Adios, Alex

After no postings made here for a while now, this is a rather long one. I’m sorry to say that my visitor Alex has left, going first to give a consultation in the Dominican Republic, then on to his native Costa Rica, and finally back to Spain to finish his doctorate. He was invited to the DR to advise the government on how to organize long-term care for older folks, something now facing Latin America as life expectancy increases and families are no longer so willing or able to care for an increasing number of long-lived elders. He has a big life task ahead of him as an expert in this growing field.

Although I’d taken pains to only speak English with Alexander, my young visitor, when he left, I did tell him adios and buen viaje, good journey. Alex has now departed and his absence is being felt. I never expected him to leave a void! He arrived right after my daughter Stephanie’s departure, though they never actually intersected. While I claim now to be living alone for the first time in my long life, between visitors and trips to see my son on W Va., I really haven’t put solo living to the test.

When the friend who had invited Alex for a 3-month internship at HHS pressed me to offer him housing, I hesitated, as accepting someone sight unseen has not always worked out. The “chemistry” has to be there. I also had been looking forward to testing out my solitary independent life, as I’d barely had a chance to do that. I’d never actually lived alone after marrying at age 21. Yet, it seemed ridiculous to refuse Alex when my house has so much room. So, finally, I agreed and am so glad I did, as he is a sweetheart, a very easy-going young man, fun to be with. I’ve been really sorry to see him go. Because of bureaucratic delays, he only got a badge to enter the HHS building, where he was supposedly working while here, just a couple of weeks before his departure. I fully expect him to launch a successful career as a specialist in long-term eldercare. Sometimes I go back over blog postings to recall life events and relationships and will fondly remember Alex.

 

His mentor at HHS took him out to dinner 2 days before his departure. 

He and I went out together yesterday, on Alex’s last afternoon here, first to a bank where I needed to make a deposit into someone else’s account. There, the bank clerk, seeing “Honduras” on my t-shirt, said she was from Honduras and had just been there in July. Me too, I told her in Spanish. In another coincidence, my Cuban-born friend Jose Manuel was sitting out at another eatery, when he saw us pass by and joined us at We-the-Pizza. Jose had stayed at my place back in 1996 and is mentioned in my Confessions book. Then, while we were munching on pizza, a young woman employee who overheard our conversation told us she had just come to DC from Cuba 3 weeks earlier via a flight to Managua and then a grueling bus trip north. “The universe knows,” Jose said.

Since the last posting, my late son Andrew’s birthday, Sept. 4, has again come and gone. He would have been 55 this year. His gravestone is visible in my backyard from my kitchen. 

Of course, to me, Andrew is always 27, the age he died. A photo of us together about a month before his death appears in my Confessions book, but I cannot find that photo in an album or in my computer files, though here it is in the book. 

                                            I did locate this photo below of Andrew.

Demand for workers here in the US now includes Spanish interpreters, at least according to recent on-line solicitations inviting me to return to that work, but only in person. Now, post-Covid at my age, I’m reluctant to go back to using public transportation again, with exposure to other passengers, not to mention making contact with different clients and others at a busy work site, often a school, hospital, or courtroom. It was fascinating for 16 years to be able to intimately witness so many human dramas without actually being a party to them. However, now I’ll leave that to younger folks. I had given my senior farecard to Alex, my Costa Rican visitor, which the metro system let him to use, though he’s only just turned 30.

A “walking school bus” is a phenomenon in some jurisdictions. No, a bus does not literally walk instead of rolling on wheels. In fact, there is no bus at all, just a gathering spot where kids can all walk together guided by a teacher or other school employee. It’s an excellent idea, especially at the start of the school year now, to get youngsters feeling connected and ready to leave home.

Pencils of Promise (PoP) is the little-known charity I chose to support through my modest Amazon book sales. It provides educational assistance to needy school students around the world, so it was good to see it getting some recent press. Meadow Walker will be honored at the annual PoP Gala, to be held October 20 in New York City. She is the 23-year-old daughter of the late Paul Walker and she had first teamed up with Pencils of Promise back in 2020. Her father, of Fast & Furious fame, died in a car crash in 2013 at age 40. But now Pencils of Promise is getting quite a boost. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11167115/Meadow-Walker-named-Activist-Year-Pencils-Promise.html

Banned Books Week | September 18 – 24, 2022

Last time, I posted photos of some very long-lived trees. A California sequoia, whose name Hyperion comes from Greek mythology, is not the world’s oldest tree, but, rather, the tallest, measuring 115.92 m (380.3 ft) and still growing, but only very slowly. It may be as old as 800 years, probably having first emerged before Europeans ever set foot in California.

Now a Saguaro cactus with multiple arms, estimated to be perhaps 200 years old, quite old for a cactus, has finally collapsed in the Arizona desert, thus ending its remarkably long life. 

What about long-lived humans? The longest documented and verified human lifespan was that of Jeanne Calment of France (1875–1997), a woman who lived to age 122. She claimed to have met Vincent van Gogh when she was 12 or 13. She first received media attention in 1985, after turning 110.

 

A Venezuelan man has been recorded by the Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living man. As of May 2022, Juan Vincente Mora had reached 112 years and 355 days old, and presumably has made it to age 113, as we haven’t heard otherwise. But he still has some years to go to catch up with Jeanne Calment.

A 74-year-old woman from southern India became a mother, possibly becoming the oldest woman ever to give birth. Mangayamma Yaramati opted for in vitro fertilization after years of being unable to conceive and gave birth via cesarean section to twin girls conceived with donor eggs, but apparently using her husband’s sperm.

A lady living in Vermont with her daughter died at 105. She was the oldest person I’ve known personally. Here above, the daughter stands outside among summer flowers on their Vermont property.

Now the world is mourning Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who died at age 96, after a 70-year reign. The queen’s husband, Prince Phillip, died last year. Her heir apparent, Charles, often photographed wearing a ridiculous number of medals, will now have his chance. He is 74, so won’t have as much time on the throne nor will he ever be as popular as his mother. His reputation suffered when he had a very public affair with his current wife while married to the very popular and more attractive Diana, who then was killed in an auto accident and became a martyr. His standing has never completely recovered. Flags were flying at half-mast here in DC and perhaps all around the US and the world to honor the queen.

Wash. Post, Liz Truss to replace Boris Johnson as next U.K. prime minister 

Without knowing anything about her politics, I’m glad to see a female prime minister.

Reuters, Putin denies Gorbachev a state funeral

Would Gorbachev really care? Putin placed some roses by the coffin but indicated that he wouldn’t be attending the funeral. Citizens of former east European satellites still remain forever grateful to Gorbachev.

The war in Ukraine has been killing both Russians and Ukrainians for the right to claim control over a piece of territory and its inhabitants. This war has been wantonly killing and wounding both Russians and Ukrainians, as well as destroying valuable property. Of course, all wars could be considered unnecessarily destructive and completely counterproductive. Now, drones are being used more than ever in war. Maybe each side should just let their drones fight it out?

I’ve just heard from Jenn, a young Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras during my service there. She and her husband now live an island life in Vanuatu with their 2 children. She also has begun working remotely for the Peace Corps there. Doing that must take a fair degree of computer/internet savvy. While perhaps something is lost without having any regular face-to-face contact among employees, the internet has allowed many folks to work from remote locations where they prefer to live. How much easier it would have been for me, as a single mother commuting daily to Maryland, to have been able to work remotely!

The Return of Volunteers to Service Overseas. To date, Trainees and reinstated Volunteers have returned to 28 countries: Belize, Benin, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Eswatini, Ghana, Grenada, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Madagascar, Mexico, Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, The Gambia, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia.

If I could find a reliable person to care for my venerable house and pay the bills, including property tax bills, I would love to return with Peace Corps Response to a Spanish speaking country. PC Response service can last from 3 to 12 months, and possibly I could be away for 3 months, though I have not yet seen any such assignments posted.

7News, NW DC site chosen for Peace Corps Commemorative Park, honoring organization's volunteers (I’m looking forward to visiting this park.)

This just came in from Churches for the Middle East:

BBC, Shireen Abu Aqla: Israel says 'high probability' soldier killed reporter

“The Israeli military has concluded there is a ‘high probability’ that one of its soldiers killed the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqla. The veteran Al Jazeera correspondent was shot in the head while covering a raid in the occupied West Bank in May. It is the closest the military has come to admitting responsibility. The military's top legal officer has also ruled out a criminal investigation of the soldiers involved, effectively ending the probe into the case.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/08/washington-dc-emergency-migrants-republican-texas-abbott?CMP=share_btn_link The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has sent at least 9,400 migrants to Washington since April in an effort to push responsibility for border crossers to Democrats. Thousands more people have been bussed to New York City and Chicago. Following suit, Arizona’s Doug Ducey has sent at least 1,500 people to the capital since mid-August.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-governor-greg-abbott-starts-bussing-migrants-to-third-democrat-city This time, it’s to Chicago. Abbott is actually dispersing migrants around the country, helping reduce labor shortages in major cities, although the arrivals may not be authorized initially to work. If they put down roots in their new locale, these migrants will also help stem population losses in Democratic majority cities and in the nation as a whole. Thanks, Gov. Abbott.

Wash. Post, 10.5 million children lost a parent or caregiver to covid, study says This is an estimate worldwide, adding to other woes that children may have faced.

In Canada, where guns are not readily available, though firearms can and do cross the border, there have been some high-profile stabbing deaths recently. Stabbings have also occurred in China where firearms are strictly controlled. It would be impossible to outlaw knives around the world, since knives have so many practical uses and are so easy to make. Whatever their capacity to inflict harm and to kill, knives still lack the terrible deadly power of firearms. But with either knife or gun murders, surprise of unsuspecting victims is a major factor in being able to wound or kill them.

Some who struggled to finally pay off their student loans consider it unfair that slackers are now getting a break.

I must confess to knowing nothing about how crypto currency works or why it requires so much computer power and generates such terrible noise. Though crypto remains a complete blank to me, it has allowed some folks to create great wealth overnight and others to lose it all just as fast. As far as I know, nothing tangible is actually created or exchanged. Of course, money, bank accounts, debts, are not tangible either.     

In Ukraine, an escaped chimp was persuaded to return to the zoo on a bike. 

USA Today, Ohio man who suffered 20,000 bee stings and ingested 30 bees wakes up from coma, family says

A 20-year-old man was stung on Aug. 27 while cutting tree branches when bees attacked after being disturbed. He is now on his way to recovery in a hospital bed.

USA Today, New Jersey 2-year-old dies after being left in hot car outside home, authorities say

This is the 19^th hot car death of a child recorded this summer in the US.

AP, Red flag laws get little use as shootings, gun deaths soar

Reuters, U.S. life expectancy fell further in 2021 due to COVID

Life expectancy fell in the United States in 2021 to its lowest since 1996, the second year of a historic retreat due to COVID-19 deaths...The nearly one-year decline from 2020 to 76.1 years marked the largest two-year drop in life expectancy at birth in close to a century, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.

Disparity in life expectancy between men and women also widened last year to the highest in more than two decades, with men now expected to live 73.2 years, nearly six fewer years than women. Deaths from COVID-19 contributed to half of the overall decline in life expectancy last year, with drug overdoses and heart disease also major contributors, the data showed.

COVID-19 was associated with more than 460,000 U.S. deaths in 2021, according to the CDC. U.S. life expectancy in 2020 registered its biggest one-year drop since World War Two, with COVID-related deaths contributing nearly 75% to the decline.

The question of empty folders marked “Classified” found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort be might be the result of so many documents having been flushed down the toilet. Mr. Trump needs to be kept out of office at all costs, especially because if he gets another presidency, he is going to try to settle scores and act utterly vindictive. The judge overseeing the case against him seems to be bending over backwards to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. Are we going to have a re-run of Biden vs. Trump again in 2024? Unless Democrats can manage to get him disqualified, Trump is likely to again be the Republican nominee.

Trump and Biden have changed places in terms of support for abortion. Joe Biden had previously voted for a ban on the use of federal funds for abortions, while Donald Trump had once declared himself to be “pro-choice.”  It is even rumored that Trump had advocated for an abortion before his daughter Tiffany was born, before he ended up marrying her mother.

American Evangelicals will continue to support Trump because he champions white masculinity, including the male-headed intact family, white superiority, and Christian worship, as well as his voicing of opposition to abortion, though his own personal life does not reflect these values.

On abortion, do Biden and Trump each spit on a finger raised to the wind to find the direction of their likely voters? Or are they swayed mainly by financial support? A lifelong Democrat like myself, never having voted Republican, though unhappy with Democrats’ lock-step abortion stance, am still not ready to jettison the party altogether. To make sure Trump never returns to office, I will continue to vote for Democrats, although we abortion dissenters within the party are being totally ignored. Few Democrats will actually abstain from voting or vote Republican because of the abortion issue. The official Democratic Party may be counting on us not to defect.

The Democratic Party claims to be a “big tent,” but is it really? Although Democrats for Life is estimated to represent the views of more than a quarter of Democratic voters, it lacks the resources to fund political races. In contrast, Planned Parenthood and NARAL have become big financial supporters of pro-choice Democrats recruited to run against pro-lifers in primaries, and sometimes even to support their Republican opponents (I’ve gotten such funding solicitations). In the wake of Roe’s demise, these organizations are raising sizable amounts of cash by using scare tactics highlighting rare cases of fetal anomalies, though the vast majority of abortions do not involve any such anomalies, nor do they involve rape or incest. The only national Democrats now considered pro-life are Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) — described by opponents "the last anti-choice Dem in the House" — and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called restricting abortion “sinful” on Women's Equality Day (eurasiareview.com) While most Democrats facing reelection have gone all-out to support “abortion rights” after Roe’s demise, Pelosi’s labeling of opposition to abortion “sinful” may be an overreach and could even backfire, as most Americans do hold less extreme views. Pelosi, who had 5 children in 6 years, was probably not such an energetic “abortion rights” supporter back then. She hasn’t put her own money where her mouth is. Likewise, mainstream media has vigorously supported “abortion rights” and “abortion services,” never just plain ordinary “abortion.” Reporting on the prolife side in mainstream media has been rare.

On a gut level, I just have never understood abortion. Many consider it a matter of supporting female equality and freedom. If men can have sex without consequences, apparently the thinking goes, then abortion makes women more equal. I do comprehend efforts to prevent pregnancy, including sterilization. I can understand relinquishing a child for adoption. But it seems to me that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” should be available to everyone, even to those unseen humans completely helpless and still developing in the womb—the universal way we all started out, after all-- and even to those incarcerated except for the “liberty” part, as they are both human and alive. Abortion ends a developing human life. Wouldn’t it even be correct to say that the unborn are killed? People are arrested for mistreating animals, after all. Concern has even been expressed about putting live lobsters and crabs into boiling water. An abortion advocate from Tennessee voiced a lament about 10 teens not able to obtain abortions whose life has been interrupted by having given birth, but what about the 10 babies born who now have a life? Some have complained about being unwanted by their mothers, a valid complaint, but would they have preferred never having been born? We all have imperfect parents, just as we ourselves are imperfect parents. Life is a series of challenges to be overcome. Life can be hard and is never nirvana except during short honeymoon periods. Despite this, most people choose to go on living until their inevitable end.

Giving birth could be considered a special privilege enjoyed only by women. I just don’t get the rationale behind abortion, except that it allows a pregnant woman to prevent a baby carrying her genes from being born alive. Is that infant’s life worth preserving only when he or she actually becomes visible to the rest of us, finally out in the world now breathing air? Before that, is the unborn just a parasite? Maybe the woman wants to avoid bringing a child into this vale of tears? Or perhaps an abortion will allow her to have a baby later on when she is better prepared, then producing a child—a person-- who would not otherwise exist? In any case, a baby’s birth is not the end point, but a beginning. Pro-lifers should not just walk away after a birth.

Wash Post, Nurse practitioner says CVS fired her for refusing to give abortion drugs Here’s a rare mainstream article about someone on the other side of the abortion debate. A woman was given an exemption from dispensing abortion-causing drugs because of her beliefs, then suddenly, after more than 3 years, her employer revoked her exemption and ordered her to dispense abortifacients. She refused and was fired. She has now filed a lawsuit against her former employer. Will this matter now go to the Supreme Court? Health care workers have reportedly been fired either because of refusing to provide abortions or because they’ve actually facilitated them. It all depends on the position of their leadership.

Because of falling birthrates in the US and other countries, I predict that public support for “abortion rights,” despite being strident here right now during this election season, will gradually wane over the next few years. Social trends can go in and out of fashion. Already, young people are having less sex than immediate prior generations. And there are many effective forms of contraception and little or no stigma for out-of-wedlock births. Abortion numbers are still high in some parts of the country, but the national trend is toward fewer abortions, with a slight upswing in 2020, during the pandemic. Still, the overall trend is downward, partly due to more effective contraception, also due to less frequent sex. Additionally, as early preemie care becomes effective ever earlier in a pregnancy, the point of viability occurs even sooner.

Dr. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr., took to social media with a message for Democrats now pushing to codify Roe v. Wade into law . She has blamed abortion for killing a disproportionate number of black babies, more African Americans even than the Klan, and she has cited her late uncle Martin in support of her anti-Roe position. He was the father of 4.

ArtNews, Jailed Dissident Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara Wins $50,000 Award In a statement, the judges praised Alcántara “for his extremely accessible, honest and non-elitist art practice [and] for his tireless fight for freedom of expression in Cuba and his stance against censorship and political authority.” Otero Alcántara, one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2021 and [an] advocate for artistic freedom in Cuba, was sentenced to five years in prison in June.

Otero is still in prison but has received this international recognition. He was accused of “insulting national symbols” due to his use of the Cuban flag in a performance piece in which he wore or carried the flag uninterrupted for a month. Otero is also a cofounder of the San Isidro movement, a group of artists and activists demonstrating against the Cuban government’s crackdown on freedom of expression. He was detained on July 11, 2021, on his way to a protest in Havana, and was held for more than a year in a maximum-security prison without trial after his arrest, and was designated a POC by Amnesty International.

AP, Fleeing Nicaraguans strain Costa Rica's asylum system

My recently departed Costa Rican visitor has witnessed this influx.

While in the company of friends and family, do you ever recognize certain personal aspects about which some folks seem oblivious, completely lacking in self-awareness, but which are common knowledge or a consensus judgement among everyone else? Are they feigning ignorance or just exhibiting willful blindness? Psychologists might have an explanation. Sometimes, we gloss over the matter in conversation to protect the person involved or to avoid an argument. I’m thinking of friends who express strong support for marital fidelity, but avoid seeing obvious signs that their own spouse is straying. Or a parent who always defends a child even when that child is a habitual liar. Or simply someone who keeps dominating the conversation without noticing that the eyes of listeners are glazing over? We overlook these shortcomings out of personal loyalty and to protect others’ feelings. We might also wonder if we ourselves might have some major personal or relationship flaws of which we are blissfully unaware, but which our friends and family overlook to protect us?

Everyone needs basic shelter, food, healthcare, and a means of communication, but not all of us aspire to increase our income or amass more wealth. I count myself among those satisfied with what they already have, one reason I stopped working altogether when the pandemic hit. It was not worth risking illness at my age by going out to work even part time when I had all that I needed. I’d been working as a part-time on-call Spanish interpreter for 17 years, traveling to work sites by public transportation. Now that everything takes me longer, including getting dressed in the morning, I can afford to take my time just living day-to-day. My kids, who used to ask me for money, are now often out-of-luck, though I do like to invest in Honduras and in a few other places.  

The following are work solicitations that I received in just one day from LinkedIn, and all are quite tempting, especially the one from WHO, where 11 fellow Amnesty International alumni are said to be working. But no, I’ll still take a pass. It’s time to retire my metro farecard and leave these tasks to others.

///////////////////////////////////// 

Freelance Spanish Interpreter (Multiple Settings, On-Site)   Liberty Language Services · Ashburn, Virginia, United States

 

Medical Interpreter - Spanish/English - PRN Children's National Hospital · Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Advisor, Gender and Health World Health Organization · Washington, District of Columbia, United States     11 company alumni

 

RTI,	Bilingual Editor,

 

A House in the Woods

After my sojourn in Honduras, which I thoroughly enjoyed after an absence of more than 2 years, I spent several days in W Va. with my son Jonathan, my only family member living within driving distance (2 1/2 hours each way). It’s so very peaceful out there, such a contrast with city living. Jon resides in a rustic house deep in the woods belonging to his employer, Coolfont Resort. The resort is now making a comeback under new ownership after years of neglect. Jon works at the front desk, mostly evenings and on weekends when occupancy is highest. Sometimes I hear animal noises when I’m out alone in the house, located about a mile from the main complex that includes the lodge, restaurant, tennis courts, pool, and gym. All alone out there without a phone, internet, radio, or TV—or any neighbors--I spent time reading back issues of the New Yorker passed along by a friend. The most frequent late afternoon and evening visitor was a doe calmly munching grass, passing close enough outside that I could reach out to touch her. She got used to seeing me and was not afraid.

 

Certainly, the US cultural divide is evident in W Va. 

Some local sights are more benign.  

                                   

                                             Below is a house in neighboring Winchester.

After a big storm, my son reminded me of my close call with lightning in Honduras. That happened back in 2002, in El Triunfo in the south, when lightning bolted through a hole in the ceiling, brushing by my right ear, with the thunderclap right behind. Ash was left on the floor beside me. At first, I was totally deaf in that ear, then my hearing recovered somewhat, but never completely. 

Just now, when my son was driving me home, he asked Alexa or Siri or whoever to direct him to Eastern Market in Washington, DC. The voice gave directions, adding, “Eastern Market will probably be closed by the time you get there.” Wow! How did she/it know about that? Very eerie.

Back Again in DC

I invited Alba, a guest from Spain and the girlfriend of Alex, my Costa Rican visitor, to a farewell dinner at a local Hispanic restaurant on her last night here. Below is Alba in NYC during her US visit.

                                                        We enjoyed a leisurely dinner. 

An estimated 40 migrant children bused here from Texas and Arizona are expected to be enrolled in D.C. Public Schools, Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said at a press conference.

WUSA9, Father arrested for accidental shooting death of 1-year-old, police say Police say the child died from an "accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound."

If parents feel the need for a gun, then they must double-down to keep it secure and away from children. More often, their gun kills a family member rather than an intruder. As said before on this platform, I’m grateful that a gun found at a parents’ bedside, that discharged after another boy dropped it, ended up only wounding my then-11-year-old son in the foot. He could’ve easily been killed. Any lingering foot pain he now feels in his 40s reminds us of that scary event. It is very unlikely that the gun was ever needed to ward off an intruder. Even Breonna Taylor would not have been killed if her boyfriend had not first fired at police. The excess of firearms in this country, now with more guns than people, is a risk to us all. These guns should all be collected and melted down into something useful.

Again, we just celebrated the anniversary of MLKing’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, which my late ex-husband and I strained to hear as we stood at the edge of that giant crowd after coming to DC from California for another meeting.

Daily Beast, Trump Demands Either New Election ‘Immediately’ or Make Him ‘Rightful’ President Now

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Sunday in a Fox News interview, “If they try to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information...there literally will be riots in the street.” Is that a warning or a threat?

LA Times, Nicholas Goldberg: Remember when we thought George W. Bush was the worst president ever?  I certainly remember coming back to the US from the Peace Corps and being flabbergasted that American voters would be so foolish as to allow George W. Bush a second term in the presidency. It almost made me want to return to Honduras. Former President Bush is now doing better as an amateur painter than he ever did as president. But little did we know then that Donald Trump would come to occupy the White House, making GW Bush look almost normal by comparison.

While Donald Trump was playing golf up north, the FBI was looking for documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.  

Former radio host and comic Garrison Keillor, once of Prairie Home Companion fame, now, at age 80, is attempting a comeback after his fall from grace in 2017 due to “inappropriate behavior.” He has a Washington, DC, appearance scheduled for October.

I just attended an outdoor farewell party for my next-door neighbors who are moving to the suburbs, seeking more benefits for their 10-year-old daughter, whose birth seems to have happened only yesterday. The family has sold their house to a retired couple. Now only one family with children remains on this block, unlike in the old days when my kids were growing up here among many friends their own age. If families with children keep moving out, that makes our neighborhood less kid friendly, creating a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Baby Bust

Capitol Hill is not the only place seeing a dearth of children. A nation’s average birthrate must reach 2.1 births per woman to just stay even, given that a few children will unfortunately die before reaching reproductive age. A steady state, not a population increase or decrease, is optimal. India and some African countries are now surpassing that desirable average, while the current US birthrate is less than 1.7. As older folks like me survive longer, not enough younger working folks are coming along here in the US to support us as we age. More immigrants would help.

Now in my 80’s, I am fully retired. I’d been working part-time as a Spanish interpreter until the pandemic made public transportation more problematic for me without a car. But, so far, I’ve not become bored or lonely since giving up work in 2020. I’m still able to engage in what we in the occupational therapy association called “purposeful activity,” as subjectively defined. For one thing, everything takes me longer now.

Young couples of my acquaintance either have 2, 1, or no children at all. I don’t know any even with 3. My 4 children, or 5 counting my Cuban foster son, have certainly not reproduced themselves. My older son Andrew and foster son Alex both died young and had no descendants. My surviving son, Jonathan, has 2 sons. Melanie, my older daughter, has a daughter with one son. Stephanie, my other daughter, has no children. Our family’s average is well below replacement.

What does billionaire Elon Musk have to say about our anemic national birth rate? Musk, who personally has fathered at least 10 children with several different women, tweeted about doing “my best to help the underpopulation crisis,” opining that “a collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.” He further tweeted: “Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming," then adding: "Mark these words.”

Mr. Putin foresees the perils of the current baby bust, now occurring in Russia, as well as in China, Japan, South Korea, and the whole western world, as well as here the United States. So now Russia is bringing back its Soviet-era “Mother Heroine” award to fight that country's demographic crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin has earmarked 1 million rubles, or nearly $17,000, for each woman who has given birth to at least 10 children, provided all of them are still alive. Would it be worth giving birth to 10 children to earn $17,000?

Abortion, now being touted under the banner of “reproductive rights,” is not helping overcome the shrinking population problem. Abortion has almost become a secular sacrament for some folks as a symbol of female equality. If men cannot have babies, then women don’t need to have them either. So, then what?

Wash. Post, Seven personal stories about abortion

Now, let’s see equal coverage with 7 stories about women unexpectedly pregnant, as is so often the case, and how they went ahead to give birth and to cope with and even come to enjoy motherhood.

Abortion rights’ marchers hold up signs of clothes hangers, which quite correctly declare “Never Again,” since most abortions now are done at home with pills, not clothes hangers. Pill abortions are relatively easy and private. And a very early abortion probably does not inflict pain on the fetus, as inflicting pain is to be avoided, even with animals. But once a child is actually born, parental neglect can suddenly be punished by imprisonment, while before the birth, sometimes only days earlier, the mother’s right to terminate the pregnancy may be upheld, as her right over her own body may supersede the unborn’s right to life according to some commentators.

As said before, I do side with Democrats’ official positions on most issues, but abortion is a major exception. There are many ways to prevent a pregnancy, including simply by sexual abstinence. As a birth mother, I know that pregnancy and childbirth can sometimes be difficult, and as an adoptive mother, I am well aware that raising a child is not always easy. But I also know that there are plenty of would-be parents out there willing and eager to raise a child as their own if given a chance. Whether via adoption or giving birth, despite the many challenges of parenthood, that relationship—like any human connection—usually proves worthwhile for both parties. At least, I have found it so. The untimely deaths of my older son and Cuban foster son still leave a huge void. After all, who are we apart from our relationships? If everyone were a hermit, humankind would become extinct.

More Gender Issues

Monkeypox was spreading fast among gay men until they got the message about having fewer sexual partners and less frequent sex. Now their more abstinent lifestyle has reduced new Monkeypox cases, which are unpleasant but usually not fatal. However, one reportedly “severely immunocompromised” adult in Texas has actually died of the illness.

“Maternal Instinct is a Myth that Men created” is the title of an article in the NYTimes. I haven’t read the article, but not all maternal feelings are imaginary or simply socially inspired, especially after a woman has just given birth and is nursing her baby. Nursing releases Oxytocin, often dubbed the “love hormone.” (I’ve experienced that feeling, which came as a surprise.) Even though women have moved toward greater parity with men, some innate biological gender differences still remain.

In all human cultures, men are much more physically aggressive than women and prisons everywhere are top-heavy with male inmates, often accused of violent crimes. In the US, over 90% of prison inmates are male. Female inmates have more often committed non-violent offenses, such as prostitution, embezzlement, and shoplifting. These differences are not all cultural. Male primates and mammals, not subject to human cultural conditioning, are also more aggressive than females, probably because of higher levels of testosterone. Males, both human and animal, become less combative with age as testosterone wanes. Many murders are committed by males under age 21. A youthful murderer may be identified decades later through DNA evidence, after he has become a law-abiding husband, a father, and an established citizen.

Latin America

Wall St. Jour., Cuban Migrants Head to the U.S. in Record Numbers Economic hardship, political repression drive tens of thousands to leave the Communist-led island

NBC News, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega goes after the Catholic Church in his latest effort to stop criticism of the government

I’ve heard from Honduran friends that their 4-year-old has started school and simply loves it.

War Crimes

War crimes evidence is being collected for both Syria and Ukraine, but why isn’t war itself a crime?

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/08/mr-blinken-dont-abandon-afghan-religious-minorities/ Afghanistan’s religious minorities — Christians, Hazara Shiites, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadis, Bahais, and Jews — face veritable genocide as “infidels” and “apostates” under Taliban Islamic law, yet these groups were all excluded from U.S. priority refugee admissions status. Many if those evacuated still remain in limbo in the UAE.

Is Age Just a Number?

On the Greek island of Crete, there is a purported 4000-year-old tree still producing olives. How is its age determined if there is so little record of that time, back when ancient humans were just starting to make metal tools? At the very least, it is said to be 2000 years old. Did our distant ancestors enjoy eating olives from this very tree? 

 

Here's another long-lived tree, this one in Japan, estimated to be at least 200 years old and still blossoming. Thanks to neighbor Susan for photos of both of these amazing venerable trees.

 

Wash. Post, His emotional support animal is an alligator. They sleep in the same bed.

 

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¿Por qué Verizon?

 

Back Home Again

 

Coming back just now from Honduras, I underwent a mild case of the reverse culture shock I felt more keenly when returning from Peace Corps service there. Not much had changed in my recent 2 ½ year absence from that country, but I myself do feel changed after my short visit.

USA Today, Meet 'Lucky Blue': 1-in-2-million bright blue lobster caught by father and son in Maine Now on display now at a Maine family restaurant, this rare lobster is due shortly to be returned to the ocean.

 The following happened at 4 am early one morning after my return.

AP, Police: Man killed himself after ramming US Capitol barrier

Both New York City and DC are accommodating migrants being sent north by the Texas governor. A worker shortage means they will probably find jobs.  

https://nypost.com/2022/08/15/row-nyc-hotel-being-turned-into-migrant-shelter/

https://dcist.com/story/22/08/11/dc-attorney-general-grants-migrants/ DC Attorney General Will Offer Grants To Support Bused Migrants

Accu Weather, Mom charged with leaving her 6-month-old baby in hot car for 5 hours The infant’s death and that of a child in Arkansas Tuesday who was found unresponsive in a closed vehicle brings the total number of hot car deaths among youngsters to 18 this year. [This happens every summer. In winter, babies die in freezing cars. Not only does the child die, but the negligent parent suffers life-long repercussions.]

My sister and her husband had both been vaccinated and boosted, always wore masks in public, and limited their contacts. Both still came down with Covid, though did not become severely ill. Perhaps they had the more transmissible but less virulent Omicron strain. The virus keeps evolving. Will we never get rid of it?  

USA Today, ‘I don’t know if I will be deported’: Young immigrants prepare for DACA to end

Ukraine has actually been holding out better than expected against Russia, but not without controversy.

Wash. Post, What Amnesty got wrong in Ukraine and why I had to resign, Opinion by Oksana Pokalchuk

https://bylinetimes.com/2022/08/08/why-did-amnesty-international-ignore-my-warnings-about-their-ukraine-investigation/

Amnesty International’s apparently fluctuating Ukraine policy has led to high-profile resignations worldwide, though having been in Honduras, I had not been not been following the controversy closely. Some have objected to any criticism of Ukraine’s forces, which they consider to have been acting defensively. Civilians have been injured and killed by both sides, but have casualties by Ukrainian forces been merely unintended “collateral damage?” I’ve been an Amnesty member and activist since 1981, but focused on the Caribbean, and after being out of the loop just now in Honduras, I don’t have a firm opinion.

Here is one member’s comment.

Amnesty International has been criticized for its wavering Ukraine policy. As one activist comments: The only question that should be asked is 'Are the Ukrainian forces endangering civilians?' or 'Are Ukrainian forces violating international humanitarian and human rights law?'.

I've seen these concerns and the blowback for decades in relation to our reporting on Israel and armed Palestinian groups, including Hamas.  When is it appropriate to report that armed Palestinian groups are committing a war crime(s)?  When and if it's actually happening.  Same for Ukrainian forces.  Of course, Russia will use this reporting - just like Israel uses our reporting to bash Palestinians when we hold THEM accountable, but this shouldn't stop us from doing it. This is not a new song.  Just a new setting.

There is a whole debate within the international human rights community about IHL and if it was created by colonial powers and thus is inherently unfair to the oppressed who are fighting for their freedom or against the oppressor - and those discussions are legitimate and need to take place.  But for Amnesty International - at this moment - as a non-political, global human rights movement - our concern should only be about the facts and the laws/standards, and making sure we hold all parties accountable.  Otherwise, we become a political animal like everyone else and not the steadfast leader that everyone knows they can trust in ANY situation.

Death in Slow Motion. Is the title of an Amnesty International report about Afghanistan.

Amnesty International USA has put out a call for mentors to help with refugee casework also to create model asylum support letters.

The Hill, Liz Cheney defeated in Wyoming primary

This was totally expected. Trump and his supporters still hold sway in the Republican Party.

While Donald Trump’s retains a tight grip on the Republican Party, he himself is squirming now that his lifelong lies are catching up with him. Lying and cheating have been his habitual modus operandi, beginning with his phony draft deferment, next with sending substitutes to take his college entrance exams, then moving on to cheating on his wives and in business, on taxes, and even as president. He’s always gotten away with it, so why not keep on doing it? Trump has been reported to have told more than 30,000 lies during his 4 years in the presidency. And he’s not done yet, but has been keeping his mouth shut lately. He reportedly took the Fifth Amendment some 450 times during recent questioning by New York’s Attorney General. In 2016, he told an Iowa rally: “The mob takes the Fifth Amendment. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

                                                                   Mar-a- Lago

Trump’s Honduran pal, former president Juan Orlando Hernández, is now in US custody. 

Operation Smile is back in business once again, asking for contributions for cleft palate and harelip surgical brigades, efforts I’ve always supported by bringing Honduran patients for surgery and volunteering as an interpreter and assistant in the operating room. However, Operation Smile might do more to promote adequate nutritional supplementation for pregnant mothers, especially of folic acid, to diminish the prevalence of such birth defects to begin with.  

AP, 187 Cuban migrants arrested after landing in Florida [in 10 boats]

One of my correspondents asks:

As mentioned in the WSJ, Castro's former son-in-law Luis Alfonso, was the shaker and mover in the Armed Forces as head of GAESA, owner 70% of Cuba's best hotels and infrastructure. As he just passed away and Raul is on his last legs, what raison d'etre remains to the 'revolution'?

Reuters, Nicaragua’s Catholic Church says priest detained as crackdown intensifies

 

AP, Nicaraguan police prohibit religious procession in capital

Reuters, Nicaragua's government shutters one of last opposition radio stations

Los Angeles has a high homeless population, in part, because the weather there is mild all year round.  

Arizona doesn’t get cold either and has a long border with Mexico.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/arizona-gov-begins-sealing-gaps-border-wall-shipping-containers-topped-razor-wire

Back now to the abortion wars. Some women, who might have initially felt unwilling or unable to raise a child, have found that they are actually pretty good at it and have become devoted parents. Hormones triggered by pregnancy and later by nursing help many mothers bond with their babies. Watching and helping kids grow and develop is really pretty interesting. But a minority of women are never able to forge a strong or healthy connection with their offspring.

Now, in the wake of Roe vs. Wade and its aftermath, abortion for some women has become not just a right, but a secular sacrament, a symbol of female liberty, sexual autonomy, and equality with men. Thus “the right to choose” has become for them a matter of almost religious devotion. In the mainstream press, abortion is referred to with euphemisms such as “reproductive rights” or “abortion care,” not simply as “abortion.” And online abortion postings typically highlight cases of fetal anomaly or extreme maternal conditions. These are cases where even pro-life folks would not oppose the practice. However, the vast majority of abortions do not fall into that category, rather, are done to prevent a birth by a woman who simply doesn’t want a child. And there is still a strong divide on the issue. I find myself continuing to waver “in between”, though tending to feel that by the time a woman actually notices she is pregnant, an individual human life is already underway. Now abortion has become an issue in the upcoming midterms.

AP, Planned Parenthood to spend record $50M in midterm elections

Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading reproductive health care provider and abortion rights advocacy organization, plans to spend a record $50 million ahead of November's midterm elections, pouring money into contests where access to abortion will be on the ballot.

NBC News, Florida court says teen is not 'mature' enough to have an abortion

A 16-year-old teen was denied an abortion without parental consent because she was deemed by an appeals court to be insufficiently mature to make such a decision without parental consent, though she apparently was mature enough to become pregnant without such consent in the first place.

Earlier in my own life here in the US, most unwanted or unexpected pregnancies simply went forward to a live birth, as they still do almost everywhere, Honduras included. A nation needs an average of about 2.1 births per woman of childbearing age to keep overall population distribution optimal. The US is not producing that many babies right now. Will our country go the way of Europe and Japan with an aging and potentially shrinking population? In China, abortion is being discouraged to increase birthrates. Might similar concerns underlie some anti-abortion sentiments in our own country?

In Russia, Putin is rewarding fecund women.

Putin revives Soviet ‘Mother Heroine’ award for women who have 10 children

If the government now intends to force women to produce human capital, shifting motherhood from a voluntary act to a compulsory one, the government must pay women for this service. And they must pay mothers well beyond the going welfare rate. Women forced to produce the economy’s most valuable asset deserve at least the salary of the average American worker. So says Tennessee columnist Ren Brabenec.

Pensacola News Journal How can I still not know if I'm anti-abortion or support abortion rights? I'm not alone. This is the question that Dick Rizzo, now retired from public broadcasting, asks himself. He ends up remaining uncertain, neither supporting nor opposing “abortion rights.” He cites divided polls, “Abortion should be legal in most cases (36%) or in all cases with some exceptions (6%). Abortion should be illegal in most cases (27%) or in all cases with some exceptions (2%). That leaves 2% who, like me, have ‘no answer.’ Beyond the political and personal, what about the ethical and moral elements connected to anti-abortion and abortion rights? Again, a PRC survey finds small bookends. Just 7% of U.S. adults say abortion is morally acceptable in all cases and 13% say it's morally wrong in all cases. The majority are again in the middle: abortion is either morally wrong in most cases (33%) or it's morally acceptable in most cases (24%).”

For nearly all of human history, biological motherhood just happened, as most women lived sexually partnered with men. As a result, people were simply born, lived, and died, ad infinitum. Parents may not have been ready to welcome another baby, another mouth to feed, but they accepted their fate and most cope the best they could. As mentioned before, my paternal great-grandparents living on a Canadian wheat farm had 12 children. Countless humans still continue to be born and to die every day. But now producing offspring might be considered a voluntary act, as there are many ways to prevent births, through both birth control and sterilization, as well as sexual abstinence, which has always been a way. 

There is also abortion, which ends an unborn human life, though disagreement persists about whether that unborn human has as yet become a person, therefore deserving of protection. While we might agree that a fertilized ovum, which can be held indefinitely in a suspended frozen state, is not yet an actual person, I now find myself tending to advocate for protecting a newly developing potential person at the early point when a woman first realizes she is pregnant, that is, when that potential person is already starting to become an actual person living among us. The only way that particular life will stop developing is if the fetus dies or is killed. And, at what point does a fetus begin to feel pain? After all, we protect dogs and cats from pain.  

I tend to believe that all human lives, for better or worse, have value and that none should be deliberately killed or terminated, even by the death penalty for a convicted murderer. So I find myself advocating for protection of that early invisible fetal life. The developing fetus, that eventual baby, toddler, child, teen, adult, seems as entitled as any of us to have a chance to live a full lifespan, even though he or she might not become someone we personally would admire, and might even turn out to do us harm. Obviously, not everyone would agree with me, which is why the matter is now subject to such bitter debate.

When a woman realizes she is pregnant, is her life the only one that matters, or are 2 lives involved? I do tend toward the latter position, influenced by my own personal experience as both a birth and adoptive mother--of children adopted before abortion became legal on the US and of a child from Colombia, where abortion was still illegal. But now American women in the early stages can simply take a pill in the privacy of their own home to end a pregnancy without ever knowing the person who would have been born and many will continue to do so, despite local laws or religious edicts.  

Dog catches monkeypox after sharing owners’ bed  A dog sharing a bed with 2 gay men ill with monkeypox also came down with the disease.

Gay men have complained about CDC guidance suggesting that they might have fewer sexual partners to reduce Monkeypox contagion. Some women and some gay men seem to tout the “right” to have sex as often as and with whomever they like with no consequences whatsoever, calling on the government to guarantee that right and alleging discrimination otherwise. Gay men want to be free to seek out a variety of sexual partners without fear of getting sick. Women also want to have sex freely without risking either illness or pregnancy. Does the government or the universe owe everyone a guaranteed right to sexual pleasure and sexual freedom without any repercussions?

Wash. Post, Carolyn Hax: Their marriage is ‘a B.’ Do they stay in it for the kids? A married women with kids rates her marriage as a “B” and wonders if she should stay in it? Given the normal ups and downs of human existence, she is lucky to have a “B” relationship. Just as some folks feel that life owes them sexual pleasure without any strings attached, some may also expect too much of marriage. Marriage, parenthood, or any human relationship is never a guarantee of perpetual happiness, only of continuing challenges and responses. Sometimes those challenges can be overwhelming, but often they are a spur to productive action. Life is always a series highs, lows, and in-betweens. Your honeymoon won’t last forever. Sorry about that. 

I once went out (only once) with a middle-aged man who said he was looking for “the one.” I was not “the one” for him nor vice versa. Some people seem to have fixated on the idea that there is a single romantic partner “out there” destined by fate just for them, if only they can find him or her. I don’t know how this notion ever got started, but this guy was not the only person who has believed it. It’s nice to imagine a perfect relationship where all our desires are fulfilled, filling in all the gaps our mother missed when we were a child.

Real life simply has no guarantees, often throwing us curve balls, and then, to mix metaphors, we may either sink or swim. In my own life, I could not have imagined being able to survive the death of a child, but I did survive my older son’s death at age 27 after a 1994 work accident, as well as my Cuban foster son’s death from AIDS one year later, though without stoicism or calm acceptance. I fully realize they are gone forever, but still can’t help considering their deaths unfair to them, as well as to me, that each deserved to live a full, normal life. I recognize that this did not happen and is a useless feeling, but am unable to totally shake it. Perhaps if I lived somewhere where premature deaths were more common, I would be more resigned.

Decades before my boys’ deaths, I never imagined that my very ambitious and politically strategic husband of 24 years, whom I’d married at age 21 against my parents’ wishes, a man who was totally blind and had never held a job before our marriage, would ever leave me. In an era when men were expected to support their wives and families, I was, at first, the only breadwinner. I utterly believed in my husband’s potential and devoted myself to helping him realize it, all the while staying quietly in the background. He always depended on my assistance in both his work and home life and he became a high achiever. Yet he did leave me when he found another helpmate not encumbered by 4 kids.

My ex-husband, a lifelong chain-smoker, died of lung cancer at age 63 in 1999. Until he left our home, the children and I had been breathing secondhand smoke for a number of years. I still live in the house we bought together in 1969 and no longer allow smoking in my house.

My ex’s abrupt departure in 1980, 11 years after we had moved to Washington, DC, and 22 years into our marriage, then after our final divorce after 24 years, actually turned out not to be a total calamity for me, though I’d resisted until the very end. Afterwards, I had another serious marriage offer, but was reluctant to make that commitment ever again.

Having my husband file for divorce against me certainly was a shock and felt like a betrayal, but it freed me to revive my Latin American side. It also enabled me to embark on a new career in occupational therapy and to join the Peace Corps in Honduras in 2000 at age 62, and, thereafter, to become a part-time Spanish interpreter, which I continued doing for 20 years until the pandemic.

Post-Peace Corps, I also started making annual medical/humanitarian trips to Honduras, except in 2021, forging an ongoing connection that was revived with my recent Honduras trip just now. I find I really have missed folks there and they seem to have missed me! None of all that would have happened had I stayed married to my late former husband. He and I had been a productive team for quite a number of years and I had been totally devoted to him and his success and to the furtherance of disability rights. So it was admittedly very hurtful when he turned against me as if to punish me and our children and he spoke with me only once (by phone in 1984) after leaving. But after being my husband’s unseen sidekick for so many years, it was also satisfying to be able to forge ahead on my own and to revive the Latin America side I’d abandoned after getting married. While it was hard to be rejected at the time, in retrospect, I now feel that I actually benefited from our split. And I’m not done living yet.

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Relojes inteligentes, “intelligent watches” is how “smart watches” appear in Spanish-language ads. Some phrases really have no good translation.