For many obvious reasons, I have been thinking a lot about the world we live in today and the attitudes people have today.  It is truly a fascinating time to be alive in so many ways, not all of them good. 

I am part of Gen X.  I think this has a huge impact on the way I view the world.  I know it has a huge impact on how I both raised my children and how I see what is happening on college campuses, in the school systems, and in our country.  My generation grew up with freedoms that future generations didn’t have.  We were latchkey kids.  Most of our parents worked so after school we were free to do what we wanted. 

We didn’t have computers or screens.  There was no internet or cell phones.  We played outside until the streetlights came on.  Often times our parents had no idea where we were after school and that didn’t bother them.  We were independent.  We’d ride our bikes miles to get to other friends’ neighborhoods.  Our friends were our friends because of who they were.  Race, religion, sexuality didn’t matter.  My public school was closed for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because 1/3 of the students and teachers were Jewish.  We were also closed the first day of deer hunting season because 1/3 of the students and teachers would be out hunting.  We were an eclectic group of people tied together.  I grew up with friends that came from family’s that had lots of money, those who were middle class, and those who didn’t have much money.  It didn’t matter.  Many of us are still in touch today.  We had real friendships that stand the test of time.

I remember when two of my childhood friends finally came out.  I, like the rest of our friends, were happy for them that they felt comfortable coming out.  We also knew they were gay when we were in elementary school, so it wasn’t a big deal and changed nothing as far as we were concerned.  We paid attention to who people were, not identity politics. 

As I look at the world today, I wonder how we lost that specialness from my childhood.  We are more divided than any time since the civil war.  We no longer focus on the quality of the individual but on what sets them apart from us.  We no longer care about who people are but rather how they identify.  When I was running nonprofits, my goal was always to hire the best person for the job.  It didn’t matter to me if it was a man or a woman, what their race or their religion was.  I didn’t care about their sexuality.  I wanted the best person for the job.  Today’s world seems to have more and more focus on the identity of the person as we focus on how we are different instead of how we are similar.

My older son is home for a bit and he took me to the Brightline station (high speed rail between Orlando and South Florida) so I can get my flight to Israel later tonight.  As we were talking, he told me about how many of his ‘friends’ he has had to block on social media because of how they were minimizing what Hamas did on October 7^th and the need for Israel to eliminate Hamas to ensure the safety of Israelis and to free to people of Gaza.  It saddened me to hear this.  I don’t know how all my childhood friends feel about the conflict.  What I do know is that the vast majority of them have reached out in support of me.  I’m not asking them to believe what I believe.  I am asking them to be my friend and understand what I am going through as a Zionist and as a Jew since October 7^th. 

I have long looked at the difference between Israeli youth and American youth.  From the time I first began to engage with 18-21 year old Israelis, serving their country in the IDF, and comparing them to my own college experience and then, when working on the University of Florida campus, with the UF students.  The similarities and differences were dramatic.  On the many Birthright Israel trips I staffed, we had 8 Israeli soldiers join us.  They were the same age as our students on the trip.  When they showed up in uniform, they were imposing.  Awe inspiring.  A few minutes after arriving, when they changed out of their uniforms, they became peers with our college students.  For the part of the trip they were with us, the similarities between the Israelis and Americans was striking.  When they first arrived and then, when they put their uniforms back on at the end of their time with us, the differences were striking. 

As a result, it didn’t surprise me that after October 7^th, so many members of the IDF reserves showed up.  I read that Israel recalled 250,000 reserve soldiers and hoped to get 200,000 to actually show up.  Instead, 300,000 showed up.  People in America were doing all they could to get flights to go back and serve.  My friends who were retired IDF soldiers in the 40s and 50s showed up to serve.  They understood the existential threat that Hamas is as a result of October 7^th.  Many of them went from protesting the Netanyahu government and some of their policy positions to a united front for Israel.  It was extraordinary but if you know Israel and Israelis, it was also not unexpected.

Last week, Douglas Murray, one of my favorite people to follow, was given the Alexander Hamilton Award for his ‘unwavering defense of Western values.’  His speech, in text here and the video of it below, was extraordinary. 

He spoke about “What it Means to Choose Life”.  He uses examples of both the Ukrainian people and Israeli people that make me long for the days of my youth.  Unlike our entitled generation that believes everything should be given to them, the people he talks about understand that everything comes with a price.  Unlike the protesting college students who think they have the right to incite violence, take over buildings, violate campus rules and break laws without any consequences, the people Murray talks about understand that everything comes with a cost. 

I want to be clear that I am not saying the college students shouldn’t protest.  Protesting, especially on college campuses, is a right of passage.  We have freedom of speech in the United States and as President Andrew Shephard says in the great movie, The American President,

“America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.” You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.  Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.”

I disagree with the campus protesters position, and I disagree with how they characterize what is going on in Gaza.  I also firmly stand with their right to peacefully say it.  To gather in the public allowed space, in the manner that is allowed for everybody, and protest and hold signs, and say what they want.  Crossing the line to blocking Jewish students from going to class, harassing them as they walk on campus, threatening them, physically assaulting them, breaking the campus rules and breaking laws is not acceptable and comes with consequences. 

I laughed when the spokesperson for the student protesters who took over Hamilton Hall at Columbia University asked for ‘humanitarian aid’.  Nobody was forcing them to stay in the building.  They could walk out of the building to get food and water any time they wanted.  The entitlement was absurd.  The students at Princeton who have decided to hold a hunger strike to protest the war in Gaza also made me shake my head.  Nobody is forcing them to go on a hunger strike.  They aren’t in prison or jail where their care belongs to the state and monitoring them is therefore the state’s obligation. They are choosing not to eat and as a result, they are responsible for their own health monitoring.  When they got upset that the University wasn’t monitoring their health as they were on the hunger strike, I thought to myself, ‘What entitlement’. 

I missed the protests of the 60s and 70s because I was too young.  I have had the opportunity to talk with many people who were part of those protests.  Every single one that I spoke with could tell me how many times they were arrested for their protest.  Every single one of them was proud of their arrest.  They knew there would be consequences for their protest, and they embraced it.  They didn’t whine and cry when the consequences came.  They had that level of conviction.  Today’s protesters seem to lack that conviction.  They want the best of both worlds.  They want to protest with no consequences and have the rest of the world cave to their demands because they protested once.  There are Universities who have done this, and I believe they will face long lasting consequences for doing this.  Others have held their ground and ensured that freedom of speech is protected, and inappropriate actions are held accountable and face consequences.  Those who have made the second choice are also bearing the fruits of this effort.  Their students feel safe.  Their graduations are not cancelled.  Their donors and alumni are not up in arms.  Their University Presidents are not having to testify in front of Congress about how they are failing to protect Jewish college students. 

Our world today has the ‘news’ in the ‘entertainment’ department.  We have the 24 hour ‘news’ cycle and each station has its own agenda to push.  The days of Walter Cronkite reading the news and you getting to interpret it are long gone.  Whatever channel you watch feeds you their narrative.  Critical thinking is dying.  Deep conversations are dying.

On this trip to Israel, one of my hopes and plans is to go visit my friend Mahmoud in East Jerusalem.  Mahmoud is a Palestinian Arab, and his family owns the big Palestinian bookstore in East Jerusalem.  When we met in November 2019, he pushed some of my buttons and challenged me to think deeper and in different ways.  In the 4 ½ years since we met, I have thought deeply on many things he said to us and very much look forward to sitting down for a few cups of coffee or tea, a bite to eat, and having a robust and deep conversation.  We won’t settle the conflict, but we can do our little part to build friendships, understanding, and perhaps share what we learn from each other with our other friends that might impact change.

I think that’s the most important lesson of all of this.  I remember hearing the stories of how President Ronald Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill would argue and fight all day long and then go have a beer together.  Mahmoud and I will come from different points of view and will sit over coffee and talk and share.  Even as I write this, a friend reached out to share information I wasn’t aware of and it changed my mind and I went back and edited something that I wrote as a result of this new information.  We need to find a way to get back to that being the norm.  Yelling at each other, only speaking with people who agree with you, repeating lies because they advance your point of view, and anything else that fits into this area does not solve problems.  It doesn’t get us to solutions.  It doesn’t bring us together.  It divides us.  It separates us.  It leads to physical harm.  It degrades us as human beings and as a civilization.

There was a fascinating September 2023 CBS News report that said most men think about the Roman Empire once a day, and some think about it as often as three times a day.  My wife asked me about it and I said that I think about it at least once a week.  She was stunned.  Why do men think about the Roman Empire so often?  My theory is that the Roman Empire is a symbol of amazing strength and power.  Incredible things came from the Roman Empire.  It seemed to a power that would last forever.  And it fell.  I always wondered how the Roman Empire could fall.  It had a strong military, powerful leaders, good economy, art, and culture.  It seemed to be the type of society that would last forever.  Yet it didn’t.  The past few years have given me an indication of how it could have fallen.  Internal bickering.  Divisiveness.  Lack of humanity.  Lack of understanding.  Growth of hate.  Poor leaders in control.  I hope that we can learn the lessons from the fall of the Roman Empire to avoid the fall of the American experiment.  Freedom, democracy, and our future are too important to just throw away the way we are.