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Bare Trees in Fog

Who Would Have Thought?

Writer's picture: Marie LaureMarie Laure

In 2016, I cancelled my subscription to the New York Times for one reason: the coverage of candidate Donald J. Trump was appalling. I waited for "all the news that's fit to print" to hit page one. "The Donald" was, after all, a hometown boy, of sorts. Business was his middle name around Manhattan real estate with a reputation as tall as any skyscraper that he owned. Around that time, I heard an NPR story that described the Russian mafia's relationship with DJT in great detail. (Remember these were early days.)

The "Times", that is, The New York Times

hardly wrote about those connections, or

his long-standing practice of racism toward black tenants, the fake"University" that ripped off innocent people, the sexual abuses of women in and around the Big Apple. Instead, the "man of the hour" got a pass from the largest paper of record in the US when it should have been exposing him as the man that he is not. Instead, the NYT gave space to escapades of one of the rich and famous (Think Elon Musk) moving about in a jet plane with his name in letters that can be read from the ground. Reporters didn't dog this candidate in the early days when it mattered most. Yet, they pounced on other candidates running for President of the free world. The outcome could not have been worse. I blamed the NYT for its failure to tell the truth about this person who swore with his hand on a Bible on a bitter January day in 2016 to uphold the Constitution.


If he were a "fair-haired" boy, a "golden boy" with a lineage to boast and a record to back it up, then one might almost understand propping up such a stalwart despite shortcomings. (Think JFK) But, let's be honest, this towhead bears no resemblance to any other Presidential candidate to have ever faced reporters' questions so often designed for a lame brain. There is no other way to understand how such a swindler has gotten so far, and away with so much. In days since, the NYT cannot give enough coverage to the truth about this candidate now trolling for another "get out of jail free" card, which seems to be handed out like candy from judges in high and low courts and even the media.


You can pull the wool over people's eyes with lies that go unchecked, un-fact checked, that is. The job of the free press is to keep us informed about those wolves in sheep's clothing. The NTY, in my humble opinion, failed and has been trying ever since to make up for the worst possible outcome this country has ever experienced. I have not returned to that publication for my news. There are other sources that so far have earned my trust.


The NYT gets a second chance to do their job by giving fair and balanced coverage to all candidates. This may feel like "Her Moment" to ride a wave to victory, thereby sinking the second presidency of the one who shall not be named here, but who must be named and called out in bold face by major publications like the NYT for his woeful limitations, and most importantly for the plethora of lies that go unchallenged. We shall see what the next 90 days bring.



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© 2023 by Marie Laure

​Six Stages of Pilgrimage:

  • The Call:

  • The opening clarion of any spiritual journey. Often in the form of a feeling or some vague yearning, a fundamental human desire: finding meaning in an overscheduled world somehow requires leaving behind our daily obligations. Sameness is the enemy of spirituality.

  • The Separation:

  • Pilgrimage, by its very nature, undoes certainty. It rejects the safe and familiar. It asserts that one is freer when one frees oneself from daily obligations of family, work, and community, but also the obligations of science, reason, and technology.

  • The Journey:

  • The backbone of a sacred journey is the pain and sacrifice of the journey itself.  This personal sacrifice enhances the experience; it also elevates the sense of community one develops along the way.

  • The Contemplation:

  • Some pilgrimages go the direct route, right to the center of the holy of holies, directly to the heart of the matter. Others take a more indirect route, circling around the outside of the sacred place, transforming the physical journey into a spiritual path of contemplation like walking a labyrinth.

  • The Encounter:

  • After all the toil and trouble, after all the sunburn and swelling and blisters, after all the anticipation and expectation comes the approach, the sighting. The encounter is the climax of the journey, the moment when the traveler attempts to slide through a thin veil where humans live in concert with the Creator.

  • The Completion and Return:

  • At the culmination of the journey, the pilgrim returns home only to discover that meaning they sought lies in the familiar of one's own world. "Seeing the place for the first time . . ."

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