Occasionally, a new acquaintance or reader will ask me what I am trying to accomplish by publishing here on Substack every day, 365 days a year. It’s a good question, one I ask myself on a regular basis.
This project started during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. At that time, like virtually everyone else, I found myself isolated, unable to see friends or relatives, dependent on social media to connect with others.
In my case, the pandemic coincided with several other factors to deepen my sense of isolation. After more than a half-century living in San Francisco, I left the city. And due to a series of serious health incidents, including a stroke, I was forced to retire after a long career in journalism.
During my illnesses, I spent many weeks in medical institutions, including hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, rehab centers and ultimately an assisted living complex.
Once Covid hit, my isolation became extreme, as I could no longer leave my room to socialize or eat meals with the other residents. I began to wilt like a flower without sunlight or water.
My family saved me. I left that place and move in with my oldest daughter and her family.
And I started writing these short daily essays.
At first I published them on my personal page at Facebook. People responded from all over the world and very soon I hit the limit of 5,000 friends. Given my 55-year career in journalism, many of these Facebook friends asked me for my thoughts not only on Covid but on the news of the day beyond the confusions of the pandemic.
In response, I started sifting through the headlines in various authoritative news sources to provide a kind of virtual news broadcast via the social network. That eventually grew from ten or twenty headlines to forty or fifty and on some days up to ninety stories per day.
But I found Facebook (now called Meta) limiting because it is extremely difficult to include links to the news stories I aggregate, which I want to do so readers can see for themselves why I have chosen those particular stories for inclusion.
Meta also seems to punish people who try to include links, because whenever I used workarounds to make the headlines clickable, my traffic there fell close to zero.
At the urging of readers and friends, I moved my operation here to Substack, which provides the ability to link directly to the sources I cite, plus a subscription option for those who wish to support my work.
Although I do this work for free, I really appreciate (and also need) the financial support of paid subscribers to continue doing it over the long term. Thank you to those who recognize that and sign up for a paid subscription.
It costs roughly 19 cents a day.
***
Although the pandemic is largely behind us now, thankfully, the damage at disrupting our social interactions has been done. Too many people, due to age or illness or force of habit, remain confined to their homes or continue to engage in very limited social interactions.
One of the many fascinating pieces listed below today comes from the Atlantic and is titled “We Really Should Hang Out More Often.” The author notes that one thing missing from too many people’s lives is a “third place” outside of the office and home. Of course, thanks to the pandemic, those two places became just one for most people anyway — the office nowadays *is* the home.
In addition, retired or jobless people have no office to begin with, which from a socializing perspective is part of the problem.
Cafes, coffee houses, public squares, churches, golf clubs, community gathering centers all try to provide that third place for the people who take advantage of them.
But many people cannot or choose not to do so. My Substack page is meant to serve as a sort of third place for anyone who cares to visit, any day of the year. The opinions here are simply mine and truly fallible — feel free to support or oppose them and post comments below. I love comments and don’t need to feel I am right all the time.
So that’s about it. Welcome!
Today’s Headlines (51):
Russian troops tortured and executed a village mayor and her family, Ukrainian officials say (CBS)
The horrors of Putin's invasion of Ukraine are increasingly coming to light (CNN)
Reports of atrocities emerge from Ukraine as Russia repositions its forces. (NYT)
zRussia faces global outrage over bodies in Ukraine’s streets (AP)
Russia says footage in Ukraine's Bucha was 'ordered' to blame Russia (Reuters)
Will Putin ever be held responsible for the atrocities we’re seeing in Bucha? (Guardian)
Apparent war crimes reported in Ukraine (Axios)
Zelensky condemns Russian forces, calls for help investigating alleged atrocities (WP)
In a Kyiv Suburb,‘They Shot Everyone They Saw’ (NYT)
Global outrage spread at civilian killings in north Ukraine, including evidence of bound bodies shot at close range and a mass grave found in areas retaken from Russian troops, as fighting raged on in the country's south and east. (Reuters)
Biden calls to put Putin on trial for war crimes over Russia killings in Ukraine (CNBC)
War Crimes Watch: Hard path to justice in Bucha atrocities (AP)
The Horror of Bucha — Russian invaders are now treating the entirety of the Ukrainian population as combatants, as dirt to be cleansed. (Atlantic)
The atrocities are no aberration. This is Russia's way of war. (Max Boot/WP)
The Kremlin said it categorically denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians in Bucha and said Ukrainian allegations on the matter should be treated with doubt. (Reuters)
UK military intelligence says heavy fighting continues in Mariupol (Reuters)
US seizes yacht owned by oligarch with close ties to Putin (AP)
‘This Is True Barbarity’: Life and Death Under Russian Occupation (NYT)
Military conscripts in the Russian-backed Donbas region have been sent into front-line combat against Ukrainian troops with no training, little food and water, and inadequate weapons, people in the separatist province told Reuters. The new accounts of untrained and ill-equipped conscripts being deployed are a fresh indication of how stretched the military resources at the Kremlin's disposal are. (Reuters)
Hungary’s hard-line leader declares victory in election as war rages in neighboring Ukraine (NBC)
Hungary’s Orban popular at home, isolated abroad after win (AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy made a surprise appearance at the 2022 Grammys on Sunday night, appearing via pretaped video from a Kyiv bunker to offer a plea to all those watching around the world. "Tell the truth about the war on your social networks and TV. But not silence," Zelenskyy said. [HuffPost]
Ukraine Is the First Real World War — In World War Wired, virtually everyone everywhere can observe the fighting at a granular level, participate in some way or be affected economically. (Thomas L. Friedman/NYT)
Release of Ukraine Intelligence Represents New Front in U.S. Information War (WSJ)
Putin embarked on what he calls a "special operation" in Ukraine partly to counter the expansion of the NATO alliance. But he may soon have a new NATO neighbor. (Reuters)
Will the Ukraine War Push Countries Toward Renewable Energy? Yes—and No (WSJ)
‘It’s a radical change’: The prospect of Finland joining Nato draws nearer (Financial times)
A Watergate prosecutor says the 457-minute gap in Trump's White House call logs could be masking 'incalculably worse' behavior than Nixon's (Business Insider)
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said the seven-hour gap in former President Donald Trump's White House phone log seems to be "suspiciously tailored" to the period when the assault took place. Raskin said lawmakers were still missing key information. [HuffPost]
The world must demand the Taliban stop restricting girls’ education (WP)
‘Fighting Was Easier’: Taliban Take On a Treacherous, Avalanche-Prone Pass — After overthrowing the government, the Taliban are now trying to save what’s left of the roads they spent years blowing up, with none more critical than a two-mile-high pass through the Hindu Kush. (NYT)
US military deploys Patriot anti-missile system to Philippines (NHK)
Jupiter’s Moon Europa Could Be Pulling Oxygen Down Below the Ice To Feed Life (SciTechDaily)
‘It’s now or never’: World’s top climate scientists issue ultimatum on critical temperature limit (CNBC)
No obituary for Earth: Scientists fight climate doom talk (AP)
The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides a significant portion of California’s water supply, has fallen to a seven-year low. (CalMatters)
NYC mayor uses 'Don't Say Gay' law to recruit LGBTQ Floridians with billboard campaign (Politico)
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has built a 9.2% stake in Twitter, a regulatory filing shows, sending the micro-blogging site's shares soaring 26% in premarket trading. The Silicon Valley billionaire said recently he was giving "serious thought" to building a new social media platform. (Reuters)
These are the ultra-wealthy donors pouring money into the Chesa Boudin recall battle (SFC)
Ron DeSantis’s repulsive war on Disney will soon face a reckoning (WP)
With students in turmoil, US teachers train in mental health (AP)
Efforts to ban books jumped an 'unprecedented' four-fold in 2021, ALA report says (NPR)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) described a deadly mass shooting in Sacramento as a “horrendous act of gun violence” in a statement issued hours after six people were killed and 12 injured in a downtown entertainment district Sunday. The massacre, which took place in the early hours of the morning, occurred in a section of the city filled with bars and restaurants. [HuffPost]
Sacramento police said that multiple shooters were involved in violence in which six people were killed and 12 were wounded but the suspects remain at large. (Reuters)
Nearly 20 percent of California community college students say they have experienced homelessness in the past year. (Guardian)
Millions of families can now research their history with 1950 US census records (CNN)
How Everyone Got So Lonely — The recent decline in rates of sexual activity has been attributed variously to sexism, neoliberalism, and women’s increased economic independence. How fair are those claims—and will we be saved by the advent of the sex robot? (New Yorker)
We Really Should Hang Out More Often — What we miss when we don’t have places for serendipitous, productivity-free socializing (Atlantic)
Old Vegetarian Rambling On About Days When Menus Only Had One Non-Meat Option (The Onion)
No comments:
Post a Comment