COVID-19: Three Years & Still Counting

This week marks three years from the first week of America’s COVID-19 lockdown. We have taken to marking that week as the “before times”; the time before it forever changed our worlds. Whether you caught the virus, or did not, still it affected you. Perhaps your job changed, and you started working from home. Possibly you were a teacher and had to learn to teach over some type of communication network. Or, sadly, you were a nurse or physician caught up in the horrors of those early days when patients were dying and you could not figure out how to keep them alive. Maybe you were a parent trying to juggle work and kids at home and trying to keep everyone well. Or, you were just an ordinary person with a grandmother in a nursing home whom you could no longer visit and could get no one to tell you how she was doing. Masks and medical supplies, such as ventilators, were in short supply. Neighborhood groups created teams to make masks in their homes; industrial factories changed their production lines to build ventilators. Nurses and physicians traveled to heavily affected cities to buffer beleaguered staff. Morgues piled bodies in refrigerated trucks when they ran out of space. We were in this fight together for a while. Pretty early on, a viral testing kit became available.

We may never quantify the costs of this virus in terms of the loneliness and isolation it caused. We can measure the number of deaths and the vaccines given, but that still does not accurately quantify the costs of the real human suffering it brought about. The illness kept families separated; many could not be with their loved ones as they lay dying. Children no longer had extended families around to celebrate their births or birthdays; we postponed weddings since the authorities forbade or discouraged large gatherings. I applaud the service workers who kept the buses running and the grocery stores open, so some activities could continue.

Then politics stepped in and confused the messages even more. To mask or not to mask? To isolate or go out and about? The President's team gave out conflicting messages, and in the absence of a vaccine, the public was quite unsure. Reluctant to evoke ancient remedies such as wearing a bag of garlic around one’s neck(!) no authority had a clue, initially, how the virus was even transmitted. The virologists soon determined that the respiratory system could transmit these viral droplets through the air and emphasized that well-fitting masks were the only everyday barrier.

This incoherent message allowed all the usual and unusual quacks to step in and promote all kinds of strange “cures”. Some included ultraviolet lights, deworming medicines, Hydroxychloroquine, bleach, and various cleansing rituals. None worked, unsurprisingly. Certain groups pushed conspiracy theories. Anti-Asian violence increased as the virus was first identified in China. There was little leadership from the White House or the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which was politicized and censored. The President did not want to wear a mask; he wanted to get out and campaign. He did not want the country to shut down; he wanted commerce to continue. So, sadly, the country then divided into Red and Blue factions with governors in many red states refusing to enact mask mandates and those in blue states enforcing such mandates to a degree. Florida did not wish to chase away tourists by requiring masks. Texas state officials overturned mandates issued by local authorities. Canada and Mexico closed their borders to Americans for a while. International travel became rare. In the absence of a vaccine, countries required proof of negative tests to enter.

As I reread my narrative here, it sounds as if I am composing a scenario for a sci-fi novel, but as we all know, these things happened. Doesn’t some of this information, in retrospect, seem absurd? In these three years, what have we learned?

Scientists still are uncertain where the virus originated. There are two schools of thought operating today. One is that it originated from a viral lab experiment gone wrong in a research lab in Wuhan, China, where the authorities identified the first cases. Although, as described by Hopkins, most of the early cases were associated with the wild animal market and neighboring area; the lab was on the other side of the city and across a river from the market. The second theory is that the virus jumped from wild animals to humans in this market in Wuhan, that was known for exploiting these unregulated sources of food. COVID developed in this manner from animals to humans; authorities attributed this virus to bats that infected an intermediary animal and then eaten by humans. Originally investigators thought an animal known as the pangolin was the intermediary, more recently authorities suggested the raccoon dog, (an animal related to foxes) might be the culprit. In the 2003 outbreak of SARS, they also identified bats as carriers of the coronavirus.

But scientists came to the rescue; many research labs raced to develop effective vaccines. Some chose tried-and-true methods of using weakened or inactive viruses, while other labs used a new technology, that of a MrNA method. But about nine months after the virus first hit our shores, we had vaccines! Of course, they came after a tumultuous election and changes of administration. They presented residents with a vaccine without an effective delivery system in place or formal FDA approval. But, gradually Americans got their vaccines. However, this, too, was subject to politics. Anti-vaxxers protested about its hasty development or against vaccines in general. Others did not like the mandates about public sector workers being required to take the vaccine. Police, firefighters, and nurses in some cities protested against vaccine requirements for their jobs; the courts agreed with their bosses.

Since the Chinese government has not been forthcoming with the world scientific community and allowed an even exchange of research information, the origin will probably remain murky. It would have been nice if they all put aside nationalities to save humanity, but once again, politics intervened and finger-pointing ensued. The actual death toll worldwide is subject to under-reporting by many nations, whether because of a lack of testing capability or hidden for political reasons. But the numbers below represent the best numbers the World Health Organization (WHO) and others have been able to determine. In the US, we are still experiencing over 300 deaths per day.The totals are indeed shocking in their scope.

The COVID figures to date: (NY Times)

Total worldwide case total: 678,417,501. 

The total worldwide number of deaths: 6,878,832.

United States case total: 103,535,689

United States death total: 1,131,763.

Maryland total cases: 1,368,228.

Maryland total deaths: 16,646.

We estimate the world population in 2023 is slightly over eight Billion. (8,108,605,388)

We estimate the population of the United States on this date is: 336,247,970.

We estimate the population of Maryland is: 6,298,325.

There is still much unknown information. What is the toll on families that have lost a parent or a grandparent who was the caregiver? Estimates are currently that the pandemic orphaned 140,000 children. How is our country caring for these children? Schools are learning how much knowledge was lost during distance learning as proficiency levels dropped across the country. Scientists documented that the syndrome of Long Covid or ongoing systemic issues after having the disease continues to plague many survivors. However, neither physicians nor scientists cannot predict how long these symptoms will persist as the manifestations are different in many cases. Americans appear to have vaccine fatigue; while we vaccinated most, (68% of the general population, but 93% of the elderly), many fewer have received the recommended boosters. The average life expectancy in America dropped during the pandemic because of the high number of fatalities. Epidemiologists expect that this virus will, like many before it, become ongoing. And just as Americans annually (well, most Americans) line up for the flu shot in the fall, soon the COVID booster type shot will accompany it.

Have we learned anything from the pandemic? I certainly hope so. We have found out that regional differences can hamper public health efforts, that willing politicians can distort public health data, and that conspiracy theories interfere with healthcare. I have spent my adult life in health care. I believe in caring for others. Consequently, I have difficulty understanding why someone would put their own individualism ahead of the need for society to be safe. Why would someone think they don’t have to wear a mask and thus compromise the health of a cancer patient on immunosuppressive meds who might be in the same room for needed services? Why would one think their desire to attend a wedding overrides the need to isolate if they are infected or have been exposed? (One wedding with an infected guest led to 50 documented cases of Covid.) Similar events happened with sports teams; you know those guys who think they are invincible and won’t be brought down by a virus!

As our world becomes even more interconnected, there is even less hope of containing the next pandemic-and there will be one, probably sooner than 100 years. Scientists need to develop a type of base vaccine, perhaps with MrNA technology that with a bit of tweaking can meet the challenge of the next worldwide virus. One aspect of COVID that differed from previous related viruses was its ability to change and create new variants and sub-variants. We have seen this before, but not with the rapidity shown by this one. To lessen that occurrence, we need to ensure that there is widespread vaccination as soon as possible, once scientists identify a new epidemic, to prevent a pandemic. Scientists need to communicate and cooperate better with each other and with the WHO to help prevent future pandemics. Think about what we have learned. Ebola went from animals to people, as did AIDS, SARS, and MERS. The 1918 epidemic was originally thought to have been a swine flu, but eventually, isolation of the virus from tissue (bodies buried in the Alaskan tundra were well preserved and examined) discerned an avian or bird origin. As the habitat of unknown animals continues to shrink, we may face more untoward experiences and researchers must know these possibilities.

Just thought I’d mention a fact unrelated to the pandemic. Twenty years ago this week, America attacked Iraq with the pretense that it had weapons of mass destruction. We did not find such weapons. Iraq did not take part in the destructive events of 911 (another pretense used). Saudi Arabians did. We created regime change; the country remains fractured. Over 4500 Americas and countless numbers of Iraqi civilians died. Future administrations should not repeat these actions.

“Til next week-Peace!

Fox Gets Real; DeSantis goes?

 

During the 2020 election campaign, many in the MAGA camp, such as Attorney Sidney Powell and others, made wild claims about the electronic voting machines supplied to several states by Dominion Voting Systems. If my memory serves, they claimed these machines were controlled by some systems in Italy or by operators trained by Cesar Chavez in Venezuela (he has been dead for several years, now). I think the CIA or FBI even went to Italy at the insistence of the White House to check this out. Some hearings held by the January 6^th committee discussed these claims and others about dead voters voting and ballots being hidden or switched by remote controls, members of the Department of Justice reported to the sitting president in 2020, that they checked out rumor after rumor, ad no ballots were hidden, converted, stolen or otherwise changed.

In the end, many of these claims were investigated multiple times and found as erroneous, misrepresentations, or just plain lies. Do you recall the tale told by Rudy Giuliani about the mother-daughter ballot counters in Fulton Count GA? He said they were hiding votes and passing a thumb drive around that contained election data. No such evidence was found on reviewing the tapes, but that did not stop him and the former president from using the names of these two women in speeches and causing both to be harassed so much that they were told by the FBI to move for their safety. Nor did it stop Fox and other conservative outlets from repeating these lies.

Long after the election and even after the events of January 6^th, many election facts were not presented to the viewers on either FOX news or their broadcast evening shows. The network continued to use the “Stop the Steal” movement language and suggest that the election was stolen, despite all evidence to the contrary. The Murdoch plan was also to not carry gavel-to-gavel coverage of the January 6^th committee, although it carried some, as I understand it.

Recently, Dominion released transcripts of emails gathered for their lawsuit against the Fox network for its election coverage among Fox management and on-air talents and others. Here they can be heard saying that they did not believe that the news they reported about the election being stolen was true. The reports quoted them as saying the claims made by Sidney Powell and her associates were crazy as was she, yet they booked her on the air and took live broadcast phone calls from DJT where he bellowed out his grievances. Dominion Systems machines were called out in these broadcasts while the hosts did not question or contradict their guests. Off the air, these same hosts spoke to each other about how they could not wait for DJT to be gone, so they did not have to deal with him. Tucker Carlson, an evening host, spoke of his passionate hatred for the former president.

Yet day after day, evening after evening, they touted their support for the Republicans and the claims of a stolen election. When their network called the state of Arizona for President Biden, their audiences hit it with a flurry of calls to rescind that call. Soon after, other networks called more states for Biden and the writing was on the wall; the president would not win re-election. When Fox reported that, they lost viewers and the MAGA crowd migrated to networks such as AON and Newsmax. So, according to their own emails, they had to keep up the false claims if they were to retain their audience. According to testimony by the 91-year-old conglomerate owner, Murdoch, the issue to him wasn’t skewing red or blue, it was a matter of losing green–their income stream, although he admitted doing things such as giving Jared Kushner, whom he called a friend, an advance look at political ads planned by the Biden campaign.

Pundits are divided about the possibility of Dominion winning the lawsuit for defamation. The bar for news organizations is high and must show willful or malicious intent to defame. When the management admonished reporters for giving accurate information that was contrary to the channel line and continued to showcase claims by guests whom they considered unstable and untruthful, I think they exceeded that bar, but I am not on the potential jury and have never been a MAGA fan, so I might see the issue differently. But, since they also said that keeping the stolen election issue alive kept viewers tuned in, that showed that they had a monetary measure to meet and, if defaming Dominion got them the right numbers, they didn’t seem to care. For that matter, I have never watched the Fox channel unless the football games were on, so I am not at all impartial.

Another matter that has always bothered me is just what news conservative media reports. They did not adequately cover the insurrection as a news event, nor was it shown fully in real-time. So, while I was watching and becoming horrified at the invasion of the Capitol, their management kept Fox viewers unaware. The same happened with the January 6^th hearings, which had minimal coverage. But never mind, Tucker Carlson has thousands of hours of official police insurrection tapes, courtesy of Speaker McCarthy, to manipulate so that he can now show pictures of a tourist romp in the park with Donald and spew his propaganda over America. Hopefully, most will not believe him. No thanks to Kevin McCarthy for his perfidy.

That brings the question, if much of America no longer routinely watches the evening network news, and only listens to partisan cable channels, is the media reinforcing the red/blue divisions? Will each faction stay in its corner and not interact? We don’t have Walter Cronkite or David Brinkley, two of the most trusted TV newsmen of the 1960s and 70s any more. So who does the public trust? Some say it is the network’s nightly news; others rely on PBS as an unbiased source. The media should feel responsible for news one can believe in, and challenge lies or, as the Washington Post says on its masthead, Democracy Dies in Darkness. Shine a light on it! And if some members of the media are not content with slanting the news to their perceived audience, but will lie outright, withhold news, or distort the truth, then when do they stop being media and become comic actors or propagandists?

Now, we have waiting in the wings a “White Christian Nationalist Fascist” “wanna-be” in Ron DeSantis. Not content to only go after limiting free speech on college campuses and lower schools, restricting voting to his class of preferred people, banning books, and beating up on gays and trans kids; no, now he is going after the press. He is proposing new laws to weaken the very bar I just mentioned above, that of proving malicious intent. He wants to restrict press freedom and stifle any negative press against him or his policies. As Vox reported last week:  “DeSantis’s proposals should alarm anyone in media, and, indeed, anyone who believes that the government or other powerful public actors should not be allowed to target individuals who criticize them.”

(The author, Ian Millhiser, described DeSantis as an Orbanesque Governor, convening a panel to find a case to challenge and weaken Sullivan-or the right of press freedom at the Supreme Court.) He quotes the 1964 decision: “Sullivan, in other words, rested on the proposition that free speech cannot exist unless society tolerates some factually erroneous statements, even if these statements sometimes paint an innocent person in an unfavorable light. The alternative is to hang a sword of Damocles over the head of every journalist, every political activist, and really anyone who speaks out on controversial matters, which can fall the moment they make an innocent mistake. As the Court concluded, “whatever is added to the field of libel is taken from the field of free debate.”

Millhiser notes further that DJT attempted also to weaken press freedom; in many ways, the two of them, DeSantis and DJT, are despots in waiting. The MAGA crowd couldn’t get it together and operated mostly on emotional appeals about witch hunts. DeSantis will not go that route, he wants to create a new precedent and be able to close out any criticism by denying access. Both leaders vilified a free press and banned press coverage at various times. In the DJT White House, often the press briefing was a joke or the press secretary did not respond to questions. But, he warns, issues once thought untouchable or absurd are no longer. “The first is simply that opposition to free speech rights for the press is fast becoming the official position of the Republican Party. Both of the presumed frontrunners for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 — Trump and DeSantis — support getting rid of New York Times v. Sullivan. As do other leading figures within the GOP.”  As any veteran of the Obamacare wars will tell you, legal arguments that are widely viewed as ridiculous today can easily gain purchase if they are embraced by legal and political elites.”

Millhiser concludes by warning that DeSantis and his ideas are positioned for a presidential campaign in which DeSantis promises to make America like Florida and he says:

“A DeSantis-led GOP is potentially an existential threat to the right to free speech.”

As has been said before, forewarned is forearmed; will America listen?

Along with this news, this week is another threat of storms to California, which is reeling with storm after storm and inches of rain and many feet of snow. Well, maybe the drought is over, but floods and mudslides remain concerns. I send caring thoughts to all affected. Climate change is here, folks.

‘Til next week-Peace!

Hogan Says No

Finally, ending years of speculation on whether he will run for President, today, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced he will not run. He made this statement on National TV in a taped interview with Bob Costas on Face the Nation. Acknowledging that he is a Republican in the Ronald Reagan conservative model, Hogan claims that although many in his party share these views, not enough do.Additionally, he said that stepping back from running was a tough decision, but he did not want to enable a victory by the former president in the Republican primaries. The former governor noted that DJT and DeSantis appear to be the front runners, with all the other candidates far behind, and believed that if the primaries had many candidates as in 2016, DJT would emerge victorious, which was a result he did not want to see. He would like to see the Republican Party return to the party that he rose up in when he first ran for governor in Maryland. But last year, the MD primary rejected his supported candidate for Governor, Kelly Schultz, and instead chose a far-right “wing-nut”, as some described him, to run for that post. The voters in MD rejected this candidate almost two to one as the Democratic nominee emerged victorious in the general election.

Hogan further discussed the facts that the Republicans have lost the popular vote in several recent elections and need to change if they expect to win over voters. If this change does not occur, he sees years of continued defeats for his party. He repeated the significance of the last Presidential election where his party lost the House, the Senate, and the White House, and warned that this could continue if the Party does not seek other candidates with different views. About 30% of his party still supports the former president, and they don’t want to change. Hogan stated he is a truth-teller, and the party needs more of those. Obviously, he thinks little of those who claim the previous election was stolen and continue to repeat those lies.

When asked in the interview if he would support former VP Mike Pence, Hogan stated yes. Pence has boxed himself in, it seems, by claiming Congressional immunity from answering a subpoena or testifying to the Grand Jury in the investigation being run by special counsel Jack Smith. Since he has already written and published a book addressing the events surrounding January sixth, few pundits understand his reluctance. Many believe his argument is reaching for straws and do not understand his reluctance to speak before the Grand Jury. Possibly, writing something down differs significantly from testifying under oath, who knows? If this proceeds to the Supreme Court, few expect his argument will hold, since Senator Graham, with a better argument of being an actual Senator, did not prevail in his quest to not have to testify in the Georgia vote tampering case.

The Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) is in town this week, or rather down at National Harbor for its annual CPAC Convention. This used to be referred to as the conservative prom where all the presidential hopefuls came to play and show off. However, this year there were many no-shows as DeSantis, Senator Tim Scott, Senator Ted Cruz, Governor Sununu, and several others were at the other conservative powerhouse event being held by the Club for Growth on the West Coast. The former president was not invited, so reports say. Governor Youngkin and former Secretary Pompeo could not attend but were also invited. At least, this time, the CPAC group did not hear from the totalitarian leader, Viktor Orban of Hungary.

CPAC has had some problems this year as its’ leader, Matt Schlapp, is facing charges of sexual harassment by a Walker campaign volunteer who was assigned to drive him around during the Georgia Senate campaign. Vanity Fair reports on this and other concerns for the group in the link above. But, CPAC had Don Jr, Matt Gaetz, Mike Lindell, (the pillow guy), Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Mike Pompeo, and the former president, so what more could anyone want? Former UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, also spoke in a pandering speech but was not well received by the audience. According to CNN, DJT gave a rambling 90-minute speech where they documented at least 33 inaccuracies or lies. The New York Times mentioned the same, noting he wildly inflated the murder and crime rates in New York City. He also claimed that even if he were to be indicted, he would still stay in the race for president. Still, he won a candidate straw poll vote from meeting attendees with 66% of the vote. This was his crowd, and even though the attendance was significantly lower than in previous years, the fervent and faithful showed up.

What should we make of all of this? Well, it is early days yet, primaries will not happen for another year and a lot can happen in a year. With any luck, DJT will be behind bars by then. (Hey, I can dream, can’t I?) Many say that DeSantis has yet to be tested on a national stage and, given his notoriously thin skin, may flame out when challenged. Others note he is acting imperiously as he ventures out of state and is trying to outdo the former president with his inflammatory statements. Can this last; I doubt it, but time will tell. He claims it is time to have the nation follow Florida’s’ example, but few voters really know how extreme he has become in his actions there. Although this nation was founded on principles of religious tolerance, some believe he is trying to make Florida a Christian state. Not only is he attacking trans youth and LBGTQ residents, but he also went after Disney for opposing him and supporting their Disney World employees. I think he is also trying to create a totalitarian state. One of his legislators was even trying to outlaw the Democratic Party as a viable entity in Florida, supposedly because “once upon a time” Florida Democrats supported slavery. And that differs from DeSantis outlawing the teaching of slavery and the civil rights movement, how? Continue to monitor DeSantis; he cannot be allowed to get away with these antics.

Today, to commemorate the anniversary of the March across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama by Civil Rights activists, President Biden spoke at the site. He advocated for voting rights and the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights legislation, which was defeated by a Senate filibuster last year. If you remember, the police beat John Lewis severely at that bridge and he suffered a fractured skull. Biden noted how many states had restricted voting rights in recent years but lamented the fact that with this House there was little chance to pass legislation now.

Heather Cox Richardson wrote an excellent piece about this in her column tonight. She spoke of the history surrounding that day, where after several marches and attempts to vote, citizens were arrested, beaten, or given literacy tests that none passed. Several civil rights groups organized a march that would start at the bridge. The violence of that day led eventually to the passage of the 1965 Voting rights act after a passionate speech and support by President Johnson.

Richardson notes: “But less than 50 years later, in 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. The Shelby County v. Holder decision opened the door, once again, for voter suppression. Since then, states have made it harder to vote. In the wake of the 2020 election, in which voters handed control of the government to Democrats, Republican-dominated legislatures in at least 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting. In July 2021, in the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee decision, the Supreme Court ruled that election laws that disproportionately affected minority voters were not unconstitutional, so long as they were not intended to be racially discriminatory. 

When the Democrats took power in 2021, they vowed to strengthen voting rights. They immediately introduced the For the People Act, which expanded voting rights, limited the influence of money in politics, banned partisan gerrymandering, and created new ethics rules for federal officeholders. Republicans in the Senate blocked the measure with a filibuster. Democrats then introduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would have restored portions of the Voting Rights Act, and the Freedom to Vote Act, a lighter version of the For the People Act. Republicans blocked both of those acts, too. 

And so, in 2023, the right to vote is increasingly precarious.

As Biden told marchers today, “The right to vote—the right to vote and to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty. With it, anything is possible. Without it—without that right, nothing is possible. And this fundamental right remains under assault.”

So, as I conclude, please remember that many Republicans believe it is correct to decide who should vote and how and will continue to make laws to decrease the right to vote. Brnovitch, as noted above, specifically targets Native Americans who used to send in their votes through third parties since they live far from traditional polls. This Supreme Court has been actively agreeing with restrictive laws against the people and for the states.

So, on that note, I will conclude my remarks tonight.

“Til next week-Peace!

Are You Woke?

Do you even know what the word means? Is it part of your everyday vocabulary? If you use it, does it mean the same thing as when it is used by some right-wing TV commentator or a progressive newscaster? I wasn’t certain, so I did some digging around to learn the origin of the word. Of course, it is a variation of the word “awake”, such as the sleepy man awakened or he woke up in the traditional sense of the word.

But, over time, the colloquial use of the word has changed. In the New Yorker podcast by David Remnick, he discussed these origins with a linguist from the UK, Tony Thorne, who wrote The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, and with some locally polled residents. Most thought it meant that the listener should be aware or put themselves on alert.

The Urban Dictionary defines Woke as being aware of current social issues or understanding the need to wake up. Others have defined Woke as arising out of the Black Lives Matter movement, noting the need to be aware of the issue of Social Justice. Some saw its’ use as a warning to be aware. Others noted its current use as a polemic. Some saw it as silly, a word with no real meaning. Progressives felt it was a word they once used whose meaning was co-opted by the right. Progressives believed being woke meant that one cared about the rights of others and inequities in our society, to mention a few issues.

But, as Thorne noted, a word that was once common to the Black or Southern community in a colloquial sense was changed intentionally to a pejorative word. He traced the modern use to a song in 2008 where woke was used in the chorus of Master Teacher by a Black female singer urging others to stay aware. Around 2014, the Black Lives Matter Movement started using the phrase after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson. Even then the use was positive, connoting empathy and social awareness.

More recently, the right has twisted the word into a negative. To “Be Woke” is now a negative slur. Just as “cancel culture” and the Potato Head doll dominated conservative talk shows for a while, woke is now on the agenda. It, however, seems to have a greater staying power than the other crusades broadly shared over the years. Do you remember the Barney is Gay campaign or the attack on mothballing some Dr.Suess books? Right-wing commentators and pundits are all over this wokeness stuff. Gee, one would almost think it is a genuine issue! Political consultant James Carville recently was quoted about this topic in the Washington Post: “Few people can define woke but, due to propaganda, many are against it. For many, “woke” represents cultural resentment, and it is a shortcut for social elitism.

The article added: To him, the deployment of “woke” as a political attack represents the culture wars of previous eras — the latest version of dismissing coastal elites as chardonnay-swilling, latte-sipping liberals.

“It used to be that [Republicans] were kind of free traders and anti-Russia and pro-military and for entitlement reform,” Carville said. “Well, that’s all out the window. The only thing they have that unifies them is cultural resentment — ‘Let’s all attack the trans kid’ or ‘We shouldn’t tell seventh graders there are gay people because then they’ll never know.’”

 

Republican Governor De Santis of Florida recently promoted his “Anti-woke Campaign” along with his “Don’t Say Gay” campaign as he attempts to turn Florida into a totalitarian state. Not content to mess with elementary school curricula, school board membership, and library censoring, he is now turning to micro-managing college curricula. The decision by the AP college prep course team to change the Black history module for High School teaching after his criticism brought widespread condemnation when it appeared that De Santis drove this decision. Recently, some Florida college students marched in the streets to challenge moves the governor made in the governance of colleges and universities in the state and in issues for LBGTQ or trans students and civil rights history courses or those dealing with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Doesn’t that make one wonder just what is it about diversity, equity, and inclusion that frightens the governor so much? If we don’t teach history, will it go away? Already we have Congresswoman Greene showing that she doesn’t understand our Constitution or our history, and other Republicans not understanding the practices of governmental agencies. What can be next?

Thorne also discussed the weaponization of words. This is a tactic used effectively by the master of the dark side, Steve Bannon, in his several attempts to influence thought. Bannon does not simply use a word negatively, he uses it in such a manner that the opponent can have no valid rejoinder. He used words for full-scale destruction and to demonstrate overwhelming obliteration. Thorne discussed such concepts as contentious language, toxic terminology, and full-scale weaponization in propaganda wars. So when De Santis and other Republicans throw around the word woke, they are not just attacking a word; they are scatter-shooting any and everything that they have associated with that word. Issues such as social justice, inequality in employment, housing, and education, the history of Black people in America, and the era of Jim Crow. De Santis would not teach other truths such as the uneven American history of immigration and minorities in his Florida schools. For the mid-terms, school board memberships, and book banning were huge topics of wokeness as were the bogus bogeymen, CRT theories, and the 1619 project. It is easy to see how an ill-defined word such as “Woke” can be twisted to stand for good or bad and can be used for propaganda so swiftly. It sorta makes one think of Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, doesn’t it? Goodreads has a quote:

He said: “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”

According to a column in the New York Times, Charles Blow reports De Santis is also trying to pit different ethnic groups against each other. As he says, De Santis is attacking marginalized groups on issues where they have divisions. It is no secret that all Hispanics do not think alike. Cubans who identify as white might not identify with poor Haitians or immigrants from Venezuela, even though some might have common afro-Hispanic roots. According to his practices of divide and conquer, conservative Black populations, who traditionally vote for Democrats, might be encouraged to shun members of the gay or trans communities and support Republicans who have the same beliefs.

So where do we go from here? As a progressive, I try to stay abreast of contemporary issues. I am aware of social issues and injustices, so I guess I have wokeness in the traditional sense. But, I am quite concerned at the use of social media and propaganda to flip the meaning of a word to cover up inequities and attempts at erasing Black history, and social engineering in our schools, workplaces, and public forums. Because of white flight, many urban schools that were desegregated in the 80s are again segregated. Will these schools again fall into the second-class education once seen in all-black schools? Whose job is it to educate these students? A governor should govern his or her state for all the population. (And in Virginia, the move to make female students report their menstrual history is scary; I do not know what to make of it. Does the Republican governor think he can smoke out secret trans students, find hidden pregnancies, or teens with aberrant hormones? Does he not know that some female athletes stop having periods when they train diligently?) What good purpose can be served by this move? And Youngkin thinks he should be president?

The right claims that steps President Biden is taking as he tries to make our government look like America is wokeness. Toward that goal, he has appointed more women judges and has a more diverse Cabinet and government than any predecessor. Is writing wrongs from the past such a bad thing?

Some other points from the news this week:

To mark the importance of American support for the Ukrainians on the first anniversary of this war, President Biden went secretly to Kyiv and strolled in the square with President Zelensky to demonstrate this solidarity. A brave move, done well.

After a shooting at Michigan State University this month, we learned that, for a few students, this was not their first school shooting. One student had been at Sandy Hook Elementary, another at Oxford HS. Can someone tell me again just why we are continuing to kill our students? Even now, some states are trying to either work around or not enforce the bare minimum national laws that were passed for gun safety last year.

Former President Jimmy Carter entered Hospice at Home as he nears the end of his life at 98 years old. My thoughts are with him and his family. He has lived a very long life well; more should follow his example.

'Til next week - Peace!

Depression Needs Therapy

Last week, writing in the New York Times, columnist David Brooks told of the death of one of his lifelong friends from suicide. Their friendship started in childhood. The man was a talented person, an accomplished ophthalmologist with loving friends and family, yet he became mired in a depression that he could not lose. He tried therapeutic options over the years; some worked better than others, but none was lasting. I believe everyone should read this article. You can find it here:

Brooks speaks about his friend and the ways he tried to make him feel better. He would remind Pete of his skills as a surgeon, his family, and all the good things in his life, but as he said, those were the wrong actions to take. The depressed person cannot see those things when their mind is cluttered with feelings of trauma and inadequacy or their body lacks the energy to even get out of bed.

Jen, Pete’s widow, noted that when she had cancer treatment, a group of clinicians planned her care, but when one has a mental illness, no such committee is in place. Friends and co-workers urge the affected person to “just snap out of it, and to look at all that they have going for them.” But, when that person feels unworthy or unmoored from daily reality because all they think are negative thoughts, those words cannot help. Some have described these feelings as looking at their life through a fog that obscures all that is good and magnifies the negatives.

Brooks further describes his dilemma: “Every case of depression is unique, and every case is to be fought with as much love and endurance and knowledge as can be mustered. But in this particular case, the beast was bigger than Pete; it was bigger than us.”

He spoke of his frustration in trying to converse with his friend. I commend Brooks for continuing to try, and for not giving up because depression is a condition of loneliness. The afflicted believe that nobody can understand their pain.

He described it thus: “Time and again Pete would talk about his great fear that he would someday lose his skill as a surgeon, that he would cease to be a healer, that he would lose his identity and self.

As Pete spoke of his illness, it sometimes seemed as if there were two of him. There was the one enveloped in pain and the other one who was observing himself and could not understand what was happening. That second self was the Pete I spoke to for those three years. He was analyzing the anguish. He was trying to figure it out. He was going to the best doctors. They were trying one approach after another. The cloud would not lift.”

Brooks was also a friend of the Washington Post columnist, Michael Gerson, who died last year from cancer. Before his death, he, too, suffered from a depression that tested him and his faith. Gerson spoke about his depression in a speech he gave at the National Cathedral. Brooks quotes Michael in his article:

“Depression, he said, was a “malfunction of the instrument we use to determine reality.” Then he talked about the lying voices that had taken up residence in his mind, spewing out their vicious clichés: You are a burden to your friends, you have no future, no one would miss you.”

As most of you know, my profession is nursing, and I spent my entire career in healthcare. I know that the healthcare industry does not adequately treat mental health conditions. We sometimes describe depression as a chemical imbalance in the brain. A recent medical blog from Harvard discusses the complexities of the condition below and reviews how two people in similar situations may have drastically different responses:

“It’s often said that depression results from a chemical imbalance, but that figure of speech doesn’t capture how complex the disease is. Research suggests that depression doesn’t spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, and stressful life events. It’s believed that several of these forces interact to bring on depression.

To be sure, chemicals are involved in this process, but it is not a simple matter of one chemical being too low and another too high. Rather, many chemicals are involved, working both inside and outside nerve cells. There are millions, even billions, of chemical reactions that make up the dynamic system that is responsible for your mood, perceptions, and how you experience life.

With this level of complexity, you can see how two people might have similar symptoms of depression, but the problem on the inside, and therefore what treatments will work best, may be entirely different.”

The Mayo Clinic defines depression as:

“Depression is a mood disorder that causes feelings of sadness that won’t go away. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of stigma around depression. Depression isn’t a weakness or a character flaw. It’s not about being in a bad mood, and people who experience depression can’t just snap out of it. Depression is a common, serious, and treatable condition.”

It further discusses some causes:

“While there’s no single cause of depression, most experts believe there’s a combination of biological, social, and psychological factors that contribute to depression risk. Biologically, we think about genetics or a family history of depression, health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, or thyroid disorders, and even hormonal changes that happen over the lifespan, such as pregnancy and menopause. Changes in brain chemistry, especially disruptions in neurotransmitters like serotonin, that play an important role in regulating many bodily functions, including mood, sleep, and appetite, are thought to play a particularly important role in depression. Socially stressful and traumatic life events, limited access to resources such as food, housing, and health care, and a lack of social support all contribute to depression risk. Psychologically, we think of how negative thoughts and problematic coping behaviors, such as avoidance and substance use, increase our vulnerability to depression.”

Depression has also been in the news this week, as Senator John Fetterman announced he was entering Walter Reed Hospital for treatment of clinical depression. It has been public knowledge that during the mid-term primary season, Fetterman suffered a severe stoke and was also diagnosed with an ongoing cardiac condition. Fetterman is a large man, six feet, eight inches tall, and who admits that he worried little about his health, despite medical advice. He was famous for his wardrobe of Hoodies and shorts and for his tattoos. As with many men, his wife had to convince him to get check-ups. When he had his stroke, it was she that recognized the symptoms and got him to a hospital; she probably saved his life by doing this.

The most important fact about strokes is that they can be best treated if treatment is received within the first hour. After his stroke, he returned to the campaign trail as soon as he could, again against medical advice, because he had an election to win. The stroke left him with a lingering aphasic condition that affected his ability to process conversations. He now uses a device that translates for him and changes words into text. He can speak, but sometimes has a problem finding the correct word.

According to Healthline, depression after a stroke is quite common and usually affects more women than men. Healthline notes that strokes with aphasic components lead more frequently to depression. Aphasia is a loss of cognitive functions in communication, such as the ability to speak and hear or process what is heard or said.

They describe the after-stroke depression as:

” Every case of post-stroke depression can have different symptoms and duration. Most symptoms appear between three to six months after a stroke. However, the onset can be as early as a month and as late as several years after a stroke. This difference in onset times may be due to two factors — biochemical changes that occur in the brain following a stroke and changes in mood and personality that occur over time.”

About half a century ago, Senator Thomas Eagleton was selected to be the Vice-Presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket with Senator George McGovern; when the news was released that he had been treated for severe depression with shock therapy, McGovern dropped him from the ticket. (There were not the ranges of therapeutics now available, such as SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs, or others then.) As Eagleton described it, he had been pushing himself too hard and became exhausted and could not continue when he was diagnosed and treated. The stigma of the treatment alone, in that era, despite the effective way he served as a Senator, was too great to allow someone with that condition to be this close to the president. Eagleton served several terms as a respected Senator from Missouri, following this incident. A few years ago, this issue was reviewed by NPR.

I certainly hope that in 2023, we have come a long way toward understanding depression better. Certainly, Fetterman has been receiving encouragement from both sides of the aisle as others told their stories of depression. However, we have not come that far in preventing severe depression or preventing suicides that result from this condition. We have not done very well in addressing familial or cultural tendencies toward depressive illness. As a society, we must do better.  About one out of every six Americans will be treated for depression; we must remove the stigma and find effective treatment.

Now for a few PSAs!

Signs of a stroke: Think of the acronym: BEFAST

Loss of Balance, headache, or dizziness?

Eyesight changes?

Face drooping?

Arm weakness?

Slurred Speech?

Time to call 911

Don’t sit around and wait to see if the feeling will go away.

Remember, strokes can often be reversed if one receives treatment in the first hour. NIH notes that treatment within one to three hours is imperative.’ Time is brain’, as they say. A stroke deprives the brain of necessary oxygen.

Suicide Lifeline:

If you or a loved one is suicidal or has expressed thoughts of suicide, there is now a national three-digit number to call that, just like 911, is available 24/7/365  and is staffed by trained counselors. That new Lifeline number is 988. The old number  (1-800-273-8255) is also still operative.

That’s all for now.

“Til next week-Peace!

The State of the Union is Good

President Biden went to speak before a joint session of Congress this week to give the annual State of the Union speech. The speech was well attended, so he had a full house to hear his words. Plus, most networks carried it, so a nationwide audience heard what he said that evening. According to Forbes, over 23 million viewers watched the speech, although that number does not include streaming. Among the major outlets, Fox led with somewhat over 4 million viewers.

The president gave a wonderful speech, as usual, he stumbled a few times with the written speech and the teleprompter, but his delivery was spot-on. His audience was engaged and rose to generous applause many times. Even the Republican side and the Speaker rose in applause a few times. State of the Union Speeches are sometimes defined by those the president chooses to have in his group on the balcony. There was the Ambassador from Ukraine to underscore the US commitment to that country. The entertainer and activist, Bono, to commemorate the anniversary of a successful campaign against HIV/AIDS with PEPFAR which was started by former President Bush. Paul Pelosi, to highlight how political polarization in hate speech against Speaker Nancy Pelosi lead to an attack on her husband. The parents of Tyre Nichols, to emphasize that the attack by the Memphis police that led to their son’s death should not have happened. I think one of the most memorable moments of the evening came when the president spoke about “the talk” that parents of color have with their children about what to do when stopped by the police. (Note that I said when, not if, as statistics show these drivers are stopped much more frequently than white drivers.) The young man from a Monterey Park California Dance Hall,  who stopped a mass killer from killing more as he disarmed him; emphasizes that mass killings are harming the fabric of our communities. The father who wrote him a letter about his daughter’s death from a Fentanyl overdose, to emphasize the 100,000 drug overdose deaths in the US each year. The High wire Union iron worker, a woman, to bring forward the revitalization of our industries, unions, and infrastructure from the bi-partisan infrastructure Bill. This led also to the mention of the number of good jobs created since he took office (800,000) and the low unemployment rates. He mentioned the CHIPS bill to bring chip-making home to America, so we would not depend on an interrupted supply chain in future global crises.  Certainly, I have just summarized his remarks here, I could not capture everything he said in this column.

And, of course, there were a few moments of high drama, which I must discuss. He began his remarks by saying kind words to both Democratic and Republican leaders. Biden emphasized the bi-partisan bills that Congress passed since he was elected. He indicated that, even with a divided Congress, he hoped for more. He discussed how COVID numbers are down and how it no longer rules the daily lives of many. Inflation was a problem, he acknowledged, but it is coming down, as are prices for food and gas. He mentioned the extension of broadband even to far-flung places so kids would not have to sit in the MacDonald’s parking lot to do their homework. Biden also spoke up for our democracy and noted that it was on a safer footing now, but that there were still pitfalls, should we drop our guard.

He challenged the Republicans who voted against infrastructure funding and told them he would see them at the project ground-breaking, as they tried to look as if they had voted in favor of the project at hand. Throughout his speech, Rep Greene of Georgia, (MTG) sat at the far back of the Chamber, and Lauren Bobert was nearby. Others of the contrary caucus that gave Speaker McCarthy his election problems were nearby. Speaker McCarthy had reportedly asked his caucus to sit back and not comment out loud; all could see him several times trying to shush the outliers, to no avail. Greene shouted out that the Fentanyl deaths were the president’s fault and called him a liar when he said some Republicans wanted to sunset Medicare and Social Security every five years and re-authorize their funding. Many Republicans call these programs entitlements. But that is not true, workers pay into them with payroll deductions or self-employment fees every working year. When the Republican side of the room shouted out their disagreements with his statements on funding, he asked everyone who supports funding these programs to stand up. Of course, all did, and he capped the discussion, by saying then we all agree, we will not cut Social Security and Medicare. He also asked for extensions on the drug cost caps for Insulin, now allowed for seniors, to be expanded to all residents.

He ended his speech by saying that the state of the union is good with catcalls from, as used to be said, “the peanut gallery or backbenchers.” Some pundits likened these actions to those often seen at the British House of Commons. Maybe we’ll find another definition for common here. Even the House of Commons, as pointed out by the New York Times, does not allow name-calling or expletives. The next day, the president distributed copies of Republican pamphlets, which he said spelled out the restrictions that Senator Rick Scott, a Multi-millionaire, wanted to impose on the so-called entitlements. Scott, according to required filings, is worth more than $300 million. Doesn’t it offend you, that the Senate, which is composed of many millionaires, is so eager to restrict benefits that working people rely on? Politifact said that the statement that two-thirds of the Senate are millionaires is mostly true.

Some pundits claimed the speech was the prelude to a Biden re-election campaign; others said they hoped not, because of his age, as Biden is already 80 years old. From what I see, the Democrats do not have anyone in the wings at this time. Some pundits have mentioned Governor Gavin Newsom of California, but he says he is not running. There are currently no known Senators, Governors, Statesmen/women, or other Democrats that seem to be in the running currently. If YOU know of any, please let me know. If Biden ultimately decides not to run, then all those who come forward will be at a disadvantage, because they have much less time than usual to set up a forceful campaign on the left of center, which is where most Democrats are. Independents seem to be on the other side of that scale.

Kamala Harris is not likely to challenge Biden; she continually receives bad press; others claim she might not be on Biden’s ticket next time, but I doubt that. Politico also doubts that and said in a recent article: “Since the fall, Harris’ trajectory appeared to be improving to political observers. “People around her feel like she’s been able to exert more independence and has started in earnest to dig out from the painful early months marked by uneven performances and staffing troubles,” Daniels wrote in November. They also note that since the Democrats are no longer relying on her to be the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, she is not tethered to Washington and can get out and about the country. Harris has become the administration's voice on abortion which she can defend and finds that is easier than the immigration and voting rights portfolio she once had to support. Democrats who can rally behind her on that issue find she speaks to their concerns. So, I mentioned that there was a great turnout for the speech; most of official Washington was there, including Ambassadors, top military brass, cabinet members, and the Justices of the Supreme Court. (Well, several of the Justices came-Alito, Gorsuch, Thomas, and Sotomayor did not. Two retired Justices also attended, Breyer and Kennedy.)

The beleaguered Congressman Santos attended and tried to shake the hand of the president, who avoided him. Senator Mitt Romney apparently spoke sternly to Georgie or whatever his name is and said later that he was a sick puppy and should step down. I guess time will tell. Senator Sinema was there in a bright yellow dress with winged shoulders; perhaps she thought this was a tryout for the New York Spring Fashion Shows! Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene attended dressed, someone said, as a chinchilla, wearing a white ensemble with a fluffy furry collar. Others compared her to Cruella de Vil and Sinema to Big Bird! Oh well, what can one say? Apparently, according to the Guardian, Jill Biden was supposed to be defining the Unity of red and blue in a purple dress. Greene’s white outfit symbolized the white Chinese spy balloon that was shot down a few days ago. She walked the halls of Congress carrying a white balloon. Is this what the voters expected when she was elected? A spectacle? Oh, I get it now; I think! This isn’t about doing the people’s business, it is all about making a show so DJT will choose her to run with him as his VP.

Tonight, the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl. Kudos to them! I do hope that no one was seriously injured. I have been turned off the sport since that young player, Damar Hamlin, had his cardiac arrest. I am not sure I can watch it the same way again. How about you? 

Oh, and there are more balloons or strange flying objects getting shot down; now a total of four over eight days. Who knows what this is all about, not me!

This is Black History Month; a Frederick Democratic Party meeting I attended had a very good interpretative enactment of the life of Harriet Tubman, an enslaved person born in Maryland, who went on against great odds to lead many in her community and elsewhere to freedom in the 1800s. I wonder how places such as Texas and Florida, so given to the “happy slaves dancing around the bonfire” stories would deal with telling about her life?

I guess before I end this note tonight, I must mention the strange speech given by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee in the Republican response. It is said that she was speaking only to the MAGA base of the party, but it was a speech based on an alternative reality. And when she said: “We are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flag, and worship their idols,” I had to wonder just what universe she lived in. I salute the American Flag and as far as I know, we have only one, so what flag does she salute?

“Til next week-Peace!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a super spy balloon!

All eyes have been skyward this week as a large Chinese Spy Balloon was traveling some sixty thousand miles above the United States. Although the Chines government claimed that it was a weather balloon gone awry, that does not seem to be the case. The trajectory carried it close to the jet stream but also over significant bases along our missile defense system. According to reports, it first approached the continental US after crossing over Alaska and parts of Canada. The military said it was tracking it and jamming systems so that it could learn little from trying to detect electronic data from the bases it flew over or elsewhere.

Republicans were making wild claims over this balloon, demanding that the President order it shot down. The former president’s son urged people in Montana to run outside, fire into the air and take it down. Of course, even an AR-15 does not have that kind of range, so I am uncertain what he thought he was accomplishing by that message. It was true, however, that the right wing was going kinda bonkers here. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs explained the balloon weighed over 1000 pounds and could not be easily taken down over occupied territory since they expected a wide litter field and did not know the makeup of the payload. Despite the criticism from the right, President Biden agreed with his military and told them to shoot it down when it could be done safely. Senator Tom Cotton, (R-AK) who has been said to have Presidential ambitions, strongly criticized the President for not immediately ordering the balloon shot down.

So, finally, on Saturday, the balloon crossed the coast of South Carolina and was over the Atlantic Ocean, the military planes shot it down with a rocket. The debris landed close to shore in about 47 feet of water, which the military claimed would make retrieval easier. The litter field was about 1200 feet wide. So the issue was handled carefully and safely and not histrionically, as some would have wanted. There will be a fall-out diplomatically, of course, for as President Biden said, China invaded our nation’s sovereignty. European nations and Canada supported his actions. Canada also reported that its’ sovereignty was invaded. At the same time, another Chinese balloon was traveling across South America.

After taking office, the Biden administration learned that Chinese balloons traveled across America at least three times during the previous administration. Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon shared this information with the American people when DJT was in office. Possibly those balloons were not as visible to the naked eye on a clear day as this slow-moving balloon was as they were said to be fast-moving. DJT of course, denied that this ever happened as he said the Chinese had too much respect for him to do this. Even so, today’s Pentagon confirmed the flights occurred then.

This week was to have been the first time that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken traveled to China and met with the leaders of that country. Now, because of this balloon flight, that trip is canceled, and no one knows now when it will be rescheduled. Initially, the Chinese authorities apologized; after the shooting down, they were not conciliatory. China has been making aggressive moves in the South China Sea in recent years, building fake islands and creating bases on what the rest of the world considered international territory. Recent flights close to Taiwan were considering menacing. While these things were happening, the US has been beefing up military assistance to Taiwan and encouraging the Japanese self-defense units. Just this week, we announced we would increase our military presence in the Philippines. None of these moves have pleased China. The US has also worked with the SEATO nations in considering mutual defenses and recently held exercises with South Korea, which were met with rockets fired by North Korea. There have been reports that a similar type of Chinese balloon crashed into the sea off Hawaii recently.

So, while we have been mostly focused on the War in Ukraine, China is once again reminding us they are also a nation to be reckoned with. Russia has been pushing for a greater relationship with China, which has disapproved of the Ukraine war, by asking for a personal visit later in the Spring by leader Xi. The Washington Post reported this week that Russia is trying to go on a charm campaign and visiting nations in Africa and elsewhere to gain their support. Many African nations have lucrative mining, construction, and defense contracts with both China and Russia and do not freely speak out against either country.

Speaking of China and Canada, I read this week that Canada has agreed to take in 10,000 Uyghur refugees, living outside of China over the next two years. The US has not agreed to take any. It is well known that China is increasing the pressure on this Muslim minority in their country to give up their religion and become more Chinese. They are trying to erase the Uyghur culture and indoctrinate the residents into the communist way of life. Women have been forcibly sterilized. Hundreds of thousands were removed from their homes and forced into labor camps. The US has refused to allow goods or crops from that part of China to be imported, as we assume they made most of those products with forced labor. Much of the world has criticized these practices as genocide; China responds it is dealing with terrorists in its country and will not accept any criticism about their efforts, so this is quite a sad situation.

When we look at countries that do not follow international law, we generally call them rogue countries. We often count countries such as North Korea and Iran in that category. However, we are increasingly seeing countries disregard the common courtesies of international diplomacy. We have long left the era where state leaders are said to not read each other’s mail. Spying is a given in this competitive world, so we see industrial espionage, spying for strategic gains such as about weapons and nuclear capability, and spying to gain an edge either on defense or offense. Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, but the world cannot stop it with moral authority, so the authorities are taking photos and securing evidence toward the time they hope will be soon when Russia loses and can be held to account. Certainly, kidnapping children and taking them from Ukraine into Russia to repatriate them, as they claim, is against all law and is comparable to what the Chinese are doing. Russia wants to erase Ukraine, China wants to erase the Uyghurs, and Myanmar wants to erase the Rohingya. Iran and Afghanistan want to erase the presence and independence of women in public.

Somehow the world seems incapable of using moral force to stop these abuses, so what is the answer? I do not know, except that as I see more and more countries bending to authoritarian rule, I do not think this bodes well for the future. As a nation, the US does not want to go to war with either China or Russia, that would be devastating. But as we continue to arm those seen as enemies to each nation, it brings us closer to moving proxy wars into actual wars. Now, I agree that arming weaker nations when threatened by bully nations is correct, but what is the long path? Soon we will reach the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine has hung on, defeating a much larger force with tenacity, patriotism, and arms from other countries. No one expected it would last this long, but how long is too long? Again, I do not know the answer. Already the Republicans in the House are discussing reducing the aid to Ukraine and saying we should not be in this effort at all.

I hope that President Biden will address our role in these international crises when he gives the State of the Union address. The moral force of the US still means something across the world, so he needs to speak out. Of course, he also needs to speak up about so many other issues, where do I start? Biden can brag about the jobs he has created, but he also needs to speak out about the moves to deny Black history and to “not say gay” such as is seen in Florida. He needs to speak up for the George Floyd policing bill, even though it probably won’t go anywhere in the House. Those who won't raise the debt ceiling need to be chastised. He needs to address the goodness of Americans which has been shoved under the rug while all the haters stoke fears of those who are “other”. I hope he also speaks up for democracy and how we should treasure it. There have to be some better angels somewhere!

Today, Pope Francis, the Anglican Church Leader, and the Presbyterian Church Leader joined in speaking up for the rights of gay people across the world in their religious life and in their communities. They were speaking out together on a plane as the Pope finished his tour and was leaving Africa, where the LBGTQ communities are often criminalized and persecuted. That is an example of using moral authority.

“Til next week-Peace!