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This Wimp’s Reason For Wearing A Mask

I ought to have your safety in mind when I wear my COVID-slowing mask in public. That would be noble. But I have a more gut-level motivation: Fear. Stark, naked fear. Fear of COVID is in the mix, but it is way back in my subconscious. Fear of getting my face slapped is right out there in front. It started about three weeks ago. I developed what we used to call a cold, with could-be-COVID symptoms: A dry cough, fatigue, muscle/body aches, congestion, runny nose, and post-nasal drip. And sneezing. More on that in a minute. I am fully vaccinated (Pfizer). I didn’t get ...

Be A True Patriot In Your Community

People generally have a basic understanding of the long-term civic story of the community where they live if they’ve lived there for any length of time. Their version may not be totally accurate, but most people are able to connect their community’s past to what is happening there now. This usually gives them hope for a better future for themselves and their neighbors, especially if most members of their community can quickly identify their local patriots. However, that can be tricky. True patriots don’t generally label themselves as such. They also don’t waste other people’s ...

We Must Help Those At Risk Of Fading Away Right In Front Of Us

President Harry Truman’s firing of General Douglas MacArthur for disobeying his orders during the Korean War was one of the more memorable events of my junior high years. Truman wanted a ceasefire, while MacArthur wanted to press the war further and bomb cities in China, which had been sending troops to help the North Koreans. So on April 11, 1951 Truman dismissed MacArthur from his command. The dismissal wasn’t popular. MacArthur was still seen as the World War II hero who had accepted Japan’s unconditional surrender on the battleship Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945. He had also ...

New York Legislation Hurts Low-Income Tenants

Over the last few years New York has adopted legislation that provides short-term benefits for some low-income tenants but creates very serious potential long-term issues for many of the same people, including higher rents, a potential housing shortage, and more homelessness. In 2019, the New York State Legislature passed the “Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act”, which caps security deposits to one month’s rent while increasing the processing time for evictions from three weeks to about three months. As a result, the legislation almost guarantees that a security deposit ...

Relearning The Lessons Of History

As a Vietnam veteran, I have been especially troubled by recent events in Afghanistan. We don’t seem to learn from the lessons of history. We thought, relative to Vietnam, that military might along with American know-how could turn around a civil war between North and South Vietnam. We discounted the long history of Vietnam, including the fact that before French colonization, the country had been an independent nation. No amount of American intervention was going to overcome the drive to reunify that country. In Afghanistan, almost the reverse has happened—no amount of ...

Get The Best COVID-19 Information You Can

As we start to open up our senior centers and congregate meal sites, I am getting questions from older adults about how vaccines work. Can we mandate that everyone who comes into our building be vaccinated? And are we protected from the Delta variant of COVID-19? I will try to answer these questions in this article but realize that information is changing as time passes. Information is changing because we are learning more as millions of people have been vaccinated and as the virus changes. Your best source of information is our local county health department as it bases its ...