5/14/2020: I Cry Easily. You? (Plus links)

May 14, 2020: I Cry Easily. You? (Plus Links) TO READ PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. Click Here to Subscribe to the Blog. ONE: I Cry Easily TWO: Practical Links THREE: Activism Link I'm trying writing in the garden this morning. My view is above. It's a bit chilly, so I'm wearing a very thick sweater that my sister Nancy brought me as a present from Ireland. Nancy always gave me very practical gifts, often something to keep me warm. I always gave her frivolous gifts -- little paintings, beautiful carvings. You could say we had a balanced sisterly relationship. ONE: I Cry Easily I'm crying a lot, and yes, it's about The Pandemic. But mostly it's about what's going on in my country during the Pandemic. COVID-19 has ripped the mask off our image that we are somehow a rational, caring democracy. And the response of the federal government has been incompetence, rapacity and greed. "Hey guys, those wacko libs can't publicly protest right now! Let's get everything we can before the Pandemic ends. Let's see, first we'll destroy the Post Office, then we'll go after Social Security..." Or, as Charles Blow wrote, "This crisis is exposing the class savagery of American democracy and the economic carnage that it has always countenanced." Please read his columns. He is far more articulate than I am. And what is the response of the "opposition," the Democrats? Is it wimpy spinelessness or spineless wimpiness? I can't decide. I only know that it is NOT ENOUGH to make a big difference! Five years before AOC can run for President, folks. Five long years. Where's my coffee? Where's my coffee? That damn monkey gives me so much trouble.... Oh. She put it behind the computer. One of her favorite hiding places. I should remember to look there first, before I run up and down the stairs and all over the garden. I cry when I read the title of Kristof's column, McDonald's Workers in Denmark Pity Us. Although I must admit I did laugh when I read that the Greedy Insane Right is waving the banner of Denmark as a THREAT to all our freedoms! "Watch out, folks, we might end up in the socialist nightmare of DENMARK!" Wow! I bet if I lived in Denmark, I could actually make a living as an ARTIST! Now THAT is messed up, considering all artists are lazy bums. MacDonald's workers' wage starts at $22/hour. The higher taxes they pay go for free health care and free QUALITY education through college, among other things. Please, Goddess, spare my dear country from such a minimum wage! I cry when I read that the Irish people are sending money to Native Americans struggling with high levels of COVID-19. Why the Irish and the Indians?? The Choctaw tribe, having suffered in 1831 through starvation and death on the Trail of Tears, gathered together $170 to send to the Irish in 1847 during their Potato Famine. That's the equivalent of more than $5,000 today. The Irish never forgot their generosity, and are now returning it, since our own government turns its back on their suffering.

The Kindred Spirits Choctaw Monument in Midleton, Ireland, commemorating the Choctaw donation during the potato famine. I cry just looking at this beautiful work of art. Sometimes I boo-hoo and sometimes tears just well up and drip down. Now, this 20-minute documentary on VICE TV, about a lesbian who is an Emergency Medical Technician, made me cry for so many reasons, good and bad. It is very powerful -- awesome and humbling -- to see what it means to be an EMT in Detroit during the Pandemic. Talk about First Responders -- they really ARE the FIRST. They go into someone's house and have to deal with getting the sick person on the stretcher and to the hospital. That is, assuming the sick person is still alive. Just one of the incidents in this short documentary would blow me out of the water for a week at least. But the EMTs deal with crises again and again in a single day. It is truly an impossible job to do even 40 hours a week, let alone all the extra hours they're working. I was also moved to tears by the very matter-of-factness of the EMT's lesbianism. Actually the L-word is never mentioned. The narrator simply asks, "How is your wife dealing with this?" Later, the wife is interviewed. As if it was perfectly normal for a woman to have a wife! As if it was perfectly normal for a very out and married dyke to be on the frontlines of the battle against the virus! I was moved and proud and I cried. I'm grateful to VICE TV for this documentary. TWO: Practical Links A. Hand-washing: You might think you know everything you need to know about hand-washing. But this video from WHO (World Health Organization) describes something different from other videos, and more thorough than I've seen before. I had to watch it twice to get it down. B. Social Distancing: Again, a subject we've had way too much of. But this article by a Professor of Biology and researcher in infectious diseases, was very educational. I felt that I understood much more clearly how the virus spreads in enclosed spaces. And I was able to reassure my friend in New York that the danger was negligible from a jogger passing her in Central Park. THREE: Activist Link This is the link I was looking for that asks you to MAIL LETTERS to demand the continued existence of the Post Office. It gives you letters to print out and send yourself. The point is, just by buying the stamps and mailing the letters, you are supporting the Post Office. Very easy to do. Best to support the P.O. by USING the P.O. Thanks to Dory Adams, Michele Carondelet, Marie Kochavar and Gail Lynch for the links. Well, Bloggelinis, I worry that this whole crying business is too heavy to write about. I mean, we all have our limits of what we can handle from the BlogMistress. Okay one last little FUN LINK , very short, of a socially distanced haircut. And then this:

This was sent to me by Godelieve, my close ex, who lives in Friesland, the northernmost province of the Netherlands. GOODBYE! Terry