Opinion

The Chinese are known to celebrate their New Years by focusing on the character of a different animal or reptile at each New Year’s cycle. Sometimes it’s a dog, a dragon, a rooster, a horse, a snake, or even a pig. The year 2020 was The Year of the Rat.

 President John F. Kennedy once said: “Victory has a thousand fathers. Defeat is an orphan.” Human nature is to claim more than our fair share of credit when things go well, while avoiding responsibility for our failures.

The greatest lie that conservatives tell themselves is that “the desire for freedom resides in every human heart.” The events of this past year should have taught us that there are those in the bureaucracy who enjoy the power and attention they have garnered and will refuse to relinquish it.

 New York Senator Charles Schumer is probably the most cunning politician in the Senate today. I will not describe how I feel about him, however; this is a family paper. But he does have all the instincts necessary for political survival, even if he has very few core values.

Last week’s political news understandably focused on Attorney General Tish James’ report on the allegations against Governor Andrew Cuomo. But for those of us interested in a strong US-Israel relationship, there was another political development of even greater importance.

Get the vaccine. By sheer statistics alone, it’s safer to be vaccinated than unvaccinated. 

With that out of the way - make your own choices.  If you choose to get a vaccine, that’s all you can do and don’t worry anymore.  If you choose not to, you’ll live with the consequences of that decision.