Month: July 2020

Wealthy Chicagoan

One wealthy man in Chicago had his fortune protected from the Stock Market Crash of 1929.  As the economy tanked, many workers lost their jobs.  The banks closed, and savings vanished. Thousands of Chicagoans were left without a way to pay the bills, cover the rent, or even buy food.  

But the wealthy man in Chicago still had money and felt their pain.  He opened up a soup kitchen that served thousands perhaps their only meal of the day.  He also made sure that clothing stores took care of those who couldn’t afford the literal shirts on their backs.  

But there are no statues to this generous and worthy man in Chicago.  Despite the lack of city gratitude, we still all know his name, albeit for a somewhat different reason:  Al Capone. 

His example serves two points.  First, it doesn’t take a monument to remember history. Even the most vicious criminal, who used a baseball bat to kill two associates at a dinner, is not forgotten.  And second:  even evil people sometimes do something worthy of praise.  Capone is remembered in Chicago; in fact, he visage is replicated in the wax museum.  But he’s not handing out meals.  

The Dam Tour 

(The dam video)

Herbert Hoover was a proponent of the Colorado River dam long before he was President of the United States. As Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge’s Secretary of Commerce, he pressed for the structure, both as a water conservation measure, and as a way to control floods in the California valleys where the river flowed.  It took nine years, and his election to the Presidency to get it done, as well as complex deals with three states and Mexico for the water rights.  

And the dam itself took five more years to build, creating Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States (when its full).  Ninety-six men lost their lives in the construction process. When it was completed, Hebert Hoover was out, a failed Presidency in the light of the Great Depression.  The new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, dedicated the dam on September 30th 1935, with 10,000 spectators there for the ceremony.   But Roosevelt was not interested in honoring his predecessor.  The engineering marvel was called the Boulder Dam for the first twelve years of its existence.

It wasn’t until FDR was gone, and Republicans gained control of the post-war Congress, that the name was changed to the Hoover Dam.  So Hoover’s role wasn’t forgotten.

Call it What?

Mt. McKinley was the highest peak in North America.  While it took until the late 1800’s for humans to know that, it was there for hundreds of thousands of years before.  McKinley peaks at 20,310 feet high, and was named in 1896 by a random gold miner who arrived at its base.  He liked the Governor of Ohio, a Republican candidate for the Presidency.  William McKinley won the election, and the name stuck.

But it’s the highest mountain in North America, so it’s not like it was “discovered” in 1896.  The native peoples of Alaska were well aware of the peak that they called Denali.  Alaskans wanted to restore the original name to the mountain for decades, but Congress blocked the change. Politics being politics, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Congressman Ralph Regula of Canton, Ohio led the campaign for “McKinley”.  President McKinley was a native of Canton; his tomb is located there.  

In 1980 the National Park surrounding the mountain was renamed Denali National Park, but the mountain itself remained Mt. McKinley.  It wasn’t until 2015 during the Obama Administration that the name Denali was restored to the mountain itself.

Erasing

History wasn’t erased by not placing a statue of Al Capone on the Magnificent Mile or down by the “Bean” in Chicago.  And Capone’s good acts could not erase the criminal actions of his life.  No one forgot the role that Herbert Hoover played in the building of the dam that now bears his name.  Politics prevented his immediate recognition, but Hoover lived to see his name placed on the dam he was so instrumental in developing.

And the almost random naming of a mountain in Alaska for the Governor of Ohio running for President took over a hundred years to undo.  But today, it is the ancestral name of Denali now graces the maps, the Park, and the Mountain itself.

Who Writes Your Story

(Hamilton, of course)

Names change, and monuments and statues go up and come down.  They are not history:  they symbolize a view of history.  That’s why it is perfectly appropriate to take a statue of Robert E. Lee down in Richmond, while one remains on Seminary Ridge at Gettysburg.  It’s not erasing history, in fact, its laying history bare for all to see.  Lee was a fine soldier, and an honorable man.  But, as modern day General Stanley McChrystal laid out in his essay explaining his own changing view of the Confederate general:

“Lee’s own statements on slavery are conflicting, but his overall record is clear. Although he repeatedly expressed his theoretical opposition to slavery, he in fact reflected the conventional thinking of the society from which he came and actively supported the “peculiar institution” of slavery. Well before joining the Confederacy, Lee loathed abolitionists, and his feelings hardened as the Civil War dragged on” (Atlantic).

Lee’s statue in Richmond and other towns was erected as part of re-writing history in the 1890’s, the revisionist movement to erase the stain of slavery.  But just because it was rewritten in the past, doesn’t mean it can’t be revealed in the present.  McKinley became Denali.  Boulder became Hoover.  And Lee’s statues to racism should come down.  His place in history won’t be erased.  But we can remember him for what he really did.

Pandemic Reality

We are in the middle of a global pandemic.  As much as many American leaders have tried to deny it, the growing number of COVID-19 diagnoses, over three million, and deaths, almost 133,000, tell the tale.  The infection rate is growing, particularly in those states that seemed to try to deny that the virus was serious.  The newest “stat” that helps to reveal the increase: the number of new infections diagnosed in each state per 100,000 people every day (WAPO).  Arizona is the “winner” right now, with fifty-five new cases per 100,000.

By the way, I’ve used the quote from my old boss, Pete Nix, before, “Figures lie and liars figure”.  And yes, I’m figuring.  So do the COVID deniers, who now are boasting on social media that the “death rate” is going down:  “Woo-Hoo”!!!  As more and more folks get infected, yes fewer of them are dying.  But drop by any hospital in Houston or Phoenix.  They are at capacity, and physicians are making life and death treatment choices multiple times a day. Doesn’t sound like a “Woo-Hoo” moment to me. 

We Blew It

The European countries seem to have the virus under control.  So does Canada.  Mexico seems to be in trouble.  But the big world “failure” in COVID-19 control is the United States of America.  How do we know for sure?  Well, for the first time in my memory, Americans can’t travel out of the country in most cases.  Europe doesn’t want us, neither does Canada, and Mexico is moving to block the border as well.  They don’t want Americans, because they don’t want the brushfire of COVID to spread.  Can’t blame them.

But we are desperate to get back to normal.  We want baseball and football; we want to go to restaurants, beaches and bars.  And for many Americans, we absolutely want our kids to go back to school in the fall.

School Bells

There’s good reason for that.  I spent a career as a public school teacher.  Most kids learn better in a classroom in a school.  They need to be around their peers, and taught be professionals, in person. And most parents need their kids to go to school, so they can go to work.  Every good educator can make a strong case that schools work, and kids need to be there.

I had the surprising “honor” of being back in a classroom when the COVID crisis began.  I took on a long-term substitute position, and started on March 9^th.  A week later, we were checking out of the building, and I entered a whole new world of online teaching, Google’s classroom application, and Zoom meetings.  So I have some first hand knowledge of what it’s like to be a “remote” teacher.  And, for most kids, it’s not as good as the real thing in person.  It’s not as good for most teachers either.

So, in a normal world, school bells should be ringing in August.  Parents should be shopping for back-to-school, and teachers getting their classrooms and lesson plans ready for the year.  But it ain’t a normal year.

Egg Crate Incubators

We know that when we put people together in close groups, we dramatically increase the rate of COVID-19 infection.  Most have carefully tried to control their “circles” of exposure, but “normal” school will throw all of that out the window.  Try passing through the hallway of any school at the beginning or the end of the day – there is no such thing as “social distancing” there.  

And our schools “egg-crate” design puts dozens of kids together in relatively small rooms.  Sure there’s the new nursery rhyme: “Your mask helps me, my mask helps you, social distancing helps us both, and staying at home helps us all”.  And teachers are capable of keeping masks on kids, particularly in middle and high school.  We stopped them from chewing gum for years, and the mask won’t stick to the bottom of the desk.

But in the end, it doesn’t seem like just wearing masks will be enough.  We can reduce the number of kids in a building, but by doing so, we are keeping kids at home.  “Educationese” has a new term: “hybrid learning”.  Two days in school, three days online at home:  that’s the proposed new school week.

We can all “rest easy”.  The kids are going to transmit COVID-19, until we have a vaccine there will be no way to avoid it.  No matter the prevention efforts, there are going to be outbreaks.  Any given year’s flu season is evidence of that.  But kids don’t seem to be too impacted by COVID, so it’s OK – right?

The Staff

There are two major issues that make this NOT OK.  Issue one:  kids go home after school.  Sure it’d be all right for most kids to get COVID and get through it.  But when they go home, they’re going to give it to Mom and Dad, and maybe Grandma and Papa.  That’s not going to be OK, as Mom and Dad head to work before they know they are infected, and increase the spread. And while kids normally have good outcomes from COVID, their parents, well not so much, and their grandparents may be facing death sentences.  So there’s that.

Issue two:  what about all of those adults who are standing in front of those kids in class?  What about the teachers, and the custodians, bus drivers, principals, and support personnel?  They are the age of the parents and grandparents.  How much risk are they supposed to assume?

Get a Shot

I know medical personnel have been assuming risk for COVID for months.  So have other “essential workers”.  But few other workers are set into the “hotbed” of a school environment.   As a substitute teacher last year, I got a flu shot for the first time.  I did it for three reasons.  First, I hadn’t been in a school environment for a few years, and I lost my “natural immunity” built up through forty years of hanging out with kids, sick or not.

Second, as an older teacher, I know I’m more vulnerable to the illnesses that I would have ignored in my earlier years.  And third, I have a wife at home, not seasoned by years of exposure.  I needed to protect her from whatever was floating around the building.

But there is no vaccine for COVID.  And all of the risks that convinced me to get the flu shot last year are compounded by the potentially fatal illness, for me, and my family.

So that’s easy for me, don’t substitute until there’s a vaccine.  But what about the other teachers who aren’t retired, and are required to go back to work?  What sacrifices are we asking them to make?

Public Education

It’s public education in the United States.  You know there won’t be the resources to reasonably protect the kids or the adults.  Will there be a new mask for each kid each day?  Or even for the kids who “forgot”?  And when they take kids temperatures at the front door, how are the kids getting off the bus going to get back home?  For parents already stressed by a shaky economy, whose going to leave work because the kid’s at 99.7?

What happened in the “old days” before last March?  Kids went to school with fevers, and when the school personnel found out, the kids hung out in the “clinic” until parents arrive to get them – maybe for hours.  But you can’t do that in a COVID world; they can’t be in the building.  

I don’t have many good answers to all my questions.  What I can say is this.  We better be ready to do online schooling, and we better be ready to do it better than we did before.  Because we didn’t do what Europe did.  We didn’t make the sacrifices to stop the disease.  And the price to pay is that we are going to live with it until the vaccine arrives.

So better get a decent computer and high-speed Internet.  Your kids are going to need it.

Revelation

This is an era of revelation, in the truest sense of the word. We are “revealing” to the world, and to ourselves, the reality of American history. Like any honest reckoning, it is painful, not the childhood story we remember and want it to be. George Washington didn’t chop down the cherry tree, though many “Muricans” want to believe in our historical fairy tales. Now, from those who are descendants of the suffered, we are hearing out loud some of the searing, honest, truth.

President Trump intentionally emphasized these revelations by his actions on Fourth of July weekend.  First, he went to Mt. Rushmore to give a speech and create a spectacle.  It was all summed up in one photo, the President and the First Lady standing on the stage, the monumental faces of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt staring over the scene. 

Six Grandfathers

Mr. Trump gave a speech defending the Founding Fathers, the mythical story of “Murica,” and defending the “right” of privilege.  And he did it at the “Six Grandfathers”, the Lakota name for the peak renamed “Rushmore” by the men who violated the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.  The treaty guaranteed the Black Hills to the Lakota Sioux for their exclusive use.  It lasted almost six years, before a brash young Colonel George Custer took his Seventh Cavalry in to “protect” the miners and settlers who were breaking the terms of the agreement.  

We know how that turned out for Custer, but the real tragedy is that the sacred land of the Lakota was soon lost to them forever.  So Mr. Trump’s appearance, driving away the Native American protestors and mandating fireworks in spite of the threat of forest fires, just amplified the point.  ‘Murica is for winners:  the Lakota were the losers, in 1874, and today.  That’s what our “history” should be.

Immigrants

America is a miraculous nation.  There is an immensely positive story to tell of American exceptionalism:  a nation founded by immigrants, searching for a better way of life.  Emma Lazarus defined it well in “The New Colossus”:  

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

Immigrants, both voluntary and involuntary, built our “more perfect union”.   That’s the story we have learned.  But in this recent era of revelation, we are being held to the “lightning flame” of our original sin.  Our nation was built upon the bodies of the aboriginal peoples, the “Indians” as Columbus called them, even though he was far from India.   Thank you, Mr. President, for making that so clear by ignoring it completely at Six Grandfathers.

Slavery 

On this Fourth of July, I watched a 1972 movie about the writing of the Declaration of Independence.  1776 glosses over many of the Founding Fathers imperfections (though their interest in sex was made abundantly clear).  But it does confront the second original sin of “our more perfect union”, slavery.  Benjamin Franklin laid out Founding Fathers choice outright when John Adams threatened to lose the vote for independence over slavery:  “…how dare you risk our revolution”. 

 And John Rutledge, delegate from South Carolina made sure that everyone knew their complicity.  Yes, it’s the men of the South who owned the slaves, but it’s the Boston merchants of the North who make “shillings” in the “Triangle Trade”.  Bibles and rum to Africa, Slaves and Bibles to the West Indies, molasses back to Boston for rum, silver in the pockets of the Northern traders.  The colonies depended on slavery, even from the very start, from South to North.  No region was innocent. (If you’ve got the stomach for raw honesty – here’s the Rutledge song of the Triangle Trade).

Slaves, the “involuntary immigrants”, were as much a part of our “more perfect union” as the Germans, and the Irish, and the Italians and the Chinese.  Their labor built America; slave hands set the bricks of the White House and the Capitol. Their sweat and blood is literally the foundation of our government.

Disrespect

And Washington DC is almost 50% African American.  The mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, a Black woman, is tasked with trying to control the COVID-19 pandemic in her town.  Common sense dictates that in a pandemic, social distancing and masks reduce the spread of the virus.  It’s also commonsense that large crowds should be avoided.  And that’s what the Mayor has said.  

But the President determined that there would be a National Fireworks display on the Mall in Washington, and that there would be crowds for him to speak to.  So there was an air show on the Fourth at the National Mall, and a Presidential speech, and not one but two sets of fireworks.  The fireworks “bracketed” the speech.  I imagine they thought it would give Mr. Trump a better crowd.

Hard to figure who “won”:  the Mayor or the President.  There were fewer people than the normal Fourth of July crowd, and most who came showed up for the second set of fireworks, after the President’s speech.  But it was clear that the President disrespected the Mayor, and the majority-minority city.  He did that with full knowledge of the message it sends.

Good Old Days

Mr. Trump, in both speeches, called for a return to the “good old days” when Christopher Columbus “discovered” America (Trump even remembered it was 1492) and the slaves were happy on the plantations.  That mythology has long passed by:  even back in the 1960’s I learned that as far as Europeans were concerned, Leif Erickson came to North America far before Columbus mislabeled his charts, and that the “Indians” didn’t really sell Manhattan for twenty-four dollars worth of beads and trinkets.  

It is no accident that a portrait of Andrew Jackson now overlooks the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.  Jackson acted without regard for human rights.  He was a slave owner, and the prime mover behind the Indian Removal, only a part of which was the Trail of Tears.  Jackson saw himself as a general in charge of a nation.  When the Supreme Court, led by venerable Chief Justice John Marshall, ruled against him; Jackson said, “John Marshall has made his decision, let him enforce it”.

Trump’s Strategy

Can’t you see Mr. Trump saying the same to John Roberts should they require him to turn over his tax returns?  Or release those held in the border “camps”?  Or demand that he vacate the White House after Joe Biden’s inauguration?

President Trump has determined that his political strategy is that white people want to go back to the 1950’s.  We recognized it in 2016.  In the first month of Trump World  I wrote about it in Trump World and the Beaver.   But in 2020, he is doubling down on that emphasis, willingly giving up any façade of recognizing discrimination and altering “the truth” to embolden his minority base of white people to come out and vote. 

He is encouraging hate, and lies, and privilege:  all in plain sight.  He doesn’t want a multi-cultural America.  That America won’t vote for him.  He’s settling for ‘Murica – because they want Trump.

Politics

The reality of American politics is that sometimes your candidates win, and sometimes your candidates lose.  Get involved and committed, and the wins are incredible.  That same commitment means that the losses are even more devastating.

But the other reality of American politics is that sometimes we have to compromise, to take less than we want, both in our policies and in our candidates.  Bill Clinton was that kind. He was a tremendous disappointment as a Democrat.  Sure, he was better than George Bush Sr., or Bob Dole, or Ross “Can I Finish?” Perot.  But Bill Clinton was as moderate a Democrat as they come, really Republican-lite.  In fact, he helped drive the Republican Party to the “right”, because he absconded with their positions in the center.  

Clinton

And, of course, Bill Clinton “sullied” the Presidency.  Impeachment and removal was definitely too much, especially when driven by three Republican leaders:  one who cheated on his wife with cancer, another who just cheated on his wife, and a third who molested the boys he coached in wrestling.  They were Republicans:  ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich, Speaker-elect Bob Livingston who replaced him, and Dennis Hastert, the Speaker who ultimately got the job.  They definitely lived in “glass houses” and shouldn’t have thrown stones.  

And Clinton should have resigned.  It would have been the honorable thing to do.  But he didn’t, and Al Gore, his Vice President and the Democratic candidate in 2000 took “the heat” from the American public.  Gore won the popular vote, but, like Trump in 2016, George W Bush managed to eke out an Electoral College victory.  The Supreme Court, in a party line 5 to 4 vote, stopped the count in Florida giving the election to Bush. 

Bush

So George W Bush became the President of the United States, and perhaps worse, Dick Cheney became the Vice President.  What was “Republican-lite” under Clinton, became hardcore American “might makes right” under Bush-Cheney.  

As a Democrat it was all too much to swallow.  The almost panicked, bug-eyed vote counter in Palm Beach County, searching for “hanging chads” seemed to characterize the whole election.  Bush felt illegitimate, a President by the choice of five Republicans on the Supreme Court, not the American people.

But there was one saving grace.  If you didn’t like the President in the White House, there was a much better one on TV. Martin Sheen played Jed Bartlet, the Democratic President in the The West Wing, and for seven years helped us remember what “big D” Democracy was all about. 

The West Wing

While Bush was banning “partial birth” abortions, giving trillions of dollars to the already rich, and costing senior citizens with the Medicare drug “donut hole”, the cast of The West Wing was pursuing better policies for America.  They too had to compromise, and take only a portion of what they hoped to achieve.  But they, unlike Dick Cheney, listened to America, even the crazies on “Big Block of Cheese” day, and made you feel like the country could be good again.

When 9-11 hit, there were the first hours when Bush was shuttled from Florida to Louisiana to Nebraska.  Who was in charge?  Dick Cheney seemed to be running things, from the basement of the White House or some undisclosed location.  It wasn’t until that lone plane with fighter escort passed overhead, that the President returned to take command.  And when he spoke at Ground Zero in New York, and then at the Islamic Center in Washington, we started to have some confidence in our leadership.

The West Wing helped nursed us through the attack as well.  The first show back after the attack, Isaac and Ishmael, helped educate the nation about who really attacked us.  The simple equation:  “Islamic Extremists to Islam = KKK to Christianity,” explained a lot.  I used it in class later on.

Obama

So for six of the long years of George W. Bush, including another heartbreaking defeat with John Kerry in 2004, The West Wing helped get me through.  And when The West Wing left us in 2006,  they did so with the first Hispanic President, Matt Santos and a Republican Secretary of State, Arnold Vinick, the close loser in the Presidential race.  The show also left us with real life sorrow, as the venerable Chief of Staff turned Vice Presidential candidate, Leo McGarry, died in real life of a massive heart attack.  And so he did on the show, on election night.  We mourned both.

Did life imitate art, or art imitate life?  Barack Obama, the first African-American President, won in 2008.  And while the next eight years had frustrations, both with the President, and more often with the Republican led Congress, there wasn’t the need for a theatrical alternative to the reality of the White House.  Yes they compromised, and they made mistakes in the Obama Administration, but like The West Wing, the muddled through in the right direction.

Trump

And then came the world of Donald Trump, and the ugly, bitter, down in the dirt election of 2016.  Like 2000, the vote was so close.  Hillary won the popular vote, Trump the Electoral College.  But for the thumb of Jim Comey on the scale on October 28^th, perhaps we would have had four more years of Democrats.  But Comey did what he did, probably because the investigation would have leaked anyway, and Trump was President.

It wasn’t a TV show that helped me through this political existential crisis.  Instead, it was a Broadway production, a musical of all things, grounded in what American democracy (little ‘d’) might be.  A “hip-hop” version of the life of Alexander Hamilton, with the roles of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the all-white founding fathers played indiscriminately by African-American, Hispanic, or white folks.  When I heard that description originally I thought it was a joke, some kind of farce.  

Hamilton

But then I heard the songs, and I caught the spirit of the story.  In a time when immigrants were being locked up at the border, their children ripped away, Hamilton was describing immigrants, “We get the job done,” helping start America.  The Trump Era, when government seemed nothing except a self-serving way to increase the profits of the rich, and most importantly the Trump family, there was the story of the sacrifice “for the Revolution”.

It’s a story of strong women and flawed men.  But most importantly, it’s a story of hope.

Hope is what I sorely needed for the past three years of Trump.  I saw the touring show of Hamilton twice, first in Cleveland, and then later in Columbus.  We were headed back to Cleveland for a third time, when the pandemic changed our plans.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the author and original lead in the Broadway show, is very much aware of the impact of his creation.  It is no surprise then, that in the midst of the pandemic, the original cast Broadway version of the movie was released for the Fourth of July.

Friday night, my wife and I had a “pandemic” date night.  We had early drinks, shrimp cocktail, and filet mignon.  Then it was onto Hamilton, a show we know now by heart.  But it was even better.  If immigrants “get the job done”, then the original Broadway cast really does it even better.  We soared, and cried, and were uplifted by their performances, and the message of Hamilton.   It once again helped get us through this tragic political time.

It gave us hope.

I hope we won’t need on the Fourth of July next year.

Another in the “Out My Window” series about life in the COVID-19 pandemic

Shopping

So we ventured forth into Columbus yesterday.  While we haven’t been “hermits” for the past few months, we haven’t gone into the city too often. Recently our trips have been going to some woods or abandoned factories to try to trap lost dogs.  But today, as we travelled through town, we heard the news from Ohio’s Governor Mike DeWine.  On a COVID crisis scale of 1 to 4, Franklin County (that’s Columbus and the surrounding suburbs) is at a ‘3’, and seems headed to ‘4’.  Four is the worst, back to the lockdown mode of March.  I don’t know what that means as far as businesses are concerned, but I expect restaurants and bars will be so limited that they are either forced to close by the state, or by the economics.

We were out buying a new hot tub.  For those who remember the days of track team parties and Cross Country winter runs at five in the morning, after twenty-one years my old hot tub finally bit the dust.  There are lots of memories and scars on that thing.  It’s onto a new one, and it will be here on Monday.  But the old standing invitation to use it anytime, even three in the morning or during a snow storm, isn’t in effect.  Not, at least, for a while:  not until COVID-19 is no longer a big part of all of our lives.

Not Normal

And, for only the second time since the fifteenth of March, we ate at a restaurant.  We were outside, on the patio, carefully placed away from others.  It wouldn’t really have mattered; three o’clock isn’t rush hour in most places, and certainly not at Fado’s Irish Pub.  But it still felt good to be out, to be drinking beer from the tap (Harp’s – it’s summer) and eating food someone else made “right there”.   But with the virus growing, it’s probably like that March 15^th meal… the last time out for a while.

One of our favorite places to visit is a little fishing town called Sebastian, Florida.  We liked it so much, we spent the winter camped nearby (camper, not tent!!) a couple of years ago.  The prime nightspot in Sebastian is Captain Hiram’s Hotel and Restaurant, along with the “Sandbar” bar.  Just got an email:  first a restaurant employee was diagnosed with COVID and the restaurants were closed. Now a hotel worker has it too.  Captain Hiram’s Resort is closed for the unforeseeable future.

Figures Don’t Lie

The numbers are staggering:  50,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the United States — every day.  Sure we are testing more people.  But more people are “failing” the tests too.  Statistically speaking if you test more, you should have a lot more negatives.  But that’s not what’s happening.  In places that tried to ignore the first onslaught of COVID, like Florida, and Texas and Arizona, now hospitals are getting maxed out with patients.  And it’s not just a “red state” phenomenon. California is also seeing staggering growth in disease diagnosis.  

2,787,038 Americans have been diagnosed so far.  130,906 have died.  You do the math – but to save time – it’s about 4.6%.   That’s 2300 deaths per 50,000 diagnosed.  And the number diagnosed is growing exponentially (ncov2019.live) (WAPO). 

We are far, far from over the COVID pandemic.  In fact, it seems we are really just beginning. 

Heigh Ho Silver!!

There is some good news.  President Trump yesterday actually said, “…I’m all for masks”.  That’s a sea change from the “I don’t need one” that we’ve heard for the past four months.  Now, he thinks it makes him, “…look like the Lone Ranger”.  That’s fine if it works for him.  And I’ve already seen movement among his devout supporters, who until now have spent paragraphs on social media trying to disprove the value of masks.  All of a sudden, they’re wearing them.  If mask wearing stops being a Red/Blue symbol of ideology, and starts being the “human” thing to do, I guess I don’t care how it happens.

Wearing a mask is the right thing to do, though nowhere near a perfect “preventative”.  Your mask helps me, my mask helps you, social distancing helps us both, and staying at home helps us all.  I know there are folks who can’t tolerate an N-95 mask.  So use a bandana.  And I have a good friend who cannot hear, and reads lips.  Masks cut her off from the spoken world.  Our world needs to accommodate her needs.  Social distancing and pulled down masks can work while we keep her in the conversation.

Play with COVID

We’ve missed the time when we could “stop the virus”.  Now we have to wait until we have a cure, and a vaccine.  And for those who cruelly say, “…well we’re all going to get it anyway, so let’s get it over with”:  I hope it’s not your mother, or wife, or father or son that can’t “beat the odds” and dies.  

And while I’m ranting, stop making fun of the college kids in Tuscaloosa.  They had a “COVID Party”, like the anti-vaxxers “chicken pox parties”.  One person has the virus and everyone paid into the pot.  The next person diagnosed wins the cash.  Let’s hope they don’t win the big “jackpot in the sky”.  The story reeks of “privilege”, the privilege of ignoring science.  That got us in this mess in the first place.  Sure they’re kids and they’re being stupid.  But there are plenty of elders who’ve been just as stupid about this too.  At least someone will get “silver” in this deal.

Home Bound

It’s tough to travel:  how do you stay in a hotel, or eat in a restaurant? Yes, we can haul the camper, but just being “on the road” means we are going to be in more “social contact”.  And if we can’t go into the local pizza place, or the neighborhood bar, or the “Piggly Wiggly” grocery store without worrying, or creating worry, it’s just not as much fun.  

So we’re going to hang here at home.  We’ve got a new “foster” puppy, but the “foster” title fell away pretty quick.  She’s won a place on the bed, and in our hearts.  “Keelie” is the newest member of our pack.  And we keep doing home improvement projects.  The utility room is redone, the garage is insulated and shelved, and the new hot tub is on the way.  The salesman said that seems to be the “way of the world” right now.  Everyone is doing home projects:  what else can they do?  He’s selling hot tubs and outdoor furniture so fast that folks are on waiting lists for months.   

“Months” is probably about the right amount of time.  It will be months until a potential vaccine can begin to put an end to COVID.  Months before we can have a national strategy for dealing with the crisis.  And months before we can even start thinking about “back to normal”.  

Guess we’ll be hanging here at home, playing with Keelie and soaking in the new hot tub.

At the suggestion of a good and old friend, here’s a “what-if” story!!!!  There’s a lot to talk about – you can check out part one here: The Clinton Years – Part One.  So here’s part two: 

In the Year 2020 

Can’t help that this song got stuck in my head (In the Year 2525)

Impeachment

It was towards the end of 2019. The Republican dominated House of Representatives moved to impeach and remove Hillary Clinton from the Presidency.  Congressmen Trey Gowdy and Jason Chaffetz turned down lucrative media offers to stay in the House.  They joined the other “crazies” of the right, Jim Jordan, Mick Mulvaney, Mark Meadows and the rest.  All wanted nothing more than to remove a Clinton from office.

The case against Hillary Clinton was not based on the 2016 campaign. They were unable to find charges against getting aid from foreign powers, or using hush money to pay porn stars (Bill, if he did, was “slick” at it).  The Republican Judiciary Committee brought a single charge against the President: abuse of power.  That charge was based on subversion of the Constitution. They claimed the use of executive orders circumvented the legitimate legislative authority of the Congress.  

The hearings began in the fall of 2019, with the predetermined full vote of the House at the beginning of 2020.  The timing wasn’t about when the alleged abuse occurred, but as an opening gambit to the 2020 Presidential campaign.  

Still in Office

The Republican leadership of the House, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy, stood back and let it happen. The impeachment hearings went on just as the Benghazi hearings, ad naseum.  As McCarthy said before the 2016 election:  

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not fought.”

Hillary Clinton became the third President of the United States to be impeached (and the first Presidential couple to share the dubious honor).   But the Republicans had only a narrow majority in the Senate.   After a long drawn out hearing with multiple witnesses, they could only muster fifty-four votes for removal, far short of the sixty-seven needed. She remained President.  But the Senate did drag Hillary Clinton through the mud, putting dirt on for the 2020 campaign.

Pandemic

The administrative prowess of the first woman President proved important when US intelligence sources reported to her about the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China back in November of 2019.  She immediately put travel bans on China, and demanded that American scientists from the Centers for Disease Control, as well as the World Health Organization, be admitted to the scene.  These early actions gave Europe and America a fair warning of the impending pandemic.  By Christmas world health organizations were tracking the virus, and isolating any cases that spread out of China.

Testing and tracing became commonplace in the United States.  And while there were outbreaks of the disease, quick and decisive quarantines led to limited social upheaval, and controlled the spread.  The United States adapted to a new normal, a world of facemasks, temperature taking and constant testing. Actual infection rates remained low, with hospitals able to handle the additional burdens, and the fatality rate stayed at a “flu like” fifty thousand. 

The economy took “a hit”, with a modest increase in unemployment and a fall in the stock market.  But, with some modifications, most Americans were able to continue their normal lives, jobs, schools, and recreation without too much disruption.  Like the “bird flu” of 2005, or the Ebola outbreak of 2014, the COVID-19 virus was contained and controlled.  

The leading virologists praised the Administration’s efforts.  They spoke of the catastrophe that was avoided, having to shut down the entire country and hundreds of thousands dead.  On “Trump TV” though, the ex-candidate and others were quick see the government action as overreach, making conspiratorial claims that Clinton was trying to assume dictatorial powers.  The ugliness of 2016 was still here.

Violence

Hillary Clinton shared the frustration of Barack Obama when it came to mass shootings.  Unable to pass any meaningful gun restrictions through the Congress, she tried to regulate guns through changes in the administrative codes.  High capacity magazines and bump-stocks were banned, but shootings continued in a nation now even more divided.  The Supreme Court, in spite of the addition of Garland, upheld the Second Amendment right to own weapons, and pro-gun activists joined in organizations even more extreme than the National Rifle Association.  

Law enforcement, aware of the divisions caused by social upheaval, tried to gain control by the use of “broken windows” philosophy.  Small crimes were swiftly and dramatically punished, with the idea that action would prevent more serious behavior.  But the death of several unarmed black men at the hands of the police caused mass demonstrations in the streets.  Clinton agreed with the demonstrators in her famous “Black Lives Matter” speech, but “Trump TV” and other sources encouraged counter “blue lives” and “all lives” demonstrations. There were violent clashes between the forces. The National Guard was back at work, trying to maintain order.

Summer of 2020

Donald Trump chose not to run for President again, saying that he was too old, and so was Hillary. After the declaration, he famously picked up a golf club and teed off on the first hole at Mara-Lago. House Speaker Paul Ryan “reluctantly” accepted the “draft” of “moderate” Republicans to run for President. He was able to overcome more extreme opponents like Rand Paul and Trey Gowdy to gain the nomination.  But the cost of his victory was acceptance of a “pro-Trump” type agenda, putting him firmly on the side of gun and police rights.  

Hillary Clinton ran for a second term, though she dropped moderate Tim Kaine from the ticket.  In solidarity with minorities, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is the new Democratic candidate for Vice President. As we enter a 2020 election the need for that change demonstrates how divided the nation really is.   

Clinton Report Card

The first term of the Hillary Clinton administration had successes.  She has proven to be an able administrator, and an effective leader of American foreign policy.  The alliance with the European Union and NATO are stronger than ever, even more so with the collapse of the Putin regime in Russia.  It is still unclear what will follow his demise.

The goals of the Paris Accord are slowing being reached.  Only China and India remain as the world’s great polluters, and the combined economic pressure of the European Union and the United States is gradually forcing them into compliance.  There is great hope that the radical climate changes caused by carbon pollution might be avoided after all.

But domestically the nation is torn.  The Republican dominated Congress has done little to aid the racial strife, and the constant friction between Congress and the Presidency is wearying.  That, by the way, is the basis of the Ryan for President campaign slogan:  “Return to Normalcy”.  It should surprise no one that he reached back to Warren Harding to find a theme.  It worked for Harding in similar circumstances.

America’s Choice

The other question to be determined by the American people is whether they are in favor of a divided government, with the Presidency and the Court controlled by moderate forces, and the Congress more conservative ones.  The outcome of the Clinton-Ryan choice is unclear, but just as unclear and important is who will control legislation when the dust clears in November.

So America, 2020 offers a choice.  Vote Republican, for Ryan and the Congress, and get a government that can act as one.  Or vote for Clinton, and change the Congress to do the same.  Or reflect the current state of the nation, and continue a divided government that doesn’t seem to work at all.

At the suggestion of a good and old friend, here’s a “what-if” story!!!!  There’s a lot to talk about – so here’s part one: 

A Nation Divided

January 20, 2017

The view from the Capitol steps was awe-inspiring.  The crowd size rivaled Barack Obama’s 2008 inaugural. It packed in from the front of the Capitol back to the Washington Monument and onto the side streets beyond.  Most were dressed in white, in honor of the suffragettes who fought for the vote. They matched the color of the President-elect’s pantsuit.  While the clouds threatened rain early, as midday approached, the sun peaked out.

A little before noon, three former Presidents took their places behind the podium.  Outgoing President Barack Obama, along with the First Lady Michelle, sat beside former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura.  Then former President Bill Clinton emerged from the Capitol, accompanying the incoming forty-fifth President, Hillary Clinton.  They smiled as they shook hands and worked their way down the stairs to meet Chelsea in the front row seats.

The 2016 election was a near thing.  Donald Trump tapped into a vein of extremism in America, and did much better than polls predicted.  And it wasn’t just Trump:  America was still a misogynist nation.  Hillary Clinton faced an uphill battle from the start as the first woman to earn a major party nomination.  

She hadn’t helped herself with the email scandal, dragged out by seven different Republican Congressional investigations.  The FBI cleared her in the summer before the election, but there could have been an “October surprise”. The Bureau discovered more emails on an aide’s computer.  FBI Director James Comey followed Department of Justice policy and kept that discovery a secret. He faced withering criticism after the election. He hadn’t revealed the discovery to Congress, and was forced from office. But no additional information was gained, and Clinton squeaked to victory.

Competence

Hillary Clinton wasn’t a great campaigner.  Her analytical mind didn’t lend itself to the campaign “pep rallying”, and unlike her predecessors, she was unable to empathize with voters.  But the one thing Hillary Clinton had, was competence.  She knew how Washington worked, even from her early days as a staffer on the House Judiciary Committee in the Watergate era.  Her years as First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State gave her insight into the system beyond any previous leader.  It was as if William Seward succeeded Abraham Lincoln, instead of Andrew Johnson.

The first test of the new administration was the still open seat on the Supreme Court.  Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to allow President Obama a final appointment to the Court, hoping that a Republican would gain the Presidency.  But with Clinton’s election, McConnell was faced with the prospect of holding a vacancy for four years.  

Clinton knew that this nominee would set the political tone for the entire first term.  And she was acutely aware that she was replacing Anton Scalia, the archconservative anchor of the right.  So instead of a Ginsburg or Sotomayor type nominee, the new President followed the lead of her predecessor.  She re-nominated moderate Merrick Garland, who was confirmed to the Court by a wide majority of the Senate.  A few Republicans held out. They were led by Senator Rand Paul’s filibuster, but ultimately McConnell allowed the choice to go through.

Legislation

It was the last legislative cooperation for the Hillary Clinton administration.  The Republican House and Senate passed bill after bill, trying to repeal the successes of the Obama Administration.  The Affordable Care Act was on the block multiple times, but neither house was able to reach a veto-proof majority. Americans became comfortable with the protections it provided.

Meanwhile President Clinton continued the Obama trend of governing by Executive Order.  The Dreamers remained protected despite the failure of Democratic backed legislation. And the United States became world leader in repairing the environment, following through on the goals of the Paris Accord.  Emissions standards on vehicles were increased, and the costs of automobiles went up.  The cost of gasoline went up too. Consumers found they were spending more for energy.  

Environmentally dirty energy sources such as fracking and offshore drilling were regulated out of business.  This caused higher unemployment, and strengthened the hand of Republicans going into the 2018 mid-term elections.  House Speaker Paul Ryan led his Party to an even stronger majority in the House and McConnell was able to keep his control of the Senate.  So the US had a divided government, forcing Clinton to nominate moderate judges, and strangling Administration legislative plans.

First Man

A new issue for America was what to do with a “First Man” in the White House.  Bill Clinton had to create a new role, a former President now out of command.  Hillary realized that Bill could best be utilized in foreign policy. The “First Man” spent a great deal of the first years travelling overseas.  His already established relationships with world leaders helped solidify American leadership, but rumors of extra-marital affairs ultimately caused the President to keep him back. He spent the last two years exiled at their Chappaqua, New York home.

Clinton strengthened America’s role as world leader, but also commanded greater US military involvement.  She kept the US out of direct action in Syria, but American troops were committed to protecting the Kurds in the North. A standoff with Turkey and Russian-backed Syrian troops ended in a short but decisive battle.  Russia and Turkey backed away from the confrontation, but the US lost key NATO bases in Turkey, particularly at the Incirlik airfield.  

The Clinton State Department, led by Secretary Jake Sullivan, developed a Western coalition to block continued Russian interference in elections.  With the coerced cooperation of Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders, Russian social media manipulation was cut off.  Additional Russian failures in the Middle East and the failure of the Russian kleptocracy due to strengthened sanctions over Ukraine, led to the collapse of the Putin regime.

Polarization

President Hillary Clinton was an effective administrator, but was unable to “unite” the nation.  It wasn’t helped by the continual House investigations, led by Congressmen Chaffetz and Gowdy. They scoured every Clinton Administration action for possible wrong-doing.  It also didn’t help that Congress was frustrated by Clinton’s avoidance of Congressional power through executive orders.  

Meanwhile former Presidential candidate Donald Trump found a new resonance on “Trump TV”.  The network, founded in the closing days of the 2016 election campaign, gave the New York real estate mogul a new public platform. He spoke from his Trump Tower Boardroom or the eighteenth green at his Mara-Lago resort. His signature signoff line of:  “Hillary, You’re Fired” became an American catch phrase.

The election of Barack Obama as the first African-American President led to racial divisions. The election of Hillary Clinton polarized the nation even more over women’s rights.  Anti-abortion groups grew more militant as they recognized that with Garland on the Supreme Court, abortion rights were secured law.  

Growing protests and even terrorist actions occurred near women’s health clinics. Several state Governors refused to use National Guard troops to protect them, so Clinton nationalized the forces and sent them in.   Social media and television were filled with images of suburban white Americans, even children, standing face-to-face with helmeted and armed soldiers. 

All of this led up to 2020, a year of pandemic, fire, upheaval, and racial tensions. Oh, and by the way, another Presidential election.