In the wake of yet another mass shooting by yet another lone white male, it's hard to resist the notion that the killers are basically the same person coming back over and over. These massacres are occurring with increasing frequency; the weapons are usually semi-automatics, and the victims tend to be anyone other than lone white males.
In this case, six of those killed were Asian females, arguably the least threatening people in this society.
Police believe race was not a factor because the murderer claimed he was a "sex addict" and that he killed these women out of "revenge;" that he wanted the "temptation" of the massage parlors where they worked to go away.
That this horrific assault happened in a time of growing anti-Asian violence in the U.S. escaped nobody, and it is difficult to forget the relentless racist terminology of a "China virus" used by Trump and his minions over and over in this context.
As always, language has consequences, and now fresh blood is on the hands of those who have stirred up hate for their own political advantage. Meanwhile, it is always worth reminding ourselves that race is an entirely social construct -- it has no basis in science.
To repeat, scientifically speaking, there are no "races," only the human race.
It's also worth noting that the origin of the virus that causes Covid-19 remains unproven, but it most likely originated around Wuhan, China sometime in 2019. And while the Chinese government has not been forthcoming about who the earliest victims were and whether they had ties to a bio research lab in Wuhan, there is no evidence that the virus was some sort for deliberate act.
Most likely it is yet another case of an active virus mutating and jumping from one animal species, probably bats, to humans, although as I've repeatedly noted, the case remains open.
Lately I've been noticing in news reports that the CDC has started referring to some of the Covid mutations as "variants of interest," which is the same type of language law enforcement uses when pursuing "persons of interest" after a crime.
This underscores the war-like nature of the battle against Covid, where the weapons are not those used to inflict massive casualties but those used to prevent mass casualties.
The whole mess is polarized and politicized beyond hope, as the maskless, poorly educated white supremacist forces (and their enablers) battle with our better forces of reason and science. In that sense we are living in the dark ages once again, where the bad guys show up now and again killing some of the rest of us as we struggle to save the entire human race.
***
My home-schooling grandson recently read Jack London's "The Scarlet Plague," written in 1913 before the terrible flu pandemic later that decade. Improbably, the book also predicted a major pandemic in our time -- a century before it happened.
It's a short book -- his edition is 64 pages -- and I pointed out to him how remarkable it is that London was so prescient. He shrugged. Then again, I'm about three-quarters of a century old and he's 12. Whereas this pandemic has occupied only 1.3% of my time on the planet, it's taken up six times as much of his, which is well beyond the margin for error.
Nevertheless, London's warning is a timely reminder that our artists often sense and communicate the dangers that lurk in our society when nobody else is noticing. And our artists tend to live out on the periphery looking in.
It turns out the view is much clearer from out there.
***
Family: We're all feeling proud of Aidan, my son who was on the front lines of the Covid battle last year as an EMT, transporting sick people to area hospitals. Now he is in working as a medical assistant, and has been trained to administer the Covid vaccine.
He has volunteered to do so this Saturday in San Francisco, where he will probably treat around fifty people. Thank you to him and all the volunteers serving us on the front lines.
***
The news:
* Suspect who killed eight, including six Asian women, frequented spas --The suspect indicated he had issues with sexual addiction and the shootings may have not been motivated by racial hatred, law enforcement officials said.(Reuters)
*For more than a year, Asian Americans have faced an alarming deluge of racist attacks and harassment, such as being shunned, spit on and denied services. While the current wave of racism is tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's one chapter of a long history of racism and discrimination. (HuffPost)
* Asian Americans, already traumatized by a rising tide of hate, violence and rhetoric, have been living in fear for months.The murders further disoriented and horrified a community already unfairly stigmatized by racial association during a pandemic that originated in China. And they laid bare for the rest of the country the agony of yet another minority group left to question its place in America, at a time of rising attacks and harassment amid cresting White nationalism and domestic extremism. (CNN)
* Fetishized, sexualized and marginalized, Asian women are uniquely vulnerable to violence (CNN)
* “The WHO should have the ability to march in and investigate something that is affecting the world." How scientists' hunt for the origins of Covid-19 was hobbled at many turns. (WSJ)
* White supremacist propaganda surged in 2020, ADL report says (AP)
* Texas Three Percenters member charged in Jan. 6 riot set up security company to circumvent gun laws, obtain high-grade weapons, U.S. alleges (WaPo)
* Surge in Migrants Defies Easy or Quick Solutions for Biden (NYT)
* The world’s thirst for gasoline isn’t likely to return to pre-pandemic levels, the International Energy Agency forecast, calling a peak for the fuel that has powered personal transportation for more than a century. (WSJ)
* From Amazon To FedEx, The Delivery Truck Is Going Electric -- It's not just passenger cars: Delivery companies are updating their vans and trucks with electric models as they look to save on fuel and cut maintenance costs. (NPR)
* A Japanese court ruled Wednesday the government's ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional, recognizing the rights of same-sex couples for the first time in the only Group of Seven country that doesn't acknowledge their legal partnership. [AP]
* House Democrats bring back Medicare-for-all, seeking to push Biden left (WaPo)
* Vaccinating Children Seen As A Key Step Toward COVID-19 Herd Immunity (NPR)
* A coronavirus outbreak at the Farmer John pork processing plant in Los Angeles County began last February. A year later, many working conditions remain the same and the outbreak never went away. [Mother Jones]
* Former President Donald Trump said he recommends that people get the coronavirus vaccine, even as a poll shows Republican men are the most likely group to say they won't get it. Trump and his wife, Melania, quietly received the shot at the White House in January. [HuffPost]
* An investigation into the coronavirus response in the Bay Area found case rates for Latino residents that were four times higher than for white residents. [The Mercury News]
* IRS expected to delay tax-filing deadline to mid-May as agency grapples with backlog (WaPo)
* Trump’s Incomplete Border Wall Is in Pieces That Could Linger for Decades (NYT)
* Scientists Create Living Entities In The Lab That Closely Resemble Human Embryos (NPR)
*.A forgotten Cold War experiment in Greenland has revealed its icy secret. It’s bad news for the planet. (WaPo)
* Ringo Starr Readies His Lockdown Project: A Mini-Album Titled ‘Zoom In’ (WSJ)
* Drawing A Line In The Mud: Scientists Debate When 'Age Of Humans' Began -- Scientists on five continents are hunting for geological evidence to pinpoint exactly when humans became a major force shaping life on Earth. But settling on the date could unleash a larger debate. (NPR)
* Biden administration wants the financial sector to face up to climate risk (WaPo)
* "It's gotten to the point where you can't watch a porno without being inundated by swearing." (The Onion)
***
Freedom
(My) Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Freedom (I'll hold on to my)
Freedom
(My) Freedom
You got to give what, to give what, give what you take
Yeah!
You got to give what, give to what, to give
Just the way it's got to be
Lose the face now
I've got to live
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