Inspirational Individuals – Idelle Kursman

Who says all politician are only out for themselves?

Of late I’ve become cynical and have started to believe all politicians are morally bankrupt and just get in office to enrich themselves.

Until I read about Representative Cory Mills of Florida.

Over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, this politician and army veteran helped rescue 13 Americans from Haiti.

He had was a member of the 82 Airborne Division when he had served in the U. S. Army.

As reported in the news, armed gangs have taken over Haiti, leading to the resignation of the island’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry. They have forced the country’s international airport to close, over 4,000 criminals have been let out of jail, and many businesses and schools are now closed. The gangs are entering neighborhoods and killing people while leaving thousands homeless. The gangs are breaking into hospitals and looting their medical supplies. Many hospitals are actually boarded up because doctors are afraid to go to work. UNICEF reported armed groups are looting containers filled with medical supplies at the seaport.

To date they have 80% control over Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The officers making up Haiti’s National Police cannot maintain order. Haitians are saying they have never seen violence on such a large scale.

While the U. S. government deliberates on how they are going to respond to the Caribbean island’s violence, Rep. Cory Mills took action. He paid for the rescue operation and took part in the flight.

That was his second rescue mission to Haiti.

Earlier this month, author Mitch Albom, who was visiting his orphanage, Have Faith Haiti, was trapped with his wife Janine and eight other volunteers. He contacted Michigan Representative Lisa C. McClain, another politician who is actually dedicated to public service. trapped in the island country. Rep. McClain contacted Rep. Mills and he organized his first Haitian rescue.

And these are not the only rescue missions he took part in.

Back in 2021, while he was initially running for Congress, he helped to evacuate 4 Americans from Afghanistan when the United States withdrew their troops. Mills also helped evacuate over 100 Americans from Israel when Hamas attacked the country on October 7.

For people like myself who are disillusioned with the governing bodies in Washington, I am deeply heartened there are still politicians who are actually working hard to serve the people they represent.

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A Study of Contrasts-Dr. Li Wenliang and Ghislaine Maxwell

Human Trafficking Awareness, Inspirational Individuals

I am one of those people who tries to understand how people choose to live their lives. Is it in large part because some are basically good and try to help their fellow human beings while other people just care about themselves and are willing to hurt anyone in order to get what they want? In my novel True Mercy, Bruce Hitchens and his son Adam want to do the right thing and help people while the human trafficking smugglers, Igor, Sergei, and Andre, only care about themselves and stop at nothing to achieve their goals, even if it means destroying lives.

An example of a study of contrasts as to how people make these decisions is to examine the lives of Dr. Li Wenliang and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Dr. Li was a 34-year-old dedicated ophthalmologist at the Wuhan Central Hospital. In December of 2019, Dr. Li warned other doctors about the possible spread of an illness with SARS-like symptoms appearing on seven patients from the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan. They had recently been quarantined at his hospital. His post on WeChat went viral and the alarmed Chinese government quickly sent in the police to warn him that spreading rumors online was forbidden. The following week Dr. Li had a patient suffering from glaucoma but who also had the SARS-like illness, which we now know is the novel coronavirus. Unfortunately, the doctor also contracted the virus and passed away on February 7, 2020. He was married and his widow had their second child in June.

Ghislaine Maxwell is an entirely different story. She is a 58-year-old socialite from England who dedicated her life to supplying and grooming underage girls to her friend, financier Jeffrey Epstein, for sex-trafficking purposes. Her father, the late publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, had robbed his employee’s pension funds to keep his empire afloat. Ghislaine was raised in a 53-room mansion and attended Oxford University. In 1991, she moved to the United States. Craving the lifestyle she was accustomed to but lost when her father’s empire went under, she decided to make a living by finding three girls a day so pedophile Jeffrey Epstein could sexually abuse them. She has recently been arrested and is now in prison awaiting trial.

Who knows why people make the decisions they do? Although it is an eternal question, one thing is certain: it is always a privilege to have good, sincere people in our lives. As for the opposite, the best we can do if they come near is to run in the opposite direction.

References

Bociurkiw, Michael (11 February 2020). “China’s hero doctor was punished for telling truth about coronavirus” (https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/08/opinions/coronavirus-bociurkiw/index.html) Retrieved 20 July 2020.
Hegarty, Stephanie (6 February 2020) “The Chinese doctor who tried to warn others about coronavirus” (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51364382) Retrieved 20 July 2020.
Vincent, Isabel (18 July 2020). “Ghislaine Maxwell was ‘a sexual predator,’ alleged victim says in new testimony” (https://nypost.com/2020/07/18/ghislaine-maxwell-was-a-sexual-predator-alleged-victim-says) Retrieved 20 July 2020.

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A Deep, Sad Loss

Inspirational Individuals

On June 25, 2020 my life changed forever. My beloved father, Stanley S. Kaplan, passed away at 91. He was a major influence and inspiration in my life, always guiding and supporting me, even when I was at my lowest. It is ironic that in my new novel, I write a detailed scene of children losing their devoted father and I am actually experiencing the same heartbreak in real life. I must now learn to continue living without having him to turn to.

I have so many memories: his optimism and encouragement, his devotion to my mother during their sixty-year marriage, and his unending care and concern for me and my sisters. When I was very young my father would take me to what he referred to as “the secret place” because we never told anyone where we went. It would be a visit to the park and afterwards, he would take me out for ice cream. My father had read that it was difficult to be a middle child, so he would occasionally take me out alone to make sure I was getting enough attention. And after I was married, I had a difficult pregnancy because I was carrying twins. My husband was working long hours and I couldn’t be alone, so my parents picked me up from New Jersey and I stayed with them in Rhode Island. Since my twins were born premature and I needed time to recover, my parents attended classes at the hospital to learn about premature babies.

His kindness did not stop with his family. One time while growing up we were traveling to a Cape Cod vacation and ate in a restaurant. As we were driving away, my father realized that he forgot to leave the waitress a tip. He turned around on the highway to return to the restaurant. On his obituary page, a neighbor wrote that when he lost his own father at a very young age, my father would invite him over to lift weights and was always very kind to him. And a cousin of mine recently told me that my father treated him more like a grandson than a cousin, and whenever he and his mother came to visit, my father gave him toys when he was young and advice as he grew older.

Dad, I will carry your love and goodness in my heart forever.

Idelle Kursman is the author of two novels: True Mercy and more recently, The Book of Revelations.

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Again!?

Inspirational Individuals, Other Current Issues

I write this blog with a heavy heart. On Saturday, April 27^th, the last day of Passover, the day Jewish people say Yizkor, a prayer for family members who passed away, a gunman opened fire in the Chabad of Poway in San Diego, California. He killed one woman and injured three others.

This was only six months after a gunman went on a shooting spree in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Like many people, I keep asking, “Why? Why take the lives of innocent people and leave so many others traumatized? What goal could these crazed gunmen possibly be achieving?

And just like the Pittsburgh shooting, the world lost a very special individual.

Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, was attending the synagogue not only because it was the Sabbath and Passover, but also to recite Yizkor for her mother, who passed away in November. She was one of the founding members of the Chabad synagogue. Lisa Busalacchi, a friend of Kaye’s since they were in second grade, said that “. . . if someone were sick or someone died, she was the first one there with food or asking what she could do.” Another friend recalled when a member of the synagogue was diagnosed with breast cancer, Kaye drove her to every doctor’s appointment and helped care for her children. Witnesses say Kaye’s final heroic act was shielding Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein from the gunman’s bullets.

Still the gunman managed to shoot the rabbi, who was rushed to the hospital. Doctors operated on him but he ended up losing a finger.

There were other heroes in this shooting. Almog Peretz, 34, was injured while protecting Noya Dahan, his 8-year-old niece, and other children from the shooter. Dahan was also injured.

Oscar Stewart, 51, a construction worker who served in the Navy and Army, shouted at the gunman, who froze, dropped his gun, and ran away. Stewart chased him to his car and pounded on his car window. The gunman drove away but was later apprehended.

Jonathan Morales, an off-duty US Customs and Border Patrol agent, also chased the gunman to his car. He told Stewart to step away and began shooting at the car. Morales then went into his own car and continued shooting until he hit the gunman’s car.

The gunman was identified as 19-year-old John Earnest, a nursing student at Cal State University, San Marcos. He grew up in a middle-class family near Poway, was an honors student, and an exceptional pianist. Earnest published a manifesto online shortly before the attack. It is eerily similar to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a famous antisemitic book in which Jews are accused, among other things, of controlling the media and the economy.

I think Oscar Stewart said it best when he told reporters that “If you’re ignorant and you don’t know what people are like, you don’t know that I’m a person just like you. I go to work every day in a manual labor job. “. . . supposedly he said in his manifesto that the Jews control this and that—I don’t control anything. I go to work just like you every day. He didn’t know that.” He went on further to say, “The most important thing I want to share is that we need to know each other. If you make an opinion on anyone, you need to know what they’re about, and who they are. You can’t generalize and say every blue person is evil because they’re blue. That’s ridiculous.”

References

Joffre, T. (2019, April 28). Suspect’s Manifesto: Jews deserve hell and I will send them there. Retrieved from https://www.jpost.com.

Kamim, D. (2019, April 29). Poway Chabad Rabbi had asked Border Patrol Agent to pray armed-just in case. Retrieved from https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com.

Oster, M. (2019, April 28). Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, killed in Poway attack, shielded rabbi from bullets. Retrieved from https://www.jta.org

Stoltzfoos, R. (2019, April 28). Combat Vet who stopped the Synagogue Shooter: “I scared the hell out of him.” Retrieved fromhttps://flipboard.com.

(2019, April 30). FBI says received vague tips ahead of deadly California synagogue shooting. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com.

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Thai Cave Rescue: Finally, News to Inspire

Inspirational Individuals, Other Current Issues

Photographer: Adam Sherez

I have a voracious appetite for keeping up with the news, but after days of reading or watching TV following Meghan Markle breaking royal protocol by crossing her legs at public events and the continual mud-slinging of the country’s politicians, it was refreshing to read about the dramatic rescue of the 12 boys and their 25-year-old soccer coach who were trapped in a cave for over two weeks in Thailand.

Like most people, I read the articles and watched the news with growing trepidation about their chances of rescue after being trapped while under threat from heavy rains flooding the cave and their dependence on oxygen tanks. The soccer team was exploring a cave after soccer practice, and since it was rainy season in Thailand, a downpour flooded the tunnels and they became trapped. Oxygen tanks and food and water were brought down while rescue crews worked tirelessly to keep them alive while planning their rescue.

A few days ago a former Thai navy diver died while attempting to bring oxygen supplies down to the cave. Unfortunately, his own oxygen supply ran out. At that point their fate looked bleak.

But on Tuesday, while reading about which NBA players were likely going to stay on their teams and which may be traded and Kim Kardashian’s little daughter North West making her fashion debut, I was happy and relieved to find out that all thirteen young men were rescued. And even more heartwarming, it was an international effort—divers and other help came from Britain, the US, Australia, and Israel along with the Thai Navy SEALS.

While I don’t wish for anyone to be in danger and in need of rescue, it was certainly a story of substance and encouragement. Apparently, others thought so as well. A Hollywood movie producer and a major publisher have expressed interest in bringing their story to the public.

Clearly, this was a news item that touched our spirits and gave us the inspiration we all crave.

RIP Saman Kunan, a former Thai Navy seal, who passed away in his valiant attempt to rescue the boys.

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