Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird is my all-time favorite novel. The lessons it teaches about prejudice and injustice in America are profound. They have shaped my political beliefs and idea of what justice is and what it is not.
The defenders of the former president, with the exception of six senators, have presented themselves to the American people, to this impeachment tribunal, in the cynical confidence that their lies would not be doubted, confident that a majority of Republican senators would go along with them on the assumption—the evil assumption—that all Democrats lie, that all Democrats are basically immoral beings, that all Democrats are not fit to hold positions of political power, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber.
Which, my fellow Americans, we know is in itself a lie as obvious as those told by the former president and the right-wing talking heads who support him and spread his lies. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Democrats lie, some Democrats are immoral, some Democrats are not fit to hold positions of political power. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular political party. There is not a person in this chamber who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no person living who has never been tempted to put self-interest over duty. But there is one person not present here who built his entire career, including his recent, four-year term as president, on lies, immorality and self-interest.
I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the wisdom of the framers of The Constitution and the impeachment process it contains— that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Senators, an impeachment tribunal is no better than each one of you sitting before me in this chamber. A trial is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the people who make it up. The Constitution to which each of you swore an oath tasks you with reviewing without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and convict Donald J. Trump. In the name of God, do your duty.
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This is the text of Atticus Finch's summation in To Kill A Mockingbird which I rewrote for the impeachment managers:
“And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel sorry’ for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people’s. I need not remind you of their appearance and conduct on the stand—you saw them for yourselves. The witnesses for the state, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption—the evil assumption—that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber.
“Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson’s skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women— black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire.”…
…“I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system— that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up. I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this defendant to his family. In the name of God, do your duty.”
Why is it so hard to get a vaccine?
Vaccine distribution in the United States has been plagued with problems. Not only are limited doses available to people in currently eligible groups but everyone who gets Moderna’s or Pfizer’s vaccines needs two shots for full protection (SN: 12/3/20).The logistical issues also come in part because each state — sometimes down to the county or town level — is handling the situation in their own way, Barry Bloom, an immunologist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said January 28 in a call with journalists. Who is even eligible for the shots varies from place to place, causing confusion and frustration. Such a local response “is very difficult to coordinate, which I think is a real tragedy and a hindrance to knowing exactly where the vaccines are needed, exactly how many doses should go, which vaccines they have the facilities for,” Bloom said
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After many attempts and much frustration, I was able to figure out a way to navigate that maze and thereby to receive my first shot. I am a computer geek, so I sent an email to a number of friends here in Ohio offering to help them sign up for the vaccine online if they were having difficulty.
Several friends called, and I helped them get signed up. Today, however, a help session turned into...
My friend Tom called me with questions about how he could help his daughter register for the vaccine. I asked him if he was at his computer, and he said he was. I wanted to mirror his progress in following my instructions, so I directed him to the Ohio Department of Health's Coronavirus website and called up the same link on my computer. The website shows a map of the State of Ohio covered with 970 blue dots, one for every vaccination location in the state.
In order to show him how to reconfigure the map to display only the vaccine administration locations in a specific part of the state, I asked Tom for his daughter's Zip Code.
To this, he replied, "Marietta's Zip Code is 43220."
I carefully entered 43220 into the search field on the web page, expecting to see blue dots near Marietta, Ohio located on the Ohio River. The map however reconfigured to show three blue dots in the northwest corner of Franklin County, which is smack dab in the middle of Ohio and definitely not on the Ohio River.
I said, "Something's wrong, Tom. 43220 is not the Zip Code for Marietta, Ohio."
Tom laughed and said, "Marietta is my daughter. She lives right here in Columbus."
Moral: Even during a pandemic funny things happen to computer geeks.
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Obligatory Political Comment: You can blame Donald Trump's failure to create a national response to the COVID-19 pandemic for the mess described in the "Science News" article referenced at the top of this post.
On May 13, 2009 when it became clear to me that the GOP was actively courting members of the KKK, I created the image below and used it in a blog post entitled Rebranding the Right.
It will never cease to amaze me that there are so many weak-minded people who will so easily believe a con artist. How is it possible that there are so many easily-duped people?To my friend's observation and question I offered the following:
Babbitt
Babbitt, first published in 1922, is a novel by Sinclair Lewis. Largely a satire of American culture, society, and behavior, it critiques the vacuity of middle-class American life and its pressure toward conformity. An immediate and controversial bestseller, Babbitt is one of Lewis’s best-known novels and was influential in the decision to award him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1930. The word "Babbitt" entered the English language as a "person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards".
Police shot Babbitt, 35, a military veteran and Trump supporter, reportedly as she tried to break through door
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Adding a single, short line to the first letter of Mr. Carlson's first name to chang...
