Men at Work, &c.

On employment, synagogues, allies, ‘cards,’ and more

Photo by Ezra Jeffrey-Comeau on Unsplash

I know a man who works in a diner. I’ve known him for several years now. For all these years, I’ve seen him in action—and “action” is the word.

He’s always in motion, never resting: taking orders, talking to the cook, serving the food, answering the phone, handling the cash register.

When he’s not doing any of those things, he’s refilling the ketchup bottles, wiping the tables—on and on.

He does this about nine and a half hours a day, six days a week. He is never off his feet, while at work. He is virtually never still. He’s like a one-man whirlwind.

Yesterday, before leaving the diner, I said to him, “Roberto, you work so hard.” He answered, “No, Jay.” Then he gave me a little speech. I listened to it with rapt attention.

Something like this:

“When I first came to this country from Mexico, I worked outside. It was so hot. Or it was so cold. And you can’t keep clean.”

(Here, Roberto sort of gestured to his shirt.)

“Working in a restaurant is very different. You’re inside. There’s always water to drink, or even soda. At the end of the day, you’re still clean.

“This is nothing. This is not hard work.”

Roberto then indicated a co-worker, whose duties include a lot of cleaning in the diner.

“You see him? He can make $150 a day in a diner. And he does not get too dirty. If he worked outside, he would make the same money, and be very dirty and tired or hurt.

“No, this is nothing.”

It was better to hear these words in person than it is to see them on the page, or screen, as I have offered them here. I was moved.

On the way home, I thought of Bob Dole—Senator Robert J. Dole, for whom I interned when I was in college. He was born in 1923 and grew up in Russell, Kansas. Asked about service in the Senate, he’d quip, “It’s indoor work and no heavy lifting.”

He knew what hard work was. He also knew what it was to go off to war and have your body blown up.

***

There has been another attack on a synagogue: this one in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, near where I grew up. Synagogues are fortifying themselves as much as possible. I see this in New York: barriers, security guards, etc.

I was struck by something a rabbi said—he was quoted in the New York Times, here. “We are synagogues—we are houses of worship. We are not Fort Knox.”

Let me say something simple: It should not require physical courage to attend a religious service. Not in America. The tackling of this problem should be a national priority.

That’s the least one can say …

***

There has been talk of allies lately—the need for allies in the Iran war, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz.

What has President Trump been doing to our allies for all these months? Threatening to annex or invade them. Punishing them with tariffs. Insulting their war sacrifices. Generally sneering.

I thought of Nick Burns—R. Nicholas Burns—with whom I did a podcast last December. Burns is a veteran U.S. diplomat: ambassador to Greece, ambassador to NATO, undersecretary of state, ambassador to China, and so on.

Let me quote from the article that accompanies our podcast:

Burns became U.S. ambassador to NATO in August 2001. On September 12, members of the alliance invoked Article 5—which says, in essence, “An attack on one is an attack on all.” President Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, remarked to Burns, “It’s good to have friends in the world.”

In our podcast, Burns said,

We are so powerful—and I’m proud that we’re powerful, I love our country, I want us to be strong—but we often need friends in the world. If we try to go it alone, against Putin or Xi Jinping …

That is not a recipe for success.

Burns went on to say,

China is a peer power, in all senses. Russia is a peer power in the nuclear-weapons realm. But if you add our allies—the European allies and NATO, the East Asian allies—we democratic countries are stronger. We can keep the peace through deterrence. And that’s probably the most important lesson I’ve learned since I started as a lowly intern for the State Department in West Africa in 1980.

***

Did you see Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s money-man and envoy? Sly dog:

The Russians play our president like a violin. And the worst thing about it is: you don’t have to be Paganini to do it. Even a beginning Suzuki student could do it.

***

I thought, “Cards.” A friend of mine, who has been involved in this general subject, said to me, “I think this could be historic.”

Here is the relevant announcement out of Kyiv:

The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine is launching the Defense AI Center “A1”—the first center of excellence focused on integrating artificial intelligence into defense processes and advancing technological solutions for modern warfare.

Needless to say, the Ukrainians are highly, highly motivated. They are trying to save their country. They have no choice but to be the most innovative military around.

What is the motivation of the Russian soldier? Mere survival (personal survival, not national survival).

President Trump likes to say to Ukraine, “You don’t have the cards.” I’m not so sure about that.

***

I will now turn from something historic and momentous to something very, very light: language, and, in particular, American youth slang. In recent weeks, I have heard the word “low-key” over and over again. I have heard it almost as much as I have heard “a” and “the.”

Youngsters don’t mean “low-key.” They mean “sort of” or “to a degree”—as in, “I’m low-key interested in that show.”

Golly.

***

Talk about “news you can use”! Gold. Just gold.

***

About two weeks ago, there was a story from the Athens bureau of the Associated Press. Unexpected. Moving.

Thrasivoulos Marakis grew up hearing stories about the grandfather he was named after but whom he never met—about how the tall man was executed during Nazi reprisals in Greece during World War II.

For decades, the only image Marakis had of his grandfather came from a worn family portrait.

But last month another photograph emerged. An online auction contained a photograph showing his grandfather walking calmly toward a firing squad alongside other prisoners.

The image shook the Marakis family and has stirred powerful emotions across Greece …

Thank you for joining me today, my friends. The heading over this column is “Men at Work, &c.” I have borrowed the title of George F. Will’s blockbuster book about baseball. The heading over yesterday’s column was “Barbarians at the Gate, &c.” I borrowed the title of the 1989 blockbuster about business.

See you soon. Onward and upward.