Thursday, June 4th, 2020
A hot day with intermittent showers. It feels like we are about to have a thunderstorm, then again, the weather is unable to quite make up its mind. My garden would welcome a rainy night and it would cool down the air unlike the shower in the late morning which only gave rise to humidity. As long as the sun shines again the next day all is good. I made a reservation for a boat for tomorrow afternoon, so am hoping any storms will wait until 19:00 or so. Given current temperatures setting out onto the Potomac earlier in the afternoon is likely rather hot. If not tomorrow, I will try again on Sunday as I do need to feel there is some portion of living in my life.
Saturday is quickly becoming a fun filled day. Firstly, there is a car parade through the neighborhood to celebrate all seniors graduating from high school. This is followed by a parade around BCC for the BCC seniors only, which will not go to. Instead I will swing by the dojo and do a few tumbles before heading downtown to Supra to pick up a Georgian feast. This Georgian restaurant offers take out food to cook at home. So they provide the ingredients for an eight course feast, but we need to prepare it. I think that will be a lot of fun and Georgian food is really tasty.
In between we might stop at BCC to join the protests against racial discrimination. Something needs to change in this country. Protests about the killing of a black man (George Floyd) and a black woman (getting less attention, Breonna Taylor) only a few days ago are ongoing, police brutality is a major grievance. And amidst all of these protests happening a police officer in California shoots a kneeling man of color who has his hands up in the air. The police officer fired five (5!) shots through the windshield of his car because he perceived there maybe a threat. Turns out the victim had a hammer. That is no self defense. That is an execution. No wonder people of color are scared and angry. No word by the way of the police officer being prosecuted or fired or anything.There is also mounting evidence that white supremacists are engaging in looting and spurring on the violence.
Heavily armed right wing gets involved in protests. Why am I not really surprised that following the Cheerleader in Chief's words and actions supremacists are now also mingeling in the protests? Looting, destroying?
This country needs to get a handle of its racial issues. If a black doctor reports being called to ICU in the middle of the night and notices he is speeding and as a result is scarred he may be stopped, arrested or shot, something is wrong, very wrong. A growing body of research has suggested that chronic discrimination leaves its mark on the body by hardening arteries, disrupting sleep, raising blood pressure, propagating inflammation, and interfering with genetic machinery. There’s a direct connection between the high COVID burden and structural racism. In three months, COVID-19 killed more Americans than what Americans have witnessed in the past 50 years of war and disease combined.
The world today 6,59 million known cases, 1.91 million of which are in the USA, where the death toll has now reached 110k. That is more deaths than all Americans who died in wars and of pandemics (Ebola, Zika, H1N1) combined over the past 50 years. As people are preparing to live with the virus more and more guidance appears on the web, like this article on "How to hug during a pandemic"