Archive: Opinions

I quite literally bumped into one of my bestest, longtime friends on Cayuga Street and she asked me if I had a face mask upon my embarrassed answer in the negative, she took me into her store and sewed me a handmade special "masculine" mask. Her business is struggling like so many are these weeks, but she found time to laugh while sewing, catching up on my news and hers and sharing our mutual pain. This edition of Thoughts is dedicated to her.

Item: Companies can use sophisticated tools to limit where their ads appear online. "coronavirus" is now the key word locked by the most brands in America having overtaken "Trump.", according to Integral AD Science, Inc.

Note: I now notice those little libraries in front of people's homes in Fall Creek now have canned goods and rolls of toilet paper in them in addition to the books.

Item: The number of gun background checks hit a record high in the month of March as Americans rushed to buy firearms The FBI conducted an estimated 2.3 million background checks for gun sales in the month an all time record since the system was installed in the year 1998. Previous one month record? December, 2012 when 2.2 million after the Sandy hook massacre.

Note: A tiny church just over the Tompkins County line in Schuylar County has turned its empty vestibule into a community Generosity space was books and puzzles for adults and children, canned goods, paper products and nonperishable food and some face masks. The sign to the tiny community says: "Take what's your need and share what you can".

Item: Axel Jurg Potempa, a German health specialist is predicting a mini baby boom by Christmas. He said, fear of COVID-19 was promptinging a flood of adrenaline and a subsequent dopamine rush in many which increases desire and libido. That's what he told the Berliner Kurier, anyway.

Note: A young single mom I know in recovery has had to quit her job to care for her three-year-old as most daycares have closed. Her April rent is unpaid.

Item: Peggy Noonan reports on a gentleman by the name of Mike Lukovich, who drew a cartoon last week of the Marines raising the flag over Iwo Jima. But it wasn't Marines. It was a doctor, a scientist, a nurse and first responder and green old glory into the Rocky mountain top.

Note: Slaterville Road, heading toward Brookdale, and Slaterville Springs and I-81 the other day had handmade signs all along its shoulders telling "Thank you Cayuga Med" and "Thank You Superheroes" in rainbow Easter colors to greet two buses taking our health care providers east.

Item: There was a 300% increase in sales of a card game and called capital Virus in recent weeks, while 74 of the top 100 best sellers on Amazon were children's books.

Note: I have another bestest friend who is part of an essential business who jokingly said she had eight or nine books on her bookshelf begging to be read and she jokingly envied those who now had so much time to read.

Item: in Brazil, capital most state governors and city mayors have banned religious assemblies only to be overruled by the Brazilian president who exempted churches from lockdown as an essential service. Recent surveys suggest that about a third of Brazil's 211 million people consider themselves evangelical Christians.

Note: I have a coworker who continues to work and works weekly in a critical job, but he has expressed sincere and deep fears about his parents who are octogenarians, both suffering from dementia and the scarcity of caregivers we can trust with their daily needs as well as obvious health worries.

Item: Of the top 10 items searched for on Amazon capital one day last week nine were obviously cleaning supplies and of course toilet paper. However, number seven was jigsaw puzzles. More people searching for jigsaw puzzles that day than Clorox wipes.

Note: An acquaintance of mine is turning 90 years old this month, sharp as a tack, a big smile always on his face. I understand that when he was told for obvious reasons the family would not be able to celebrate his 90th with other than cards, he wryly grinned and said, "The good book says this too shall pass."

Item: Human rights activists are accusing Algeria of exploiting the pandemic to crack down on political opponents who have been at the forefront of anti-regime protests. The human rights activists say the world is distracted and focusing attention elsewhere, giving totalitarian regimes opportunities to quash democratic efforts.

Note: A devoted pastor of a small congregation seemed to remind me quite gently of Paul McCartney's 'Eleanor Rigby': "Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear. No one comes near. All the lonely people. Where do they all come from?"

Item: Albert Camus wrote 'The Plague' in 1947, and his hero was Dr. Rieux, the narrator who was outraged by the anguish and expressed his faith in transcendent love. He believes that the deadly crisis will encourage solidarity and bring out the best in people. Indurance and courage will prevail.

Note: The best friend I never met was taken by COVID-19 this week and to me it's no longer a pandemic but a tragic war. I first heard John Prine late 1972 when I came from Vietnam, and although he hadn't been there, he seemed to speak for so many of us that came home. The jilted patriotic lover in The Great Compromise, the vet who said, "Don't ask me any questions about the medals on my chest" in the song 'Star in the Window' and 'Your Flag Decal' won't get you into heaven anymore. Maybe most importantly, the character Sam Stone, the drug-addled Vietnam vet, who's kid sang, "There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes. Jesus Christ died for nothing I suppose".

Prine was a prince of a man, a wry humorist, and he had a laser sharp perception of humans most assuredly expressed in the song 'Hello in There'.

Cancer couldn't kill Prine but COVID-19 did. The war has come home to me so personally. In my lovingly hand-sewn mask, thinking of all the world's loneliness that can't be ausuaged by the comfort of church and temple and all the damage that will take years, if ever, to diminish. 'Duck and Cover' seems more relevant now than in the 50s.

Camus wrote, "What we learn in time of pestilence is that there are more things to admire in men than despise by refusing to bow down to pestilence. They strive their utmost to be healers."

Be a healer, friend. Take care of each other. Until next week.COVID-19