Let’s
start out with a happy event, another visit from my granddaughter who came
here from Florida again to see her father who remains hospitalized but expects
to be released soon. Her Dad’s medical problems are challenging, but she has
helped to improve his outlook by her visits. I was also glad for the chance to
see my granddaughter again. I do miss the times when she and her mother lived
nearby. [Again, please excuse odd changes in font, not always possible to correct.]
Nature can unleash a sudden fury that shatters expectations and allows no time to prepare, whether through a volcanic eruption, lightening strike, or earthquake, all of which I have experienced firsthand. So I do empathize now with folks in Kentucky and surrounding states after tornados have torn through their towns without warning, something I’ve never actually experienced myself, though I do know the shock of a such a sudden environmental event.
Many children were killed by the tornado, which always seems especially tragic, as we’d like to think everyone will live the usual lifespan. However, in the wake of the pandemic, the US average lifespan has now fallen instead of rising gradually every year.
Reuters, U.S.
life expectancy falls to lowest level in almost 20 years due to COVID-19 -CDC Life expectancy in the United States
fell by a year and a half in 2020 to 77.3 years, the lowest level since 2003,
primarily due to the deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic..."Life
expectancy has been increasing gradually every year for the past several
decades," Elizabeth Arias, a CDC researcher who worked on the report, told
Reuters. "The decline between 2019 and 2020 was so large that it took us
back to the levels we were in 2003. Sort of like we lost a decade." Deaths
from COVID-19 contributed to nearly three-fourths, or 74%, of the decline.
NYTimes, Omicron
Threatens Red America
[Because Republicans
and conservatives are more likely to be unvaccinated, they are getting sick and
dying from Covid at higher rates than Democrats.]
As the world now
enters the 3rd year of the pandemic, after initial signs that
it was waning, new variants are setting everyone back and continuing to take
lives, though perhaps at a slower pace. We might have hoped that vaccines would
vanquish the virus once and for all, but it now looks like the world might well
be living with Covid for years to come.
AP, US
faces a double coronavirus surge as omicron advances
The new omicron coronavirus mutant speeding around the world may bring another wave of chaos, threatening to further stretch hospital workers already struggling with a surge of delta cases and upend holiday plans for the second year in a row.
Reuters,
Two-dose vaccines induce lower antibodies against Omicron
This means
that are more breakthrough infections even among the fully vaccinated.
MarketWatch, U.S. edges toward 50 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 800,000 fatalities, as New York starts week with new face mask mandate
NY Times, As
U.S. Nears 800,000 Virus Deaths, 1 of Every 100 Older Americans Has Perished
LA Times, California
population continues decline, driven by lower immigration, fewer births and
pandemic deaths
Those of us age
65 and beyond face a greater risk of death from Covid than any other age group.
Even completely vaccinated seniors may contract the disease and die from it
rather than from other causes, and their deaths have been swift. Therefore, although
vaccinated, we elders must continue to isolate and wear masks in public places.
Most American
couples are now able to control their fertility and are having only one or 2
children, if any, which is not replacement. Most young parents or couples of my
acquaintance have 2 boys, 2 girls, or one of each, but all say, “That’s it. We’re
done.” And despite the inroads of Covid, the US still has more elders than
children, something also happening in China and Europe, but to an even greater
extreme there. We all need more kids and more immigrants and refugees!
Now, because of the pandemic, it’s been almost 2 years since I’ve gone to Honduras to help out with medical brigades, which have not yet resumed. I still have a brand-new wheelchair I was planning to take “next time.”
I'm certainly missing my volunteer service with medical brigades in Honduras, as shown in this photo from an earlier visit there.
I also gave up doing on-site interpretation in the DC area when the pandemic hit, because of my need to use public transportation. In fact, I’ve recently given up working altogether. Since everything takes me longer now and I have no car and no family in the immediate area, my days are still full.
A year ago, most Americans and the world at large heaved a huge sigh of relief because Donald Trump would be leaving office, but now pessimism has returned. President Joe Biden still doesn’t get enough credit for all his hard work and what he has accomplished and neither does VP Harris. The resurgence of Covid has cast a dark cloud over everything.
President Biden has been trying to talk down inflation by calling it “transitory;” meanwhile wage hikes have sparked an upward spiral. Biden has also increased support for families with children, doing more to protect fetal life than any abortion bans. He knows that the children of today will support the seniors of tomorrow, as will refugees and immigrants. His accomplishments remain overshadowed by the antics of Trump, who continues to try to grab the spotlight and hold sway in the Republican Party, even while out of office and with his twitter finger stilled. I’d like to think his star is fading. Trump is a serial liar living a life completely contrary the values of his own followers, while clean-living, hard-working Biden fails to get the credit he deserves.
The damage done by Mr. Trump and his administration to our country and to the world will be analyzed for years to come. And it’s still continuing, hitting hardest on the Republican party, both on Republican candidates and current office-holders. Unfortunately, one man of dubious intellect and without shame still holds sway there, impelling more enlightened party members to leave office or else bear the brunt of his distain. Future historians will have the task of figuring out just what went wrong.
Republican office
holders who failed to support any number of constituent benefits nonetheless
claim credit when promoting the same back in their districts.
Washington Post, One year of 'President Manchin':
For the Democratic agenda, all roads go through West Virginia [This is the guy single-handedly
holding up Biden's agenda.]
Business
Insider, Manchin tanks Democrats' hopes of passing Biden's big bill by
Christmas with last-minute demands to cut the child tax credit
Manchin as emerged as a kingmaker in the Democratic Party, someone single-handily
shaping legislation and still holding up its final passage.
Florida Governor
Ron DeSantis seems to be creating a deliberate parody of a
rightwing politician, with both his odd smirking facial expressions and his quirky
proposals, such as his “Stop Woke” bill, which will appeal to knee-jerk hardcore
conservatives, but will be mocked by others, and perhaps even privately by
DeSantis himself.
Boxers and football
players have repeatedly been shown to experience memory loss and speech problems;
I’ve mentioned in a previous blog my interview with Muhammad
Ali conducted with his wife as spokesperson when
he could no longer speak after being punched in the head so often. So why does
anyone persist in such harmful sports? Is it worth risking dementia, even if
money is involved? My 19-year-old grandson, now in college in Texas, had to quit
playing football because it was interfering with his studies. I was relieved to
hear that he had quit.
Killer robots, often attacking from above, may shield their manipulator
from physical harm, but their far-away handlers can also make deadly mistakes, as
happened when a US drone strike killed the innocent occupants of a vehicle in
Kabul, many of them children. If, in fact, there had been a face-to-face or
close encounter there, the would-be attackers would have pulled back after noticing
that the vehicle’s occupants presented no threat. Drones may have reduced
casualties in warfare, but do carry their own risks.
In restaurants and hospitals, robots under the immediate eye and control of humans in such close settings can actually enhance efficiency.
The Peace Corps is back in business again, starting out with Peace Corps Response, that is, by sending already experienced former volunteers for 6-12 months to carry out specific tasks. Five countries are leading the way: Belize, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Zambia. The Corps is also now offering "virtual" (online) assistance to other countries from here, asking us act as volunteer consultants. Some of these virtual volunteer positions look intriguing, but I'm not sure about making the time commitment and also about being able to navigate zoom and the other technologies required. But because of my Spanish fluency, I'd like to try it.
This website announces efforts to encourage more private investment in Latin America to provide incentives for people to stay home, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/13/vice-president-kamala-harris-announces-new-commitments-as-part-of-the-call-to-action-for-the-private-sector-to-deepen-investment-in-central-america-now-totaling-over-1-2-billion/
Although I announced
my retirement from volunteer duty with Amnesty International after more than 40
years, I’ve asked to have hand in choosing my replacement, so I’m still on
duty, now going on 41 years, and still in charge of the Caribbean after my 2 volunteer
helpers have just resigned. I recently supported a stay of deportation back to
his native country for a man who left the Dominican Republic at age 11. Folks
born elsewhere should not neglect becoming citizens.
Miami Herald, Mother of jailed minor who protested against the Cuban government goes on hunger strike
The Cuban Communist Party may be losing its grip, but is hanging on ever more tightly to keep the populace from exploding in fury and frustration. After more than 60 years of privation and strict controls, most Cubans are more than ready to shed the party and jettison all it stands for. I feel I have a good sense of the public pulse because of my many visits there, my connections with Cuban refugees and expatiates here, and my Amnesty Int’l volunteer work.
The following refers to lifting
restrictions on sending money and allowing visits to Cuba. https://thehill.com/policy/international/americas/586246-more-than-100-house-democrats-urge-biden-to-lift-restrictions
Miami Herald, Coast Guard rescues three Cuban migrants from sinking boat off Florida Keys
Cuban boat
people keep on coming, although they are almost always sent back.
On another island,
Haiti's Moise was probing
officials linked to drug trade when he was killed: NYT
Reuters, Victims of Haiti blast
buried in mass grave, death toll hits 75
A fuel truck overturned and 75 were killed
trying to collect fuel when the tank exploded.
AP, All
from US missionary group freed in Haiti, police say
[The missionaries were kidnapped by the 400 Mawozo gang on Oct. 16.
There were five children including an 8-month-old in the group of 16 U.S.
citizens and one Canadian. Their Haitian driver also was abducted, according to
a local human rights organization. It is not known if a ransom was paid.]
Here is a new Amnesty International initiative on behalf of Haitian
migrants. https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/AMR3651012021ENGLISH-1.pdf
STOP US DEPORTATIONS
AND ABUSE AGAINST HAITIANS ON THE MOVE: AN URGENT STEP TOWARDS CREATING JUST
POLICIES FOR HAITIANS
Soon US green-card
holders and other lawful residents who are not yet citizens may be able to vote
in New York City and in other jurisdictions in New York and California. If people
are living here legally and paying taxes, it seems fitting that they be allowed
to cast their votes in local elections.
Atlanta Black Star, Will a Stand Your Ground Self-Defense Claim Save Black Oklahoma Man Who Killed White Intruder? Legal Expert Says It Depends: ‘I Just Leave It to God’
NBC News,
Students reporting alarming Snapchat messages may have thwarted mass shooting,
police say
ABC News, 1
dead, 14 injured after shooting at vigil in Texas
News
Observer, 2 people killed, 4 injured in Durham shooting. Nearby school
shifts to virtual.
News
Tribune, Man says he was ‘fooling around’ when he shot childhood friend
in the head in Oregon
After recent shootings, every one of us needs to be on guard for copycat events. All-too-frequent mass murders have been magnified and distributed far and wide via social media, incentivizing others to follow suit. The ready availability of firearms in the US puts us all at risk. Personal firearms may have some value for target shooting or for hunting, though killing wild animals for food is out-of-date. In any case, firearms should be kept, as in some other countries, only in secure lockers. Ample US experience has shown that carrying around a personal firearm or having it in the home is risky to the owner, as well as others. Even a prop gun on a movie set can be lethal. Firearms manufacturers and distributors may need to be bought out to protect us all. The fortunes of militant firearms promotors like the National Rifle Association are now fading, but not fast enough. And countries like Honduras where firearm possession is even more widespread end up with an even higher rate of gun deaths as a result.
The
Telegraph, 12-year-old charged with murder in shooting death of another
child, Georgia police say
Events like
this could have been prevented by having stricter gun laws and fewer guns in
circulation. Countries with no nonsense gun laws or that keep guns locked up at
shooting ranges, such as Britain, Finland, and New Zealand, have vastly fewer
gun deaths per capita than the United States. Gun enthusiasts here put us all at
risk, leaving all as sitting ducks, like the child just shot by another in Georgia--one
child dead, another with his life ruined.
Market
Watch, Newsom positions California to become first blue state to
pursue gun control by mimicking Texas abortion law
While most
Democratic office holders support tighter gun laws, they often either leave abortion
decisions to the women involved or simply avoid making any comment. And what
about fathers’ rights? Fathers’ rights seem to kick in only after a baby is
born. Abortion is also an issue I’d prefer to avoid further myself, but it is
now front and center before the Supreme Court, so is impossible to ignore. The
number of abortions in the US and elsewhere has fallen precipitously in recent
years as more women are using contraception. And now most abortions can be undertaken
early in a pregnancy with pills a woman can take at home, leaving no practical way
to stop them or actually to even count them. The FDA has lifted restrictions
on receiving abortion pills by mail. Doctors who perform surgical abortions are
increasingly out of work. And coat hangers are definitely out as well.
In developing
countries, where often abortion is illegal, tubal ligation may still be undertaken
after a woman has had 2 or 3 children to avoid any further need for
contraception. Vasectomies are done less frequently there, as men tend think of
pregnancy as a strictly female concern, also fearing that a vasectomy may affect
their virility. Last time I was in Honduras, I talked with 2 women, actually next-door
neighbors, who each had undergone a tubal ligation by the same surgeon after a 2nd
pregnancy, only to have it fail and result in the birth of a 3rd
child. Abortion had never occurred to them. Now both have undergone the sterilization
procedure once again with a different surgeon, successfully this time.
Abortion
advocates seem eager to point out that mothers are disadvantaged financially by
having children, but that actually raises a false equivalency. Parenting is
essential to the continuation of the human race and of our own society. Would
most women (or men) exchange their children for a better job or more money? Arguments
about the financial burden of parenthood only give weight to the need to
provide more assistance to families raising children, especially in a country like
ours with a falling birth rate. Biden is trying to provide more help to
families with children. Who else is going to support and assist childless folks
in their old age?
Is it easy
to bear and raise kids? Even for those of us who have done it, certainly not. But
it’s the only way the human race, our nation, and our own families can continue
to exist. So far, every person must first gestate in a female body. We all
started off that way, at a time that may have proved inconvenient for our
parents. Nonetheless, most parents would sacrifice their own life for their offspring.
And Germany now seems to be doing just fine without any legal abortion at all.
Gay marriage has won majority acceptance in fairly short order because
it involves 2 consenting adults. But abortion pits a potential or developing
human not yet breathing air and with no voice against an already born human.
Should that helpless developing human creature be denied a chance to keep on
growing and to emerge to a life outside the womb? A fertilized ovum being kept
on ice is a different story as it can remain in a suspended state
indefinitely. Only inside a female body does it begin to grow. Should stopping
that process be allowed at the sole discretion of the woman involved? If so, up
to what point? That’s the question posed by abortion laws. What counts as a human
person worthy of continued life seems to depend on consensus or majority opinion.
Black people, women, and prisoners are some whose lives at times have been considered
of lesser value, along with the enemy in wartime. There is now no firm
consensus on when a fetus is worthy of continued existence. And it was distressing
a few years back when late-term abortions were reported to involve piercing the fetal skull to enable
easier extraction, though now such a fetus is said to be injected with a special
solution (like that used to euthanize animals or to inflict the death penalty
on humans?). Despite the hue and cry about the 15-week limit in the Mississippi
law now before the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts is right to ask whether
15 weeks is not long enough?
According to a recent AP/NORC poll, 61% of Americans believe abortion
should be legal during the first trimester, up to 12 weeks, but only 34% approve
it in the second trimester, 13-26 weeks, so the Mississippi law now
before the Court going into the second trimester would be approved by most
Americans.
New York
Times, Some Voters Are at Odds With Their Party on Abortion
“Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, three-in-ten do
not agree with their party on abortion,” according to the Pew Research Center,
so I’m not alone in my misgivings. Minnesota Sen.
Amy Klobuchar says: “pro-life Democrats … are part
of our party, and I think we need to build a big tent.” But most
pro-life Democrats in public life seem to keep their stance private. And many of them and many of us who would give more agency
to the pre-born also oppose the death penalty.
As the war of words continues, abortion
supporters are labeling the other side “anti-reproductive rights” and “anti-choice,”
choice being a word they seem to have appropriated. What about
supporting the choice to bear a child? What about making a choice to
avoid sex because of the chances of an unwanted pregnancy?
Both Biden and Harris have publicly supported
abortion as a “constitutional” right, apparently based on the right to privacy,
as abortion appears nowhere in the constitution. Yet, there are also many
dissenting voices, now getting louder.
New Jersey
Herald, Abortion and the U.S. Constitution
| Napolitano
Andrew P. Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court Judge
and author of 9 books on the U.S. Constitution, argues that "The fetus has
an interest in having a life," quoting Supreme Court Justice Samuel
Alito’s statement on Dec. 1.
Justice Amy Barrett, herself both an adoptive and a birth parent, points out
that adoption is an avenue open to those who don’t feel ready to raise a child.
Yet some “pro-choice” advocates have even attacked adoption as providing
something lesser. There are special problems related to adoption, as I
can attest, but some of those problems derive from negative social attitudes
not based on facts. And admittedly, an older child who has experienced neglect
or mistreatment in a birth family may then require remedial parenting by an
adoptive family, not an argument against adoption nor an implication that such
a child should not exist. Yes, some birth parents do mistreat their children, so
either must learn new ways or let others do the job instead. I have worked with
many such families as a social worker and a probation officer. The bottom line
is that we as a society still value individual human existence, even though
every life has many challenges and is inevitably only transient. Most Americans
would support an adopted or foster child’s right to exist and to live to a ripe
old age if possible. The following article makes some telling points. Las Cruces Sun-News, Attacks on adoption need to stop before they gain traction
Most
commentators acknowledge that the majority of Americans still don’t have firm
opinions about abortion, so it’s not actually “a done deal,” as abortion
advocates like to contend. Many of us are still ambivalent, especially as a fetus
takes on a more recognizable human form.
New York
Times, Abortion and the ambivalent majority
New
York Times,
The Mushy Middle
Austin American-Statesman, Brooks: Abortion: The
voice of the ambivalent majority
Washington
Post, Medical advances saving premature babies pose thorny issues for
abortion rights advocates
Creston News Advertiser, Iowa, Anti-abortion group monitors SC hearings
[This last article
lays out arguments on all sides and speculates on the possible positions of Supreme Court
justices.]
Perhaps then it is now quite fitting, a half century after Roe, that the debate is arising anew and that the Supreme Court be revisiting and possibly updating the law on the issue.
Human habits and mores do evolve over
time, either slowly or more rapidly, but always in flux. Nothing stands still.
Our revered forefathers—what about our foremothers?--declared that “all men are
created equal,” leaving out half of humankind. But times do change.
It’s not surprising then as more becomes
known about fetal development and after medical practices have evolved, that abortion
limits may also need updating. Now almost fifty years on, Roe vs. Wade is not the last
word forever and for all time. In prior eras, a fetus wasn’t actually recognized
as human until “quickening,” or when movement was felt at about 18 weeks. Then according
to Roe, it was only after 28 weeks, though babies born earlier have survived, now
even at 21 and 22 weeks. However, what is “true” depends not only on facts on
the ground, but on consensus and we are not yet at any consensus on abortion in
this country.
Having reached a certain age myself, I realize
I don’t have the last word on abortion or anything else—none of us does, as I’ve
learned by having lived through a whole myriad of changes in accepted mores and
practices. Looking back on my own life, I’ve seen and experienced quite a lot. I
can recall the days when making long-distance phone calls was prohibitively
expensive, so I now value today’s easy phone and internet connections with
family and friends all over the world, including the ability to exchange photos
and even have live conversations. We never had TV when I was growing up so I don’t
have a set in my home now, but still listen to the radio. As kids, my late brother
and I were eager fans of the Lone Ranger radio show.
As the oldest child of 3, I early on assumed
the role of teacher and caretaker, later becoming a social worker and a juvenile
probation officer and, eventually, working in occupational therapy, though in
research and training, not as a therapist myself. Being a mother has always
been important to me and I saw raising my 4 kids, or even 5 including my Cuban foster
son, as a calling. Post-retirement, I joined the Peace Corps, working there with
families with children as a health volunteer, then afterward again with families
as a Spanish interpreter and medical brigade volunteer.
Taking a long look back at the evolving trajectory
of my life, I recall graduating cum laude from UC, Berkeley, a few weeks
after turning 20, when college educated women simply did not cohabitate before
marriage as they do now—at least we weren’t supposed to. So, like many other
women of my generation, I married rather young, at age 21. I then helped my
husband obtain his first job and continued assisting him with his work. I also worked
myself. But our union did not end up following the script of triumph against all
odds that I had once envisioned. After 4 kids and 24 years of marriage, my
husband divorced me to marry a much younger woman working in his office,
another common practice. We had become part of and influenced by the social trends
of that time, just happens as now.
Major differences between us and other
divorcing couples back in the day were that my husband was totally blind and
had never held a job before we married, also that he was of Korean descent
while I was a child of European heritage. As you might imagine, my parents were
not happy about my marriage, but gradually came to accept it. After our split, my
ex-husband did his best to thwart me and our kids financially, I’m not sure exactly
why. During the years after he left, he spoke with me only once by phone before
his death and he never again set foot in the home we had bought together and
where I still live today. I remember our one post-divorce conversation well; it was wide-ranging
and he had actually called me. He asked me about my job and about some
articles I’d had in the paper. That call took place in 1994, 4 years after his
departure, so I thought finally the ice had been broken, but that was the first
and last time he ever spoke with me after he left. When I called him back, his
second wife answered and said all communication must go through her.
Obviously, if he had wanted to talk with me again, he knew my number.
My former husband’s absolute rejection
propelled me to embark on a totally new and successful career. I also took on various
volunteer endeavors. But I was hesitant to marry again despite having a serious
suitor. Then I was laid low by the deaths in successive years of my son and
Cuban foster son, something I had to endure without a partner’s support. Their
loss was very, very hard and still is. In fact, my son’s death date has just
passed on Dec. 19, which happens to also be my older daughter’s birthday.
I then went on to join the Peace Corps in
my 60s, write 2 books (still sold on Amazon), and embark on a brand-new post-retirement
career as a Spanish interpreter and translator, becoming one of very few speaking
both unaccented English and Spanish. I’ve continued with volunteering, serving more
than 40 years as an Amnesty International activist and also offering my
services to annual medical brigades to Honduras ever since Peace Corps, now halted
only by the pandemic. So I feel I’ve not done too badly with the hand I was
dealt, but my life is not quite over yet, so stay tuned.
Feliz
Navidad y Año Nuevo [Happy Christmas and New Year]
supermóvil
DEPÓSITO
empresa telefónica
Radiación UVC
Aceite de Oliva Extra Virgen
Asadores Eléctricos
Psicoaching: Automaestría
