Good news week revisited
by Tom Sullivan
This post began as a change of pace to run counter some of the bad news this year.
Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times declares 2019 the best year ever. Around the world, more people got electricity and piped water. Fewer children died by age 15. Fewer people went hungry. Literacy rates set records around the world, etc.
The Washington Post Editorial Board lists "19 good things that happened in 2019." There is a new therapy for cystic fibrosis and a new vaccine against Ebola. A record number of women took seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in January. Drug overdoses dropped by 5.1 percent from 2017 to 2018 — only 68,577 died in 2018. Etc.
Then news broke last night about a mass stabbing during a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home in Monsey, N.Y. northwest of New York City in Rockland County. Fifty to 60 people were there and had just lit the menorah:
A witness described the scene as terrifying.One victim was reported stabbed at least six times. A more recent report lists two of the victims in critical condition. Police have not yet determined a motive.
"I saw him walking in by the door. I asked who was coming in in the middle of the night with an umbrella. While I was saying that, he pulled it out from the thing and he started to run into the big room, which was on the left side. And I had thrown tables and chairs, that he should get out of here. And the injured guy, he was bleeding here, bleeding in his hand, all over," said Aron Kohn. "I ran into the other room to save my life. I saw him running this way, so I ran the other way to save my life. He said something but I could not understand what he said. I saw him pull out the knife from the holder, the case."
All of the victims were taken to the hospital in critical condition. officials said.
Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel said hours later that New York City police had located a vehicle and possible suspect being sought in connection with the stabbing in Harlem.
“The community is terrified,” said Evan Bernstein, the New York regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, who was at the crime scene in Monsey on Saturday night. “They are very, very scared.”The Times and the Post get points for effort, but that level of tension is hard to massage out with a couple of good news stories.
The Trump supporters I’m talking to have all supported him without question. But for all his bragging about the market, they’re not seeing any differences. They’re tired of his whole act and admit, when they feel safe, that they know he committed crimes with the Ukraine call.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) December 28, 2019