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There is going to be a change of occupants in the White House. Biden promises to unite Americans. He is in for a tough job considering what the Democrats and some Republicans in the Congress did to impeach Trump. How can the incoming president unite the people when people of his own party act to offend half of the American people?
January 20, 2021
Yes of course the attempted coup in Washington has affected how people view the US. I hear of shock and sadness mainly--from students here in France, and friends in the Czech Republic who can't believe what they are seeing, given their experience with communism and how the American presence felt so strong after the Velvet Revolution.There's some schadenfreude too. My Chinese students are pretty matter-of-fact, they don't seem shocked or worried.
January 20, 2021
Just a small thought I saw sparked from social media and thinking about Windsor: what a privilege it must be to have the choice to take the BLM banner and LGBTQ or immigrants or gender equality signs down as though it is a mask you get to choose to take off when others are not afforded the luxury to do so. It just makes me sad to see covert action where predominantly White people succumb to fear instead of leaning into discomfort. Just some side thoughts thinking about the current climate and actions I've seen from those in the DC and CT area.
January 20, 2021
After the insurrection in United States Capitol After calling for execution of UNited States vice President UInted States speaker of the House I remembered years ago I took a blurred photograph Of our Capitol long ago And wrote, “After the Dark”. Now it has meaning Now we saw “the “DARK” The sun is setting Tomorrow the Inaguration. God bless our United States Bless all of us with insight Lead us as one nation After the dark is the Light.
January 20, 2021
This journal has been a way for me to process, to relate, to empathize with those who are similar and different from me at the same time. It has been a joy to just write and create. I find myself listening to understand the perspectives that are different than mine. As though experience can be leverage to understand what reality means to you in times of uncertainty. I got to watch people awaken, challenge contemporary notions of white supremacy by meeting people where they are at. I learned to stand up for myself and know that it is okay to be overwhelmed, to be broken, to lean into my family and friends. This journal has helped me find a way to connect with others without ever getting to meet them. To reflect in my own humility with the stories that others have to share. For that, I am truly grateful. I often tell myself as a figure skater before competition that all the people in the stands are friends I have yet to meet or make. To be honest, I feel the same way about people here, friends, strangers, essential workers, humans who I have yet to connect with.
January 20, 2021
I'm sure most people will say today's Inauguration. I'm so relieved that we arrived here without any further incidents of serious political violence since that horrible day two weeks ago. Though it is only 1PM at the time that I'm writing this. I've had such a hard time staying focused on normal life, on a hair trigger for some earthshattering breaking news. It's like a paranoia, like being in pitch-black, remote woods in the dead of night, knowing that something dangerous is out there, flinching at every snap of a twig. I'm so exhausted waiting for the next news story to send me into that two-part phase of shock, at first, and then the crash from the shock. I know I should focus on the day-to-day, because there's nothing I can really do about those kinds of news stories. Since March, I've felt braced for something terrible, and never really been able to fully detach and relax.
January 20, 2021
July 21, 2020 Photo Sketch 1: Caption: I usually find books on the curb that people are giving away and I put books on the curb for people to take. Covid days. September 15, 2020. Photo Sketch 2: Caption: Covid and creeping Fascism... Keeping my head in a quiet creative space is like balancing a tender egg on a spoon as I walk through a burning world...
January 20, 2021
The departure of Donald Trump as president. Nothing can be more significant in my world. The best is gone and now Biden-Harris can bring sanity back to the world. Nothing more to say.
January 20, 2021
My boss tested positive. I am so glad that I insisted when we were in the office, he sat in his office with the door shut and everything has spoken was over the phone. I am glad that I called out that he was coughing. I am glad that he decided to stay home the next day. I am glad that I decided I need to work from home. And so it has been 9 days since I was even in the same building as him. But that is still scary. It was so close. He didn't feel ill. He thought I was being sensitive but was ok with that. I don't know what I would have done if it was me --- I worry for my husband, and even more so for my father in law. The law here in the UK that won't give the second dose of the Pfizer until 12 weeks is still making me mad. What makes me even angrier is that some GP's were allowed to take it in their discretion to give it or not, and my father in law's decided they were ok with this new rule. I do think that it is immoral to change a dose on people without knowing the side effects. I think it is immoral to change the dose on people after they agree to the original plan, and not give them a say. They are doing this in an immoral and unethical way - and I feel helpless in creating a change. I will write to my MP. I hope he will write to him. I want to call out to all those in the UK to write to their MPs to stop this process. And then I think about New Jersey (USA), where my 96-year-old grandmother can't get an appointment for a vaccine. Where my 65-year-old mother, who is a teacher can't get a vaccine, and her words are 'they changed the system so smokers get a vaccine before teachers' and teachers have to be in the classroom; have to go to work; have to interact with others. My father who is also 65, who has many comorbidities also can't get one. So I sit here worrying about myself, my family, my loved ones, the world. And then I am thankful and recognize my privilege. I have a job. I can work from home. I get my groceries delivered to my house.
January 21, 2021
I don't really feel like people in my community has been supporting one another during this coronavirus pandemic because i haven't heard or seen anything good so far in my community how i see others be helping eachother and more but so far nothing much.
January 21, 2021
The inauguration was today. I've never seen Melania look so happy, and honestly I'll miss how comical she was. Like definitely a harbinger of evil, but she was so funny because of how awful she was as First Lady. Like, I didn't even know that was a job you could mess up with. I felt relief waking up and seeing Trump fly away like a villain fleeing the scene of a crime, and while I was upset that we're paying for his trip to his club, I'm just happy he's "gone". But I don't feel relief. I enjoyed the ceremony, I mean Lady Gaga performed *performed*. She was ready. But it's not like a whole new world. I guess normalcy is the goal, but what does that even mean anymore? Twitter memes are the thin strand by which I'm hanging.
January 21, 2021
There's a light at the end of the tunnel! TODAY I will receive my first does of the vaccine; yesterday my husband received his first dose. TODAY we will have a new president in the White House. Yes, there IS a light! Reasons to feel hopeful brighten the day. Yesterday our country passed the heart-breaking number of 400,000 deaths from the coronavirus. Our incoming president acknowledged this loss and pledged to focus his energy on fighting the pandemic and on helping our country to heal. May this be so. May we all have reason to feel hopeful.
January 21, 2021
Just wish I could get the damn vaccine! I am truly sick of everything!
January 22, 2021
Now we play the waiting game. Unfortunately, I reside in South Carolina--wedged tightly to the east among the Deep South states-- which has already—no surprises here--fallen behind in the COVID-19 vaccine drive. Residents have been instructed to wait for the appropriate age phase. Only then can they utilize a vax locator in order to find sites that will administer the vaccine. Once a location is selected, they will then call the associated phone number to make an appointment if enough vaccines are available. As fate would have it, I am, at age 67, in Phase 1c which will not even launch until late spring 2021 in this state. As South Carolina ranks #36 in health care, I can only sigh, shake my head and pray that when my age group arises, vaccines will still be at hand. Meanwhile, in my nativeTexas, my 90-year-old mother, my brother and my sister-in-law (both 63) have already received their first doses of the vaccine. Too little, too late may spell severe illness and even death for some Palmetto State residents who continue to wait, wait, wait.
January 22, 2021
Somehow, in the midst of this horrific pandemic, I have found an inner strength that I didn’t know I possessed. Under these highly unusual, challenging circumstances, I have learned how to survive with less freedom, less social interaction and less “stuff.” Perhaps my inner introvert, longing for serenity and reflection, is just a bit elated to recognize beauty in quiet and magic in standing still.
January 22, 2021
This week I have been as horrified as everyone else with what transpired at the Capitol. What particularly struck me is that it happened at all.... and yet I (we) shouldn’t really be surprised....was it our ignorance or arrogance that caught us off guard? Ignorance because there’s been signs of discontent for awhile, and there’s been a continued beating of the “fear” drum feeding anger and lies to those starved for reasons and answers to why our lives have been turned upside down. Or arrogance because “no one would dare”...”you just don’t do that”...many of us are of an age where certain things just weren’t done... and yes, times change. But turning on your own government, storming the Capitol, all because you didn’t like the way an election turned out. Really? Ignorance of the mob, arrogance of a President? I guess we should be thankful in a way it was our own people turning on ourselves, as peaceful and seemingly easy as it was...for it surely could have been much deadlier.
January 22, 2021
One of the things that’s changed is being able to discern where the line is? Though I’m not sure it’s the virus alone to blame for that but it certainly has exacerbated things. “Alternate facts” have unfortunately been with us awhile now so it’s no wonder it’s hard to figure out the best way to move forward. Lives versuses livelihoods is at the core of who we are and who we want to be as a nation...and ultimately as a global community. While we are adapting very well to certain things, ever grateful for zoom, people more aware of neighbors, time to notice things that might have been overlooked in our “ normal” daily lives, the fear lies, mistrust, and anger are real. We are fighting an invisible enemy, a virus you can “catch” but can’t see... so our fear and anger need an outlet, and that has made the line harder to define. Add some inflammatory language and lots and lots of repetition of alternate facts and the line between truth and fiction becomes harder to define and we end up with events like we saw at the Capitol. I miss smiles, and hugs a lot, but I miss knowing what’s true and not even more!
January 22, 2021
This has been a hard week. Two years ago I befriended a homeless woman on my street. She became a good friend and we spent a lot of time talking and hanging out. She died the other night on the sidewalk alone in the cold. She may have had COVID-- the results of her autopsy won't be ready for another six months. It breaks my heart because she could not go anywhere to get warm because everything was closed because of the virus-- also the shelters weren't safe. Her daughter wouldn't even come to visit her. It is heartbreaking. Even if she didn't die from the virus, I feel that she was killed by the virus in that she was blocked from all the human contact that sustained her-- even her counselor and social worker no longer saw her. How many people must be in her situation? This is the psychological toll of the pandemic.
January 22, 2021
I was hoping to get pregnant again soon but my husband thinks it is a bad idea to get pregnant before we get the pandemic under control. I know he’s right, rationally, but we’re both older and frankly at the rate the US is going, or multiplying days might be over before we can slow the virus down, much less eradicate it. I actually love the idea of a totally private pregnancy. As much as I enjoyed showing off my belly, the long commute to and from work was terrible (especially having to pee ALL THE TIME) and I was nervous to tell anyone (not too soon, not too late....). Also, working from home more when I have to pump during the day?! Yes please!! Anyway even if I could convince him to see things my way, now he’s out of state helping the guard run vaccine clinics at least through March so I guess we all have at least a few more weeks to think (obsess) about it...
January 23, 2021
I have 4 close family members that are working in 4 different hospitals within a 100 mile radius. I get reports from all of them about the covid situation. What the news has been telling the public coincides with what my family is telling me. I have quite a few friends and acquaintances that continue to believe that the covid situation is blown out of proportion. I am weary of trying to educate them.
January 23, 2021