 hostages, according to a report by Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs.
EMOTIONS UPON DEPARTURE
At the end of the film, on March 18, 2025, when most of the Nasser Hospital seemingly collapses after bombing, the doctors must leave; they feel guilt. “When you leave, you really feel that you have no right to leave. You get this feeling of a kind of shame,” says Dr. Fereze Sidhwa. “I don’t feel like I should have left, because nobody was there and nobody was coming in to replace me. I think it would have been better to have stayed on. I had some access to media and to people who could write about these things.” Also articulated is this thought: “The people in Gaza told us that we have to advocate on their behalf. None of us wants to, but we all feel a sense of duty.”
- Peer-reviewed analysis in The Lancet estimated 64,260 traumatic deaths in Gaza by June 30, 2024, rising to over 70,000 by October 2024.
- Demographics: Studies indicate that 59.1% of these deaths in Gaza are women, children, and the elderly.
- Over 100,000 Palestinians have been injured.
CONCLUSION
A companion piece for “American Doctor” is 2024’s “No Other Land,” a film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective that shows the destruction of the occupied West Banks’ Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers.
“American Doctor” is a very powerful firsthand account of what has happened and is happening in Gaza, told by those who have made multiple trips there to try to help. As the “Vanity Fair” Sundance team that wandered into this one when they couldn’t get into “Shitheads” said, “It’s the most powerful thing we’ve seen at Sundance, so far.”
“American Doctor” underscores the need for people of good moral fiber to stand up against and speak out against injustice anywhere, whether in a place far from home or on our own doorstep. If it is wrong and the PTB have presented a “truth” or rationale built on lies, that must be called out by people of good conscience.
From “American Doctor:” “First responders and journalists are being attacked. Every aspect of life has bee destroyed. There’s been no accountability. Who is going to bring the perpetrators to justice? Who is going to prosecute them? Who is going to confront the perpetrators in a way that they cannot rest without seeing us. It’s the only way that we can achieve accountability and justice.”
Do those words from “American Doctor” apply in other settings?
Yes, they do.
Let’s all act like we get the message that might does NOT make right and we must unite,as Minnesota has, to stand up for our neighbors and the sanctity of human life.
