1989 – White mob in Bensonhurst, New York, murders black teenager Yusef Hawkins for visiting a white girl.
August 23rd
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https://howmanydaystill.com/its/presidential-election-2021
https://days.to/until/us-presidential-inauguration
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Photojournalism is a fascinating means of story-telling. Even without an accompanying story just the “where” and “when” of this image – California, August 21, 2020 – speaks much about the current moment.
The story is entitled Two Disasters Are Exponentially Worse Than One and this image both tells which two disasters are happening and shows the viewer how even the potentially deadly coronavirus is second to the elemental power of fire.
And yet either of these aspects of nature – fire or a virus can kill you. So, a decision must be made:
What makes the wildfire-pandemic combination uniquely devastating at both a societal and a personal level is that the two disasters demand opposite responses.
A pandemic, as Americans have learned, requires people to stay home and practice social distancing.
A wildfire, by contrast, requires them to evacuate and congregate….
Still, for most people, following one safety protocol will mean compromising on others.
Hence the Californian’s dilemma: Those who flee risk infection; those who stay risk incineration.
Something has to give.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/08/exponential-threat-pandemic-wildfires/615574/
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And below is still a “theoretical” image. If it comes to pass as predicted, a different part of the country could experience the coronavirus plus two of the other elemental forces – water and wind/air:
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Now for the note and quote which has stuck with me. It’s from the Catholic branch of the religious and spiritual blog aggregating site – Patheos.com
The post/article is entitled Save Lives or Punish People? Which is Pro-Life?
It’s a short and thought-provoking article I encourage you to read – at least to understand the context of the second quote below – the one which has stayed with me since I read it.
Do note that this writer for the “Steel Magnificat: Everything is Grace” blog begins her post by stating a number of truths about herself:
I believe that human life begins at conception and ends sometime after the body stops breathing.
In the time between conception and natural death, it is gravely evil to directly kill that person for any reason and it’s almost always gravely evil to allow them to die on their own as well.
I believe and profess that this is true, and I’m committed to helping save as many lives as I can.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/steelmagnificat/2020/08/save-lives-or-punish-people-which-is-pro-life/
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She describes a conversation she had with “an older gentleman who insisted that voting Republican was a moral obligation because Republicans claim they’re going to make abortion illegal.”
Her conclusion, after further conversation with this individual:
He didn’t care about or take responsibility for the actual killing of real human beings right in front of him.
He cared about theoretical laws that might someday be passed, in order to punish people for killing human beings.
He didn’t even care if the laws worked, he just cared about laws.
And this is the problem I have with the pro-life movement again and again.
I think saving human lives, born and unborn, is more important than punishing and controlling people.
They’re not actually pro-life, they’re pro-legislation.
And year after year, the legislation fails to pass.
And when it passes, it fails to work.
And in the meanwhile, people who’ve already been born suffer and die as well, and watch the pro-life movement ignore or outright mock their suffering because it isn’t the particular type of suffering they want to legislate about.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/steelmagnificat/2020/08/save-lives-or-punish-people-which-is-pro-life/
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Again, I’d encourage you to read the entire article and to see if it makes you think as it made me think.
Ed Tech Emergent 