In the mean time

   As a blogger and a (now occasional) columnist, I feel that it’s important that I keep up with the news. Also, I confess that I’m a news junkie – or, really, a politics junkie.  I am fascinated by how people get power and what they do with it. 

   But, lately, this interest, passion or addiction(?) hasn’t been good for me.  Lately, the news has left me very upset and angry, even enraged.  Politics is often rough and can be outrageous, but these days, politics have gotten downright mean, downright cruel, never mind stupid. 

   What else can you say when governors, as in Georgia, are outlawing mask-wearing mandates, making it illegal to say people have to wear a mask when COVID-19 cases are soaring and thousands are getting unbearably sick, if not dying? This is outrageous.  It’s insanity. It’s also cruel, when wearing mask can prevent illness and save lives.      

   There’s also the two guys, seen on a youtube video (ttps://youtu.be/3Q3PSISAZL8) getting harassed and even cussed out when they try to hand out free masks in Orange County – the same county not far from here where the health director received a death threat and resigned after mandating masks and a education committee advised that school campuses open next month without mask-wearing and social distancing and where coronavirus cases are spiking.

   We have all heard about this and other such stupidly these days. I can go on for pages (I already have!) But have you heard that, as recently reported on the PBS News Hour, the Trump administration is rolling back hunting regulations put in place by President Obama and now say that you can hunt bears using bacon and doughnuts? To clarify, you will now be able to entice, to lure bears with doughnuts and bacon and then kill them.  Not unlike shooting fish in a barrel. 

   That’s just mean and cruel.  There’s no other reason, no other way to explain it.

A happy re-birth-day?

   I wrote the following column for the Claremont Courier, published yesterday, based on my recent post on the politics of wearing masks.  I have heard some say that the current protests and angst won’t lead to much real change, but maybe this toned-down July 4^th is a chance to reflect on how to make this change happen. 

          IN A TIME OF PANDEMICS, AN OPPORTUNITY FOR REBIRTH

  Sometimes, it’s the little things that count.  Sometimes, the little things are what bring joy and pleasure.  That’s especially true during this pandemic and the recent uprising over police brutality and racial inequality, as overdue and as hope-inspiring as it is. (Did they have to happen at the same time, especially as protesting could be dangerous, even lethal, with COVID-19 in the air?)     

   After an unusually chilly early Spring (at least for me now with my neuropathy after my spinal surgery three years ago), I have ventured out on my own in my wheelchair.  I have delighted in these independent excursions around my neighborhood and a bit beyond (during the stay-at-home orders, we are allowed to go out for walks).

   But I have to say that, when I forget to have my mask put on when I go out, I feel naked, even when masks aren’t mandatory. 

   Perhaps it’s weird that this is how I feel.  They say we are to wear mask to protect others, to not spread germs to others, not to protect ourselves.  Not only is it highly unlikely that I have the coronavirus, as isolated and careful as I’ve been, I often do not encounter many people on my outings and do not get close to those I come across. 

   But, as superficial and shallow as it sounds, when I don’t wear a mask on my strolls, I feel I’m sending the wrong message (I can hear my dad saying I was making a statement in what I wore or with my hair). In short, and again at the risk of sounding shallow and superficial, when I don’t wear a mask when out, I’m reminded of President Trump, who never wears a mask when on television, saying that those who wear a mask don’t support or like him.    

   This isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds.  The sad, crazy fact is that wearing a mask – or not wearing a mask – has, as with way too many things these days, become political.  Indeed, as my dad might say, wearing or not wearing a mask is now a statement. 

   It is reported that, in general, most Democrats wear a mask when out, and most Republicans don’t wear a mask, or don’t support wearing a mask, when out, perhaps following their leader’s example.  But this is apparently more than a simple red state/blue state thing. 

   It’s also said that men are more unlikely to wear masks, likely thinking that it’s unmanly to do so.  (I have seen families out walking, with all but the father wearing a mask.) Furthermore, evangelical Christians are also reported as less supportive of mask-wearing, probably with the belief that their faith will protect or save them.   

   It kind of makes sense that a man thinking he can tough it out or an evangelical Christian believing that their faith will pull him/her through (or Heaven awaits them) or a person like Trump, who clearly just thinks of himself, would think that wearing a mask is stupid, wrong, humiliating, even if it protects or saves others. This was pretty much the subliminal or not so subliminal message from those anti-stay-at-home protesters with their guns and confederate flags and even those gathering to have fun and a good time, despite all, in large crowds at the beaches. 

   As at least someone with a severe disability which may be an underlying condition making me more endangered by COVID-19, I don’t want to be a part of this. I want to be seen doing the right thing and   to encourage others to do the right thing.  I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.  This in why I feel naked, in a bad, shameful way, when I find myself out without a mask. 

   (Now, as for the mask that I wear, I am making a statement, as my dad would say, and I encourage others to do so as well. I currently wear a rainbow (gay pride) mask, and I’m trying to get other cool – colorful, perhaps tye-dye or batik) – masks.  If we have to wear masks, and we probably will have to for a while, I figure, why not have fun with them?)

   But what has been going on is far more, a bigger thing, than whether we can go for a walk in the neighborhood and even whether we wear masks or not.  And what has been going on is not just out there on the news. 

   Indeed, we Claremonters have been subject to the stay-at-home rules and mask-wearing mandates.  Furthermore, there have been COVID-19 cases here in town, and, in this community in which small businesses and restaurants are very much a part of its well-known identity, the shut-down and nervous reopening have been very much felt. 

   And Claremonters have been touched by the outcry against police brutality and racial injustice in the wake of the video showing George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, being slowly, casually crushed to death by a white Minneapolis police officer.  There have been peaceful marches in town, joining with the many across the nation and even the world, with thousands putting themselves in danger of contracting and spreading the virus.  Even the residents of Mount San Antonio Gardens had a march of their own in their locked-down grounds. 

   What’s more, when I drove by a demonstration nearby in Pomona, there was a sign mentioning Irwin Landrum, a Black man, and that he was killed by Claremont police during a traffic stop some years ago. In the wake of the fatal shootings, City officials made some gross missteps, leading to various reforms, significant shake-ups at City Hall (including on the City Council) and serious community discussions and reckoning. 

   This has been a remarkable, extraordinary combination of events – a pandemic that requires us, or should require us, to stay home and is proving to be controversial and a brutal police killing that has demanded a vociferous response out in the streets despite what is now required to be safe. No doubt, the country and this town have been put through the wringer in these last few months. 

   Hopefully, all this angst hasn’t been for naught.  Hopefully, we’ll learn from it.  There is talk of major police reform, talk of finally making Black lives matter, talk of providing better healthcare to all, talk of being better prepared for the new infections that are sure to come.  Hopefully, this is all more than talk.    

   I can’t help but think that it is significant that all this has been happening in the weeks and months leading up to July 4. The holiday celebrating our nation’s birth has been very much changed this year, thanks again to the pandemic.  The Fourth has always been an uniquely special day in Claremont, and it will be a shadow of itself this year. 

   But perhaps this Fourth can also be different in another, brighter, hopeful way.  There is the opportunity, the hope, for this Independence Day to be a rebirth of sorts. Maybe, just maybe, we can learn from the pandemic and the civil unrest and take this opportunity to make this community and this country a safer, healthier and fairer place for all who are here.

On masks

When you wear a mask, you're saying, "I love you.  I care about you." When you don't, including Trump, you're saying, "Fuck you."   

Amazing x 2

   One good thing about the quarantine, with apologies to the Hollywood studios and the movie theaters that are struggling to say the least, is the movies that are coming out online, that we can watch at home. Every Saturday (and a few Friday) night for a while now, I’ve been turning on Netflix or Prime and, from the comfort of my bed, watching some good stuff. I could get used to this (which is surely one reason why the studios and theaters are freaking out)! 

   This past Saturday was no exception, to say the least, after Netflix released Spike Lee’s new opus, Da 5 Guys, on Friday. 

   Lee has made a steady stream of good to excellent and provocative films in the last 30 years or so, and Da 5 Guys is, simply put, amazing.  It’s one of his best and could well be argued to be his best.  It’s at least as great as Do the Right Thing.  Or it will be at least looked back on like we now look back on Do the Right Thing. 

   Da 5 Guys is about 5 Black Vietnam War vets who return to Vietnam to find the body of a fallen comrade and a buried cache of gold bars, and not one minute of its two-and-a-half hours running time drags.  In addition to an engaging, exciting, sometimes tense and thrilling story, Lee packs in loads of commentary and ideas, including some brutal jabs at Trump, and references dozens of movies from Apocolypse Now to Treasure of the Sierra Madre and all sorts of others in between. 

   A couple other notes: It’s way early to be making award predictions, but there will probably be talk about not only hopefully the movie and Lee but also Del Lindo, who plays the volatile, troubled vet who, much to the other’s surprise, voted for and plans to again vote for Trump and unapologetically wears a red MAGA cap (watch out for the very funny commentary that Lee sneaks in). I should also say that there are violent, bloody scenes – not only obviously the combat depictions – not for the feint of heart. 

   Another amazing thing is that this film, with its story about and commenting on Black men having fought for a country in which they’re still struggling to get opportunity and respect, is coming out during this time of massive uprising for racial equality and more civil rights and against police brutality and injustice that particularly affects African-Americans, as well as other minorities.  It’s as if Lee knew months ago that this would all be going down now. 

   Like I said, amazing.       

Worried sick

   I don’t get it. 

   None of this pandemic business makes sense anymore.  And for someone like me, who doesn’t want to end up in the hospital in my situation, this is more than a weird or funny mix-up.  This is life or sometimes death – for us all, not just me. 

   On the one hand, everything is opening up, with business going back to as usual or close to as usual, even here in California, which had especially strict shelter-in-place rules, or in New York, which had very high infection and death rates before its own very strict shelter-in-place order.  There are stories about people eating at restaurants, movie theaters opening and all that. 

   Whether or not this makes sense and social distancing, disinfecting, mask-wearing, etc, is followed – will it be, really? – this is all about money, getting the economy going again.  But there is also talk of kids going back to school in a couple months.  Really?  Perhaps college students and maybe high school students will sit six feet apart, but will first and second graders?  And won’t they fiddle with their masks all day? 

   On the other hand, it is said, sometimes in headlines but usually buried in stories, that there will be another wave of the coronavirus, in the next month, in the Fall, and that it will be worse. 

   You think?  Especially with people eating in restaurants and whatnot.  What’s more, I have seen medical experts interviewed saying that children shouldn’t, can’t, go back to school until there’s a vaccine – next year at the earliest. But that’s not talked about.  It’s too hard. 

   And then there was the police murder of George Floyd the subsequent civil unrest, with thousands of folks protesting, passionate and close to each other.  Things are better now that the protests are pretty much peaceful, without all the jostling and close, dangerous encounters to say the least, and perhaps most folks are wearing masks (the ones that say “I can’t breathe” are especially ingenious), but forget about social distancing. This is a big concern, even though the protests, yes, have lead to some remarkable changes – overhauling of a few police departments, vows to or talk of implement real police reform – that will hopefully be sweeping and lasting (I’d hate to think that this massive – the largest ever? – and dangerous civil rights uprising is for naught).  

   As one friend said when all the protesting began and especially when there was rioting and looting, the virus is gone.  Not only in the way people were acting but also in the news. 

   There are already more COVID-19 cases, at least here in Los Angeles County.  Does this mean there will be shut-down?  I don’t know.  I really don’t know anymore.  You’d think things will slow or shut down if cases rise, but it seems that making money, getting the economy going, is all-important. 

   But should there be an economy – can there be an economy – when so many people are getting sick, when so many are dying?    

   You see what I mean?  I don’t get it, and, what’s worse, I don’t know if it’s safe, or if I’m safe, anymore.

Pandemic punishment

   “Lack of coverage has forced Marrs to forgo asthma inhalers and dental work on a molar she said was broken in a domestic dispute.
   ‘I’ve been living on Orajel,’ she said.”
   It’s bad enough that last week was, seriously, one of the last weeks in this nation’s history.  On Wednesday, America reached a tragic milestone with 100, 000 COVID-19 deaths.  In addition, earlier in the week, George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis was killed, murdered, when a white police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for almost 9 minutes as 3 of his fellow officers watched.  This lead to protests and then, tragically, sickeningly, destructive violence, still going on, all across the county, which with surely lead to another wave of coronavirus infections and more stay-at-home orders and economic hardships.  Also on Wednesday, Larry Kramer, the fiery AIDS activist who wrote the heart-wrenching, blistering The Normal Heart, died.  (It is poetically, sadly ironic that Kramer, whose ranting and railing helped get treatment for AIDS patients, died, although of different causes, during a pandemic and days of rioting.) There was also, as always, Trump and his way of not helping or making things worse, when he should be doing and we desperately need the opposite – but that goes without saying. 
   As if all this wasn’t enough, a knee to all our necks, the above quote from an article appearing in the Los Angeles Times a week ago makes clear that some states – red states - have made life even harder for some folks.  The article compares Texas, which chose not to expand Medicaid under Obamacare and which is where the unfortunate Ms.  Marrs lives, with California, known for generously expanding healthcare coverage.  This difference has become all the more stark during the pandemic, when having no medical insurance is even more dangerous. 
   From the Los Angeles Times article:
   “Texas became the epicenter of Republican resistance to the Affordable Care Act. State leaders blocked Medicaid expansion, leaving more than 750,000 low-income Texans without access to coverage. Even before the coronavirus outbreak, a quarter of working-age Texans lacked health insurance.
   “The state also refused to establish its own insurance marketplace and dropped quality-improvement initiatives funded by the healthcare law.
   “Today, Texas heads an effort by 19 GOP-led states and the Trump administration to get the Supreme Court to invalidate the whole law. That case has continued despite the mounting toll from the pandemic; the justices will consider it in the fall.”
   It’s hard not to feel like this is some sort of punishment for being poor, if not black or brown. It’s hard not to feel this isn’t a punishment for not pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps, for not having bootstraps to pull oneself up with.  That’s what it sounds and feels like. 
   Here’s more from the article, quoting Ms.  Marrs about her life in Texas now that she is on her own after leaving her abusive husband:
   “’I had to decide if I was going to stay in a really bad situation to keep my insurance or leave for the sake of my safety and the safety of my kids, knowing I’d lose my insurance,’ she said.
   “’It’s crazy.’”

   There was also the sheriff of San Bernardino County, literally down the street less than a block away from my house, that I read about in the Los Angeles Times a month or two ago (I’m very sorry I couldn’t find the story in the useless search engine on the Times’ not-impressive website.) He had no sympathy for prisoners, for whom being in jail puts them in great danger of getting sick with the coronavirus.  When asked if non-violent prisoners should be released, as is happening in most counties at least here in California, the sheriff said “nope” and essentially said they should have thought about that when committing their crimes (never mind that there was no pandemic several months ago when most of the crimes were committed).

    “I don’t deserve to die,” said a prisoner in a unrelated story regarding being locked up in unhygienic, close quarters during this time of coronavirus.  Too bad.  Especially when the president labels the protesters “THUGS” and says, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”