Those who hoped President Obama might bring a new approach to foreign policy have been repeatedly disappointed. On Sunday, Obama had a chance to partially redeem himself. He failed.Speaking at the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), he declared, “I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say. That includes all elements of American power.”All elements. That includes nuclear weapons.It is hardly an exaggeration to say this week’s AIPAC conference in Washington, D.C., has but one agenda item: goading Obama into confronting Iran even more than he already has. The coalition comprising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israel lobby, and Congress’s dominant pro-Israel caucus will pull out all the stops in this effort. The Republican presidential candidates (excepting Ron Paul) will add fuel to the fire while hoping that Obama leaves some room for them to out-warmonger him.When I say all the stops will be pulled out, I mean it. Netanyahu said, “Seventy years after the Holocaust, many in the world are silent in the face of Iran’s pledges to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. This is a day in which the leaders of the world must commit not to allow another genocide.”But American and Israeli intelligence agree that Iran has not decided to make a nuclear weapon. Twice U.S. intelligence has concluded that Iran scrapped its nascent program in 2003. It is a signer of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), meaning inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency are on the scene. They have repeatedly certified that Iran has diverted no uranium, which it has enriched for energy and medical purposes, to weapons construction.On the other hand, Israel possesses several hundred nuclear warheads, some submarine-based, and is not a signatory of the NPT. It submits to no inspections. It rejects calls for a nuclear-free Middle East. Of course, the U.S. government has thousands of nukes, and surrounds Iran with ground and naval forces.Thus the idea that Iran — even if it managed to build a warhead — represents an “existential threat” to Israel or the United States is laughable. Israeli officials admit as much.The most hawkish American foreign-policy thinkers don’t believe Israel is at risk. Danielle Pletka, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, says, “The biggest problem for the United States is not Iran getting a nuclear weapon and testing it, it’s Iran getting a nuclear weapon and not using it. Because the second that they have one and they don’t do anything bad, all of the naysayers are going to come back and say, ‘See, we told you Iran is a responsible power.’ ”The demonization of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is particularly absurd. Hoover Institution foreign-affairs expert Bruce Bueno de Mesquita says Ahmadinejad is the 18th-most-powerful politician in Iran. As president he has nothing to say about Iran’s military. His faction was dealt a big political setback in last week’s parliamentary elections — at the hands of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who condemns nuclear weapons per se. Moreover, Ahmadinejad never threatened to “wipe Israel off the face of the earth.”Netanyahu thus is shamefully using the Holocaust card as a license to launch an aggressive war against the Iranian people. But there’s no way he can succeed in his plan without involving the United States. Hence, the mounting pressure on Obama.This is why Obama needed to stand up to Netanyahu, AIPAC, the congressional war chorus and his Republican critics, and refuse to be a party to their war agenda. An attack on Iran, regardless of whether Israel goes it alone or works in “lockstep” (Obama’s word) with the United States, would be a disaster, not just for the Iranian people, but also for Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan and for the Israelis themselves.In light of Obama’s obeisance before AIPAC, he has now dashed all hope that he’d do what needs to be done: resist Israel and its lobby, and rescind the war threat, along with the immoral sanctions and CIA-sponsored terrorism.Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org).
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Dick Hermans in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton\u2019s Main Street in 1985.
Provided
For Hermans, the award has prompted some reflection about why he has spent so much of his life involved in community projects.
“I was thinking about it this morning: Why do I do what I do?” he said. “And I think no matter what I’ve done, whether it’s been school board or rail trail, I’m trying to be useful to the communities I’m associated with.”
Hermans is perhaps best known as the longtime co-founder and steward of Oblong Books in Millerton, a business that began almost by accident. He and his former partner, Holly Nelson, were living in Millerton and looking for something to do during the winter. They had been painting houses, including the Grange Hall in Millerton, a job Hermans got through his aunt, who belonged to the Grange.
At the time, Hermans was also working in insurance for his father, doing collections.
“It was fine except I was doing collections, and it really kind of left me cold,” he said.
He and Nelson began thinking about what they might do together. Nelson was an avid reader, while Hermans had studied journalism and had worked in a record store. They noticed a chain of book and record stores operating elsewhere in the Hudson Valley and decided to follow that model.
And so Oblong was born.
Dick Hermans in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton’s Main Street in 1985.Provided
“We really learned it by the seat of our pants,” Hermans said.
The business would eventually become a beloved and integral part of Millerton’s commercial life. But although Hermans may have learned the book business as he went, his affinity for retail — and for the connections that happen across a counter — had begun much earlier.
As a child, his second-grade teacher operated a little cardboard pencil shop in the classroom, and Hermans still remembers the satisfaction of selling a pencil for a nickel.
“I really liked selling somebody a pencil for a nickel,” he recalled. “I can remember that experience, and it was so pleasant.”
Later, while living in Arizona, he helped establish a food co-op and worked at the counter.
“I kind of knew that I liked doing that kind of thing,” he said. “It’s a nice way to be pleasant with people, but without making too much commitment to them.”
His relationship with Millerton also predates Oblong. His grandparents lived in the village, and he first came to Millerton as a baby. Over the years, he has watched the town change through several generations.
He remembers a Millerton with a much broader array of businesses, when stores such as Delson’s, the Main Street department store that stood for nearly 40 years in what is now Millerton’s Antiques Center, seemed to carry almost everything a resident might need.
“You could find everything from a set of dishes to a shotgun,” he recalled.
The rise of shopping malls changed that kind of downtown retail, he said, but Millerton has remained a lively commercial village.
“For us, it’s been a great place to have business,” Hermans said. “It’s a busy village.”
For Hermans, running a store was never simply about selling books and records. It was a way of being part of a place.
Music has remained another constant. Hermans continues to sell music at Oblong and hosts the radio program “New Harmony” on WKZE. The business of selling music has changed dramatically over the years, particularly with the rise of streaming, but Hermans has adapted.
He was initially reluctant to bring vinyl records back into the store because of their expense. But about four or five years ago, he began stocking LPs again, and they have become the main form of music the store sells.
He finds that many of the customers buying them are reconnecting with music they loved years ago.
“I do best with classic albums that people may have had when they were young,” he said. “And now that they’re retired, they want to hear it again.”
Hermans still reviews between 700 and 1,200 new music releases each week through the store’s distributor, Alliance Entertainment, carefully deciding what belongs on Oblong’s shelves.
That same commitment to place has led Hermans into a wide range of community projects. His work with the Harlem Valley Rail Trail is among the efforts he mentions when reflecting on his years of civic involvement. He has also served on the school board and has been involved with the Millerton Business Alliance and the Irondale Schoolhouse. He is now involved with The New Pine Plains Herald, which he sees as complementary to the work of The Millerton News and The Lakeville Journal.
“I really think that the important thing about this award is that people understand what a newspaper does to connect them to their community,” he said. “And if that means anything to their lives, they gotta support it.”
Hermans knew Mary Lou and Robert Estabrook and remembers them as people who were deeply conscious of their responsibilities to the community.
“They were really nice folks,” he said. “They were very conscious of what their role in the community was.”
There is, in fact, still plenty on his plate. Hermans admits he needs to scale back because he has taken on more than his current abilities can comfortably accommodate.
“To be given this award is very special,” he added. “But I don’t feel like I’m done.”
This article has been changed to reflect that Hermans and Nelson were partners. A prior version states that they were married.
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