According to intelligence assessments, a new right-wing extremist attack on the U.S. Capitol may happen today. Let's hope not.
Today also is dose #2 day for me. But like many in my age group, I feel somewhat guilty getting vaccinated when so many young, healthy people around me face many months before they will be able to receive such protection.
Then again, the vulnerability of older people is obvious, since roughly 80 percent of the Covid-19 deaths are among those aged 65 and older.
Yet we know that in most ways, we've already had our chance to make all of the youthful errors and achieve whatever successes we are likely to achieve, while they have much of that still to look forward to.
I'm not overly given to guilt, so it's more like a tinge of that feeling. And I also have developed a certain reverence for old people lately, which I trust is not naked self-interest. My reverence is based on the assumption that all old people have stories to tell.
Thus I've become something of cheerleader advising many of my younger friends to record their grandparents' stories as soon as they can. One friend's grandfather recently had a stroke. Another's grandmother has shown signs of dementia.
Now the opportunity remains in those two cases for the granddaughters to interview their family members and get those stories down for posterity.
***
Speaking of aging, there is a marvelous profile of the actor Anthony Hopkins in The New Yorker. He's 83 and says that now any role presented to him is easy to assume, because in one way or another it reflects some aspect of the life he's lived.
That, ideally, is true for all of us. If we've lived our lives fully, we've been there and done that. Sometimes many times over. Where we may become valuable at this stage is to share these life experiences with those young enough that their main dilemmas are yet to come.
Knowing what we know now, we might have a word of caution or encouragement when they reach one of those forks in the road that splits, and only one way can be followed.
Or we could just quote Robert Frost, who said it best.
***
The headlines:
* Many of our lives became static during the past year. But some people chose new directions. (WashPo)
* Anthony Hopkins Remembers It All -- At eighty-three, the actor says, performing is easier than it’s ever been. Every role slips into the story of life. (The New Yorker)
* Google to Stop Using Individual Browsing History to Sell Ads (WSJ)
* United Nations human rights officials issued a report condemning environmental racism in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” where the mostly black population breathes air heavily polluted by a corridor of petrochemical plants. Once the site of plantations where enslaved African workers toiled and died, the 85-mile stretch along the lower Mississippi River has for decades served as an industrial hub. [HuffPost]
* An Asian American family in Orange County was being harassed. Now their neighbors stand guard. (LAT)
* The police force that guards the U.S. Capitol said on Wednesday it has obtained intelligence pointing to a possible plot by a militia group to breach the building on Thursday, an alleged plan with echoes of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. (Reuters)
* House scraps plans for Thursday session after security officials warn of possible plot to breach Capitol (WashPo)
* FBI director says domestic terrorism ‘metastasizing’ throughout U.S. (WashPo)
* Request During Capitol Riot, Commander Says -- Maj. Gen. William Walker said the Department of Defense took three hours to approve deploying the National Guard to the Capitol on Jan. 6 after a "frantic" request from Capitol Police. (NPR)
* Reversing Trump, Interior Department Moves Swiftly on Climate Change -- As Deb Haaland, President Biden's choice for Interior secretary, heads toward a showdown vote, the department she would head is moving ahead on environmental policies. (NYT)
* Iowa police find live pipe bomb at polling center: ‘Attempted violence against our democracy’ (WashPo)
* N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo apologized for his actions that three women have described as sexual harassment and said he will not resign. (CNN)
* February is over. And this year, in California, it was disappointingly dry, raising concerns about a severe drought. Already, some water users are being asked to cut back. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
* From the creation of Lake Anza and Treasure Island, to countless murals and schools, it’s almost impossible to summarize the magnitude of the New Deal’s impact on the S.F. Bay Area. [East Bay Yesterday]
* Johnson & Johnson says vaccines for children could be available by September (CNN)
* He Was the Hero of ‘Hotel Rwanda.’ Now He’s Accused of Terrorism. -- Long hailed for his bravery during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Paul Rusesabagina is now charged with being an insurgent leader. Did Rwanda change, or did he? (NYT)
* At least 10 rockets targeted a military base in western Iraq that hosts U.S.-led coalition troops. At least one U.S. contractor died of a heart attack. The rockets struck Ain al-Asad airbase in Anbar province two days before Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Iraq in a much-anticipated trip. [AP]
* Criminal Inquiries Loom Over al-Assad’s Use of Chemical Arms in Syria -- Investigations in France and Germany could lead to prosecutions of President Bashar al-Assad and members of his upper echelon over one of the Syrian war’s signature atrocities. (NYT)
* New Military Diversity Initiative Aims To Make Leadership Look More Like Countries They Invade (The Onion)
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