The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in state at the U.S. Capitol. She became the first woman and the first Jewish-American to be honored in that manner.
Retro Quote – Hélder Câmara
“When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. But when I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a communist.”
– Brazilian Archbishop Hélder Câmara
Filed under History
Video of the Week – September 19, 2020
After fighting an Oregon wildfire for some 14 hours straight, a group of firefighters – exhausted and ash-covered – suddenly broke out into song. True heroes trying to make the best of a catastrophic situation!
Filed under News
Worst Quotes of the Week – September 19, 2020
“It will start getting cooler. Just you watch. . . . I don’t think science knows.”
– President Donald Trump, in response to a reporter’s question about climate change causing wildfires in the Western U.S.
“You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history.”
– U.S. Attorney General William Barr, addressing a Constitution Day celebration hosted by Hillsdale College.
The event’s host asked Barr to explain the “constitutional hurdles for forbidding a church from meeting during Covid-19.” Barr had recently suggested that Sedition Act charges should be carried out against some protestors – even peaceful ones – to maintain the traditional “law and order” status quo conservatives demand every time civil unrest breaks out over civil injustice. It’s ironic he made his comments during Constitution Day, since the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution covers free speech.
“The blue states had tremendous death rates. If you take the blue states deaths out, we are at a level I don’t think anybody in the world would be at.”
– Donald Trump, noting the slow decline of positivity case rates and hospitalizations while touting the overall federal response to the outbreak at a White House press briefing.
The pandemic has taken nearly 200,000 American lives so far. Aside from claiming that “blue states” (those with Democratic governors) are insignificant, I’m equally appalled he ended his sentence with a preposition – more proof he’s an idiot.
“I think he made a mistake when he said that. It’s just incorrect information and I called him and he didn’t tell me that and I think he got the message maybe confused, maybe it was stated incorrectly. We’re ready to go immediately as the vaccine is announced and it could be announced in October, it could be announced a little bit after October but once we go we’re ready.”
– Donald Trump, referring to Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the importance of wearing masks and the timing for a vaccine.
Best Quote of the Week – September 19, 2020
“Please stop and let me finish my question, sir.”
– Ellesia Blaque, during a town hall debate in Philadelphia for undecided 2020 voters hosted by ABC News.
Blaque, a professor of African-American history and literature at Kutztown University with sarcoidosis, had started asking President Donald Trump, “Should preexisting conditions – which Obamacare brought into – brought to fruition – be removed…”, when he interrupted her with “No.”
Talk about a Grade A smack down! This is a true case of putting a politician in their place!
Filed under News
In Memoriam: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 1933 – 2020
“When I’m sometimes asked, ‘When will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court]?’ and I say ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”
“Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.”
“I tell law students… if you are going to be a lawyer and just practice your profession, you have a skill – very much like a plumber. But if you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside yourself… something that makes life a little better for people less fortunate than you.”
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
“Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.”
“So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune.”
“Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life. Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.”
“You can’t have it all, all at once.”
“I’m a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.”
“Don’t be distracted by emotions like anger, envy, resentment. These just zap energy and waste time.”
“You can disagree without being disagreeable.”
“When contemplated in its extreme, almost any power looks dangerous.”
“In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.”
“If you want to be a true professional, do something outside yourself.”
Health In
This COVID-19 pandemic has taken so much from the average person – no matter where in the world they live. Here in the U.S. we’re trapped in a nightmarish scenario with a disoriented leader heralding recent gains in the stock market, while millions remain unemployed. I’m sure those struggling to pay utilities are thrilled to know Fortune 1000 companies are enjoying record stock prices.
One of the most severe – and underrated – effects is the impact the scourge has had on people’s psyches. Emotional, mental and physical health always become subconscious victims of any national crisis. People are just trying to survive.
Personally, I’m in a vortex of angst and frustration. My freelance writing enterprise – as meager as it was – has pretty much collapsed. I’m fortunate I have some money saved from previous work, but I know that won’t last forever. Or even much longer. After my mother’s death this past June, though, I began to feel sick. Friends and relatives thought I was in a state of grief, which I was for the most part. But I thought I’d contracted that dreaded novel coronavirus. I had many of the symptoms. I had hoped my seasonal allergies had started to hit me early. Then again, perhaps it was the stress of dealing with my mother’s health. One friend suggested I was suffering from a lack of iron and Vitamin D. Still, I finally reconciled, it may be all of the above. Fighting so many battles at once takes a toll on the body. And mind.
Because of the pandemic, health clubs were among those businesses shuttered across the nation in an effort to contain the spread. I last visited my gym in mid-May; shortly before the rehabilitation center where my mother had been staying shoved her out because her Medicare benefits had been exhausted. (That’s another story!)
But even after my gym reopened in June, I still haven’t visited. Again it was that awful sickness. I didn’t know what was wrong. I’ve taken to doing basic calisthenics and walking along an exercise trail behind my home in recent weeks in the middle of the day. I used to go running, but I don’t have the strength right now. Key words: right now. Once you take off a long time without doing any kind of exercise besides laundry and loading and unloading the dishwasher, it’s a tad bit difficult to get back to normal. But even that little bit still makes me feel good.
Seven years ago I wrote about my tendency to visit my local gym on Saturday nights, when hardly anyone was present. I commented that only lonely fools like me did such a thing. At the turn of the century, working out on a Saturday night was unmanageable. But the gym I had at the time was open 24 hours. It was a perfect time to jog on a treadmill and lift weights, I realized, with such a sparse crowd. No one was there to be “seen”. That quiet time – with various types of music blaring from the myriad speakers lingering overhead – allowed me to think of every aspect of my life.
I left that gym in 2017 to join another local gym that closed unexpectedly a year later. After a lengthy hiatus, I joined my current gym last year. This is an old-school gym with no fancy juice bars or chic workout gear. Loud rock and rap music bounces around the concrete walls. It boasts an outside area with non-traditional workout gear, like tractor tires and tree stumps. Men can go shirtless. People there sweat – they don’t perspire! It’s not for suburban soccer moms or GQ cover models. (No offense to soccer moms!) I feel more than comfortable in such an environment.
I know it’s tough to take one’s mental and physical health into consideration if you’re unemployed or underemployed. But I also know you don’t have to belong to any kind of health club to care for your own health. Mental health experts are concerned about the severity this pandemic is having on people’s well-being. Quarantines are literally driving people crazy. And to drink too much alcohol and/or consume illegal drugs. Or contemplate hurting themselves. A bad economy helps none of that. I can identify with all of that. I really do feel that kind of pain.
Just walking the other day, carrying a water bottle and letting the sun emblazon my bare torso, helped me mentally. It didn’t make everything magically disappear once I returned home. I knew it wouldn’t. But maintaining one’s health – as best as possible, even in the worst of times – is vital. It can’t be overemphasized.
Filed under Essays
Retro Quote – Robert F. Kennedy
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Filed under History
Video of the Week – September 12, 2020
Several years ago a friend told me people should be charged a “stupid tax” for…well, stupid crap they do! If that ever happened, national budgets would be balanced until the end of time. I’m sure officials in California wish such a tax existed, especially during this time of year, when wildfires are likely. Earlier this week, a “smoke-generating pyrotechnical device” at a gender reveal party sparked the El Dorado fire, which has now spread to some 7,000 acres. Authorities plan to charge the geniuses behind this bright idea with a crime.
Filed under News
Photos of the Week – September 12, 2020
“The debate is over, around climate change. This is a climate damn emergency. This is real and it’s happening.”
– California Governor Gavin Newsom
Annual wildfires in California and much of the western United States have become even more fierce in recent years. Whether or not you believe in climate change, it’s obvious something dramatic is happening to the region’s normal weather patterns. The recent spate of fires have produced dramatically colorful skies of red and orange; something that would be the envy of any artist or photographer. Then, when you realize what caused those array of colors, the horror of it all becomes more real.
Filed under News
