The coincidental timing of the pandemic with my retirement created an opportunity to create a virtual community at this outpost and I'm grateful for that. Over the past year, it's evolved into a place where we can not only catch each other up on how we are doing but exchange information on the issues we care about.
In that spirit, I want to salute one of the members of our community, Jackie Ross, for her long-time human rights advocacy. For some time she and I have been exchanging private messages about our shared concerns about dire the human rights situation in Egypt, which is a major beneficiary of U.S. foreign aid.
Egyptian dictator Al Sisi maintains power through the systematic suppression of the rights of his own people. In addition, he currently is holding at least 30 American human rights activists in jail as well. Egyptian prisons are no joke -- reportedly there no mattresses, doctor visits, medications, adequate food or water, family visits or any of the other basic requirements under international norms.
Yet Sisi is getting away with this abuse because Egypt is deemed vital by some to U.S. national security in the Middle East -- the region where our foreign policy is easily at its most hypocritical. Egypt takes in roughly $1.5 billion dollars in foreign aid from the U.S. annually, the fourth-highest in the entire world.
Egypt's oppressive regime has generated the occasional terrorist, which indicates our foreign policy there is hardly a success, so can anyone explain to me how our nation is safer by financing human rights abuses of this nature and magnitude? For that matter, how that is consistent with freedom and democracy and the concept that all human beings are created equal under God?
The reason I'm bringing this up now is that Jackie has started a petition at change.org to urge the Biden administration to use its substantial leverage to pressure Sisi to release all political prisoners and cease his human rights abuses forthwith.
Please consider signing the petition and taking a stand against human rights by a dictator financed by our tax dollars. Here is the link.
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The pandemic is a reminder that all human beings are inter-connected across time and space. We all are equally vulnerable to the ravages of Covid-19.
Every day I curate more stories about the unequal access to the vaccines that leave the poorest and least powerful people around the world waiting for the shots.
Those of us who live in the U.S. are so privileged in so many ways that it can be easy for us to take our position for granted. Or to turn away from uncomfortable realities as if they are somebody else's rather than our problem.
But it's really very simple. We can choose to do nothing or we can choose to do something. When that something is a very small and simple gesture -- like signing a human rights petition -- it's a reminder that we all are either part of the solution or, unfortunately...
...we are the problem.
***
The news:
* Congress passes $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package (WP)
* Immigration arrests have fallen sharply under Biden, data shows (WP)
* A Year Later, Who Is Back to Work and Who Is Not? -- Black and Hispanic women and those without bachelor’s degrees are at risk of being left further behind as the economy slowly begins to recover. (NYT)
* A sixth woman has accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual misconduct, the Times Union of Albany reported Tuesday. The unnamed aide claimed Cuomo inappropriately touched her late last year at the governor's mansion. Cuomo said he wasn't aware of any additional allegation. [HuffPost]
* An artificial intelligence “chatbot” was introduced at California State University to keep students on track to graduate. But as pandemic lockdowns and loneliness set in, students turned to the robot for emotional support. [Los Angeles Times]
* Dow hits record high as inflation fears recede after data (Reuters)
* China, Russia Announce Plan To Build Moon Research Station (NPR)
* The Senate confirms Michael Regan as EPA chief, where he will play a major role in President Joe Biden's climate plans. He is the first black man to lead the agency. (CNN)
* Alaska makes vaccines available to those 16 and older, becoming first state to remove eligibility requirements (WP)
* Chile is on course to become the first developing country to achieve herd immunity after the South American country lined up shots early and faced little antivaccine sentiment. (WSJ)
* An Iowa journalist recounted getting pepper-sprayed and arrested while covering a protest for racial justice last year, testifying in her own defense Tuesday at her trial on charges stemming from the incident. She was acquitted of all charges. (AP)
* Federal officials relax guidance on nursing home visits, citing vaccines and slowing infections (WP)
* The University of California, Davis, is offering $75 to students who stay home for spring break to discourage them from traveling during the pandemic. [KCRA]
* The Best Bagels Are in California (Sorry, New York) (NYT)
* Merrick Garland confirmed as attorney general (WP)
* In a personal essay, Chesa Boudin, the district attorney of San Francisco, wrote about what it was like growing up with incarcerated parents. [The Nation]
* Roger Mudd, probing TV journalist and news anchor, dies at 93 -- Mudd was a distant relative of Dr. Samuel Mudd, the doctor who was arrested for treating an injured John Wilkes Booth shortly after Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. The doctor, who was eventually pardoned, said he hadn’t been aware of the killing when he aided Booth.(AP)
* CDC Guidelines Allow Fully Vaccinated People To Gather Indoors With Curtains Drawn To Reduce Spread Of Jealousy (The Onion)
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-- Bob Marley
-30-
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