My 18-year-old grandson Andrew, named by his father, my son Jon, in memory of his brother Andrew, looks nothing like my late son Andrew. My own Andrew was named, in turn, for my paternal grandfather who died in a freak small plane crash. My son’s gravestone is my backyard in front of the now-defunct maple tree and his birthday is coming up on Sept. 4. [As usual, please excuse odd spacing and font changes--I do my best.]

Grandson Kingston appears below.

I also have a 6-year-old grandson Kingston, who spent 5 months along with his mother and sister, with his father, son Jonathan, in W. Va. Young Kingston is now back in Hawaii, starting school. Things were pretty tight when they stayed in their father’s (my son’s) one-bedroom apartment in W Va. and my son’s wife, a native of Micronesia, did not find a job there. English is not her first language and everything was foreign to her. They all had trouble adjusting. So now the family connects only via Facebook Live, though we plan to visit them one day.

When our family moved to Capitol Hill more than a half century ago, I thought our proximity to the capitol would prove protective since we were within sight of the seat of government. We were also within walking distance of Smithsonian museums which my kids and I enjoyed visiting. But now the location seems to have become a liability. Not only did we witness the horrendous January 6 attack on the capitol by Trump supporters, but more recently, a man parked near the capitol threatened to denote a bomb but was arrested before any harm occurred.

Since the mulberry tree in my side yard was cut down and taken away, we’ve seen no more raccoons around our house that used to press up against our windows trying to get in. I once considered them cute, but no longer, as they’ve proved to be very aggressive and would wreak havoc if they ever got inside the house. They are actually kind of devilish, very clever scavengers that multiply rather quickly and have hand-like paws that can even open trash bins. Native to north America, they have now invaded Europe as some were introduced there in the mid-20^th century. A few have even crossed over to Britain, becoming a real nuisance in many cities around the world.

https://nypost.com/2021/08/21/raccoons-terrorize-bronx-nypd-tow-pound/

Washington Post, Study: Kids' firearms injuries jumped in 2020

I’ve often observed that possessing a personal handgun proves more risky than protective. Last time, I mentioned a toddler who’d found a loaded gun and killed her mother on screen in the view of horrified zoom-call associates. It’s exceedingly rare that a handgun actually proves a safeguard, though at a shooting at a Texas church last year, a parishioner was able to kill an active shooter with his personal handgun. Put that against the many more shootings like the one that just occurred in New Mexico, where a 13-year-old bent on revenge brought his father’s handgun to school to kill a boy his own age, ruining the lives of at least 2 families. What if no handgun had been available? The boys might still have had their differences, but both would have gone on to lead normal lives. Ever since my son Jonathan, at age 11, was shot in the foot by a handgun discovered in a parents’ bedroom and dropped by another boy his age, I am grateful that Jon was not killed. He literally dodged the bullet and does not complain about occasional pain in his foot.

At 60, Peace Corps plots return to world after virus hiatus https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-africa-health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-9ee58ea1d85868e5a94784fdb693abcf This news has me hankering to join the Peace Corps again.

BuzzFeedNews, A California Dad Allegedly Attacked A Teacher Because His Daughter Had To Wear A Mask To School

AP, Virus claims more young victims as deaths climb yet again

What can be said about the grim statistics? Are Republican office-holders on a suicide mission? The Republican governors of Florida and Texas, as well as Republican officials in other southern states, bear considerable blame for downplaying the virus threat, outlawing mask mandates, and touting phony treatments rather than supporting vaccination. Probably the governors have secretly gotten the jab themselves while loudly touting the virtues of individual resistance to vaccination. The virus doesn’t really care if someone believes it’s real or not. Mississippi’s Republican Governor, Tate Reeves, despite a surging spike in Covid cases, railed against mask wearing, reportedly saying “In Mississippi, we believe in freedom.” Freedom to risk death and threaten the lives of others? Meanwhile, a Republican state legislator in Maine, Chris Johansen, appeared at an anti-vax rally a week after his unvaccinated wife’s Covid death. In Missouri, Republican congressional candidate Sara Walsh announced that her husband had died of Covid after both had contracted the disease after choosing to remain unvaccinated.

Reuters, U.S. hits more than 1,000 COVID deaths in one day

Here’s a hopeful finding: fluvoxamine, an anti-depressant that has been prescribed chiefly by psychiatrists for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, has proved effective in reducing Covid symptoms in small trials.

Reuters, Children hospitalized with COVID-19 in U.S. hits record number

A vaccine for kids is urgently needed as well as mask mandates for schools. And with so many breakthrough infections, even some deaths, among fully vaccinate people, masking and precautions must continue. The Delta and other variants seem to be more infectious and better to overcome vaccination and are also now hitting younger patients.

The pandemic has also brought about a great increase in online shopping, so it seems that thieves now follow around delivery trucks to scoop up packages instantaneously. Unmarked police vehicles could also follow along to witness some of these thefts, which perhaps they already do, but cannot catch them all.

While the pandemic rages and the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, it seems like poor optics to have VP Harris visiting Vietnam, where another humiliating and chaotic American pullout took place years ago. Maybe the visit was planned beforehand, but could it have been postponed?

AP, UN chief says Afghanistan 'spinning out of control'

While I'm still glad that Joe Biden, not Donald Trump, is now president, Biden's gamble on pulling out so precipitously from Afghanistan has certainly backfired. It’s happened on Biden’s watch, so he owns the outcome. Afghan government forces simply folded and failed to protect their own citizens from the Taliban. Members of the Afghan army seemed to have immediately lost their nerve and self-confidence to go it alone, perhaps feeling too vulnerable without US air support. I fear dreadful repercussions for the US, as well as for the Afghan people, especially women. A friend of mine once worked with newly hopeful women in Afghanistan. She was a teacher who went to Afghanistan to teach women who wanted to become teachers of young girls bursting with brand new aspirations. Taliban spokesmen have promised to protect women’s rights “within Islamic law” as they define it. Many Afghans simply don’t trust the Taliban’s assurances. We have a feel of what the divisions in Afghan society might be like; we have such divisions right here after Trump supporters violently attacked the capitol and tried to overturn an election.

President Biden had expected the Afghan military to put up a much bigger fight, but they collapsed entirely and immediately. That’s not only terrible for the people of Afghanistan, but also ends up posing a threat to the USA and Europe.

As Americans, we do need to hold Biden and other lawmakers to their promise not only evacuate our citizens and allies safely, but also those Afghans who have stood with us, not necessarily guaranteeing them safe passage to our own country, but to somewhere beyond Afghanistan’s borders.

Seeing so many passengers now being packed into cargo planes, I’m reminded of cargo plane flights I’d taken as a child from Central America and my later flights into and around south Sudan in 2006. You sit wherever you can find an empty place and often without any pressure protection for sensitive eardrums.

Probably no countries are open to taking most of those who want to leave and vetting them properly in this emergency will prove difficult. My returned Peace Corps volunteer colleagues are now organizing to help with Afghan refugee resettlement in the US.

Meanwhile, the Taliban still receive regular support from other terrorist groups, also through the sale of opium and heroin. And they have taken possession of many military aircraft left behind. Donald Trump, who set the whole Afghanistan pull-out in motion, is now criticizing Biden for actually carrying it out.

Guardian, An Afghan woman in Kabul: ‘Now I have to burn everything I achieved’

Amnesty International

TAKE ACTION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, go to

CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN – ACT NOW

President Biden may not even have alerted European allies before announcing the American pullout. However, China stepped up to immediately forge an alliance with the Taliban. In hindsight, it might have been better for the US to have kept a low-level force in Afghanistan indefinitely rather than spark this black mark against Biden, who had hoped to reap political benefits from the withdrawal. The stock market went down and Biden’s approval rating dipped to under 50% for the first time. Too late to backtrack now to unleash overwhelming air power against the Taliban to bring them back into negotiations with the elected government of Afghanistan, which, in any case, already had hastily departed.

Expressing immense shock and grief, Afghans gathered locally here in DC at the White House to protest loudly and beg for help for their country, for their families, for their fellow citizens. I sent a condolence message to my friend in California who had once trained women to become teachers in girls' schools in Afghanistan. This sad decision will cast a pall over the whole Biden agenda, which had been going along pretty smoothly beforehand. Biden laid low at Camp David as his poll numbers sank. What a further tragedy it would be if Trump squared off again against Biden in 2024 and then actually won! Now even the midterms are in jeopardy. Politics is a high risks game.

The Grio, Taliban reportedly shoots and kills Afghan woman for not wearing burqa

Business Insider, A month after Biden said there was no chance 'you see people being lifted off the roof' of a US embassy in Afghanistan, helicopters rushed to evacuate diplomats [Biden is now eating his words]

I wonder if Biden sometimes regrets getting back into the political fray? While he now struggles with the Afghan situation, GW Bush, who started the whole intervention, is happily retired, painting portraits of friends and strangers, even of himself in the bathtub. He has remained silent about Afghanistan, as has his mentor, Dick Cheney. And Afghanistan is not Biden’s only challenge, though news from that country has eclipsed attention on Haiti and Cuba.

Wall Street Journal, Growing Share of Migrants From Outside Mexico, Central America Poses Challenge for Biden [More are coming from South America, even Europe, i.e. Roma people]

Politico, White House sticks with hardline approach to Cuba

Miami Herald, Coast Guard returns 19 people to Cuba

BBC, 'We felt free': Cubans remain defiant in face of protest crackdown

The Hill, Cuba issues social media laws banning posts critical of government

BBC News, Cuba tightens control of internet after protests

Reuters, Cuba dips toe in market economy with legalization of small businesses

Guardian, Cuba’s health system buckles under strain of overwhelming Covid surge

ABC News, Nearly 1,300 dead, hundreds missing after Haiti earthquake

Reuters, Major earthquake in Haiti felt across Caribbean, sparks tsunami warning [Haiti’s bad luck just doesn’t end. Haitians like to say, if not for bad luck, Haiti would have no luck at all.]

So in addition to a presidential assassination and Covid, Haiti has now undergone an earthquake and a severe tropical storm. The earthquake was centered in Les Cayes, the city where I was an election monitor in 1990 in the post-Duvalier era. The little houses there built by hand with blood, sweat, and tears, are now flattened into rubble. My last trip to Haiti was in 1994, but not a lot of progress has occurred there since.

Reuters, Nicaragua arrests manager of critical newspaper, UK slams Ortega

Miami Herald, Come to the defense of journalists in Nicaragua. Ortega continues to silence them | Opinion Lisa Konczal, Ph.D. is Nicaragua country specialist for Amnesty International, USA. She is professor of sociology and criminology at Barry University in Miami Shores.

A program aired in NPR about Cubans and Haitians making the arduous 60-mile trek, sometimes with small children in tow, across the Panamanian jungle area of the Darian Gap. Such is the magnetic pull of the promised land. Sadly, the vast majority of these exhausted would-be immigrants will never be allowed entry into the US and will either be moved far away from the border or back to their native countries. Some will stay in Mexico and others will try again. Meanwhile, across the ocean, people are perishing in sea crossings in their efforts to get to Europe, preferably to Germany, Denmark, or the Netherlands. Such energetic single-minded migrants, if they banded together, might be able to create more opportunities in their own native countries. However, the fact that a few do make it through continues to be an incentive for the rest.

[Continuing to post unsolicited ads and notices in Spanish as long as I keep getting them]

Peace Corps Honduras
"The blog continues"

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Grandsons, Capitol Proximity, Goodby Raccoons! Handgun Deaths, Individualism vs. Vaccination, Seeking the Promised Land, Afghanistan