Sometimes life lies heavy on us. This seems to be increasingly true as we balance among various screens, talk to friends, family, colleagues and others on virtual platforms, and gather the news curated for us by an AI we have inadvertently trained to cater to our apparent preferences and opinions. A friend with whom I was speaking was obviously under a lot of emotional stress – when asked she said she had seen images of Russian tanks flying both Russian and American flags heading into Ukraine. Are these images real? Are they fake? A bad joke? Other people on the call began to cry as they thought about the humiliation they felt thinking of the images. Another person brought up the insult to women associated with Ghislaine Maxwell being moved to a “penthouse suite jail” as she termed it. The first friend suggested that maybe the move was a reward for providing more information on high ranking persons who were part of the Epstein group, and possibly a good thing. No one else had put two and two together.

We are clearly on emotional hair-triggers. We have simplified the world into good and bad things, and we take what we hear and see at face value, allowing ourselves to be stressed, to be angry, to be exhausted by fear – or to close off. Over-reacting is bad for our health. Closing off is bad for us in many other ways. Ending friendships because of differences in political opinions is sad.

After WWII people castigated those citizens who turned in families whose attributes made them eligible for concentration camps – Jews, Lutherans, Homosexuals, Gypsies, Handicapped people were denounced by over-zealous persons. Other citizens survived by being available to the occupiers. Many people just kept quiet and worked on surviving. Afterwards, they were all accused of collaborating. We are again accusing people of collaborating – but we do not understand that they are fed different news than we are, that they have completely different perceptions of the world around them. No two people get exactly the same newsfeed. A sobering concept.

I have to ask myself whether I have learned anything useful in 68 years. My dad, a career diplomat (representing the country, not the political parties in it) would balance his analysis carefully, looking at both sides. My husband, an investigative journalist, would find a contentious news story, and then set about evaluating it – he would call the embassy of a country for official comment, he would call members of opposing groups for their comments, he would speak to people from the country for their comments, he would get a business opinion, and he would look at history. He also would check the world press – what did Xinhua, Pravda, the Dawn of India, the Kenya Times and the local papers in Peru or Argentina say on the subject. Only then would he present the premise, provide the pros, the cons, the history, and the economic and geopolitical realities. It was up to the reader to make an intelligent and informed decision.

Today, I read a news item or watch a news clip, and ask myself – who benefits? I also ask – who paid for the information to be presented? I keep a right-wing and a left-wing laptop and am amused at how different the news feed is on each (pricing is also surprisingly different, for example for air fares). I am careful to care about issues – not about emotions intended to sway me. I advocate for women, for migrants, against human trafficking at a transnational scale – in an intentional and fact-based manner – with information I double check, and using a cross section of facts.

Ask yourself: Who benefits? From you being miserable, distracted, disengaged, and opted out? Who benefits from our social fragmentation? Who benefits from us not listening to one another, but racing to question the other, and harangue them with our opinions? Do we benefit from letting vocal minorities impose their truths? Or can we benefit more from open, friendly, informed discussion? I ask this of myself all the time. I need help gaining better understanding.

My email – secretary@nfbpwc.org is always open! Thank you!

Nermin K. Ahmad
NFBPWC Secretary
2024-2026