Uncertainty

A moody misty rainy day, and these tree roots look to my eyes like a heart coming up out of the earth, spattered with blood-red offspring. 

Last night was anxious. Sue was in the ER, and I was at my place wringing my hands with worry. We feared it was an impending stroke, but it was just erratic blood pressure that can be stabilized with medication. After a few hours of medication and monitoring, a nurse called a taxi for her and sent her home. She arrived home at about 2:30 a.m. I’ve heard of other people having weird blood pressure spikes after Covid-19. I’m grateful that’s all it was. We were texting each other all the way through it, till she arrived back at her house. I'm so glad she's OK.

Other than that, my heart is heavy with terrible news from Gaza. Reportedly over two thousand children are among the more than 6000 killed in Palestine so far. 

The rest of this text is about the ways distorted or biased information plays into that conflict, so feel free to go on to other things if you don’t want to hear more from me on this subject.

Two hostages were released yesterday because of their medical needs, and I watched two news reports from the same interview of one of them, an 85-year-old Israeli woman. On Al-Jazeera News, she said that once they got to the place where they are being detained, their jailers were respectful, careful of their needs, provided medical care and hygiene, and fed them the same food they themselves ate. She seemed to be reassuring other families that their loved ones taken hostage were being cared for and were not in danger from the hostage-takers. 

On National Public Radio News, she said she had been through hell, that she had been transported by motorcycle and that the hostage-takers hit her with sticks. Once she reached the place where the hostages are being detained, that changed. She said the jailers provided for their needs and fed them the same food they themselves ate: a piece of bread, some cheese, a few slices of cucumber—but they were only fed once a day. Both edits of the same interview had been cut to make a point: Al-Jazeera, that the hostages are safe and are being well cared-for; NPR news, that the hostage-taking was violent and that the hostages are in constant danger. 

Both versions can be true, but it is easy to see how a person watching only one of those news stories would be inclined to accept the view they were given. Update: HarlingDarling's comment, the 2nd one below, explains parts of the story that were left out of both news reports.