August 8 • 2019 5
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A

ccording to poet Robert Frost, 
there are, “Miles to go before 
I sleep.”
Those who are runners are familiar 
with many different mile-runs that 
can be found as challenges. Those of 
us not as athletically 
inclined will use the 
term “mile” often in 
our speech. There is 
something about that 
distance that makes 
it useful for exagger-
ation or just to help 
someone envision a 
great distance.
Two actual mile measures are 1) 
the nautical mile, which is 2,025 
yards measured at sea; and 2) the 
Royal Mile, which is found in 
Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the road 
that has Edinburgh Castle at one end 
and Holyrood Palace, the Queen’
s res-
idence, at the other.
But let’
s start talking common uses. 
If you are a dedicated worker, you 
may be described as willing to go that 

extra mile to accomplish something. 
When presenting your findings, 
however, do not talk a mile a minute; 
you’
ll lose your audience.
You say the mistake was only a lit-
tle one? Remember that a miss is as 
good as a mile. If you are way off the 
track, you may be said to have missed 
by a mile (Often it is said to be by a 
country mile.). You and an adversary 
may be miles apart in your thinking.
Do you want to really understand 
someone? You are then advised to 
walk a mile in their shoes. (You lit-
eralists may keep your comments to 
yourselves.)
If you want to encourage someone 
to begin something, but on a small 
scale, remind that person that, “
A 
journey of a thousand miles begins 
with a single step.” Do not let anyone 
take advantage of you; be cautioned 
that if you give an inch, they’
ll take a 
mile.
In traveling, have you ever felt you 
were miles from anywhere? Yet you 
may spot your destination a mile off. 

Get there before someone else and 
you have won by a mile.
Here is a riddle in closing: What is 
the longest word in English? Answer: 
“smiles” because there is a mile 
between each “s.” ■

for openers
Exaggerate Much?

Sy Manello
Editorial Assistant

A

s a liberal Manhattan writ-
er and teacher, I applauded 
the House vote to condemn 
President Donald Trump’
s comments 
that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 
Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib and 
Ilhan Omar should “go 
back” to where they 
came from.
I was outraged by 
the nasty language 
Trump used to encour-
age a mostly white 
Republican crowd at a 
North Carolina cam-
paign rally to chant 
“Send her back!” It seemed ignorant 
because three of the congresswomen 
were born in this country; Omar was a 
Somali refugee who became a U.S. citi-
zen in 2000. The racist words sickened 
me, and Omar had my solidarity and 
sympathy. Until she reacted to the rare 
show of Democratic unity in repudia-
tion of Trump by ramping up her own 
racism.

A day after supporters cheered her 
at her hometown airport in Minnesota, 
Omar told CBS’
 Gayle King she had no 
regrets for her past anti-Semitic slurs. 
She’
d tweeted that Israel “has hypno-
tized the world. May Allah awaken 
the People and help them see the evil 
doings of Israel,
” and that congressional 
support for Israel being “all about the 
Benjamins, baby,
” perpetuating stereo-
types about Jews, money and influence. 
She stepped up her position, pushing a 
pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions 
bill against Israel.
A left-wing Jew, I know it’
s possible 
to be pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, for 
peace and a two-state solution, as I am. 
You can criticize Israeli Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu’
s settlement pol-
icies and not hate everything Hebrew. 
I’
ve denounced Trump’
s slander against 
black, Latino, gay and trans people, 
immigrants and Islamic countries, and 
co-authored a book on the horrific 
Muslim genocide in Bosnia. Yet I’
m 
stunned that blatant bigotry against 

Jewish people somehow gets a pass.
“The BDS movement is, at its heart, 
intent on the destruction of Israel,
” 
said Deborah E. Lipstadt in her book, 
Antisemitism: Here and Now. Indeed, 
BDS co-founder Palestinian Omar 
Barghouti is opposed to recognizing 
Israel as a Jewish state. You can’
t get 
more racist than saying an entire peo-
ple should cease to exist. After I pub-
lished an op-ed against NYU’
s involve-
ment with BDS, I received a threat-
ening postcard in the mail at home. 
Someone had cut a picture of my head 
and pasted it onto a pro-Palestinian 
protester. The Anti-Defamation League 
was not surprised by the intimidation 
tactics, common for BDS. The United 
States and Europe have shut down 
30 BDS accounts with links to terror 
groups.
While I understand college students 
taken in by the underdog myth, older 
leftists seem indifferent to BDS propa-
ganda that pretends to be about Israeli 
government. BDS masks the kind of 

commentary
Don’t Counter Racism with Racism

Susan Shapiro 

continued on page 6

