Running for our lives

I was never much of a runner.

All right, I never ran.

I grew up in the era of rotary phones and running was for boxers in training and the like.

But yesterday, Sunday, November 3, 2024 the New York City Marathon changed that for me.

I was in the street watching men and women run across the blocked off 59th Street Bridge in the oddly sunny November morning and descend the ramp to First Avenue accompanied by the never-ending cheers of onlookers, many holding large images of the faces of their favored runner posted on long sticks.

It was heart-warming and healing.

Americans are coming to the end of a painful, sometimes vicious presidential campaign filled with personal attacks and divisionist rhetoric and yet there we were were, waving as one body politic.

I told my companions, my voice, thickened and my words slowed, “This election has divided family members and friends. People are no longer talking-to one another.”

We walked to 59th and Fifth to watch the runners come out of Central Park.

The temperature was about 50. It was, by NYC early winter standards, almost balmy.

The scene was the same.

The runners were energized by the crowds, the crowds roared non-stop.

The time for grievances is past.

The “Karens” who tore down political signs on private property, the cascade of lies and threats will soon be laid to rest.

Always on the horizon, for an American Zionist, is the reality of Israel, the dangers that it faces, its courageous resistance and achievements. Every day we see the faces of young men and woman next to a burning candle. They are for the most part, young or newly married or parents of young children. It seems that everyone of them is smiling broadly with an otherworldly sense of contentment, peace and pride in their roles as defenders of Israel.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 5, 2024, is the national election.

By 10 or 11 p.m. Americans will have an idea of who has won the presidency.

Israel’s future, too is greatly affected.

Will the next administration support its ally or not?

The male winner of the New York City was Abdi Nageeye. The female winner was Sheila Chepkiri.

They are both of African descent.

Year after year, almost every winner has been of African descent.

They have the anatomy, training, and will to triumph.

If truth be told, they are like the State of Israel.