Despite The Fact the GOP Doesn't Think So, There is Racism in the US

 This morning while driving to my office I heard a quote from Jalen Rose, former NBA star and current analyst for ESPN.  He said, "I Wish America Loved Black People as Much as They Love Black Culture".  That reminded me of something that happened more than 30 years ago.   In 1986 the movie Soul Man came out.  The movie was the story of an entitled rich high school graduate whose parents decide not to pay for his college education after he got into Harvard University.  So he takes tanning pills to pass as African American to obtain a dedicated scholarship.  This comedy was supposed to be an anti-racist attempt to create a conversation.  It didn't, it was bad, it was poorly written and poorly executed.  One of the lines of the movie as the main character C. Thomas Howell is talking to a friend about his plan says "It's the Cosby generation, America loves Black People".   A critic of the movie at the time wrote in an op-ed that I truly wish I could find, "America doesn't love Black people, America loves to be entertained by Black people".  That was true then and is true today.  

As we have seen with protests rise up to police killing of unarmed black people we have seen probably the most controversial figure Colin Kapernick berated that he is paid to play football not protest.  When others like NBA superstar Lebron James called out political leaders over issues of racism, he was told to shut up and dribble.  When the cast of Hamilton took a post-show talk opportunity to speak to the Vice-President in attendance calls for them to stick to the script were heard. In NASCAR, driver Bubba Wallace, the only full-time driver in the premier series has asked to have the Confederate flag banned from racing.  People told him that he doesn't belong in NASCAR with that attitude.   African Americans have been told many times to not speak up just go along and that is how you get along.  Now we are seeing that silence is not an option.  

Systemic racism exists, it is difficult to root out, it has killed people.  Watching a man die for eight minutes on camera has lit a fire  and people are responding.  We as a nation must face fully the reality of our past and if we are going to embrace those who bring us joy and excitement through art, music, sports and drama and if we are going to benefit from those who invent the items that make us safer, healthier, and make our lives better.  If we are going to learn from those who discover and uncover new things about our world and the universe we all live in we must acknowledge not only their achievements but their humanity.  It is not simply okay to not be racist.  (BTW we are probably all a little racist in our own way, even if not aware)  We must strive to fight racism when we see it, we must not make it normalized in private conversations and public displays.  We must find a way to learn where we fail and try to do better.  

I am not saying we have to be perfect tomorrow.  We all grew up in a culture that taught us directly or indirectly to carry prejudice.  Making mistakes is how we learn to be better.  There are people in the streets and they are angry.  Listen to the words they are saying and not focus on the fires and looting.  Think about where in your life you encounter people who are different from you and how you can engage in meaningful connections where appropriate.  READ  ASK QUESTIONS  BE COMFORTABLE WITH DISCOMFORT.   Remember everyone is a work in progress.  The important thing is where we put our energy into where the progress will take us.  George Floyd is dead because 4 human beings didn't think it was worth listening to his cries for help as he lay dying.  We can all start there, if you listen closely there are many cries for help.  We must find a way to respond. 

All Lives Matter

Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington DC has won the gold medal in Trump trolling.  Thursday night she got volunteers to paint BLACK LIVES MATTER across 16th Street near the White House.  The letters are as tall as the street is wide and easily seen both driving down the street or as the helicopter takes the President to Andrews when he travels on Air Force One.  Of course the message has been met with the typical response from the right wing saying ALL LIVES MATTER.  I really don't know if those who say it are so caught up in their own bias to not understand how offensive that is or if they really don't want to have a light shone on the on-going systemic racism that permeates our culture and in the last few years has found a voice in the highest seats of power. 

There are many metaphors for what All Lives Matter sounds like.  The most often cited one is that it is like complaining that the fire department is spraying water on the neighbor's house which is on fire and not yours which isn't.  However for me the more important metaphor is more like someone who sees food being brought to the home a family where a parent has died screaming "All Parents Die".  It is myopic at best, hateful at worst.  

The phrase Black Lives Matter grows from the idea that for too long black people were seen as second class both in perception and in some cases law.  The list of unarmed black people killed by police is too long and too often historically the consequence of those killings were minimized by a system that shared a view that black people were somehow inferior.  The idea that black people have to be careful performing everyday activities because of their skin color.  The fact that black parents need give what is called "The Talk" to their children is something that should make us all angry.  No group should have to worry at this level.  

Another argument made by people is that black on black crime kills far more young black men than the police do.  That is true.  But the difference is that when ordinary people kill each other there is no implicit or explicit societal support.  But police who kill are doing it in our name.  Police are hired by us as a community to act to protect and serve.  Holding a knee on the neck of man until he dies is not protecting or serving anyone.   

The latest attacks on the protests is that George Floyd, the murder victim that sparked them, was a felon and had drugs in his system.  Virtually every time a person is killed by police who is either in custody or unarmed there is a torrent of people who either make up or highlight a criminal past.  Let me be clear, a society should be judged by how the authorities in charge treat the worst of us.  Convicted or simply arrested, when in the hands of an agent of the government people should be treated with dignity.  Police must show restraint when encountering the public and it shouldn't matter if the person is an innocent charity worker or a ruthless killer.  The reason is that when you give police or others in power the ability to harm those they are charged to serve the line of where it stops is difficult to find.  We have seen in the last week police step outside of what most police think is appropriate behavior, egged on by the President who once called for them to rough up people when arresting them.  From college students pulled from their cars because they get stuck in traffic, to a woman who was beaten with batons after she pulled away from an officer who was groping her, to an old man who approached heavily armed police to be pushed to the ground causing him to bleed from his ears, and then at least one officer wouldn't allow a comrade to help him, each time the actions of officers, which is against policy and procedure, should never be tolerated.  Those were the ones caught on video, what else might be going on. 

The country is reaching a point where we have to define who we are as a people.  The justice that is part of the narrative of our nation's mythology must be upheld.  That means we all have to be seen as equal before the law, that means that government officials charged with maintaining order should be held to a higher standard and it means that we must do better in electing people that understand that and don't retreat to partisan nonsense and speak truth to power, even if that power is the leader of your own party.  If you truly mean that All Lives Matter, then you too should be in the streets, calling your elected officials, looking for reform when needed and elevating those who are striving for justice.   The Book the President so awkwardly held up in front of the church charges us with the words "Justice, justice you shall pursue", it is a call to action.  Pursue justice today, because if we don't then perhaps it will get to far away to find for a long time.

Remember Why People are Angry

I can't give credit to the creator of this meme but would love to, it addresses a few things.  This of course was a response to the destruction in the cities across this country in response to the killing of George Floyd and so many others by police when lethal force was not only not necessary, but criminal.  Some have argued that this is not the same thing.  That Jesus wasn't destroying public property just cleaning up the Holy Temple.  I would argue in a way some of this graffiti that we see on monuments around the country is similar.  

While I claim no expertise over the Christian Bible, what Jesus did in the Temple with the commercialism was to destroy not only the acts of the merchants but the symbolism of what it meant. Jerusalem, at the time, was in turmoil and his anger did in fact boil over because of it. The Temple itself was a symbol to many of an oppressive society as it seemed to be in cooperation with Rome. So if one defiled the Temple merchants that was an act of revolution against the powers in charge. The statues that venerate a history that some find is one of oppression would make symbolic targets. Jesus' attack was on the establishment the merchants were a symbol. 

Now, of course, this is wrong and there is some indication that some of the worst of the vandalism and looting that took place was less about anger at oppression and more from radical extremists both on the right and the left.  In my experience with protests over the years there is always an element who thinks destruction is the necessary.  Many times the issue being protested is not relevant to them.  In fact many times they derail the message of the protesters, I believe that this is happening here. White supremacists have called for more violence in the streets to reach their goal of a race war.  Many anarchists have been using these tactics to sow discontent not in positions of government but in government itself.  People who destroy and deface public and private property should be arrested, should be held responsible and should pay the price.  But we are more and more seeing the broad brush being used to paint all protesters with the same stripe.  That is dangerous, last night in Washington the President of the United States ordered a street cleared for a photo op and tear gas was used to move people off public property where they were legally and non-violently calling for change.  One police department that was there from a county surrounding DC has said they can no longer, in good faith, participate in this kind of crowd control.  I wonder how many of those peaceful protesters will give up their non-violent stance now out of anger when met with violence of the authorities. 

The idea that people could get so angry that they smash windows, vandalize statues and symbols of power etc. can easily be understood by anyone who ever punched a wall because they were just so fed up with something. The something that some people are dealing with is decades of being seen as black before being seen as citizens.  That being black in this country means you grow up skeptical of police not in community with them.  Recently on Twitter a man ask African Americans "When was the first time a police officer pulled a gun on you?"   Not if that happened, not the only time, the question assumed that it happened and that there was more than once for a number of people.  People responded from every station and age of life with answers, some as young as 10 years old.  This is a horrible reality and I see no real end in sight.  This isn't about more training, this isn't about black communities cleaning up their streets, this isn't about using the military for law and order.  This is about a change on hearts and minds of people who carry weapons to protect and serve who shouldn't.  Police have a difficult job, they should be paid well to do it, but they must be held to a high standard and bad individuals and the system that allows they to flourish must be purged.  It won't be easy but if we are going to survive as a republic with "Liberty and Justice for All" it must be done.  We can do it.  

In the meantime there will be anger.  Black people are dying at the hands of their government.  I will never know what that is like, I will never be able to fully grasp the anger.  My skin tone and standing gives me a great deal of immunity to the horror some have to face.   All I can do is try to help find a way to repair the broken world. And looking to the Bible, Jesus, Moses, Nehemiah, Judith and Tamar all acted out of anger to change people's minds. I do wonder where they would have been on Saturday night..  

It Is Only A Mask

I have gone out more in the last two weeks than in the previous two months and quite frankly I think I need another break.  I had to pick up a prescription at Kroger, so I decided why not grab a few things we need while there.  So as I walked down a handful of aisles I found about half the people not wearing masks and the most interesting thing was a mother with her child.  The child having her mouth on the shopping cart handle.  Now this isn't a good idea in the best of times but in a pandemic I would think this is a risk not worth taking if I knew better, she didn't, but some are doing things just as bad and should know better.   

I thought a lot about that child this week as I watched people outraged by being asked to wear a mask to enter into private businesses.  It seems this child's actions would be suited for a small child but it reminds me of the actions of many adults I have seen and heard of on the internet.  Only the child's innocent abandon and mouthing of the cart can be excused.  Those who seem to be trying to suggest that they don't need to follow public safety rules can't.  They are horrible people and a threat to many.  The current rate of escalation and nonsense is disturbing and I fear could lead to some serious results. 

I don't understand the anger of those asked to wear a mask into a store.  Some have taken to coughing or even spitting on the employee who asked them to put one on.  This is criminal assault and I hope some District Attorney brings a charge of attempted murder on these people or at least assault with a deadly weapon.  I truly believe their lives should be made miserable for doing stuff like this.  It is sickening.  I also wonder how this would play out if the person being spit on is armed in a stand your ground state.  

One thing I keep hearing is that forcing a mask on someone in a store violates your rights.  This is pure nonsense.  Requirements to enter both private and public buildings that restrict your actions are almost never a violation of your rights.  Private businesses for sure can require all kinds of things from dress codes to appropriate language.  Public buildings make you surrender weapons.  In the case of masks, it is no real difference to requiring shirts and shoes because this is a public health issue.  Your right to go shirtless as well as without a mask extends right up the property of the business.  Then the public good and the property rights come into play.

Some people argue that if a baker has to serve gay people (or a lunch counter black people) then how can they require a mask.  This is not a fair comparison.  Denying a public accommodation because of a trait of a group of people violates the law.  Requiring a behavior is not the same thing.  Again, blatant discrimination is different from maintaining health and safety standards in a public setting.  

There are those arguing that wearing a masks gives them some kind of toxic build-up of CO2.  Cloth and disposable surgical masks won't do this and any CO2 build up would be mild.  Since once away from people you can remove the mask, except for those doing long shifts in hospitals the idea that a mask will make you sick in nonsense.  Some claim a respiratory problem makes wearing masks difficult, well I would suggest staying home since you have the very comorbidity that will likely mean if you get Covid 19 you will at least be in the hospital for months, if not the morgue.

There are more and more videos of people either saying that the Americans with Disabilities Acts (ADA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) laws requires stores to let people in without a mask and cannot ask what medical condition they have.  First the ADA requires appropriate accommodations, offering to shop for a person who says they can't wear a mask meets that standard.  As does curbside pick up and ordering online.  While it is not always clear what ADA requires, I do know that it doesn't require that every public place do what the customer asks.  For example, people with PTSD can't stop public fireworks displays nor gun shots in plays.  Besides, like noted earlier, someone with a serious enough breathing condition to make a mask dangerous probably shouldn't put themselves at risk.  As for HIPAA, that is simply a garbage argument.  HIPAA doesn't apply here at a grocery store.  I don't think I can go into just how dumb this argument is, so I won't.  What I can say is that it is dangerous to many people to try to use these two important laws in a weaponized fashion because of one's own arrogance and ignorance.  The ADA has opened the world to many people with disabilities that had been shut out.  Nonsense claims like this that could result in frivolous lawsuits could have businesses simply not looking to comply if everything that people want is challenged.  HIPAA is a law that has saved people because it keeps people with access to sensitive information about a medical condition from getting to people who can use it to harm others.  Making these kinds of claims muddies the water and makes it less likely that people will support such laws and their needed renewals in the future.  

Finally, there are those who keep saying that wearing a mask makes you a sheep and scared.  I am not sure how to say this but wearing a mask is not about protecting myself.  I do other things, like washing my hands, avoiding touching my face, avoiding large crowds, and following guidelines even as they change.  I wear a mask because I could have a disease that is deadly to many people and not know it.  A mask, while not perfect, does create an additional barrier to the virus reaching another person.  You wear a mask to inhibit the spread of the disease.  It may not be perfect but for the person standing next to you who might have a lung issue or diabetes the fact that your mask may stop enough virus to not infect them could save their life.  And one more thing, yes exposure to bacteria and viruses do give your body an opportunity to create anti-bodies to fight future infection.  People who say they want to build up their immunity basically saying they want to get exposed to the disease.  So I suggest if that is what they want to volunteer at a hospital then isolate yourself for a while until the virus has run its course.  If you live then we can test to see if your theory worked.  But not wearing a mask isn't there to protect you so your argument is silly.  

Look, we are a free country, but we have always had restrictions on our freedom for the greater good.  We are in a worldwide crisis and the United States appears to be at the bottom of working to control it.  That can change.  Wear a mask, don't gather in large crowds, stay home when you can, enjoy the outdoors with physical distancing and for the love of God listen to the doctors not a President that looks into an eclipse and thinks scientific facts have two sides.  Save a life.  Humanity deserves it. 

 

 

 

Nature Abhors A Vacuum

Tonight across many networks the high school graduates of 2020 are being celebrated by members of the entertainment industry culminating in a speech from former President Barack Obama.  First proposed on Twitter a few weeks ago this came together because of the work of Lebron James and many others.  The show spoke to the class who for the last few weeks had to give up what is likely the most fun of anyone's high school years.  The celebration gives hope to a group of students whose plans for their immediate future were blown away by Covid-19 and the uncertain nature it brings.  So entertainers and others came together to give a special moment to these students.  That is a remarkable thing.  But it should have never had to happen. 

I am not saying that it should have happened.  I am watching it and listening to the former President give great advice and a pep talk to kids who I know are struggling to fully grasp what is going on.  I am saying that if we had a real leader in this country this could have been organized by our leaders. 

Imagine if the current President has said to his team to create a program like this.  Imagine if this President had the empathy to see just how devastating the last few months has been for these kids and made an effort to sooth their fear and celebrate their accomplishments.  Imagine if we could trust this President not to make a speech like this about him, playing the victim, pointing a finger and lying to the youth of America. We can't because the leader of this country does not seem to care about the average American.  But even worse, his team doesn't seem to have the ability to fill in for him. 

His entire vision of America seems to be "what can you do for me" more than what he can do to make the country better.  Just the other day he said something to the effect that testing is bad because it helps us discover cases and we don't want our case numbers to go up.  Why?  Because it makes him look bad.  He has said as much. 

The lack of leadership in this country created a vacuum that had to be filled by a former President and a basketball star.  It is sick.  While I am glad the the former President is willing to put himself out there, besides what some in the GOP are telling him, and challenge the failure of the current administration.  I am more proud that he realized that the countries future is hurting and he offered to help them feel a little better.  We may look back at our own senior year and think how trivial our thoughts were, but in the moment everything was huge.  In the moment, everything was the most important thing that ever happened.  President Obama knows that, President Trump doesn't even care to find out.  

Tonight we were treated to a celebration and I am happy that it happened, but it reminded me the current President is a failure as a leader and a sympathetic human being.  That is depressing.  

  

Lebensunwertes Leben: The Call of the Right Wing

Life Unworthy of Life was a slogan used by the Nazi regime to identify those who them deemed not suited to live and use up resources in the new society they were building.  Far more sinister than even the Untermensch appellation which deemed some as subhuman, it did not even see those they classified ad Lebensunwertes Leben as useful as slaves to their war machine.  In what may be the most evil propaganda efforts in history, the German government convinced many people to kill or have killed loved ones who were mentally ill, had debilitating diseases or just were considered inferior.  There is even a film made of a great pianist who is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis who commits suicide for the good of the state.  Later the killings became compulsory and as the country became more comfortable with death for the greater good of the country we see the Shoah (Holocaust) as the last step.  It started with the idea that some people need to be sacrificed in order for the state to survive and thrive.  

This bone-chilling idea took hold in the modern country of Germany in the middle of the 20th century because it made sense to many who felt they were betrayed by previous government actions after World War I and the notion that outside forces were driving Germany into a perpetual depression and using its systems to support people who were not adding to greatness of the nation.  Terms like useless eaters were used to describe large numbers of human beings.  Sometimes this notion even stretched to include people who were elderly and frail.  People who could no longer work or fight for the country.  Germany created a vision that made some people should not be saved, and in fact should be gotten rid of to allow the country to grow.  

That idea seems to have returned in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Not in Germany, not in a developing nation, but right here in the United States.  Several members of the political right have stated publicly either through their own media outlets or through social media that they think the elderly and by extension anyone with a condition that could be exacerbated by the virus should be willing to die to protect the economy.  Dan Patrick, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas said that he and those in his age bracket would be willing to die to avoid passing on debt to their grandchildren.  I have heard others say such things.  I haven't seen the polling data but everyone I know over 65 is willing to stay at home and not risk death because.......they love their grandchildren and want to spend as much time with them as they can.  

Ben Shapiro, a person who voices a lot of the right wing talking points in smug podcasts and through fringe media said this:  "If somebody who is 81 dies of COVID-19, that is not the same thing as somebody who is 30 dying of COVID-19...If grandma dies in a nursing home at age 81, that's tragic and it's terrible, also the life expectancy in the United States is 80".  For Ben it appears that it fine for an 81 year old to die of this terrible and painful disease for a chance to go out to eat or get a haircut.  They say it is to keep the economy intact and I already pointed out the hypocrisy of this position while maintaining women shouldn't be allow to get abortions to protect their economic security.  But this hypocrisy goes even further.  When the ACA, commonly referred to as Obamacare, had a provision for end of life therapy being covered the right wing noise machine and their noise makers in Congress called these death panels.  Ben was always on right wing shows saying it was an attempt to ration care for the elderly and the infirm and called it evil.  Now they say things like an 81 year old should be thankful for the years, one more than expected, and should just leave the stage. 

Then there is Jacob Wohl, a young man who is going to prison for securities fraud and who has paid people to lie about affairs with many people including Dr. Fauci was talking about the Corona virus death toll being about 1 percent.  "So what if we lose 400,000 people?  That 200,000 elderly and the other 200,000 are the bottom of society.  You have to clean out the barn. If it's real it is a good thing, for God's sake."  This is the spirit of Lebensunwertes Leben.  The Nazi idea that some must be killed for greater good of the nation.  He says it is a good thing that 400,000 people die.  

 If only they were the only voices, but more and more we hear it on radio, the internet and on at least one major television news station.  People are dying because of the incompetence of the President, and now voices are saying that is it a good thing that they are.  Covid-19 will kill people, lots of them.  Staying home and physical distancing will lower the number of deaths because we won't overwhelm the healthcare system.  We will buy time to find a real treatment and save lives.  We will eventually get to a time when it can be dealt with by treatment and/or vaccine.  But until then we shouldn't have to choose to kill people because someone can't get their hair colored or a massage or enough beef.  That is not just nonsense, it is a call we have heard before, it creates the idea that some human beings are not worthy to fight for them to live.  That is not a direction as a culture we should feel comfortable going.  That is not something we should give voice.  

 

Covid-19 May 1

So I watched 1984 last night in part thinking about dystopian societies can be really much worse that what we have today.  Watching Winston Smith's rewriting history in his cubicle at the Ministry of Truth makes you think of the press office in our current White House and the President.  It seems like many times in the last week we have heard things from the podium and on TV shows that contradict things we have on film.  It is hard to not see the comparison.  Today the new Press Secretary who is so unqualified for this job in a real administration when asked if she would lie to the press, stated emphatically she wouldn't and less than two minutes later lied.  It was this kind of news this week that made me want to write something funny to get our minds off of the complete and utter cluster that is the Executive Branch of this government.  You know like describing your Zoom (Room) 101.   But then I saw this. 








These were taken at a anti-lockdown rally in Illinois.  They should not be confused with the fake posters circulating from a Pittsburgh rally earlier.  Every indication is that these are real.  IN fact I believe a news agency spoke with the woman with the Arbeit Macht Frei one who explained "I am not racist, I have Jewish friends".  So here we are.  One person using a slogan that was meant to taunt so many as they marched to their deaths at the hands of a tyrannical government and the other protester likening a Jewish Governor to Hitler.  Both of which are disgusting on many many levels. 

First, a rule of thumb.  Being asked to stay home, to slow the spread of a disease which is literally killing people at an alarming rate, does not equate with being dragged from your home, your property seized, your clothes, shoes and gold fillings in your teeth surrendered and then put into a gas chamber to be killed, or made to dig a ditch that would become your grave.  In fact the government is providing resources to help all who are struggling during this time. 

 Secondly, carrying Nazi symbols and slogans will not win most people to your cause.  Most Americans are in favor of the measures directed at keeping people safer from the virus and if you want to convince people to change their minds you might want to use for your model something that isn't so hated. 

Now, the point of the shutdowns was to slow the spread of the virus, in part, to not overwhelm the healthcare system.  This is a highly virulent, and for a percentage of those that get it, a disease that is highly destructive, requiring intensive care and a great deal of equipment that could not handle the numbers.  Staying at home, limiting contact between people and of course making large crowds forbidden has done its job in many places.  But we aren't over the hump in those places and every rally will make it less likely that we can loosen up the restrictions.  Many people who are going to these rallies say that the models were wrong and it is not that contagious.  But it was the very things they are arguing to end that made the numbers smaller in many places.  Think of it this way. 

Imagine you are living on street that for a long time was fairly quiet but started to get busier.  At the corner there are a series of near miss accidents and then a big one that kills a family.  A four-way stop is added.  It backs up traffic, it makes people have to leave earlier for work or be late.  It slows you down getting home.  It is a nuances.  It makes life more difficult and when there is extra traffic it is infuriating by reason.  But no more accident occur.  So people start to protest the stop signs.  Instead of asking for a round-about or a traffic light they want to be free to go back like it was.  They argue that there was only one deadly accident and they are adults and work it out on their own.  This is a good analogy to what these people are asking.  They aren't looking for a way to balance safety and freedom, they just seem angry that their vision of freedom is being curtailed.  Science, facts and danger to anyone and everyone is not relevant because they don't believe them.  That is the scary thing and the President of the United States appears to have their backs.

I think this pandemic sucks on many levels.  I go out rarely,  I can't get all the things I want, I have less money for fun things, my vacation is on hold.  There are days I am scared for myself and Dianne and for so many other people.   But the alternative to staying home, missing out on fun and even some things that we might have thought essential, is not nearly as bad as being a Jew in the 1930s and 40s in large parts of Europe.  That is just privileged ignorance at the highest level. Knock it off. 

April 26--Covid 19 It is getting ridiculous

This has been a crazy week with people protesting the stay-at-home orders so they can get haircuts and coloring and of course a President who had a thought experiment about drinking Lysol or bringing UV Light into the lungs.  (Just so you know neither would work even if possible but that is for another time).  There are governors trying to open their states up, some following careful recommendation, others like Brian Kemp of Georgia who can't seem to understand disease spread.   

But what is amazing is how many people defend and spread all kinds of nonsense and fight hard against reality.  Here are a few things I am hearing that really we need to stop.

1.  People who say they had Covid-19 last fall:  Not likely at all for many reasons.  While I don't trust the Chinese government to accurate information what we do know is that the first death recorded was December 10, 2019 at a hospital in Wuhan, China.  We know that because someone broke protocol and told the world and was punished for it.  If you think you had this disease which seems to have come from Wuhan in late November before then I would have to ask is the world is wrong.  Did it originate in your area?  Also where are the hospitalizations and deaths that would have been noticed?  This is a highly contagious disease and has about a 1-1.5% fatality rate.  While I assume that there were cases before the January 24th date in Washington state, I can't believe that we had people walking around all over the country before we had even heard of it from China.

2.  The Flu kills more people than Covid-19 and we don't isolate for that. There current numbers show that  yes,  Covid-19 has killed fewer people than the average year of flu.  But it has only been for 3 months and we have had massive social distancing to slow the spread.  By next week we will blow past the average of flu deaths.  This is more virulent than the flu, it kills more people who get it, it has no medicines to mitigate it, and no vaccine.  

3.  Only people who are near death already will die.  I have heard this from elected officials and from social media.  That some how being young, healthy and active you will be fine.  While most people who die from this virus are old or have complications that is not universal.  Anyone can die from this, anyone, and even if you recover, there are lasting issues that may make you more vulnerable to death in the future.  This goes along with the idea that elderly people are willing to die for the future of their children.  I know a lot of old people, they aren't looking to die of this horrible disease.  

4.  The cure is worse than the disease. This has become the mantra of many who want to re-open the states.  The idea being that the crashing economy and or continued stimulus money will in the long run kill more people than the virus.  The math here is that those that die are a necessary sacrifice to save the financial stability of the country.  This argument is difficult coming from so many who claim to be Pro-life.  One of the arguments against abortion is that a woman's life and economic well-being does not over-ride the life of the fetus.  Funny how those people are now saying people must die for their own well-being.  

5.  The death toll is elevated because all deaths now are considered Covid-19.  This is an amazing conspiracy theory because it suggests that doctors all over the country are violating the law by lying on death certificates.  Somehow this is supposed to be designed to make the President look bad.  One person even argued that no one had died of a heart attack since February.  (I know of someone who did so......)  When I asked for proof I was told to go look for it myself.  

These are but a few of the nonsense that keeps being spread, from government officials, social media posts and repeated in the right wing noise machine.  They are dangerous because they destroy trust in the very agencies that are giving us the information that we need.  They aren't perfect but they aren't part of some deep state attack on the President.  Surviving this will not be easy, our country will suffer, 

many people will suffer in personal ways and a lot of our lives will change.  But we can work together.  Listen to experts, read beyond headlines, investigate claims, and continue to talk to people you trust.  Stay safe and stay home, even if your governor can't seem to understand what you know.  

Sunday, April 19

And so it begins.  Protests sprung up all over the country since Friday, including one here in Indianapolis, attacking state governments and especially governors who have stay-at-home orders.  Many of the protesters seem driven by the Fox News screamers who are calling for the governments to drop these orders, and the President who last week said that he has the authority to override the states (he doesn't) and later said he is allowing states to make the decision.  Claiming he is allowing people to do something he doesn't have the authority over is simply insane.   But what is truly troubling is the number of people who have turned out for these protests who are so wildly misinformed and that that misinformation is being promoted on Fox and other right-wing noise machine outlets and of course the White House.  There is everything from the idea that this is some kind of plot to institute one-world government to it is caused or made worse by 5-G towers the cacophony of crazy conspiracies are coupled with White Supremacist ideology and pro-Trump campaigning.  It is a real toxic bouillabaisse. 

Seriously there were all kinds of things that made no sense, or more precisely made perfect sense in the era we are in.  Some protesters carried Swastika Flags with Trump 2020 on them.  I would comment but what could I actually say about this that doesn't already create scream at you from this.  To promote your candidate you attend a rally that is protesting what you think is an authoritarian over-reach of government, but use the short-hand symbol for governmental over-reach and tyranny linked to your guy.  I think that if you think too much about the level of stupid this is you fall through a wormhole. 

More impressive however were the marchers in Michigan, a state the borders Canada, carrying Confederate flags.  Again carrying a symbol of rebellion over the right to own other people, by law, while protesting laws that limit your activity.  Logic is just not taught well enough these days.

But there were two shining things that came out of these protests that can't be ignored for the sheer privilege and arrogance of many of the protesters.   The first was the number of them who were calling for bars, restaurants and hair salons to be open.  They are basically saying that what they want is the people who normally serve them to come back to work, against scientific advice, because they may have to cook their own meals and let their hair grown or return to its natural color.  I really heard few and saw few signs from people who were calling to go back to work, they were screaming for others to go back to work.  To serve them.  I have little idea how to respond to that beyond telling them to suck it up. 

The other message seemed to be signs that said things like "My Body, My Choice".  Ironic I know.  But setting that aside, their idea was that we should all be able to choose what chances we want to take and that they are willing to risk going out during the pandemic. They remind me of a story, several people escaped a sinking ship only to be strained on a life boat.  One guy, for not reason, started to drill a hole in the bottom of the boat in front of where he was sitting.  The others protested that the boat will flood and sink.  His reply was, "This is where I am sitting, the water will only come in here".   Several people who have challenged the idea that they should be able to take a chance and defied government suggestions and orders have died of Covid 19.  But how many people did they infect?  How many people did they put in danger because they were spreading the virus or using up much needed medical supplies?  The water runs everywhere not just where you are sitting.

These protests are ginned up by a segment of the far right of this country that has replaced science and reality with feelings and anger.  They attack anything that does fit their world view as bad.  They are selfish and arrogant and seem to find comfort in ignorance.  And they have a champion in the White House who has been one of them for his entire life. 

We will remember this time as a time when science stood firm against willful ignorance and down right arrogance.  We will remember this time when some people found a way to work around the necessary restrictions while others complained that someone might know they dye their hair.  (Trust me we know).  We will remember this time when local governmental officials stood against their own party to provide safety for their states while national politicians sat in their mansions and joined the protests through Skype.  The question is will we learn. 

The Crucible tells the story of how one town in colonial America lost its collective mind and killed 20 people for fear of witches, magic and the devil.  How many are we willing to sacrifice this time and will 200 years from now some school children read the play of our time and wonder, just how stupid were they in the 21st century.   

April 12

There is a scene in Mathew Lopez's The Whipping Man, where freed slaves, in the ruins of their former master's home, make a seder in April of 1865.  The slaves, converted to Judaism by the family, used hardtack for Matza and a horse bone for the shank.  These substitutions, while not kosher, express the essence of the ritual and thus what truly is important in expressing ones faith.  There intention was not to destroy that ritual but to celebrate the ancient freedom of the Israelites and the newly found freedom they now enjoyed as the Civil War had ended and slavery abolished. 

Today, the entire world is faced with a danger that is hard to track down and avoid.  We find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic that requires us to remain in physical distance from others and not gather in groups.  This as we too celebrate Passover and the Christian community celebrates Holy Week and Easter.  Over the last several weeks houses of worship have had to modify how they minister to their congregations.  For Jews, a minyan of 10 adults is the standard to do a full service and over the centuries those people must all be in the same space.  Not so long ago the idea of a virtual minyan was considered a horror by many in the Jewish world, but for the last month it has not only been the standard but has elevated people's connection to their faith in many occasions.  Virtual seders have been the norm and we have been invited to come to several.  Faced with the threat this virus we are living with can bring upon us we forgo the normal and create a new way to meet the intention.

For Christians they too have modified their approach to this time.  Catholics have as part of their tradition an obligation to attend church on every Sunday and on many days during the year.  Yet Catholic Church pews were empty today as worshipers sat at their kitchen tables or comfortable chairs and prayed along with their priest on a computer screen.  Protestant churches did the same.  Except for a few outliers.

There is a growing voice led by some on the political right who are using religion as a cudgel to attack Stay-at-Home orders arguing that it is unconstitutional.     Some have even violated the orders and called their congregations together in services.  One such pastor who called Covid-19 a hoax and not dangerous has already died due to complications of the infection.  But more are pushing forward and this morning there were several services held with crowds.  I don't understand and I am not sure someone can explain it to me to the point where I will.  In Judaism one can violate almost any religious law if the results may save a life.  I am not sure about Christianity, but I am sure that that Christians I know believe that putting one's life in danger unnecessarily is an affront to God. 

I find it a little odd that there is an attempt to argue that the closing of houses of worship is a violation of the Constitution.  Every right outlined in the Bill of Rights has limits.  Since the early days of the republic, the rights laid out there were subject to interpretation.   The main argument is that government can't interfere in religious practice.  But the courts have ruled they can, banning polygamy as far back as the 19th century is a prime example.  Here in Indiana some of the same people who are calling out our governor for his stay-at-home order because they think he can't close churches were opposed when a local man started the Church of Cannabis, where smoking pot is considered sacramental.   If the state is allowed to stop adults from choosing to engage in a behavior that harms no one but themselves in a religious context, then they are clearly able to close churches for the sake of the entire population.  But I would argue religion is not the issue here.

For weeks, the President has been more worried about the stay-at-home orders around the country hurting the economy.  As jobless claims rise, as stimulus leads to debt and the realignment of the entire world economic picture is taking place he is saying he wants the country to open up again.  The problem is that he doesn't have the power to do it.  He could order federal workers back to their jobs but he can't tell a governor to lift order.  I think many of the people arguing for the churches to open up have no intention of attending, they just want to force state officials to end our confinement in order to help the President get what he wants. There are enough people whose views of the virus are skewed by the misinformation on some networks and even from the White House that some churches will have full houses.  Last week, when asked if she cared about the virus as she exited a church service one woman said she wasn't because she was "washed in the blood of Jesus" but also that she thinks it is a media hype and not as serious.   Most health officials think that if we went back to normal daily routines it could be devastating to population.  One thing we are seeing in New York, California, and parts of the Midwest is that physical distancing is working.  We are flattening the curve, while we may still see a large number of cases the time it takes to reach those numbers will be longer.  That way our health system is not overwhelmed and over time we will find a workable treatment and eventually a vaccine. When I hear people suggest things like it is okay for older people to die to save the economy or that we are over doing it because those that die were already on their last legs I am not sure how to react.  In both of those cases, the first the Lt. Governor of Texas Dan Patrick and the second disgraced former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly claim a pro-life stance.  To me that is Pro-death if I ever heard it. 

So as we sit in a virtual pew on Facebook live, raise a kiddush cup on a Ipad screen and pray the rosary in a ZOOM chat we are still doing God's work and performing the highest of our religious tasks as human beings, saving God's creatures.  We will see a new way to form our religious communities when this is over.  Perhaps we will find that more people connect more strongly, both online and in real life moving forward.  I don't know, what I do know is that if we stay home, connect using the gift of technology and the power of family we can save lives.  That is the greatest prayer we can offer.  

Covid Diary April 7

Things continue to be weird.  I miss going to work and seeing people.  I miss the simple run to the grocery.  I wonder when I can get my haircut, something I do usually right before Pesach.  Speaking of Pesach, no big seder means that when we started taking the things out we need for the holiday we didn't need to take out much.  No need for 15 place settings for two people.  Everything about this time is strange. 

Things I have discovered however is interesting:

1.  I can go over a week and a half without shaving and well, still can't grow a beard or mustache.  So that answers that.

2.  Watching myself on ZOOM let me know I stick my tongue out and lick my lips a lot.  I apologize.

3.  I would normally watch and read tons of news and sports and since there is little sports news and I am avoiding the news I realize how much time I can wasted each day.

4.  We are social animals and watching the need for connections do work arounds is amazing.  My favorite is the guy who rented a cherry picker to visit his grandmother through the window of her 3rd floor room in a nursing home. 

I am not sure what the future holds.  What I do know is that as a people we are strong and there are many stories of heroes.  After Passover, I will share some.