It was bound to happen. Our newest generation has a name -- Gen C (for Covid). Actually, marketers been using that term for a while but only now does it seem to be catching on more broadly.
So I agree with this one. Due to circumstances I spend a large portion of my time around young children and I've noticed over the past year that they're behaving in ways I haven't seen with earlier generations.
For many of them, masks are just another item of clothing that they take off according to their whims and the degree of intimacy they feel with the people they are with. They perform what I call the "Covid dance" when they play, jumping, running, bouncing in and out, always maintaining a certain distance but always face-to-face, so deeply engaged with each other they hardly notice an adult observing them from nearby.
Psychiatrists and child development experts will test for long-term damage among this group. Do they trust people less? Are they less connected? Can they form deep bonds? But there may be some positive effects as well, like the ethereal Covid dance.
When it comes to definitions of who exactly is part of Gen C, the current consensus seems to be just those born after 2016. (I take issue with that.) And there is plenty of evidence that the prevalence of mask-wearing around babies and toddlers may have severe consequences for their social development.
Infants in particular need to see the whole face of those who come near them -- not just the eyes but the nose and the mouth -- to learn how to identify people and how to detect emotions like joy, anger, fear and affection.
But beyond the very young, I believe every generation up to and including mine has been affected by this life-altering pandemic. Even as we seem to be on the verge of returning to something resembling pre-Covid life, the residue of experience living through this past year will stick with us.
Not all of it has been bad. We've formed new virtual communities and rediscovered old friendships and importantly we have *shared* a huge experience -- the biggest since World War II. We'll be talking about it one way or another the rest of our lives.
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It is gratifying to see the open source community working on identifying suspects involved in the Capitol riot. Check out their beta website, <Jan6evidence.com>. It's a work in progress but an impressive one.
Developers are integrating thousands of bits of data including video clips to trace who was where and who did what leading up to the riot and during its course. Crowd-sourcing is proving to be the ultimate tool of loyal citizens to identify the rioters and help authorities bring them to justice.
Many of those responsible for this terrible act, the worst domestic terrorism incident in U.S. history, remain at large, including those who incited the crowd to storm the Capitol. It is noteworthy that Trump's acting secretary of defense now says that his boss was primarily responsible for the assault.
The investigations remain ongoing.
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* President Biden’s new role as a crusader for Americans in poverty is an evolution for a politician who has focused on the working class and his Senate work on the judiciary and foreign relations. (NYT)
* Congress makes student debt forgiveness tax-free, limits revenue that for-profit colleges get from enrolling veterans (WP)
* Open-source investigators have launched Jan6evidence.com, a slick new website to organize digital evidence collected about the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. The citizen sleuths have already made major contributions to the FBI's investigation into the hundreds of suspects who stormed the Capitol on Donald Trump's behalf. [HuffPost]
* One of the veterans charged in the Capitol insurrection worked in the Marine Corps unit responsible for transporting the president and operating his helicopter, Marine One, according to Pentagon records. (CNN)
* Trump's own Defense secretary says he was responsible for Capitol riot (The Hill)
* A digital artwork sold for nearly $70 million at Christie's on Thursday, in the first ever sale by a major auction house of a piece of art that does not exist in physical form. (Reuters)
* Poll: 1 in 5 in US lost someone close in pandemic (AP)
* How GOP-backed voting measures could create hurdles for tens of millions of voters (WP)
* Trump asked a Georgia law enforcement official to find evidence of fraud with absentee-by-mail ballots. He told her: "When the right answer comes out, you'll be praised." (Georgia Public Radio)
* Mexico Set to Legalize Marijuana, Becoming World’s Largest Market (NYT)
* It's no longer a question of if this pandemic will shape an entire generation. But how. Some experts have started to use a new term to talk about seismic changes they're seeing -- changes that could cause ripple effects in children's lives far into the future.They've given a new name to the world's newest generation: Gen C, or Generation Covid. (CNN)
* QAnon is an American invention, but it has become a global plague (WP)
* North Fork Mono tribal members are teaching California officials about their traditional practices that use small, controlled fires for land management. The officials are eager to learn what California's oldest residents have long known after the most destructive fire season in the state's recorded history. [HuffPost]
* Michelle Obama hooked on knitting, thinking about retirement (AP)
* ‘There’s No Town Left’: Fukushima’s Eerie Landscapes -- Ten years after a devastating earthquake and tsunami led to a nuclear meltdown in northern Japan, residents are readjusting to places that feel familiar and hostile at once. (NYT)
* Returning Jesus Christ Downed By U.S. Missile Defense 30,000 Feet Before Making Landfall (The Onion)
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And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.
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