Trump Supporters Redux, My Life in Review, Right to Bear Arms, Contagion, Haiti, Cuba, Abortion Again

 George W. Bush came out of retirement on Sept. 11 to give a speech about the tragedy that had occurred on his watch. Donald Trump oversaw a boxing match on that day. Later, Trump criticized Bush’s speech for its emphasis on rightwing “domestic terrorists” who are his staunch supporters. Republican presidential hopefuls remain stymied while Mr. Trump continues to hint at launching his own 2024 presidential run, all except Mike Pence who has launched his own campaign after Trump disowned him for not overturning Biden’s election.

Even before the votes in the California recall were counted, both Republican Larry Elder and Donald Trump were crying “fraud,” a common tactic invoked by the party now, whenever their party or candidate is losing. Would they call it fraud if they were actually winning? Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, taking a page from Trump’s playbook, is already predicting fraud if he loses reelection next year.

On September 18, Trump supporters returned to the capitol for a follow up of Jan. 6, though in much smaller numbers this time and the man himself did not appear. The capitol grounds were again fenced off and authorities were better prepared this time around. Counter protesters were allowed to hold a rally at a safe distance. Internet communications certainly facilitate such gatherings.

Reuters, Amid high security, small pro-Trump crowd rallies at U.S. Capitol

Before the September rally, Donald Trump issued a statement: Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest.

Business Insider, Trump says his heart is with 'persecuted' January 6 rioters

AP, Trump endorses 'big lie' proponents for state election posts

Mr. Trump, testing the winds for a 2024 run, is offering support (but probably not any funds) to primary candidates who say he really won in 2020, but was cheated out of his rightful victory (how?). And if indictments come down against him, he already has his defense.

 

Trump also sent a letter, posted online, asking Georgia’s Secretary of State to “decertify” the 2020 election there.

Business Insider, Donald Trump wrote to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to 'decertify' the 2020 election The letter comes the day before a "Justice for J6" rally is due in Washington DC.

 At this point, 8 months into the Biden administration, what if there really had been a small error in the Georgia vote count? That still wouldn’t overturn the national election results. Besides, at a certain point, quibbling over an election has to end. Despite evidence that Al Gore probably had received a few more votes than George W. Bush in 2000, Gore gracefully retreated rather than continue to contest the point. Yet, that actually proved quite unfortunate, as based on faulty intelligence, Bush later involved our nation unnecessarily in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

But here’s a very scary recent report: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/573036-poll-biden-trump-statistically-tied-in-favorability

The Dow bounces up and down according to Biden’s popularity. Or maybe the Dow and Biden are in a cycle of mutual influence.

Gabby Petito’s disappearance and death have been dominating the news recently. It’s every parent’s worse nightmare to lose an emancipated young person venturing out into the world on their own. I lost both my older son and my Cuban foster son as young adults. As a mother, I had prepared them as best I could for independence. Our parents’ deaths are expected as part of the natural order. Even the deaths of contemporaries, as we get older ourselves, are accepted. But the loss of a younger person, expected to carry on our legacy after we are gone, is a great shock, not something parents ever anticipate in our country today.

Someone has asked if I ever wrote about my south Sudan venture, as depicted in photos posted last time. Yes, I wrote this article: https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/627/article/template-post-treaty-darfur

And after the photos appearing last time, another reader commented that South Sudanese seem especially dark-complexioned, something that people there acknowledge themselves, speculating—half in jest--that the sun has permanently darkened them. (Dark skin may be somewhat protective in a country whose southern tip almost borders the equator.) 

Although this photo has been posted before, this lovely lady in orange was especially warm with me during my Sudan mission even though we didn’t speak the same language.

Was surprised to find these 2 on-line references to my blog in languages I don’t recognize. काम. Google Blogger मा Owner/Blogger. २००९ जुलाई २४ - हालसम्म·Washington D.C.. http://honduraspeacecorps2.blogspot.com/.

Owner/Blogger kwa Google Blogger. 24 Julai 2009 - Iliyopo·Washington D.C. http://honduraspeacecorps2.blogspot.com/.

Searching for an earlier blog posting, I soon reached even further back to the original honduraspeacecorps.blogspot.com, started in January 2009, then suddenly halted more than ten years later in September 2019 due to the mysterious caprices of blogspot, leading to this current version. While looking back through those older postings, I ran across a few photos that I’ve been moved to post again here, just as part of my personal history. Most of us have led interesting, dramatic, and varied lives, actually more interesting than most fiction, if only we could remember just how everything played out. We rightly focus on the present, but the past is how we came to be who we are today. When reminded, I’m amazed at everything I’ve experienced and survived so far. I’ve never shied away from risk and have suffered more than my share of tragedies. I’m also amazed that you and I even still exist right in the here and now. Yes, we are still here! That’s incredible!

And here is my great-grandson De'Andre at a younger age, found in the earlier version of this blog. 

 

Here is De'Andre with my granddaughter Natasha and me more recently. 

Below, some Honduras photos from the earlier blog version, including young dancers entertaining our medical brigade volunteers.

 Below, I am holding a   flashlight for a medical   brigade doctor.

Below, light powered by a diesel generator

The following photos are of El Triunfo, my first Honduran town in Peace Corps. Below, beef for sale and girl sweeping with broom she made herself. 

Left, latrine with shower stall.

Below, young woman cooking

 Here I am with Neris during my PC   service--She    now has 3 kids. 

Below is Neris at age 17, with our pastor friend. 

My second PC site was in mountainous La Esperanza, with a very different climate than that of El Triunfo.

 

Below, in the capital, Tegucigalpa, children in the residential school for the blind play weekend bingo. 

 Left with 2 foot or leg patients waiting to be seen by medical brigade   surgeons. 

Was surprised to find these 2 on-line references to my blog in languages I don’t recognize. काम. Google Blogger मा Owner/Blogger. २००९ जुलाई २४ - हालसम्म·Washington D.C.. http://honduraspeacecorps2.blogspot.com/.

Owner/Blogger kwa Google Blogger. 24 Julai 2009 - Iliyopo·Washington D.C. http://honduraspeacecorps2.blogspot.com/.

A review of blog postings from previous years do provide a sort of diary, helping me revive and relive experiences and relationships not always top-of-mind today. Mine has actually been a pretty hard life, often heartbreaking, with many unexpected twists and turns. Not only did I lose my boys, but I married my blind husband at age 21 against my parents’ wishes. He had never held a job at that point, but for 24 years, I was at his side helping propel him to success, only to lose him to his young office assistant, whom he then married, never speaking to me again until his death, except for a single phone call. It’s not an uncommon trajectory for a successful man, but I never expected it.

Here are a few photos from my previous blog and some I found under my name online, including some lost when I accidentally trashed them from my computer. How did Google get them?

On a trip to Panama to visit another Peace Corps volunteer, we visited this cathedral one evening.

 

To the right, Panamanian woman inspecting her adobe oven. 

At the left, I appear with Armando, in Cuba, a kidney patient I managed (with great difficulty) to get to Mexico and bring across the Texas border. He is now married, taking proper medication, and living in Florida with his family. 

I took this photo of the late dissident Gustavo with his pet parakeet and put it in my Confessions book. He was never permitted to leave Cuba.

This photo taken in my home appears on the back cover of my Confessions book in color, but I found it in black & white online. 

Actually, after my husband divorced me, I went on to achieve considerable success on my own, despite many obstacles and the terrible loss of my boys. After I joined the Peace Corps in Honduras at age 62, I extended my time beyond the usual term, returning to Honduras annually ever since to volunteer as an interpreter and helper for medical brigades, most recently in Feb./March 2020, as per this blog. I also had been working part-time as a Spanish interpreter in DC up until the pandemic, though am no longer planning to return to that work. So, what happens next? We’ll see. I’ve already written 2 memoirs, but as long as we still have breath, there is always more to the story.

PBS recently announced the airing of the 2019 documentary Muhammed Ali, reviving discussion of the man’s life and career. I cannot recall whether I’ve ever mentioned before that while working at the occupational therapy association for our magazine OT Week, I interviewed Ali and his wife. He was no longer the fast-talking show-off of yore, rather by then completely mute, nodding his head to indicate that he understood, but allowing his wife to speak for him. He shook my hand warmly at the end of our interview.

The Liberation of Paris From Cars https://slate.com/business/2021/09/paris-cars-bicycles-walking-david-belliard-anne-hidalgo.html [A template for Washington, DC?]

 

French officials are perhaps rightly outraged by being shut out of the submarine deal inked by the US, UK, and Australia.

 

USA Today, Police officer catches baby dropped from second-story balcony in Jersey City [An alert police officer was able to catch a month-old baby whom a man dangled, then dropped over a balcony—it’s a feel-good news story for a change.]

 

Charlotte Observer, NC teen dies after gun that he and friends passed around accidentally fires, police say  Whenever I see a report like this, I again heave a sigh of relief that my then-11-year-old son was only shot in the foot when his friend dropped a gun found in a parents’ bedside drawer.

 

Fox News, Texas teen who said he killed family and posted images online kills self; police make grim discovery A 15-year-old with access to a gun killed his parents, his sister, and himself.

Daily Beast, Chicago Mom Allegedly Shot 12-Year-Old Son Dead in Rage Over Missing Memory Card

 

It seems pretty obvious that if guns were not so readily available in this country, there would be many fewer murders, suicides, and accidental deaths, including fewer “road rage” incidents and, inside the home, reputed to be a safe place, there would also be not as many family homicides, suicides, and gun accidents, including by kids who find a parent’s gun. People would still get angry or despondent and would still have accidents, but fewer outcomes would be fatal or result in serious injury. The US has far and away the highest rate of gun deaths among developed countries, 8 times higher than neighboring Canada and 100 times higher than the UK. Is there any upside on that statistic? Probably not even in one out of a hundred instances of a handgun firing actually proves protective of the owner.

Son shoots 63-year-old dad after mistaking him for a burglar https://www.kentucky.com/news/nation-world/national/article254363713.html

Gun deaths do reach the US rate in other countries where guns proliferate, including in our neighbor Mexico, but with more homicides than suicides there, while the reverse is true in the US. (Is Mexico actually counting all its gun deaths?) In the US, firearm deaths exceed those even from motor vehicle accidents. In Honduras, where I’ve lived and have often traveled, the gun homicide rate is even higher than in the US, despite, or perhaps because of, so many people being armed, including guards in pharmacies, grocery stores, hospitals, and banks. The “right to bear arms” seems to be a right to die or be killed by a firearm. How did we ever get to this point in our country and what can we do about it now?

New forensic techniques are allowing authorities to identify and arrest men for long ago murders in so-called “cold cases,” often of young girls found to have been raped and killed under mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, these guys have often gone on to get married, raise children, and live conventional lives, keeping their dark secrets to themselves.

Even 3 years ago, could we have ever foreseen or imagined Covid sweeping through the world? Right now, as I write this and you are reading it, someone in your town, in your city, is dying of Covid. And there are excess deaths not related to Covid because of overflowing emergency rooms and postponed treatment and surgeries. Does vaccination prevent Covid all the time? No, few things in life have 100% certainty. But if even 80% of people around the world could be vaccinated, this illness would no longer pose such a threat.

Zoo animals, particularly primates, have come down with Covid, presumably caught from humans. In Washington, DC’s National Zoo, even lions and tigers have contracted the virus.

Have the following articles convinced folks to get vaccinated, or are they just dismissed as “fake news”?

The Guardian, Colorado radio host who urged boycott of vaccines dies of Covid-19 [Bob Enyart]

 

Daily Beast, Anti-Mask Florida Official Dies of COVID—and Takes GOP Software Secrets With Him

Insider, An Alabama couple who trashed vaccines on their YouTube channel died from COVID-19 within 3 weeks of each other

Insider, Anti-vaxx mother and daughter contracted COVID-19 and died 2 weeks apart on the same hospital ward

People, Widow of N.J. Officer Who Died of COVID Says Son Wants to Mark 12th Birthday by Getting Vaccine

 

USA Today, 'Tell all of our family to get vaccinated': COVID kills 6 members of Florida family in 3 weeks 

The virus can be so swift. Days after a Nigerian friend first sent me in an email saying that a mutual friend had Covid, another message arrived saying that the man had died. Likewise, just days after actually being with my son’s friend Bryan in West Va., after I had held onto his arm when walking over bumpy terrain, we learned that he had been hospitalized with Covid, then that he had died. Perhaps vaccinations had protected my son and me, as we did not catch the disease from him. And birthdays of friends who have died still appear on Facebook.

Afghan arrivals into nearby Dulles Airport have now been paused not because of Covid, but because of a measles outbreak among evacuees. Back in the day, when I was a child, we didn’t have vaccines for German measles, measles, mumps, and chicken pox, all of which I unfortunately contracted. We had to put warning signs up in our window and stay quarantined. My sister also came down with whooping cough, although my brother and I did not. She was just a baby then and our mother held her upside down by her feet while she coughed into a basin. In the Peace Corps, I got all those shots, even though I'd had the actual illnesses. 

 In Afghanistan, are the Taliban blocking planes from leaving, simply holding would-be passengers hostage until western countries offer more assistance? Or is it problem between Taliban hardliners and moderates?

Business Insider, Taliban says boys can re-enter secondary school but does not mention girls

AP, Taliban-run Kabul municipality to female workers: Stay home On Friday, the Taliban shut down the Women's Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice" and tasked with enforcing Islamic law.

AP,  One stunning afternoon: Setbacks imperil Biden's reset

The Pentagon acknowledged that a drone strike in Afghanistan killed 10 civilians, including seven children, not terrorists. [Remote drone killings are much too easy and it’s too easy to make a mistake.]

Washington Post, Afghan family ravaged by U.S. drone strike mistake wants headstones for the dead — and possible new life in America [Just saying “sorry” is not enough.]

As the pandemic continues and other economic problems assault people in their countries of origin, unprecedented numbers are crowding at US borders (also at European borders).

Reuters, U.S. judge blocks expulsions of migrant families under Trump-era order [Expulsions are blocked only for families, specifically asylum seekers, not for single adult migrants.]

Some migrant parents seem to simply be entrusting their children to the mercy or benevolence of US authorities. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the 2-year-old girl and 3-month-old boy, both Honduran nationals, are siblings and were found abandoned along the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.

NY Times, Thousands of Migrants Huddle in Squalid Conditions Under Texas Bridge The temporary camp in Del Rio has grown with staggering speed in recent days during a massive surge in migration that has overwhelmed the authorities. [Nine thousand there so far, mostly Haitians. It takes time and effort to even process and deport most of them. The internet, specifically the apparently free What’s Up app has made this gathering possible. After all their struggles traveling through Panama’s Darien Gap, Central America, and Mexico to finally reach Del Rio, Haitian migrants are now being flown back to their country. Otherwise, even more would come.]

https://apnews.com/article/texas-migrants-haiti-del-rio-border-mexico-14cc4765f758df5aaf6fa546525416b7

 

It’s likely that the influx is due to the Biden Administration's decision to extend for 18 months the TPS status of Haitian migrants already in the US, a message garbled and widely disseminated thanks to WhatsApp and the internet.

 

Reuters, As news of U.S. flights back to Haiti spreads, migrants fret about where to go

 

'If we go back we die': 15,000 Haitian immigrants under Texas bridge beg Biden not to send them back as DHS starts removal flights, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10004201/US-nears-plan-widescale-expulsions-Haitian-migrants.html  Border agents on horseback round up Haitian migrants after closing Rio Grande crossing where 15,000 have congregated under Texas bridge: More than 300 arrive back in Haiti - as up to EIGHT flights a day are scheduled to deal with crisis

Thousands of Haitian migrants TURN BACK to Mexico to avoid deportation as removal flights increase
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10009023/DHS-Secretary-Alejandro-Mayorkas-visit-Rio-Grande-crossing-15-000-Haitians-congregated.html After their long, arduous trek, Haitians don’t want to end up back home. [photo]

BBC News, Haiti PM sacks justice minister amid murder inquiry

Some 11.5 million Haitians on the island are living in overcrowded circumstances on insufficient land and in abject poverty, often small subsistence farmers, many of whom had their crops ruined in the recent earthquake (the country lies along a fault line). Added to that are a high crime rate and a populace immersed now in a political crisis after a presidential assassination. Yes, life in Haiti is pretty hard and has been ever since I was there in the 1990s, back when everyone optimistically thought that simply getting rid of Duvalier would lead to better fortunes. Les Cayes, the epicenter of the latest earthquake, is where I served as an election observer in 1990. No one could have anticipated then that UN peacekeepers from Nepal, assigned to help Haiti recover from a very destructive 2010 earthquake, would bring cholera to Haiti for the first time. That devastating mistake has not been repeated with this recent earthquake. Now, as Amnesty International USA’s volunteer Caribbean Coordinator, I don’t know where to start when it comes to dealing with Haiti. It’s very hard to pick even one issue for us to work on that would make a difference. 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/prosecutor-asks-judge-to-charge-prime-minister-ariel-henry-in-assassination-of-president-jovenel-moise 

BBC News, Haiti PM sacks justice minister amid murder inquiry

Washington Examiner, Coast Guard stops 104 Haitian migrants in boat off Miami coast

Bloomberg, A Million Haitians Face ‘Acute’ Hunger After Quake Damaged Farms

 

https://thehill.com/latino/572588-advocates-in-utter-disbelief-after-biden-resumes-haitian-repatriations [Yes, this seems to indicate that the Biden administration is not coordinating its policies.]

 

Miami Herald, Time Magazine delivers to Cuba’s brave freedom fighters what BLM doesn’t: Respect | Opinion [Re Luis Manuel Otero]

 

Miami Herald, Mexico’s leader will give Cuba’s Díaz-Canel a propaganda boost with red carpet welcome| Opinion [Andres Oppenheimer] Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador’s invitation to Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel to attend Thursday’s ceremonies for the 200 anniversary of Mexico’s independence — and to make a speech at the event — is a slap in the face of democracy, human rights and Mexico’s dignity.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/03/why-the-internet-in-cuba-has-become-a-us-political-hot-potato

Miami Herald, American cardinal pleaded for release of July 11 protesters in meeting with Cuban leader The archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, asked Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel in a recent meeting to pardon peaceful protesters detained after the July 11 anti-government demonstrations and allow Catholic groups to send humanitarian aid to the embattled island...Cubalex, an organization that provides legal aid to Cuban government critics, has verified at least 922 detentions linked to the July protests. Another 98 cases are under review.

Miami Herald, Cuba starts vaccinating 2-year-olds, as COVID cases spike among children on the island

Reuters, Nicaraguan political activist shot in Costa Rica, in critical condition A Nicaraguan political activist who opposes the government of President Daniel Ortega is in critical condition in a Costa Rica hospital after being shot, police and activists said on Sunday. Joao Maldonado, a well-known leader of demonstrations in 2018 in southwestern Nicaragua's Jinotepe municipality, was shot twice in the chest and once in the arm... More than 80,000 Nicaraguans have requested refuge in neighboring Costa Rica.

HuffPost, Women Can Avoid Pregnancy With Sexual Abstinence, Texas Law Creator Preaches In Brief

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has raised abortion as a political issue. What about allowing only Texas women to vote on the matter?

 

Supporters of “abortion rights” usually don’t support abortion for sex selection. And abortion supporters often characterize abortion as a “Constitutional right,” perhaps basing it on the right to privacy, but the question of when a fetus can feel pain is not addressed. The expectant mother’s rights supersede those of the unborn. Yet arrests are made for animal cruelty, such as recently with the arrest of a Mass. man who stomped on his cat’s head. A wild rabbit shot in the face with a dart caught the attention of a Florida sheriff and the dart was extracted.

 

Now a case on abortion and “abortion rights” related to a new Texas law has made it onto the Supreme Court docket. And, as it turns out, the pregnant woman in the landmark Roe case, Norma McCorvey, whose pseudonym was Jane Roe, never actually had an abortion herself and went on to give birth to her child, a girl who was given up for adoption and is still alive today. Norma publicly spoke out as an abortion opponent until near end of her life. But on her death bed, she said that pregnant women should do whatever they wanted. The daughter she relinquished for adoption, Shelley Lynn Thornton, was born in 1970 and the story of their separate lives are featured in an article in the current issue of The Atlantic. Both the birth mother and the daughter she relinquished gave birth to children while unmarried (though Thornton later married and had children within her marriage) and both have said that they personally would not choose abortion, so it’s ironic that their story is linked so firmly to that issue. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/09/jane-roe-v-wade-baby-norma-mccorvey/620009/

Not so long ago, before effective contraception was available and before women, especially married or partnered women, could not easily say “no” to their men’s sexual advances, abortion really was contraception of last resort. In those days, with neither effective contraception nor safe abortion available, many women went on to have unwanted births. My paternal great-grandmother in Alberta, Canada, had 12 children, the youngest of them being my grandmother, without whom I would not exist today. But now, with largely effective contraception available in this country, demand for abortion has been reduced. The US rate has been falling since 1980, most precipitously since 2013 when contraception started being covered by the Affordable Care Act.

Medical abortions were not even available in the US until 1979, though surgical abortions were performed after Roe in 1973. Under Roe, even a viable fetus may be aborted if the mother’s health, including mental health, is deemed to require it. But the “right” to an abortion has not been recognized by courts in all cases. Since 2003, intact dilation and extraction has not been permitted. Only 1% of pregnancies in the US are alleged to result from rape or incest, although as mentioned in the last posting, as a former probation officer and Spanish interpreter, I have seen more than my share of such cases.

According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of U.S. adults take a non-absolutist position, saying that in most – but not all – cases, abortion should be legal (34%), or illegal (26%). Fewer still take the position that in all cases abortion should be either legal (25%), or illegal (13%). Currently, 59% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 39% say it should be illegal in all or most cases. So, a substantial political divide still remains. A recent, smaller survey has provided somewhat confusing results. Yahoo News, Poll: Roe v. Wade ruling remains broadly popular — but Americans' views on abortion are still very complex

Certainly, no amount of support or services offered to pregnant women can prevent most abortions, but right-to-lifers do need to step up their game by backing services both before and after births. Some of the family assistance provisions of the Biden’s administration’s legislative proposals would both increase the US falling birth rate and decrease abortion demand, so red-state voters and their representatives need to put their money where their mouth is to fully advocate for them.

George Will’s recent opinion piece in the Washington Post entitled “The pursuit of happiness is happiness,” reminds me of the occupational therapy principle of purposeful activity. For most people, being engaged in what they consider purposeful activity—activity toward a desired end--is as satisfying as the moment when they actually achieve the end itself.

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