Spring must finally be here. Here is the first day of spring as seen from my bedroom windows and again, a few days later.
A
surprise visitor from 20 years ago, Matt,
rang my doorbell, someone who had stayed at my house before I joined the Peace
Corps. This time, he came from his home in Delaware with his two sons.
Another visitor, who used to live in the DC area and was always active in promoting human rights, is now retired to Minnesota. She is Sister Alice, who recently celebrated her 93rd birthday at Communitas, a local Catholic community gathering.
Another visitor, who used to live in the DC area and was always active in promoting human rights, is now retired to Minnesota. She is Sister Alice, who recently celebrated her 93rd birthday at Communitas, a local Catholic community gathering.
Here’s
an article about a woman living in Vermont whom I have known all my life, Wanda Johnson, now age 104! I always send chewable goodies for her to share at her
birthday party. Wanda is fortunate that, at her age, her three children are all
still living. (My late son Andrew is alive and well only in my dreams.) http://www.montpelierbridge.com/2019/03/from-egypt-to-vermont-wanda-johnsons-transoceanic-love-story/
While
we are on the subject of old friends, I am an older person, a friend of readers
of this blog, who recently had a birthday, but I won’t say which one, shown
being celebrated here with daughter Melanie.
Meanwhile, another good friend, Bill Jones, with whom I worked side-by-side, both of us as longtime volunteers with Amnesty International USA, has died. Bill was in charge of Turkey and often picked me up in his car to drive us to regional conferences. Our lives had intersected at various junctures around the world, including in the former Yugoslavia. He lived in SW DC and his memorial service will be held at a church here on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, another good friend, Bill Jones, with whom I worked side-by-side, both of us as longtime volunteers with Amnesty International USA, has died. Bill was in charge of Turkey and often picked me up in his car to drive us to regional conferences. Our lives had intersected at various junctures around the world, including in the former Yugoslavia. He lived in SW DC and his memorial service will be held at a church here on Capitol Hill.
As
board president, I just received a notice from DC government that the tax
exemption for our adoption agency, Children’s
Adoption Support Services, was expiring. Our agency actually expired long
ago. We founded that agency with the late Hope
Marindin, herself the single adoptive mother of three children, including one
from Vietnam. I once wrote an article about Hope, a single adoption pioneer,
and her kids that appeared in the Washington
Post. Alas, adoption, especially international adoption, has been caught up
in politics (remember Don Jr.’s meeting with the Russians?) and excessive red
tape originally intended to protect children, also has been eclipsed by international
surrogacy.
Robert Mueller has submitted his final report, which
apparently neither exonerates nor indicts Trump, though few have actually seen
it. There is apparently neither a smoking gun nor a clean bill of presidential conduct.
It looks like we will have to endure having Trump in office for two more years and simply keep on trying
to mitigate the damage. We got through the last two years despite considerable harm
done to so many people and we will have to continue to do the same now. As much
as a majority of Americans would dearly love to see Mr. Trump gone,
gone, gone, it may be hard to prove that he actually committed a criminal
offense, especially as he is protected as president and refuses to answer questions
orally under oath. His has been a destructive and deliberately cruel presidency,
mitigated, to some extent by the inexperience of his staff and his own stupidity.
Right-wing websites and messages are now gleefully declaring that Trump has been “vindicated
“and “fully exonerated,” hardly the case. Sarah Sanders has labeled the whole investigation
“treason.” Trump also has alleged “treason” and “evil” acts, vowing to investigate.
But a conclusion that may not meet the high bar for proving criminal intent “beyond
a reasonable doubt” hardly proves innocence. His son and others seem to have tried to collude with Russia, but were
unsuccessful.
Now,
for a specified donation, right-wing websites are offering a chance to win a dinner
with a triumphant Trump! (I cannot imagine anything less appealing!) Trump’s
adversaries are being described as “radical leftists” bent on obstruction to advance
their nefarious “socialist” agenda.
Trump
and Republicans seized the advantage that Barr gave them and were quick to spin
the Mueller report as an issue that’s now over and done with, the end, finis, a final and complete vindication
of Trump, thanks to Barr’s carefully worded initial summary, leaving that impression
with the voting public before the full report is actually released, if ever. McConnell
is already vowing to block release of the full report. If and when it is released
and Democrats delve into the details, that PR impression will have already been
cemented in the weary public’s mind. Democrats may then be accused of knit-picking
and ganging up on Trump after Barr already had seemed to have declared him innocent.
Lock ‘em up! Jared and
Ivanka apparently have
used personal e-mail for government business and persist in doing so. Donald
has not even publicly scolded them so far.
The
Conways’ family feud has given us a
little comic relief. I can imagine the two of them laughing at home together at
having fooled both the public and Donald Trump with their show. Meanwhile,
Kellyanne is bringing home the bacon to support the family and there is always the
prospect of her own future tell-all book.
Catastrophic climate change seems to be happening all around the country
and the world, but Trump appears not to have noticed. He does make perfunctory
trips to the scenes of environmental catastrophe, along with a stone-faced and
seldom seen Melania (almost her only recent public appearances), whenever red
states are afflicted. Are continuing weather extremes merely unlucky twists of
fate that Mr. Trump is helpless to confront? Most of us already know the answer,
even if he does not. Tough luck, Puerto Rico; blind fate simply assaulted you
folks who are not really Americans anyway and President Trump is apparently helpless
to confront climate change. And as the man continues to rail against dead war hero
Senator John McCain, it’s time for the public to tell Trump, “Just shut up for
a change!”
Migrant labor shortages have contributed to the woes of agriculture
and dairy producing states already taking a big hit from Trump’s tariffs, also affecting
shortages in child and elder care. Only recently, because of press scrutiny (“fake
news”?), have Trump properties actually fired undocumented workers.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/436459-trump-threatens-to-close-mexican-border-next-week
While
labor shortages abound in agriculture
and construction, where the lack of foreign workers are being felt most acutely
right now, eventually, as machines and self-driving vehicles become more
efficient and reliable, human labor will then be less in demand. Autopilots
will largely replace human pilots as Boeing and other manufacturers figure that
out. It’s even happening in my own current sphere with computer translation. Health
and service jobs will still exist, but everyone should have more free time. Then
it will make sense to move ever closer to the Nordic model of levying substantial
taxes and providing basic benefits universally. Republicans and Mr. Trump (trying
to mimic aspects of historic socialism by curbing free press and speech) can
call the Nordic model “socialism” if they like, but it won’t be a governmental
dictatorship, as in the former USSR or even contemporary China, or in Cuba and
Venezuela where free speech, free press, and free voting are not allowed. Instead,
Nordic nations have shown the way by allowing considerable freedom for economic
development and free expression, but a more equitable distribution of income from
taxes, demonstrating that such a system is do-able in the modern world. We would
no longer need to have the big gap that now exists between the uber-wealthy and
the have-nots. There will still be enough challenges to fulfill what my old occupational
therapy colleagues call “meaningful activity.”
Although
it is a smaller and less prosperous country than the US, Colombia, unlike the US, is doing its best to accommodate Venezuelans
streaming across its borders to escape the Maduro regime, no walls, no threats
to shut down the border, no sending people back.
Anti-vax Kentucky Governor
Matt Bevin boasted that
he deliberately exposed his children to chickenpox
to avoid vaccinations. He was lucky, as they all apparently survived unscathed.
Chicken pox is a childhood disease that’s usually less serious as some others,
such measles, which can have more dire or even fatal consequences. However,
even chickenpox is not totally benign. During my 3 1/2-year tenure as a Peace Corps
health volunteer in Honduras, I saw cases of kids who suffered lasting injury from
chicken pox, including a formerly healthy teenage girl who became permanently
paraplegic. I helped fit her for a wheelchair. Besides the risks that anti-vaxxers
may inflict on their own offspring, they are also preventing the development of
the herd immunity that protects those unable to be vaccinated because of
serious health problems.
Country
singer Justin Carter was killed by
the accidental firing of a gun used as a prop in a music video, another example
of how an accidental gun death can so easily occur. A little girl playing in
her back yard in Tennessee is also near death after being hit in the head by a stray
bullet. New Zealand’s swift action on gun control has been an example to other nations.
We literally dodged a bullet in my family when son Jon was only shot in the
foot, not killed instantly at age 11 by an unsecured bedside handgun dropped by
another boy. (It’s more than enough that I’ve endured the deaths of my older son
and my Cuban foster son). Two apparent suicides by survivors have resulted from
the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, becoming further casualties of that
attack, and another suicide was reported by the father of a Sandy Hook victim. Vigilance
is required to assure that this suicide contagion does not spread further. The
New Zealand mass shooting has aroused such fears again.
Majority sentiment in
the US favors stricter gun control,
but a quirky modern Supreme Court reading of the Second Amendment, contrary to
what had been the prior understanding, has led us to this unfortunate point. But
nothing is set in stone. Political winds do change. Supreme Court justices are
not immortal nor is the idea of a lifetime appointment and/or having nine
justices necessarily sacrosanct. Likewise, abolishing the Electoral College
and the congressional enfranchisement of us citizens of the District of
Columbia will both eventually come about, though probably not in my lifetime. What’s
fair is fair, after all. Majority rule
may be imperfect and seem oppressive to the minority, but minority rule, as we
have now, is even worse. The Democratic Party and candidate Hillary Clinton
obviously failed to appreciate the appeal and strategy of Donald Trump.
Democrats should have learned their lesson. They failed to take such a ridiculous
candidate seriously and even Trump was caught by surprise by his victory. Now
we are all living with the consequences.
Has
the “Me-too” movement gone too far in targeting Joe Biden for kissing a woman’s hair? What about a man embracing a
woman and kissing her on both cheeks, as is common in Latin countries? Is it
always wrong if the woman decides she doesn’t like it? How is assent discerned
in such ambiguous cases? There may be a generational divide, with men of Biden’s
age greeting women affectionately, whereas younger men just shake hands. What
if a woman spontaneously hugs a man without his consent? We are in a grey zone
of changing mores. Nancy Pelosi has
advised Biden and other men to “straight-arm” women, no more hugs.
In
late March, the case of our Amnesty
International Cuban prisoner of conscience, Dr. Eduardo Cardet, was presented in Geneva at the Summit for Human
Rights and Democracy. Also in March, Mexico
deported 66 Cuban migrants back to Havana,
apparently the only migrants being deported by Mexico.
For
the third year in a row, Trump is
recommending a cut in the Peace Corps budget, which comprises only a minuscule part of the total federal
budget. This time the proposed cut is $14 million, which would have a considerable
negative impact. Probably few Trump voters have any connection with Peace Corps,
the only thing that counts for him. And, yes, most voters do like tax cuts, but
cuts for what? Many of us would like
to see cuts in military spending, in aid to Israel and Egypt, and in “wall”
funding. But we’d also like to see more taxes levied on wealthy individuals
and corporations and even on ourselves to fund universal health care, rebuild
Puerto Rico, increase food stamps, add more early childhood education, and also
to expand the Peace Corps. Most Republican voters and office holders, if confronted
with someone drowning or bleeding, would rush to their aid. However, in the
abstract or the aggregate, with Trump as their leader, they refuse to help anyone,
only to punish or hurt them and to create havoc.
Closer
to my everyday life, a reader has made a good suggestion for parents of children with developmental
delays or behavior issues now being seen by a therapist (with me as interpreter),
namely reinforcing individualized treatment sessions with access to video lessons.
I know that sometimes groups of parents have gathered together to watch such videos,
but it would be helpful for them to also have personal access. Necessarily, those
videos would not be specific to their own child.
When
writing in Spanish or reading aloud
from a text, I always appreciate the phonetic
quality of the written language compared to English. There are a few tricky
areas, such as the silent “h” and, in Latin America, the often inter-changeable
sounds of c, s, and z, also of y and ll. Sometimes x and j can sound the same, as
in México. Given those relatively few exceptions, why do so many Spanish-speakers,
even some well-educated ones, misspell some common Spanish words? Probably because
their schools never taught them spelling. Accents present another sort of challenge.
Furthermore,
while English pronunciation stresses consonants, Spanish gives more emphasis to
vowels. Reading aloud can highlight the differences. When I’ve asked the adult
child of an older patient who’d never learned to read to read a medical consent
form aloud to their parent, they cannot do it, leaving that task to me. They
say they learned to speak Spanish at home, but never to read and write in Spanish,
which looks to them on the printed page like a foreign language!
Neo-Nazi flyers have reportedly been distributed in my
own Capitol Hill neighborhood.
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