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Birth,
death, youth, old age, all comprise our shared destiny
[6-20]
June 21 was the longest day of the year in our northern
hemisphere, so now it means ever shorter daylight hours until December. Then the
whole cycle starts over again. There is comfort in the absolute dependability
of this rotation in an everchanging world.
School is out now, but since most American parents work, children will probably attend day care or summer camp until school
starts up again. Most local kids are excited about the change.
Here are a few more neighborhood photos. Below, local brothers sit on a bench.
A local artist posted a sketch based on a local scene..
Then she revealed herself as Michelle Turner, seen holding one of her creations.
After a baby
is born, maternal post-partum depression can
unexpectedly flare up, probably due mainly to hormonal changes. While most mothers
welcome their new babies, as I certainly did, I myself experienced a passing thought
of jumping out my second-floor bedroom window with my newborn in my arms. That
scared me, so I asked a neighbor to take over for a few hours with the baby
and my other children while I rested in a quiet room alone. Hormonal fluctuations
can certainly affect mood and cognition. For an unfortunate few among new mothers,
the problem is more severe.
ABC News, Husband speaks out about postpartum depression after
wife dies by suicide Ariana Sutton, 36, died by suicide just
nine days after giving birth to twins This new mother had experienced post-partum depression after her
first pregnancy, but this second time, it came on much sooner, before she and
her husband had expected it and even before the babies had come home from the
hospital, so sufficient preparations for thwarting it were not undertaken.
Today, Newborn baby left
in Safe Haven Baby Box was adopted by the firefighter who found her While Ariana Sutton’s story serves as
a warning on post-partum depression, sheer destiny provided a welcome surprise for other would-be
parents in Florida. There, a firefighter surely must have thought that Lady
Luck had gifted him and his wife their long-desired child when he found a
newborn in the fire station baby box. One woman’s voluntary loss was this
couple’s totally unexpected good fortune. If the birth mother should see the story about
the baby she left at the fire station, she must be pleased that the child has found
a good home where she is cherished.
What was once a US population age pyramid
has now become a mostly straight-up column, with newborns at the bottom and successive
ages rising above in fairly even numbers until about age 65 when successive
losses start to appear, somewhat more rapidly on the male side, until by age
100 at the very top, the few survivors are mostly female. It would become really
concerning if an inverted age pyramid started appearing, becoming larger at
later ages. So far, recent population distribution changes indicate a need to
keep the children coming. Think of all human life as a river that starts
somewhere, sometimes just as a stream that gathers strength as it flows to join
with other tributaries. Childbearing/rearing needs to gain momentum and more
immigrants must be welcomed to make sure our own nation remains viable over
time.
Wash. Post, A
year after Dobbs, the pro-life side is making huge gains However, pro-lifers here have not taken the next step
to assure both more moral and material support for parents of young children,
as has been done in Scandinavia. Our country and our world need to sustain people
of all ages, now and into the future, starting with the initial conception and
birth of babies.
Our nation and others where birthrates have fallen must take concrete steps to encourage the birth of
more children for long-term societal survival, especially now when it is
possible for couples to have regular heterosexual relations without producing
any offspring. Except for expressing myself on this blog, I’m not sure how to
help facilitate the desired outcome.
In a counter-productive move for population growth, the Biden
administration has been doubling down on “abortion rights,” considering that
a winning strategy for the upcoming elections, as, indeed, it may be. Planned
Parenthood and the Democratic National Committee have been running big “anti-choice”
ads online and also in the Washington Post online, depicting the faces
of possible Republican candidates in lurid pink. It was genius by abortion advocates
to have coined such slanted terms as “pro-choice,” “reproductive
rights,” and “anti-choice” instead of simply saying “abortions” and to have focused
stories on rare cases of pregnancy anomalies rather than on the much more
common abortions for convenience.
The pro-abortion side emphasizes women’s
rights and choice, while not according any rights to pre-born women—or men. What
if a Planned Parenthood client actually expressed the desire to
continue her pregnancy, what help would be given to her for that “choice”? She
would probably be told she was in the wrong place.
If we asked anyone when their own gender
had originally been determined, they would have to concede that it was at the moment of
conception when sperm penetrated ovum, also when other personal characteristics were determined. Do you or I believe we ourselves had no right to go on living then until
after actually being born? That is the logical conclusion of what abortion
supporters advocate. President Biden, for whom I voted last time, is a fairly
recent prochoice convert. He has made remarks since becoming president indicating
that he believes that the unborn is not “human” or deserving of rights until after
actually emerging from a mother’s body. So, although a lifelong Democrat, I
may have to sit out the vote next time.
As both a bio and an adoptive parent, I
would not support abortion except in cases of serious risks to the mother or fetal conditions incompatible with
life. I would not consider the risk of a child’s disability sufficient to
justify an abortion. During my 24 years of marriage to a man who was blind, involved tirelessly with him in promoting disability rights, then after 16 years at the Occupational
Therapy Association, followed by 3 1/2 years in the Peace Corps working in health and rehabilitation
in Honduras, and after that, returning there annually as a medical brigade
volunteer, while also serving as a Spanish medical interpreter in the US for
16 years, I have met countless people of all ages with a variety of
disabilities over a span of more than 60 years. Those with disabilities have not considered
their lives worthless, though they often have needed help and encouragement—as
we all do. Surely there are individuals who may wish they had never been born
and also some who have even taken their own lives or have overdosed on drugs,
but their malaise was not evident when they were born or even during
childhood in most cases and the majority have been able-bodied. (As I write this, someone on the neighborhood website is asking for painless suicide tips. Most responders try to talk them out of it.)
I’d like to share something now from my experience
as an interpreter. Sometimes when I arrived at an interpretation assignment,
the therapist to whom I had been assigned did not show up. In those instances,
I often stayed there chatting with the client, just waiting. I remember one
girl about age 13 using a wheelchair who always arrived by special transport with
her mother. She had a whole series of regular sessions scheduled. However, the therapist
who had requested my services often did not show up to work with this girl
and her mother, so we spent our time in conversation, with the mother serving
as a spokesperson for her daughter, who was non-verbal but who sometimes wrote
out words on a tablet, though with some difficulty. All our exchanges were in
Spanish. When we were nearing the end of our series of scheduled assignments,
again without the therapist present, I gave a small purple velvet purse to the girl,
which she clutched with difficulty as she had little use of her hands. Direct
exchanges like that between an interpreter and a client were not allowed, as
the interpreter was supposed to be there only to convey spoken words between
a health worker and a client. But, in this case, the therapist was often
absent, so we had developed a personal bond. I told the girl and her mother before
they left that day that I would see them next time, on our last scheduled session
together. But when I arrived at the specified time for that final session,
neither the therapist nor the girl were there. Since I had the family’s phone
number, I called, learning from the mother that their regular transport had
never arrived, so they had no way to get to the clinic. She said her daughter
was crying because she had so enjoyed our sessions and was looking forward to
the very last one. I was more of a therapist for that girl than her often-absent assigned therapist and, after 16 years at the occupational therapy
association, I knew something about what was appropriate. I was so glad that
I had given her the little purse the last time we had met and not saved it
for our final session. That young girl, as with many other disabled clients,
had a life and relationships that were meaningful to her despite her severe
disabilities. Unlike some able-bodied people, she seemed to cherish what few exchanges
she had with others. And I also found Hispanic mothers to be especially patient
with their disabled children. The point of this aside is that it’s not always
easy for others to judge when a disability would make someone else’s life not
worth living.
Having and raising children, like
everything in life, is a gamble, with sometimes unexpected results. Most results
of having children are favorable, but some folks may react badly after a birth
(such as the woman with post-partum depression cited before) or really are not
cut out to become parents over the long haul. However, if enough people avoid
the gamble and the challenge of becoming parents, our nation is in trouble. Not
so long ago, heterosexual couples simply expected to have children and
lamented when they could not. Having children has been an expected outcome of
a heterosexual couplings since time immemorial. Only in my own lifetime has
the desire for children in a marriage waned substantially, while it's also becoming possible for couples to completely avoid procreation. Today, some folks who choose to be
childless like to brag online about their carefree lifestyle and many freedoms,
yet they still depend on others to produce and raise children to provide them
with support in times of trouble and old age, as well as to make up the very
society that we all belong to. The childless also need to remember that their
own existence has resulted from an actual pregnancy and a birth. Even the militantly
childless did not arise full grown from the ether, but once were babies and children
themselves, born and raised by someone who was not childless. Fewer babies and longer life expectancy does mean there
are ever more elders, with relatively fewer workers supporting them/us. Folks surviving into old age are now becoming a demographic force. Starting
in 2030, not so far away, older Americans will make up 21 percent of the
population, up from 15 percent today. How will everyone then live and thrive?
How can seniors best contribute?
I myself
stopped working fulltime at age 62 when I joined the Peace Corps, although
the Peace Corps was still work, just not for pay. After3 ½ years in the Peace
Corps (an extended term), when I returned to the US at age 65, I started working
part-time as an on-call Spanish interpreter right up until the pandemic. Now at
age 85, I am fully retired, but still helping out my kids and grandkids financially
as much as possible.
Among
other newsworthy items, Cyndi and Bret are 2 recent Caribbean
storms, with meteorologists struggling to come up with new names during an
epidemic of tempestuous weather events. Since records first started being kept
in 1851, there have never before been 2 tropical storms in the Caribbean region
both occurring in June. Is that just a fluke or an indication of climate change?
NBA draft prospect Victor Wembanyama is a 19-year-old French basketball player, 7’ 2” or 7’ 3“ tall, apparently still growing, so his height is changing. He has now joined the
San Antonio Spurs. His older sister Eve at 6’ 1’ also plays basketball
professionally.
Yahoo News, Titanic submersible: 5 passengers on missing sub
likely dead following ‘catastrophic implosion’ Five adventuresome folks suddenly
had their lives cut short. The US Coast Guard found tell-tale debris on the
ocean floor after an international search failed to locate the missing vessel.
For years, experts had voiced concern about
the design and upkeep of Ocean Gate's Titan submersible. Until this
last dive, passengers have been lucky.
CBS News, Supreme Court allows Biden administration to limit
immigration arrests Texas
and Louisiana had challenged the administration’s immigration guidelines. Given
limited resources, the Court said it will allow ICE agents to continue to prioritize the arrest of
immigrants with serious criminal records, those who are national security
threats, and recent illegal entrants.
Hundreds of Cubans remain imprisoned
for participating in island-wide protests on 11 July 2021. The Cuban
judiciary, which is not independent of the government, routinely rubberstamps
politically motivated accusations without regard for fair trial guarantees.
Among those unjustly convicted are Black activists, and leaders of the Yoruba
religion, Loreto Hernández García and Donaida Pérez Paseiro, who are
prisoners of conscience detained only because of their political beliefs, and
who should be immediately and unconditionally released.
Read the urgent action: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/6902/2023/en/
Cientos de personas cubanas siguen encarceladas por haber
participado en las protestas que se produjeron el 11 de julio de 2021 en toda
la isla. El poder judicial cubano, que no es independiente del gobierno,
valida sistemáticamente acusaciones por motivos políticos sin celebrar
juicios con las debidas garantías. Entre quienes han sido condenados
injustamente se hallan las personas activistas negras y líderes de la
religión yoruba Loreto Hernández García y Donaida Pérez Paseiro, presas de
conciencia, recluidas únicamente por sus convicciones políticas, que deben
ser puestas en libertad de manera inmediata e incondicional.
Other Cuba actions are available from Amnesty
International.
AFP, Over 40 dead in gang violence, fire at Honduras
women's prison At least 46 female prisoners were
killed and the security chief has been fired. The riot was allegedly planned
in advance by street gangs with guards’ full knowledge and failure to stop it.
Apparently, male gangs were also involved. Riots in women’s prisons are rare,
so no one was prepared.
A friend living in
Honduras told me: “It appears some gang members from outside got into the
prison. There was gunfire and a fire set in the women's prison. Many young
women have died, some possibly awaiting trial. Very sad as human rights do
not exist for prisoners, especially gang members. The prisons have had
other incidents recently, but I believe this is the first at a female prison.”
AP, Mix of bravado and access to guns contribute to mass
shootings by teens in St. Louis, other cities
AP, Judge rejects transgender plaintiffs' bid to change
their birth certificates in Tennessee The judge said the birth
certificate records “external
genitalia at the time of birth.”
Changing birth certificates
retroactively would create many complications for sports’ competitions, for prisons,
bathrooms, and dressing rooms, and for medical care. A trans person, even
after surgical and hormonal changes, still displays basic physical differences from
others of their chosen gender.
US mortgage interest
rates have now soared to almost 7%. That should tamp down the home sales’
market. Back in January 2021, mortgage interest was only 2.65%; with most of those
lucky folks still holding onto their mortgages. I recall paying over 8% interest back
in 1969 when we first bought the home I still occupy today. Following the
OPEC embargo in Oct. 1981, interest rates peaked at over 18%
HuffPost, 'Just
Confessed': Viewers React To Donald Trump's 'Incoherent' Fox News Interview
Tongues wagged on social media, morning television and even Fox News after
the network aired Bret Baier’s interview with former President Donald Trump on
Monday...the Fox News host pressed Trump to explain details from the grand
jury’s 37-count indictment, which stemmed from his handling of sensitive
documents after leaving the White House.
At one point, Baier confronted Trump about a July 2021
recording from a meeting in which the
former president acknowledged holding on to a classified document about a
potential attack on Iran, seemingly contradicting his defense that he
declassified everything he took. Trump’s answer was difficult to decipher,
but he initially said that he couldn’t declassify it “because I wasn’t
president” at the time, echoing what he said in the recording. He then
pivoted to saying that “there was no document” at all.
Has Donald Trump now actually incriminated
himself? He loves publicity, but should he even be doing interviews when he
cannot be trusted about what to say on his own behalf?
Yahoo
News, Trump really 'toast' in
documents case?
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