Ezra's Essays

Category: 2002

  • THE DEFLOWERING OF GEORGE W. BUSH

    If you were looking by some chance for a laudatory piece about George W. Bush, you will have to read Bill Safire or George Will or some other right wing writer or perhaps the Wall Street Journal editorial page. My reading on Bush after following his career since he became the Governor of Texas is…

  • THAT OLD TIME RELIGION

    In ancient times, religious zealots such as myself would exile themselves to remote desert locations, away from secular and sinful cities, in the hope that a higher power would speak to them in an unmistakable voice of moral clarity. For the past few months, I have followed that ascetic trail blazed by our religious forebearers.…

  • FOUR STARS OF DAVID

    BUSH & SHARON – THE HAMHANDED EFFORT TO GET THINGS RIGHT Jerusalem has been on my mind of late because of the bombings and other acts of warfare that have taken place there. At the outset, I must point out that I am not an active partisan in the dispute between the Israeli and Palestine…

  • NEW YORK, NEW YORK PART 9 – NEW YORK AIN’T MISSISSIPPI OR ALABAMA

    For readers who have stayed with me through the first eight parts of the New York series, I hope I haven’t worn you out. New York is a very big town and most observers would say that I am very fond of it. I know when a snowstorm hits the city or when a train…

  • NEW YORK, NEW YORK PART 8 – GEORGE FEYER – ONE OF THE GREAT ONES

    In the international telephone business in the 1970’s and 1980’s, it was a delight to visit correspondents in Montreal, London, Paris, Rome and even Johannesburg. Those were the easy ones with good airline connections, good hotels and food to please any palate. Among the tough ones were countries in Africa and the eastern European states…

  • NEW YORK, NEW YORK PART 7 – “A PICTURE ON THE WALL AND MUSIC IN THE HOUSE”

    When I was in New York City for union bargaining in 1949, 1950, and 1951, I found myself being drawn to Greenwich Village. In many cases, food and drinks were cheaper there than in midtown. The place had a small town feel to it. If you ate at a restaurant two of three times, chances…

  • ARMY DAYS – AFRICA AND OTHER PLACES

    I suppose it would be well to write this essay in a bit of a hurry. The reason has to do with the grim reaper mowing down people who served in the military services in World War II. Two years ago, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs reported that World War II veterans were…

  • OUR PAL – SHANNON P. CATT

    Writing essays is often hard work mentally for me. But all things taken together, it is pleasant work, particularly when the essays are completed. In recent months, I have been writing essays about politicians. That is sordid business. So now I am going to give myself a treat by writing about people I like, including…

  • THE ELDERLY GENTLEMAN ON LONG HILL DRIVE | STROKES AND THEIR AFTER EFFECTS

    In December, 1987 it was necessary to perform a coronary artery bypass graft involving four vessels on the author of this essay. The surgery was performed at New York Presbyterian Hospital and was accomplished by a mixed Jewish and Irish team followed by recovery where I was attended to by some of New York’s finest…

  • OIL – FROM CRAWFORD, TEXAS AND BROOKLYN?

    Bush and Cheney loudly proclaim that they are oilmen. How could they in one week alienate the Arabs and Venezuela, our third largest supplier of oil? George W. Bush, The Israelis and the Venezuelans As I write this in mid-April, 2002, the crisis in the Mid-East has been going on for some time. Until April…