May 31, 2023
Cast of Characters:
Squirrel(s) the king and queen.
Steller’s Jays the bishops.
Attack:
Crows the rooks.
Pigeons the Knights.
The rest – junkos and chickadees – are pawns.
And the wren ignores them all.
While watching these birds I have been listening to a beautiful album out of Turkey, heartbroken over the election outcome last Sunday. I will never understand why women – a solid block of traditionally religious women helped Erdogan’s victory – vote against their self interest and for a society that oppresses them (and any dissenter) in nefarious ways. I will never understand why the left manages to eat its own rather than to unite (or unite too late) against a common foe.
Sara Lee Silberman
Marvelous views from the porch, and I of course share your distress about both the outcome of the election in Turkey and the contribution of the female vote to it. Likely you’ve seen the NYT op-ed today suggesting, plausibly, that the result in Turkey gives added, as if any were needed, cause for concern about what could – heaven forfend! – happen next year in the U.S. election.