Saying Kaddish For Our Afghan and NATO Allies

[johnkarls]

.

Our following weekly e-mail to be sent pre-dawn tomorrow (Aug 21) should be self-explanatory.


---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: Saying Kaddish For Our Afghan and NATO Allies AND ALSO The Monthly Short Quiz for “Discrimination and Disparities” (our focus book for Sept 8th)
From: Reading Liberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Sat, August 21, 2021
To: To Each of Our 197 Members One-By-One
Attachment:
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To Each of Our 197 Members One-By-One – for reasons explained in the 4 postings in Sec. 2 of www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org


Dear Friends,

First things first --

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SAYING KADDISH FOR OUR AFGHAN AND NATO ALLIES

To be clear, this has VIRTUALLY NOTHING to do with our focus book for Sept 8 – “Discrimination and Disparities.”

HOWEVER, on pp. 10-12 “Disparities and Discrimination” says that “following the U.S. Constitution’s general ban on federal laws that ‘discriminate on the basis of religion’” and France “follow[ing] suit after the revolution of 1789” – “Jews began to flow, and then flood, into universities.”

My Harvard Law School Class of 1967 was overwhelmingly Jewish. Indeed, my roommate throughout law school and best man at my 12/23/1967 wedding (as well as our three additional roommates third year) were Jewish which, together with a German name, produced a universal assumption that I was Jewish.

[BTW, Harvard Law School did NOT admit females until 1950 as part of the class of 1953 and during the 1960’s there was a strict 5% quota – 28 female students in each class of 560.]

It should not be surprising that a corollary of the “Disparities and Discrimination” statement that “Jews began to flow, and then flood, into universities” should have been especially strong vis-à-vis law schools.

After all, during the last 2,000-plus years, virtually every Jewish child has been literate and, upon reaching her/his 13th birthday, is expected to recite FROM MEMORY the entire Jewish law (Genesis-Exodus-Leviticus-Numbers-Deuteronomy) – in a well-attended “Bar Mitzvah” for young males and “Bat Mitzvah” for young females.

So if they already know Jewish law at age 13, why wouldn’t they want to become lawyers???

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The point of all this???

My Harvard Law School Class of 1967 had always had a monthly lunch at the NYC Harvard Club from 1982 until the advent of COVID.

Whereupon, the monthly lunch morphed into a weekly Zoom chat.

The announced topic for this week was “Saying Kaddish For Afghanistan.”

[Kaddish is a Jewish prayer said at funerals and for 11 months thereafter in the case of parents or 30 days after the death of a child, sibling or spouse.]

Immediately following below is a string of e-mails concerning this week’s Zoom chat.

As you will see, I was appalled that –

(1) as a U.S. Navy unrestricted line officer in the 1960’s, our current “Commander-in-Chief” and his military advisers had NO CONCEPTION of the importance of morale; and

(2) the Afghan War was a NATO operation undertaken at America’s invocation following 9/11 of Article 5 of the NATO treaty (an attack on any NATO member is an attack on all) and we did not have the decency to inform our NATO allies that we would, literally, “turn out the lights” at Bagram Airbase and slink into the night at 3 am on July 2 – withdrawing American air support and disabling the Afghan air force which depended on contractors who also disappeared into the night on July 2 – leaving more than 100,000 citizens of other NATO countries stranded around Afghanistan.

Enough already!!! [Please read the e-mail string.]


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OUR SEPT MEETING ON “DISCRIMINATION AND DISPARITIES”

Wed September 8 – 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm MDT via Zoom.

Please RSVP by hitting your Reply Button and typing RSVP.

There is nothing further you need to do such as any special Zoom training. We will send all RSVP’s a few days in advance a URL and meeting ID/password.


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OUR FOCUS BOOK

“Discrimination and Disparities” by Thomas Sowell (Basic Books - The New Revised 3/5/2019 Edition – 223 pages sans notes & index – Hardcover $18.26 + shipping or $18.99 Kindle from Amazon.com).

[The Salt Lake COUNTY Library has available 2 of 6 copies at its Riverton & West Jordan branches – one-day transfer to your local branch (please be careful because the COUNTY Library also has available 17 of 18 copies OF THE ORIGINAL 2018 BLACKSTONE PUBLISHING VERSION)]

[The Salt Lake CITY Library has available 1 of 2 copies (please be careful because the CITY Library also has available 2 of 2 copies OF THE ORIGINAL 2018 BLACKSTONE PUBLISHING VERSION)]


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BOOK DESCRIPTION & AUTHOR BIO & BOOK REVIEW EXCERPTS

Available at viewtopic.php?f=653&t=2091&sid=0bbbcd52 ... f17abec768.


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THIS MONTH’S SHORT QUIZ (for “Discrimination and Disparities”)

Available at viewtopic.php?f=655&t=2098&sid=dfe7ad7a ... 38c4669867.


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We also look forward to seeing/hearing each of you on Wed September 8!!! Please be well!!!

Your friend,

John K.

PS -- To un-subscribe, please press "reply" and type "deletion requested."


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---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: Re: Fwd: Report of the Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction
From: john@johnkarls.com
Date: Thu, August 19, 2021 6:43 pm EDT
To: Donald Leka
Bcc: Attendees of Our HLS-67 Zoom Lunches
Attachment:
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Dear Don,

Thank you very much for forwarding Sheldon Hochberg’s kind e-mail providing a link to the Report of the Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

I apologize for not participating in Tuesday’s Zoom meeting, especially after kidding you in the following e-mail about whether your proposed Kaddish was dependent on achieving a minyan, and your failure to specify whether females would be counted in achieving a minyan.

I had intended to participate Tuesday but when the fateful hour arrived, found it impossible because my stomach was tied up in knots over two issues which the Inspector General’s Report (with which I was already familiar) did not address --

(1) Morale

Yes, I served as a U.S. Navy unrestricted line officer back in the 1960’s when maintaining morale was always stressed as being more important than numbers!!!

So what did our “Commander-in-Chief” and his military advisers think would happen when we abandoned Bagram Airbase without a “heads up” to any allies by literally turning out the lights and slinking into the night at 3 am on July 2???

Why in the world would they think that abandoning Bagram – not only withdrawing U.S. air support but also destroying the Afghan air force which depended on contractors who also slinked/slunk into the night July 2 – would not deal a mortal blow to Afghan morale, both military and civilian???

(2) Our NATO Allies and Their Citizens

Virtually all news reports ignore the fact that our involvement in Afghanistan was part of a NATO operation undertaken pursuant to an American invocation following 9/11 of Article 5 of the NATO treaty – that an attack on any NATO member is an attack on all!!!

So why did our “Commander-in-Chief” and his military advisers think they had the right to abandon Bagram without a “heads up” to any NATO allies???

After all, it’s one thing to betray the Afghan government/military.

But it’s quite another thing to betray our NATO allies, especially after they answered our call under Article 5 of the NATO treaty!!!

In case anyone is unaware, the fall of Afghanistan has stranded more than 100,000 citizens of other NATO nations all over Afghanistan!!!

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I trust everyone will forgive my failure to participate Tuesday in light of my stomach being tied up in knots.

And that in forgiving me, they will note that I haven’t sent one of my many e-mails to the group since my 5/11/2021 missive on John McWhorter’s abominable NY Times OpEd which was the announced topic for our May 11 meeting and which, inter alia, memorialized my verbal comments at the meeting following which no one else spoke to the issue.

And since you, Don, suggested a Kaddish for Afghanistan, please permit me to suggest a Kaddish for the 10 - 15 thousand AMERICAN citizens and for the more-than-100,000 CITIZENS OF OTHER NATO COUNTRIES, who are now de facto hostages of the Taliban.

Sincerely,

John Karls

Blind File Note --

Re John McWhorter’s NY Times OpEd mentioned in the penultimate paragraph above -- McWhorter’s OpEd article, my criticisms of the OpEd article articulated at our HLS-1967 Zoom lunch on 5/11/2021 and memorialized in a Letter to the Editor of the NY Times (which they did not print), and McWhorter’s criticism of Jonathan Kozol in a New Republic article are all available for download in a posting on www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org entitled “NY Times Again Shuns Educating The Permanent 30% Under-Caste” available at viewtopic.php?f=643&t=2067&p=2825&hilit ... 9867#p2825.


---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: Re: HLS ’67 Virtual Luncheon Tuesdays 12 noon EDT on Zoom
From: john@johnkarls.com
Date: Mon, August 16, 2021 11:18 am EDT
To: Donald Leka
Attachment:
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Dear Don,

What if we don't get a minyan???

And you forgot to specify whether females would be counted toward achieving a minyan!!!

Your friend,

John Karls


---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: HLS ’67 Virtual Luncheon Tuesdays 12 noon EDT on Zoom
From: Donald Leka
Date: Mon, August 16, 2021 10:13 am EDT
To: All Living Members of the Harvard Law School Class of 1967
Attachment:
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Dear classmates,

At the risk of being irreverent or sacrilegious or, worse yet, culturally inappropriate, I venture to suggest we say Kaddish for Afghanistan during our virtual luncheon Tuesday August 17. We could spend 5 minutes or so discussing what we did right and how righteous were our intentions, and then whatever time is necessary (subject to sunset restrictions) on what was wrong or misguided in our intentions, strategy, and tactics.

Memories of Saigon, anyone?

Please join us, and be comforted in the assurance that the consensus of the group often supplants the suggested topic of the Zoom host. His formal invitation is below,

Don

[Meeting URL/ID/Password deleted.]