Pandemic isolation helped by practicing rituals

Echo opinion by Dimitris Xygalatas

Assistant Professor in Anthropology, University of Connecticut
Published in The Conversation

Why people need rituals, especially in times of uncertainty:

Responding to the coronavirus pandemic, most American universities have suspended all campus activities. 

Like millions of people all around the world, the lives of students all over the U.S. has changed overnight.

When I met my students for what was going to be our last in-class meeting of the academic year, I explained the situation and asked whether there were any questions. 

The first thing my students wanted to know was: “Will we be able to have a graduation ceremony?”

The fact that the answer was no, was the most disappointing news for them.

As an anthropologist who studies ritual, hearing that question from so many students did not come as a surprise. The most important moments of our lives – from birthdays and weddings to college graduations and holiday traditions, are marked by ceremony.

Rituals provide meaning and make those experiences memorable.
Ritual as a response to anxiety

Anthropologists have long observed that people across cultures tend to perform more rituals in times of uncertainly. Stressful events such as warfare, environmental threat and material insecurity are often linked with spikes in ritual activity.

In a laboratory study in 2015, my colleagues and I found that under conditions of stress people’s behavior tends to become more rigid and repetitive – in other words, more ritualized.

The reason behind this propensity lies in our cognitive makeup. Our brain is wired to make predictions about the state of the world. It uses past knowledge to make sense of current situations. But when everything around us is changing, the ability to make predictions is limited. This causes many of us to experience anxiety.

That is where ritual comes in.

Rituals are highly structured. They require rigidity, and must always be performed the “right” way. And they involve repetitition: The same actions are done again and again. In other words, they are predictable.

So even if they have no direct influence over the physical world, rituals provide a sense of control by imposing order on the chaos of everyday life.

It is of little importance whether this sense of control is illusory. What matters is that it is an efficient way of relieving anxiety.

This is what we found in two soon-to-be-published studies. In Mauritius, we saw that Hindus experienced lower anxiety after they performed temple rituals, which we measured using heart rate monitors. And in the U.S., we found that Jewish students who attended more group rituals had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Rituals provide connection

Collective rituals require coordination. When people come together to perform a group ceremony, they may dress alike, move in synchrony or chant in unison. And by acting as one, they feel as one.

Indeed, my colleagues and I found that coordinated movement makes people trust each other more, and even increases the release of neurotransmitters associated with bonding.

By aligning behavior and creating shared experiences, rituals forge a sense of belonging and common identity which transforms individuals into cohesive communities. As field experiments show, participating in collective rituals increases generosity and even makes people’s heart rates synchronize.
Tools for resilience

It is not surprising then that people around the world are responding to the coronavirus crisis by creating new rituals.

In Mallorca, Spain, local policemen gathered to sing and dance in the streets for the people in lockdown. And in San Bernardino, California, a group of high school students synchronized their voices remotely to form a virtual choir.

Ritual is an ancient and inextricable part of human nature. And while it may take many forms, it remains a powerful tool for promoting resilience and solidarity. In a world full of ever-changing variables, ritual is a much-needed constant.

Some of those rituals are meant to provide a sense of structure and reclaim the sense of control. For example, comedian Jimmy Kimmel and his wife encouraged those in quarantine to hold formal Fridays, dressing up for dinner even if they were alone.

Others have found new ways of celebrating age-old rituals. When the New York City Marriage Bureau shut down due to the pandemic, a Manhattan couple decided to tie the knot under the fourth-floor window of their ordained friend, who officiated the ceremony from a safe distance.

While some rituals celebrate new beginnings, others serve to provide closure. To avoid spreading the disease, families of coronavirus victims are holding virtual funerals. In other cases, pastors have administered the last rites over the phone.

People are coming up with a host of rituals to maintain a broader sense of human connection. In various European cities, people have started to go to their balconies at the same time every day to applaud health care workers for their tireless service.

Republicans are in a state of "Earth is Flat" delusion

This opinion letter to the editor was published in The Advocate, a Baton Rouge Louisiana newspaper.  The author is an atomic physics professor at Louisiana State University.  He wrote about how believing the earth is flat does not change the nature of the planet.  Republicans that continue to challenge the Electoral College vote to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are living in an "earth is flat" state of political delusion.

Dear Editor: 

In two recent editorials (published in The Advocate), you have correctly condemned the assault on democracy by our attorney general and most of the Republican congressional delegation as they spinelessly follow Donald Trump's diktat*.

"Leaders" such as U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise or U.S. Sen. John Kennedy shame us as they demonstrate their contempt for the most basic democratic norms or for "states' rights" and, above all, to the voters exercising their franchise to cast their vote as they please.

You cite Louisiana Senator Kennedy who, even after the Electoral College's certification, "continues to believe that it doesn't weaken democracy to insist elections be free and fair." Sure, it also does not change the nature of our Earth if he were to continue to believe that it is flat. Equally, the world is what it is including the political world, that Biden-Harris won decisively in both popular and electoral votes even as our Republican ostriches pretend otherwise.

How do public servants and elected officials themselves reconcile their actions with the very system of elections that put them in power? They should, perhaps, take some minimum civics tests such as immigrants have to take for naturalization.

A.R.P. RAU professor

Baton Rouge

*an order or decree imposed by someone in power without popular consent.

Exposing Racism - Donald Trump is a big and evil racist problem

Donald Trump enabled racism. In my opinion, racism is the insidious manifestation of evil.

Exposing racism

Dear Editor : 

Thanks extend to columnist Michelle Singletary, for courage and devotion to helping readers understand the devastating effects of racism (“Not all readers yet get ‘racism,’ ” Dec. 20). 

In fact, it takes guts to keep at it, as she has, and I want her to know, there are many readers who are appreciative of her efforts and appreciated The Press Democrat, a newspaper, for printing her columns.

As a middle-aged white woman, I can’t know what it is to experience racism. Yet, reading and listening to Singletary and other people of color can help me and like-minded allies understand how racism affects every part of life and how to be better advocates.

It falls upon all of us to help spread the word, to shine a light on racism and to show support, especially in the face of negative responses and attacks. The fact that these exist as much as they do, indeed at all, shows us we still have much work to do.

From Irene Barnard, in Santa Rosa, California 

America must move beyond Donald Trump's mismanaged failed administration!

"Sore-loserism!" #DonaldTrump

An echo opinion by Amy Fried published in the Bangor Daily News, a Maine newspaper. 

Donald Trump has generated one shock after another. First as a candidate, then as president, Trump tweeted nasty insults, promulgated conspiracy theories, mishandled the pandemic and the attendant recession, and empowered corrupt, incompetent cronies.

Dealing with these incessant hits has been like responding to a child who eats way too much sugar. Every additional morsel unleashes a whirling dervish, acting with abandon and no concern for others.

The latest jolt to our body politic is the news that Trump discussed unconstitutional means of staying in office after losing the presidential election — an imposition of martial law, seizing vote counting machines and rerunning the election. If that happened, the U.S. would be an autocracy, not a democratic republic.

A senior administration official quoted by Axios reporter Jonathan Swan warned, “it’s impossible not to start getting anxious about how this ends” when Trump is “retweeting threats of putting politicians in jail, and spends his time talking to conspiracy nuts who openly say declaring martial law is no big deal.”

In a never before needed statement, top Army leaders made it clear they won’t participate in a coup, saying, “There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.”

Yet, this authoritarian sore-loserism yielded very little response from politicians.

Most likely they think Trump won’t try to use the military to stop Joe Biden from taking office. And some Republicans are still afraid of crossing Trump, because they don’t want to turn off Trump’s base.

(Maine Writer- Is Republican Senator Collins among these "flakes"?)

Deep tiredness is also part of the nonresponse to Trump’s latest flirtation with dictatorship. As political scientist Daniel Drenzer puts it, Trump has been the “toddler in-chief.” Because undisciplined toddlers require close attention and intervention, they are just very exhausting to be around.

As American politics recovers from Trump’s poisonous sugar high politics, three dynamics will drive it.

First, President-elect Biden brings a calmness to replace our frenetic recent reality. Biden doesn’t do name-calling and there are no tantrums. He’s not irritable, easily distracted or full of braggadocio.

It’s been comforting, really, to watch his events introducing Cabinet nominees. What we see is a grownup who works with other grownups, all of whom care about communicating and governing with quiet competence.

Take the event put together by the Biden transition last week to introduce his Climate Team. Between statements by Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and individuals picked to serve in the incoming administration, listeners learned two sorts of things. One was the personal and professional lives of those selected.

But besides this inspiring, illuminating information, you could hear the administration’s strategic approach. For Biden and Harris, tackling climate change wasn’t a stand-alone concern. Rather, it was tied to health problems caused by pollution and disparities in which communities suffered from environmental damage, repairing frayed international relations, and creating millions of well-paying jobs.

Second, particularly if Mitch McConnell continues to control the U.S. Senate, passing Biden’s legislation will be exceedingly difficult. In the latest COVID bill, Republicans prioritized aid to corporations as Democrats focused on helping low-income and middle-class Americans.

Biden knows that. Barack Obama recalled in his memoir that “Biden told him of how McConnell had blocked one of his bills. When Biden tried to explain the bill’s merits, McConnell responded, ‘You must be under the mistaken impression that I care.’”

But Biden’s experience, knowledge and team will help him get some things done in Congress and through executive action. What we’ll see mostly is a slow, grinding policy process with some notable successes.

Third, Trump will lurk as a vocal observer and meddler. He’s tried to undermine the transition. If he again runs for president, he’ll freeze the race. Although his claims of non-existent voting fraud have been dismissed by the courts, most Republicans are believers.

But for most — who never approved of Trump’s job performance, didn’t back him in 2016 or 2020, and think Biden won this year’s election — Trump’s statements as a former president will just become part of the background noise.

And so Americans, recovering from the Trump era, will move on.

New Year 2021 post COVID hope: Restore what we missed and appreciate what we learned- Echo!

Echo Opinion : As the light returns, taking stock of a dark year

And now the light comes back. By Mary Schmich published in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper:

On December 21st,  the winter solstice arrived, marking the moment we begin the slow climb out of the darkness, like weary miners exiting the pit. This year, more than ever, the shift feels psychological as well as astronomical.

Therefore, it’s a good time to take account of the things we’ve missed during this dark time, along with what has provided some light in spite of it all.

In that spirit, here are two lists and encourage you to make your own.

Things I’ve Missed

1. The ability to plan- Before the pandemic, most of us made plans. For trips. Get-togethers. The future. Wise people have always known the precarious nature of the best-laid plans, etc., and people without money tend to know it. But until March, many of us enjoyed the fiction that we could control the time ahead. Now we live in the wobblier world of the day-by-day, which is disorienting but closer to reality.

2. Chitchat- Remember the idle but vital conversation you used to have with people at the coffeehouse or at work or church? Until you’re deprived of chitchat, you don’t notice how much those seemingly small connections and conversations educate and sustain you.

3. Coffeehouses-  Nothing like a chilly December day to make you yearn for that cozy place outside the house where you can think, read or chitchat.

4. Airplanes-  In a movie scene the other night, I saw a man on an airplane and felt an unexpected jolt of nostalgia. Was I really nostalgic for the feel of pulling down the tray table? I was. (Maine Writer, ahhh, me? Not so much!)

5. Travel-  I miss the visits to friends and family. The possibility of exploring new and distant places. The change of view. The sense of movement.

6. Casual touch-  Remember the hello hug, the goodbye hug, the it’ll-be-OK hug? The friendly hand on an elbow? The firm handshake? How long before those seem OK again?

7. Live music and theater- (Yes!)

One day this summer I stopped to listen to a band playing in a neighborhood park. I saw a couple of bystanders with tears in their eyes and felt the same way. Virtual performances are better than nothing, but they simply can’t match the energy of live ones.

8. Wearing dresses-  I love a good, simple dress. But what’s the point in a pandemic?

9. People I love-  We talk, we email, we have dinner across the Zoom screen. That’s better than nothing — “better than nothing” is a mantra for our times — but it’s not the same. And yet, the separation has made me realize how much I love and depend on friends and family. Missing them makes me appreciate them more. Which leads to the second list.

Things I’ve Appreciated More

1. Health care workers. Grocery clerks. Delivery people. Postal carriers. Poll workers. Journalists who go out into the world seeking sense in the chaos. Those are just some of the people the pandemic has taught us to call “essential.” They were essential before, but rarely recognized that way.

Also, newspaper carriers. It’s a good season to tip yours, by the way.

2. Small businesses, and the people who work in them- Local shops and restaurants give life and flavor to our neighborhoods. As they struggle to stay alive in the pandemic, we realize their value more acutely.

3. Birds, bugs and trees- Nothing like being stuck at home to make you notice what lives around you.

4. Reliable Wi-Fi- As we’ve become more dependent on Wi-Fi, we’ve also learned how many people are deprived of it. Access to Wi-Fi is just one of the inequities the pandemic has exposed.

5. White vinegar-  (Maine Writer- haha, this is something I share with the author, for some reason, when I see vinegar in the store isles, it makes me smile, because, it disappears fast! Who knew?!). Staying home has turned many people into maniacal cleaners. I grew up washing windows with vinegar and newspapers, so the miraculous properties of white vinegar aren’t a revelation. But the pandemic has expanded my repertoire. Cut the vinegar with dish soap and water to clean kitchen counters. Mix it with water to wash berries and keep them from spoiling. The opportunities are endless.

6. My neighbors-  The pandemic has forced us outside — to eat, to exercise, to socialize — and, like many people, I’ve gotten to know my neighbors better as a result.

7. Good walking shoes-  I recently wrote about the psychological benefits of walking through the pandemic. Many people replied with a question: What shoes do you wear? I hesitate to recommend shoes because feet are idiosyncratic. But for the past couple of years I’ve sworn by the On Cloud (aka On or OC) basic “Cloud” shoe, made for running and walking. (I saw a photo of Jill Biden in a pair the other day.)

8. Good novels about plagues-  It’s weirdly consoling to read about other plagues in distant times. Those stories put this plague into perspective. A few favorites: “Year of Wonders” by Geraldine Brooks. “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel. “The End of October” by Lawrence Wright. “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell. “The Plague” by Albert Camus. (I own, "Year of Wonders", but must take the time to read it. I highly recommend the Nobel prize winning author Albert Camus, "La Peste"- en francais, or "The Plague", is excellent.

9. Being alive long enough to watch the light return.

Mary Schmich is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

Amen! ..."the most important things — the things that last and count — are not political or social but personal and human"

Inspirational echo opinion by Michael Gerson, published in The Washington Post.  Thank you Mr. Gerson. 

(Can somebody, anybody, a literate person, please read this inspirational essay to #DonaldTrump?)

One of the stranger elements of the strange Nativity narrative is the way an angel addresses Mary: “You who are highly favored.” As a teen mother, pregnant before marriage and destined to give birth among barn animals, she might have been forgiven for regarding this as angelic sarcasm. Fast forward three decades, and the most favored one will see her son executed among thieves before a jeering crowd.

Michelle Kondrich for The Washington Post

The whole Christmas story is pregnant with enigma and violated expectations. The Creator pulls on a garment of blood and bone. Almighty God is somehow present in a fragile newborn. The deliverer of humankind is delivered, slimy with vernix, in a place smelling of dung. If God can come here, amid the shame and straw, he can come anywhere. If God came here, he has come everywhere.

As we pull back from these events, an odd violation of perspective kicks in. The largest figures of the time — King Herod, Emperor Tiberius — grow smaller. The smaller figures — Mary, Joseph and some random shepherds — loom large. The smallest, most helpless figure blots out sun and moon and fills the whole sky with song: “Glory to God in the highest. Peace on Earth. Good will toward men.”

Many in first-century Palestine — as in every time since — were looking for political deliverance. They had every right to resent the brutal rule of Rome and its proxies. But the Christmas story overturns that expectation. It asserts that the most important things — the things that last and count — are not political or social but personal and human. Instead of influence based on coercion, the birth of Jesus points to a power found in vulnerability, service and humility. Humankind is offered not a new way of organizing society but a new way of being human, marked by compassion, purpose, dignity and kindness.

Imagine if Jesus had been a political revolutionary. Even if he had miraculously succeeded in humbling Rome, he would be a historical footnote — someone on par with Judah Maccabee. 

Precisely because Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, it was not limited to his time. Those who politicize religion are also miniaturizing it. Their faith is as fresh and relevant as last week’s newspaper.

Imagine if Jesus had been a political revolutionary. Even if he had miraculously succeeded in humbling Rome, he would be a historical footnote — someone on par with Judah Maccabee. Precisely because Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, it was not limited to his time. Those who politicize religion are also miniaturizing it. Their faith is as fresh and relevant as last week’s newspaper.

None of this is to dismiss the importance of politics. We are still working out the massive social implications of honoring God’s image in every life. But, in the Nativity story, political figures only appear as tax collectors and murderers. At the center of history lies a domestic drama. The universe held its breath as a baby drew his first. God arrived, not as a conqueror, but as a child in a stable. A teacher on a hillside. A man nailed to a cross. And his achievement — bringing God’s presence to humankind — makes every victory achieved by force look trifling in comparison.

If the Nativity story is true, God is not merely a philosophic or theological postulate. In the scriptures, Jesus is given the name Emmanuel, which is Hebrew for “God with us.” 

In fact, Jesus entered the bowels of human existence for the sake of every human soul. The implications are remarkable. It means there are no insignificant or pointless lives. It means that the events and choices of an average day can carry eternal significance. It means that a journey of meaning and purpose — a life of courage and generosity — can begin from whatever desolate place we find ourselves.

This emphasis on the personal — this glorification of the human — has sometimes been captured in art. Consider the luminous domestic spaces of Vermeer. A milkmaid, a lacemaker or a geographer shines with dignity and grace. A girl with a pearl earring and limpid eyes is as radiant as a Madonna.

Or consider James Wright’s brief poem “Trouble,” dealing with a young woman named Roberta who is pregnant out of wedlock. She is taunted on the street by a boy, Crum Anderson, who says she looks like she has swallowed a watermelon. The poem continues:

Fat? 

Willow and lonesome Roberta, 

running

Alone down Pearl Street in the rain the last time
I ever saw her, smiling a smile
Crum Anderson will never know,
Wondering at her body.
Sixteen years, and

All that time she thought she was nothing
But skin and bones.

None of us — no matter what (the evil)...Crum Anderson says — is merely skin and bones. We are skin and bones and the life of God within us. Even lives that feel relentlessly ordinary or hopelessly broken are vessels of divine purpose. We are embraced, elevated and dignified by God’s astounding humility.

This should be a source of hope. I am not speaking here of optimism, which is more like a genetic gift than the foundation of a life. 

Some of us, in contrast, have the genetic affliction of depression, which can bathe life’s wonders in dirty dishwater, making our days appear gray and two-dimensional. Depression tries to convince us that hope itself is a fiction. Sometimes the only comfort lies in knowing your mind is a vicious liar and in managing to endure another day.

But when we are thinking clearly, most of us can recall glimpses of purpose, beauty and glory in our lives. In the overwhelming calm and joy of holding our child close. In the majesty and marvelous internal order of nature. In art or music that touches our deepest being. In the undeserved, sacrificial love of a friend. And maybe, if we are silent and open, in the sense that a benign God is speaking to us in the seemingly random events of our lives.

These are not logical proofs; they are signposts pointing in the direction of grace. And they culminate the defiant hope of Christmas: God is for us. God is in us. God is with us.

In enforced isolation and loneliness, God is with us. In chronic pain and degenerative disease, God is with us. In a shattered relationship or a cancer diagnosis, God is with us. In an intensive care unit or a mental ward, God is with us. In life and in death, God will not leave us or forsake us.

It is possible, of course, that none of this true. Such Christmas hope may well be a pleasing myth or projection of our own desires. If we had been there on the night in question, walking the Judean hills, would we have seen and heard the angels? I have no idea. But I do know that the civilization I inhabit is unimaginable without the birth of the Christ child. I know that billions in the last two millennia have claimed communion with Him. And I have faith that this extraordinary person, who knew God’s heart so intimately, can be born into our hearts as well.

Such faith does not promise release from suffering, but it can bring deliverance from fear. It means that every moment we are blessed to inhabit, even in a difficult and shortened life, can be infused with God’s presence and ennobled by His calling. The hope that began on Christmas Day still shines like a star and swells like a song, carried

Such faith does not promise release from suffering, but it can bring deliverance from fear. It means that every moment we are blessed to inhabit, even in a difficult and shortened life, can be infused with God’s presence and ennobled by His calling. The hope that began on Christmas Day still shines like a star and swells like a song, carried across the centuries by chanting monks and gospel choirs, filling great cathedrals and revival tents, but clearest in the quiet of our hearts: God is with us. + Michael Gerson

Donald Trump lacks dignity - He's a Republican disgrace

Echo opinion by Leonard Pitts published in The Portland Press Herald:

We turn, one last time, to Hans Christian Andersen. Trump is a fake.

Over the past four years, many observers, this one included, have found one of the Danish writer’s most famous tales irresistible for explaining both Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s slavish sycophancy toward him. In “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a monarch parades through town naked, having been convinced by swindlers that he’s actually draped in an exquisite outfit made of a fabric visible only to those who are not “unusually stupid.”

Not wanting to be thought dense, everyone pretends they can see the magnificent outfit. Then a child blurts out the obvious. “But he hasn’t got anything on!” And the crowd begins to whisper to itself, until the truth finally breaks like a shaft of sunlight through the clouds, and the whole town cries out that the emperor is unclothed.

Well, in the wake of Donald Trump's definitive election loss and his refusal to concede the same, it’s Trump who stands naked before us, revealed for anyone who inexplicably still harbored doubt, as the liar and loser he always was (and always will be). He rages against math, excoriates voting, raves about imaginary schemes to steal a victory he never won. His psychopathy is nude, his disconnect from reality is disrobed, his toxic narcissism stands bare-cheeked before us all.

And you wait for the whispers to begin, wait for the toadies and lickspittles who have long enabled him to at last blurt the obvious. And you wait. And you wait.

And there is silence.

In a political season that has produced more than its share of embarrassments, this may be the greatest humiliation yet for a nation that styles itself a beacon of democracy. At this writing, almost no one – not party elders, not young guns, not cabinet members, not the first lady, not the children – has found the courage to publicly say the truth. Indeed, some – like the invertebrate Sen. Lindsey Graham – have even encouraged Trump’s delusions, a display of political gutlessness with few, if any, equals in recent memory.

Its insistence on denying reality has reduced the GOP to a state beyond parody. Think a Washington Post report of party loyalists marching seven times around the U.S. Capitol like Israelites in the Bible around Jericho. Think the once-respected Rudy Giuliani holding a press conference in a Philadelphia landscaping supply company parking lot near a sex shop to decry fictitious election irregularities. “Do you think we’re stupid?” he cried. “Do you think we’re fools?”

It’s enough to make comedy writers obsolete.

But it’s not a joke. Attorney General William Barr, Trump’s consigliere, has authorized prosecutors to “pursue substantial allegations” of voter fraud. Even though there are none. The General Services Administration has refused to process paperwork needed to release funds for President-elect Joe Biden to begin the transition process. In other words, the machinery of government has been brought to bear to protect a boy man’s fragile ego from the truth.

Acknowledging a bitter defeat is never easy. But, so many others have risen to the task with grace. Hillary Clinton did it. Mitt Romney did it. John McCain, John Kerry and Al Gore did it. The weakling Trump is uniquely unable to do it, a failure that makes you long for Jan. 20. On that day, he’ll be escorted into disgrace, still insisting that he won what he didn’t. One imagines the emperor would empathize. Even after the child cried out, he still couldn’t admit his nakedness.

“So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.”

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for The Miami Herald. 

Living in the Truth- Donald Trump needs truth serum!

Georgia Election Official Joins Long Line of Voices to Call for "Living in Truth", by Jeffrey H. Jackson, professor of history at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn. An expert on European history and culture, author of Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis, Paris Under Water: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910, and Making Jazz French: Music and Modern Life in Interwar Paris.

Sometimes, all it takes is one voice.

Echo essay reported in the History News Network

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s official charged with managing the state’s voting system, has become the one person truly willing to burst Donald Trump’s bubble. 

Not only has he proclaimed the election in his state free and fair, he has called on Trump and his enablers to stop trying to undo the election in the strongest and most direct language yet.

“This is elections. This is the backbone of democracy, and all of you who have not said a damn word are complicit in this. It’s too much.”

With such forceful words, Sterling joins a long line of lone -- and at first lonely -- voices who took a risk to step out and speak up against the powerful. If enough people listen and are emboldened to follow, then he, like many resisters over the decades, may help to create a turning point in history.

Czech dissident, Vaclav Havel, was another such voice. In his famous 1978 essay “The Power of the Powerless,” it was precisely the willingness to speak the plain facts -- part of what Havel called “living in truth” -- that could challenge the Soviet-made authoritarian world built on fantasies and lies that emerged in Eastern Europe, after World War II.

Havel talked about a greengrocer who refused to participate in meaningless rituals created by leaders who manipulated information to maintain their hold on power. That refusal to go along could have tremendous consequences. For Havel, this ordinary man exposed the communist system as a game that demanded citizens act in ways that defied reality. “He has shattered the world of appearances, the fundamental pillar of the system,” Havel wrote of the rebellious greengrocer, “He has demonstrated that living a lie is living a lie. … He has said that the emperor is naked.” One man revealing the truth, Havel concludes, can open everyone else’s eyes. “He has,” Havel writes using a Wizard of Oz-like metaphor, “enabled everyone to peer behind the curtain.” Behind that curtain was not a magician, but a corrupt system.

Pointing out the reality that everyone already knows deep down but no one is willing to admit, for Havel, was the first step to moving from lies to the truth. And it helped Havel to lead a revolution. In 1989, millions of Czechs, under Havel’s guidance and with his stirring words ringing in their ears, freed themselves from the communist grip in a peaceful “velvet revolution” as self-deluded leaders were the only ones left believing their own lies. Havel went on to be chosen president in the first free election in his country in decades.

History is full of famous examples of dissidents such as Havel, but there are many others we are only beginning to discover. Another pair of lonely voices willing to cry into the wilderness were Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe. They were two French artists (better known today by their artistic names Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore) who fought the German occupation of their adopted home of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands that were the only bits of British soil conquered during World War II.

As I describe in my book Paper Bullets, for four years Schwob and Malherbe scattered German-language notes around Jersey challenging how the soldiers understood the world. The messages told a different story about the war than the Nazi army’s official line, bursting the warped information environment that Hitler used to convince his soldiers about their supposed invincibility.

By pretending to be a German and writing under the pseudonym “The Soldier With No Name,” Schwob and Malherbe got inside the heads of the occupation forces through songs, poems, bawdy jokes, and fictional dialogues that made the occupiers think twice about why they were on Jersey. Putting their artistic skills to work, with each note they rewrote the inner script inside the Germans’ minds. When they circulated translations of BBC news summaries, the women fed facts instead of propaganda to soldiers who otherwise would never have known of their own army’s losses as the war went on. And the German soldiers listened. When Schwob and Malherbe went to prison, they met some of the men who had read the notes and laid down their weapons. The Secret Field Police, frightened by the damage they believed these messages could do, hunted the women for four years.

One or two people speaking out can inspire and embolden others to break their silence. In recent months, we have seen growing calls for “living in truth” voiced by people all across the world following the lead after the silence was broken. Black Lives Matter protesters are denouncing the structures of systemic racism, Hong Kong pro-democracy activists have taken to the streets repeatedly, and students are calling attention to climate change in the Fridays For the Future strikes led by Greta Thunberg. So many ordinary people -- often in direct opposition to political leaders -- have become what the human rights activist and former US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power called “upstanders.” “Living in truth” by speaking the facts out loud is a crucial form of dissent, especially in a distorted information environment.

History shows us that people -- sometimes one at a time -- can defend the truth by pointing out what everyone knows but which the powerful sometimes refuse to believe. Sometimes, all it takes is one or two voices to galvanize an idea that others will follow and, in the process, change the world. 

 That truly is “the power of the powerless.”

Donald Trump must never hold power again! Trumpty-Dumpty!

Echo opinion published in the Washington Post by Michael Gerson:

Looking on the bright side of a humiliating national disaster, the manner of Donald Trump’s departure from power has clarified why he must never hold power again!

#25thAmendment!

In leaks to a variety of news organizations, senior Trump administration officials reported: 1) Rudolph W. Giuliani urging the federal government to illegally seize Dominion voting machines; 2) presidential consideration of deranged conspiracy-monger Sidney Powell as a special counsel investigating nonexistent election fraud; and 3) a White House meeting involving disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn at which Trump discussed the imposition of martial law.

These accounts indicate the emergence of two distinct factions within Trump’s inner circle. On one side are the lunatics — among them Giuliani, Powell and Flynn — who want Trump to violate laws and assume authoritarian powers. On the other side are sycophants who supported Trump’s spurious legal challenges to the election result but apparently draw the line at treason. By most accounts, Trump’s sympathies lie with the lunatics.Some respond, as usual, by suggesting that these provocations are merely the sad, silly reactions of a cornered narcissist. And it is indeed ludicrous to believe that the military would ever consider torching the Constitution, particularly in service to a draft-dodging coward who views their honored dead as “suckers.” Even on the rumor of a coup, Army Secretary Ryan D. McCarthy and Gen. James McConville, the Army chief of staff, issued a joint statement saying there “is no role for the US military in determining the outcome of an American election.”

But the code-red level of worry within Trump’s staff does seem unprecedented. “People who are concerned and nervous aren’t the weak-kneed bureaucrats that we loathe,” said a senior administration official to Axios. “These are people who have endured arguably more insanity and mayhem than any administration officials in history.” At the very least, these freely leaking White House staffers are determined to distance themselves from outright subversion. It is nice to find there are still some limits to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’s servility.

Actor John Lithgow, author of the 'Trumpty Dumpty' poetry books, explains how he got mean — and empathetic — to write about the "despotic age" of Trump. (The Washington Post)

Some respond, as usual, by suggesting that these provocations are merely the sad, silly reactions of a cornered narcissist. And it is indeed ludicrous to believe that the military would ever consider torching the Constitution, particularly in service to a draft-dodging coward who views their honored dead as “suckers.” 

Even on the rumor of a coup, Army Secretary Ryan D. McCarthy and Gen. James McConville, the Army chief of staff, issued a joint statement saying there “is no role for the US military in determining the outcome of an American election.”


But the code-red level of worry within Trump’s staff does seem unprecedented. “People who are concerned and nervous aren’t the weak-kneed bureaucrats that we loathe,” said a senior administration official to Axios. “These are people who have endured arguably more insanity and mayhem than any administration officials in history.” At the very least, these freely leaking White House staffers are determined to distance themselves from outright subversion. It is nice to find there are still some limits to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’s servility.

It is most important to consider these events not in the context of an unlikely 2020 coup, but in light of the inevitable 2024 election. The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination is clearly not committed to democratic self-government. He is willing, even eager, to overturn the constitutional process if it serves his interests. No ethical second thoughts restrain him. Selfishness is not the violation of his standards; it is the fulfillment of his creed. For Trump, self-sacrifice is the true sin.

This time around, Trump’s lawless ambitions have been limited by unamused courts, by courageous state and local officials, by a vigilant mainstream press, by a Democratic House, by his own buffoonish leadership and by an ideologically moderate Democratic candidate who won a reasonably large electoral victory. Only the Republican Party utterly failed in checking Trump’s incipient authoritarianism.

But these conditions are hardly permanent. 

Could Trump win reelection in 2024, against a more ideologically extreme Democratic candidate? Of course he could. Would any Republican official, at any level of government, stand up against a vengeful authoritarian with electoral mandate? It is not likely. Would Trump expand executive power at every turn? He would, particularly if both the House and Senate are controlled by Republicans. Would Trump openly intimidate journalists and political opponents with willing, armed militias? I don’t doubt it. Would he simply ignore court rulings that limit him? I bet he would try. Would he try to manufacture a crisis to justify remaining in power past his term? No scruple would prevent it.

This is not some exaggerated dystopian vision. These hypotheticals are extensions of Trump’s existing views and tendencies. He would do these things, if he could. And how do we know this? Because Trump is the leader of Trumpiism’s lunatic fringe. He is in fundamental sympathy with Giuliani, Powell and Flynn. Even out of power, he will remain the main threat to American democracy. If he wins again, the constitutional order may never be the same.

In the Trump presidency, the worst days are always the most authentic days. And each day now seems more revealing than the last. Desperation has shown Trump’s instincts and nature as never before. He is an authoritarian wannabe. Those who love our system of government must now share one, overriding goal: to ensure that Mar-a-Lago is Trump’s St. Helena, not his Elba.

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Star of Bethlehem or comet?

On Dec. 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn will cross paths in the night’s sky and for a brief moment, they will appear to shine together as one body. While planetary conjunctions like this are not everyday events, they also are not particularly rare.

This year’s conjunction is different for at least two reasons. The first is the degree to which the two planets will be aligned. 

Experts predict that they will appear closer during this conjunction than they have in nearly eight centuries and also brighter.

Published in The Conversation authored by Eric M. Vanden Eykel
Associate Professor of Religion, Ferrum College.

But the second factor, and the one that has thrust this event into the spotlight, is that it will occur on the winter solstice, just before the Christmas holiday. The timing has led to a speculation whether this could be the same astronomical event that the Bible reports led the wise men to Joseph, Mary and the newly born Jesus – the Star of Bethlehem.

As a scholar of early Christian literature writing a book on the three wise men, I argue that the upcoming planetary conjunction is likely not the fabled Star of Bethlehem. The biblical story of the star is intended to convey theological rather than historical or astronomical truths.

Leading light

The story of the star has long fascinated readers, both ancient and modern. Within the New Testament, it is found only in the Gospel of Matthew, a first-century account of Jesus’ life that begins with the story of his birth.

Giotto

In this account, wise men arrive in Jerusalem and say to Herod, the king of Judea: “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.” The star then leads them to Bethlehem and stops over the house of Jesus and his family.

Many have read this story with the presupposition that Matthew must have been referencing an actual astronomical event that occurred around the time of Jesus’ birth. The astronomer Michael R. Molnar, for example, has argued that the Star of Bethlehem was an eclipse of Jupiter within the constellation Ares.

There are at least two issues involved in associating a specific event with Matthew’s star. The first is that scholars are not certain exactly when Jesus was born. The traditional date of his birth may be off by as many as six years.

The second is that measurable, predictable astronomical events occur with relative frequency. The quest to discover which event, if any, Matthew might have had in mind is therefore a complicated one.

Beliefs about the star

The theory that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn may be the Star of Bethlehem is not new. It was proposed in the early 17th century by Johannes Kepler, a German astronomer and mathematician. Kepler argued that this same planetary conjunction in or around 6 B.C. could have served as inspiration for Matthew’s story of the star.

Kepler was not the first to suggest that the Star of Bethlehem may have been a recognizable astronomical event. Four hundred years prior to Kepler, between 1303 and 1305, the Italian artist Giotto painted the star as a comet on the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy.

Scholars have suggested that Giotto did this as an homage to Halley’s Comet, which astronomers have determined was visible in 1301, on one of its regular flights past the Earth. Astronomers have also determined that Halley’s Comet passed by the Earth in or around 12 B.C., between five and 10 years before most scholars argue that Jesus was born. It is possible that Giotto believed Matthew was referencing Halley’s Comet in his story of the star.

Attempts to discover the identity of Matthew’s star are often creative and insightful, but I would argue that they are also misguided.

The star in Matthew’s story may not be a “normal” natural phenomenon, and Matthew suggests as much in the way that he describes it. Matthew says that the wise men come to Jerusalem “from the East.” The star then leads them to Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem. The star therefore makes a sharp left turn. And astronomers will agree that stars do not make sharp turns.

Moreover, when the wise men arrive in Bethlehem, the star is low enough in the sky to lead them to a specific house. As physicist Aaron Adair puts it: “the Star is said to stop in place and hover over a particular lodging, acting as an ancient GPS unit.” The “description of the movements of the Star,” he noted, was “outside what is physically possible for any observable astronomical object.”

Theological underpinning

In short, there appears to be nothing “normal” or “natural” about the phenomenon that Matthew describes. Perhaps the point that Matthew is trying to make is a different one.

Matthew’s story of the star draws from a body of tradition in which stars are connected to rulers. The rising of a star signifies that a ruler has come to power.

In the biblical book of Numbers, for example, which dates to 5th century B.C., the prophet Balaam predicts the arrival of a ruler who will defeat the enemies of Israel. “A star shall come out of Jacob, [meaning Israel]…it shall crush the borderlands of Moab.”

One of the most well-known examples of this tradition from antiquity is the so-called “Sidus Iulium,” or “Julian Star,” a comet that appeared a few months after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. Roman authors Suetonius and Pliny the Elder report that the comet was so bright that it was visible in the late afternoon, and that many Romans interpreted the spectacle as evidence that Julius Caesar was now a god.

In light of such traditions, I believe Matthew’s story of the star exists not to inform readers about a specific astronomical event, but to support claims that he is making about the character of Jesus.

Put another way, I argue that Matthew’s goal in telling this story is more theological than it is historical.

The upcoming conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is therefore likely not a return of the Star of Bethlehem, but Matthew would likely be pleased with the awe it inspires in those who anticipate it.

Truth! Dr. Anthony S. Fauci is famous for telling the truth !

An essay about integrity!  Echo published in The Conversation by Barbara Gastel is professor of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences and of Humanities in Medicine, Texas A&M University.

His call to “Wear a mask” tops a list of 2020’s notable quotes. Brad Pitt portrayed him – and praised him – on “Saturday Night Live.” Time magazine named him a 2020 guardian of the year. Amazon features seven pages of T-shirts, mugs and more emblazoned with his face.

Longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony S. Fauci has been everywhere in 2020.

Although perhaps only recently a household name, Fauci is no Tony-come-lately. Over the past four decades he’s played prominent roles as a scientist, physician, administrator and spokesman. You know what he’s been up to over the past several months. But what of his previous nearly 80 years? And what made him the figure he has become?

From Brooklyn to Washington

Fauci, son of a pharmacist, was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 24, 1940. He attended Regis High, a tuition-free Jesuit boys’ school. Passionate about basketball, he captained the high school team – despite his height of 5 feet 7 inches.

He then attended the College of the Holy Cross, in Massachusetts, choosing a premedical major combining humanities and science. He graduated first in his class from Cornell University Medical College and went on to complete a medical residency.

The Vietnam War was underway, and male med school graduates were required to serve their country. One option was the U.S. Public Health Service, which includes the National Institutes of Health, based outside Washington, D.C. Fauci entered a highly selective training program there. He’s worked at NIH essentially ever since.

At NIH, Fauci initially conducted specialized research on the immune system and related rare diseases – for example, one now termed granulomatosis with polyangiitis, in which blood vessels in the respiratory system and kidneys become inflamed. His work led to effective treatment of these previously largely fatal conditions.

The age of AIDS

As the 1980s arrived, what came to be called AIDS emerged. Fauci soon redirected his research to focus on the new disease. He accepted the directorship of NIAID in 1984, in part to increase its emphasis on AIDS.

While continuing research and patient care, Fauci as institute director entered other realms. He testified repeatedly before Congress. He gained visibility in the media. He was confronted by AIDS activists – and eventually included them in setting priorities for developing treatments. Doing so set a precedent for involving patients in decisions about research on their diseases.

Fauci’s leadership has expanded over the years. He was among the main architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, (President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief) a major program begun under President George W. Bush in 2003, to help control AIDS internationally. He provided leadership regarding responses to bioterrorism and to SARS, Zika and Ebola. He is a member of the Trump administration’s White House Coronavirus Task Force, and he has accepted President-elect Joe Biden’s invitation to serve as chief medical adviser.

Dr. Fauci was appointed Director of NIAID in 1984. He oversees an extensive portfolio of basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat established infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis and malaria as well as emerging diseases such as Ebola and Zika. NIAID also supports research on transplantation and immune-related illnesses, including autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergies.

Anthony Stephen Fauci is an American physician and immunologist who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. 

Prolific in publication

Along the way, Fauci has authored or co-authored well over 1,000 journal articles, including more than 500 about AIDS. Of the articles, strikingly many appeared in top journals such as Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the New England Journal of Medicine. Fauci also is one of the editors of a major medical textbook.

Over the years Fauci published on topics that attest to his readiness for the coronavirus: past pandemics as well as emerging infectious diseases and how to confront them, even how to conduct clinical trials in the midst of an outbreak.

A recent study ranks Fauci as the 32nd most highly cited living researcher. His papers have been cited more than 50,000 times by other publications, and his journal articles have been mentioned tens of thousands of times in social media.

Sources of success

Clearly, Dr. Fauci is a remarkably successful scientist and a highly visible public figure. What factors seem to have contributed?

Here are 10.

Smarts: Clearly Fauci is extraordinarily bright and knowledgeable. He has studied both science and humanities. The mix has fostered proficiency in lab and clinic, skill in communication and an ability to navigate the halls of power.

Integrity: “I believe I have a personal responsibility to make a positive impact on society,” he has stated. “I’ve tried to accomplish this goal by choosing a life of public service.” Strong values have directed his choices, such as that to remain at NIAID despite offers to become director of NIH or take more lucrative positions elsewhere.

Empathy: Fauci’s values include concern for others’ well-being. Upon being confronted by AIDS activists, he said, “I saw people who were in pain.” He cared for, and about, people with AIDS even while the disease still was tremendously stigmatized.

Flexibility: Fauci can pivot. He redirected his work with the emergence of AIDS, contributing importantly to the understanding and treatment of the disease. Despite insults from AIDS activist Larry Kramer, he developed a productive alliance and warm friendship with him.

Energy: Fauci has an exceptional work ethic and is blessed with amazing energy. Account after account details the staccato pace of his ultra-long days – rising before dawn, rushing from commitment to commitment with barely a break and answering email until late at night.

Trustworthiness: Fauci has earned credibility – through research and publication, impact on patient health and long service. In his communications, his values keep him focusing on the facts. An essay in the Washington Post terms him “the singular referee the country trusts” during the pandemic.

Connections: Adviser to six U.S. presidents and the current president-elect, Fauci has abundant ties in Washington among both politicians and the media. Some science reporters have covered his work since the 1980s.

Communication: Termed “the explainer-in-chief of the coronavirus epidemic,” Fauci is a master communicator. He knows how the media function. He explains clearly. He speaks in sound bites – think “we are likely going to see a surge upon a surge” of cases after the Thanksgiving holiday – and his comments are tweetable. He is accessible to the press. He listens as well as speaks.

Recognizability: Fauci has a distinctive look and voice. His name is unusual yet not unwieldy.

Teamwork: “It’s almost impossible to do anything meaningful without either leading a team or being part of the team,” Fauci has said. A photo of Fauci’s lab group shows some 80 members, including senior researchers. Highly regarded for his mentorship, Fauci even made himself available to an undergrad writing a thesis – and then commented extensively on the finished product.

In many ways, Fauci has been the face of the fight against COVID-19 in the U.S. “If we’re going to get through this, we’ve got to all pull together as a country,” Fauci has stated.

His blunt, evidence-based approach has helped make him famous in 2020. With any luck, he can lead the way to controlling COVID-19 in 2021.