Daily Archives: April 18, 2020

This coronavirus pandemic is causing a lot of misery with kids stuck at home with online school, parents missing work that puts food on the table and companies closing. And theres nothing left to watch on television.

But amid the gloom are bright spots of kindness. Neighbors you havent spoken with in months are saying hello. You let someone go ahead of you in line at the grocery store. Manners seem to be back everywhere except in Washington, D.C.

Im hearing people are making it and not complaining, said Charleston author Nathalie Dupree. Everyone is being very kind to us, bringing us food, making deliveries. The only complaints I hear are about other people not being respectful of guidelines when in stores.

The Rev. Kylon Middleton, senior pastor at Mount Zion AME Church in Charleston, noticed similar graciousness as hes been talking with people.

I am noticing that people are kinder and more intentional, he said. As I walk in my neighborhood, either early morning or later in the day, I encounter folks who are being more intentional about speaking and acknowledging the presence of others, respectfully at a distance, than before the pandemic.

Even from afar, I see the warmth and hope in the eyes of those with whom I meet. I see a resiliency of spirit that continues to persevere amidst the uncertainty of our times. I see generosity and consideration in something as subtle as negotiating space on a sidewalk or being mindful at the grocery store to only buy whats needed so that someone else and their family can have access to basic items.

Sumter Mayor Joe McElveen says the virus is challenging everyone to be better.

For instance, I may be a hardliner who thinks that stay at home is for pansies and that I will not die from COVID-19; but I also have a mother, sister, wife or daughter whom I do no not wish to kill or even infect, he observed. Do I really enjoy sitting with 70,000 people at a sporting event; or am I kind of liking time around the house with my family? Lots of things we held as indispensable are turning out not to be so important after all.

S.C. Rep. Chandra Dillard, a Democrat from Greenville, says the pandemic is causing South Carolinians to be more purposeful about their time with family members.

My Facebook is full of examples of parents dancing with their kids (and) sharing generational music and simply talking, she said. Communities have become innovative and collaborative about how to serve our most vulnerable populations. This has gotten organizations out of their silos and combining resources.

Perhaps whats most interesting is how all of this kindness seems to be organically contagious that people are doing it on their own, despite spats about politics and nonsense from state and national leaders.

The recent issue of the Charleston City Paper highlighted nine stories of kindness that included a Mount Pleasant mom and daughter who posted a Joke a Day in their Snee Farm yard, only to be reprimanded by the homeowners association for breaking a sign rule. (Boo, HOA.) Theres an artist who paints hearts to give to health care workers. Barbecue king Rodney Scott is providing food for first responders. Charleston police partnered with the citys parks department to offer safe pop-up Easter egg giveaways for kids. A photographer made fun chalk drawings for backgrounds for neighborhood photos.

This is exactly how people across our state and nation should be responding. And news media should be reporting more of these kinds of stories, in addition to the stark realities and challenges posed at home and abroad by the coronavirus.

South Carolina, launched as a business proposition 350 years ago, is resilient. Her people will get through this pandemic, despite dramas in state and national politics. For now, we have to continue to be patient, stay distanced and wait until its safe to move toward what will be a new normal.

In the meantime, perform intentional acts of kindness. Youll be glad you did, as Winston Churchill once alluded to: We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Read more here:

ANDY BRACK: Intentional acts of kindness soothe during crisis - SCNow

Constance and the other martyrs of Memphis are remembered as part of a larger window in All Saints Chapel at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Sister Hughetta, the only nun to survive the yellow fever epidemic, moved to Sewanee, and in 1888, she and other sisters started what is now the Southern Province of the Sisters of St. Mary. Photo: University of the South

[Episcopal News Service] The martyrdom of Constance and her five companions, who died within a month of each other while ministering to residents of Memphis, Tennessee, amid the 1878 yellow fever epidemic, has always inspired the ministry of St. Marys Episcopal Cathedral.

The Rev. Laura Gettys, the Memphis cathedrals interim dean, told Episcopal News Service that the question is how to continue to live out the story and not leave it on the shelf as a legend from the past. She said that is especially true now as the COVID-19 pandemic inspires members of the cathedral but restrictions on movement challenge their ministries.

On the days when I particularly feel overwhelmed, Im mindful of what they did. They showed up and were faithful and were present to those who needed them the most. They were there for prayer, for love, for compassion, and many times for medical care, Gettys said.

The Rev. Tobias Stanislas Haller wrote this icon of Constance and her companions in 1999 originally for the Brotherhood of St. Gregorys Fessenden Recovery Ministry in Yonkers, New York. The icon was later given to St. Marys Episcopal Cathedral. Photo: Tobias Stanislas Haller

The legacy of the Martyrs of Memphis, as they are known, is both gift and challenge, she said. It is in every fiber of who we are and what we are about. Episcopalians at the cathedral have followed the martyrs example by growing into a hub of worship and services for the community, Gettys said, concentrating on companionship and inequities in housing and medical care.

The yellow fever epidemic of 1878 began in New Orleans, spread up the Mississippi River and moved inland. An estimated 120,000 people contracted the hemorrhagic fever, and 13,000 to 20,000 died.

The martyrs story is a harrowing one of people dying in streets and parks, as others were found insensible without attendants, according to a historical account compiled the following year.

It begins in 1873 when Episcopal nuns from the Community of St. Mary in New York, including eventual martyrs Constance and Thelca, came to Memphis after Tennessee Bishop Charles T. Quintard asked New York Bishop Horatio Potter to send some sisters to found a school in Memphis. They soon encountered a yellow fever epidemic, and the teachers began nursing sick Memphians. It was the first of three yellow fever outbreaks in the city over 10 years.

Five years later, after the end of the school year, Constance and Thelca were resting at the orders mother house in Peekskill, New York, when they received news on Aug. 5 that the fever had struck Memphis a second time. While residents with means, about 30,000, were fleeing the city, the sisters prepared to return. They arranged for money and supplies to be sent ahead to Memphis. When they arrived on Aug. 20, they found the cathedral neighborhood to be the citys most infected area. Plans had been made for the nuns to attend to the citys sick during the day and to sleep in the country every night for safety.

We cannot listen to such a plan; it would never do; we are going to nurse day and night; we must be at our post, one wrote.

The nuns and priests moved among the estimated 20,000 Memphians who remained in the city. They comforted the dying, tried to help the sick and took in many orphans. The Rev. Charles Carroll Parsons, the rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Memphis, who wrote to Quintard five days before dying, called the sisters the brave, unshrinking daughters of a Divine Love.

I just crawled home and fairly dropped into bed, first time for three nights, wrote Sister Constance, superior of the work at Memphis and headmistress of St. Marys School for Girls, on Aug. 27, 1878, two weeks before she died of yellow fever. Photo: Lent Madness

In September and early October of 1878, yellow fever decimated the city and the group working out of the cathedral. Parsons, a former U.S. Army artillery commander who defended Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer at his 1867 court-martial, died on Sept. 6. Three days later Constance, superior of the work at Memphis and headmistress of the school, died. She was 33. Thecla, cathedral and school chapel sacristan who also taught music and English and Latin grammar, died Sept. 12. Sister Ruth, a nurse from Trinity Infirmary in New York who came to help, and the Rev. Louis S. Schuyler, newly ordained assistant rector at Parsons prior parish, Church of the Holy Innocents, Hoboken, New Jersey, both died Sept. 17. Sister Frances, a newly professed nun given charge of the orders Church Home orphanage, died Oct. 4.

All six are buried near each other in the citys historic Elmwood Cemetery, one of the Souths first rural cemeteries. The high altar at St. Marys, consecrated on Pentecost 1879, memorializes the sisters. The steps are inscribed with Alleluia Osanna, Constances last words.

These days, Gettys said, she is thinking about our call, not to martyrdom but to be present to one another and to the community and to the Way of Love, and that is exactly what the sisters were doing.

It did end, for many, in martyrdom, but their call was not to that. It was to one another and to the neighborhood and those particularly who did not have the privilege and means to leave the city.

Today, Episcopalians at the cathedral remain in the city, but a shelter-in-place order has changed their ministries. The most prominent example is the Wednesday morning Eucharist in Sisters Chapel and breakfast, supplemented by music and access to social services, for 150 to 175 community members in Martyrs Hall. The ministry is open to all but is focused on poor people, many of whom are homeless.

With none of the regular volunteers available, Gettys and the Rev. Patrick Williams, the cathedrals canon pastor, have turned the morning into an abbreviated and less-crowded gathering that includes a prayer, a to-go sack meal and information about the few resources and agencies that are still available.

One of those agencies, and a long-time partner with the cathedral, is the nearby Constance Abbey, an intentional community of Episcopalians that serves the vulnerable in the Memphis Medical District neighborhood surrounding the cathedral. Because the cathedral is surrounded by a number of hospitals, health care workers and medical students often come to the church to pray, and the cathedral often stages health fairs in a nearby park.

The four sisters of the Community of St. Mary who died within days of each other while nursing other Memphians in the 1878 yellow fever epidemic are buried in the citys Elmwood Cemetery. Photo: Historic-Memphis.com

The Episcopal Church will commemorate Constance and her companions on Sept. 9, as it has since 1985 when the General Convention added the martyrs to its calendar of commemorations. Depending on the status of COVID-19, St. Marys will have some version of its annual Martyrs Weekend celebration, Gettys said. Normally, there is a Lessons and Carols-type service featuring readings from the martyrs letters and diaries with music. There is also a service at Elmwood Cemetery followed by a picnic. A member of the Community of St. Mary at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, often comes for the celebration, bringing with her the chalice that was used at Eucharist during the epidemic.

Others across the church have been considering the resonance of the martyrs story in these days of COVID-19. The Rev. Julia M. Gatta, the Bishop Frank A. Juhan professor of pastoral theology at the School of Theology in Sewanee, told ENS she sees parallels between the heroism of Constance and her companions and todays essential workers. Those workers, in hospitals or grocery stores, are trying to help their communities survive. She especially pointed to retired health care workers who have come out of retirement to volunteer despite their age and increased vulnerability.

There are differences, too. While the priests in Memphis felt obligated to bring the Last Rites to people during the yellow fever epidemic, Gatta said clergy today are discouraged from doing so in person, so as not to become an unwitting coronavirus carrier. It makes it painful for clergy to not be able to minister to their own people who are dying, who are sick, she said.

Gatta teaches pastoral theology, including ministry to the sick and dying, and tells her students they must act responsibly. They must obey medical protocols, even if those measures seem to create a degree of separation from their congregants. However, she also speaks about Constance and her companions, telling future priests that sometimes they will have to take risks in order to minister to the sick. Those risks, however, must not be crazy risks, ones that can have risks beyond ourselves but to other people as well.

There is another kind of risk these days, Gatta said. Besides the grace of heroism, people need to be aware of the peculiar temptations right now, especially around desolation, to become closed in on themselves, to become embittered, to become despairing, she said. There are particular temptations that go with this moment as well, and they require vigilance.

Meanwhile, Anna Fitch Courie, who championed Constance and her companions in the 2016 edition of Lent Madness has been thinking about the different ways people are called.

We all have very different, profound callings in our lives that dont necessarily mean you have to be on the front lines putting cool cloths on those with COVID-19, she said. But you are called, and you are called to listen to where God is sending you messages and whispering to you in your life.

Some people are on the front lines, and some are called to pray for them. Some can sew masks, and some can buy the material for those masks, she said. Fitch Courie, who is a nurse but whose own health puts her in the high-risk category, told ENS that she knows that an ICU is not where she is called to be right now, even though that is where she used to nurse.

You have to come to this point in your spiritual life where you are very comfortable and secure that you are doing what you are called to do at that time, she said.

Constance trusted Gods call, Fitch Courie said, and was true to her name, which means constant presence, dependable, faithful. She shows what it looks like to live a life based on consistently praying and listening for and responding to Gods call.

The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg retired in July 2019 as senior editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service.

Continued here:

'Martyrs of Memphis' have lessons to teach those battling COVID-19 - Episcopal News Service

Part 3 of 3 Mental Health in the Covid World

Connecting Humanity

The coronavirus pandemic is going to cause immense pain and suffering. But it will force us to reconsider who we are and what we value. In the long run, it could help us discover a better version of ourselves. When this crisis ends, I hope we will reorient our politics and make substantial new investments in public goods for health, especially. I dont think we will become less communal. Instead, we will be more conscious, more aware, of our interdependency. I hope that it will mark the end of our romance with instant gratification and hyper-individualism. As weve witnessed the market-based models for social organization fail, catastrophically, self-seeking behavior makes this crisis so much more dangerous than it needed to be. The economy and social order would have collapsed into anarchy if the government didnt guarantee income for the millions of workers who suffered unemployment.

But while many of our institutions have failed, the civic responsibility and altruism of millions who have stayed home, lost income, kept their kids inside, self-quarantined, refrained from hoarding, supported each other, and even pooled resources to bolster health workers, leads me to the belief in a better future. Harnessing a new sense of solidarity, we have the opportunity to unify to face the enormous global challenges ahead.

One inspiring outcome from the lockdown is how people are finding new ways to connect and support each other through adversity. Being social animals, our natural instinct during times of crisis is to connect. Not asynchronously through drip feeds of our curated lives, engaging only as voyeurs. But by coexisting, concurrently. Attention-heavy synchronous conversations like raw and unfiltered videochats can foster a new form of closeness reminiscent to older eras. Professional enterprise technology Zoom and TEAMS, for example have been usurped for meandering, motive-less togetherness. Thank god for this sufficiently advanced technology that is practically indistinguishable from magicor wed all be channeling our inner Cast Away!

In the default world, our time is occupied by acquaintances of convenience or circumstance. The co-workers who share our office. The friends who live nearby. The parents of the children our kids go to school with. Were strikingly un-intentional and mundane about our relationships. But now were motivated to build a virtual family, completely of our choosing. The calculus has shifted from who is convenient or who has the best invitation, to who makes us feel most human. Were returning to the form of youthful socialization of just hanging out. In the past two months, Ive connected with old friends I havent seen together in a decade, met new partners I hadnt yet seen in real life, and have had near daily check-ins with both of my parents. In some ways, the pandemic is forcing a new and improved form of mediated social connection the way connecting is innately meant to be.

Another form of raw humanity thats arising from Covid is the frequent but lightweight communication of sharing videos and memes. The internets response to COVID-19 has been a global outpour of gallows humor. From Facebook groups like the quarter-million member Zoom Memes for Quaranteens, to the sardonic Instagram Quentin Quarantine, and the myriad of TikTokers all joining up to weather the crisis. Memes allow us to convert our creeping dread and stir craziness into something borderline productive. Memes offer a new medium of solidarity, of one-ness; were all in this hellscape together so we may as well make fun of it. As one of my friends often claims, we laugh because if we didnt, wed cry. So we force laughter, self-deprecating, but oddly familiar, formulating a connection through the deep understanding of each others misery. Powerless and isolated, were finding that the joke is now our most reliable shield and our warmest comfort blanket.

Media Shake-Up

Oddly, what remains feels more social than social networks have in a long time. Perhaps its because the flood of status symbol content into Instagram Stories has been replaced by our lives in the flesh. No one is going out and doing anything cool to show off, and if they are, they should be ashamed of themselves. For the first time since the dawn of social media, people are sharing their lives in the present, unfiltered, with no lighting or edits or make up. Our highly curated autobiographical content has screeched to a halt, and thank God, it was about time. We had turned social media into a sport where we spent the whole time staring at the scoreboard. Its freed us from the external validation that too often rules our decision making, because fortunately, there are no Like counts on Zoom. Coronavirus has absolved our desire to share the recent past, and our near future is so uncertain that theres little sense in making plans. As shelter-in-place orders get extended in piecemeal, we have no choice but to remain firmly fixed in the present.

And much like our intentional communities, social media has become less about how it looks, and more about how it feels. Does it put me at peace, make me laugh, or abate the loneliness? Then do it. Theres no more FOMO because theres nothing to miss. Staying at home enjoying some self-indulgence finally doesnt have a trade-off. Even celebrities are getting into it. Rather than professional photos and flashy music videos, theyre unedited, and truly live. John Legend did a live quarantine concert with his wife Chrissy Teigen sitting in a towel, Coldplays Chris Martin streamed a song with the tag #TogetherAtHome, promoting the online entertainment of isolated fans, and some even use their platforms to urge people to stay at home.

Social media was ready for a colossal shift. For the past 18 months at least, Ive felt nauseated by it all the virtue signaling, the status symbols, the FOMO-inducing stories, the blatantly plastic or plastered, and the #blessed. The solipsism on Instagram that comes with flying on someone elses jet or sailing on a billionaires yacht, it just felt soover the top. Kind of like the visceral feeling of angst that you get in Las Vegas or Dubai. And Facebook and Twitter werent any better. The vitriolic comments, deliberate shaming, the fake news and just generally vapid chatter, has permeated my online experiences for years. But suddenly, the discourse shifted. The nature of conversations recently has shifted from utterly vacuous brain candy, to profound, useful, data-driven, supportive and inclusive communication. Friends offering strangers time to talk if theyre lonely, peers volunteering with the elderly, shout-outs to companies and entrepreneurs dedicating their resources.

Some of the most heartwarming outpourings of the internet have been the willingness of others to share their offerings. What would ordinally come with a steep price tag, is suddenly available as a gift. Its like Burning Mans gifting economy moved online. The webs mental immune system has kicked into gear amidst the outbreak. Rather than wallowing in captivity, weve developed digital antibodies that are evolving to fight the solitude. Weve developed digital congregations to compensate for the loss of physical ones. One-off livestreams have turned into online music festivals, self-help conferences, remote classes and coordinated mindfulness retreats. Despite being physically separated, weve never been closer. Investors are offering free pitch feedback, performing arts centers are screening live plays, and pastors and rabbis have moved online. And yes, Burning Man, finally, has gone digital.

Perhaps we can use our time with our devices to rethink the kind of communities we can create through them. This is a different life on the screen from disappearing into a video game or polishing ones avatar. This is cracked open humanity, leveraging tools for the broader good premised on generosity and empathy. This is looking within and asking: what can I authentically offer? What do people need? When the infection waves pass, I hope this swell of creativity and in-the-moment togetherness stays strong. The internet is just a tool that reveals the fabric of humanity, and for the first time in a while, Im proud of the way people are showing up for each other, rather than showing off.

Value of Truth and Expertise

Social media as a public square is a place for discourse and commiseration. But its also the place for gossip and instant accusations and judgment. Click baiting, sensationalist headlines have been emblematic of the last decade. And theyve become even more present during the Covid episode, propelled by a system built to attract eyeballs that inadvertently becomes a race to the bottom. For years, it has incentivized controversy, outrage, and half-baked contrarianism, because this is entertainment at its worst.

And America, in all its glory and triumph, has become the zenith of it all. For the past several years, America has become a fundamentally unserious country. This is the luxury afforded us by peace, affluence and the convergence of consumer technologies. We were absolved of the necessity to weigh our existentialism through real threats of nuclear war, oil shortages, high unemployment, skyrocketing interest rates. We even posted a reality TV star to the presidency; whose defining tribute is a populist attack on the expertise that makes government relevant. But when our health and livelihoods are at stake, we are forced to accept that expertise matters. Perhaps we will witness a return of Americans to a new seriousness, or perhaps resign to the idea that government is a matter for serious people. The colossal failure of the Trump administration both to keep Americans healthy and to slow the pandemic-driven implosion of the economy might shock the public enough back to insisting on something from government other than emotional satisfaction

And as people are demanding unambiguous data, seeking clear information from science-based experts, its interesting to watch who the world is gravitating to; who emerges as leaders and which leaders lose the trust of their people. Bill Gates, who presciently predicted this outbreak in a 2016 TED Talk, has been elevated as a true world leader. A trusted (and importantly, relatively apolitical figure), who uses science and raw data to support his arguments. Similarly, epidemiologists and medical clinicians are experiencing a brand-new reach.

Now on social media, administrators are starting (though somewhat inconsistently and half-heartedly) to punish people who have internalized the dopamine-hit incentives. Recognizing the spread of misinformation, Chinese tech giants, already well-versed in censorship, put their tools to good use to prevent the spread of such lies. The creators of WeChat have integrated a fact-checking platform to dispel harmful misconceptions. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, are also actively working to ensure that only correct sources get amplified. Content from reputable accounts is given priority, while amateur claims are being scrutinized and factchecked. Twitter is voraciously erasing quack cure tweets from former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani and Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro, and Facebook taking down two videos by Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro that disputed the need for social distancing. WhatsApp has restricted users ability to forward posts, a blanket measure meant to flatten the curve of disinformations spread. But its still a game of whack-a-mole. Banning the most offensive might be a straightforward call, but many of the less egregiously bad tweets tweets that do not appear to violate any of the platforms rules but nonetheless sow unnecessary fear or cause confusion regarding matters of life and death come from people who are merely trying to be good at Twitter. Social media was always designed to give us what we want, not what we need. But the problem is too systemic to be reversed overnight; a bad tweet, morally speaking, is often a good tweet, judging strictly by the numbers. And this is why we needed a shift.

The World Needed a Shift

As they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. There will be much financial and economic pain along the road to a recovery, but something had to awaken us from headlong rush towards the perdition of over-indebtedness, overconsumption, overpriced assets and general overindulgence.

There are, to a certain degree, parallels that can be drawn between the current COVID-19 pandemic and some of the other contemporary crises our world is facing. All require a global-to-local response and long-term thinking; all need to be guided by science and need to protect the most vulnerable among us; and all require the political will to make fundamental changes when faced with existential risks. In this sense, the 2020 coronavirus pandemic may lead to a deeper understanding of the ties that bind us all on a global scale and could help us get to grips with the largest public health threat of the century, the climate crisis.

Coronavirus is upending everything from aviation to retail and its also having a big impact on the environment. A drop in air pollution was first observed by NASA in Chinas Hubei province, where the coronavirus outbreak began in December. Marshall Burke, a researcher at Stanford University, calculated the improvements in air quality recorded in China may have saved the lives of 4,000 children under 5 years old and 73,000 adults over 70. Even more conservative estimates would put the number of lives saved at roughly 20 times the number of deaths from the virus directly. Though while it is clearly incorrect and foolhardy to conclude that pandemics are good for health, the calculation is a useful reminder of the often-hidden health consequences of the status quo. Nothing should go back to normal; normal wasnt working.

Nature is sending us a message with the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing climate crisis, said the UNs environment chief, Inger Andersen. Andersen claimed humanity was placing too many pressures on the natural world with damaging consequences, and warned that failing to take care of the planet meant not taking care of ourselves. To prevent further outbreaks, the experts said, both global heating and the destruction of the natural world for farming, mining and housing have to end, as both drive wildlife into contact with people. An end to live animal markets which they called an ideal mixing bowl for disease and the illegal global animal trade.

Refresh Button

The scale of the coronavirus crisis calls to mind 9/11 or the 2008 financial crisis events that reshaped society in lasting ways, from how we travel and buy homes, to the level of security and surveillance were accustomed to, and even common vernacular. But this cocktail of constraints and boredom is a potent trigger for innovation. Constraints are, in a way, a reverse Occams Razor a force that removes the most obvious and mundane solutions from the table. With constraints, were forced to recalibrate and search for ways to solve problems that already have simple solutions. Crisis moments present opportunity: more sophisticated and flexible use of technology, less polarization, a revived appreciation for the outdoors and lifes other simple pleasures.

The 21st century has been firmly dedicated to the self. Self-reliance, self-help, self-growth and self-independence. But this virus is reminding us that we are all connected, we need others and we need social support. Its the quality of your relationships that determines the quality of your life, they say. It is reminding us that the false borders that we have put up have little value as this virus does not need a passport. It is reminding us of how precious our health is and how we have moved to neglect it through eating nutrient poor manufactured food and drinking water that is contaminated with chemicals upon chemicals. If we dont look after our health, we will, in fact, be sick. Disease knows no xenophobia, and suffering knows no borders. We are being stress tested, and if we pay attention theres a huge opportunity to learn about ourselves. Were shedding layers from our past that dont serve us anymore. As we become still, whatever stillness means to you, we will be given ideas and messages about how we are to come out of this, what our role will be.

As Eric Davis says, this is the moment when baseline reality dissolves and no new reality has emerged and its pixelating weight. As Shots of Awe host, Jason Silva claims, its like someone dosed our drink with acid and didnt tell us, and were collectively realizing the only way out is through. Once we contend and metabolize the panic and converge our brilliance and creativity, we realize from an ego death can come renewal, transformation, reinvention. This is our chance to be the phoenix that rises from the ashes.

Weve been heading towards mad max and now we have the opportunity to head towards star trek. In the rush to return to normal, we must use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to. We took life for granted. It was heavy, and toxic. And while this crisis will pass like every other, we must not forget it, we must come out wiser than we went in. This can either be an end or a new beginning. This can be a time of reflection and understanding, where we learn from our mistakes, or it can be the start of a cycle which will continue until we finally learn the lesson we are meant to. Perhaps Corona is the great corrector we all needed.

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Covid-19 and The Future of Humanity - Brianna Lee Welsh - Elemental

WEST CHESTER, PA As neighbors help neighbors all across the nation, communities continue to lift the human spirit by working together in ways, great and small, to defy the impacts of COVID-19.

Evidence of this could not be more apparent than in the numerous partnerships, acts of kindness, and goodwill that have been generated by the many faculty, students, staff, and alumni of West Chester University.

Reaching deep into Chester County and beyond, West Chester Universitys community of educators has joined forces to act as a resource for area citizens, as well as a mighty collective that has welcomed rolling-up its sleeves to help in whatever way it can.

The West Chester University Foundation this week released a communication to businesses, community partners, and the University community that details the numerous ways that WCU is working actively to help its neighbors and friends during this unprecedented time (www.wcupa.edu/businessPartners).

From sending healthy snacks to Chester County Hospital to promoting local restaurants that are open for delivery/takeout to helping children in the community to everything in between, WCU has joined many in Chester County in order to make a difference.

Providing valuable WCU resources has been a critical component of this ongoing effort. Now more than ever, businesses located in West Chester Universitys backyard need boots-on-the-ground to help them survive in todays unsettling environment and thrive in tomorrows changed workplace.

The examples are as diverse as they are many and include WCUs School of Business offering free marketing support from senior marketing majors to area businesses impacted by the global health crisis; the Cottrell Entrepreneurial Leadership Center providing free summer virtual interns for startups and small businesses; the Twardowski Career Development Center continuing to support business brand presence within the WCU community through opportunities like virtual mock interviews, virtual resume reviews, and general information sessions; and the growing list continues.

Keeping everyone in our community safe, while supporting the success of our students, remains a priority, said West Chester University President Christopher Fiorentino. I could not be more proud of the people who comprise this University and make WCU what it is every day. Our communitys desire to come together, act, and respond in intentional ways is fueled by the fact that we welcome challenges. We welcome being a catalyst. We welcome being a partner that can be relied upon.

As a critical anchor institution in the region that contributes more than $500 million in economic impact and with a community of students and faculty that approaches 20,000 people, WCU is here for you to be a resource as you navigate the uncharted waters ahead, stated WCU Foundation CEO Christopher Mominey and Director of Corporate & Foundation Relations Helen Hammerschmidt in a joint letter to partners in the community.

Thanks for visiting! MyChesCo brings reliable information and resources to Chester County, Pennsylvania. Please consider supporting us in our efforts. Your generous donation will help us continue this work and keep it free of charge. Show your support today by clicking here and becoming a patron.

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Working Together: West Chester University and the Chester County Community - MyChesCo

Black pastors across the country are pleading for the government to correct the policy violence thats led so many African Americans to die from COVID-19 before they can even access testing or seek treatment.

We know firsthand and have had to bear witness to the deaths of African Americans from COVID-19 and the heart-wrenching pain experienced by the families and communities left behind, said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach and minister of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, reading aloud from a letter addressed to President Donald Trump and others during a virtual press conference Wednesday.

The press conference was sponsored by Barbers Repairers of the Breach, a nonprofit that advocates for the poor and marginalized, and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, a coalition of progressive African American faith leaders. The 10 pastors behind Wednesdays letter said theyre sharing their stories to pressure government leaders for better data on how coronavirus is impacting black people, more protective equipment and testing among those communities, and the widespread expansion of Medicaid, the governments healthcare program for the poor.

Trump, for his part, said last week he recognized the disparity in the black community and said that the administration is doing everything in our power to address this challenge.

Barber, who said the disproportionately high coronavirus death rates among African Americans and subsequent inaction amount to policy violence and structural racism, added that hed learned Wednesday that someone close to his church had died. It was the father of one of his drummers.

He couldnt get tested for weeks. He went in and died. His wife is in the hospital, his sister is in the hospital. I have at least two members who have had plus-four members of their family one has had 10 deaths in his family over the last month from COVID-19, Barber said.

That anecdote was shared by other pastors.

I pastor a small congregation where approximately 80 people gather on a Sunday, and out of those 80, five of those have tested positive for COVID-19, said Rev. Traci Blackmon, executive minister of Justice & Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ and senior pastor of Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, Missouri.

I have two funerals to do this week of people who died; out of those five, three of them had to go to the hospital three times before they were given a test, Blackmon continued, through tears. Three times were they sent back home to their families and into their communities with being positive but not being deemed worthy of a test.

Black communities have been woefully left behind as local and federal leaders struggle to contain a deadly global pandemic. In Blackmons community of St. Louis, for example, 24 people have died of COVID-19; three were white, and the rest were black and Latino. Demographically, St. Louis population is about 50% black or Latino, and 50% white. Similarly, in Chicago, black residents make up more than half of all coronavirus cases and 70% of the deaths, according to the BBC, despite making up 30$ of the citys population.. And while few cities have broken down their coronavirus mortality data by race, those that have show the same trend: Black people are alarmingly at risk.

There are a few reasons for that, the pastors noted. African Americans are more likely to lack health insurance. Theyre more likely to work the part-time jobs currently deemed essential and have to continue showing up, while many white-collar workers clock in from their couches. They have fewer transportation options, more housing instability, and higher likelihood of underlying conditions that put them at greater risk of contracting or dying of coronavirus. And then they have fewer resources to address those problems, like government funding or widespread access to testing.

As of this moment, black and brown people are being tested least but dying the most, said Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas and co-chair Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference. We appeal to federal and state leadership to prioritize healing humanity over restarting the economy. We appeal to this country to ensure that we create a vision of wellness and wholeness for our communities to repair centuries of the intentional infection of racism.

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Cover: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II speaking at the Poor People's Moral Action Congress taking place at Trinity Washington University in Washington, DC on June 17, 2019. (Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

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Black Pastors Plead for Government Action on Coronavirus: 'I Have Two Funerals to Do This Week' - VICE

Long before COVID-19 outbreak, Black communities were experiencing deep health and economic inequities that are only intensified by a public health crisis, a senior policy analyst and adjunct professor at Howard University said.

Judy Lubin, who is also the president of the Center for Urban and Racial Equity (CURE) and a sociologist, criticized the inept government leadership for weak handling of the outbreak which has mainly targeted the communities of color in the United States.

"COVID-19 is a perfect storm of systemic inequities operating together to worsen existing vulnerabilities," she pointed out in her article published by Truthout.

Long before COVID-19, Black communities were experiencing deep health and economic inequities that are only intensified by a public health crisis of this magnitude.

The COVID-19 global pandemic is a nightmare unfolding before our eyes that could have devastating impacts that Black Americans could feel most acutely. With scarce testing, health care workers and ventilators, combined with a pattern of red-state governors ignoring science and placing profits above people, there are signs that Black communities across the country are bearing the brunt of an inept federal response and unjust health care system unprepared to handle the surge of COVID-19 patients.

This, of course, doesnt have to be the case, but government failure and systemic racism mean far too many Black people, especially in the South, will lose their lives unless government leaders immediately course correct from the predictable and alarming outcomes ahead.

Preliminary data show high case counts among Black residents in emerging hotspots, including New Orleans, New York, Detroit, Milwaukee, Charlotte and Albany, Georgia. There are also reports from cities, including St. Louis and Nashville, that predominantly Black neighborhoods have been slow to receive testing sites and equipment compared to white, affluent areas. The stories you care about, right at your

Black communities across the country are bearing the brunt of an inept federal response and unjust health care system.

COVID-19 is a perfect storm of systemic inequities operating together to worsen existing vulnerabilities. Widespread testing, for example, is still not happening, and tests are being rationed with only the sickest, often at deaths door, being provided diagnostic tests to determine if they have the virus. Health care workers are doing heroic work under unimaginable conditions, but stories like that of Rana Mungin a 30-year-old Black woman and Brooklyn teacher who was turned down three times before receiving a COVID-19 test and was in a coma, clinging for her life is a warning sign of a system under stress and poised to reproduce known racial inequities in health care services.

With little to no race or ethnicity data being reported on who has been tested and well-documented history of racial bias shaping health care decisions, a group of doctors and researchers called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to report these numbers for COVID-19 testing. Several Democratic leaders including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley followed with a similar request to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Biases are more likely to shape decisions under stressful situations, and with a system overwhelmed, such biases may enter the equation when health care workers have to make difficult decisions about who qualifies to be tested.

Biases are more likely to shape decisions under stressful situations.

The same is true for determining who has access to other limited health care resources like ventilators. Recently, I awoke to a heartbreaking email from a public health colleague in a hard-hit state. He was seeking guidance on how to make equitable decisions on ventilators because current crisis standards of care, which are guidelines that state health departments use for these types of public health emergencies, will likely further disadvantage the already disadvantaged including Black patients that have underlying health conditions that may worsen their prognosis for survival.

Physicians shouldnt be placed in these positions in a nation that has the resources to coordinate a rapid and equitable response to the demands of this pandemic. Instead, the Trump administration has dragged its feet in using the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of badly needed ventilators and other medical supplies. All along the way, the president has failed as a leader by calling the COVID-19 threat a hoax, and criticizing requests for medical supplies and demanding praise in return for federal aid from Democratic governors in states hit hard by the virus.

Equity not petty politics should be the guiding principle in this emergency, and that means resources should be targeted to where they are needed most. Ventilators, for example, should be prioritized for distribution to known hotspots like New York City, New Orleans, Detroit and areas that will likely experience a surge in severe coronavirus cases because of chronic health inequities and under-resourced health care systems, common in the South.

Current crisis standards of care will likely further disadvantage the already disadvantaged.

African Americans experience higher rates of diabetes, hypertension and respiratory illnesses associated with COVID-19 death not because Black people are inherently sicker, but because systemic racism has created the conditions for these health inequities to develop. Concentrated poverty, substandard housing, lack of health insurance, employment discrimination, poor water, and air quality, and the day-to-day stress of living in a society that devalues our humanity all work together to chip away at our health.

Combine these health inequities with resistance among Republican governors to implement stay-at-home orders that public health experts have said are needed to slow the spread of the virus, and we have the conditions for COVID-19 to explode in the South, where close to 60 percent of all Black people in the U.S. live and where the majority of states in the region have not expanded Medicaid. Alabamas GOP Gov. Kay Ivey, for example, in initially refusing to issue a stay-at-home order, stated that she didnt want to choke business, and proudly proclaimed the state was unlike Democratic-led Louisiana, New York, and California, which have stay-at-home orders in place. Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee were also among holdout states that refused to promptly issue statewide shelter-in-place orders.

We have the conditions for COVID-19 to explode in the South, where close to 60 percent of all Black people in the U.S. live.

Inept government leadership in this pandemic is costing lives, and the slow and uncoordinated federal response is having domino effects across the country. Those impacts will be deeper and greater for Black and Brown workers, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet, have no health care coverage, and have jobs where they are expected to work while everyone else is sheltering at home to flatten the curve and avoid being infected by the virus.

Moreover, Black Americans make up 40 percent of the homeless population, who are especially vulnerable to a pandemic where the public is being asked to stay home as a protective measure. In prisons and jails, where Black people are disproportionately among those incarcerated, these environments are ticking time bombs for an outbreak of COVID-19 due to the difficulty of maintaining social distance in close quarters, unsanitary conditions, and the number of people regularly moving in and out.

Leadership at all levels of government needs to rise to the level of this crisis and do so with a focus on health equity and racial justice. That means widespread universal testing with no age restrictions, free COVID-19 testing and treatment provided to anyone diagnosed, and targeted outreach to communities of color to allay fears of not having access to treatment or receiving an astronomical health bill after a hospital stay.

Black and Brown's workers have jobs where they are expected to work while everyone else is sheltering at home.

But there are other critical policy solutions that should be considered as part of an equitable COVID-19 response and recovery plan, including immediate action to release incarcerated people, permanent paid sick and family leave for all workers, Medicare for All, housing for the unsheltered and a federal jobs guarantee in the face of massive unemployment. Enacting these policies would begin to address the depths of racial inequities that are intersecting with the COVID-19 crisis and set the stage for a reset as the pandemic subsides.

Were learning in this crisis that we desperately need better planning, leadership, a focus on our shared humanity and targeted strategies to reach, connect with and care for the populations and communities that will experience the most economic harm and loss of health and life. Racial health inequities are not a foreign concept in public health and it should concern all of us that the most basic step for addressing them reporting racial data has been largely ignored in local, state and federal reporting on COVID-19. Without an approach that actively addresses the many ways that systemic racism is already shaping outcomes in this pandemic, Black communities will be left without the resources to address the compounding impacts of COVID-19 as the rest of the country recovers and pushes forward.

With intentional policies and actions that prioritize racial equity now, government leaders and policymakers can avoid repeating mistakes of the past. They can reject calls to go back to business as usual and seize the moment to usher fundamental change that addresses the generations of neglect and political malpractice that created the pre-existing health, social and economic conditions that are being magnified in this tragedy.

As of April 17, the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) around the world reached 2 million 183 thousand 877, according to the data released by coronavirus research centers.

The death toll was over 146,000.

552,771 patients have recovered.

The U.S. was leading in the world in terms of the largest number of infected people (678,210 confirmed cases). 34,641 deaths were reported.

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Chronic health inequities weaken Blacks, putting them at higher risk amid COVID-19 outbreak in U.S. - Tehran Times

The only thing standing between the people of this planet and an even worse catastrophe than the one we are enduring are institutions and bureaucracies, neither of which were enjoying much good press before the virus hit. Bad press was the least of it. As Dana Milbank demonstrated in The Washington Post, the virus hit at the end of four decades that were largely defined politically by a desire to shrink the government and cuts its budget, hoping that markets would pick up the slack.

The apotheosis of the anti-government, libertarian ideology in Milbank's telling was the Tea Party movement, its ethos summed up by anti-tax activist, and Republican Party king maker, Grover Norquist saying, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." That was a more aggressive stating of Ronald Reagan's quip that "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help." The viewpoint had acquired a great deal of social Darwinism along the way and was strengthened in numbers, but not in moral vigor, when it became aligned with racism in the Obama years.

It is said that vices, like virtues, tend to run together, so it should not surprise that this anti-government ideology found a way to align itself with President Donald Trump, a man of no known ideology. Under the tutelage of Steve Bannon, Trump gave voice to the "blow it all up" populism that was building up across the land. To the racism of the Tea Party he added the xenophobia, and the mantra, of the "America First" movement. And Trump added his own narcissism to the mix, lessening the ideology but strengthening the political movement with a fascistic devotion to the caudillo. Who else would discuss the TV ratings for his press conferences while people are dying?

Hence the demeaning of reporters who ask important questions, the concern with appearances over substance that resulted in a delayed national response to the threat, the effort to blame China, the continued questioning of "the deep state," the suggestion that the federal government not help states whose governors are insufficiently servile to him.

If anything is glaringly obvious in these dark days of the coronavirus, it is the value of institutions. Where would we be without the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases? Where would we be without unemployment insurance, administered by state government bureaucracies? Where would we be without the bureaucrats at the Small Business Administration who are implementing these millions of dollars of loans to companies across the land so that they can keep avoiding furloughing even more millions of people? Where would we be without the U.S. Postal Service, whose fearless employees continue to do their job while the rest of us hunker down?

The value of institutions and bureaucracies is not limited to the governmental sector. Unemployment insurance was first enacted in Wisconsin in 1932 and the Social Security Act of 1935 encouraged other states to follow suit, but it was proposed in 1919 by the nascent U.S. bishops' conference. For all of my disagreements with the bishops' conference, none of which I retract, the staff at the conference has played a critical role in preventing cuts in food stamps, in preserving the Affordable Care Act and supporting a vast array of anti-poverty efforts during these 40 years of anti-government fervor.

Our Catholic hospitals and nursing homes are on the frontlines of the coronavirus fight. Our parish food pantries are helping those who have lost their jobs. Catholic Charities, at the national and local level, is deeply engaged in almost every aspect of this national crisis and Catholic Relief Services is at work helping those around the world for whom the virus is only the latest of many plagues. Jubilee USA is pushing for debt relief for developing countries and anyone familiar with attempts to help the suffering people of Puerto Rico knows that Jubilee USA has been at the forefront of that fight.

So, with that in mind, I was horrified by an essay published here at NCR last week written by Mary Hunt. She, too, has brought her ideological blinders to the discussion: Not once did she express any empathy for those who are suffering but, instead, could scarcely contain her excitement that this pandemic might further her ideological agenda, arrived at long before. She welcomes homegrown liturgies at which "no male priest is in sight," writing, "This is change, progress." If only the virus had come sooner!

Bringing all the care of an arsonist to our most venerable Catholic traditions and beliefs, she opines that a "wholesale rethinking of Eucharist is all that prevents these groups, and many other local faith communities, from engaging in the customary celebration of Communion." Except, that is not customary, is it? And, how can the Eucharist, which is God's gift to the whole church, be subjected to any "wholesale rethinking" and by whom?

Will the "women-church groups and other intentional eucharistic communities" Hunt celebrates be able to pick up the slack if the much-maligned "institutional church" is crippled? I am sure they are as capable of generosity as any other people, but if you are serious about loving others in a complex society, you need to think about building institutions to do so. "Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war," said the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I note, as well, that two of the most important institutions of our institutional church at this moment, the Catholic Health Association and Catholic Charities USA, are both led by highly competent religious women. Thank God for Mercy Sr. Mary Haddad and Dominican Sr. Donna Markham and the institutions they lead. Yes, I would like to see women in more leadership roles in the church but it is these highly competent women who will make that hope more likely, not any theological rants that are so far outside of our Catholic theological tradition, they are self-marginalizing.

Hunt provides no survey data to support her sweeping conclusion that change is in the offing and will resemble the kind she wants. There are no historical analogies, no sociological modeling. The greatest difficulty, however, is moral: What is the moral difference between Trump ignoring the suffering of millions of people to tout his ratings and Hunt's view of the epidemic as a mere pretext for the enactment of her ecclesial vision?

Am I being too harsh? True, the consequence of Trump's failures will be measured in the thousands of additional lives lost. But, the cost of Hunt's failures is the self-marginalization of progressive Catholics at a time when both the country and the church need the insights and the vision of progressive Catholics. If demanding intellectual and moral rigor from prominent spokespeople is too much to ask, then we deserve to be marginalized. The distinction between seeing the pandemic as an occasion to advance a prior ideological agenda and recognizing that our moral and intellectual commitments can help alleviate the suffering and rebuild a society that is more just and more safe from pandemics because it is more just, that is no small distinction. No one would suggest that institutions are above reproach. Yet, throughout the world in these dark days, people in need are turning to the institutions of government and of the church to help them through this crisis. It is morally irresponsible to denigrate institutions or turn this tragedy into a vehicle for an ideological agenda, no matter who does it.

[Michael Sean Winters covers the nexus of religion and politics for NCR.]

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In praise of bureaucracies -- in the government and church - National Catholic Reporter

Portland City Commissioner Amanda Fritz announced last year that her third term would be her last, opening Position #1 on City Council. Candidates from a variety of backgrounds are vying for her seat.

The Skanner interviewed each of the four leading candidates on their unique backgrounds and specific visions for Portland. Their answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Tim DuBois is a professional construction worker completing his graduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning at Portland State University. DuBois qualified for funding from the citys Open and Accountable Elections program, which gives candidates $6 of taxpayer funding for every $1 of campaign funds raised. Eligible candidates agree not to accept large contributions, and must demonstrate "broad community support."

Why did you feel called to run?

Im just tired of losing all progressive battles. I think it's because we pretend we live in a high-tech nation, a socialist society, but we dont. And so we lose sight of the economic reality were in. And this is definitely what I feel is happening in city hall right now. Theres not enough emphasis on what we can actually afford. Our City Council is over-promising and under-delivering. I like to believe, just as anyone else running for office, I can supply that change that I see needs to happen.

What is unique about your background and lived experience that you can bring to the council?

Ive been a working-class carpenter and woodworker for 18 years now. There's a lot of talk about the working class, yet there seems to be a disconnection between our politicians and what its really like. I dont really fit that working-class image. My wife is quite educated, and Im the primary beneficiary of that. I kind of joke that when Im at work, Ill get lunch from a convenience store, but then for dinner, I know what its like to go to an upscale restaurant. I believe I can bridge that divide in a useful way. I dont have much public record to run under, and thats just the reality I live in.

I recognize that Im a White male, and that I and many other people are kind of tired of white male politicians. I have always surrounded myself with people who look and are different than me. My wife and I are in an interracial relationship. Im very fortunate to have a duplex, and my renters are African American. A room in our house is occupied by a Mexican immigrant. These are things that are really important to me, and I become a richer person for these connections and relationships I have.

What do you believe the role of city-recognized neighborhood associations should be?

I was a board member for two years in the Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League (neighborhood association). Certainly with the absence of geographical representation at city hall, theyre a very powerful tool to negotiate with the leaders in the city.

That is an infrastructure I don't think needs to go away. At the same time, when it comes to land use and anything building and change related, they are the primary blocker of all of it, and that is harmful for the city. There definitely needs to be a rethinking of its roles, while still making sure the good things the neighborhood associations do live on.

What do you feel is missing on City Council?

Its that laser-eye focus on fiscal responsibility. The fiscal recklessness and not focusing on the numbers is starting to make all the good things our bureaus do not happen. Theyre killing it. Whether we like it or not, financial viability is a prerequisite for everything.

Every major project, (the city) is so far off on scale and on the final cost. I think theres political reasons for that, because its really hard to go to people and say something will cost $1 billion. Its much easier to say $400 million, and then just jack the price up. Thats reckless. Weve promised the residents this, and there starts to be a disconnect.

Commissioner Fritz is assigned to the Office of Equity and Human Rights. What would you do to increase racial and socioeconomic equity in Portland?

To really promote equity, its going to require actually tilting the balance away from White people and to the disenfranchised communities. But you can run into legal problems. So you have to be creative, you have to have the positions available. In my administration, I need to make sure that first and foremost, its about getting back into the communities that have been underrepresented, so that they can be in that line for that job. I will definitely make sure Im reaching out with positions in my administration, into the communities that have not had as much voice.

Candace Avalos (candaceforportland.com) is a student advisor specializing in civic engagement at Portland State University, and serves as acting chair of the Citizen Review Committee. Avalos qualified for funding from the citys Open and Accountable Elections program.

Why did you feel called to run?

I am a first-generation Blacktina. My Black family comes from southern Virginia, Jim Crow South. My mom was brought here by my grandparents in the 1970s from Guatemala. I have these two really distinct American life stories.

At PSU, I teach classes on civic engagement and leadership. Im prepping (students) for how to be those ethical, communicative, transparent leaders we all want to see.

I'm also the current acting chair of the Citizen Review Committee, the citys police accountability board. (In working with city government), the form of government kept coming up as a barrier. The way our (city) government is currently structured, not only do we not have district representation, but also the way commissioners interact with each other and make decisions on bureaus, was just totally siloed. That pronounced for me just how dysfunctional in so many ways this form of government is.

What is unique about your background and lived experience that you can bring to the council?

For me, another important part of my run is I feel I represent a generation that is being left behind by the economy. We are unnecessarily cost-burdened, whether it be student loan debt, other kinds of debt young people have been forced into, and we are unable to progress in our young adulthood.

In the aftermath of COVID-19, which has been a very glaring spotlight on all of these inequities, I think this is going to be a super pivotal moment to say, ok, whose voices arent at the table? I really think that my candidacy is bringing forth an energy around (the fact that) we can do things differently. And its clear in how were seeing our response to COVID-19, we actually could provide multiple sanitation and water stations for the houseless.

What do you believe the role of city-recognized neighborhood associations should be?

I think that while the intent was good, it was a bandaid approach to a larger problem, which is that people feel they arent represented in how decisions get made, especially land use and development. I can understand and respect the unique role neighborhood associations have played in Portland, but I think we really need to shift some of that power back to organizations that have been left out.

How people engage with neighborhoods is a lot different when youre able to plant your roots somewhere. This outside voice that dominates those conversations is from people that have had their houses for decades, which is really not the reality for most of us. But we can negotiate how neighborhood associations can still play an important role.

What do you feel is missing on City Council?

Obviously, the younger generations voice is severely missing on City Council. I also think how we engage with the people, and how we reflect the 21st century, and how people engage with each other is really missing.

I helped facilitate three community conversations with Jo Ann Hardesty, and there was such a palpable thirst the people had to just be heard. Thats unacceptable that one commissioner is going out of her way to have those conversations, why is there not a united effort from everybody to do that?

What would you do to increase racial and socioeconomic equity in Portland?

Right now were experiencing on all levels of government, lots of people that are retiring, and were having trouble recruiting young people to be excited about those jobs and to want to go into that sort of career.

There are really intentional things we can do to recruit people to get invested younger into the work of the city, and to give them insight into how these jobs have purpose...I would love to start an internship program for the city. Ive already done that infrastructure at Portland State. Theres so many ways we can be leveraging these local institutions like PSU and PCC and have young people invest their ideas back into the city. And I think that thats whats going to create the buy-ins thats going to bring in these voices that we need.

Carmen Rubio is the executive director of the advocacy nonprofit Latino Network. Rubio qualified for funding from the citys Open and Accountable Elections program.

Why did you feel called to run?

I come from a family of migrant workers, my grandparents and my dad are from Mexico, and my parents met in a labor camp in North Plains, Ore. I think seeing the struggles that my family went through, and sometimes having no recourse or path to justice really stoked a fire in me for justice

I never honestly had any desire to run for office; it wasnt until Trump was elected. As a nonprofit director and seeing the fear and terror and trauma and devastation in the communities I work with and am from, around what was going to happen with immigration and the hateful rhetoric and the racist speeches, I thought, I have to be in a position where I can have some agency to act more definitively with the authority on things that impact all of our communities that are being targeted.

What is unique about your background and lived experience that you can bring to the council?

Ive worked at the county for elected officials, Ive worked at city hall for two elected officials there.

For the last 10 years Ive worked in the community, running a community-based organization (Latino Network). I feel uniquely prepared, because I've been in the building, and Ive been outside of the building, pushing the building to do better.

I have some things to share, and also the right people to pull in from our community, organizations that (the Latino Network has) deep and long and trusting relationships with, like SEI, Coalition of Communities of Color, (Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center), all those folks, we all work together. Were critical partners, so we are very aligned in a lot of our advocacy. In that way I feel like I will definitely be held accountable, and that people definitely feel like they would have access to me.

What do you believe the role of city-recognized neighborhood associations should be?

I think that neighborhood associations are fine and should be recognized on an equal level as every other organization. I think we all have something to contribute, and I think that was the spirit of intent of a lot of the changes -- to broaden the participation for more people to join the table. It doesnt mean taking anything away, it means building more power in more communities that traditionally havent had access.

What do you feel is missing on City Council?

I think the voice of someone whos been working more recently in communities, and has been part of and experiencing the pulls and strains and pressure, or working with populations that are experiencing all these things right now. For example, the challenges of people struggling to find a place that they can afford to rent and live in this city are being pushed out of this city.

I often feel like were at odds with our own goals as a city, because we're trying to promote climate justice, which Im a very big advocate for, but then how can we be true climate justice advocates if were not paying attention to the affordability of housing for our most vulnerable communities?

What would you do to increase racial and socioeconomic equity in Portland?

I think that we need to be serious and walk the talk, and that means budgeting to your values and budgeting for equity. And it means using a lens and using demographic data, data of disparities, looking at where underserved areas are, and overlaying that with the history of how our city has acted, or the past behaviors, because there are some areas where it might require redress.

I would also look at data for workforce. Im very interested in making sure that I can lend my voice to ensure we increasingly prioritize being responsive and reflective of our served community. Nonprofit and culturally specific organizations were born out of, in my opinion, the failure of government and other institutions to really reach those marginalized communities, and we had to start helping ourselves. That should never be the default by government. Government should always strive to make sure were constantly adapting, re-calibrating to make sure were responsive and that we are reflective of those communities, and that we have a respect for the diversity in our community, so our workforce is able to engage in a way that is respectful and responsive and relevant to their life.

Philip Wolfe is a disability rights advocate who serves as a commissioner for the Portland Commission on Disability. Wolfe, who is deaf, spoke with The Skanner by phone through an ASL interpreter.

Why did you feel called to run?

I ran my first campaign in 2018 against incumbent Nick Fish. Although I knew Nick was going to win, I ran on my platform to voice awareness (for disability rights) and get people to know who I am as an individual.

This time, I have a lot of concerns on where the city fails to address police accountability, the houselessness crisis--with the coronavirus (outbreak), theres no fountain water, everything is closed. Theres no health care. Its just getting worse.

I bring a lot of representation: Im a deaf man, Im Jewish, and I am poor. Its really important for me to bring representation into politics.

What is unique about your background and lived experience that you can bring to the council?

I grew up poor. I ran away from home when I was 16, and Ive been on my own ever since. My first experience was protesting with the National Organization for Women, and Ive been involved in protests since then. Ive been in Portland 10 years, and in 2013, I became a commissioner for the Portland Commission on Disability, where I served for seven years.

Then in 2015, I worked to push through an ordinance requiring that all televisions in public places display closed captioning, for equal access.

Ive lived in many cities and Ive traveled through Europe for three months by myself. Having that experience of traveling around the world, (Portlands accessibility) is just getting worse and worse from what Ive been seeing. For instance, at each intersection on the roads, Ive noticed they have a yellow braille for the blind, in the crosswalk. But then theres none on the opposite streets. I notice there are several missing gaps in between. Ramps are missing as well. The lack of representation for the disabled community means the citys leadership doesnt understand whats going on with the accessibility aspect of that. So thats why I am involved in trying to convince the leadership to try to do better.

I was involved with the Community Oversight Advisory Board from 2015 to 2017, and I did extensive research about policies and law in order to improve police training. In 2018, I was hired by the state for a six-month contract with the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. My role was to teach the new officers how to work with deaf people through many different role plays, giving different scenarios.

What do you believe the role of city-recognized neighborhood associations should be?

I do not support neighborhood associations whatsoever. They are not supportive of people going through the houselessness crisis. The associations dont fit the values of Portland residents.

I think there absolutely should be geographical representation. And there are only five city councilors. Thats not enough representation for the whole city of Portland. The system is old and broken.

What do you feel is missing on City Council?

Representation. Thats whats missing. And empathy. Its not there.

Ive been watching the City Council since Mayor Wheeler took over. Ive been watching for four years, and its really toxic. Theres a lot of arguments during the city council meetings, a lot of tension; it's an extremely toxic environment. I just feel like City Hall is very White-oriented. And the police (presence) is very heavy in the town hall. Its not safe.

On empathy: In 2018, there were 92 people who died on the streets (in Multnomah County). What was the citys response? They didnt have a response to that whatsoever. They weren't held accountable, they didnt hold any speeches of the sort. They failed continually.

What would you do to increase racial and socioeconomic equity in Portland?

When we talk about systemic racial injustice, we need to include disability justice (in the conversation).

I would reach out to leaders of color, and I would provide them a platform and support them and advocate for them. City Council is mostly White. Do they represent us? No, they do not. So my goal is to represent those people by advocating for them by creating a platform for them.

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Candidates Run to Replace Retiring Commissioner Fritz - The Skanner

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Apple hints at Samsung Galaxy fold in which people removing the protective film caused the device unusable by dead display, whereas Apple devices will work without any issues even when the film protector is removed

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Just a reminder, bezeless as traditionally defined by mobile manufacturers is horizontal. Not vertical. I know that doesn't make sense but starting back from the Mi Mix, bezeless phones all had bezels on the top and bottom. The focus was removing the bezels from the sides.

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Anonymous, 10 hours agoThe iOS 5 year update system is a giant scam. You get latest features 5 years late on an avera... moreAndroid is ahead in terms of security? Don't make me laugh.

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Anonymous, 10 hours agoOnly midgets are buying this phone.4.7 inches display is outdated compared to the 6.5 inch a... moreYou know nothing about smartphone business pal, this iPhone will be the best selling smartphone and I am android user, but beeing fanboy is pathetic.

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I find it funny how they flaunt "touch id" on this ad and yet they excluded it on their more expensive models.

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Fun video. I remember when my parents first got the iPhone 4 and complained about the sound quality of their earpiece. Turns out my mom didn't take the film off the screen which muffled the ear piece.

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Anonymous, 10 hours agoOnly midgets are buying this phone.4.7 inches display is outdated compared to the 6.5 inch a... moreGuess you never owned a phone before 2013 LOL

Wow... thats harsh.... insulting not only the midget community, but also all the petite girls around the world. Hey, while you're at it, why not also tell off those hot instagram babes/celebrities for using iPhones, I'm sure you'd be sooo popular with them 🙂

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It'll probably be just another awkward, overpriced baguette that can't get simple features right. It's sad, because their compact phones used to be great.

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Anonymous, 10 hours agoThe iOS 5 year update system is a giant scam. You get latest features 5 years late on an avera... moreA rubbish comment I see. Definitely not tried iOS before and saying Android is too general (Android has many skins).

Intentional throttling after 3 years of usage may be an issue but its 5 years support is not a scam. Even old iPhone 5s received security update in 2019. Most Androids (aside OneUI and MIUI) can be rooted very easily-whether you want SuperSU or Magisk. Functionality depends on which Android skin. OneUI has best functionality and features, but severely bloated and slow. Some Chinese skins have balanced, but is preloaded with adware (especially MIUI).

Not saying that you must buy an iPhone especially with this Sh*tE 2020 junk, but if you have not tried then don't comment.

Anonymous, 10 hours agoOnly midgets are buying this phone.4.7 inches display is outdated compared to the 6.5 inch a... moreAnd then you remembered days when you didn't have to take a 7" tablet with you.Sure 4,7" is mostly non-comfortable for usual user, but average size of a 2019-2020 phone is another stupid trend just as well. I am quite curious if Sony (I know, I know, I am well aware Sony always messes things up) will bring Xperia 5 II as a probably last decent compact phone of 2020.

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HerroPris, 11 hours agoThe sad part is that Android phones for the same price will only receive two OS updates (if yo... moreThe iOS 5 year update system is a giant scam. You get latest features 5 years late on an average. Android is light years ahead of iOS in terms of functionality, customizability, security and ease of use. Android from 5 years back can do things iPhone can't.

The upcoming iOS 14 will finally get an app drawer and fully functional widgets,Lol these are things that existed on Android years back.

Plus with every subsequent update, your battery and cpu are deliberately slowed down by Apple (Yes, they are paying fines for this malpractice) whereby one is forced to upgrade after a few years.

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Most people just need a cellphone without all the bells and whistles. Who's worry about what the phone is made of as long as it get the job done. If you don't like a phone buy what you like and stop being negative because you don't like the company.

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Anonymous, 15 hours agoThey are so afraid of apples most basic phone will destroy all their cheap budget android phon... moreOnly midgets are buying this phone.4.7 inches display is outdated compared to the 6.5 inch average of Android phones.Content consumption, gaming, web browsing everything is better on bug screen.Heck even using a keyboard on tiny 4.7 inch screen is cumbersome for most users.

IPhone SE is a niche device which will only be preferred by people who want smaller compact phones. Majority of the users aren't going to sacrifice the big screen real estate.

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Anonymous, 14 hours agoApple should produce mid-ranges as competitor of samsung A series & Xiaomi redmi seriesApples gonna release a 400 dollar flagship killer iphone if they want to beat redmi or xioami

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HerroPris, 11 hours agoThe sad part is that Android phones for the same price will only receive two OS updates (if yo... moreEven flagships too so users have to rely on XDA and other communities for support. Disgusting.

Sad to see only two players.

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Anonymous, 13 hours ago480 aint cheap bro it costs more than a mid range android phone. The sad part is that Android phones for the same price will only receive two OS updates (if you are lucky) and one more year of security updates, while this will be supported for 5 years.

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LilPhone, 14 hours agoSo what? Seriously, it's a bad idea to buy an Apple budget device, such as the SE 2020. In App... moreapple puts less effort into its budget offerings... thank you sherlock.

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They are not showing the touch ID either. 🙁

bjorg18, 16 hours agoApple knows how to make a damn good commercialIMHO they sure are flashy, but they are not good.They are meant to excite people, but usually they are incredibly dumb as a bag of bricks - iPad Pro, Homepod, PORTRAIT ONE (that one was downright offensive to human inteligence), this one, you name it. It's hard to make a good ad, that is not condescending or made in a way "do not use your brain, pretty please".

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Anonymous, 15 hours agoThey are so afraid of apples most basic phone will destroy all their cheap budget android phon... more480 aint cheap bro it costs more than a mid range android phone.

Continue reading here:

Leaked iPhone SE (2020) video ad is all about peeling off the protective film - comments - GSMArena.com

With many searching for answers and feeling helpless during this unprecedented time of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Rhonda Travitt is using her gifts to help families rebuild by counseling people on breaking addictions, battling depression, and building healthy relationships.

Travitt is a pastor, certified Christian counselor, certified life coach, and the author of four books. She also founded Transformation of a Nation, a movement that assists those that are voiceless and gives them a more successful life through mentoring, job placements, counseling, and faith.

We believe that there is potential in all of us. There is always something greater in great, meaning each person possesses the ability to bring change, Travitt says. When one individual receives the answer and help they desired in life, then they become the answer for someone else to change their life. Lives changed one by one transforms a nation!

Black Enterprise caught up with Dr. Travitt to discuss the issues shes counseling people through now and why its more important than ever for us to maintain healthy relationships.

What are the most common issues people are bringing to you that theyre struggling with during this pandemic?

The most common issues that Ive encountered have been fear, anger, and uncertainty. People had become accustomed to having some form of control and freedom over their daily lives. Many people have been left with a sense of helplessness in our country.

How is coronavirus affecting our existing issues, such as depression and addiction?

This pandemic is shining a brighter light on existing issues. Depression has increased at an unprecedented level due to the loss of family members, job loss, and a lost of normalcy. The increase in depression is a consequence partly because of the guilt that many feel of not being able to be present with a dying loved onedenying them of the opportunity for proper closure.

It has been noted that professionals in the medical field, however highly trained, were nowhere near prepared for the level of morbidity they would see, adding to the many new cases of addictions and higher levels of depression.

People are [normally] able to mask issues with the requirements of day-to-day life such as work and being busy, but many are now having to slow down and deal with the issues of self and their current realities. The reality that home isnt safe, jobs arent secure, and having to be teachers to their children when pressures of uncertainty are mounting. Police departments are reporting an increase in domestic and family disturbances during this time, which points to the direct effects the pandemic is having on our communities.

Right now we dont have physical access to the support we might usually rely on. How can people still get help?

There are tons of local resources that are available at no cost during this time online. The person-to-person interaction is extremely important when providing support, and technology has really assisted by providing platforms such as Whats App, FaceTime Counseling, Skype, and video chats allowing you to schedule appointments as well as be seen virtually by live doctors. We are no longer limited to an in-office visit to receive or offer the mental support that so many need.

Unfortunately most corporations will not know the depth or extent of the post traumatic stress until workers normal or regular business operations have resumed. There are resources that are necessary to get to the other side of this crisis that people are in need of and those that have yet to be identified.

Only time will tell what that looks like. We have to recover mentally and emotionally. Its not an overnight process, not even days or months, were talking years. This process I believe will take us as a people back to the heart of humanity: having regard for our human life, our neighbors, strangers, the elderly. No more sizing our sisters and brothers up based on perception. Every joint really does supply. We are all truly in this together and none of those things matter this time around!

How important is it to have healthy relationships right now, and what does that look like in these times of quarantine?

With feelings and emotions at an all time high, its necessary to build strong bonds and reinforce support systems. Having a healthy relationship is essential during this crisis, and I firmly believe that every relationship has been tested if not pushed to the limit.Right now people are faced with spouses and children that theyve only spent a couple of hours a day with. In this time of crisis, they are sometimes spending 16 hours a day with them and getting to know one another more intimately. This is a time of discovery which is relevant in all phases and types of relationships.

Maintaining a healthy relationship during this quarantine means forgiving quickly and being intentional with everyone, specifically those relationships with children and spouses. It takes commitment and work! To come out of COVID-19 with a healthy relationship, we must first be willing to listen to each other, learn and relearn each other, make time for reflection, and not give in to the negative tendencies. Love, respect, and forgive.

See original here:

Christian Counselor Shares the Key to Healthy Relationships During Coronavirus - Black Enterprise