Monday morning we were up early with excitement in the air; it was cloudy and the temperature was in the low 50s. It was the first day of school for some of the kids around here in over a year. Backpacks that hadn't been used since March 2020 sprang back onto action, weighed down by books and water bottles so that students appeared to leaving on mountain backpacking trips.
School clothes replaced pajamas. Nervous smiles prevailed. Parents glanced nervously at the clock and hustled their kids into cars. It was the first day of school we've traditionally celebrated in the fall but this time it felt like it was on steroids.
It's April, not September, and our world has been on hold not for a summer but for a whole year.
Academics will study this generation for years to come to try and measure the impacts of the pandemic and it's way too soon to draw any conclusions. But there can be little doubt that the disparities between richer and poorer children have been exacerbated by the lockdown.
***
Just as school gets going again, the issues of educational disparities as well as of wealth inequality, structural racism and police violence are playing out in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd.
A nervous nation awaits the jury's verdict. Regardless of the that verdict most people seem to have already made up their minds about Chauvin's guilt or innocence. And in that sense the verdict is unlikely to provide closure on any of the relevant issues.
There are people, mainly on the right, who argue that those like Floyd who struggle when arrested are responsible for whatever happens to them. And that the police are almost always justified in their use of force.
Others, mainly on the left, argue that without wealth disparity and racism, victims like George Floyd would never have become criminals in the first place. Thus no such arrests would take place. And that too many cops are racist.
What is indisputable is that too many tragic deaths -- 64 more at the hands of police just since the trial began -- continue to occur in this country.
To make matters worse, Dem. Rep Maxine Waters inserted herself into this cauldron with incendiary comments over the weekend that seemed likely to incite violent protests should Chauvin be acquitted. This struck me as extremely irresponsible behavior by a public official.
What we need right now is not more people fomenting trouble but rational voices of patience and calm. We need the wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King.
But we do not have a leader like him, instead we have bickering factions. Meanwhile, the jury is deliberating and an unsettled population awaits their decision.
***
Headlines:
* UN warns of climate ‘abyss’ as 2020 confirmed as one of 3 hottest years on record (Reuters)
* U.S. must halve emissions to galvanize global climate action - UN chief (Reuters)
* States have passed over 140 police oversight bills since the killing of George Floyd, increasing accountability and overhauling rules on the use of force. But the calls for change continue. (NYT)
* The judge overseeing former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin's trial in the death of George Floyd said Monday that Rep. Maxine Waters' incendiary comments could be grounds for appealing a verdict in the trial. (CNN)
* ‘God Knows What’s Going to Happen’: Minneapolis Braces for Verdict in Floyd’s Death (NYT)
* Since testimony in the trial of Derek Chauvin began on March 29, at least 64 people have died at the hands of law enforcement nationwide, with Black and Latino people representing more than half of the dead. (California Today)
* Authorities in Louisiana say they were called to the scene of a 12-year-old’s birthday party where six people were shot following an argument. And in Shreveport, Louisiana, five people were critically injured following a drive-by shooting at a liquor store. The rise in gun violence in the U.S. comes after 2020 saw the start of the pandemic and the smallest number of mass shootings in a decade. [HuffPost]
* Suspect in deadly Austin shooting, a former sheriff’s detective, arrested after a 20-hour manhunt (WaPo)
* Family says former Vice President Walter Mondale has died at 93. (AP)
* Half of American adults have received at least one vaccine dose, says CDC (WaPo)
* The man-made lakes that store water supplying people in the U.S. West and Mexico are projected to shrink to historic lows, which could trigger the federal government's first official shortage declaration and prompt cuts in Arizona and Nevada. Climate change means less snowpack flows into the Colorado River. [AP]
* Whatever happens once the United States withdraws from Afghanistan will not bode well for Afghan women. Even the gains made for them over the last 20 years have often been fleeting. (NYT)
* Rift between GOP, corporate America creates opening for Biden’s tax plan -- The corporate world’s relatively muted reaction so far to significant tax hikes was until recently unthinkable and reflects major changes in U.S. politics. (WaPo)
* Minnesota police aggressively arrested a CNN producer and assaulted multiple other members of the press covering protests over the police shooting of Daunte Wright last week, according to an attorney representing dozens of news outlets. Some journalists also reported being harassed and intimidated by police. [HuffPost]
* Congress faces renewed pressure on gun control after Indiana’s red-flag law fails to thwart FedEx shooter (WaPo)
* U.S. Needs to Better Monitor Pipelines in Gulf, Report Says (WSJ)
* A recent segment aired on the right-wing network OAN said there were “serious doubts about who’s actually president,” and another blamed “anti-Trump extremists” for the Capitol attack. (NYT)
* A new, racialized assault on abortion rights is headed to the Supreme Court (WaPo)
* In dense tropical forests in Sierra Leone, scientists have rediscovered a coffee species not seen in the wild in decades - a plant they say may help secure the future of this valuable commodity that has been imperiled by climate change. The researchers said on Monday that the species, called Coffea stenophylla, possesses greater tolerance for higher temperatures than the Arabica coffee that makes up 56% of global production and the robusta coffee that makes up 43%. The stenophylla coffee, they added, was demonstrated to have a superior flavor, similar to Arabica. (Reuters)
* Activist Greta Thunberg hopes US summit will treat climate change as real crisis (Reuters)
* Surveillance cameras captured a bear wandering into a Pasadena home and browsing the kitchen, before two tiny terriers chased it out. (Pasadena Star-News)
* Tyrannosaurs probably hunted in packs, a finding that could help make case to expand protected area (WaPo)
* Time Between Thing Being Amusing, Extremely Irritating Down To 4 Minutes (The Onion)
***
[Photo: Sophia heads off to school, finally...]
School days, school days
Dear old golden rule days
Readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hickory stick
You were my queen in calico
I was your bashful barefoot beau
And you wrote on my slate, "I love you, Joe"
When we were a couple of kids
-- Traditional
-30-
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