Have just found out that a fellow Peace Corps
volunteer with us in Honduras, a father, community activist, and world citizen,
has died. Apparently, his death was not Covid-related. He lived a good and
active life, which is a blessing. I always view deaths from the vantage point
of my own age. so any of younger persons, such as my son and Cuban foster son,
I regard as tragedies. My late Peace Corps colleague was Rajit Shah, age
49.
Now
that all Peace Corps volunteers have been pulled back to this country, the
National Peace Corps Association says that in light of the virus spread, “we
must evolve our models of service, our training and support, to meet these
challenges.” Just what a
new Peace Corps might look like remains to be seen, but probably sending
volunteers abroad again will have to wait for widespread vaccine development
and use. As a PC health volunteer, I often participated in community vaccine
efforts, so that may be a task that future volunteers can get behind.
"Neither snow nor
rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion
of their appointed rounds.” But the venerable Post Office,
now under a new Trump cost-cutting leader, has drastically cut hours just when
mail volume is increasing. And mail delivery has become less reliable since.
Just recently, I did not get a daughter’s Mother’s Day card nor did my nephew
get his birthday card and check. An Express Mail package was delivered 3 days
late. Trump may be counting on this guy to seriously delay mail-in ballots in
November. Of course, Trump himself mails his own ballot to his “home address”
in Florida.
According
to the latest information I could find, Cuba, with a population of 11 million,
had only had had 87 reported virus deaths and no new cases. The government had
imposed very strict measures, which was possible on an island and under an
authoritarian system, which in terms of virus control, turned out to be
beneficial. However, a few cases may have emerged again after victory was
declared. (New York City with a somewhat lower population has had 23,000
deaths.)
Trinidad
and Tobago are reported to have sent fighters to join with Islamic State on
Syria. Now after a number have been killed, some of their women and children
are coming back to the islands. The ISIS Phenomenon in
Trinidad and Tobago https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox
(Cuba, Trinidad,
and Jamaica all fall within my jurisdiction as volunteer Caribbean Coordinator for
Amnesty Int’l USA.)
How did wearing a face mask, or not, during the
pandemic become a political statement? It became political because Donald Trump,
by exhortation and example, made not wearing one a constitutional
right and a display of political allegiance like openly carrying a gun, thus
asserting your independence, your individual freedom, and your rejection of
fake news and alarmist elitist science. So, the result of freely showing your
face, breathing, coughing, and circulating at will among others is that now you
are at liberty to get sick and possibly die and to kill others at the same time.
Trump also had wanted a big in-person
convention, with face masks optional but MAGA hats obligatory, where he
would look good on TV, while railing against fake news and promising the prompt
reopening of the economy and schools, and return to normal life. Herman Cain’s
unfortunate demise from Covid 19 after attending Trump’s rally maskless in
Oklahoma is an object lesson. Rarely seen wearing a face mask in public himself
(only once so far), Trump is still trying to pin blame for the virus on those
sneaky “radical leftists” leftists Obama and Biden. (They unleashed
the virus to just to make Trump look bad?) Trump is cutting funding for testing
and changing reporting requirements, reasoning that virus numbers won’t rise so
fast if we don’t know what they are.
However, Trump has been keeping
track of his poll numbers and, as he sees them plummet, suddenly he is doing an
about face, promoting masks and hand washing, rather lukewarmly, and reluctantly cancelling his
big Florida convention, better late than never. It has been getting harder to
dismiss the virus as “fake news.” Now poor Dr. Deborah Birx is under
attack by Trump for warning that the virus is spreading fast and furious.
Don Jr. sent me a heartfelt cyber appeal for
a contribution to help his father win and also keep a Republican Senate for his
next term. Sarah Sanders and Mitch McConnell have sent similar
appeals. A friend in Miami told me that he and his wife are staunch Trump
supporters, so such folks definitely exist. He believes Trump’s assertion that
Biden was up to no good in Ukraine.
Some Biden supporters are recommending that he
not debate Trump, why give him that forum when Biden is so far ahead? We’ve
already heard Biden debate Democratic Party opponents. Biden should probably agree
one or two debates so Trump cannot accuse him of being debate-shy. Trump may
fall even farther on his face debating Biden.
That even 39% of potential voters
still support Mr. Trump is surprising to me. Not only are Americans dying in the
thousands but the man is obviously cognitively impaired and he knows it, which
is why he keeps bragging about how he “aced” a simple cognitive test for
potential dementia subjects. I have met a few ardent Trump supporters,
including recently in W Va., with all of us wearing masks and maintaining a
safe distance, contrary to Trump’s own previous virus exhortations. I certainly
don’t argue politics with them, but am curious about how otherwise seemingly
normal folks can still believe the man and stand so faithfully by him. Some
cite the need to listen to “both sides,” so I have been listening, but
haven’t heard anything convincing, just that some still have a “gut” feeling for
the guy. Maybe his supporters see Trump as “one of us,” a man with little book
learning or expertise, who still makes important decisions on his own for the whole
nation. They vicariously enjoy the power he exerts.
After his death, I’m glad for my fleeting interactions with John Lewis. I posted a tribute to him citing his outlier support of Cuban political
prisoners on a bilingual website, Democracia Participativa. Now Trump has been dissing Lewis, even in death, for not attending
his inauguration!
I did attend Obama's first inauguration with my daughter
Stephanie who came out from Hawaii, all of us crammed in together, with hardly
room to breathe. Since I live on Capitol Hill, I walked over to observe Trump's
pitiful inauguration crowd, and attended the rousing women's gathering the
next day.
The outdated Electoral College system allowed the fluke of someone
who lost the popular vote by a massive 3 million votes to assume the
presidency, and Trump has not been able to close that deficit, nor has he
tried--nor is he capable of doing so, as he does seem to have learning and
other deficits. It's not advisable under a democracy to continue with a system
that allows someone with so little voter support to assume the presidency.
Trump has done a lot of damage to our country and the world, not least by
facilitating so many premature virus deaths
A perhaps useful development is the
unexpected rise of “Rednecks for Black Lives,” creating an alliance
among poor folks of all races. It really is an anomaly that so many poor white
people still support Trump, perhaps identifying with him, when they have virtually
no chance of ever acquiring his status. Now maybe all poor folks can be
inspired to band together against him.
Sending heavy-handed armed federal agents
into Democratic-leaning cities that never asked for them and don’t want them
there is a violation of the state and local rights that Republicans have always
vowed to support. Is sending federal agents into Democratic strongholds a
tactic to distract from the virus and display the strength of the Trump
administration? Is it an effort to foment civil unrest? By letting the virus
surge out of control and seeming to arouse conflict in major cities, many
citizens, myself included, are feeling vulnerable and unprotected by the
federal government—in fact, as though our government is actually working against
us. If Biden wins election, I hope he can reverse this trend and bring people
and the various levels of government back in sinc.
Beyond his lies, colossal ignorance of
ordinary facts, and dismissal of expert advice, Mr. Trump displays scary
psychological traits such as a deep lack of self-esteem that he overcomes by boasting
and making impulsive, vindictive, and harmful decisions, harmful to others and
also to himself. His staff must go crazy trying to keep him in check. His niece
Mary in her best-selling tell-all book reasons that he has always been
protected by those around him. But now, even some Republican lawmakers, worried
about their own reelection, are quietly peeling off.
If and when Joe Biden wins election in
Nov., many of us who will have voted for him will heave a huge sigh of relief.
But we won’t be cheering as wildly and jumping up and down as we did when Obama was first elected, or
even how we women would have felt had Hillary carried the day. No, we will just
be relieved that it’s finally over, allowing us all to start pitching in to
undo the damage. Biden’s stature is growing in contrast to Trump and some of us
who might have been lukewarm before are starting to really like the guy. He
will need to reach out to Trump supporters to join us in healing the divide
that Mr. Trump has deliberately created.
If Trump should somehow manage to prevail once again by
another election fluke, losing the popular vote by an even wider margin, no
telling what might happen next. Assumption of the office of president by
someone with a big vote deficit is a recipe for division and partisanship. Most
citizens resent being governed by someone they never voted for. Pressure to end
the Electoral College system will mount as citizens rebel against
governance by a president most do not support.
Yet some voters, myself included, at first, were
willing to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt and time as a novice to
learn on the job. He needed to close that gap in support, but he has just gotten
worse and lost support over time. Should we even consider his idea to delay the
election? Better, to have it early! In any case, if he loses, he is going to
protest. If he loses, then late-night shows will have to come up with new
material.
Senator Mitt Romney is warning that
Trump may actually pull off another minority-vote Electoral College victory
because Biden supporters may be either overconfident (as happened with Hillary)
or lukewarm (also happened with Hillary) and won’t turn out to actually vote,
especially during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Trump’s hardcore remains committed
to voting, no matter what. If Trump should prevail again, it will be a total disaster
for our country and the whole world. Then I might not even live to see the end
of the Trump era.
This accidental president, his family, staff, and supporters are
unbelievable in so many ways; we never saw a president or his family act like
this before and hope we never do again. Fiction could not have invented him.
Trump is already threatening not to go quietly. If we can just get him out of
office, then pundits, political scientists (as I once was), psychologists, and
historians can try to figure out what went wrong.
Mr. Trump is obviously unhappy in his job and
is in way over his head. He would be much more content out playing golf,
tweeting daily, acing simple cognitive tests, and holding rallies, possibly even
with paying supporters.
Unfortunately, federal executions have
been resumed after decades, now under this “law and order” presidency. Those
being executed have been convicted of terrible crimes, sometimes even child
murder, but, as a matter of principle, I oppose the government having the
ability to kill its own citizens. And there is also a slim chance that the
accused is not actually guilty, as some have alleged at their executions.
We just have to pray that 87-year-old Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsberg, now undergoing medical treatment once again, hangs on past
Nov. because if Trump loses, he won’t be leaving office until Jan. 2021 and
could still name another Supreme Court justice with the support of a very lame
and lame-duck Republican Senate.
The outdated Electoral College system allowed the fluke of someone
who lost the popular vote by a massive 3 million votes to assume the presidency,
and Trump has not been able to close that deficit, nor has he tried--nor is he
capable of doing so, as he does seem to have learning and other deficits. It's
not advisable under a democracy to continue with a system that allows someone
with so little voter support to assume the presidency. Trump has done a lot of
damage to our country and the world, not least by facilitating so many
premature virus deaths.
Surprising
now to see prominent Jewish-American journalist Peter Beinart publicly
endorsing a one-state solution for Israel/Palestine! A few non-conforming
Jewish friends have been suggesting that for a quite a while, promoting equal
citizenship for all within what is now Israel, but expanded to encompass
surrounding Palestinian territories. But after all the hard-won victories in creating
the Israel of today, I certainly would not expect to see a combined state during
my lifetime. Given all the animosities and grievances built up over the years
and the economic disparities between Jews and Palestinians, would it even be feasible?
It would certainly take a long time. Jews began pressing the British mandate,
granted by the League of Nations to create a Jewish state in Palestine, citing Biblical
claims back in 1918, long before the Holocaust brought the idea to fruition. But
Palestinians were hardly to blame for the Holocaust and they also have been
living in the area for generations. Perhaps all the upheavals now with
Covid and the Trump presidency will spark a rethinking of the future of Israel?
It’s good that the annexation of Palestinian land, at least for now, has been
put on hold. A future hybrid nation might make for a more peaceful Middle East,
though it’s hard right now to imagine internal peace prevailing within its own national
borders. In our increasingly inter-connected world, where Covid-19 respects no
national boundaries, contrary to Donald Trump’s “Fortress America” policy, such
boundaries are blurring all over the world and may yet extend to both Israel
and the United States.
After
my last posting here, I’ve been asked more about my time in South Sudan in
2006, before it became an independent nation. South Sudan has a long way to go
to heal longstanding tribal divisions and develop a viable economy, though its
oil reserves do help. After a one-month visit and travels there, I am hardly an
expert, though more informed than the average person. Here is a photo of me with
one of many local women who often accompanied me to fetch water and held my arm
or hand, fingering my earrings and offering me food. though we shared no common
language, only the common language of our humanity.
It’s
been rather amazing and wonderful to me to have been accepted so well everywhere
in the world, especially in Latin America, where a common language helps me
blend in.
Now my son living in small-town W Va. where
feels right at home, has brought his wife and family there from Hawaii. It’s
quite an adjustment. Let’s see how they do when winter comes.
