Thinks
This section is where I will post relevant articles that catch my eye and convict me... Instead of just my thoughts, you can read what real people have to say...well, that and my commentary. ↡✌
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| Image taken from University of Utah Health |
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| Image taken from Twitter.com |
Bottleneck for U.S. Coronavirus Response: The Fax Machine- Ahhh, so you mean our church isn't the only place that was often stalled by a copy machine or old fax and faulty internet and fighting against old, donated computers with somewhat pirated versions of Microsoft office installed by our volunteer-laity-techies? Got it. 👍👍 Good.
"On average, his office is getting all the information it needs about a test result 11 days after the test is taken — far too late to make contact tracing worthwhile. He has been advising those in the area with virus symptoms to assume they are positive, since the tests take so long to come back...
“There are standards that exist out there, but with the onslaught and the drastic increase in volume and the increase in the number of tests, they’re struggling to keep up,” said Jason Hall, who is the lead for the C.D.C.’s Laboratory Reporting Working Group.
Nationally, about 80 percent of coronavirus test results are missing demographic information, and half do not have addresses, according to Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.
“When things come in with missing information, we have to try to put the pieces back together,” she said. “We call the provider back or look at other data sources. But that takes time.”
The Trump administration issued guidelines in early June that required laboratories to report things like patients’ age, race and ethnicity, so public health officials can better understand the demographics of the coronavirus pandemic. The rules, which do not take effect until August, state that laboratories “should” also provide patients’ addresses and phone numbers but do not mandate it.This type of information often gets lost, as the typical test data take a journey from doctor’s office to laboratory to public health authority and back to the original doctor, not necessarily in that order. At each stage, technological failures can slow or disrupt the flow of vital information. Doctor’s offices don’t always have digital systems capable of talking to the lab that analyzes the result. Laboratory software often omits information that public health authorities will later need. And transmissions by fax or spreadsheet can require workers to manually re-enter information into their computer systems, increasing the risk of errors or duplicate entries.
Some public health officials say they’ve been especially vexed by the ubiquity of fax machines, with their blurry printouts and analog data.Public health departments, whose budgets have been cut back over the past decade, were unable to finance the digital upgrades themselves.
“The best way I can describe it is to imagine you’re on the information super highway, but you’re traveling with a bus pass,” said Oscar Alleyne, chief program pfficer at the National Association of County and City Health Officials. “Money was invested to get physician practices onto electronic health records. There was no investment to build up a similar technology to tie public health into that system.”- all quotes from The Upshot, NYTimes
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| Image from Americaexplained.com |
| "Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash" via Medium.com |
This article on Medium is pretty thorough at examining some of the complex issues we are facing with the re-opening of our schools. I appreciate the conversation I was able to have on my Facebook status about Florida reopening without mandated safety measures. People with an array of perspectives commented. The discussion is complex, and we must have it in order to do better. As well, we must demand our politicians have it and take a bit of a stronger stance on some of these issues to give us constituents guidance- that's my opinion at least. We can't just leave it up to individual schools where inevitably teachers, staff, administration, and parents are going to end up battling it out. That is the real survival of the fittest and completely unfair. We elect politicians to help manage these issues and guide us... They should be willing to do the hard work of figuring out compromises that best meet a variety of demands.
All quotes below from We Can’t Let Parents and Teachers Be Pitted Against Each Other In Debate Over School Reopenings by Jen Roesh
"Unfortunately, this has set the stage for teachers and parents to be pitted against each other. Teachers are justifiably worried about being sent back to work in schools while the virus is still spreading and without any clear plans for maintaining their health and safety. In NYC, the initial epicenter of the epidemic, the city’s disregard for the lives of school staff is an open wound..." [This is so true. I can't tell you how abandoned and uncared for so many of my teacher friends feel, and in NY, I feel like the city government actually does MORE for teachers than in many states and small-towns across America. If this is how New Yorkers feel, Lord Jesus help them all! The poor teachers across the U.S.A!!!]
The city refused to close schools for nearly two weeks as parents and teachers begged for them to close — and when they finally did, teachers were ordered back to work for in-person curriculum planning for almost a full week. Close to 100 school-based staff ended up dying and some experts say that deaths could have been reduced by 50–80% if school closures and other social distancing measures had been taken just a week earlier...
“This is the end game of their war of attrition. It feeds on our own sense of exhaustion and confusion. The fact that the status quo feels intolerable makes any change to it seem welcome — or at least inevitable…It was never about lives vs the economy. It was always about their profits vs our lives...
In order to fight for our lives to be prioritized over profits, parents and teachers need to recognize that we are being put in impossible positions by those with all of the money, resources and power. Our specific needs and individual breaking points may be different, but we are all in this together." [Or are we? Sometimes, I just don't know anymore...]
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| image from ascienceenthusiast.com |
I
find myself intrigued by this debate. Voices- when to Silence
them? When to Listen to them? Do we Quiet? At some point, yes, Right?
But room to wrestle…where is that? What does it look like? We must take responsibility
for what we say… all this dialogue, I internalize, and lay awake at night
pondering. I can’t sleep. LITERALLY woke I suppose. If you have been
following me, it is obvious why such a discussion interests me. It IS
me. The battle rages.
So do any of my
readers find interest in educating me on the current laws in place and
the actual wording of our amendments, etc. in regard to free speech and hate
speech? I realize I probably look exceedingly dense for having to ask this
question. Truth is out- I concentrated on grades while in school as a form of
finding self-worth. That led to a crap-load of memorization, and sadly not as
much critical thinking in subjects that, at the time, did not pique my interest.
Political science certainly fell under that category, and I pay for it now. Thus,
I am interested in dialogue and discussion. I can compare and contrast sonatas,
world religions, culture and theology and art, but I need some help here. I
feel like I empathize with both sides of the argument on the issue. The understand
and fight-for-the-underdog side of me cheers loudly that big companies are
pulling their ads from Facebook! “Make them take accountable,” I cry!
“It is about time! Stand up against stupidity and ignorance.” I’m
certainly tired of getting forwards of conspiracy theories and my poor mother
and aunt being influenced by them for sure! On the other hand, one of the CNN
videos I watched mentioned that demands were being made for Facebook to disclose
content and discussions in private group forums and take down content in
those forums if it was deemed hateful or if ad companies were restricted from
seeing it and being allowed to determine if they wanted their ads going
up IN those groups in the first place. And I suppose a part of me
wonders how much of a demand these companies should be allowed to make in this
area. Maybe they just find elsewhere to advertise instead. I certainly do not
want to support hate speech, but perhaps a free social media platform cannot
limit to that degree under the law? Should
it? And how much? (Don’t yell at me please; it’s discouraging)!
But I do not know!
A portion of me believes Facebook should comply. Another portion
does not. I guess I’m not completely a socialist after all and shouldn’t be
sent to Russia even though apparently I would blend in there… (that’s another
story- about how I am literally asked on a monthly basis if I speak Russian and
am Russian… apparently I look very Russian to well-meaning older Russian women,
and they get really excited to meet me and talk to me, only to be disappointed
that I’m just a white girl from Georgia…and that I worship Jesus…and don’t
observe Sabbat. but I did watch all seven seasons of The Americans, so there’s
that, and now at least they have someone to give all their food to that they
have to get out of their apartments during Passover and the high holidays. #Truestory).
I feel like my conservative-Republican-Southern friends are
rejoicing here. “There is hope
for her at last,”
they praise…. If they are still reading my blog at this point.
So yeah- respectful discussion encouraged. Educate me
on laws and rulings and wordings in place. And give me your best emotion-laden
yet also logical arguments for either side…
You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument
"The Georgia Legislature on Tuesday afternoon passed a hate crimes bill that will now head to the desk of Governor Brian Kemp. If signed into law, Georgia would no longer be among four states without hate crime legislation on its books."
No longer? Wow. I'm sorry, to every black and brown, Asian, or non-heterosexual and binary person I ever met that previously we couldn't say that killing you in the state of Georgia, for simply existing and being who you NATURALLY are was a high prosecutorial offense. I'm sorry that before, it was justifiable... or understandable, somehow. I'm sorry...just ... wow.
"The bill, HB426, passed the state Senate by a 47-6 vote and the state house 127-38. Kemp's office said in a statement released to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he would sign the bill pending legal review...
Both chambers, both sides of the aisle, are standing up to bias and bias-motivated crimes and saying they want to protect their citizens."
I literally never realized just how dangerous it was to live in Georgia... like seriously, never realized.
"South Carolina, Wyoming and Arkansas also remain without hate crime laws." Some advocates including the ADL also include Indiana on the list, calling a law passed in that state last year "problematically broad."
Don't move to those states either apparently.
" Republican Senator Bill Coswert called the bill's passage a "historic" moment. "
You THINK?
"I think we're really at sort of a tipping point right now, and this has been brought about by some of the recent events that have been put visually in front of us on video that are impossible to defend," Coswert said."
Again, I say, YOU THINK?
"The bill would mandate enhanced sentencing for defendants convicted of targeting a victim because of their "actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability, or physical disability." That would mean additional potential prison time or fines on top of sentences for the type of crime for which the defendant was convicted, such as manslaughter or murder."
🙌🙌 as well as 😐😐😖😒😒
"Previous efforts to pass a hate crimes bill in the state have faltered. The Georgia general assembly in 2000 passed a hate crimes bill that called for enhanced sentencing for crimes motivated by "bias or prejudice," but in 2004, the bill was struck down by the Georgia Supreme Court as unconstitutionally vague."
"This law is too vague. I'm not sure what it is saying about how we aren't allowed to target people because they aren't white or straight or even men. I'm confused. Let's veto." -Me, pretending to be a white, male, 'CHRISTIAN,' politician in Georgia.
"In speaking their support for the bill on the Senate floor, several senators shared their personal experiences with hate and discrimination. Democratic Senator Donzella James, who is black, said she was accosted as a child by a group of white students who yelled racial slurs and threw a bottle at her as she waited for a bus. Republican Senator Renee Unterman, who is Jewish, emotionally recalled having death threats and anti-Semitic literature delivered to her home when she was the mayor of the Georgia town of Loganville in the 1980s."
"Oh that's just kids. Kids are just mean like that. They don't know any better. I'll tell you why this happened; it happened because we took prayer out of school. That is what we should be concentrating on, getting prayer back in school. We wouldn't have these problems then." -Me again, pretending to be the assholes who make the rules.
And no, this isn't because we took prayer out of schools. This crap happened when we had prayer in schools. We enslaved human beings when we had prayer in schools. Just sayin.
"It's time for Georgia to rise up and show that we will not stand for crimes done out of hate," James said. "Yes, we cannot legislate love, but we can put stronger penalties in place that may deter those who are committing these crimes from doing it."
You can't legislate love? Yes you can. We do it every day. We say who can and who cannot get married and donate blood. So apparently we can legislate love. Should we? Now that is a different question, but thanks for at least making a minor change here for these people, maybe, at least, perhaps. One-step-at-a-time I guess.
"The bill has not been without controversy. Debate erupted last week when Senate Republicans amended the bill to extend hate crime protections to law enforcement and first responders. Critics said the addition diluted the symbolic nature of hate crime legislation, which is typically intended to send a strong message condemning hate that has historically plagued marginalized communities in the U.S.
...The first responders amendment was later struck from the bill in a bipartisan compromise, but some protections for law enforcement were folded into another bill that passed the House Tuesday, HB838. That proposed legislation would create a "bill of rights" for officers under investigation, and would add additional penalties for people convicted of targeting a firefighter, police officer or paramedic specifically because of their profession. "
IF YOU ARE A FIRST RESPONDER OR CIVIC OFFICER, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE...unless you are black, or brown, or GAY. Nevermind. "Wait, hold on. I'm confused...computer does not compute. Something contradicts... does not line up... overheating here... a person can be good and gay? I don't get it." - the as***** again.
"In a statement, the Democratic Party of Georgia said Republicans "forced through" HB838 even though law enforcement officials are already afforded protections under state law and "are all too often at the center of violence against the marginalized Georgians that the hate crimes law is looking to protect."
Yup. There you have it. Good ole boys. (Sorry- I've been told that it is racist of me to call anyone that), out muddin' in their trucks, with their big guns, thumpin' their bibles they can barely read, making up rules. Not matter that many of them nearly didn't pass high school and were drunk half the time even then no doubt.
"The bill's passage came the same day as the funeral for Rayshard Brooks, a black man who was shot dead by an Atlanta officer while fleeing with his Taser."
"See, he didn't die in vain." -Me, being a self-righteous, straight, white man.
"We are thrilled that this [hate crimes] law has finally passed after years of advocacy, but let's be clear — we will not forget that this bill only came to light after 14 years of delays under Republican leadership, the murder of black men before our eyes, and the pain of marginalized communities across our state," the Georgia Democrats' statement said."
Those damn democrats...always pointing out facts. 😑
Speaking on the Senate floor, Democratic Senator Harold Jones called the bipartisan efforts to pass the bill a "tremendous lift."
I'm not going to say anything else. I only have curse words.
"While states are the primary prosecutors of hate crimes, the federal government also has the authority to bring charges under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The Department of Justice can act as a "backstop" to prosecute hate crimes in states without the statutes or where state laws don't cover the crime. The Department of Justice has said it is reviewing the Arbery case to determine whether federal hate crime charges are appropriate. "
.... again... nothing more... because like the DOJ, I'm not sure whether or not what I would do at this point would be APPROPRIATE... One thing is for sure, it wouldn't be a hate crime; it would probably just be the result of me being a woman, who loved black people, and gays, you know, the kind of woman that isn't supposed to speak up about these things, or to men, or in church, or at all. Just look pretty, Megin. That's all we need you to do sweet girl. Drink your diet coke, and be thin.
Nothing more. I've got nothing more. They deserve no more, of my time.
- This delightful piece about how Trump supporters brainwash, I mean, EXPLAIN the BLM campaign to their children. If you're looking for something to make you vomit your breakfast, please, enjoy.
- Or this one about the apparent need to rough up Grandma for praying inside MAGA land. I guess you're only allowed to pray for peace if your black shirt says "Liberty Guns Beer Trump." -_-
- And of course, the uptick in hate crimes against Asian-Americans, which makes perfect sense since they are to blame, amIright? for Kung-Flu?
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| Image from SimonandSchuster.com |
I want everyone I know to read White Too Long, by Robert Jones, even though I haven't read it, but I feel like I will love it. Am I allowed to recommend a book before it comes out? I don't see how I wouldn't love this. For now, you can read the incredible interview with the author that deals with the scope of the book.
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Aiyana MoNay Stanley-Jones July 20, 2002 – May 16, 2010 |
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| Image taken from Santa Cruz Sentinel |
“White
people do not think in terms of we. White people have
the privilege to interact with the social and political structures of our
society as individuals. You are “you,” I
am “one of them.” Whites are often not directly affected by racial oppression
even in their own community, so what does not affect them locally has little
chance of affecting them regionally or nationally. They have no need, nor often
any real desire, to think in terms of a group. They are supported by the
system, and so are mostly unaffected by it....
What they
are affected by are attacks on their own character. To my aunt, the suggestion
that “people in The North are racist” is an attack on her as a racist. She is unable to differentiate her participation within a racist system (upwardly mobile, not racially
profiled, able to move to White suburbs, etc.) from an accusation that she,
individually, is a racist. Without being able to make that differentiation, White
people in general decide to vigorously defend their own personal non-racism, or
point out that it doesn't exist because they don't see it....
The
result of this is an incessantly repeating argument where a Black person says
“Racism still exists. It is real,” and a white person argues “You're wrong, I'm
not racist at all. I don't even see any racism.” My aunt’s immediate response
is not “that is wrong, we should do better.” No, her response is
self-protection: “That’s not my fault, I didn't do anything. You are wrong.”
…….
But racism is even more
subtle than that. It’s more nuanced. Racism isthe fact that “White” means “normal”
and that anything else is different. Racism is our acceptance of an all white
Lord of the Rings cast becauseof “historical accuracy,” ignoring the fact that
this is a world with anbentirely fictionalized history.
Even when we make shit up,
we want it to be white.
The
entire discussion of race in America centers around the protection of White
feelings. Ask any Black
person and they'll tell you the same thing. The reality of thousands of
innocent people raped, shot, imprisoned, and systematically disenfranchised are
less important than the suggestion that a single White person might be
complicit in a racist system.
I’m gonna read that again:
“Black and Muslim killers are ‘terrorists’ and ‘thugs’. Why are white shooters
called ‘mentally ill’?”
The reality of America is that White people are fundamentally good, and
so when a white person commits a crime, it is a sign that they, as an
individual, are bad. Their actions as a person are not indicative
of any broader social construct. Even the fact that America has a growing
number of violent hate groups, populated mostly by white men, and that nearly
*all* serial killers are white men can not shadow the fundamental truth of
white male goodness. In fact, we like White serial killers so much, we make mini-series
about them.
White people
are good as a whole, and only act badly as individuals.
People of
color, especially Black people (but boy we can talk about
“The Mexicans” in this community) are seen as fundamentally bad. There might be
a good one — and we are always quick to point them out to our friends, show
them off as our Academy Award for “Best Non-Racist in a White Role” — but when
we see a bad one, it’s just proof that the rest are, as a rule, bad.
This, all of
this, expectation, treatment, thought, the underlying social system that puts
White in the position of Normal and good, and Black in the position of “other”
and “bad,” all of this, is racism.
And White
people, every single one of you, are complicit in this racism because you
benefit directly from it.
This is why I don't like the story of the good samaritan. Everyone
likes to think of themselves as the person who sees someone beaten and bloodied
and helps him out.
That’s too easy.
If I could
re-write that story, I'd rewrite it from the perspective of Black America. What
if the person wasn't beaten and bloody? What if it wasn't so obvious? What if
they were just systematically challenged in a thousand small ways that
actually made it easier for you to succeed in life?
Would you be so quick to help then?
Or would you, like most White people, stay silent and let it happen?”-(John Meta, I, Racist)
| BusinessInsider.com |
"Georgia is no stranger to troubled elections. In the highly contested 2018 governor’s race between current Governor Brian Kemp and then Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams, controversial purges of voter rolls led to accusations by the Democrats of voter suppression. Kemp, who was Georgia’s Secretary of State at the time of the election, was accused by Abrams of systematic disenfranchisement, and initially she refused to refer to him as the legitimately elected governor. Subsequently, the state purchased a $104 million voting machine system to address issues that were identified in the 2018 election.Yet on Tuesday, the renewal of voter problems didn’t take long to manifest. The concerns started first thing in the morning, with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms immediately raising red flags. "This seems to be happening throughout Atlanta and perhaps throughout the county. People have been in line since before 7:00 am this morning,” Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, tweeted shortly after polls were supposed to open. But not all the polls opened promptly and reports of long lines and people waiting over four hours to vote were rampant, particularly in Fulton and Dekalb and counties, which have heavily minority populations.
“Everything that could happen or go wrong has gone wrong so far,” Robb Pitts, the chair of the board of commissioners of Atlanta’s Fulton County, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. " -Seth Cohen, Forbes
Comments like these can be found on the Mayor's twitter page:
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| untappedcities.com |
- Those who have been born here and struggle to make it and for whom leaving is not a choice because they literally work their fingers to the bone 90 hours a week just to continue their own cycle of barely getting by each year, month, week, and day.
- Those who LOVE to live in NYC for all that NYC has to offer them but have absolutely no affinity for sticking around to handle the non-glamorous side of life here such as hurricanes, black outs, terrorist attacks, protests, curfews, snowstorms, and pandemics, (or even tourist season).
- Those of whom to which living in NYC is a calling, who remain here not because they constantly enjoy doing so but because they are committed to something bigger than what they prefer, committed to something deeper, to a belief system and to being a part of the systemic change they hope to see in the future.
Here is a really comprehensive article about understanding Black Lives Matter and what the Christian, dare I use the word evangelical, response to it should be. The editor, , does a thorough job at comparing BLM with the Civil Rights Movement of 60 years ago. As well, he even deals with the controversial use of Jesus cleansing the temple in support of protesting and aggressive civil disobedience. The talk is fourty-six minutes, and his editor's note are extensive, so I won't say much else here, but I do encourage anyone really seeking to grapple with the Christian/Evangelical response to racism and these movements in a balanced way to dive into this material. Edmondson is not accusatory or threatening in his tone which, therefore, appeals to a wide audience, disarming us so that we might learn and grow and be changed more into the image of the one who created us.
If the President Tells You to Shoot Looters, You Have a Duty to Disobey" -Joe Carter, The Gospel Coalition
Churches are Essential. Thanks for letting me know, but I already knew that. And honestly, I don't understand why everyone is insisting that churches have closed... even if you don't have the ability to reach people through technology, your church shouldn't have ''closed.'' Under few circumstances do I feel like a church actually ''closes.'' Churches are God's people being God's people... living out the Kingdom of God... where the Kingdom of God is preached (and that doesn't mean it needs to be from a traditional pulpit), and the works of the Kingdom of God are done....(and that can happen anywhere..) So I'm pretty confused about this entire 'church has been closed' thing... What's more, I'm really disgusted by any ploy to use the idea of reopening churches as a way to garner political support which is EXACTLY what this feels like it is. Perhaps one will say I'm not giving him the benefit of the doubt, but honestly if there has ever been a leader that has acted in ways that demonstrate that he probably doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt, then it's this guy. And I think that's a pretty fair statement. Let's just be honest. So yeah... Churches are going to be essential. That's good news...I think? Maybe? I'm not sure? Hopefully everyone will use wisdom...
Georgia Church Closing Down for the second time after services resumed and members contracted Coronavirus. Not a fun game kids. Below are my Vlog commentaries. This is sad news, and I feel for these people. Taking a look at their statement of faith, it seems they are a people of strong-held convictions, who don't leave a lot of room for the mystery of not understanding God. I don't mean to come across judgmental, but some of their beliefs are pretty hardcore to an extent that I feel like tries to flesh out every minuscule detail and present a clear understanding of who God is and how He operates to a perilous degree. Like if they can present this God and master Him, they can figure out how to please Him and get what they want from Him. That's my take on it when theology leaves no room for the unknown. Because there are mysteries of God that we must be okay without comprehending. We will never fully know Him until we see Him face-to-face. Coming from an independent Baptist background, I feel like I can assume that the people in these churches see things pretty black and white- at least my Baptist church did. There wasn't much gray area, so while I don't take any delight in the fact the parishioners of Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle are having to admit that re-opening so quickly wasn't the most wise decision, I also feel like this is a lesson to be learned in recognizing that sometimes following God means we have to be uncomfortable... and can't do what we want to do... and sometimes when the government is asking you not to assemble, it's not because they just want to squash your rights and your God but it's because they want to take care of you and pursue a better, safer future. Church is more than a building and a set time on Sunday. Much more... Anyway- I digress... my main points are spoken in the following videos. I have to figure out a way to upload them directly to the blog... currently I can't figure that out. Even cutting them up, they were too large. #newb. Sorry that you have to click through 4 separate videos. I know. I'm like a dinosaur.
Catoosa 2
Catoosa 3
The Flu Doesn't Do This. It's not the same. That is all. There is nothing else to say. This article says it all. This is reality. I get that it's uncomfortable. I get that it drives you to your knees. That is called life. Conviction. Cry out to God. He's there. And this is real.
"What has happened in Paramus is not just a failure by state regulators. The home also gets funding from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, making it subject to additional regulatory oversight. Two congressmen and the New Jersey commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars are demanding a federal inquiry."
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| Pic Cred: Cynthia Petersen via New York Times "Harold Petersen, on the day he proposed to his wife, Michele, in 1955"- NYT Petersen is a current resident at the Paramus home. |
The Cycle of Fear and Corona Fittingly one finds that the most often found command in the Judaeo-Christian scriptures is the command "do not fear." Obviously our God knew a little something about the people to whom He had the writers of scripture pen their words. Social media is ablaze today with people seeking to distinguish between fact and fiction, conspiracy theory, theory, and truth. Some are figuring these things out quite well. Some, we must admit, are not.
I see people making massive claims that masks, social distancing, and placing various parts of the economy on pause are illogical, ridiculous, and oppressive, that obviously the left-wing-communists are pulling the wool over the eyes of the masses. I feel like the tendency to make such jumps in logic stems from fear, the fear of this new reality in which we have all been ushered without our permission, this new reality set upon us by a cosmic power, however one would define it, outside of ourselves. No one asked for this. Not even virologists in China. And the claim that this thing is just like any other flu is an attempt at garnering for ourselves some piece of the control we have so suddenly realized we do not have as people fall down dying around us and as we are told we'll have to find something else to look forward to instead of spring break, Easter-egg hunts, and whatever other typical social activities are on indefinite hold. The truth, however, is that we never had this control we are craving in the first place. We simply deceived ourselves. Those who perhaps are a little more closely acquainted with suffering will tell us, control is the devil's lie. No one has it.
There is countless evidence out there that can help us see why Covid-19 is not the same as the flu. For example, as this ↑↑ article explains, the number of actual flu deaths each year are minuscule in comparison to the counted deaths from corona-virus in the past month and a half. There are countless articles to help us understand this fact. Google 'actual flu deaths vs corona deaths' and you'll find a collection.
If the numbers alone and other facts like transmission rate, etc. aren't enough to convince a person, there is another glaring clue- real-life testimonies from our healthcare professionals. I've heard some argue that we cannot trust any testimonies we hear on the news because those giving witness are simply looking for their fifteen minutes of fame. To that, I respond, "fine, don't listen to them. Listen, instead, to those who are committing suicide arguably due to the despair inside of them which this virus has ignited with allusion of assuaging."
Just this past week, a doctor from my hometown who was caring for Covid patients succumbed to mental illness. My mother knew him in passing from her time working at University Hospital. He is just one man; there have been others. Perhaps you read about Dr. Lorna Breen from NY Presbyterian.
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| (Channel 12 News WRDW.com August, Ga) |
Of course, all of this could spark enough fear that people want to stop living life and hibernate for eternity, or the converse, deny that anything this unfathomable and terrifying could actually happen. I understand both of those responses. But it isn't just the first that is riddled with fear. Denial and fighting against reality are responses to fear as well. Courage, thankfully, is not the absence of fear but the ability to endure and live in the midst of it. Similarly, faith is not the absence of questions or doubts, but the ability to believe in God in the midst of not understanding everything. Our children are afraid of a great many things, but they can endure when we, their parents and trusted friends, hold their hands. Holding their hands doesn't eradicate their fears; it makes their fears bearable. As well, explaining complicated truths to our children that they cannot understand does not always yield the result of their immediately grasping what we want to teach them, but we often find they trust us simply because they know we know that about which we speak. Perhaps this is what He means when Jesus says that we are to come to Him like little children, (Matthew 18:3).
We don't have to understand WHY corona is happening. We don't have to understand HOW ever to get back to life pre-corona. What we can do is deal with reality, with courage, in the midst of fear. Wear the masks, though they are uncomfortable. Get vaccines that will help us in the long run. Pause on life as we knew it; become creative in a new-world, together. Be patient. Be gracious. Put aside rampant fear and distrust for anything we cannot completely and totally understand ourselves. Accept the truth that is staring us in the mirror. Quit running. Quit hiding. Be courageous, together. Maybe then, we'll bravely overcome.
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| (endcoronavirus.org) |
Click the link ↑↑↑ for curve graphics of the response of various countries to the coronavirus. I first realized just how overgrown the American ego was during my initial summer spent in Hong Kong, in 2003. Prior to that, I had no idea. I suppose it makes sense; I had barely traveled outside of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida before then. Twenty-years-old was my age, but my last plane ride had been when I was a child and went to Hawaii on a semi-paid-for vacation that my dad earned through his business. Not exactly crossing cultures. I was not, what you would call, versed in the world. One can imagine the work it took for God to get me to China, then, as well as simply how eye-opening it me going was. In a way, you could say I never looked back, after God's grace projected me out... It is with that in mind, that I am not shocked to see the US response to this virus as one of the worst. We are not as brilliant as we think we are. We are actually quite arrogant...and I wonder just how much our fearless leader has done to make America Great Again.... I can't place all the blame on him, however, because I don't really think America has been all that great in a very, very long time, and the fault lies with far more than the yellow-haired tan man, although he does have faults. The fault lies with the countless who voted for him, and with the other side as well... the fault lies with us, the people and our unwillingness to humble ourselves and listen to perspectives outside our own. Only we can be the change we want to see... so let's be it. Stop preaching. Start acting. I hope I can take my own advice.
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| (tujuh17belas/Shutterstock via ThriveGlobal.com) |
Dealing with Difficult People
Okay, I won't lie, this article is EXTREMELY validating. Sometimes ministry can feel like having signed up to hear people let you know daily how you, (or your spouse), could be doing a better job if you just worked more hours, or tried something a different way, etc. etc. etc. I once heard someone say being in ministry is the only field where the people whom you serve seem to think they could do the job better than you and don't mind letting you, and those around them, know it. I would not say that is true for everyone that we serve, but certainly there are always those few who make loving well pretty difficult. I don't mean to insult you if you read this. I'm not trying to call you out. But that statement is kind of funny if you think about it. Do we go to our doctors and tell them what they should do in order to grow their practice and help people more? Do we ask them what they REALLY do all week, over, and over, and over? And when people get sicker, do we blame the doctor and say that they did something wrong and that's why a person caught a cold or a virus? Well, maybe some people do those things, but for the most part, the answer would be no! We generally put trust and faith in our doctors! Why is it so hard to put faith in the people who give their lives to minister in churches, then? Perhaps it's all spiritual warfare. Satan is a jerk. So fellow ministers, whether full time or volunteer, church or parachurch- I throw up the peace hand at you in solidarity! ✌It's rough brother! Hang in there....Jesus knows all about it. And when it gets rough, try to think back on all the stupid crap you've done in your life. When I remember just how fallen I am, I'm much more patient with all the fallen people around me. 🙏
Finally a virus got me: Ebola, HIV, COVID-19 This guy studied infectious diseases his whole life, but not until he was 71, did one finally come so close to home. Some of the quotations from this article astound me and shed light on the idea that our world will never be the same as it was pre-COVID.
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| Virologist Peter Piot, pic by Heidi Larson; Sciencemag.org |
-All quotes from ‘Finally, a virus got me.’ Scientist who fought Ebola and HIV reflects on facing death from COVID-19, by Dirk Draulans in Sciencemag.org
South Bronx Church Loses 16 to Coronavirus This article from the Washington Post speaks to the experience of one pastor in the South Bronx. Jesse has crossed paths with him a number of times while working with Redeemer City to City. I feel like many friends and family down South find the whole social distancing and "America on pause" business excessive, but it's reality here. We need support. We need validation and empathy. We need prayers. These are real people LOSING real people. They don't need to hear they are crazy or that this is some massive conspiracy. If we are all in this together, if we are acting like believers who love their God first and their brother and sister as themselves, then at the moment, the most pressing need should be taken care of so that when better, we can as a whole address the other needs as well. Current NYC virus stats.
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| image taken from Gothamist.com |
Our Idols Exposed in a Time of Crisis
When Christianity Doesn't Work
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| (The Atlantic/ Dustin Chambers / Bloomberg via Getty) |
Georgia's Experiment in Human Sacrifice "Georgians are now the largely unwilling canaries in an invisible coal mine, sent to find out just how many individuals need to lose their job or their life for a state to work through a plague....“We’re opening up businesses that are not only high-touch and requiring proximity, but we’re also choosing industries where racial- and ethnic-minority communities are disproportionately represented,” Heiman noted. He said that choosing to restart these industries is likely to deepen the crisis for communities of color in the South. “They’re going back to a job that places them at increased risk for exposure to coronavirus, and they don’t have access to Medicaid, because we haven’t expanded it,” he explained. Across America, black and Latino people have died from COVID-19 at rates far outpacing that of white people. In Georgia, one of the country’s worst outbreaks has struck the rural, poor city of Albany, whose population is more than 70 percent black. In addition to the lack of Medicaid expansion, high incidences of medical problems such as hypertension and diabetes in the southeastern United States could make the coronavirus, which seems to prey on people with preexisting health issues, particularly deadly there." -The Atlantic.
My take on it? Systemic Racism at its finest...
JCrew- Where Art Thou? Where am I going to find fitted tees with dachshunds basking in the sun on sailboats and strolling through Central Park? And all the socks with hedgehogs and icecream cones? And Eden was going to wear crew cuts, and the rest of my first world problems....
Great Practical Article About Marriage: written by my ex-boyfriend. Upon the list of things in life a gal would NEVER do is probably read a marriage devotional written by her ex-boyfriend, but I would venture to say that is only in a post-fall world. In a "Your Kingdom come; Your will be done" world, we'd be all over that crap because we know God is completely sovereign, works in ALL situations, withholds no good thing, delights to give us the desires of our hearts, and never gives up on working in His children to make them more and more like Christ. With those truths in minds, it almost seems wrongs NOT to read marriage devotionals written by our ex-boyfriends. Nonetheless, I can imagine it still might feel a little icky to some people, in which case they don't need to read their ex's work, they can just read my ex's work. Check out Steve Hoppe on the Gospel Coalition website!!! No he didn't ask me to write this. No he doesn't know I'm writing this. Yes I slightly pee my pants of embarrassment when I think of him seeing me write this on my blog. And yes Jesse and I have made the joke "well what would Steve say," or "let's ask Steve," when talking about how we argue and communicate because, let's be honest, that's a pretty damn funny joke!
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