Racism and Public Health - a portal on the CDC website

Declaring racism a public health crisis brings more attention to solving long-ignored racial gaps in health.

Echo essay published in The Conversation by Paul K. Halverson, Dean, Fairbanks of School of Public Health, in Indiana.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has joined hundreds of cities and counties across the country in declaring racism a public health threat. On April 8, 2021, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky called racism an epidemic that affects “the entire health of our nation.”

Declaring racism a public health threat will create a sharper strategic and operational focus on understanding and combating racism. Walensky said the CDC will invest more in communities of color and will work to create more diversity within the CDC.

The agency will create a portal on the CDC site called “Racism and Health” to help provide resources and to educate people.

As a professor and founding dean of the Fairbanks School of Public Health at Indiana University, I agree drawing attention to the racial gaps in health care is an important step in addressing them.

Bringing up the rear
Acknowledging racism as a public health threat allows for the creation of workforce training programs in public health, medicine, nursing and other fields. It also may require all health-related professional training programs to include structural racism identification and implied bias and anti-racism strategies within the curriculum. This will put a sharper focus on the measurement of the factors that influence racism. Designating racism as a public health emergency can create institutional focus on actions taken to address this long-overlooked issue.

The U.S. pays more per capita for health care than any other industrialized nation in the world, but look at the health statistics and you’ll see the U.S. brings up the rear. Canada, Japan, Malta, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland do better. Among the industrialized countries, the U.S.‘s health system is currently ranked 37th in the world.

The reality is that health is a result of many factors. The most striking one has nothing to do with intelligence, diet or job status. Instead, it’s a person’s ZIP code. Where someone lives is the greatest predictor of health and life expectancy. A person’s ZIP code is also a good predictor of their race and ethnicity. Those things too have a major impact on how long someone lives and, maybe even more importantly, how well.

I live in Indiana. Here, a baby born today in a southern urban neighborhood will live 14 years less than another baby born in the northern suburbs, less than 20 miles away. How a nation protects the health of its children tells you an enormous amount about that society. In the U.S., our infant mortality – babies who die before their first birthday – is among the highest in the world, with the highest rates in the Midwestern and Southern states.

Moreover, across the board, infant mortality affects Black communities at a rate higher than other races.

Higher risks across the board

If you are an African American mother in Indiana, your baby is three times more likely to die before its first birthday. Being born Black also means you’re twice as likely to suffer from high blood pressure and have a stroke. Black Americans are also more than five times as likely to serve prison time and will earn substantially less money than their white neighbors. And people of color are up to 10 times more likely to test positive for COVID-19.

Where you live, how much you earn, your access to transportation and your ability to shop at a supermarket in your neighborhood are all part of the social determinants of health, the most powerful predictor of how long and how well people live.

In the past century, U.S. life expectancy went up 30 years. New medicines or gadgets had little to do with it. Most of those extra years came because of the protection afforded by the public health system. That includes clean water, a food supply that’s safe and an improved environment.

Decades of discriminatory housing practices have burdened Black communities with poverty, substandard housing and environmental hazards. Unfortunately, most federally assisted housing is located in segregated areas at a greater risk of lead poisoning, exposure to air pollution or lack of access to healthy food.

Nearly 18% of the U.S. economy goes toward health care spending. That is many times the investment of many other countries that enjoy substantially better health – such countries as France, Italy, Singapore, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Denmark.

Of the $3.8 trillion spent on health care, public health and prevention is allocated less than 3% of this gigantic budget. However, a 2018 report showed a 3-1 return on investment on public health funding.

Treating racism like the disease that the CDC says it is suggests boosting our investment in public health funding would be money well spent.

Republicans are the problem!

Echo opinion letter about the unqualified Senator Ron Johnson published in the Wisconsin State Journal 

Wisconin's Johnson shows his ignorance again -- 

Republicans are the problem!

By John Finkler

It is beyond comprehension that the U.S. Senate seat from Wisconsin once held by the legendary Gaylord Nelson is now occupied by Ron Johnson (aka "Mr. Celophane"*).

It has almost become a daily ritual that Sen. Johnson shows his ignorance. His latest blooper is related to people getting the COVID-19 vaccine. While many elected officials, health care professionals, athletes and entertainers are doing regular public service announcements "to get the vaccine when it's your turn," Johnson actually said: "What do you care if you neighbor has one or not?"

In Johnson's world, there is no caring for or interest in your neighbor. There is no ability to process that more people vaccinated will help everyone. He doesn't appreciate the United States and world are in the midst of the worst pandemic in over a century.

For Johnson, who in 11 years in office has never shown much, if any, interest in helping the people of Wisconsin, it was just another fringe political statement.

As the Wisconsin State Journal article noted so well in just a few words, "Johnson, of Oshkosh, who has no medical expertise or background ... ."

Those same words would also apply to his background or expertise to be a U.S. senator: None.

*If someone stood up in a crowd

And raised his voice up way out loud
And waved his arm and shook his leg
You'd notice him.

If someone in the movie show
Yelled "Fire in the second row
This whole place is a powder keg!"
You'd notice him.

And even without clucking like a hen
Everyone gets noticed, now and then,
Unless, of course, that personage should be
Invisible, inconsequential me!

President Joe Biden visits President Jimmy Carter - sends strong support message to Georgia voters

President Biden will visit President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn in Georgia.  Finally!  A brilliant symbol to the Georgian voters, letting them know that they made the right choice in voting for him and thereby giving him the ability to lead the US with two Democratic Senators! President Biden will acknowledge the sea turn and recognize President Carter's ethical Democratic leadership!

On the other hand, shame on Maine's Republican Senator Susan Collins who, during a ZOOM interview with Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, defended the Georgia voter suppression law.  

Echo editorial opinion published in the New York Amsterdam-News.

Once again an American past imbued (motivated) with racism and discrimination is resurrected, (aka "Jim Crow"), after the GOP Georgia Governor Brian Kemp last week—against a backdrop of a slave plantation—signed a piece of legislation passed by Republicans that will severely impact the voting rights of Black residents.

President Biden was so incensed that he characterized it as “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” He viewed the nearly 100-page legislation as a “blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience.”

The action comes as a direct response to the last election cycle in which the state of Georgia, turned blue, was so decisive in changing the political landscape.

Gov. Kemp’s support of Georgia lawmakers is just the most recent attempt to turn back the clock, and President Biden is spot on in his challenge of this insidious attack on the democratic process.

The world witnessed a violent aspect of this retrenchment back on January 5th,  with the mob upheaval (insurrection) at the Capitol, and now lawmakers, not only in Georgia, are seeking ways to make these reactionary feelings less bloody, but no less consequential, by ramrodding laws through state governmental bodies.

Yes, Mr. President, Jim Crow is alive and well, and what he represents is just as demeaning and dangerous as it was back in the 1870s when the KKK came into existence.

What happened recently in Georgia is a harbinger that other states—and state rights is the operative phrase here—are moving speedily to evoke and to halt the Biden’s administration’s determination to right the wrongs of the previous years, if not the distant past.

Voter suppression has emerged with an even greater portent to deny the franchise of African Americans and other people of color, and we applaud President Biden for addressing this spreading menace.

Either we become more vigilant and steadfast against this diabolical plot or succumb to its devastation. As one of our media mavens has suggested, “We must pay close attention” or be complicit in the undertow drowning our quest for total freedom and justice.

We hear you loud and clear President Biden, and Joe we got your back!

Editorial Board

Voter intimidation is race motivated

Trumpian brigadiers on January 6th! 

Opinion echo published in the Austin American Statesman: 

"Forward the GQP white brigade", by John Young

Half a league, half a league, half a league onward.

All in the valley of Death rode the 10 thousand.

“Forward the White Brigade!”

Apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, but a certain full-of-self Republican in Texas has made the appropriation too easy.

Last week the Washington Post shared video of an unidentified GQP official calling for 10,000 volunteers to brave the darker reaches of urban Houston to find -- and fight! -- voter fraud.

Sounding like a Trumpian brigadier, he exhorts the troops, saying that to brave a harrowing urban center frequented by people of varied colors calls for “confidence and courage.”

You see, he says, “This is where the fraud is occurring.”

Courage. Courage.

Might this also be where the voter intimidation will be once the GOP “army” besets and threaten the heavily minority precincts?

It is voters who traditionally endure longer lines in urban centers. And they do endure. We see them every Election Day, entrusting a system that doesn’t always trust them.

They don’t live out among the white picket fences where Escalades roam free. They live in the land of row houses and bus stops.

It’s a sweeping claim to call a major political party racist, or race-motivated.

But we look at the Big Lie, and we look at the frantic maneuvers to overturn the 2020 presidential results and now to suppress the vote under the guise of “vote security.” It’s all about challenging or tamping down the votes of minorities. And by review, it’s all motivated by a lie.

In the words of the Brennan Center for Justice, which monitors voting rights, these vote suppression measures are “a solution in search of a problem.”

Ask Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, long and loud in trumpeting the Big Lie. His staff last year devoted 22,000 hours investigating voter fraud and found just 16 cases of it.

Gov. Greg Abbott preceded Paxton in the same role and launched his own futile quest to find the kind of rampant voter fraud that would justify increasing levels of “vote security.”

There is no other reason for what we see today in a host of red states but that Donald Trump said the election was stolen – and stolen by heavily minority districts – and that’s that.

A big, racist lie. 

So it doesn’t matter what the “army” calls itself. That’s not the issue. Presuming it doesn’t break the law in intimidating voters, the visitors are welcome down where all those urban dwellers dwell.

The issue is that the Republican Party’s quest is that few people of color vote.

Forward, the dangerous White Brigade.

"Hang Mike Pence!"

Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado.

"....blessed people bless others"- We are impacted by what we say and write

An inspirational opinion echo and essay.

Words have the power to make or break us

By Vernon A. Williams* This is a time for uplift and encouragement: Echo opinion, published in the newspaper Crusader- Chicago Gary Online  https://chicagocrusader.com/words-have-the-power-to-make-or-break-us/

Tapping the pulse of the African American Community 

The Bible teaches that life and death exist in the power of the tongue, the words that we utter every day of our life. 

In the secular world, similar belief is contained in the adage that argues that the pen is mightier than the sword. 

We are all impacted by what we and others say or write. This week, I feel led to share words that hopefully will lift the spirit rather than echo chaos.

No attempt this week to follow the shenanigans of the Republicans in Congress, the blood-filled streets where carnage takes a back seat to politics, the ongoing crisis of child immigration, dangers of those still unwilling to acquiesce to science to speed pandemic recovery and lingering remnants of bigotry that pervade our society. Those issues will not be the focus in this writing.

Instead, allow me to share a few simple witticisms borrowed from my social media posts over the past six months, with the hope of rejuvenating spirits of people, rekindling hope, restoring faith and reinforcing belief in the power of God to resolve anything man or woman faces.

These are separate thoughts with a common bond of positivity. I hope one of them touches you.

“Elijah battled depression, God didn’t send an angel to preach to him, tell him of the need to pray more, or condemn him for feeling that way. He sent an angel to comfort him while he rested. Some people just need to be comforted.”

“Your name is being mentioned in rooms your feet haven’t entered yet. God is going to do something amazing in your life, keep moving forward.”

“Enemies will always resent your gift, your anointing. Their assignment is trying to distract or destroy you. But never forget, if God be with you – who can be against you?”

“There are some people, places and things in your pre-COVID life that you would be better off not carrying into your post-pandemic reality. Use this occasion as an opportunity to purge.”

“God uses broken people like you and me, to rescue other broken people like you and me. No matter your circumstance, if you are still here, there is a purpose for your life.”

“Just as hurt people hurt others, so do blessed people bless other people. Express your gratitude with random acts of kindness to friends and strangers every day of your life.”

“He had no servants but was called MASTER; no degree but was called TEACHER; no medicine but was a HEALER; no army but won every battle; committed no crime but received the death penalty; was buried in a tomb but rose again and reigns as THE LIVING GOD!”

“The answer to prayers over troubling circumstances don’t always result in the disappearance of the nemesis you confront. God did not remove the Red Sea, He opened it. He will help us find a way through our problems as well. Never lose faith.”

“You did not “deserve” to live through the pandemic any more than a half a million other Americans who are no longer with us. You are still here by the Grace of God alone!”

“God’s plan will always be greater and more beautiful than all your disappointments. He may not be there when you want him, but He’s always right on time.”

“God did not bring us through this horrendous past year for us to settle for a return to business as usual, He wants us to constantly strive to be better, when we make it through the storm.”

“If God answers your prayers, He is increasing your faith. If he delays, He is increasing your patience. If he doesn’t answer, He has something better for you.”

“Politically correct lies do more harm than good. Don’t allow people to say when they look at you, they don’t see color. Harmless as it may be for some, you are helping them when you make them understand you are comfortable in your skin and want to be seen and respected for who you are.”

“When you can’t see God in the storm, it is only because He is ahead of you, removing stumbling blocks, slaying enemies and clearing the path to your victory.”

“Frederick Douglass said slavery would never have become law if Blacks could have voted. There is nothing higher on the agenda of this nation than the fight against social injustice and voter suppression. Stay woke as we approach 2022!”

“It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not. Stop selling yourself short and see in yourself the wonderful possibilities that God sees in you. Even if God orders your steps, it will still be up to you to put one foot in front of the other and walk in it.”

And finally, let me leave you with this quote: “I trust God…but I still wear seatbelts. I trust God…but I still lock my doors at night and set the alarm. I trust God…but I still have smoke detectors. I trust God…but I still rely on physicians and prescribed medication. I trust God…but I still use mitts to take hot dishes from the oven. I trust God…but I follow the science on precautions for health. Acting with caution and wisdom does not indicate a lack of trust in God. It reflects trusting the intelligence, discernment and common sense with which He blessed you.”

We are breathing much easier today than we were a year ago this time. Sadly, many continue to mourn losses and others are still fighting their way back to total physical restoration. But God is our hope – then, now and in the future.

Thanks for allowing these words of inspiration. I conclude with the word “gratitude” to Christ, for a debt we can never repay and utterance of the highest praise, the same in every language on earth, “Hallelujah!” Be blessed, y’all!

*CIRCLE CITY CONNECTION by Vernon A. Williams is a series of essays on myriad topics that include social issues, human interest, entertainment and profiles of difference-makers who are forging change in a constantly evolving society. 

Moreover, Williams is a 40-year veteran journalist based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Earth Day message: Faith and living things

God's Greatest Creation for Us

Opinion letter echo published in the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, in Texas

I try to conserve and care for the environment, although it’s often difficult in our culture. Several months ago, the magazine Population Connection published an article about an American company that plowed down a small forest in China to build a factory. 

When I saw Sunday’s front-page story (Star-Telegram) about the plot in Azle, that was removed to build houses, I was reminded of that. (“Cleared site prompts Azle residents to seek tree rules”)

Residents decry clearing of trees in southwest Fort Worth

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article250126394.html

When are we going to learn to care for the Earth? This month, one emphasis for our faith communities is creation justice, care for the Earth and living things on it. I wish there were more concern for this wonderful creation God has blessed us with. 

Why would we not care for God's earth and the living things it sustains?

From Lawrence McGuire, Crowley

Refugees and migrants: Compassion in the Old and New Testaments

Echo opinion - John Compere, in Baird, TX,  letter:  "Solutions needed at southern border", published in the Texas newspaper Abilene Reporter news. 

The author of this opinion letter calls on us to remember our Christian heritage.  It's not only about Christians. Remember the Old Testament Israelites were abandoned in the desert. 

"God performed miracles, leading the Israelites out of slavery, away from the cruel hand of the Egyptians. He set them free. Free from oppression. Free from captivity. Free from bondage."

To the editor of Abilene Reporter: 

Managing migrant surges at the southern US border requires sensible solutions - not political posturing that accomplishes nothing but more divisiveness, and exacerbates the suffering of refugees who are seeking refuge from corruption and violence.

Both political parties - Republicans and Democrats- have neglected immigration law reform for too long.

Single adults and most families stopped at the border continue to be returned under a public health order issued at the COVID19 pandemic outset. Moreover, a historically low refugee cap still is being maintained, even though President Biden pledged to increasing the numbers. Unaccompanied children are allowed to safely and temporarily remain.

The president has publicly discouraged migrants fleeing other countries from coming until longer-term solutions can be worked out.

Migration flows are surging for the third time in seven years. Immigration increases when the weather changes. Numbers include immigrants stuck at the border awaiting asylum claims the previous administration failed to process. Shelter dismantling by the previous administration has exacerbated migrant management.

US immigration laws are antiquated. There has been no major reform by Congress for decades. Politicians need to stop faulting others and fulfill their public responsibility by providing resolutions rather than recriminations. Blame-gaming does not serve the country's best interest.

The 43rd president, Republican and Texan George W. Bush recognized the humanitarian dilemma observing these people “... are willing to leave their homes and leave their families and risk everything to come to America” because “America remains a beacon of liberty and the most hope fill society the world has ever known.”

Christians must remember Jesus preached empathy for the little children “... do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14; Mark 10:14; Luke 18:16).

— John Compere, in Baird Texas

Hopeful: A vision about the planet Mars

A mission that has lifted a pandemic-weary world
An echo editorial published in the newspaper The Eagle, in Bryan, Texas. Officially known as The Bryan-College Station Eagle, a daily newspaper based out of Bryan, Texas. 

Mars is a planet full of metal and named after the god of war.

The Eagle, in Brazos County, is a newspaper that covers an eight-county area around Bryan-College Station, that includes Texas A&M University. 

Editorial: For thousands of years, earth-bound humans have looked up at the planet Mars and dreamed of one day visiting there. Until a quarter century ago, however, all we could do is dream. We could look through telescopes, of course, but they brought our knowledge of the surface of the red planet only a bit closer.

But through the brilliance, dedication and hard work of hundreds of scientists, we now have a much better idea of what the surface of Mars looks like — and as of a few days ago, sounds like. What an amazing experience.

Landscape of the planet Mars

The Soviet Union won the race to Mars, landing two rovers on the planet’s surface on Dec. 2, 1971. One rover lasted only 20 seconds after crashing on the Martian surface. For 104.5 seconds, the second rover — tethered to the Mars 3 lander — communicated with Earth. And then, for unknown reasons, it quit communicating and the Soviet scientists were unable to reestablish the connection.

More than a quarter century later, on July 4, 1997, America landed the Mars Pathfinder and its Sojourner rover, which sent back the first photos of the Martian surface. Before it stopped responding on Sept. 27, 1997, Sojourner had traveled an amazing 330 feet. Remember, that was 330 feet on a planet more than 134 million miles from Earth.

In January 2004, the United States landed two rovers on Mars: Spirit and Opportunity. Both were expected to travel only a short distance in their 90-day missions, sending back photos and other information. Yet both far surpassed our expectations. Spirit traveled 4.8 miles before becoming bogged down in sand. The pictures and information it sent back before it stopped communicating on March 22, 2010, greatly expanded our knowledge of Mars.

Before dying in a Martian dust storm on June 10, 2018, Opportunity traveled more than 28 miles, far beyond its planned mission. As the rover continued on and on, America and the world watched in amazement and, to put it mildly, great affection.

Next to explore the planet was Curiosity, which landed on Aug. 6, 2012, on a mission to study Mars’ geology and climate. Curiosity’s mission had been extended beyond its original five years and it continues it explorations today, traveling more than 15 miles and climbing almost 1,100 feet up Mount Sharp, sending back invaluable data to scientists on Earth.

Then, on Feb. 18, as Texas froze in winter storms — with many Texans without power for days — the Mars rover Perseverance was lowered gently to the surface of Mars. For seven tense minutes, scientists had to endure a communications blackout due to the heat of entry through the Martian atmosphere. With shouts of joy and excitement, scientists back on Earth were told the rover had arrived on Mars. The size of a small car — the biggest rover ever on Mars — Perseverance began sending back the first high resolution photos from the Red Planet. We were thrilled as it sent back photos of its descent, lowered from a a hovering space craft that had been lowered toward Mars by a parachute.

On Feb. 20, we heard, for the very first time, the sounds on the surface of Mars when Perseverance sent back a 60-second audio clip that included the sound of a Martian breeze.

At a time when the world is suffering through a COVID-19 pandemic, when America is divided left and right as never before, the sights and the sounds sent home by the rover Perseverance provide hope and promise for the future.

Most of us never will set foot on the surface of Mars, but some day, in the not-too-distant future, some of us will.

That assures us that humankind will continue, still will strive for the stars, moving ever forward, ever upward with an eye to the future.

And that brings us hope.

Former Guy Trump is guilty of supporting a seditious riot on January 6th

"We at Concord-Bethel Democrats condemn the blight of misinformation that has poisoned public discourse, and the radicalized alt-right groups it motivates. We denounce the violence at the Capitol and recognize it for what it was: a coup attempt spurred by Donald Trump, who has thoroughly earned his historic infamy as the only twice-impeached President."

US Capitol insurrection January 6, 2021- Donald Trump is guilty of causing this riot.

Opinion letter echo published in the Daily News - The Delaware County Daily Times, in Exton, Pennsylvania, submitted by the Concord-Bethel Democratic Committee:

https://www.facebook.com/concordbetheldems

Blame #FormerGuy Trump for the insurrection in Washington

On January 6, 2021, hundreds of right wing extremist and domestic terrorists stormed the US Capitol building in Washington DC, in an attempted coup. Minutes earlier, then-President Donald Trump had urged his supporters to march on the Capitol; specifically, he told them “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Weeks before that, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their victory. He acknowledged, correctly, that the presidential election had been fairly won. In the wider Republican electorate, however, misinformation campaigns conducted online and through traditional media channels had prompted Donald Trump’s supporters to internalize a false narrative of election fraud.

This false narrative, and the misguided outrage it sparked, allowed radicalized groups to force entry into the United States Capitol on Jan. 6. Supporters of QAnon, the Proud Boys, and the Boogaloo Boys joined a seditious mob that declared its intent to hang the Vice President, Mike Pence, and murder the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. The violent throng, many members of whom wore "Blue Lives Matter" apparel, assaulted several police officers and the violence contributed to the death of USCP Officer Brian D. Sicknick. For the first time in history, an insurrectionist carried a confederate flag into the Capitol building.

In the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, freedom of the press is guaranteed, because our Founding Father realized that a democracy could not function without an informed public.  Using the protection of free speech and the guise of journalism in order to deliberately misinform the public not only runs counter to the Founding Father's intentions, it represents a gross perversion of them. 

Far right extremist group symbols at the January 6, 2021 US Capitol insurrection- published in Daily Mail.

Although it was not surprising to see falsehoods spewed by #FormerGuy Trump- who had previously gained notoriety for supporting the false assertion that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya- the First Amendment does not render these falsehoods immune to criticism or refutation; nor does it require private entities to provide them with a platform.

We at Concord-Bethel Democrats condemn the blight of misinformation that has poisoned public discourse and the radicalized alt-right groups it motivates. We denounce the seditious violence at the US Capital and recognize it for what it was: a coup attempt by #FormerGuy Trump who has thoroughly earned his historic infamy as America's only twice impeached president.

Moreover, we wholeheartedly advocate that #FormerGuy Trump be convicted and barred from holding public office in the future. And, although more authoritative organizations than ours have already done so, we declare publicly and unequivocally that the 2020 presidential election was fairly won by President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.

From Joe Campisano, Chair, Concord-Bethel Democratic Committee

Desperation at the Southern US Border: Pro-life means protecting immigrant children

Opinion letter echo published in NJ.com (NewJersey.com)

I don’t know what high level of desperation causes a parent to send a minor child across our southern border, in hopes that their unaccompanied child will be admitted into our country and be allowed to stay.

Crisis on the Southern US Border

U.S. can’t turn its back on unaccompanied minors

Maybe it’s like the desperation Jews in Europe felt when they sent their children, while they still could, anywhere to escape extermination by the Nazis.

Maybe it’s what Vietnamese parents felt when they tossed their children over the U.S. Embassy wall while Saigon fell, hoping their children would be on those helicopters that ferried away our evacuating government personnel.

Maybe it’s what Europeans felt when they put their teenagers on boats to cross the Atlantic, hoping they could make a life in America.
All of those parents anticipated they would never see their children again, but their children would be alive, something that was not guaranteed if they’d stayed put. I don’t know that desperation.

There are over 19,000 unaccompanied children, mostly Central American, currently being held at our southern border, fleeing violence, death and more. It’s not a good situation. But, they’re alive.

I don’t judge their parents. I don’t criticize President Joe Biden for allowing them into the United States. We can’t call ourselves a pro-life nation if we turn these children away.

From Ann M. Pompelio, in Sparta, New Jersey

Six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust

#NeverForgetTheHolocaust

The Butterfly
The last, the very last, 

So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow. 

Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing against a white stone… Such, such a yellow 

Is carried lightly ‘way up high. It went away, I'm sure because it wished to kiss the world goodbye. 

For seven weeks I've lived in here, Penned up inside this ghetto. 

But I have found my people here. The dandelions call to me And the.

white chestnut candles in the court. Only I never saw another butterfly. That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don't live in here, In the ghetto. Pavel Friedmann 4.6.1942.

Joshua M. Greene

Opinion echo published in the Capital Gazette, a Maryland newspaper.

The further the Holocaust recedes into history, the more we witness a dangerous trend toward substituting generic commemoration for the specifics of what occurred. A lighting of candles, a recitation of names and a promise to never forget are the staples of Days of Remembrance commemorations during Yom HaShoah.

What exactly we should never forget is not always explained, and this drift away from the details has taken its toll.

According to a survey conducted in 2020 by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, nearly two-thirds of Americans between 18 and 39 do not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

The tendency to oversimplify the Holocaust was driven home for me recently when a community group called for advice on a film they wanted to produce about survivors living near us on Long Island. They submitted a promotional flier about their project, which read, "These men and women are heroes who embody all that is noble in the human spirit. Their will to survive is an inspiration to us all."

Time out. Are we to assume that the 6 million Jews who did not survive lacked “human spirit” and were bereft of “the will to survive”? In 30 years of research, I’ve screened perhaps 200 hours of survivors’ video testimony, and I cannot recall any of them ever describing themselves as heroes. The Long Island filmmakers were not trying to revise or sanitize Holocaust history, they were simply unaware of how easy it is to propagate inaccuracies.

It is an understandable temptation. After all, who wants to dwell on, or even be exposed to, unspeakable atrocities? Yet without dedicating at least some time to a candid and unedited examination of what happened, Holocaust commemorations risk perpetuating sanitized impressions that, in the extreme, might fuel denial: It couldn't have been so bad. Look at the heroes who survived. They built the state of Israel, they started new family lines, they have a good life — how bad could it have been?

The need for an overhaul of Holocaust remembrance is not only a matter of getting history right but of preventing its repetition. There are substantial issues that deserve inclusion in commemorations, many of them relevant to recent events, such as the inflammatory power of demagogues to radicalize an entire population, the misuse of media as propaganda and the depths of depravity to which humans can fall when fueled by fear and anger — and most troubling, the steady increase in anti-Semitism.

This week is Holocaust Remembrance Week. In addition to lighting candles consider including the testimony of a survivor in how you “never forget.” For example, dig into the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University. The interviews reveal ordinary men and women, constrained by circumstances, and the unheroic things they did to stay alive.

"One night I was so hungry," a woman, Hanna F., remembers, "I couldn't sleep…. I stole that piece of bread [from my bunkmate]. I never admitted it. I was very sorry, because I was hungry and she was hungry … but there was no solution [because] you got diarrhea [anyway and] that was the end. So this wasn't good and that wasn't good: So what choice did we have?"

When we can grasp that nightmares are as critical to our understanding of history as bravery and self-sacrifice, we will have made a significant step toward Holocaust remembrance.

The Holocaust is not ancient history. The same poisons of racism and anti-Semitism that led to the mass murder of millions are at work today, just below the surface of American life. The danger of its recurrence in the future can be mitigated, but only if we enhance our understanding of what occurred in the past.

Joshua M. Greene is an opinion writer for the Los Angeles Times. This column was distributed by Tribune News Service.

COVID- Macabre mathematics: Continuous flow of patients as numbers of mortalities grow

Worldwide spread of the Coronavirus is macabre mathematics.

PARIS (Associated Press) — During their daily morning round of the intensive care unit, hospital staffers and medical students pause outside room No. 10, abruptly emptied of the patient who lost his nearly month-long battle against COVID-19 the previous evening.

The man died at 6:12 p.m., the medic leading the briefing tells the group. There is a short hush. And then they walk on.

Even for ICU workers for whom death is a constant — and never more so than this year — witnessing the loss of a fellow human being to the virus can be a churn of emotions.

COVID infections spread and continue - Bitter experience helps French ICUs crest latest virus wave. Report echo by John Leicester published in the Associated Press.

ROUEN, France (AP) — Slowly suffocating in a French intensive care ward, Patrick Aricique feared he would die from his diseased lungs that felt “completely burned from the inside, burned like the cathedral in Paris,” as tired doctors and nurses labored day and night to keep gravely ill COVID-19 patients like him alive.

A married couple in the same ICU died within hours of each other as Aricique, feeling as fragile as “a soap bubble ready to pop,” also wrestled the coronavirus. The 67-year-old retired building contractor credits a divine hand for his survival. “I saw archangels, I saw little cherubs,” he said. “It was like communicating with the afterlife".

On his side were French medical professionals who, forged on the bitter experiences of previous infection waves, now fight relentlessly to keep patients awake and off mechanical ventilators, if at all possible. They treated Aricique with nasal tubes and a mask that bathed his heaving lungs in a constant flow of oxygen. That spared him the discomfort of a thick ventilation tube deep down his throat and heavy sedation from which patients often fear — sometimes, rightly so — that they will never awake.

While mechanical ventilation is unavoidable for some patients, it’s a step taken less systematically now than at the start of the pandemic. Dr. Philippe Gouin, who heads the ICU ward where Aricique underwent treatment for severe COVID-19, said, “We know that every tube we insert is going to bring its share of complications, extensions in stay, and sometimes morbidity.”

About 15% to 20% of his intubated patients don’t survive, he said.

“It’s a milestone that weighs on survival,” Gouin said. ”We know that we will lose a certain number of patients who we won’t be able to help negotiate this corner.”

Third wave of coronavirus, a variant of the infectious COVID19 virus, is infecting France.

The shift to less-invasive breathing treatments also is helping French ICUs stave off collapse under a renewed crush of coronavirus cases. Super-charged by a more contagious virus variant that first ravaged neighboring Britain, the third infection wave in France has pushed the country’s COVID-19-related death toll past 100,000 people. Hospitals across the country are grappling again with the macabre mathematics of making space for thousands of critically sick patients.

“We have a continuous flow of cases,” said Dr. Philippe Montravers, an ICU chief at Bichat Hospital in Paris, which is again shoe-horning patients into makeshift critical care units. “Each of these cases are absolutely terrible stories — for the families, for the patients themselves, of course, for the physicians in charge, for the nurses.”

Sedated patients kept alive with mechanical ventilation often occupy their ICU beds for several weeks, even months, and the physical and mental trauma of their ordeals can take months more to heal. But 13 days after he was admitted for ICU care in the Normandy cathedral city of Rouen, Aricique was sufficiently recovered for another critically ill patient to take his place.

A non-invasive nasal ventilation system dispensing thousands of liters (hundreds of gallons) of life-sustaining oxygen every hour got him through the worst of his infection, until he was well enough for the flow to be reduced to a trickle and to sit upright, his New Testament bible at his side. Tucking into a small lunch of omelette and red cabbage to start rebuilding his strength, Aricique said he felt resurrected. A nurse freed him from drips that had been plugged into arms, binning the tubes like entrails.

Making rounds with junior doctors and nurses in tow, Dr. Dorothee Carpentier allowed herself a mini-celebration as she swept past Aricique’s room, having declared him fit for discharge. The patient in the adjacent room also could leave, she decided. She described the imminent departures as “little victories” for the full 20-bed ward, a temporary set-up in what was previously a surgical unit and is now entirely converted for C0VID-19 care.

“I imagine they’ll be filled again by the morning,” Carpentier said of the two vacated beds. “The tough thing about this third wave is that there is no stop button. We don’t know when it will start to slow.”

Further down the corridor, a 69-year-old woman placed face-down on her stomach was struggling with the effort of breathing with an oxygenation mask and getting dangerously close to the point where doctors would decide to anesthetize and intubate her. Nurse Gregory Bombard recruited the woman’s visiting daughter-in-law in an effort to stave off that next step, impressing on her the importance of sticking with the mask.

“Morale is so important, and she has to turn this corner,” Bombard said. “We do what we can. They have to make the effort to win, too, otherwise they will lose.”

“Do what you can,” the nurse told the daughter-in-law..

The relative later emerged from the patient’s room misty-eyed and shaken.

“It’s really tough to see her like this,” she said. “She is letting herself go.”

In another room, Gouin gently pleaded with a 55-year-old market stall operator who complained that his oxygenation mask made him feel claustrophobic.

“You have to play the game,” the doctor insisted. “My goal is that we don’t get to the point where we have to put you to sleep.”

The patient concurred. “I don’t want to be intubated, be in a coma, not knowing when you are going to wake up,” he said.

Intubations can be traumatic for everyone involved. A patient who sobbed when he was put to sleep remained sedated in the ICU nearly two weeks later.

“You could see he was terrified,” Bombard recalled. “It was awful.”
___
Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Healing gun violence

"Violence is an interconnected web that has totally entangled our nation." Fr. Bob Layne.

Mass shootings in the USA in 2021: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mass-shootings-u-s-2021-n1264354

Bob Layne: Why do we keep killing each other? Opinion published in the Kansas newspaper The Hutchinson News. Fr. Bob Layne is a retired Episcopal priest in McPherson.

In just one month in 2021, the US has suffered through tragedies in Atlanta, Boulder, Virginia Beach, Indianapolis and other gun murderers.

From whence comes such horrible violence? Why do we keep killing each other? The NRA and the ongoing gun lobby provides the means. The gun culture, so vehemently defended by the NRA, ensures that any would-be murderer has readily available ample means to do the killing. 

Handguns and semi-automatic weapons are nothing but anti-personnel weapons. They are guns designed to kill people. There is nothing “sporting” about them.

Yet, still, the (IMO domestic terrorist group) NRA protects the right and the readiness for any gunslinger to obtain one, including deadly automatic weapons. If violence is the message of the media, the means to do that violence is ensured by well-funded groups, like the National Rifle Association.

Enough is enough!  #EndGunViolence

Unfortunately, the previous Trumpzi national leadership modeled the message. A former guy president sought to solve the evil of terrorism by employing preemptive violence. He chose war.

Many continue to violently die. Obviously, seeking vengeance by returning violence for violence has not worked. And even today, our political leaders are more intent upon destroying the “other” political party than doing the work of the nation. In an important national debate, the message is “destroy the other guy”.

So the message is heard, the means are there, and the violence, physical or verbal, is used. Violence is an interconnected web that has totally entangled our nation.

How can we break free?

Perhaps we might measure a male no longer by his machismo power to conquer and control, but by his strength of character, his respect for all, and his willingness to risk loving another.  Moreover, perhaps we might begin measuring a woman no longer by her measurements and allure, but by her willingness to grow her family, her strength in bringing up those around her and her care for all hurting humanity.

Such a shift in emphasis would certainly be a change in humanity's infrastructure. Or more simply, we might begin to live the injunction given so long ago; we might just begin to love one another. I think it is still worth a try!

The seedbed of all this violence is a constant message that permeates American life: “violence solves problems”. From the Saturday cartoons to cheering fans of Ultimate Fighting in cages, through movies and television shows, we celebrate, sensationalize, and reward acts of violence as the means to solve all our troubles.

The message declares if one’s aims are thwarted, then punish or destroy that which stands in the way.

The problem will be solved. And that is exactly what so many of our vulnerable, impressionable, and immature fellow humans do. They solve their problems by removing the perceived hindrance. 

Such a shift in emphasis would certainly be a change in humanity's infrastructure. Or, more simply, we might begin to live the injunction given so long ago; we might just begin to love one another. I think it is still worth a try!

COVID- Taiwan's government successfully manages the pandemic

"...much to learn from Taiwan..."

"Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a country in East Asia. Neighbor countries include the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south.

This echo essay was published in The Conversation*, authored by Patricia Fitzpatrick**.

Pandemic management:  Taiwan combined case-based policies like quarantine with population polices like masking to fight COVID-19

Taiwan has been widely applauded for the

 management of the pandemic, with one of the lowest per capita COVID-19 rates in the world and life on the island largely returning to normal.

Just 11 people have died from COVID-19 in Taiwan since the pandemic began, an impressive feat for a country that never went into lockdown.

At the start of the pandemic, Taiwan was considered a high-risk country for COVID-19 due to its proximity to China and the frequent travel that takes place between the two countries.

With a history of SARS in 2003, which was not considered to be handled particularly well, the Taiwanese government acted quickly to close its borders this time around. It set up a Central Epidemic Command Centre on January 20 2020 to coordinate cooperation across different government ministries and agencies, and between government and businesses.

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association has examined further just why Taiwan did so well at conquering COVID-19. The study’s authors, from a range of health institutes and hospitals in Taiwan and the US, compared the estimated effectiveness of two types of COVID-19 policy in the early months of the pandemic: case-based and population-based measures.

Case-based measures include the detection of infected people through testing, isolation of positive cases, contact tracing and 14-day quarantining of close contacts. The population-based measures included face mask policies, personal hygiene and social distancing.

The effects of these policies were quantified by estimating the effective reproduction number (R number).

The R number is a way of rating an infectious disease’s ability to spread – it represents the average number of people that one infected person will pass a virus onto. An R number of greater than 1 means the virus will continue to spread and outbreaks will continue. An R number below 1 means that case numbers will start to reduce.

While previous studies in other countries have simulated hypothetical scenarios, this paper combined transmission modelling with detailed real data to estimate effectiveness.

The authors collected data on 158 cases between January 10 and June 1, 2020 from the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, and all cases were confirmed by PCR testing. The data related to locally acquired cases, confirmed clusters, and imported cases in people who entered Taiwan before March 21 2020.

They then compared the outcomes they found in Taiwan with an estimated R number of 2.5, based on the estimated equivalent number in nearby China at the beginning of its COVID-19 outbreak.
The winning combination

The study found that the case-based policies alone, like contact tracing and quarantining, could lower the R number from 2.5 to 1.53. Quarantine contributed the most to lowering the R number.

Case-based interventions could not substantially prevent transmission from one person to another, but could reduce transmission onwards from those secondary cases to a third or fourth person, as long as close contacts quarantined.

Population-based policies like social distancing and face masks, meanwhile, reduced the R number from 2.5 to 1.3.

The authors concluded that it was the combination of case-based and population-based policies, along with widespread adherence, that led to Taiwan’s success in containing COVID. Combining both approaches led to an R number estimated using two different methods to be 0.82 and as low as 0.62. They also found that considerable population-based policies were needed to achieve containment even though the number of circulating infections was small.

Neither approach would have been sufficient alone, even in a country with an effective public health system and sophisticated contact tracing.

What does this mean for other countries?

Acknowledging that all models make assumptions, and this analysis is no different, this paper does confirm that the full suite of public health measures we have been using fairly consistently across the world – to varying degrees of length and stringency – have been necessary. Though it’s worth noting that the results in the study reflects a time when new variants with greater transmissibility were not a problem.

The authors assumed that testing and isolation occurred simultaneously. This was the case in Taiwan, but not in other countries, for example England, where delays between testing, results and isolation diminish the effectiveness of case-based measures.

Taiwan is an island nation, with the ability to control the introduction of new cases through border control, and the authors acknowledge the findings of this study may not be fully applicable to other countries. This is the reason the authors focused on the effectiveness of case-based and population-based interventions on local transmission, rather than on border controls on the number of introductions of COVID-19.

The authors conclude that intensive contact tracing is not possible when public health systems are overwhelmed. This never happened in Taiwan due to the success of its strategies, but it did, for example, take place in Ireland in January 2021, which experienced a damaging third wave of COVID-19.

This paper also found similar results for seven-day and 14-day quarantine and suggest that the quarantine period could be shortened. This is being considered by some countries, including the USA, but it has not been introduced on a widespread basis to date.

We already knew there was much to be learned from Taiwan’s success in preventing COVID-19 from taking hold. Now, as vaccines roll out and new variants emerge, we have more information about the comparative and combined contributions of public health measures.

**Full Professor of Epidemiology & Biomedical Statistics, University College Dublin

*https://theconversation.com/how-taiwan-beat-covid-19-new-study-reveals-clues-to-its-success-158900?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter%20%20April%2016%202021%20-%201919718773&utm_content=Daily%20Newsletter%20%20April%2016%202021%20-%201919718773+CID_7116b37b734853892adfbfd81f33d86a&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=How%20Taiwan%20beat%20COVID-19%20%20new%20study%20reveals%20clues%20to%20its%20success

Another COVID fringe conspiracy theory!

Published in The Conversation* by Eric M. Vanden Eykel

OMG! No, the COVID-19 vaccine is not linked to the cryptic "mark of the beast" – but a first-century Roman tyrant probably is.

The mass rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has led to concerns from some people that can be described as rational: What are the side effects? How effective will the shot be? 

But, then there are those who are worried that the vaccine will brand people with the “mark of the beast” as described in the New Testament’s Book of Revelation (!- Thank goodness for this essay, by Dr. Eykel.).

The mark of the beast – a cryptic mark in Revelation which indicates allegiance to Satan – has been invoked by fringe Christian figures throughout the pandemic in reference to what they deem to be the evil of masks and (OMG!) vaccines. It ranges from the seemingly metaphorical likening of vaccine passports by a Republican House representative to something like “Biden’s mark of the beast” to the more literal interpretation that those getting a vaccine would be marked as followers of Satan.

It is tempting to dismiss such beliefs out of hand. After all, it is a fringe idea promoted by conspiracy theorists. 

Nevertheless, the absurd idea has gained enough traction that some medical establishments have felt the need to address it head on. Minneapolis-based Hennepin Healthcare, for example, states in an online fact sheet that “the COVID-19 vaccines do not contain … The Mark of the Beast.”

As a scholar of early Christian literature, I would note that the mark of the beast in Revelation has throughout history been misunderstood as referring to various events and phenomena. Its connection to the COVID-19 vaccine is but the latest example of such (IMO- stupid!) misunderstanding.

Moreover, I argue that the mark in Revelation is best understood in the first-century context in which it was used, as a polemic against the Roman Empire.

Reading Revelation with first-century eyes

The Book of Revelation is a complicated text. Written toward the end of the first century by an author who calls himself John, the text is filled with symbolic imagery that has mystified readers for centuries.

Using visions of angels and demons, death and destruction, John tells a story of an ongoing cosmic battle between good and evil that will end with good triumphing eventually. The beast and its mark are both understood by this author to be evil, and they are some of the most well-known and most misunderstood parts of his story.

In Revelation 13, John describes the beast as having seven heads and 10 horns, a leopard’s body, the feet of a bear and a lion’s mouth. The beast in this text is powerful, Satanic and is an object of worship.

There is also a second beast that promotes worship of the first. The most notable thing about the second beast is that it causes people to receive a mark on their forehead or right hand with “the name of the beast or the number of its name.”

John concludes this chapter with a riddle: “Let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred sixty-six.” (Rev 13:18).
The beast and the empire

Throughout history, this number has been used to demonize phenomena that readers are either wary of or don’t fully understand. It should come as no surprise, then, that some have tried to connect the COVID-19 vaccine to the mark in a similar way.

This interpretation is problematic, however, and for two reasons: First, the COVID-19 vaccines are modern phenomena that the author of Revelation and his earliest readers would have no familiarity with. Second, there is another explanation for the beast and its number that makes far more sense historically.

Many biblical scholars maintain that the first beast is a symbolic representation of first-century Roman emperors. In this reading, each head would represent one emperor. While there is some debate in scholarship on which specific emperors the author of Revelation is alluding to, there is fairly widespread agreement that Emperor Nero is one of them.

This conclusion is drawn not only from other references to Nero in Revelation, but also from his reputation in the first century for persecuting Christians in Rome.

In A.D. 64, when Nero was emperor, a great fire took hold in Rome and burned for nearly a week. Roman historians Suetonius, Cassius Dio and Tacitus claim that Nero himself was the one responsible for igniting the blaze, Tacitus adds that Nero attempted to free himself of blame by placing guilt on the Christians living in the city.

The Book of Revelation (also called the Apocalypse of John, Revelation to John or Revelation from Jesus Christ) is the final book of the New Testament, and consequently, is also the final book of the Christian Bible.

Nero’s number

There are a number of other points in Revelation where the author seems to allude to Nero. There is a possible reference to the great fire of Rome later in the text, for example, in Revelation 17:16. John’s description of one of the beast’s heads being “wounded” may likewise be a reference to Nero’s death, which Suetonius describes as a self-inflicted stab to the neck.

But perhaps the clearest reference to Nero in Revelation is the infamous “666,” the number of the beast that constitutes the beast’s mark.

Past, not future

Although there has been much speculation over the number’s significance in the past, there is a growing body of scholars who believe it to be a direct reference to Nero.

There is a well-known practice in the ancient world called “gematria,” in which letters are assigned numerical values. This allows authors to refer to individuals by using “the number of their name,” rather than their actual name. And biblical scholars have long noted that in Hebrew characters, the numerical value of Nero’s formal title – Caesar Nero – is 666.

This, along with the other allusions to Nero in Revelation, leaves little doubt, I argue, as to who the author is referencing with this number.

There is, however, one piece of this riddle left, and that is what exactly the mark of the beast in Revelation is. Given the symbolic nature of the book as a whole, the reference to being marked on the forehead or hand is likely not something to be taken at face value.

More important is John’s claim that no one would be able to buy or sell anything without having the mark that bears the name of the beast. So, what does one need to buy and sell that would also have the name of the beast on it? One possible answer to that question is money – and we have numerous examples in the archaeological record of Roman coinage that bears the name Caesar Nero.

One of the reasons that Revelation is often confusing to those trying to interpret the book today is that they frequently are trained to see it as a book about the future, when in fact, it is primarily a book about the past. Clearly, John and his first-century readers would have been able to know the answer to “What is the mark of the beast?” in their first-century context. 

Otherwise, the text wouldn’t have made much sense to anyone when it was first written.

In other words: when John gives his “number of the beast” riddle to readers in the first century, he anticipates that it is a riddle they will be equipped to solve in the first century.

While some may have lingering questions about COVID-19 vaccines, the question of whether those vaccines are linked to the mark of the beast shouldn’t be one of them.

*Eric M. Vanden Eykel is Associate Professor of Religion, Ferrum College, Virginia.

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