Whenever the Martin Luther King holiday rolls around, I’m reminded of that day in August 1963 when my late former husband and I stood at the edge of an enormous crowd, straining our ears to hear what King was saying in his “I Have a Dream” speech. In town for another meeting, we decided to attend what turned out to be an iconic speech. Then in 1964 King would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1968 would be assassinated, but until that speech, he was not yet internationally famous.
On the holiday, King’s son, MLKing III, his wife, and 13-year-old daughter joined a Peace Walk across DC’s Frederick Douglass Bridge and his daughter, Yolanda, spoke to the crowd.
We also have been having colder temperatures than usual. The other night, it went down to 17 F, the coldest in 3 years.
As a Spanish interpreter in immigrant apartments in the DC area, I’d often notice beeping or dangling smoke detectors, as well as electric heaters in use, just as in the home of the immigrants where the deadly Bronx fire took place. It all has sounded too familiar. Not only might immigrants fail to change smoke detector batteries because they don’t know how or can’t afford to, but those coming from tropical climes, perhaps without residential electricity and certainly not heat, are also unaccustomed to dealing with electric heaters. [Please ignore font changes and odd spacing in this posting, as they stubbornly persist.]
In on-line ads, fathers are often shown changing babies or playing with young kids, while women may be shown operating heavy machinery. In real life, more often these gender roles are reversed, but let’s give advertisers credit for trying to change stereotypes. Likewise, black people are frequently shown as doctors or college professors. (Keep a look-out and you’ll see what I mean.)
Virginia’s new Republican Governor, Glenn Youngkin, won his race partly because of a stern vow to ban critical race theory, something not even taught in Virginia schools. He announced such a ban on his very first day. Whew, Virginians, now you don’t have to worry about that any more. What, exactly, is critical race theory? Few people actually know, as it’s rather complicated, but one of its main tenets is that race is a social construct.
Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, a man with presidential ambitions, has again grabbed the limelight by threatening to fine hospitals for enforcing the federal vaccine mandate upheld by the Supreme Court. Donald Trump has called him “a wiseguy” and “dull.”
In the age of Covid, blood banks are running low, sending out an SOS for blood donations. There is no age limit, provided you are healthy and weigh at least 110 lbs. However, I’ve had malaria, actually more than once, which has prevented me from donating.
Daily Mail, 'It's a little bit disturbing': Unvaccinated talk radio host Glenn Beck, 57, says he has COVID for a second time and it's moved to his lungs: Reveals he's being treated with ivermectin and hydroxy
Covid, unlike other viruses, can strike more than once, and even affect vaccinated people, though usually not as virulently. Beck, presumably infected before, reportedly is among the adamantly unvaccinated. Figureheads like him who decry vaccination are guilty of spreading vaccine hesitancy and prolonging the spread of the virus, as well as endangering themselves, as in Beck’s own case.
Daily Beast, Unvaxxed Lunch Lady Wants You to See Her COVID Death Spiral
An unvaxxed lady almost died and still has health problems related to her brush with death, but she wants to warn others to get vaccinated.
Times-Mail
[Indianapolis], Bedford teen recovering after 5 months in hospital with COVID
complications
This boy,
who also almost died and in photos appears overweight (a likely complication),
was discharged while still using a breathing tube. His prior vaccination status
is not mentioned in the article, probably indicating he was unvaccinated.
AP, Majority
of COVID patients in German ICUs not vaccinated
AP, Expect
more worrisome variants after omicron, scientists say
MarketWatch, Experts
are starting to suggest most Americans will contract COVID as omicron variant
spreads
But contracting
it does not confer immunity from this virus, which keeps on mutating and Omicron
is probably not the last mutation.
USA Today, My triple-vaxxed,
85-year-old mother caught COVID. Medical triage made her doctor useless.
The author is a regular USA Today contributor
whose vaccinated father also came down with Covid. His parents weren’t given
prompt medical attention, presumably because of their age. Patients in their
80s often don’t survive Covid even with proper care, so would have low priority.
The son eventually found care for them far from home and they did survive.
Both older and disabled people, given that Covid care is in such short supply, may routinely be given second priority, especially as they may require extra attention.
Sex workers in the US and elsewhere have been especially hard hit financially by the virus, as it would be difficult to do sex work remotely.
If the largest US vote would simply always result in a winner, as in every other democratic country, the Trump presidency would never have happened and we would have had our first female president. The Republican Party would also have become less extreme and more faithful to Lincoln. Rogue elements would not now hold such sway. The recent accident of history that resulted in Trump could happen again unless the Electoral College could be abolished. So going forward, it is imperative to somehow assure that the popular vote will always prevail. We see now what can happen when a minority wins and tries to maintain its hold. And since I’m already on my soap box or perhaps just fantasizing, why not also give the vote to Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and other territories? That would be more democratic.
Jasper Johns, the well-known 91-year-old American artist whose styles have covered divergent ground over his many years of painting, is now being honored by retrospectives in 2 major museums. One of the paintings in these shows was featured in the New York Times on January 16, 2022. This provocative work, with its juxtaposition of actual metal objects and mostly gray brushstrokes, does invite closer scrutiny and speculation about its deeper meaning. However, to the untutored museum-goer’s eye, the immense value and artistic genius of such a painting may not be readily apparent.
Buzzfeed and Reddit collect stories of premonitions that reportedly came true with stories that sound pretty convincing. I’ve had similar experiences myself, so I’m inclined to believe them. How or why do such very unlikely predictions come to pass, sometimes years later? There seems to be no scientific explanation—is it just the random caprice of chance?
Detroit
Free Press, Roseville woman to face careless use of a firearm charge in
3-year-old's nonfatal shooting
A woman was carrying a loaded handgun in the pocket of her coat, left draped over a chair, that was found by a 3-year-old when she went into the kitchen to talk with his mother. He shot himself in the head, but hasn’t died yet.
Fox News, Wisconsin
man was handling firearm that discharged, killing 8-year-old child: 'Put down
the guns'
A man handling a gun shot a girl nearby, apparently by accident. As I’ve said before, reducing the number of guns in circulation means fewer gun accidents, suicides, and impulsive killings. Look at the UK, with only a handful of gun deaths. And look at Honduras, where guns abound and killings are through the roof. My own son is lucky to be alive today after a bedside handgun dropped by another 11-year-old only shot him in the foot when it discharged.
Washington Post, The past seven years have been the hottest in recorded history
Washington Post, Australia hits 123 degrees, tying highest temperature on record in Southern Hemisphere
While we are in Australia, officials there seemed conflicted—or were in conflict with each other—about whether admitting Djokovic posed a risk or would be showing favoritism to a tennis star. Finally, after much delay and suspense, he was sent on his way.
NYTimes, Mass Trials
in Cuba Deepen Its Harshest Crackdown in Decades (Some reportedly face 30 years.)
Miami Herald, More
than 30 migrants stopped off the Florida Keys get Coast Guard ride back to Cuba
Miami
Herald, A kidnap gang stole a maternity hospital’s new generator in
Haiti. Now it has to close
Miami
Herald, Panama, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic join efforts to tackle
migration, defend democracy
Reuters, Hundreds
of U.S.-bound migrants set off in Honduras in first caravan of 2022
From Amnesty Int’l on a case in Honduras: On 11 December 2021, after launching our press release declaring
the eight Guapinol defenders POCs, president-elect Xiomara Castro, condemned the criminalization of human
rights defenders in the country and demanded the release of the Guapinol
defenders. The trial of the Guapinol eight began on 1st December 2021 and
resumes on 13 January 2022.
CADAL, Derrota madurista en la cuna de Chávez This article (in Spanish) tells how Sergio Garrido on Jan 9, won the governorship of the Venezuelan state of Barritas, triumphing over a Chavista
candidate.
Fox News, Lia
Thomas controversy leads women's sports advocates to speak out against NCAA:
'It's about fairness'
I would
rarely find myself touting an issue being promoted by Fox News, but in this case, the suggestion that established athletes
transitioning from male to female might compete in a separate category seems worth
considering because of their special advantages. (Transgender sports competitors
were discussed in the previous posting.)
People can be pretty picky. In Japan, a married woman whose husband had a hereditary condition sought to become pregnant by a man who lied about his ethnicity, education, and marital status. She subsequently gave up her baby and is now suing the man after learning he is Chinese, not Japanese, is married, not single, and went to a different university than the one he’d actually mentioned. After the birth, she gave up her apparently healthy infant, her own flesh and blood, carried for 9 months? If she could not tell the man was Chinese (or married, etc.) by actually seeing and interacting with him, what possible difference would that make for her baby? That child was fortunate to have been removed from such a shallow woman.
SNL reportedly did a humorous abortion sketch. Whatever
one’s views on abortion, treating it as a joke seems a stretch.
On the subject of abortion, given that several states are considering a 15-week ban, I would agree with Justice Roberts, who asks whether 15 weeks—almost 4 months--isn’t long enough? The vast majority of abortions already take place within that time frame. How long do reproductive rights extend? Would a 15-week abortion limit be something worthy of mass protests? Most Americans would probably support such a cutoff.
Two women unexpectedly pregnant who had each considered
having an abortion ended up finding help in Mary's Shelter in
Virginia and went on to give birth.
It does seem that
there might be fewer abortions if unexpectedly pregnant women knew where else to
turn. Advocates for pregnancy choice should not only support greater help for pregnant
women, but for both them and their babies after birth. Now in Mississippi,
advocates for Medicaid expansion there are pointing out that more babies would
survive after birth if health care were readily available.
Beyond concern for individual mothers and babies, encouraging more babies to be born and to survive means helping reverse the demographic slump our country is now experiencing. If Americans are going to live so long, more American babies need to be born and to grow up. Perhaps demographics might be a factor in advocating a reduced time frame in Roe vs. Wade? Biden and other Democratic lawmakers also now need to express more a nuanced abortion policy coupled with providing more help for pregnant mothers and babies after birth, instead of simply upholding Roe as gospel.
Newsweek, How to Protect Unborn Life in a Post-Roe America | Opinion
The author of that article, Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List, supports pro-life political candidates and advocates establishing more pregnancy centers and prohibiting abortions when a fetus can feel pain, as has already happened in some states.
USA Today, A fake, pro-Trump slate of 2020 electors sent their votes to Congress. Who was behind it? [Fake votes were sent from Arizona, just prior to his rally there.]
Insider, Trump
claimed 'babies can be killed after birth' and called for ban on transgender
athletes, stoking culture wars at Arizona rally
According to the definition of a narcissist from both the World Health Organization and the DSM, Donald Trump would qualify in spades. Narcissistic personality disorder, more common in men, is characterized by a life-long pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive craving for admiration, and a diminished ability to empathize with others.
A couple of readers have mentioned that this blog gives them a brief, though somewhat selective, summary of the news. I do appreciate my readers’ feedback, as well as their indulgence. Readers have contacted me using the email address posted above.
When grasping a stair rail in my house, built in 1895, or pulling out a pocket door, I appreciate the skills of craftsmen long gone whose work lives on.
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