Spring, Remembering my Mother, Raccoons (Again, Still!), a Scam, and More

  

It has been lovely this spring to see so many flowers and tree blossoms emerging after the winter and long lockdown. 

And now, after 17 years underground, Cicadas are due to start coming out this week in our area, as well as north to south from NY to Ga. and as far west as Ill. and Tenn., so it will become pretty noisy.

A friend just found and sent me a photo from 2005 where four of us appear, including me and my late mother, Virginia, taking me back in time. Little did we know then that Mother would die a little more than a year later at age 92.

Our household’s saga with raccoons continues. 

Not only are they cheeky, staring at us boldly through our windows, but their hands (and feet) almost mirror our own, which is kind of creepy. They are considered intelligent with good memories. The question is, are they more entitled to be living here than we are? When I asked folks on a neighborhood website for advice on dealing with raccoons, most were more concerned about the creatures’ wellbeing than our own. I was advised to just “enjoy” them. For more than half a century living in my house, I have enjoyed seeing a variety of semi-wild creatures, including birds, squirrels, possums, and, yes, raccoons. My kids and grandchildren have grown up harmoniously beside them. But when raccoons recently started trying to get inside, bumping up against and scratching on windows, which we dare not open as the weather gets warmer, it seems high time for them to move elsewhere. My house was built in 1895. Doesn’t that give us as humans certain rights? If anyone knows of a place that will take them away for free, please advise. I've investigated all the local humane animal associations and none of them remove raccoons, only commercial places, always promising to do so "humanely." While raccoons rarely become pets, President Calvin Coolidge did keep a pet raccoon called Rebecca. 

Members of the neighborhood website also warned me not to use the services of someone who had contacted me there offering to remove the raccoons, useful information. Best to go with a commercial service. The task will be to coordinate with tree removal soon after so that new raccoons don’t take up residence. 

India is now experiencing a Covid surge, but reported deaths there do not yet approach US totals and are much lower per capita. Indians are scrambling to get vaccinated. Yet vaccination sceptics abound in our own country, especially among Trump supporters, who seem to have absorbed the message that everything offered by the government is suspect (except money), even though Trump himself was ill with the virus and also has since been vaccinated. Not only do the unvaccinated imperil themselves, but the rest of us as well by letting mutations arise and by burdening the health care system.

Joe Biden is hardly a charismatic politician. Instead, he comes across as grandfatherly, someone steady, comforting, and trustworthy. But, like most political figures, he is not totally transparent. Biden has made 67 false and misleading statements in his first 100 days in office, according to a report from the Washington Post’s fact checker. That compares to 511 false comments by his predecessor Donald Trump in his first 100 days. After that relatively modest start on voicing falsehoods, Mr. Trump quickly picked up steam, rising to a crescendo on Nov. 2 just before the election, when he made 504 false claims in a single day. Many still believe that whatever Trump says is Gospel truth, especially that he’d actually won on Nov. 3, but that his re-election had been mysteriously “stolen” from him, although, as the sitting president of the United States, he held all the levers of power and authority at his fingertips. As Cindy McCain has said, "The election is over. Biden won."

Again, an email arrived unbidden from a rightwing source: “The first 100 days of the most leftist presidency in American history have been a nuclear attack on America.” I could easily block such messages, but it’s informative to see what an extremist segment of the US population believes, however misguided. The internet has certainly extended the reach of such propaganda.

With a shrinking working age population, the USA needs more immigrants and guest workers, as well as later retirement and more outreach to older potential employees (such as myself). Despite the pandemic disproportionately targeting older folks in the US and worldwide, the greying population is growing. It would be helpful for older workers and for parents of young children to have more part-time employment options.

ABC News, Lawyer for former police officer Amber Guyger asks appeals court to toss her murder conviction of Botham Jean

Those entrusted with firearms have a responsibility to be less trigger happy, and that includes police, who may be prone to just shoot, even at someone trying to flee. Is fleeing from police deserving of the death penalty? Couldn’t they just shoot the tires of a fleeing vehicle instead of the driver? If fewer firearms are in circulation, then fewer folks will react impulsively, killing someone by accident or without reflection as Amber Guyger did. Why not shout out to someone you think has invaded your space, asking them what they are doing there? If Guyer had done that, she would have discovered she was mistaken and not in her own apartment. But she just saw a black man inside and immediately pulled the trigger. If a white woman had been there, would she have shot her? Not likely. She would have said, “Oh, sorry, I must be in the wrong place.” And, as mentioned before, gun possession is usually more hazardous than protective for the owner, who is much more likely to die or kill an innocent person than to save his or her own life. Many have accidentally shot their own family members. The more guns in circulation, the more unwanted deaths will occur: murders, suicides, accidents. Firearm possession carries special responsibility.

 

Honduras is a small country awash with guns, mostly from the US as well as a few homemade products, some of which must be reloaded after each shot. Drug stores, grocery stores, and retail businesses all have armed guards on duty, as do wealthier households. Bank customers must pass through metal detectors. The result is hardly more safety. Honduras has one of the highest homicide rates in the world with 80% of homicides there committed with guns; San Pedro Sula holds that country's highest homicide rate with 137.5 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

 

There were 19,379 gun violence deaths in the US in 2020, plus 24,090 gun suicides. The US gun death rate is 8 times higher than Canada’s and 100 times higher than the UK’s.

Free passage for Central Americans across their mutual borders has made it hard to control migration. Having the Peace Corps back in the region would certainly help.

Reuters, Arizona governor signs ban on abortions based on genetic abnormalities

But abortions done for no particular reason, not based on finding any genetic abnormality, can simply go ahead? That makes no sense.

From Amnesty International USA: Send a click tweet AND a personalized tweet demanding President Biden raise the refugee cap to 62,500—the number his administration committed to in February.

 

AP, Kidnappers in Haiti release 9 people including priests, nuns, https://www.yahoo.com/news/kidnappers-haiti-release-9-people-134819382.html

 

Friends of mine have been involved in the following film:

Nationl Review, The ‘Plantados,’ Cuba’s Immovable Heroes, https://www.yahoo.com/news/plantados-cuba-immovable-heroes-103020364.html [My Confessions book recounts our local Amnesty International group’s involvement in 1994 in securing the release of 26 long-term Cuban political prisoners, so-called “plantados” or rooted ones, all kept for years beyond their original sentences. One married a member of our group.]

An action circular for the newest Amnesty Int’l campaign for Cuba, “The Eternal Flame”, has started with the launch of a contemporary piece of art (video) depicting Cuban artists burning their tools to protest against the situation artists face in Cuba.

Cuba Archive / Archivo Cuba <info@cubaarchive.org>

URGENT APPEAL

Let's help save Cuban artist on
hunger strike, Luis Manuel Otero

April 27, 2021. Luis Manuel Otero who creates modern sculptures for performance art, declared himself on hunger strike on Sunday, April 25^th, to demand that Cuban authorities:

1. lift the state of siege surrounding his home since November 2020;
2. return his confiscated works of art and compensate him for damages;
3. respect the full exercise of artistic freedom in Cuba.

Reuters, Cuban government ends leading dissident's hunger strike, https://www.yahoo.com/news/cuban-government-ends-leading-dissidents-163137638.html Otero was taken to a hospital. The San Isidro Movement led by Otero, a performance artist, is a dissident group that includes a few dozen artists, writers and activists. Members of the San Isidro Movement in November had staged a hunger strike against censorship and harassment of independent creators and activists by the Communist government. Police ended the hunger strike, prompting a rare protest by around 300 people in front of the Culture Ministry in Havana. Authorities since then have vilified members of the group as outside agitators working with the United States. Its members repeatedly have been temporarily detained and often told they cannot leave their homes, with communications cut. Otero was arrested a few weeks ago as he protested a Communist Party congress by sitting in a garrote. Authorities seized or destroyed some of his art.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: Cuban dissident's health stokes allies' fears, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56947591

 

Can the U.S. and Cuba get along now that the Castros are gone? https://www.yahoo.com/news/can-the-us-and-cuba-get-along-now-that-the-castros-are-gone-141956095.html

 

Lavinia “Lavi” Mounga was traveling from Salt Lake City to Hawaii on April 28 for a family vacation when she gave birth to her son, Raymond, at just 29 weeks gestation, https://www.yahoo.com/news/nurses-doctor-help-lucky-mom-064327654.html Another instance of a very premature baby surviving, similar to some I’ve seen as a Spanish interpreter. Best wishes for Raymond, but the delay in getting him a hospital was unfortunate.

 

Mores have always evolved, but now even faster than before, especially for women. In most societies until about the early and mid-20^th century, women mostly were occupied within households, bearing and caring for children, while men worked outside the home. That was the pattern of my own mother, though she had earned a degree in architecture. Women usually have less physical strength than men and so have also relied on them for protection. There have been (and still are) a few matrilineal and matriarchal societies and some characterized by polyandry (one wife with several husbands), as mentioned before, mostly in the mountainous regions of Bhutan and Nepal as a means of conserving land, as one woman with several husbands can only bear a limited number of children, while one man with several wives can have many more offspring potentially dividing up the land. Now the evolution and questioning of mores has picked up speed, while families are having fewer children and more women are working outside the home, giving women greater equality and independence and allowing them to press for even more equality and rights. Change is the watchword now, overcoming longstanding traditions.

A scam letter from the UK, purporting to be from the Cooperative Bank, arrived, telling me I had surprisingly inherited a whole lot of money from a hither-to unknown relative. The real name of a bank employee appeared as the sender. Here is the postmarked envelope, in case you receive something similar. Don’t reply, but let the real-life bank know, as they do keep track. How did they get my name and address? 

 

Spanish-language ads keep popping up on my computer, including this for phone service: Encuentra tu teléfono y plan ideales.