Through inattention to truly important matters, I overlooked International Pronouns Day, which was celebrated on October 20th. Happily, the State Department was on the case. I’ll be more alert for the forthcoming days celebrating other parts of speech. Gerunds, I believe, haven’t received the respect that they deserve, and adverbs are often mistreated.
Yesterday was also the fifty-first day of the ordeal of Americans and Afghan allies trapped in the Taliban dystopia, including families of U.S. soldiers. CNN posted (but, so far as I can see, didn’t put on the front page of its web site) a report on privately organized and funded efforts to rescue de facto hostages. After recounting the successful escape of an Afghan interpreter and his family, the report continues –
Two months after the final US military plane left Kabul, some of those same people are still working tirelessly to extract family members of US service personnel stuck in Afghanistan – all with what sources say is little or no official help from the US government.
Interviews with active-duty service members, former military officers and current lawmakers working on this issue reveal a deep level of frustration over the lack of formal government assistance. Lawmakers say they are in the dark about the best official avenue to help constituents who call asking for help. And military personnel with family stuck in Afghanistan say they've been left to figure things out for themselves.
With no embassy on the ground in Afghanistan, the Taliban in control, and a sclerotic immigration process widely seen as dysfunctional and far too slow, US service members are left to work the same ad hoc, do-it-yourself networks used by Masoud to rescue their families still there. . . .
“The military says, ‘family first, no one will be left behind,’” said one active-duty service member who told CNN he had received no help from the US government in evacuating his family members. But “nobody cares about my family,” he said. “And nobody cares about people that were left behind.”
But, hey, the pronouns are alright!
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