Remembering Shimon Peres - The Coolest Nonagenarian

Back on September 13, 1993 I remember watching the signing of the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn and being in awe of both Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. These two men, I recall thinking, were the old guard of Israeli statesman. They were fighters on the battlefield helping Israel gain statehood and then spent decades as political and diplomatic leaders as the Jewish state grew. I felt love and deep respect for both men, but there was something about Peres that was different from Rabin in my mind.

Rabin struck me as hard and very guarded. While he was willing to sign the peace accords and shake Arafat's hand, he still seemed hesitant and even distant on that sunny afternoon. Peres on the other hand had a cordial, softer side to him. A warm smile and a gentle demeanor. He reminded me very much of my grandfather. Later in his life, Peres displayed a playful, fun side as well. This was especially true when his term as Israeli President (a mostly honorific position) was about to come to an end. Peres and his staff published a very funny video in which the nonagenarian went looking for a job around Israel:

For me, I really appreciated that Peres was determined to stay in the public eye even after his seven decades in leadership roles for Israel. Despite his advanced age, he took advantage of social media to stay relevant and to connect with the younger generation of Israelis and Diaspora Jews. In 2012, I wrote a blog post about how Peres was looking for Facebook friends.

Flying High with Drones

Everyone seems to be talking about drones these days. Are drones the wave of the future? Are they dangerous? Do they cause an invasion of our privacy? Can they be used for great things or are they a waste of money? There have been news reports of people being injured by drones, airplane pilots reporting them as distractions and novice pilots crashing their new drones moments after unboxing.

My first drone was the Parrot Bebop and it sat in its box for months. I was excited to pilot it for the first time, but I was not sure where to fly it or what purpose it would serve. I am a big fan of new technology and gadgets of the future, but I like them to have some utility. What problem are these drones going to solve, I wondered.

I knew I didn't want to simply take this drone and fly it like it were a video game. I also was concerned about crashing this expensive gadget into a tree and breaking it. At the time, there were no specific laws governing personal drones, but I also did not want to violate the privacy rights of my neighbors.

When I finally started flying the Bebop it was an immediate love-hate relationship. It was thrilling to fly an aircraft with a video camera through the sky, but I still had concerns. Over the past year, I've begun flying other drones including the Parrot Bebop 2 and several mini drones, which my kids can also fly. During this time, I've found opportunities to use the drones safely to record video of happenings on the ground. I remain cautious about the safety and privacy implications, but have enjoyed capturing beautiful photos and videos from hundreds of feet in the sky.

Last month I was invited by Parrot to fly the new Disco drone in the Palm Springs desert. With about thirty other drone enthusiasts we were taken to the famous Arnold Palmer designed SilverRock golf course in La Quinta where we would have some open space and breathtaking views of California's Santa Rosa Mountains. Unlike the Bebop models, which are quadcopters, the Parrot Disco is a fixed wing drone. While I haven't had much experience flying winged model airplanes, flying the Disco was very easy. Once the motor starts, you throw it like a paper airplane and it takes off. The controller is easy to use, but more advanced pilots can use an RC controller to have more control of the drone and perform tricks.

The Disco drone (Parrot names its drones after dance styles) is the first fixed wing drone for immersive flights, meaning you can use the virtual reality Cockpitglasses (they come with the unit) for a FPV (first person view) experience. Legally, a pilot's license is required to fly drones using virtual reality and a spotter (without VR glasses) must be onsite.

Donald Trump Wears a Tallit

This past Saturday, Donald Trump visited a Baptist church in Detroit. It was another recent opportunity for him to get some face time with the African American community after polls showed he had virtually zero support within that demographic. An odd thing happened at the Great Faith Ministries in Detroit, however, when Bishop Wayne Jackson wrapped Trump's shoulders in a tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) that the minister said was from Israel.

"This is a prayer shawl straight from Israel," Bishop Wayne Jackson said. "Whenever you're flying from coast to coast -- I know you just came back from Mexico and you’ll be flying from city to city -- there is an anointing. And anointing is the power of God. It's going to be sometimes in your life that you're going to feel forsaken, you're going to feel down, but the anointing is going to lift you up. I prayed over this personally and I fasted over it, and I wanted to just put this on you."

The response from most in the Jewish community was quick and critical. Many argued that a gentile like Donald Trump wearing a tallit was a form of cultural appropriation. At the very least, many maintained, this act was inappropriate and certainly puzzling. My first inclination was to rush to blog about this as an offensive act because a tallit, contrary to a yarmulke (kippah), is a Jewish religious garb based on a mitzvah (commandment) that mandates only Jews are to wear it. After reflecting on the situation at Great Faith Ministries and reading other comments about it, however, I don't think Trump can be held accountable for this. I also don't think it can simply be chalked up as cultural appropriation.

On Sunday morning, I posted the photo above of Trump wearing the tallit and jokingly captioned it, "I lent my bar mitzvah tallis to a Baptist church in Detroit over the weekend. Hope it gets to the dry cleaners before it's returned." The discussion that ensued was actually helpful for me to understand what happened and how to characterize it. The bottom line is that Trump was surprised by the gift of the tallit and did what most people in his situation would have done. The headlines that proclaimed that Trump "donned a tallit" were inaccurate. He didn't place the tallit over his own shoulders and it appears obvious that he didn't choose to have it placed on his shoulders.