Newlyweds in Venice Provide Memories

Gilda and I were not invited to the three day wedding extravaganza in Venice ceremoniously linking Jeff Bezos with Lauren Sanchez. 

But we did attend a Venetian wedding 25 years ago that set a standard not easily matched by any nuptials we have since witnessed. 

With about 20 friends from America in attendance, and another 70 or so relatives and friends from Italy, Gianna and Jim exchanged marriage vows in the 15th century Gothic style Church of Santo Stefano. For Jim, a widower, it was his second marriage. 

A Catholic, Gianna had married and divorced her first two husbands. As both men were Jewish, rabbis had officiated the ceremonies. Now, marrying Jim, a fellow Catholic, finally a priest could sanctify her union as, in the church’s eyes, Gianna had never previously married, much less divorced. 

Ironically, the priest was a Jewish convert. Indeed, he had been a rabbi. I have teased Gianna that her three marriages were officiated by rabbis. 

Gianna was born in Venice. Her elderly mother was still living in the canal city. Her brother and his wife lived in nearby Vicenza where he was head of the Italian office of the Gemological Institute of America. 

A co-worker of Gilda’s at Beth Israel and later Mount Sinai Hospital, Gianna orchestrated a near week-long celebration including several group dinners. A visit to the GIA proved educational in precious metal security. 

Upon entering the GIA each visitor and their belongings were weighed. We were weighed upon exiting, as well. Any discrepancy had to be accounted for by the weight of purchases that might have been made. 

We next traveled to downtown Vicenza to Gianna’s brother’s upper floor residence in a stone building easily 400 years old. When we emerged from the elevator, centuries of time evaporated. The apartment was one of the most modern Gilda and I had ever been in. Gilda commented how environmentally conservative Italians and other European countries have been compared to Americans. They preserve the exterior character of their buildings, gutting the inside to retrofit modern conveniences. In America, all too often we knock down heritage structures to build bland, formulaic structures absent character. 

This preservation mentality displayed itself to us a few years later when our family vacationed in Eastern Europe. In Budapest we idled our car as  Gilda went inside the old, very old, Hotel Pest to check on its accommodations. She emerged after 20 minutes giggling in delight. Yes, the exterior was old, but the interior was ultra modern, though the architects did leave a glassed off view of how the building looked hundreds of years ago. 

Back to Venice: Following the late Saturday afternoon ceremony, the wedding entourage boarded gondolas for a circular half mile voyage to the Bauer Hotel for the dinner and party. It was the local custom back then that while the band played during dinner no one danced. Gianna’s and Jim’s American guests had other ideas.

Between courses, we Americans got up to dance. At first the band was nonplussed. But the band soon got into the swing of things and we danced the night away, joined by local Venetians. 

Like Bezos and Sanchez, Gianna and Jim had top line entertainment attend and perform at their wedding. A personal friend, Sean McDermott sang during dinner. McDermott has had lead roles in numerous Broadway musicals including Miss Saigon, Grease and Chicago, and has performed for three presidents at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  

Murrays in Venice: Gianna’s and Jim’s wedding was not Gilda’s and my only time in Venice. On our first trip there during July 1976, we had a memorable encounter with another Murray, a newlywed younger than I.

We were traveling by train from Florence to Venice. We were not aware that only the first two cars of the train would be uncoupled for the journey onto the island city. When the conductor eventually made this known to us in the fourth car, we hurriedly assembled our overpacked luggage and jostled our way forward.

I kept hearing my name; Gilda kept denying she was calling me. We finally made it to the second car, Gilda standing next to me. “Murray, wait for me” rang in both our ears. The dulcimer sound came from an attractive blonde. Sure, I’ll wait for you, I thought. Only, she wasn’t talking to me. She was attaching herself to a young gent standing next to me.

Naturally, we introduced ourselves. (Murrays have a certain bond, like Masons or Elks who meet in strange lands. No secret handshake, just a bond.) They were on their honeymoon, having married right after graduating from Queens College. His aunt, a travel agent, had gifted them a six-week honeymoon. They were booked into Excelsior hotels throughout Europe. Everything had been pre-planned and pre-paid. All they had to do was show up at their hotels and their respective city tours. They even had the time of their gondola ride scheduled—8 pm that evening.

It was already four weeks into their extensive tour. They were clearly exhausted but couldn’t take the time to rest. Pre-paid hotel reservations could not be changed, so they trekked on.

I asked how they liked Rome. They did. I asked what they thought of the Vatican. They sheepishly said they hadn’t seen it. Huh? Explain yourselves, Murray.

Seems his aunt did not book that tour. Before they realized the Vatican was in Rome they were in Florence. And they couldn’t go back!

My confidence that the exalted name of Murray was bestowed only on the intelligent vanished that instant.

Not all was lost, however. They realized they would not be able to use their passes to the Lido Beach across the channel before having to leave Venice, so they generously gave them to us. That way, at least, the Lido would not go Murrayless. We enjoyed a beautiful day at the beach.

Bentonville: What's There Not to Like?

In less than a week I will be officially retired for 16 years after spending more than three decades covering the retail field, from restaurants to physical retail stores to online commerce. As befitting its size, no retailer has captured my attention more than Walmart. I began covering the world’s largest company of any industry before it recorded its first billion dollar sales year. By the time I retired in 2009, sales had topped $401 billion. Today, sales exceed $643 billion.

Bentonville was a backwater northwest Arkansas community when Sam Walton planted his retail empire there. He began with variety stores franchised from the Ben Franklin company. He became their largest franchisee. But in 1962 the variety store format came under assault. Kresge opened its first Kmart. Woolworth countered with Woolco. The first Target opened. Lots of smaller, regional discount stores, retailers with names like Jamesway, Zayre, Caldor, Fisher’s Big Wheel, Kuhn’s Big K, populated the landscape.

Ever a student of retailing, Sam Walton appealed to his bosses at Ben Franklin to open a discount store format. They refused, so he opted to do it himself. The rest, as they say, is history.

This historical reverie was prompted by a New York Times article profiling Walmart’s new home office complex and its merchandising strategy to appeal to more shoppers and, equally important, its human resources strategy to attract the tech savvy workers needed to sustain its position and propel its growth  (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/business/walmart-rebrand-headquarters.html?smid=url-share).

Walmart can boast 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of one of its stores. I do not, though I do shop there when visiting family in Omaha and Tucson and when on vacation to stock up on essentials. (Full disclosure: Walmart did have a store in downtown White Plains that I frequented until it closed seven years ago.) The stores are nicer than they appeared decades ago, but still lack the look of a Target, both in visual and merchandising appeal. 

Because many Walmarts have an extensive food section, average sales per store of more than $122 million are roughly double those of Target. 

Retailing today is a complex mixture of logistics and merchandising fine tuned by savvy techno-experts. Recruiting talent ranks high on Walmart’s sustainability challenges list. 

The new headquarters in Bentonville has some of the same trademarks and perks found in Silicon Valley corporate offices. The company also has technology hubs in California and the New York metro. Still, to get recruits to move to Bentonville, Walmart must overcome a major employment differentiator. 

The natural beauty of Arkansas aside, in a more polarized America, Arkansas has become a state many highly educated workers would not move to. As Peter from California noted in a comment on The Times article, Arkansas:

“1.) ranks 44th for high school graduation rates;

2.) ranks at or near the bottom nationwide for healthcare outcomes, infrastructure and essential public services;

3.) has (this is documented) one of the most homogenous and virulently conservative populations in the country, one that  actively ridicules and suppresses centrist and liberal people and ideas;

4.) wrote laws specifically to FACILITATE discrimination against LGBTQ people, and prohibit local governments from protecting them;

5.) where nearly 60% of the population owns a gun, and has more guns per capita than 42 of the 50 states. No background checks, no gun owner licensing, no waiting periods and all the assault weapons you want to buy.”

The last time I visited Bentonville was in 2016 on a trip with Gilda to see Crystal Bridges, the American folk art museum built by Sam’s daughter Alice. The museum lived up to its glorious reviews. 

Bentonville had grown since my visits decades earlier. Population had soared above 40,000, about a tenfold uptick. Bentonville very much has been a corporate town. 

I wonder if Sam Walton ever envisaged his company would ever have, or need, such a corporate edifice? If Bentonville would ever have restaurants that rival those of any big city (and they do because representatives from major suppliers do not like to eat their dinners in a Waffle House)? I wonder if Sam would be comfortable believing his company retains values that were important to him—having the right merchandise at the right price at the right time? 

Sam also was a stickler for keeping payroll costs at a minimum. Given the environment in Arkansas, what will it take to lure the right and sufficient number of recruits to Bentonville? 

What Trump Could Say If He Bombed Iran

As Donald Trump leaves everyone guessing about his intentions to bomb Iran or not, I spent part of this week watching a film released just weeks before Nazi Germany surrendered to Allied forces May 8, 1945.

“Hotel Berlin” is set inside a grand facade where hundreds are desperate to flee bombings and the inevitable collapse of the Third Reich. Everyone means German soldiers, including generals, and Nazi Party loyalists who want to plant the seed of Nazi resurrection in the New World. Only members of the underground are resolved to stay and pick up the pieces of their fallen country. 

As Allied bombers drop their lethal, devastating loads on Germany at the conclusion of the movie, a joint statement by Winston S. Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Josef Stalin appears on the screen. As you read it below, substitute in your mind “Iran” for every mention of Germany, and imagine, if possible, that Trump has the intelligence to utter similar sentiments: 

“Our purpose is not to destroy the German people — but we are determined to disband all German armed forces — to break up the German General Staff — eliminate all German industry used for military production — bring all war criminals to justice and swift punishment —wipe out the Nazi Party and Nazi laws from the life of the German people — Germany must never again disturb the peace of the world.”

(“Hotel Berlin” was broadcast on Turner Classic Movies. If you have the TCM app you can view the movie.)

TACO Trump Faces a Choice: To Bomb Or Not?

Will Donald Trump commit the United States to join Israel in destroying Iran’s capacity to build atomic bombs? 

The answer, in my opinion, depends on the signals he receives from his buddies in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and his most recent BFF, Ahmed al-Sharaa of Syria. 

If these mostly Sunni Moslems give him their proxy to bomb into the stone age a fellow Moslem country—albeit, a non Arab, Shia nation—Trump will feel more emboldened to flex American might, not in a prolonged campaign but with sufficient bunker-busting bombs to eliminate Iran’s underground atomic development facilities. 

Unlike previous American involvement in Gulf conflicts that came after international coalitions, including Arab countries, were organized by presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Joseph Biden, any bombing decision by Trump will not come with public encouragement by Arab and Western nations. Their acquiescence will be behind closed doors. But their approval will be the tipping point for Trump’s thumbs down on Iran’s nuclear program. 

Trump desperately needs an international win. His tariff initiative has left the world economy in turmoil. His purposeful contentious meetings with heads of state in the Oval Office have soured the reputation of the White House as a coveted stop for world leaders. Killing off USAID funding for humanitarian programs, mostly in Africa, has exposed his heartless, transactional approach to foreign affairs. His antipathy toward NATO, coupled with his bromance with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, have left observers wondering about his commitment to the European alliance and America’s continuing support of Ukraine in its defensive war with Russia, a war he said during his presidential campaign, he could end in a day. Today is day 148 of his presidency. 

Trump has said he would never allow Iran to develop a nuclear bomb. Saddled with the moniker TACO—Trump Always Chickens Out—he now faces a decision on just how far he will go to back up his statement. No doubt he has instructed the White House telephone operator to immediately put through any incoming calls from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.  

Cutting USAID, Trump Invites Needless Death

Without firing a shot Donald Trump may well earn a spot among the Top 10 leaders in history presiding over death in their respective countries and beyond.

He probably (it is to be hoped) will not match or exceed the death count of Mao Zedong (60 million), Josef Stalin (40 million), or Adolf Hitler (30 million), the 20th Century’s most prolific killers. But Trump’s heartless elimination of USAID funding in Africa and other continents suffering from medical crises exacerbated by civil wars and famine, and his proposed cutbacks to Medicaid and Obamacare eligibility for vulnerable lower income Americans, could easily land him on the list of leaders responsible for millions of unnecessary deaths.

Because he has cut treatment centers abroad that strive to minimize the spread of controllable diseases Trump may well unleash global pandemics that could rival deaths from the Black Plague of the Middle Ages, the Spanish Flu of the post World War I era, and Covid-19. 

Trimming fat from the federal budget is a worthy endeavor, to be done as with a surgeon’s precise use of a scalpel. But using a chain saw to reduce the budget is a grotesque use of executive power as it ignores repercussions from the surgery.  

USAID programs in some 120 countries helped fight tuberculosis, HIV, malaria, polio and other infectious diseases, as well as supplying food to stave off the ravages of famine.

Estimating deaths is not a precise calculation, but it provides an informed analysis of the potential impact of Trump’s cutbacks. For example, eliminating PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, started by President George W. Bush in 2003) would result in the loss of an adult life every three minutes and a child’s every 31 minutes, according to Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University (https://www.bu.edu/articles/2025/mathematician-tracks-deaths-from-usaid-medicaid-cuts/). 

On May 28, NPR reported “modeling out of Boston University estimates that the abrupt cuts to USAID have meant nearly 300,000 people have died to date.” 

The Black Plague and Spanish Flu killed tens of millions during a time when global travel was rare. Even after Trump’s ban on visitors from some Third World countries, America is more vulnerable to epidemics brought in from abroad because USAID programs have ended most hopes of containment while domestic vaccination rates for communicable diseases, such as measles, have decreased. Highly contagious and even deadly, measles outbreaks have popped up throughout the United States. As of June 5, the Center for Disease Control reported 1,168 confirmed cases of measles this year. Three deaths resulted. 

The danger is compounded by Trump’s proposal to cut back on the federal government’s Medicaid financial support to states. The Hill news organization reported, “The Center for American Progress found that about 34,200 more people would die annually if the federal government reduced its current 90 percent match for the expansion costs and states responded by dropping their Medicaid expansions (https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5261905-medicaid-cuts-house-republican-budget-plan/).

Staying healthy, unfortunately, is not an option for far too many, at home and abroad. Nor is the ability to provide sufficient food for their families. All too often a last resort is government assistance. There is, or should be, a special place in Hell for a leader who strips away health care and life-preserving food from the needy.

According to Telegrafi, an Albanian news site, the Top 10 propellers of death in their respective country and internationally during the last 150 years are:

1. Mao Zedong (China) 60 million
2. Josef Stalin (USSR/Eastern Europe) 40 million
3. Adolf Hitler (Germany/Europe) 30 million
4. King Leopold II (Belgium/Congo) 8 million
5. Hidaki Tojo (Japan/Far East) 5 million
6. Ismail Enver Pasha (Ottoman Empire) 2 million
7. Pol Pot (Cambodia) 1.7 million
8. Kim II Sung (North Korea) 1.6 million
9. Mengistu Haile Mariam (Ethiopia) 1.5 million
10. Yakubu Gowon (Nigeria) 1 million

Interestingly, some well known tyrants didn’t make the list. Saddam Hussein (Iraq) killed 600,000; Idi Amin’s toll in Uganda is estimated at 300,000-400,000; Benito Mussolini (Italy) 250,000.

Trump will most assuredly crack the Top 10. It is only a question of how high on the list will he rank. 

U.S. Warriors From All Races, Genders & Creeds

When one thinks about American heroes, children and adults who have not matured beyond grade school intellect name the usual suspects—people like George Washington, Paul Revere, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Abraham Lincoln. 

All deserving of praise, appreciation and reverence for forging America into an unparalleled bastion of democracy and opportunity. 

But the list of heroes—true heroes who molded our country into the envy of the world—runs much deeper than the picture book caricatures conveyed in elementary school textbooks.

True American heroes changed our country by expanding the rights and opportunities of all citizens and residents, regardless of race, gender or creed. 

In Donald Trump terms, American heroes should be military “warriors.” Except Donald Trump sees everything through bigoted eyes, so he and his secretary of defense Pete Hegseth are determined to erase any public display of gay, black and Hispanic achievement on military equipment or establishments. People such as Harvey Milk, Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall, Cesar Chavez, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Lucy Stone, Medgar Evers and Dolores Huerta, who have been considered for honors such as the naming of U. S. Navy vessels, no longer will be recognized (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/us/politics/navy-ships-harvey-milk-renamed.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).

The erasure of our collective history is an abomination. Half of our elected national legislators—the Trumpers—are acquiescing. Their silence is deafening.  Most appalling is the failure of the four black House members, one black senator, 18 Hispanic House members and one Hispanic senator to speak out in defiance of the erasure of their heritage heroes. 

Harvey Milk et al epitomized the struggle to overcome adversity, inequality, discrimination and slavery. They are the type of “warriors” we should be extolling. Trump and Hegseth, on the other hand, have exercised a workaround from the removal of Confederate officer names accomplished under President Joe Biden. Biden changed Georgia’s Fort Benning to Fort Moore. 

Trump and Hegseth reinstated the Benning name, ostensibly to honor a World War I hero, Corporal Fred G. Benning, but the intent to identify with the Confederacy was impossible to miss. Henry L. Benning supported secession and served as a Confederate brigadier general.  

Trump and Hegseth have the power to whitewash black, Hispanic and gay contributions. In response, black, Hispanic and gay Americans should stage a peaceful protest. 

How? By not going to work or school throughout the country on Friday, June 13, the day before Trump’s birthday and the 250th anniversary of the U. S. Army. 

A Choice for All Americans

Which side will you stand with?

The side of culture and compassion, equality and economic opportunity? Conservation and connectivity, altruism and acceptance, mercy and magnanimity, justice and judicial integrity? Principles and predictability, science and sharing, diversity and dialogue? Inclusion and intellect, freedom and facts, truth and tolerance?

Or, will you stand with corruption and contempt, abuse and antagonism, fealty and fanaticism? Intolerance and indifference, greed and grossness, hero worship and hate? Disruption and denial, bigotry and baseness, nastiness and name-calling, lies and lewdness, mockery and mayhem, falsehoods and fictions?

In our land of abundance children go to bed hungry, yet politicians eagerly strip them of helpful meals and early childhood education, all so millionaires and billionaires can possess more, more than they could rationally spend in a lifetime. 

In our land of intellectual excellence and scientific discovery, revenge would deny advancement of medical research. Lives are at stake, but lust for vengeance seeks to fracture our collective future.   

In our land of free elections and dynamic economy, betrayal of our history and foundational principles threatens to remake us into a closeted, bigoted, selfish and self-centered nation. 

The choice is ours: Civil or contemptible? Miserly or magnanimous? Guiding or guarded? Caring or conceited?  Egocentric or ecumenical? 

Increasingly I have been hearing people—friends and TV commentators—say there are many points on which they agree with Trump. They just wish he voiced them in a more agreeable fashion, with no, or less, abusiveness, anger, vindictiveness. I sometimes fall into that abyss, as well. 

Then I recall what they said about Mussolini, that he made the trains run on time, as if that success justified his fascist rule. Hitler put Germans back to work, too. Mao eliminated most hunger in China. 

But those are extremes. Let’s not paint Trump as their evil successor, just yet. A more realistic comparison might be to Richard Nixon. 

Lest we forget, Nixon did some good things: He created the Environmental Protection Agency, signed important environmental legislation, ended the military draft, signed the Title IX act prohibiting gender discrimination in federally funded education programs including sports, and ended the forced assimilation of Native Americans. 

Nixon, of course, had his dark side, chief among them the Watergate scandal and its various tentacles including an “enemies list” evocative of Trump’s compendium of people on whom to wreak vengeance. 

And it was Nixon who, during a post-presidency 1977 interview with David Frost, voiced what Trump has taken to heart—“When the President does it, that means it is not illegal.” Sadly, almost 50 years later, the Supreme Court has rubber-stamped that extreme, imperialist position. 

The future of America as a beacon of good depends on everyday Americans, their choice of a country defined by a vindictive, absolutist Trump or by the words of the Declaration of Independence—“that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”