295 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/58b4af5794daa8ec6c2ef4363a0a1622.pdf b1fad8234150a3dcd3fe093d6f62036a PDF Text Text Day 341. by windoworks Midwinter Michigan. Its been snowing on and off for days. We are now under another winter weather advisory - snow, ice and wind chills - until lunchtime tomorrow. It seems as though it has been a few years since this more normal winter and as it is probably our last winter in Michigan, Craig and I are quite enjoying it. This same storm is also affecting my brother in Campbell River on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We were comparing snow levels yesterday. He and his wife are staying in place. They have their son and his family nearby and they are coparenting a dog together. Allan and Leith are unable to visit either of their daughters and their families as the families are worried that they might infect their parents. He and I were talking about the virus (my brother is a retired doctor) and he agrees with me - Covid is with us forever, just like influenza. He suggested we would begin to be vaccinated annually, also just like the flu. He also said that Canada is struggling to obtain enough supplies of the vaccines to vaccinate their population and in that respect, he thought the US had done better. Isn’t that an interesting thought? You know, just when you think you know almost everything about the virus and its variants - more disturbing news comes along. I know you’re probably saying: don’t tell us Pamela! But I’m going to share it anyway. That way, I think, we are all better prepared. First, a piece about the 3 variants we’ve all heard of, from CNN: Scientists are not surprised to see the coronavirus changing and evolving -- it's what viruses do, after all. And with so much unchecked spread across the US and other parts of the world, the virus is getting plenty of opportunity to do just that.Four of the new variants are especially worrisome. (Authors note: 4? 4? I thought there was just 3.) What scientists most fear is that one will mutate to the point that it causes more severe disease, bypasses the ability of tests to detect it or evades the protection provided by vaccination. While some of the new variants appear to have changes that look like they could affect immune response, it's only by a matter of degree. Governments are already reacting. Colombia banned flights from Brazil, and Brazil banned flights from South Africa. It's almost certainly too late to stop the spread, and there's some indication the mutations in these variants are arising independently and in multiple places. Here's what's known about the top four. B.1.1.7 At the top of the list for researchers in the US is the B.1.1.7 variant first seen in Britain. The CDC has warned it could worsen the spread of the pandemic. It reports more than 300 cases in 28 states -- but those are only the cases caught by genomic sequencing, which is hit and miss in the US. The mutations in the variant help it enter cells more easily -- which means if someone, says, breathes in a lungful of air that has virus particles in it, those particles are going to be more likely to infect some cells in the sinuses or lungs �rather than bouncing off harmlessly. The worrisome changes enhance the spike protein that the virus uses to attach to cells, meaning people are more likely to become infected by an exposure. B.1.351 The variant first seen in South Africa called B.1.351 or 501Y.V2 was reported for the first time in the US Thursday, in South Carolina. On Saturday, Maryland's governor announced a sample from someone in the Baltimore area had also shown the characteristic mutation pattern of B.1.351. None of the three people had any contact with one another and none had traveled recently. This suggests the variant has been spreading undetected in the communities. It has a different pattern of mutations that causes more physical alterations in the structure of the spike protein than B.1.1.7 does. One important mutation, called E484K, appears to affect the receptor binding domain -- the part of the spike protein most important for attaching to cells. P.1 A variant suspected of fueling a resurgence of viral spread in Brazil turned up in Minnesota for the first time in January. It was in a traveler from Brazil, so there's no indication yet of community spread. This variant, called P.1, was found in 42% of specimens in one survey done in the Brazilian city of Manaus, and Japanese officials found the variant in four travelers from Brazil. "The emergence of this variant raises concerns of a potential increase in transmissibility or propensity for SARS-CoV-2 re-infection of individuals," the CDC said. P.1 also carries the E484K mutation. L452R Finally, there's a variant seen in California, as well as a dozen other states. "We don't know yet what the significance of that one is," said Armstrong. It also has a mutation in the receptor binding domain of the spike protein. It is called L452R and while it's being found commonly, it's not yet clear if it's more transmissible. Any viral strain can become more common because of what's known as the founder effect. "The founder effect is a matter of a virus being in the right place at the right time," Armstrong said. If a particular strain happens to be circulating when transmission increases because of human behavior, that strain will ride along and become more common not because it spreads more easily, but simply because it was there. Now added to that (wait Pamela, there’s more?) it turns out scientists have found something else: (CNN) Researchers said Sunday they have identified a batch of similar troubling mutations in coronavirus samples circulating in the United States. They've not only drawn attention to them; they've come up with a better shorthand for referring to them. They've named them after birds. The genetic stretch that is mutated, or changed, is called 677. The various changes are so similar that the researchers think evolution favors these particular variants. “In late January of 2021, our two independent SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance programs, based at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences in Albuquerque, New �Mexico and the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, each noticed increasing numbers of … viruses carrying an S:Q677P mutation, and that this variant had increased in frequency in samples collected in late 2020 to mid-January," the researchers wrote. They've identified seven similar mutations at 677 . One, called Robin 1, has turned up in more than 30 US states, predominating in the Midwest. A second first appeared in a 2020 sample from Alabama and is named 'Robin 2' owing to its similarity to the parental Robin 1 sub-lineage. It's mainly seen in the Southeast. One called Pelican was first seen in a sample from Oregon, and has since turned up in 12 other states as well as Australia, Denmark, Sweden and India. The remaining Q677H sub-lineages are named: Yellowhammer, detected mostly in the southeast US; Bluebird, mostly in the northeast United States; Quail, mainly in the Southwest and Northeast; and Mockingbird, mainly in the South-central and East coast states. The United States has barely studied the genomic sequences of coronaviruses circulating, so if these variants have turned up so often in databases, they are probably very prevalent, the researchers said. The appearance of so many similar mutations at the same time is "remarkable.” Well now, as they used to say in Australia: I need a cup of tea, a Bex (aspirin) and a good lie down (nap). What’s really bothering, is that all these mutations are so much more easily spread, and some have more serious consequences. It seems as though we just learn everything there is to learn about SARS-CoV-2 and suddenly everything we thought we knew is tossed out the window and we’re running to catch up. But may blessings fall on the overworked scientists all round the world who never stop researching, correlating and forming testable theories and formulas, and never say ‘now we know everything’. What the scientists do say is: keep masking, keep distancing, keep washing your hands, keep just to your bubble. Apart from the vaccine, these are the only tools we have. There was an uproar after Trump’s second Impeachment acquittal. Most of us are all standing round asking ourselves why the Republicans would do this. Here’s an interesting piece from the New York Times: Purely as a matter of political self-interest, congressional Republicans had some good reasons to abandon Donald Trump as the de facto leader of their party. Trump is unpopular with most Americans, and he has been for his entire political career. He was able to win the presidency in 2016 only with help from some unusual factors — including an unpopular opponent, intervention from both Russia and the F.B.I. director and razor-thin wins in three swing states. Today, Trump is a defeated one-term president who never cracked 47 percent of the vote, and political parties are usually happy to move on from presidents who lose re-election. So why didn’t Senate Republicans do so? There are two important parts to the answer. �The more obvious one is the short-term political danger for individual Republicans. Roughly 70 percent of Republican voters continue to support Trump strongly, polls suggest. A similar share say they would be less likely to vote for a Republican senator who voted to convict Trump, according to Li Zhou of Vox. For Republican politicians, turning on Trump still brings a significant risk of being a career-ending move, as it was for Jeff Flake, the former Arizona senator, and Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general. Of the seven Republican senators who voted for conviction, only one — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — faces re-election next year. And the seven are already facing blowback in their home states. The second part of the answer is more subtle but no less important. The Republican Party of the past won elections by persuading most Americans that it would do a better job than Democrats of running the country. Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower each won at least 57 percent of the vote in their re-election campaigns. George W. Bush won 51 percent, largely by appealing to swing voters on national security, education, immigration and other issues. A party focused on rebuilding a national majority probably could not stay tethered to Trump. But the modern Republican Party has found ways other than majority support to achieve its goals. It benefits from a large built-in advantage in the Senate, which gives more power to rural and heavily white states. The filibuster also helps Republicans more than it does Democrats. In the House and state legislatures, both parties have gerrymandered, but Republicans have done more of it. In the courts, Republicans have been more aggressive about putting judges on the bench and blocking Democratic presidents from doing so. All of this helps explain Trump’s second acquittal. The Republican Party is in the midst of the worst run that any party has endured — across American history — in the popular vote of presidential elections, having lost seven of the past eight. Yet the party has had a pretty good few decades, policy-wise. It has figured out how to succeed with minority support. I still believe change is coming. The largest avalanche begins as a small trickle at the top of the mountain and then gathers speed and mass as it descends - and nothing can stop it. How long will a profound change to nationwide multiculturalism, gender equity and racial equity represented at all levels of society and government take? Probably a century, was Craig’s answer. And are we the trickle of snow at the top of the mountain? I sincerely hope so. I think today is a 3 photo day for Oliver ��A hammer? You gave him a hammer? �Step one: stand on scooter. �Although we had visited Venice twice before, we had never visited this museum: The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is one of the most important museums of European and American art of the twentieth century in Italy. It is located in Peggy Guggenheim’s former home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice. The museum presents Peggy Guggenheim's personal collection, masterpieces from the Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof collection, a sculpture garden as well as temporary exhibitions. �It was already a hot day as we walked to the �museum. �The view from Peggy’s villa on the Grand Canal. �The view along the canal in the other direction - and the pole for the gondolas to tie up. ��A Modigliani �portrait �Carved wooden collection In Peggy’s garden where she and her cats are buried. And then it was lunchtime and we found a little cafe mostly catering to Venetians and we had a wonderful lunch, of course. More of our day tomorrow. Stay safe wherever you are. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-15_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-341 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-15 Title A name given to the resource Day 341 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/312707bc070244f76166f1620de19060.pdf feb330af606fd1361ab99be75e83edb6 PDF Text Text Day 340. by windoworks ��I had heard that the Magas were holding out for March 4. Everyone kept saying: why March 4? Here’s why: Why are QAnon followers waiting for Trump’s inauguration on March 4? Many members of the so-called sovereign citizens believe that the United States turned into a corporation after a law was enacted in 1871 and the 18th president of the US, Ulysses S Grant, was the last legal commander-in-chief of the country. Some QAnon followers share the unfounded belief that any amendments after the 16th Amendment were invalid because, according to them, there has been no country known as the United States since it turned into a corporation. Prior to 1937, US presidents were inaugurated on March 4 but was changed to January 20 by the 20th amendment. The date has gained significance among “sovereign citizens” and QAnon, a fringe group that has often claimed a threat of a “deep state” against Donald Trump. Michele Anne Tittler, one of the most prominent voices of QAnon, had recently laid out a detailed plan in a TikTok video. Tittler claimed that Trump will be sworn in as the 19th president of the United States on March 4 “under the restored Republic.” So there are many things I could say about yesterday. It snowed all day for one thing. At least 3 people walked through my house and opened every cupboard, closet and door, for another thing. And oh, right. The majority of Senate Republicans voted to acquit Trump - and Trump then crowed with delight and justification. In light of all the rock solid evidence presented by the Impeachment Managers, the Republicans decided to ignore all those hours of videos, police radio calls, tweets and personal experiences and acquit Trump on the erroneous assumption that a retired elected official cannot be tried for impeachment. This is blatantly untrue, and the Managers quoted at least 3 other retired elected officials who were impeached. And here’s a cheering nugget: Washington Post: Fulton County district attorney to scrutinize call Sen. Graham made to Ga. secretary of state, person familiar with inquiry says. The Nov. 13 call, during which Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) questioned him about how the state verifies mail votes, will be looked at as part of a criminal inquiry into efforts to influence the election in the state. The revelation comes as Graham is serving as a juror in former president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial and advising his defense. Advising his defense - no, there’s no impropriety or collusion there! Move along, nothing to see here. The Impeachment Managers mounted a watertight case - there was no way to argue against it. So Trumps lawyers presented the silliest, most amateur case known to man. In a proper court of law, their defense would have been laughed out of court and the lawyers found in contempt for wasting the court’s time. So what happened? �White Supremacy won on the day. Over 80% of the current Senate are white. Remember yesterday I talked about the comfort of the rut? Trump allows all those white, comfortable and righteous in their rut, to not only stay in the rut, but try to force the White Supremacy rut on as many other people as possible. We may see more unrest and insurrection attempts going forward. I think the moment for saying Trump was acquitted, move on, is passed. There are huge movements afoot from organizations such as Move On, to oust Trunpian Republicans and increase the black and brown quota in the US Senate. In desperation, some states are changing voting laws and tightening gerrymandering of districts but it all smacks of extreme fear of loss of white power. Abraham Maslow “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.” And just for hope: Steve Jobs "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do." I think the way has been paved for criminal charges against Trump in a large number of cases, but what will be the future of the Republican Party is anyone’s guess. I would begin with getting rid of the term ‘Grand Old Party’, which really smacks of White Supremacy. Yesterday, this happened in New Zealand: WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Sunday announced a threeday lockdown in the country’s biggest city Auckland, after three COVID-19 cases emerged, the first local infections since late January. Level 3 restrictions will require everyone to stay home except for essential shopping and essential work, Ardern said, repeating the strict approach the country has taken over the past year in virtually eliminating the pandemic. “We have stamped out the virus before and we will do it again,” Ardern told a news conference in the capital, Wellington. New Zealand, which had gone more than two months without local infections before the January case, is to start inoculating its 5 million people against the new coronavirus on Feb. 20, receiving the PfizerBioNTech vaccine earlier than anticipated. Restrictions were raised to level 3 through Wednesday, shutting public venues and prohibiting gatherings outside homes, except for weddings and funerals of up to 10 people. Schools will stay open for children of essential workers but others were asked to stay home. �We were alerted to this development by our youngest child texting our oldest in New Zealand and asking if he was locked down again. So at this point, Craig and I are still in our self imposed lockdown; Asher is locked down in Melbourne, Zar and Alva are locked down in Auckland and Elle and Terry are locked down in Cornwall, England. Its never ending really. Pardon? What about your house sale, I hear you say. Apparently there will be a ‘nice’ offer later today. We’ll see. Oliver �Why does everyone photograph me when I’m �eating? �Oliver in GG’s garden. Venice! Constructing the Redentore walking bridge across the Giudecca Canal. ���St Marks ��St Marks Plaza The Festa del Redentore is an event held in Venice the third Sunday of July where fireworks play an important role. The Redentore began as a feast – held on the day of the Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer – to give thanks for the end of the terrible plague of 1576, which killed 50,000 people,[1] including the great painter Tiziano Vecellio (Titian). The Doge Alvise I Mocenigo promised to build a magnificent church if the plague ended.[1] Andrea Palladio was commissioned, assisted by Da Ponte, to build a majestic church on the Island of Giudecca. The church, known as Il Redentore, was consecrated in 1592,[2] and is one of the most important examples of Palladian religious architecture. After the foundation stone was laid, a small wooden church was temporarily built, along with temporary bridge of barges from the Zattere, so that the Doge Sebastian Venier could walk in procession as far as the tabernacle. Afterwards, the Doge made a pilgrimage to the Church of Redentore every year. Wikipedia Our third cruise ended in Venice in time for the Festival. The photos above were mostly taken by Craig on one of his early morning walks. Venice does look its best (cleanest and quietest) early in the morning. More Venice tomorrow. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-14_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-340 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-14 Title A name given to the resource Day 340 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/88b487a1f2250f56826f6fae30a9479e.pdf cd080fbe23d11be939a2389e49b1095e PDF Text Text Day 339. Saturday February 13. 141 sleeps to go. by windoworks I want to begin today with some excerpts from an opinion piece published yesterday in the New York Times, by Maureen Dowd. Craig and I have been on 2 different cruises with Maureen, as part of a lecturing tour available to some passengers. On our first cruise Maureen was nervous about lecturing as she said her talents lay in writing. That first cruise we also met Carl Hulse, a close colleague of Maureen’s and the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times. Carl’s wife helped Maureen compose a PowerPoint for her second lecture. Once she relaxed, Maureen lectured the same way she writes; funny, self - deprecating, and full of anecdotes about every major politician you could think of. She had a close friendship with George H Bush, although their political beliefs diverged. She always seems fearless in the questions she asks, sometimes of dictators and autocrats. I could share some of her best anecdotes but today I will just share her thoughts on Trump: Trump’s Taste for Blood If Republicans won’t convict, bring on the handcuffs. Everything bloodcurdling that happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6 flowed from his bloodthirsty behavior. He had always been cruel and selfish, blowing things up and reveling in the chaos, gloating in the wreckage. But it was only during his campaign that he realized he had a nasty mob at his disposal. He had moved into a world that allowed him to exercise his malice in an extraordinary way, and he loved it. He became his own Lee Atwater, doing the dirty stuff right out in the open. He embraced the worst part of his party, the most racist, violent cohort. But once Trump got into politics, he realized, with growing intoxication, that the more incendiary he was, the more his fans would cheer. He found that he could really play with the emotions of the crowd, and that turned him on. Now he had the chance to command a mob, so his words could be linked to their actions. Trump never cared about law and order or the cops. He was thrilled that he could unleash his mob on the Capitol and its guardians, with rioters smearing blood and feces and yelling Trump’s words and going after his targets — Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence. The Democrats put on an excellent case, and they were right to impeach Trump. But if the Republicans won’t convict him, then bring on the criminal charges. Republicans say that’s how it should be done when someone is out of office, so let’s hope someone follows through on their suggestion. A few days ago, prosecutors in Georgia opened an investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the election there. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance could drag Trump into court on tax and fraud charges. Karl Racine, the attorney general for D.C., has said that Trump could be charged for his role in inciting the riot. Maybe a man who gloated as his crowds screamed “Lock her up!” will find that jurors reach a similar conclusion about him. �Carl Hulse on the left talking with the mic and Maureen sitting in the middle. Today there is talk that a vote on Trump will be delayed as the Democrats may bring some witnesses. (Update: witnesses have been called). Here’s this from Washington Post: Donald Trump used popular resentment against elites as political rocket fuel to propel his unlikely 2016 presidential campaign, describing America’s economy and politics as “rigged” against the middle class and railing against a “rigged system” of justice in favor of the powerful. The impeachment managers argued this week that his acquittal would prove him right, pointing to the the hundreds of Trump supporters arrested for their role in the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot All of these people who have been arrested and charged, they're being held accountable for their actions,” said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). “Their leader, the man who incited them, must be held accountable as well.” I can’t begin to think about this trial coherently. It seems so obvious to me that Trump engineered and orchestrated it all. It has caused great harm to citizens and the political system. I remember years ago reading about how change is so uncomfortable. No matter how difficult our personal situation is, we settle into it like a comfortable rut - familiar, expected and sometimes, even safe. Change occurs when we are forcibly ejected from that rut, often against our wishes. We are all at sea, discombobulated. I think we can �liken that to the intransigent Republicans. They know they should vote to convict Trump, but the path beyond that conviction is so scary and so fraught with danger, they are willing to not only remain in their rut, but defend it to the death. And here’s a thought that may not have occurred to them - if Trump is brought up on criminal charges for his part in the January 6 attempted coup - will other Republicans be named as complicit, aiding and abetting? I could name a few right now. Sadly for the majority of Republicans, they’ve managed to quash their consciences long ago. and here’s one last word: Washington Post: A novel appeal to GOP senators about the consequences of acquittal. If there is one quote that summed up the Democrats’ argument for conviction of Trump, it came Thursday from Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). The fact that Trump is no longer in office renders the biggest punishment of the impeachment process — removal from office — moot. Beyond that, it’s about sanctioning him and preventing Trump from being able to hold high office again. But Lieu suggested that this wasn’t just about preventing Trump from running (and potentially winning) again; he said it was instead about avoiding another situation such as this. Another impeachment manager, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), added later: “Impeachment is not to punish, but to prevent. We are not here to punish Donald Trump. We are here to prevent the seeds of hatred that he planted from bearing any more fruit.” Now, the pandemic. Firstly, some new evidence about how that UK variant spread in the Melbourne Airport hotel. An infected person used a nebulizer and the steam somehow escaped their hotel room and infected others nearby. Well damn! They told us that the variants were far more easily spread! New York Times In a public health emergency, absolutism is a very tempting response: People should cease all behavior that creates additional risk. That instinct led to calls for gay men to stop having sex during the AIDS crisis. It has also spurred campaigns for teen abstinence, to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancies. And to fight obesity, people have been drawn to fads like the elimination of trans fats or carbohydrates. These days, there is a new absolutist health fad: the discouragement — or even prohibition — of any behavior that seems to increase the risk of coronavirus infection, even minutely. People continue to scream at joggers, walkers and cyclists who are not wearing masks. The University of California, Berkeley, this week banned outdoor exercise, masked or not, saying, “The risk is real.” The University of Massachusetts Amherst has banned outdoor walks. It encouraged students to get exercise by “accessing food and participating in twice-weekly Covid testing.” A related trend is “hygiene theater,” as �Derek Thompson of The Atlantic described it: The New York City subway system closes every night, for example, so that workers can perform a deep cleaning. Telling Americans to wear masks when they’re unnecessary undermines efforts to persuade more people to wear masks where they are vital. Remember: Americans are not doing a particularly good job of wearing masks when they make a big difference, indoors and when people are close together outdoors. Banning college students from outdoor walks won’t make them stay inside their dorm rooms for weeks on end. But it probably will increase the chances that they surreptitiously gather indoors. And spending money on deep cleaning leaves less money for safety measures that will protect people, like faster vaccination. “Rules that are really more about showing that you’re doing something versus doing something that’s actually effective” are counterproductive, Marcus told my colleague Ian Prasad Philbrick. “Trust is the currency of public health.” And from the US Department of Health and Human Services: Glad that the COVID-19 vaccines are here? So am I. But I know it’s still important to mask up, stay at least six feet apart from others, avoid crowds, and not gather inside with people I don’t live with – so we can celebrate together again soon. #SlowTheSpread Its Valentines Day tomorrow and here’s what President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden put on the White House lawn (to be honest, I think the First Lady did it - the President’s been far too busy). What a breathtaking change from the last administration! �Oliver. �Oliver and Alfie. �This made me laugh. Flashback: as we sailed away from Ravenna, Craig was asked if he would “talk” the ship into Venice, the next morning. He would be up on the Bridge, broadcasting in the public spaces and the top deck of the ship. Of course he said yes. So at 5am he left our cabin and was taken up to the Bridge. The Bridge was in darkness as the crew watched the radar and took soundings from the channel. Craig talked quietly into a microphone while struggling to see his notes and keep an eye on the screen below. Later he asked if we could hear him and I answered ‘clearly’. I also told him that most passengers had their cameras on the top deck and as he pointed out sights, we all ran from side to side of the ship to see the next thing he was pointing out. It made me laugh. First light �Into the channel �Sun rising �Venice �Looking back along our �path Sailing very slowly past Piazza San Marco �Looking through a �canal Craig’s selfie on the Bridge �The screen he could watch. We docked on the Giudecca Canal, a larger waterway. We docked there, almost in the heart of Venice because our ship was so small. Any larger ships had to dock further out of Venice. Our ship had to sail very, very slowly because there are strict rules about bow waves. Venice is built on water and is barely above the waterline. We had two days and nights in Venice - so more tomorrow. My post is late today because we had to be out of our house for 45 minutes while some prospective buyers looked through it. They wanted to look at it before it goes on the market in late April. No, I don’t know what they thought. Perhaps we’ll hear later. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-13_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-339 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-13 Title A name given to the resource Day 339 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d818bfd01f9fb1d1c8d638a3e3355dae.pdf e36c0bf5a4375d12fdbefd9d02a68ead PDF Text Text Day 338. by windoworks In 27 days, I will have been writing this blogpost daily for a whole year. I have taught myself how to research, to cite resources and to gratefully accept ideas, photos and links from my readers. I know some of you, but there is a great number of you out there who read my posts. Not everyone reads them on the day they are posted; not everyone reads them word for word. Some people cannot access them online and so they are forwarded on by others. And some people read my post in countries I have never been to and readers I have never met. Good morning. I see you all. Last might this happened: MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, will begin its third lockdown on Friday due to a rapidly spreading COVID-19 cluster centered on hotel quarantine. The five-day lockdown will be enforced across Victoria state to prevent the virus spreading from the state capital, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said. The Australian Open tennis tournament will be allowed to continue but without spectators, he said. Only international flights that were already in the air when the lockdown was announced will be allowed to land at Melbourne Airport. Schools and many businesses will be closed. Residents are ordered to stay at home except to exercise and for essential purposes. A population of 6.5 million will be locked down from 11:59 p.m. until the same time on Wednesday because of a contagious British variant of the virus first detected at a Melbourne Airport hotel that has infected 13 people. Andrews said the rate of spread demanded drastic action to avoid a new surge in Melbourne. “The game has changed. This thing is not the 2020 virus. It is very different. It is much faster. It spreads much more easily,” Andrews told reporters. “I am confident that this short, sharp circuit breaker will be effective. We will be able to smother this.” So once again, our youngest child, Asher, is locked down. In some ways I think being locked down and then released only to be locked down again, might be worse. For Craig and I it has been 338 days of more or less the same thing. I remember at the beginning, having a stand up argument with the day manager of a grocery store. He said the company’s lawyers had told them they didn’t have to comply with the restrictions. That was months and months and months ago. From the very beginning, Trader Joe’s instituted carefully spaced lines outside, only allowing you in when a shopper left, always cleaning the carts properly, and careful check out procedures. To the best of my knowledge, they are the only chain store that has kept this up. We have a store in our neighborhood that sells jewelry, knick knacks, pottery etc. It is an extremely popular store and there is always a very carefully spaced line outside with customers patiently waiting their turn. �I am beginning to believe that this virus will never go away. Here’s this report from Business Insider: As the pandemic approaches its second year, the coronavirus has morphed into a tougher foe. Several mutations that scientists have identified in rapidly spreading variants are particularly worrisome. They raise concerns that these strains will be more contagious or be able to at least partly evade protection provided by vaccines and by prior infections. Let's be clear: No one knows how the next phase of the pandemic will play out. Is a new strain already spreading undetected or lurking around the corner? How effective will these vaccines be in the long run? And just when can we think about returning to schools and offices, or getting together with older relatives again? Some of the nation's top infectious-disease experts are hesitant to offer predictions. The first axiom of infectious disease: Never underestimate your pathogen," Dr. Larry Corey, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, told Insider. Despite this uncertainty, most scientists have accepted an unfortunate truth: The coronavirus will likely be part of our lives forever, though the pandemic phase will eventually end. Our best hope is for it to turn into a mild, flu-like illness rather than a deadlier, long-term threat. Some of the most important unanswered questions hinge on what happens to variants next, and how well vaccinations and immunity can keep pace. Four other human coronaviruses are already endemic in our population, meaning they circulate perpetually but don't hit pandemic-level peaks. For the most part, these viruses cause only mild symptoms associated with common colds. Scientists had always feared a new coronavirus might come along that would be deadlier but still highly transmissible. Enter SARS-CoV-2. "It's safe to say we're not going to eradicate it entirely," said Dr. Becky Smith, an infectious-disease specialist at Duke Health. "Too many people in the world have it. It's too efficient at transmitting." The virus is also zoonotic, meaning it can jump back and forth between animals and humans. Even if we managed to eradicate SARS-CoV-2 in humans, animals could reintroduce a similar infection to our population — perhaps with an even deadlier mutation. To this day, smallpox is the only infectious disease that has ever been eradicated in humans. It has no animal reservoir, so it must spread from human to human to survive. A recent study suggested that SARSCoV-2 would most likely become endemic within five to 10 years, eventually resembling a common cold that infects people during childhood. That scenario hinges on the notion that pediatric cases will remain mild. If a new mutation makes the virus deadlier in kids, coronavirus shots may become required for young people, similar to vaccines for polio or measles. Still, Mike Osterholm, a leading infectious-disease expert, said it would be nearly impossible to make a yearly coronavirus vaccine available to every person on Earth. It is going to be with us forever," Osterholm, who directs of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said of the virus. "It is something we can't eradicate from humans." �When the first vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were authorized for emergency use last year, there was real hope that they could crush the pandemic. The shots were over 90% effective — a stunning achievement — and provided overwhelming protection against mild, moderate, and severe symptoms. Now the goal for vaccines has become more modest: Blunt the worst outcomes, preventing deaths and hospital stays. "I've seen the language changing already from 'We're going to hit herd immunity' to 'Hey, we're going to have something that is going to get us back to normal, from the perspective that our hospitals aren't going to be overloaded,'" said Deborah Fuller, a microbiologist and vaccine researcher at the University of Washington. One thing is certain: The best defense against new variants is stopping transmission from person to person. More widespread vaccinations could lend a hand. If we don't vaccinate the whole world, unvaccinated people will keep circulating the virus — and the virus, in turn, will keep changing on its own terms. Treatments for COVID-19 — especially in its early, mild stages — are elusive. That may remain the case for quite a while. We still don't have good treatments for illnesses caused by many other viruses, including polio, measles, mumps, and rubella. Instead, we rely on vaccinations to prevent them."This virus is something that we're going to learn to live with, just as we do with influenza," Meissner said. "What we really want to do is stop the hospitalizations, stop the deaths." Well, now you know and its depressing. So, argue all you like about getting back to normal - that ship has sailed long ago. This is the new normal and one day soon, our grandchildren won’t remember anything else. They will accept it as normal. �A sign at a Whole Foods store in Auckland New Zealand. �So, the impeachment trial concludes today. The Impeachment Managers have mounted what they would consider a watertight case. Some Republicans didn’t show up for Day Two (their mindset couldn’t deal with the conundrum). Apparently a number of non- Trumper Republicans are holding meetings to consider forming a 3rd political party. the Impeachment Managers made it clear: last time Trump was given a free pass, the rationale was that he would never do that again. Not only did he do it again, he escalated his seditious behavior. If they vote to acquit, Trump will see that as another free pass. He still has not conceded the election, he is still referring to himself as number 45. I believe that an acquittal after all those tweets, phone calls, and then video footage, will rip this nation apart. That would be an unspoken acknowledgement that any sort of seditious , treasonous behavior by sitting or retired politicians or persons in positions of responsibility would be okay - because no one will bring them to task for it. Here in Michigan, Mike Shirley, the Republican Senate majority leader has called the January 6 event a hoax. I made myself watch the videos that the managers presented, I listened to the police radioing for help and telling their members to fall back because they were overrun, I watched and heard the policeman jammed between two doors and screaming in pain, I’ve seen the body cam footage of hundreds of crazy people shouting ‘push’ as they pushed together to get inside the Capitol building and I’ve seen the insurrectionists in the Senate, rifling through private documents and stealing or photographing them, saying ‘Ted Cruz would like this”. Don’t tell me that was a hoax. Don’t ever say that word to me again. Zoe and Oliver have gone to Canberra to visit Craig’s sister and mother. My sister-in-law Kym said: he never stops talking. Ah the mark of a true Benjamin. �Riding his bike with Mum and Great Uncle Mal. �It was a long day in Ravenna/Brisighella. In the evening, after a buffet dinner, we attended the third and last Azamazing Evening of our three cruises. We were bussed back to the center of Ravenna and then we walked to the Teatro Comunale Alighieri, that is the Ravenna Opera House, for a Jazz Concert. �Dante’s �tomb The view from our opera box inside the Opera House �The captain introducing the concert ��It was a famous Italian jazz orchestra with a two guests: and accordion player and a clarinetist. It was a stunning concert and the highlight of the day. Then it was back to the ship for champagne and jazz music as we boarded. Last port tomorrow. Today will be a day for the history books. What a year we’ve had. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-12_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-338 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-12 Title A name given to the resource Day 338 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a294e57eb19bc0f54060dd7300e0509a.pdf d41ab1701b5afeee0a3e51986dab91e7 PDF Text Text Day 337 by windoworks Those chickens coming home to roost are multiplying. It was Day 2 of the impeachment trial, but we’ll get to that in a moment. First, remember how the officials in Palm Beach county said that Trump could live out his days at Mar-a-Lago? Well now, there’s been new developments: While the U.S. Senate began its second impeachment trial of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, local lawmakers in the town of Palm Beach, Fla., also gathered to consider the former president's fate – specifically, whether to let him live full-time at his sprawling private club, Mar-a-Lago. Trump bought Mar-a-Lago, a 126-room mansion, in the mid-1980s and in 1993 asked for the town's approval to convert it into a private club. The town agreed, with a stipulation that members of the club could not reside there for longer than three weeks each year. Trump has flouted that rule on a number of occasions and in the 20 days since leaving the White House, he has resided at Mar-a-Lago. Objections to the former president's full-time residency at the club were presented by neighbors, with whom Trump has had a number of disputes in the past. Before Trump became president, he had gotten on �the wrong side of Palm Beach officials by installing a giant flag pole at the club that exceeded local height limits. During his presidency, neighbors reportedly complained about traffic and blocked streets caused by Trump's frequent trips to Mar-a-Lago. On Tuesday, Reginald Stambaugh told the Council that many of his clients had purchased their properties with the understanding that no club members would permanently reside at the site. "This agreement assured my clients they would be able to live peacefully and enjoy the privacy afforded others on the island," Stambaugh said. Another attorney representing a group calling itself Preserve Palm Beach, expressed similar concerns over declining quality of life. "We feel that this issue threatens to make Mar-a-Lago into a permanent beacon for his more rabid, lawless supporters." I did read that Melania Trump had set up a post-White House office at Mar-a-Lago, which I am sure the neighbors are not happy about. Melania wasn’t thrilled about living there either. She complained the rooms were too small for their furniture, and (this was her sorest point), all the guests could walk past the Trumps door any time of the day or night. Okay, the trial. Here’s a quote from Congressman Ted Lieu (D- CA) News & Guts “How did our exceptional country get to the point where a violent mob attacked our Capitol, murdering a police officer, assaulting over 140 other officers? How did we get to the point where rioters desecrated, defiled, and dishonored your Senate chamber? Where the very place in which you sit became a crime scene, and where national guard troops still patrol outside wearing body armor? I’ll show you how we got here. President Donald J. Trump ran out of non-violent options to maintain power. After his efforts and, of course, and threatening officials failed, he turned to privately and publicly attacking members of his own party. In the house and in the Senate.” Yesterday, the Impeachment Managers ran an impressive prosecution. I watched some of it. Each speaker interspersed their speech with clips and photos of tweets. Here’s a wrap up from CNN: 1. Trump is his own worst enemy: Yes, the House impeachment managers did a good job of making their case. But in truth, Trump himself did a lot of the work for them. His tweets. His speeches. His media interviews. There was just so much of it. And time after time, Trump left nothing to the imagination. Trump's mouth -- and keyboard-typing fingers -- makes it hard for any Republican to suggest that this is purely a partisan political proceeding without any "there" there. This wasn't the House impeachment managers putting words in Trump's mouth. This was just him -- talking and tweeting and talking some more. 2. Liz Cheney: A week after the Wyoming Republican survived a challenge to her leadership slot in the House GOP, her words in explaining why she was voting to impeach Trump were used, again, by Democrats to make the case for why he needed to be convicted. "The President of the United States �summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack," -- a direct quotation from Cheney's statement of January 12. Her statement would allow Democrats to bash every single Republican member with it. And they were right. 3. The House impeachment managers made an airtight case that Trump's most ardent backers always took what he said literally. They believed him when he said the election was going to be rigged. They believed him when he attacked the vote in Michigan. And they took him at his word when he told them on January 6 they needed to fight to save democracy. Those who participated in the January 6 riot insisted they were acting on the orders of their President. 4. In a mid-June 2020 Trump interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, the President refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost. January 6 wasn't a one-off. This was the result of months of Trump priming the pump, lying to his supporters about the election and its outcome. January 6 was the culmination of all of those lies, not the starting point. There is a lot of new footage being released during this trial. Most of it on the second day of the trial is from Capitol security cameras. There is no sound, just endless footage of the insurrectionists breaking into the building and then weird silent movie type footage of senators, house members and staff, all running through the corridors trying to find somewhere safe to shelter, being urged on by police and security. The other footage of insurrectionists being pushed back by police in riot gear is really disturbing, as flagpoles and Perspex shields are thrown at police, and hefty punches are also thrown. The Republican senators have to sit through this footage and try to shape the event as something other than what it so obviously was. The evidence is even more than overwhelming that the January 6 attempted coup was carefully and deliberately planned and promoted by a desperate man who had conclusively lost the election. I have read reports that Trump is incandescent (not my word) with rage at the ineptitude of his lawyers. I cannot imagine what Day 2 brought about for him. And at the same time there is a criminal case pending against him in Georgia, as a result of his recorded hour long rant and threats to Brad Raffensperger, on the phone, trying to bully him into overturning the electoral count in one county and find enough votes to allow him to win Georgia. I am amazed by Trumps actions. Every tweet, every speech, every interview, every phone call has been recorded and kept. Even the phone calls he had with Putin - Trump ordered that they be off the record and they were, except for some notes taken by aides and now delivered safely into President Biden’s hands. What did Putin and Trump discuss so secretly? We may never know - but President Biden does. And now to an article on herd immunity from The Atlantic: To be technical about it, a population reaches herd immunity when the average number of people infected by a single sick person falls below one. Patient zero might infect another person, but that second person can’t infect a third. This is what happens with measles, polio, and several other diseases for which vaccines �have achieved herd immunity in the United States. A case might land here, but the spark never finds much dry fuel. The outbreak never sustains itself. For COVID-19, the herd-immunity threshold is estimated to be between 60 and 90 percent. That’s the proportion of people who need to have immunity either from vaccination or from prior infection. In the U.S., the countdown to when enough people are vaccinated to reach herd immunity has already begun. A number of signs now point to a future in which the transmission of this virus cannot be contained through herd immunity. COVID-19 will likely continue to circulate, to evolve, and to reinfect. In that case, the goal of vaccination needs to be different. While COVID-19 vaccines are very good—even unexpectedly good—at preventing disease, they are still unlikely to be good enough against transmission of the virus, which is key to herd immunity. The role of COVID-19 vaccines may ultimately be more akin to that of the flu shot: reducing hospitalizations and deaths by mitigating the disease’s severity. What does this mean for the future of COVID-19? One possible scenario is that the disease could follow the path of the four coronaviruses that cause common colds, which frequently reinfect people but rarely seriously. So herd immunity is out and vaccinations may have to be annual. In the meantime, carry on as before: masking, hand washing, distancing, quarantining when necessary and getting vaccinated when you can. ��At 9am this Saturday morning, the people who are interested in buying our house are coming to go through. 9am in the morning! On Saturday morning! Oh well. Stay tuned for developments. Brisighella. After a delicious gluten free (for me) lunch, we wandered around this town while we waited for our bus to pick us up and take us back to the ship. �����Photos 1,2 & 3 are of the Donkeys Alley in Brisighella VIA DEL BORGO OR DONKEYS ALLEY This is a unique walkway, perched high above the street level: on one side it has tiny entrances to various ancient homes (still lived in today) and opposite, on the street side, it has a long line of arched openings which overlook the street beneath and give light. Built approximately around the 14th century, it was the oldest defensive walkway of the village. At the beginning it was open and served as an outpost for the guards but later, lost its military use, was covered and became home to many families. The alley was mainly inhabited by the carters who used the walkway to transport the gypsum from the Monticino caves with their donkeys (hence the name of the street). The stables were in front of the arches, while people lived upstairs and the carts were kept below, at the street level, in large cart houses dug in the chalky rock. Brisighella.org There was one last event this day, but I will leave that till tomorrow. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-11_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-337 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-11 Title A name given to the resource Day 337 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2c42f9b24df86ec46749d61f42b1c278.pdf f81ef12be8e7d199f5136a5ea2db8ebc PDF Text Text Day 336 by windoworks Impeachment managers walk from the House to the Senate to begin the second Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump. This morning Craig and I watched the 13 minute video compilation of the attempted coup on January 6. We had watched it live on TV on the day, but this compilation was much more upsetting. The hate and the fury of the crowd, whipped into an insane frenzy by Trump was terrifying to see. Here’s what the public is thinking from The New York Times: A change in the polling During the long debate over Donald Trump’s first impeachment, the share of Americans who favored removing him from office never rose above 50 percent. It hovered in a tight range around 47 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average. Trump’s second impeachment is different: Most Americans believe the Senate should convict Trump and disqualify him from holding office again, according to multiple polls. In a CBS News poll released yesterday, 56 percent of respondents said they supported conviction. In an ABC/Ipsos poll, 56 percent said he should be convicted and barred from office. Gallup found people favoring conviction by a margin of 52 percent to 45 percent — which is close to the average of all recent polls. �In our deeply polarized country, even a narrow majority of public opinion is significant. It indicates that a meaningful number of people have crossed over to the other side of a debate. In the CBS poll, for example, 21 percent of Republican voters said they believed Trump had encouraged violence during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. This next excerpt from NYT says it all for me. Representative Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat leading the prosecution, delivered an impassioned argument recalling his own experience that day. “All around me, people were calling their wives and their husbands, their loved ones to say goodbye,” Raskin said. “Senators, this cannot be our future. This cannot be the future of America. We cannot have presidents inciting and mobilizing mob violence against our government and our institutions because they refuse to accept the will of the people.” This is the dangerous path we are now walking down. When something false is presented as something true (despite all evidence to the contrary), a precedent is set. If you accept that the election was stolen by fraud from Trump, then every following election will probably be contested. Pouf! And just like that, democracy disappears and autocracy (a system of government by one person with absolute power) takes its place. If Trump is acquitted of this crime, then there is no barrier to his future actions and no consequences. Seven people died in that attempted coup. There is a brief piece of footage of a policeman, jammed in a doorway, crying and moaning as he is repeatedly beaten by an insurrectionist. These people didn’t just wake up one morning and think: lets go to Washington and see if we can overturn the government. No. They were aided, abetted and actively directed and encouraged by Trump - who couldn’t win the election fairly, and so he decided to take back the Presidency anyway. In this state, the Michigan GOP tried to vote to censure Representative Peter Meijer for supporting Impeachment. That vote failed, much the same as the vote to censure Liz Cheney failed. The only way that sitting Republicans can vote honestly now is by secret vote. I suspect many of the Senate Republicans are facing a difficult position. This will go to a vote and just over half of all Americans in a number of different polls have said they favor a conviction. What to do? If a member votes yes, will Trumps fans vote them out at the midterms and put a Trumper in their seat? If they vote no, will their constituents vote them out at the midterms because they’re lily livered and duplicitous? Uh, oh, its that rock and a hard place. And from Crooked Media; The nearly party-line vote on the constitutionality of the impeachment trial drove home the reality that Republicans will almost certainly protect Trump from a conviction, no matter how pathetic his defense. The question is whether Democrats can draw Americans’ attention to the full horror of that fact in the meantime. �I actually read that one Republican Senator said ‘Nancy Pelosi set up this insurrection’. What alternate universe is he living in? The insurrectionists wanted to shoot Nancy Pelosi. There is a Chinese saying: May you live in interesting times. Its actually a curse and I think we definitely are living in interesting times. Now of course, its time for the virus. CNN: About 1 in 10 Americans, or nearly 32.9 million people, have gotten their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. That sounds promising, but challenges remain, including supply shortages, inequitable access and the looming threat of new variants. And this may not be a one-off deal. The CEO of Johnson & Johnson says he thinks people will need an annual Covid-19 vaccination for years to come. In Wuhan, the World Health Organization experts who were looking into the origins of the novel coronavirus have wrapped up and concluded that an "intermediary host species" is probably how Covid-19 was introduced to humans, but other scenarios like transmission via frozen food products are also possible. China is claiming vindication, and the Biden administration is getting flak from at least one WHO investigator for saying it supports the findings but will rely on US intelligence to evaluate the WHO report. Every day we do what Craig calls “Driving Miss Pamela’. We go out for a drive and we usually finish with a quick stop at the grocery store. Yesterday we discovered (entirely by accident) that at the end of one road there is a very attractive and organized viewing area for the Gerald R Ford International airport - and there were a lot of cars parked with people watching the airport activity. So then, at our usual grocery store stop, where Craig goes into the store and I wait in the car and listen to the radio, I heard the end of a very interesting interview with a woman in the WHO team looking into the origins of the virus in Wuhan. She said they had found that the virus originated in a bat which was then transmitted to another animal, which was then transmitted at a wet market in Wuhan. She said definitively that it did not come from a laboratory in Wuhan. A long year ago now, I heard an American scientist interviewed and talk about his team’s work at the Wuhan bat laboratory. Trump stopped the funding and the team had to return to the States, but this scientist said there was a large number of different corona viruses carried by bats and in the right circumstances, any one of them could cross over to animal to human contagion. Well, damn! We better be better prepared next time. From the ‘is it ethical to jump the vaccine queue? Here’s some answers from NPR: 1.If I hear at a grocery store that has extras that are going to waste, is it fair for me to get one, even if it's not my turn? The panel was unanimous. 100% yes. If a dose is truly in danger of going to waste, and you're there and you want it, you should take it. Still the ethicists cited caveats. Doses from defrosted, opened vaccine vials must be used or tossed within six hours. So if your local pharmacy has a few extra doses due to cancellations, or if a freezer failure causes vaccines to unexpectedly thaw, it's ethical to accept a vaccine that would otherwise be going into the trash, even if you're a healthy young person who wouldn't �otherwise be eligible to get one. If you do take it, you are contributing to decreasing the risk of getting COVID yourself, and the risk others may face by interacting with you. 2. If I'm not eligible in my county, but I could be if I lived in the county next to mine, should I drive over to get it? In this case, the answer is 100% no. Here, you're not preventing a vaccine dose from going to waste; instead, you're taking a slot that was intended for your neighbor. The allocation is very limited right now. Any county that's getting these vaccines is having a hard time getting them, and they are getting them in part based on a consideration of their population, and what their population needs. 3. Why should smokers get priority over nonsmokers? For some people, smoking cigarettes is a voluntary behavior. In others, it's an addiction they haven't been able to quit. Regardless, being a current or former smoker increases a person's risk of getting severely ill if they get COVID-19. The CDC's vaccine advisory committee, which laid out its prioritization advice in a preliminary way last fall, considers smoking to be a high-risk medical condition and recommends that smokers, as well as those with a number of other underlying conditions, get prioritized for vaccines ahead of the general population of healthy young people. And finally from Washington Post: The pandemic has been a yearlong test of endurance. Now, some are up against their limits. People have “hit the wall,” to borrow an expression marathon runners use when their bodies feel like depleted batteries. A sudden rush of spiritual and emotional exhaustion — that's hitting the wall, Style reporter Maura Judkis notes. If this is where you are, you are not alone. Anxiety and fear around catching the virus has a name: Coronaphobia. I definitely have coronaphobia and one of the only things that help this every day, is a FaceTime visit with Oliver and Zoe. �Uh oh! He’s figured out how to turn the baby cam on and off. But how can you be cross with �that face? After our visit to the Ceramics Museum, we drove further up into the hills for lunch. But first a correction to yesterdays post: The MIC, International Museum of Ceramics, is located in Faenza (in the district of Ravenna) and it is the largest collection in in the world of handcrafted ceramics. �������So some of these photos are from a walk around Faenza and then the last two are from Brisighella where we went for lunch. More of the day tomorrow. And just to show you what this winter is like so far, here is a photo of the Grand Haven lighthouse taken 2 days ago. Ahhh Michigan! �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-10_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-336 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-10 Title A name given to the resource Day 336 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/81261328f5a90aedb896af56ad818697.pdf e25bea658003c71e618c9d031d32a996 PDF Text Text Day 335 by windoworks First up: impeachment. The trial in the Senate begins today. Here’s the program from CNN: The second impeachment trial of former President Trump begins today. Here’s how it will go: Things will get going in the afternoon with up to four hours of debate, followed by a vote on the constitutionality of the trial (it needs just a simple majority to pass). Then, we’ll see up to a few days of arguments, followed by a period when senators can question the legal teams. Then, there will be more debate, closing arguments and deliberation. During the trial, senators and witnesses will revisit the events of the Capitol riot on January 6, so things may get emotional. Sen. Patrick Leahy, president pro tempore of the Senate, will preside over the trial. Security around the Capitol is being beefed up ahead of the proceedings, with razor wire-topped fences looming and National Guard members standing by. And from Crooked Media: Republicans have been very forthcoming about the fact that they’d much prefer to speed this trial along with no witnesses, as part of their larger project to stuff the events of January 6 down the national memory hole. GOP senators like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) already feel comfortable enough to suggest on television that the insurrection was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s fault, actually. What’s to be gained by letting them move on without confronting sworn testimony from Brad Raffensperger, say, or folks who know what Trump was actually up to during the Capitol attack? Democrats understandably want to focus on Joe Biden’s agenda, but as they insisted during the first impeachment process, the Senate can walk and chew gum at the same time. Its hard to predict what will happen. For myself I would prefer Trump to be convicted, so that he is barred from holding any elected position for life. I don’t mind if he fades into memory, as long as the lessons of his dreadful tenure as President are not forgotten. It is human to make mistakes. We should always learn from our mistakes so we don’t make them again. As for all the deluded QAnon believers and the like - I have no idea how to help them. As Crooked Media points out: There’s no clear upside to calling the trial a lost cause and playing it at 1.5x speed: A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds that a large majority of Americans support the Senate convicting Trump and barring him from holding future office. If Republicans are determined to vote against the popular notion of holding Trump accountable, Democrats can at least make them do so under an avalanche of damning evidence, in full public view. We’ll see. �Here’s the last 3 questions about the vaccine: If they say: "The vaccine could give my child autism or a birth defect." You can say: This is not true. Several studies have repeatedly shown that vaccines do not cause autism or development issues in young children. That belief is based on a bunk study from the 1990s that has since been retracted. As stated above, the Covid-19 vaccine does not interfere with DNA. If they're worried about the risk of getting vaccinated while pregnant, this may assuage their fears: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended the Covid-19 vaccine for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. It's also wise to get vaccinated because pregnant women are thought to be at a higher risk of severe illness from Covid-19. Compared to symptomatic people who are not pregnant, pregnant people are at a higher risk of ICU admission, the need for a ventilator and death, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. If they say: "The vaccine's side effects could be severe." You can say: It's unlikely that you'll have a severe reaction to the Covid-19 vaccine. It's much more likely that you'll have a "local reaction," such as redness and soreness in your arm or a low fever. Side effects of the vaccine tend to be more severe after the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, so it's smart to plan around that. You may want to take a day off work after you get the vaccine in case you're too fatigued. The symptoms tend to be more severe in young people than older folks who get vaccinated. It's a small price to pay to prevent Covid. If they say: "I could have an allergic reaction to the vaccine." You can say: This is possible, but very rare: About 11 cases per one million cases of Covid-19 vaccinations resulted in an allergic reaction. People with severe allergies or those who carry an EpiPen should consult with their doctor before they get vaccinated, but even those with allergies have gotten the vaccine without a reaction. Yesterday Craig and I drove to the Kent County Health Department office on Fuller. We had driven there the day before and followed the partially snow covered signs to the Vaccination building, so we knew where to go the next day. Yesterday, Monday, the traffic was pouring in and out. The empty parking lot we had found on Sunday was full to the brim, with cars constantly coming and going. We were early for my appointment, so we sat in the car for a few minutes. We decided to go inside and not wait, and not only were cars coming and going, but so were the people, pouring in and out of the door. �Inside, the floor was carefully marked with 6 feet apart spots. Our first stop was the first check in. The woman looked me up in her register and then ticked off my name and then fond Craig’s name at his 2pm slot and ticked off his name off also. There was a State policeman standing with her. I said: I’m smiling behind my mask and he said: I am too. Then down the long corridor we went to the next stop where we were asked: first dose or second dose? First dose, we said. We were given a yellow sheet to be filled in and we were directed to a freshly sanitized desk to fill it in. There were clean pens and after we had used them we put them in the dirty pens box. Next, we were directed into a room with people sitting behind plexiglass at computers. Using our yellow forms they typed our details in (we were at separate desks), and filled out our official vaccination cards. They took our health insurance details too. I believe that if you have health insurance they charge it, but if you don’t have insurance, its free. The date for our second dose was added to our cards: Monday March 8 at 10:42am. I asked why 4 weeks as we were receiving the Pfizer vaccine which gives the second dose 3 weeks later. The answer was that they were so overloaded they had to push everyone to 4 weeks apart to cope. Clutching our returned yellow forms and our new vaccination cards, we were directed into a room of cubicles, divided by fabric screens. Craig went to one cubicle and I went to another. My nurse filled out the dose information on my card and then said: my hands are cold, sorry. She squeezed my left upper arm and injected me in less than 2 seconds - and I was done! Lastly, we were directed to the adjacent sitting area where we sat carefully spaced out on freshly sanitized chairs, for 15 minutes to watch for any severe allergies. People chatted quietly while they waited. A young man came around and collected our yellow forms and gave us more reading material. After 15 minutes we walked out to our car and drove home. I have enrolled in a V-watch online program which will check on my symptoms daily. Both Craig and I had very sore arms yesterday but this morning, my arm is still sore but much less. The whole procedure took about 20 minutes - mostly the 15 minutes waiting time afterwards. They process 700 people 5 days a week (3,500), just at that one facility. I have tried to find out how many people are vaccinated each week in Grand Rapids but I can’t find any statistics. We are very pleased to have received the first dose and to have a firm date for our second dose. Later in the day, I thought about the fact that we will be fully vaccinated by March 8 - just under 1 year since the first 2 cases appeared in Michigan and the Governor and the Chief Medical Officer locked the state down. That is an astonishing scientific achievement. The nurse who vaccinated me said that she was thrilled that scientists were being hailed as heroes, as well as nurses and doctors. Some people have said they are too nervous to get the vaccine, but with the rapid spread of the UK variant, as well as the Brazilian and South African variants, I’d take being vaccinated any day over getting sick. Of course we still have to safely distance, mask up, wash our hands and keep to our tiny 2 person bubble. And this one’s just for Craig: �Just the two of us We can make it if we try Just the two of us (Just the two of us) Just the two of us Building castles in the sky Just the two of us You and I And because there is a whole world out there where other events happen and are sometimes worse than the pandemic: CNN: At least 180 people are missing and 19 have died in India’s northern Uttarakhand state after part of a Himalayan glacier fell into a river, triggering massive flash floods. The water rolled down a mountain gorge, picking up rocks and debris before crashing through a dam. Most of the missing are workers from two hydroelectric projects in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district that were hit by the avalanche. Glaciers in the Himalayan region have been melting rapidly due to the climate crisis, and it’s not uncommon for them to become unstable. Environmentalists have warned against widespread development in the region, which can compromise rivers and other natural structures. A similar tragedy occurred in the region in 2013, when nearly 6,000 people lost their lives after a massive amount of rainfall led to flash floods. Here at home 4 skiers have died in an avalanche in Utah. It must be Oliver time, right? �Because Oliver went to the Aquarium on the weekend, the activity was creatures of the sea �and shore. Flashback: our next stop was: Ravenna is a city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It's known for the colorful mosaics adorning many of its central buildings, like the octagonal Basilica di San Vitale, the 6th-century Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the cross-shaped Mausoleo di Galla Placidia. North of the center, the Mausoleo di Teodorico built in the 6th century for King Theodoric the Great, is a Gothic, circular stone tomb with a monolithic dome. ― Google Our excursion was to Brisighella: one of the most beautiful medieval villages of Italy, on the hillside between Florence and Ravenna. Apart from the medieval town square, we visited a fabulous mosaic museum. �������This was an amazing place. I must admit I thought the museum would be boring but no. They had mosaics from really ancient times through to modern pieces at the end of the museum. This was just our first stop on a packed day. More Ravenna/Brisighella tomorrow. Oh and as I finish this post - its snowing again. and a correction to yesterday’s post: Ira Flatow was the journalist not Ira Glass. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-09_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-335 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-09 Title A name given to the resource Day 335 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/596f4a4533a5a4b22f66ca2dc37c38f2.pdf 7f83e5e2f138a1045affd6cdec15330b PDF Text Text Day 334 by windoworks This morning at 11:18am I am to receive the first shot of what I assume is the Pfizer vaccine. This is the one that has to be kept at extremely low temperatures which means that most pharmacies inside grocery stores, don’t have the capability of keeping the Pfizer vaccine cold enough. The other vaccine, Moderna, has to be kept cold but not as cold as the Pfizer one. It was a tedious business getting this appointment and there seems no rhyme or reason to who secures a vaccination spot and who doesn’t. Craig and I secured ours (although Craig’s spot is at 2pm today, the closest I could get to my spot), through a friend’s text, saying go online to this address NOW! I have friends who have completed their vaccinations and their spouse/partner is still trying to secure a spot for the first dose. It is very hit and miss. Here’s the next two vaccine questions: If they say: "The vaccine could give me Covid-19." You can say: The vaccine cannot give you Covid-19, because it doesn't contain the virus. It contains mRNA, or messenger ribonucleic acid, which tells your cells how to create the protein spike the virus uses to infect other cells. The live virus never enters your body in the vaccination process, your cells learn how to make a part of the virus, but coronavirus can't replicate that way. You may experience some "intense but brief" symptoms like fatigue, nausea and a low fever after you're vaccinated. Those are often synonymous with Covid-19, but these vaccine-induced side effects should subside within 24 to 48 hours. It's also possible you could suffer no side effects, or they could be as mild as a headache and a sore arm. In any case, you won't get Covid-19 from getting vaccinated. If they say: "The vaccine could alter my DNA." You can say: The Covid-19 vaccines do not alter or interact with your DNA. The mRNA never enters a cell's nucleus, which houses DNA. It does its work in the cytoplasm, the fluid within a cell. The mRNA doesn't stick around in the body, either. It dissolves once it's sent a message to cells and exits your body. The last 3 questions tomorrow. Then yesterday this appeared in my Facebook feed: GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. (Feb. 7, 2021) The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) notified the Kent County Health Department (KCHD) that the COVID-19 variant known as SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 has been confirmed in a Kent County resident. �This variant is concerning because it is associated with increased transmissibility. Compared to the original virus, the B.1.1.7 variant is approximately 50 percent more transmissible, leading to faster spread of the virus and potentially increasing numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. The presence of the quick spreading variant in Kent County illustrates the importance of staying vigilant in the prevention of spreading COVID-19. Proper mask usage, social distancing and practicing good hand hygiene continue to be the most effective measures in combating the spread of the disease. The KCHD is also encouraging residents to limit their interactions with people who live outside of their own households. The SARSCoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant is thought to have emerged in the United Kingdom and has since been detected in many countries and states. The MDHHS has identified 30 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant in Michigan. While most of these cases have been found in the southeast portion of the state, the recent confirmation of a case in Kalamazoo and now in Kent counties illustrates the fast-moving nature of the variant. Its never ending really. Yesterday we drove past an Applebees restaurant which appeared packed with diners. The restaurant owners beg to be allowed to have in house dining and then when it is granted, some places ignore the strict regulations - and then diners come down with covid and then in house dining is banned again. I can hear the nationwide cry: I just want life to be normal again! Well so do we all, but that’s not happening any time soon, if at all. I was listening to Ira Glass on the radio yesterday. He was interviewing a scientist (I never heard his name) about the virus and the vaccines and one question he answered was: how long is the vaccine effective for? The scientist answered: we just don’t know, but perhaps a booster shot will be necessary every 2 - 3 years. One point the scientist did make is that the 2 vaccines we have here in the States, prevent mild to serious illness. If you were to contract the virus, the vaccine would prevent it being more than a mild complaint. And the mRNA vaccines are spectacular much better than other vaccines and as a very exciting side note - at some point in the nearish future, scientists expect to be able to develop an mRNA vaccine against cancer! Cancer! Imagine teenagers or children being vaccinated against cancer just like measles! In the US, total cases stand at 27M and the total deaths are at 463,000. I tell you those numbers before I add this article from NPR: Ever since the coronavirus reached the U.S., officials and citizens alike have gauged the severity of the spread by tracking one measure in particular: How many new cases are confirmed through testing each day. However, it has been clear all along that this number is an understatement because of testing shortfalls. Now a research team at Columbia University has built a mathematical model that gives a much more complete — and scary — picture of how much virus is circulating in our communities. It estimates how many people are never counted because they never get tested. And it answers a second question that is arguably even more crucial — but that until now has not been reliably estimated: On any given day, what is the total number of people who are actively infectious? This includes those who may �have been infected on previous days but are still shedding virus and capable of spreading disease. The model's conclusion: On any given day, the actual number of active cases — people who are newly infected or still infectious — is likely 10 times that day's official number of reported cases. The sustained periods of high transmission in the U.S. also mean that by now, quite a large share of the U.S. population has been infected beyond what the tallies of reported cases would indicate. Nationwide, it is estimated that about 120 million people have now been infected, just over a third of the U.S. population. This made me laugh: �The big day is tomorrow. Trump’s impeachment trial begins in the Senate. What will happen? Here’s an interesting piece from the Atlantic: �Democracy depends on the consent of the losers. For most of the 20th century, parties and candidates in the United States have competed in elections with the understanding that electoral defeats are neither permanent nor intolerable. The losers could accept the result, adjust their ideas and coalitions, and move on to fight in the next election. Ideas and policies would be contested, sometimes viciously, but however heated the rhetoric got, defeat was not generally equated with political annihilation. In October, with the specter of impeachment looming, Trump fumed on Twitter, “What is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!” For good measure, he also quoted a supporter’s dark prediction that impeachment “will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Trump’s apocalyptic rhetoric matches the tenor of the times. The body politic is more fractious than at any time in recent memory. The stakes in this battle on the right are much higher than the next election. If Republican voters can’t be convinced that democratic elections will continue to offer them a viable path to victory, that they can thrive within a diversifying nation, and that even in defeat their basic rights will be protected, then Trumpism will extend long after Trump leaves office—and our democracy will suffer for it. Last night Craig went outside and took photos of our house. ��Friends keep asking if we will get this much snow in Australia. The answer is no. When we return to Sydney in July this year, it will be the middle of winter and the average daily temperature is 47F-63F. Sydneysiders complain bitterly and wrap up, but any of my winter coats are far too warm to wear. Still, I would like a house with some sort of heating, not because its so cold, but because its so damp. Everything feels damp and clammy - even the bedsheets. I have been spoiled by living in a heated house in winter. And speaking of heat, we now realize that the furnace was failing for the past 2 or 3 years. Our house is so toasty warm now. Lovely, especially this weekend as the temperatures dip down to 1F (-17C) overnight. Brrr! Oliver �I love daycare. �Places to go, people to see. �I have to stop writing now and get myself ready for my vaccination appointment. A friend found another Bernie meme: So remember: double mask up, stay out of non-compliant businesses (no mask, no business), keep washing your hands, keep physically distancing. The UK variant is here. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-08_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-334 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-08 Title A name given to the resource Day 334 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4a485689f1779090ce40877ce67b5bb5.pdf a4678b213ef5c36d1cd942172617e430 PDF Text Text Day 333 by windoworks To be honest, the Super Bowl is usually only interesting for me for the halftime ads. There. I said it out loud. I remember the first time I went to an actual American football game. It was the first football season after we moved here. Some neighbors took Craig and I and we sat on a hill and watched. It was at Grand Valley State University and as Craig was a new tenure track hire, our friends thought we should support the home team. It seemed incomprehensible to me. In New Zealand Rugby Union was the game I grew up with. The national team, the All Blacks, were invincible. I watched them play the Roosters (the French national team), the Lions (the English national team) and the Spring Boks (the South African national team). There are two stories about how the name originated. One is that it was a typo in a sports report in �a British newspaper in the early 1900s where the reporter stated: they are all Backs (referring to their dominant game position) and the other story is that another reporter said they’re all white men but their jerseys, shorts and socks are all black. Take your pick. Rugby Union players are tough men. That games relies more on speed and scrums (where the two teams link arms and hunker down and clash together while someone throws the ball into the middle - and one side grabs it). Union also features line outs where both teams line up and someone throws the ball and one side catches it. (I can hear my nephews: Auntie Pamela! That’s not how the game works!) In Australia one of the most popular games is Rugby League. This is a slightly different, rougher game. The team members often tape their ears to their heads (no I didn’t make that up) so they aren’t ripped off during the game. With the advent of HIV, the Blood Bin was established. If a team member was injured enough to bleed, he would be sent off to the Blood Bin. If the bloody arm or leg was covered successfully, I think he was allowed back into the game. One feature of both games: there is a limit of players on the field - 15 for Rugby Union and 13 for Rugby League. Rugby League is a very stop, start game and Rugby Union flows more. Anyway, it was a big surprise to watch an American Football game. There were moments when the game stopped completely. After a while it seemed to me that the really big, beefy players held the other team at bay so the smaller, faster players could run through and score a touchdown. And the game went on for hours. I know marginally more about cricket, mostly because Craig adores it. A series test match (between say, Australia and New Zealand) lasts for 5 days. It features a wicket (the run area) and 2 helmeted batsmen, a hard red cricket ball, stumps thats where its similarity to baseball ends. I am not going to even try to explain the game and I have no idea where the rules came from. There is a consensus of expert opinion that cricket may have been invented during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England. Cricket.com CNN has published a list of people’s questions about the vaccines. There are 7 questions and answers, and I’ll print them in 3 lots. First 2 questions: If they say: "I don't know what's in the vaccine." You can say: That's fair. Vaccine ingredient lists include a lot of lengthy names only a chemist would recognize. Here are the some of the main ingredients in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the two vaccines currently authorized for use, and how they work: mRNA: Short for messenger ribonucleic acid, mRNA is a "genetic software" that tells cells how to make the coronavirus spike protein, the structure the virus uses to invade cells. The mRNA gets your immune system's attention, so it's prepared to attack the spike protein if infection occurs. The mRNA disintegrates �as soon as it relays its message, Schaffner said, and you excrete its remnants. Fatty lipids: The mRNA is very fragile, so it's coated in a fatty lipid to protect it. The lipids, a buttery substance, can melt at room temperature -- which is why both vaccines must be kept at extremely cold temperatures. Fatty lipids used in Covid-19 vaccines include polyethylene glycol-2000 and cholesterol, among others. Salts and sugars: Salts such as potassium chloride and sodium chloride are in the vaccine to balance the acidity in your body, according to the MIT Technology Review. Sugar, listed as sucrose, is there so the vaccine nanoparticles keep their shape. Other vaccines still in trials in the US, such as AstraZeneca's, rely on different technologies than mRNA and, therefore, have different ingredients. If they say: "The vaccine was created too quickly to be trustworthy." You can say: It's true that the Covid-19 vaccines currently authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration were developed and tested more quickly than other vaccines we're familiar with. But extensive clinical trials have proven their effectiveness. Part of the reason why the vaccines were developed rapidly is because the circumstances called for speed: We're in a pandemic that's killed more than 2 million people worldwide and sickened over 103 million people. The need for a vaccine is urgent. So rather than wait for the results of trials to manufacture a vaccine, the companies creating these vaccines produced them simultaneously so they'd be ready to deploy when the trials were completed, Schaffner said. Typically, the companies that create vaccines would wait for a trial to end before giving the OK to manufacture the vaccines. "Of course, our 'bet,' if you will, came up a winner," Schaffner said. Both Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines are 94% to 95% effective at preventing severe sickness from Covid-19. The technology the vaccines use, mRNA, was developed long before the virus that causes Covid-19 began to circulate in humans, so the tech can be trusted, Schaffner and Karron said. The Covid-19 vaccine trials included tens of thousands of participants, Karron said, whose reactions to the vaccine were closely monitored for months before the vaccines were approved by the FDA. Vaccine developers also had the resources to speed up the process -- there were no questions of demand or funding, Karron said. Two more questions and answers tomorrow. Now for today’s quick roundup: President Biden decided there was no purpose in granting former President Trump access to intelligence briefings - and he worried that Trump might let something slip. The US Postal Service is in disarray and Democrats are struggling with how to address this, especially how to force Louis DeJoy out of his Postmaster General position. Here’s a newly revealed alarming fact from Washington Post: �Trump’s election fraud falsehoods have cost taxpayers $519 million — and counting. Donald Trump’s claims that the election was stolen have forced local, state and federal agencies to spend millions enhancing security, fending off lawsuits and repairing property damage, according to a Washington Post review. The numbers are mounting daily, but the full cost may never be known as officials struggle to account for the fiscal impact of a president injecting instability into the democratic system. And I know you’re agog to hear about plans for the impeachment trial. Here’s this from the New York Times: House impeachment managers are preparing to prosecute the former president on the charge of “incitement of an insurrection” for inflaming the mob that attacked the Capitol last month. Opening arguments begin Tuesday. Prosecutors plan to mount a fast-paced, cinematic case in which they’ll argue that Mr. Trump was “singularly responsible” for the Jan. 6 attack and a broader attack on democracy that showed he would do anything to “reassert his grip on power” if he were allowed to seek election again. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have denied that he incited the assault on the Capitol and will argue that the Senate has no power to try a former president. Mr. Trump’s words to supporters, they say, are protected by his First Amendment right to free speech. (More than 100 leading constitutional lawyers called that claim “legally frivolous.”) Mr. Trump has refused to testify. Members of both parties are hoping for a speedy trial, possibly completed within a week. A guilty verdict would require at least 17 Republicans to join all 50 Democrats in voting to convict. And this last miscellaneous, really disturbing finding: CNN: Top baby food manufacturers knowingly sold products with high levels of toxic metals, report shows. Yesterday, Oliver and Zoe and our friend Chardi went to the Sydney Aquarium. He loved it! ���Flashback: Our next stop was at Šibenik. Šibenik is a city on the Adriatic coast of Croatia. It’s known as a gateway to the Kornati Islands. The 15th-century stone Cathedral of St. James is decorated with 71 sculpted faces. Nearby, the Šibenik City Museum, in the 14th-century Prince’s Palace, has exhibits ranging from prehistory to the present. The white stone St. Michael’s Fortress has an open-air theater, with views of Šibenik Bay and neighboring islands. ― Google Through the narrow passage �Krka National Park (Croatian: Nacionalni park Krka) is one of the Croatian national parks, �named after the river Krka (ancient Greek: Kyrikos) that it encloses. It is located along the middle-lower course of the Krka River in central Dalmatia, in Šibenik-Knin county, downstream Miljevci area, and just a few kilometers northeast of the city of Šibenik. It was formed to protect the Krka River and is intended primarily for scientific, cultural, educational, recreational, and tourism activities. It is the seventh national park in Croatia and was proclaimed a national park in 1985. I’ve never seen so many rills, creeks, ponds, streams, rivers, waterfalls, and rapids. Krka was beautiful but the day was hot! �Families bathing. It was too hard to get down into the water. Very slippery. ��But I managed this little �stream. �More Šibenik tomorrow. Its Super Bowl Day. No Superspreader events please! � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-07_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-333 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-07 Title A name given to the resource Day 333 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/97e758591c61665bd443db7edafab2cf.pdf fdbe1df4561ce0c511bc1429b1d17151 PDF Text Text Day 332. Saturday February 6. 148 sleeps to go. by windoworks I don’t feel like the weeks are passing faster, and yet they are. This was a big week. The furnace installation ended up taking 2.5 days. On Thursday evening, every radiator in the house was lovely and warm except the one in the back bathroom. At first, everyone thought that a pipe leading to the radiator had ice blocking it. Everyone, except me, crawled underneath the back porch and shimmied their way to underneath the bathroom. They used heating guns and a portable radiator. There was another heater aimed at the radiator itself in the bathroom. Nothing helped. Yesterday morning Craig called the furnace manager and he said he had been thinking about this problem during the night. Paul thought it might be an air blockage and he would send someone around later in the day to try and fix it. But we had something else happening yesterday. To backtrack: we have a realtor who is a friend of mine. We employed her a few weeks ago when neighbors who had moved away from our block some years ago, said they had heard we were selling and could they look at our house? So I contacted Linda our realtor and armed with the comps for our area, we let the couple wander through our house while we drove around the block several times. Two days later, they let us know that while they loved our house, it wouldn’t fit their needs. Later that same week I received a text from Abby, a realtor, who said she had a buyer on the east side of the state interested in our house. You know, you automatically wonder if this is a scam, so we copied the text and sent it to Linda. Well, it was real and yesterday, in among the final fixing of the radiator, Abby came to our house and filmed it and photographed everything while Craig and I sat outside in our car with the heater blasting and the snow falling. There was a lot of work getting ready to have Abby walk through the house. Linda asked us to depersonalize the house and thats when we realized that we had 20, 20, photos of us and family members on shelves and walls. Most of these were on the upper landing and staircase walls. Craig took them all down and then he pulled out the nails, spackfilled the holes, sanded them back when dry - and then found the paint tin containing the landing and staircase color had dried out. No problem. Just a quick trip to the nearby hardware store where they no longer stocked that brand of paint . Oh but no problem, we’ll color match it with another brand. So home he came and he carefully painted over the filler and when it dried and we looked at his handiwork admiringly - it was at least one shade darker, and now the landing and staircase wall had blobs on them. And you couldn’t pretend you couldn’t see them. So, he carefully painted whole sections of the walls, grinding his teeth at the same time. But it looked wonderful and it was so worth the extra effort. Then we went through the house and put every other personal belonging away - and some things I may never find again - and at last, when Abby walked through the house, we felt we had done everything we �could to make our house look attractive and welcoming. Of course Abby loved our house and assured us that her clients would love the house too. Yes they did, and now they would like to come over and look at the house for themselves, some time in the next couple of weekends. When Craig asked why they wanted to move, Abby replied they just wanted a historic house in Eastown. Now the only other problem is the weekly numbers allowed into New South Wales, Australia. We knew that there was a weekly limit and it was 3,010 a week. Each state in Australia has a weekly limit on returning Australians entering their state. Those limits were halved in January due to a person returning who tested positive for one of the variants. However, having got this under control, the limit for NSW will return to 3,010 from 1,505 in the middle of this month. Other problems are, each flight in is only allowed so many passengers and people have been bumped off flights and stuck overseas waiting for another flight. You can sometimes keep your seat on a flight if you are prepared to pay between $15,000US - $23,000US. So what should we do? After a fraught discussion, we realized that the obvious and best option was to carry on with our plans and cross that bridge when we came to it. I have to say, its another situation where I think someone must know what’s happening. Our flight is booked on Japan Airlines on July 5th and I assumed that they would have already submitted our names to the Australian government so we would be included in the week’s quota. However, one phone call to the Australian Consulate in Chicago later, where the gentleman had no idea about anything, followed by another call to the Australian Embassy in D.C. which produced similar results. Apparently the airline would know these answers. After a long wait on hold with Japan Airlines, the answer was either (and Craig still can’t say for sure) no they don’t do that or no they don’t do that until nearer the actual flight. Did I mention I could do all of these jobs for half the price and twice as fast? There were 2 suggestions, one from the Consulate: the Australian news channels are more up to date than us (!) and one from the Embassy: contact the New South Wales Health Department, they should know. Ah, bureaucracy, what a thing of beauty! Meanwhile, the winter storm advisory has been extended again until 8am tomorrow morning. Craig went out walking earlier this morning and took these photos. �����The temperature outside at 9:15 am is 13F (-10.5C), but feels like 6F (-14.4C). Thats reasonably cold. These photos were taken mostly in Aquinas College, a small university close by. Quick roundup: the Biden administration has deployed more than 1000 active duty troops to help with vaccination efforts. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has started a $500000 effort on television and online portraying House Republicans as aligned with Marjorie Taylor Greene and QAnon. (Ouch! That’s gotta hurt). Israel’s virus numbers are dropping due to their aggressive vaccination program. Once again, seed suppliers and gardening stores are running out of supplies due to almost everyone in the US turning to home gardening. And from Washington Post, this nugget: Fox Business has canceled “Lou Dobbs Tonight” one day after the host was named in a multibillion dollar defamation lawsuit against the network and its parent company. Dobbs, 75, was among the most ardent pro-Trump voices on air. He held influence over Trump administration policy — particularly on trade and immigration — and relentlessly promoted the former president’s false claims of election fraud late last year. His nightly program, which a person close to Dobbs said aired its final episode Friday, was by far the highest-rated on Fox Business. �Could sanity and cold reason be rearing their ugly heads? Last night I watched an interview with a South Carolina woman who had swallowed QAnon whole. At some point after the Inauguration when Trump didn’t overthrow the government and arrest all Democrat members, she painfully realized she had been duped. Now she goes online to try and help other people be deprogrammed. Oliver. ��In the morning in Dubrovnik, Craig walked around the walls. You can only enter and leave at the same point, that is, once up on the walls you have to keep walking right around to the exit. The path was very rough and the paving stones uneven, there were steep stairs to climb and there were first aid stations around the walls because while he walked, people kept tripping and falling all the time. I saw an elderly man sitting at the base of the wall with a nurse attending to his bloody knees. No wall walking for me! An ancient city well �Looking down on one of the main �streets The wall winding away �Along the shore �Down steep stairs �Across the rooftops �The ancient harbor �Croatia playing England. We watched it on the deck outside. We could hear the cheers from the city square in the Old Town. Stay warm and stay safe. Colder weather is coming. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-06_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-332 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-06 Title A name given to the resource Day 332 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cb87ffa3e6edd773df71a03873a76658.pdf cdda9eb928976f2dd357cebf69d7ebe6 PDF Text Text Day 331 by windoworks CNN Scientists have figured out how to give a zebrafish limb-like appendages. Hmm, the idea of a fish with arms is more upsetting than expected. Progress report: I now realize how poorly our furnace was working. I had gotten used to wearing a dressing gown in bed in the mornings, and a warm main bathroom had become a thing of the past. All that has changed! Our house is toasty warm from top to bottom. There is one tiny fly in the ointment - the downstairs toilet area radiator refuses to warm up. Various things have been tried and I suspect we will try even more things - but as we happen to have a small fan heater of our own, we will continue to use that until the problem is fixed. I never want to be as cold as I was yesterday morning, ever again. Yesterday afternoon, the space age furnace fired up (after careful programming) and heat began seeping back into the house - just as the snow began to fall. Here it is - a thing of beauty indeed. I thought it would be encrusted with diamonds, it cost so much. �So yesterday the House voted to strip Majorie Taylor Greene of her committee appointments. Here’s a roundup from NPR: The House of Representatives has voted to strip Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, following uproar over her past incendiary comments and apparent support of violence against Democrats. Thursday's vote was 230-199, with 11 Republicans joining with all Democrats to back the resolution. The vote comes a day after the House Rules Committee advanced a resolution, put forth by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., to remove Greene from her assignments on the Budget panel and the Education and Labor Committee. The Georgia freshman has come under fire in recent weeks for her history of trafficking in racism, antiSemitism and baseless conspiracy theories, along with her support for online comments encouraging violence against Democratic officials prior to taking office. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., responded to Greene's remarks on the floor, noting her defense sidestepped her "liking" social media posts prior to her election that advocated for violence against Democratic leaders. "I just have to say that I did not hear a disavowment or an apology for those things. I did not hear an apology or denouncement for the claim, the insinuation that political opponents should be violently dealt with. I didn't hear anybody apologize or retract the anti-Semitic and Islamophobic remarks that had been made that have been posted over and over and over again. Because if this isn't the bottom, then I don't know what the hell is," he said. "I hope we are setting a clear standard for what we will not tolerate. Anyone who suggests putting a bullet in the head of a member shouldn't serve on any committee period." "If anyone has any question about the things that she has said or done, anybody who's watching, just spend a moment and look at her social media posts, don't take my word for it. Go research it for yourself. Google it. It's all there," McGovern said. In a powerful moment, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., walked around the floor showing his colleagues a poster featuring a screenshot of a Facebook ad on Greene's campaign page. The image featured a photo of Greene holding a gun alongside isolated images of Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Underneath was the caption: "Squad's worst nightmare." "I urge my colleagues to look at that image and tell me what message you think it sends," Hoyer said. "Here she is armed with a deadly assault rifle pointed toward three Democratic members." Hoyer added: "In 2019, during the same election cycle in which she ran, [Greene] showed support for comments online that the quickest way to remove [House] Speaker Pelosi from power would be, and I quote, a bullet to the head. �And from the Atlantic: • Greene is just a symptom of what ails the party. David A. Graham sums up the GOP’s dilemma: “How do you hold one individual accountable for repugnant things you’d previously decided to indulge as a route to victory?” It seems as though the Republican Party is floundering. It is hard to say what will happen next, as they seem to have left sanity and reason behind some time ago. From Crooked Media who always tell it like it is: For better or for worse (spoiler: it’s for worse), Republicans have now officially tethered themselves to what were once unspeakable right-wing fringe elements. It’s a terrifying national step backwards into the abyss, but it might be useful in the midterms? The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has already launched a $50,000 ad campaign that highlights Greene as the face of the GOP, in an effort to tie vulnerable House Republicans to Greene and her horrific beliefs. Republican leaders have made that task much easier by refusing to take any disciplinary action on their own, and subsequently going on the record in her defense. And also this: The Government Accountability Office eviscerated the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, in a 346-page report that deviated from the watchdog’s usually neutral tone. The GAO made 31 recommendations for the pandemic response in 2020, and 27 of them—almost 90 percent— had not been implemented as of January 15. Those ignored recommendations included addressing gaps in the medical-supply chain, issuing a comprehensive national testing strategy, speeding up the disbursement of coronavirus funding, and establishing a national plan for vaccine distribution. Rep. Gerry Connolly (DVA), who received the report as a member of the House oversight committee, summed it up thusly: “This independent report is a stunning indictment of the Trump administration’s total failure to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Their inaction resulted in lives lost.” The Impeachment Managers invited Trump to testify (explain? confess?) at the trial which begins on Tuesday February 9. Of course, he refused. No surprise there. He is continuing to claim that he won the election, yadda, yadda, yadda. I think there is enough evidence against him to convict him three times over. From Washington Post: “If you decline this invitation, we reserve any and all rights, including the right to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference regarding your actions (and inaction) on January 6, 2021,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) wrote. But as the days go by and Biden, Harris and their administration keep working and repairing actions taken by Trump, and the Democratic led House and Senate find their feet, Trump is receding slowly into the background. The local government overseeing Mar-A-Lago said yesterday that Trump may live out his life there. Wow! That’s a dismissive statement! Is he terminally ill? Is it dementia? �And I just had to include this from CNN: Politics isn't about the weird worship of one dude. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, responding to leaders of his state's Republican Party after they advanced a censure resolution against him for criticizing efforts to overturn the presidential election results and then-President Trump's involvement in the US Capitol riot. And this is HUGE: Washington Post Smartmatic, an election technology company, has followed through on a threat to sue the parent company of Fox News over comments made on the network suggesting that the company participated in fraudulent activities during the Nov. 3 presidential election. The company filed suit Thursday in New York State Court in Manhattan, seeking $2.7 billion for defamation and disparagement and accusing Fox News of fomenting a “disinformation campaign against Smartmatic.” Smartmatic said it has identified “100 false statements and implications” made on Fox’s airwaves about the company and its services, which it said has damaged its business and future prospects. “One of the biggest challenges in the Information Age is disinformation,” Smartmatic chief executive Antonio Mugica said in announcing the suit. “Fox is responsible for this disinformation campaign, which has damaged democracy worldwide and irreparably harmed Smartmatic and other stakeholders who contribute to modern elections.” That joins Dominion Voting who are suing Rudy Giuliani and I think, Sidney Powell, for 1.3 billion. I wonder if Rudy has a spare 1.3billion lying around? On the pandemic front, there’s a new vaccine in the offing. Washington Post Johnson & Johnson seeks emergency use authorization from the FDA for its single-shot coronavirus vaccine. The pharmaceutical giant Thursday requested emergency use authorization for a vaccine shown in studies to be robustly effective against illness and especially at preventing severe cases and death. If the Food and Drug Administration grants the request, the vaccine would become the third available in the United States. Vaccinations remain patchwork. More vaccination opportunities are arising but you have to be on the ball to snap them up. I’ve heard that they schedule your second shot when you get your first shot and I’ve heard that scheduling the second shot is up to you. In totally unrelated news: �A runner running across frozen Reeds Lake �Ice fishermen on Lake Muskegon �Walking (carefully avoiding the ice) through Oak Hill Cemetery. Oliver �All right, yes, I got the yoghurt everywhere, but a lot more of it went into my �mouth. �In half an hour we have to leave our house to let a realtor walk through and videotape it. Apparently someone on the east side of the state is interested in possibly buying our house. I may never find some things I have hidden away, again. Its surprising the amount of personal stuff you have lying around. Its absolutely amazing how much work there is in getting your house ready to sell. Tomorrow then. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-05_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-331 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-05 Title A name given to the resource Day 331 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ee6b1b32dd1d7af3d792d123223f2ed1.pdf 60f265e757f0b2754502666a2bf5d70c PDF Text Text Day 330 by windoworks That might be my mantra. Good morning. This morning we woke to a freezing cold house. Craig (who is always the breakfast person) wore a quilted coat when he brought me my breakfast. Being nervous about leaving space heaters running all night - wooden houses burn so easily - we had switched everything off. Because in 18 years we have never had to think about warming the house in winter. The furnace guys, who made an astonishing amount of noise in the basement all day yesterday, are coming back today to fill the space age looking new furnace with water. Apparently that takes hours. Then someone has to go around and bleed the air out of all the radiators before the water is heated. We have a new double exhaust �pipe out of a basement window. I have to say the new hot water heater and the new furnace in the basement look most impressive. As they should - they cost a fortune. We had very generous neighbors and an ex neighbor who delivered space heaters to our door on Tuesday. And during the lockdown last year (I actually forget when), a man came around and repaired the pilot light on the gas fireplace in the living room. What a blessing that turned out to be yesterday. Of course the sunshine helped too. They have promised us heat by late afternoon or evening and there’d want to be. A blizzard begins about 3pm this afternoon. Talk about the nick of time! In a quick roundup: the Republicans held a secret vote and kept Liz Cheney as the 3rd highest ranking Republican in the House. Because that worked so well, they are now considering a secret vote on Impeachment. Interesting. Biden and the Democratic House are pushing forward with the Biden stimulus bill but the President is considering the $1400 checks for households under a certain income limit. Randy Rainbow has recorded a wonderful parody of “Evergreen” (the theme song to “A Star is Born” and sung by Barbra Streisand). His version is “Majorie Taylor Greene” and at the end he apologizes to Barbra. Like all his parodies, it brought a smile to my face - and he can certainly sing. The FBI has now arrested 180 insurrectionists from January 6. Oh and Canada has labeled the Proud Boys a terrorist entity. But what about the pandemic, Pamela? Well, I do have a couple of things: The Atlantic Even in a year of horrendous suffering, what is unfolding in Brazil stands out. In the rainforest city of Manaus, home to 2 million people, bodies are reportedly being dropped into mass graves as quickly as they can be dug. Hospitals have run out of oxygen, and people with potentially treatable cases of COVID-19 are dying of asphyxia. This nature and scale of mortality have not been seen since the first months of the pandemic. On the whole, Brazil has already reported the second-highest death toll in the world (though half that of the United States). As the country headed into summer, the worst was thought to be behind it. Data seemed to support the idea that herd immunity in Manaus was near. The city was able to largely reopen and remain open throughout its winter with low levels of COVID-19 cases. Yet now, the nightmare scenario is happening a second time. The variant in Brazil, known as the P.1 (or B.1.1.248) lineage, has a potent combination of mutations. Not only does this variant seem to be more transmissible; its lineage carries mutations that help it escape the antibodies that we develop in response to older lineages of the coronavirus. The coming year could be a story of two worlds undermining each other. Certain countries will approach herd immunity by vaccinating almost every citizen. Other countries could see mass casualties and catastrophic waves of reinfection—potentially with variants that evolved in response to the immunity conferred by the very vaccines to which these populations do not have access. In the process, these hot spots themselves will facilitate rapid evolution, giving rise to even more variants that could make the �vaccinated populations susceptible to disease once again. In a recursive loop, the virus could come back to haunt the vaccinated, leading to new surges and lockdowns in coming years. The countries that hoard the vaccine without a plan to help others do so at their own peril. Well that is depressing. But wait, we do have the vaccines. Craig and I are scheduled to receive our first dose next Monday February 8. I cannot tell you what a trying procedure that was! A friend texted me the link and I went online and began scheduling my vaccination. Halfway though I realized I needed my health insurance card (because you never think of this beforehand) and by the time I completed the form correctly, that vaccination spot had gone. I managed to get a later time slot and then I set about registering Craig - and by the time I had completed his form completely his available spot was 3 hours later than mine. But hey! We have these slots and other friends are still struggling. By the way, we both registered with another vaccination scheme some weeks ago and periodically they text us to say: we haven’t forgotten you but we don’t have a vaccination for you yet. Who’s organizing that? And I’ll do it 4 times better and for half the money. Here’s some vaccine questions answered from The Wall Street Journal: After filling out consent forms and receiving the shot, you’ll be monitored for adverse reactions for 15 or 30 minutes depending on your allergy history. You’ll simply need your photo ID and proof of your appointment. The two vaccines available in the U.S. are found to be similarly safe and effective. The second dose of the Pfizer vaccine is offered 21 days later, while Moderna is offered 28 days later. Staying well hydrated prior to the vaccine is encouraged. Ibuprofen or acetaminophen, can be used following vaccination to treat any fever or local discomfort. People are asked to stay at the site to be monitored for adverse effects, including allergic reactions, though these are rare. Adults will receive a vaccination card that includes the lot number and name of the administered vaccine along with a reminder to get their second dose. Those going for their second dose will need to bring this card with them. Side effects may include fatigue, muscle aches and soreness at the injection site. There is likely some protection from the first shot but the second dose enables the immune system to provide long-lasting protection. Doctors strongly advise getting both shots, in the recommended time frame. The protective effect begins to be observed from two weeks after the second vaccine injection. Precautions including mask-wearing and staying away from others are important even after you’ve been fully vaccinated, as the vaccines aren’t 100% effective. It is possible that even those who have been vaccinated can carry the virus without showing symptoms and pass it onto others. Research on this is still under way. But here’s this to consider from CNN: More than 530,000 people in the US could die of Covid-19 by the end of this month, a new CDC projection claims. That would be about one death for every minute of the pandemic. The CDC has also expressed concern that emerging data may show the UK variant making its way around the world is even �more deadly than the original strain. Researchers in the US are assuming there are far more cases of these international strains out there than are being reported. But there is some comforting news, too. Global vaccine confidence is rising, according to a survey, with more than half of people in 15 countries saying they’d take the vaccine if offered. And COVAX, a vaccine-sharing initiative, has announced its plan to distribute more than 330 million doses to developing nations in the first half of the year. Doctors and scientists and other reputable people are warning that this weekend’s Super Bowl could be a Superspreader Event. Now I know you’re really tired of hearing this, but in light of the new variants it is better to show caution. Perhaps watching it at home in your bubble, wearing the appropriate colors and eating yummy homemade Super Bowl food might be the answer this year. They have made us turn off the gas fireplace and I am wrapped in as many layers as humanly possible while typing. There are many noises happening again in the basement but they are hopeful it will be finished by mid afternoon. How did we all cope before furnaces and heating? That explains why some medieval fireplaces in palaces are so huge. You sat on a seat inside the fireplace to get maximum warmth. I wouldn’t have survived. Oliver: �Yesterday he spent a lot of time on one of the teacher’s lap. He looked hot and cranky. Another tooth coming through? After a day at sea, we reached our next destination: Dubrovnik is a city in southern Croatia fronting the Adriatic Sea. It's known for its distinctive Old Town, encircled with massive stone walls completed in the 16th century. Its well-preserved buildings range from baroque St. Blaise Church to Renaissance Sponza Palace and Gothic Rector’s Palace, now a history museum. Paved with limestone, the pedestrianized Stradun (or Placa) is lined with shops and restaurants. ― Google �Entering Dubrovnik harbor �Old Town ����Holding his hand for �luck �Ah, coffee! In the morning after we anchored, Craig took the tender in and went on a hike around the circuit of the Old Town walls. That photo memory is for tomorrow. After lunch, he took me back into the Old Town and we wandered around looking for possible Game of Thrones filming locations. I liked Dubrovnik’s Old Town, especially after we found a shaded cafe in a lane way to have some welcome coffee. I have to stop typing now and put my hands in their fingerless mittens under the blanket to warm up. Stay safe - we’re still in a pandemic. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-04_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-330 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-04 Title A name given to the resource Day 330 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/03ca54bb2ee8c7ef0cd8dd75ab5695ba.pdf 416af2719387f8a3f1db4ded349da19d PDF Text Text Day 329 by windoworks Its a big day. Yesterday was Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and so there’s 6 more weeks of winter. Listen, I just report the facts, I don’t explain them. Of course there is nothing factual about whether a groundhog sees his shadow to forecast winters duration, but for about 106 years this has been the premier tourist attraction at Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. So winter will last until March 16 or thereabouts. No surprise there. I am posting the following because it describes the charges against Trump and what his new (disreputable) legal team are arguing in defense. It is a long read but I believe that every American: Democrat, Republican, Independent and non voters should read this account and think carefully about it. What will it mean if the Republicans in the Senate do not vote to convict after being presented with this iron clad evidence. What will it mean for the United States of America? How will this country go forward as a democracy from here? February 2, 2021 (Tuesday) Heather Cox Richardson, political historian and author. Today, on the same day that the remains of Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who was killed in the January 6 insurrection, lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, the House impeachment managers filed their trial brief for the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump. The charge is that he incited the insurrection attempt of January 6, 2021, in which a mob stormed the Capitol to stop the counting of the certified electoral ballots for the 2020 election. Led by Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a former professor of constitutional law, the managers laid out Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and his incitement of a violent mob to stop Congress from confirming the victory of Joseph Biden in the election. They note that Trump bears “singular responsibility” for the tragedy of January 6 and dismiss his argument that the Senate cannot convict him now because he is no longer in office, countering that such an understanding would give a president “a free pass to commit high crimes and misdemeanors near the end of their term.” The managers detailed Trump’s deliberate attempt to convince his followers of a lie: that he won the election in a “landslide,” and that Democrats had “stolen” the apparent victory. They say he “amplified these lies at every turn, seeking to convince supporters that they were victims of a massive electoral conspiracy that threatened the Nation’s continued existence.” But the courts rejected his arguments, and state and federal officials refused to cave to his demands that they break the law to alter the election results. So Trump announced a “Save America Rally,” urging his supporters to come to Washington, D.C., to “fight” for his reelection. He promised the rally would be “wild.” �Trump, they note, “spent months insisting to his base that the only way he could lose the election was a dangerous, wide-ranging conspiracy against them that threatened America itself.” He urged them to stop the counting on January 6, “by making plans to ‘fight like hell’ and ‘fight to the death’ against this ‘act of war’ by ‘Radical Left Democrats’ and the ‘weak and ineffective RINO section of the Republican Party.’”On January 6, he urged his supporters to go to the Capitol to stop what he called the massive fraud taking place there. He told them, “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Carrying Trump flags, the mob marched to the Capitol and broke in, searching specifically for Vice President Mike Pence, whom Trump blamed for counting the votes accurately, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. One shouted, “What are we waiting for? We already voted and what have they done? They stole it! We want our fcking country back! Let’s take it!” Others shouted, “Hang Mike Pence!” and “Tell Pelosi we’re coming for that btch.”Allegedly “delighted” at the interruption to the vote count, Trump retweeted a video of his rally speech telling his supporters to be “strong” and, even as Pence and his family were hiding from the violent mob, tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” This sent the mob into a frenzy. Then, while the Senate was evacuated, Trump tried to reach the new senator from Alabama, Tommy Tuberville, to urge him to continue to delay the counting of the electoral votes. Members of both houses from both parties called the president to urge him to call off the mob, but for more than three hours, he refused. When he finally issued a video telling his followers to go home, he said, “[i]t was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side.” He told them: “We love you, you’re very special.”Later that night he tweeted: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!” Trump’s new legal team issued its response to the House impeachment managers today, as well. They stand on the ground that, because Trump is no longer president, it is unconstitutional to try him on an article of impeachment. They also deny that the former president incited the insurrection and say he was simply exercising his First Amendment rights when he repeatedly attacked the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Far from backing down from his position, Trump is continuing to assert his argument that he won the election. “With very few exceptions,” his lawyers’ response reads, “under the convenient guise of Covid19 pandemic ‘safeguards’ states [sic] election laws and procedures were changed by local politicians or judges without the necessary approvals from state legislatures. Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th President’s statements were accurate or not, and he therefore denies they were false.” �Trump’s argument has been dismissed in more than 60 court cases, so there is plenty of evidence to conclude that it is false. But he is doubling down on what scholars of authoritarianism call a “big lie:” that he was the true winner of the 2020 election, and that the Democrats stole it. The big lie, a key propaganda tool that is associated with Nazi Germany, is a lie so huge that no one can believe it is false. If leaders repeat it enough times, refusing to admit that it is a lie, people come to think it is the truth because surely no one would make up anything so outrageous. In this case, Trump supporters insist that there was massive fraud in the 2020 election (there wasn’t) and that Trump really won (he didn’t). As Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) pointed out last week, the Republicans who supported Trump’s big lie and challenged the counting of the electoral votes on January 6 still have not admitted they were lying. Big lies are springboards for authoritarian politicians. They enable a leader to convince followers that they were unfairly cheated of power by those that the leader demonizes. That Trump and his supporters are continuing to advance their big lie, even in the face of overwhelming proof that it is false, is deeply concerning. If there is any need to prove that Trump’s big lie is, indeed, a lie, there is plenty of proof in the fact that when the leader of the company Trump surrogates blamed for facilitating election fraud threatened to sue them, they backed down fast. The voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems was at the center of Trump supporters’ claims of a stolen election, and its leadership has threatened to sue the conservative media network Newsmax for its personalities’ false statements. When the threat of a lawsuit first emerged, Newsmax issued an on-air disclaimer. Today, even as Trump’s lawyers were reiterating his insistence that he really won the election, the issue came up again. When MyPillow founder Mike Lindell began to spout Trump’s big lie on a Newsmax show, the co-anchor tried repeatedly to cut him off. When he was unsuccessful, the producers muted Lindell while the co-anchor said, “We at Newsmax have not been able to verify any of those kinds of allegations…. We just want to let people know that there’s nothing substantive that we have seen.” He read a legal disclaimer: “Newsmax accepts the [election] results as legal and final. The courts have also supported that view.” And then he stood up and left the set. I cannot see a clear path forward here. The Capitol Building and the White House have been sequestered in a Green Zone, such as the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. It refers to a secured area where the seat of government is located. Areas nearby that are unsecured are referred to as red zones. What’s even more disturbing however is that once again, comparisons between Trump and Hitler are being drawn, and the rise of Nazi Germany. When the January 6 attempted coup occurred, Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, expressed concern that these actions in the US would encourage similar actions by the NeoNazis in Germany. �The expression ‘the big lie’ was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously". Wikipedia When we lived in Berlin in August 2016, we visited a display called The Topography of Terror. There were disturbing photos of huge complicit crowds of Germans, all supporting the public shamings, the mass arrests and the firing squad actions. And these photos and the rest of the large display were set out unapologetically, as an unvarnished recounting of facts. There was no concealment of the truth of what took place, no matter how shameful. Some people embrace the big lie as it allows them to rise in power and importance. Some people support the big lie because they are frightened of the consequences if they aren’t seen to support it. Some stand on the sidelines and say nothing, hoping to absolve themselves of blame after it all goes pear shaped. In my wildest dreams, as dysfunctional as the US can be, I never imagined I would see a large group of people embrace and foster such a wildly untrue premise: that a Presidential election, so carefully regulated and policed, would be promoted as a fraud. Is no one thinking about the future of elections and their credibility? If you shout loudly that this legal election was somehow a complete and utter fraud, what will you shout about the next election. How will we return to a democratic system? I cannot see a clear path forward here. Today I’ll leave you with Oliver. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-03_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-329 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-03 Title A name given to the resource Day 329 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9927566d0c2f8da279a24dec9fc5eca7.pdf 94bf6c92f64c3917000e7b29f42589ae PDF Text Text Day 328 by windoworks I was talking to my youngest last night and he said he thought I would sound happier in my posts after Biden was elected President. I thought I would sound happier too, but almost immediately after the President and the First Lady moved into the White House (still don’t like that name), stupid shit started happening. And I have to say that its depressing and scary and its the dead of winter. I am not allowed to walk outside when there’s ice on the sidewalks, roads and trails because my wrist surgeon assured me that if I fell on my right wrist, he would not be able to put it back together again. So, of course, I listen to him. The confirmed case numbers in the US are slowly dropping and daily deaths have slowed also. It seems January was our worst month of all. Yesterday Governor Whitmer posted that Michigan had vaccinated its 1M person. Which is good but her aim is to vaccinate 50,000 people a day as soon as possible. Just a side note here: Trump’s administration seems to have mislaid 20M doses of the vaccine, and try as they might, the Biden Administration can’t seem to find them. Why? You ask. Because the Trump administration had no plan, remember? No plan for anything, except making America great again (he was going to hold his breath and wish hard) and then when that didn’t work, Plan B: staging a coup. �This morning, in spite of my best intentions to not drown in dreadful video feeds, Craig and I watched Congresswoman Katie Porter being interviewed about January 6 and how Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez suddenly ran in to hide in her office. Porter said: what are you looking for? as Ocasio-Cortez ran around her office looking in closets and cupboards. She replied: I’m looking for somewhere to hide. Ocasio-Cortez eventually hid behind the door in Porter’s bathroom and listened to the mob screaming “where is she?” It is unbelievable that the evidence is showing that elected Republicans are trying to either: a) sweep this under the rug, b) deny it really happened, c) cover up their aiding and abetting, d) insist that the election was stolen from Trump, although it didn’t seem to be stolen from them, e) carry on as if they still hold the balance of power.... I could go on (and on and on). Trump now has 2 of the most despicable lawyers to run defense for his Impeachment Trial (look them up), and apparently they’ve convinced him that his defense that he was cheated out of the election is not the best ploy and so perhaps an argument that an Impeachmeant Trial after the Impeached President has ended his term is unconstitutional. From NPR: This is from a Congressional Research Service legal briefing on Jan. 15, two days after Trump's impeachment and in anticipation of the likelihood that the Senate would take up an impeachment trial after Trump's term was up: “Though the text [of the Constitution] is open to debate, it appears that most scholars who have closely examined the question have concluded that Congress has authority to extend the impeachment process to officials who are no longer in office." So they’re not arguing that he didn’t incite violence, they’re arguing that he can’t be convicted because he’s no longer in office. We’ll see. In other developments, there is a movement to discipline Majorie Taylor-Greene for her egregious behavior and at the very least, remove her from all committees. At the same time, The Women’s March is urging women all over the US to write to Ted Cruz’s major funders and ask them to remove their financial support due to his unconstitutional behavior. �And all the time, President Biden keeps working, working, working. For many contentious issues he is using his Executive Powers. This is probably not the best way of governing, but it is what is left to him by the autocratic Republicans. In other extraordinary news: Republican Representative Peter Meijer is �holding his first virtual town hall on Wednesday this week, and all constituents can attend. Wait, what? Isn’t that what elected Democrats do? Well that seems reasonable, Peter. Vaccines. From NPR: For nearly an hour Saturday, about 50 vaccination opponents and right-wing supporters of former President Donald Trump delayed COVID-19 vaccinations when they protested at the entrance to Dodger Stadium, the site of a mass vaccination campaign. Holding signs that said things such as "COVID=Scam," "Don't be a lab rat" and "Tell Bill Gates to go vaccinate himself," the protesters caused the Los Angeles Fire Department to close the stadium entrance as a precaution. People in hundreds of cars, waiting in line for hours, had to wait even longer. The site was shut down around 2 p.m. Saturday as several Los Angeles Police Department officers arrived at the scene. No arrests were made, and by 3 p.m., the site was reopened. "We will not be deterred or threatened," California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Twitter. So we have stepped off reality into an unknown space. Every day I report these things and every day my brain does a little wiggle and if I was a robot it would say: does not compute. I understand if you don’t believe in the virus or the vaccine, I’m okay with that. Be it on your own head. But why do you have to demonstrate at a vaccination center and close it down? Here’s my real question: what’s in it for you? What do you gain if you stop other people from being vaccinated? What am I missing? Yesterday I received an email from my friend Merrilyn, who you remember lives in Perth, Western Australia. Here’s what she said: Well, at last the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic has reached Perth again. It’s 10 months since we were in lockdown and thanks to a young 20-something security guard at one of the quarantine hotels who has the British strain of the virus, the whole of the Perth Metropolitan area has been forced into a 5-day lockdown. That’s 2 million people. That’s how our WA Premier reacts to the alarm. We have a wonderful WAsafe App on our phones which we have to use wherever we go these days and thanks to that the authorities have been able to trace this young man’s movements and those of his 3 flatmates whilst he and they were out and about before being diagnosed. During this lockdown everyone has to wear masks – something that’s also new to WA residents. One fellow in a nearby suburb was walking the streets yesterday without a mask and was stopped by police who offered him a mask which he refused. He also refused to give his name and was arrested immediately, no bail was allowed and he will be in prison for 17 days until his hearing. Meanwhile there is a huge bushfire raging out of control in the suburbs north of us. We have experienced temperatures in the high 30s (high 90F) for the last few days with another 37 predicted for today. We are not in danger from this particular bushfire as the winds are in our favour at the moment, but as you know, �fires are unpredictable. We do have a bushfire plan and I have a bag packed should we have to evacuate. It does make life a little edgy at this moment. Imagine a non masker being arrested an jailed without bail for 17 days before their trial. That makes you think, doesn’t it? Its Oliver time. You can see how he brightens up my day. I’ll leave you to imagine what he’s thinking. The next day we sailed on to Taormina. Taormina is a hilltop town on the east coast of Sicily. It sits near Mount Etna, an active volcano with trails leading to the summit. The town is known for the Teatro Antico di Taormina, an ancient Greco-Roman theater still used today. Near the theater, cliffs drop to the sea forming coves with sandy beaches. A narrow stretch of sand connects to Isola Bella, a tiny island and nature reserve. ― Google �Mt Etna, from the ship �Looking down from the town to the bay with our ship in the distance �The town square and the �church �Taormina is a famed shopping stop. The Roman amphitheater �Looking along the coast through the amphitheater �entrance �Inside a nearby church Someone important’s house �A religious festival which used flower buds. I’m going to leave you with this today because it expresses my feelings exactly. F word included. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-02_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-328 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-02 Title A name given to the resource Day 328 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cdba6cf9ae80b95fa6dc1bbfbb03ca87.pdf 91e9bb6ec4cec212f94c9049c0a993d2 PDF Text Text Day 327 by windoworks Yesterday I posted a photo of a completed 1000 piece Charles Wysocki jigsaw puzzle. So far, during this pandemic, I have ordered about 7 puzzles through Amazon. In the beginning, they were too expensive online and instead I ordered and paid for 2 puzzles from Barnes & Noble at a nearby mall. The store was on the second floor of the mall, but my instructions were to pull up in the car at the main mall entrance, call the store and then wait. A couple of minutes later, a young woman came down the fire escape stairs with my puzzles in a bag. I was most impressed by the store’s curbside pickup. It is the first day of February and restaurants in Michigan are allowed to open for in-house dining but under restrictive conditions. Many restaurants are not going to bother as the conditions are just too hard to enforce. The biggest problem is not only policing the customers and constantly sanitizing, its also the chance that one of the staff members will contract Covid and then infect the whole establishment and perhaps some customers before anyone feels ill. Craig and I are still not interested in eating out or buying take out. The emergence of 3 new virus variants is disturbing. How do these variants occur? Where do they come from? This article from the LA Times may have the answer: Among the sickest of COVID-19 patients, this population of “long haulers” appears to play a key role in incubating new variants of the coronavirus, some of which could change the trajectory of the pandemic. The mutations that arose from one single patient are “a microcosm of the viral evolution we’re seeing globally,” said Dr. Jonathan Z. Li, an infectious-disease specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who treated him. “He showed us what could happen” when a germ with a knack for genetic shapeshifting stumbles upon conditions that reward it for doing so. Indeed, situations in which patients can’t clear a viral infection are “the worst possible scenario for developing mutations,” said Dr. Bruce Walker, an immunologist and founding director of the Ragon Institute in Boston. As weeks of illness turn into months, a virus copies itself millions of times. Each copy is an opportunity to make random mistakes. As it spins off new mutations, the virus may happen upon ones that help it resist medications, evade the immune system and come back stronger. SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, has been an unpredictable adversary. The chance to witness its transformation in near-real time, and see where and how it mutates in a single host, can guide the design of vaccines and medications that don’t lose their effectiveness over time, Walker said. In the first wave, he said, the proliferation of infections gives the virus ample opportunity to take on genetic changes that may live on in bodies of immunocompromised patients. By the time a second wave begins, novel variants that were incubating in these long-haulers have also begun to circulate. When they encounter vast numbers of new hosts, the result is a fertile environment for strains to establish themselves �— if their genetic modifications confer some advantage. The best way to prevent the emergence of more mutations is to both expand vaccinations and do more to protect people with compromised immune systems, De Oliveira said. “If we keep the virus around for a long time, we will be giving it more opportunities to outsmart us,” he said. There are now 5 vaccines in circulation around the world and they are all effective. In one article I read a question: should I take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine tomorrow or wait 2-3 weeks for a dose of Moderna or Pfizer? The unequivocal answer was: take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine now. Here a small excerpt which speaks to this: New York Times Here’s the key fact: All five vaccines with public results have eliminated Covid-19 deaths. They have also drastically reduced hospitalizations. “They’re all good trial results,” Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told me. “It’s great news.” Many people are instead focusing on relatively minor differences among the vaccine results and wrongly assuming that those differences mean that some vaccines won’t prevent serious illnesses. It’s still too early to be sure, because a few of the vaccine makers have released only a small amount of data. But the available data is very encouraging — including about the vaccines’ effect on the virus’s variants. Well thats very encouraging. We are still 1 more worrying week out from our first vaccine shot. I now automatically delay things like a much needed haircut until after at least the first shot. �I suspect that most sitting Republicans are hoping that the Impeachment Trial and the reason for it, the January 6 attempted coup, would just simply fade into the background. Unfortunately for them, the investigations and the published results of those ongoing investigations are keeping this at the forefront. Washington Post When die-hard supporters of President Donald Trump showed up at rally point “Cowboy” in Louisville on the morning of Jan. 5, they found the shopping mall’s parking lot was closed to cars, so they assembled their 50 or so vehicles outside a nearby Kohl’s department store. Hundreds of miles away in Columbia, S.C., at a mall designated rally point “Rebel,” other Trump supporters gathered to form another caravan to Washington. A similar meetup — dubbed “Minuteman” — was planned for Springfield, Mass. That same day, FBI personnel in Norfolk were increasingly alarmed by the online conversations they were seeing, including warlike talk around the convoys headed to the nation’s capital. One map posted online described the rally points, declaring them a “MAGA Cavalry To Connect Patriot Caravans to StopTheSteal in D.C.” Another map showed the U.S. Congress, indicating tunnels connecting different parts of the complex. The map was headlined, “CREATE PERIMETER,” according to the FBI report, which was reviewed by The Washington Post. “Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in,” read one posting, according to the report. FBI agents around the country are working to unravel the various motives, relationships, goals and actions of the hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Some inside the bureau have described the Capitol riot investigation as their biggest case since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and a top �priority of the agents’ work is to determine the extent to which that violence and chaos was preplanned and coordinated. Investigators caution there is an important legal distinction between gathering likeminded people for a political rally — which is protected by the First Amendment — and organizing an armed assault on the seat of American government. The task now is to distinguish which people belong in each category, and who played key roles in committing or coordinating the violence. Video and court filings, for instance, describe how several groups of men that include alleged members of the Proud Boys appear to engage in concerted action, converging on the West Front of the Capitol just before 1 p.m., near the Peace Monument at First Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Different factions of the crowd appear to coalesce, move forward and chant under the direction of different leaders before charging at startled police staffing a pedestrian gate, all in the matter of a few minutes. The FBI is also trying to determine how many people went to Washington seeking to engage in violence, even if they weren’t part of any formal organization. Some of those in the Louisville caravan said they were animated by the belief that the election was stolen, according to interviews they gave to the Louisville CourierJournal.One of the comments cited in the FBI memo declared Trump supporters should go to Washington and get “violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die.” Some had been preparing for conflict for weeks. In conversations later that month, Watkins allegedly spoke in apocalyptic terms about the prospect of Joe Biden’s being sworn in as president on Jan. 20. “`If he is, our way of life as we know it is over. Our Republic would be over. Then it is our duty as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights. . . . If Biden get the steal, none of us have a chance in my mind. We already have our neck in the noose. They just haven’t kicked the chair yet.” “Historically, within the right-wing extremist movements, leadership has produced rhetoric to spin up their members, increase radicalization and recruitment, and then stand back and let small cells or individual lone offenders follow through on that rhetoric with violent action,” said Thomas O’Connor, a former FBI agent who spent decades investigating domestic terrorists. “Domestic terrorism actually developed the leaderless resistance concept, taking the potential blame away from the leadership and putting it down into small groups or individuals, and I think that is what you’re starting to see here.” Two main players who allowed themselves to be photographed maskless which then allowed easier identification, were arrested and indicted in federal court: NPR: Two members of the far-right group the Proud Boys were indicted in federal court Friday for their participation in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Charges included obstructing an official proceeding and assaulting officers. Forty-three year-old Dominic Pezzola of Rochester, N.Y., and 31-year-old William Pepe of Beacon, N.Y., were both originally charged by criminal complaint and were arrested in mid-January, a Department of Justice statement said. Both men were indicted in Washington, D.C., on Friday on federal charges of conspiracy, civil disorder, unlawfully entering restricted buildings or grounds, and disorderly and �disruptive conduct in restricted buildings or grounds. Pezzola faces additional charges of obstruction of an official proceeding; auxiliary counts of civil disorder, and aiding and abetting civil disorder; robbery of personal property of the United States; assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; destruction of government property; and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds. Wow! Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it? There is video footage of the crowd inside the Capitol Building, crammed shoulder to shoulder, maskless, shouting “Hang Mike Pence”. I watch that video and others and I can’t believe we’ve come to this - but we have. You would think that sitting Republicans would stand up and support their Oath and begin to work across the aisle to find compromises that both Democrats and Republicans can live with. There is a tiny indication of that with 10 Republicans presenting an alternative stimulus bill to President Biden’s bill. Hopefully this will at least open honest discussions which will conclude with a stimulus bill that is not perfect to either side but is one that they can both live with. Because that’s how governments, boards and committees work - no one should ever get their way perfectly, that would be a dictatorship or an authoritarian system. Its always all about compromise. Oliver has 2 of his bottom molars! Teething is such hard work. �This quiche stuff is yummy. �Yes! The flashback is back - but I’ve almost forgotten where we were. Oh, thats right - Amalfi. The umbrellas on the beach ���Back to the ship by tender �In the evening a soprano came on board to sing for us �Look to the right of the ‘A’ and you can see one of the fireworks that was part of the fireworks display that we stayed anchored to watch. �Goodbye Amalfi. It was fun! See you tomorrow - Groundhog Day. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-02-01_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-327 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-02-01 Title A name given to the resource Day 327 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/97cf89135ffd7be7f1f764eaf7a6d1df.pdf c364ded8d12e1efabe0299e86c0f62e7 PDF Text Text Day 326 by windoworks It is a dark and snowy morning on this last day of January. Every day I read the news and opinion pieces and I decide what to copy for possible inclusion in the day’s post and what to ignore. One of the biggest stories at the moment is the apparent disintegration of the Republican Party. I keep seeing this party referred to as the GOP which was puzzling because none of those 3 initials say Republican. Wild guess: Group of Putzes? Guess our Purpose? No? What it stands for - and this is surprising in this day and age - is Grand Old Party. Hmmm. That reminds me of something our realtor said last week. The term master bedroom is no longer acceptable. Why? Because it smacks of slavery. Ohhh. I see you all nodding. The correct term is main bedroom. I think the Republican Party needs to consider their widely used nickname. But they do have bigger problems. Here’s Crooked Media’s excellent summary: Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) said Friday that she will move to a new office further away from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-WTF) for her team’s safety, after a maskless Greene “berated” her in the halls of the Capitol, and targeted her on social media. Capping off a week of harrowing revelations about how Greene is, against all odds, worse than we thought, a newly surfaced pre-election video shows her wholeheartedly endorsing political violence: “The only way you get your freedoms back is it’s earned with the price of blood.” Wherever Cori Bush’s new office is, let’s maybe scoot it down 100 yards further? Here’s where everyone stands on the rapidly deteriorating Greene situation: The same week we learned that Greene had spread conspiracy theories about school shootings and bullied a Parkland survivor, Republican leaders put her on the education committee, then took a reaaally big bite of a sandwich, so they can’t comment right now. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lambasted them for it, and noted that Congress would need to adopt heightened security measures to address the reality that “the enemy is within the House of Representatives.” The parents of children killed in school shootings have called for Greene’s removal from Congress, and a major Jewish nonprofit group has demanded accountability. Republicans’ refusal to condemn the antisemitic, teen-harassing, violence-espousing conspiracy theorist in their midst reflects the fact that Greene isn’t some outlier in the Republican Party, but its godawful new face. She’s not even the lone GOP House member with extremist ties: Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has hung out with the Oath Keepers militia (whose members later attacked the Capitol), and told the group, “We’re in [a civil war]. We just haven’t started shooting at each other yet.” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) was linked to the “Stop the Steal” campaign, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has close connections to a number of selfstyled militia groups, and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) appeared at an event attended by the Proud Boys (who were there to provide security, Gaetz stressed, as if that….helps). �You know the Impeachment Trial begins in the Senate on February 9. This delay was to give Trump time to assemble a team of lawyers. And he did - 5 well thought of lawyers. But, as of yesterday, all 5, I repeat, all 5 lawyers have removed themselves. They left because Trump insisted that his only defense be, that the election was rigged and he is still the President. Now I don’t want to feel sad for Trump, such a despicable person who has cost America such a steep price in lives lost, but I do begin to wonder. Did America (not Craig or I) elect a delusional man to the White House 4 years ago? In all these terrible 4 years, did the President lead the country down a rabbit hole of his own firmly held erroneous beliefs? Does he actually believe there was some sort of hidden voter fraud in the recent election? In some ways, that is sad and he really needs proper help - the heavily medicated, locked in a safe facility type. As Shakespeare said: truth will out. Here’s an amazing piece from the Guardian (I cannot speak to the validity but it sounds plausible). Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years and proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow, a former KGB spy has told the Guardian. Yuri Shvets, posted to Washington by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, compares the former US president to “the Cambridge five”, the British spy ring that passed secrets to Moscow during the second world war and early cold war. Now 67, Shvets is a key source for American Kompromat, a new book by journalist Craig Unger. Unger describes how Trump first appeared on the Russians’ radar in 1977 when he married his first wife, Ivana Zelnickova, a Czech model. Trump became the target of a spying operation overseen by Czechoslovakia’s intelligence service in cooperation with the KGB. Then, in 1987, Trump and Ivana visited Moscow and St Petersburg for the first time. Shvets said Trump was fed KGB talking points and flattered by KGB operatives who floated the idea that he should go into politics. The ex-major recalled: “For the KGB, it was a charm offensive. They had collected a lot of information on his personality so they knew who he was personally. The feeling was that he was extremely vulnerable intellectually, and psychologically, and he was prone to flattery. “This is what they exploited. They played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality and believed this is the guy who should be the president of the United States one day: it is people like him who could change the world. They fed him these so-called active measures soundbites and it happened. So it was a big achievement for the KGB active measures at the time.” Trump was the perfect target in a lot of ways: his vanity, narcissism made him a natural target to recruit. He was cultivated over a 40-year period, right up through his election.” Is that a bombshell, or were we already wondering? February 9 in the Senate should bevery interesting. So, the virus. What is the latest, I hear you ask. From Washington Post: �The road to herd immunity from the coronavirus suddenly looks longer. The emergence of more transmissible, potentially vaccine-evading variants threatens to extend the global health disaster and make 2021 feel too much like 2020. A complicated mix of good news and bad news makes any forecast for the coming months fuzzy. But scientists have one clear and sobering message: The pandemic is a long way from over. The mutation-laden variants are on the move, and that includes one first identified in South Africa and confirmed in a Baltimore-area adult, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said Saturday. It was the third known case in the United States of the variant, following two cases announced Thursday in South Carolina. The person in Maryland had no travel history, which is evidence of community transmission. Research findings published in recent days have shown that vaccines will still likely work against mutated variants of the coronavirus. But they may not work as well, as the slippery virus continues to adapt to its new host, the human species. Scientists are ramping up genomic surveillance of the virus and vaccine makers are retooling their formulas in an attempt to keep pace with this morphing pathogen. “We’re very worried,” said Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. “All it’s going to take is a couple more mutations on top of that, and you’re really going to have to start worrying.” There is also the issue of reinfection. Collins said Friday that he is troubled by information from the biotech company Novavax, maker of a vaccine that proved effective in clinical trials, that the new variant circulating widely in South Africa showed signs of eluding natural immunity among volunteers who had previously survived an infection with the more common coronavirus strain. The Novavax vaccine was strikingly less effective against that variant, called B.1.351, than against other strains. “That is something I had not seen before,” Collins said of the reinfection claim. “It is very tentative, and the numbers are not huge, but I would be alarmed if natural infection . . . is not sufficient to provide immunity.” So, I was going to include something about GameStop but honestly, it was so confusing, I gave up reading the article. Instead here’s what’s happening at our house. Over the last couple of days Craig has put a large amount of stuff out at the top of our driveway as “free”. It all disappeared, with the exception of some old magazines. He has also moved the 30 heavy, packed boxes down to the basement and we have depersonalized the house - a task that took much longer than you would think. Can I just say I am never doing this again? If there is a next time, I’ll pay someone. And remember how Craig said: lets not end up living like monks for 5 months? Too late. Our house now looks either a photo shoot for House & Garden or - sparse, uncluttered, perhaps minimalist. In other exciting news - our failing boiler (furnace) will be replaced in a week or so, but, that means we may be entirely without heat for a night. We’re already working out survival strategies. Oliver. Yesterday he was still feeling a little crabby and under the weather. But he is a trooper. He always tries to smile. �Well nearly always �In the park with Dad. Okay, that’s it for today. Stay safe. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2021-01-31_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-326 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-01-31 Title A name given to the resource Day 326 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/eaf285fef8bbaaa63efe8e2f5de2cc8e.mp4 f65a858fd0951d1719f16ccf0f662757 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7f3e58bdae16743c8c0999882c013395.pdf 81d5000bf6060fa85b01d69f5c221445 PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Adrian Tinsley Date: 1984 Part: 8 of 8 [Barbara] The question is: what is the quality of the education that we were giving students? [Tinsley] Okay, ready for me to go on that? [Barbara] Yep, anytime. [Tinsley] Okay. The issue of quality was a real one during the life of the college. I think looking back, I would have to say that the quality of what we did was variable. For the good students, what we gave them was breathtakingly good, I think. We gave them access to superb faculty. We gave them access to sort of a panoply of resources that they would not have gotten in a conventional undergraduate education. The students that were less good could skate and that was a problem – and I think we did have some students skate. It seems to me that the issue of quality was very tied into the real ethos in the college on individual energy and individual rights. I think the college always leaned towards wanting the individual to express himself or herself. It was difficult in the college to get a clear sense of institutional norms; at least, those norms could not be imposed easily by administrators. They needed to develop in kind of a more organic fashion and I think that was a problem sometimes. For example, in terms of our beliefs about appropriate curriculum, appropriate grading standards, and the like. As the years went on, I think we had a lot more homogeneity about those things. But part of what I did as Dean was endlessly negotiate with faculty. There was no sense that I had any divine right to set standards or, indeed, to set policy. It was a matter of endless negotiation in a milieu where, as I said earlier, the ethos was on the individual's right rather than the institution’s necessity. Looking back, I guess, as Dean of the College, if there is an area where I should have paid more attention, it is… no, let me stop that and you come back to this, okay. [Barbara] Let me change the shot, then you can do it. That's fine. [Tinsley] As the college matured, we began to get a curriculum we were pretty comfortable with. I think there were still, probably, some issues around supervision of internships and independent studies. There were still some course titles that remained as symbolic battles between the faculty and the administration. I think in another two, three, four years we would probably have been on a cycle of �independent curricular reviews with outside consultants. In the end, in terms of the curriculum itself, I felt very good about it. I felt it was a strong curriculum. In terms of the standards of the college, in terms of what happened to individual students, I think we probably always let students skate a bit too much. I think we paid for that very heavily. [Barbara] Say that last sentence again because I screwed up. So just the last sentence: "In the end..." is a good time to start. [Tinsley] In the end… about the curriculum? [Barbara] No, just in the end about individual students. [Tinsley] In the end, I think we always erred a bit on the side of putting out a hand to individual students to help them through. And sometimes, in some places in the college, we did that too much; we weren't tough enough. We paid for that, I think, very, very heavily. That's something I won't do again; it was too costly for the college. [Barbara] Finito? [Tinsley] Finito. [Barbara] Good. [Tinsley] I guess the last thing I'd like to say about the college – after having done some thinking about it in connection with this taping – seems to me that most of us, or all of us, brought to the college a desire that our work have real meaning; that our work bring meaning into our lives; that our work perhaps be the significant source of meaning in our lives. We wanted a kind of a texture in our work; a kind of depth in our work. Clearly not some kind of situation where we did our work and did home in our real lives outside of work. Our real lives – our most important lives – were in our work in the college. Sometimes this provided some stress and strain. We made demands that our work give meaning that I think aren't very unusual in American work life. And I think for most of us, the experience of having the college no longer present is that it's forced us to say: "In whatever work life I'm in now, how can I make it have that kind of meaning for me?" That's certainly true for me. One of the things that is very interesting to me as I look at what the faculty are doing now – and because of my position, I knew the faculty better than I knew most students – it seems to me that there's almost a little explosion of good work going on: research, writing, work products coming out of people that were on the William James faculty or interesting jobs. Almost as if some of our energy that was being used to make the college work is going right into creative work products. And I see that as coming out of this desire to find �meaning in one's work that I think is so important and that I think was really critical to us at the college. Sorry I trailed off on that. [Barbara] [Laughter] I'm tempted, I won't do it, I'm tempted… � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_33_Tinsley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tinsley, Adrian Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Adrian Tinsley interview (8 of 8, video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Adrian Tinsley by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Adrian Tinsley was Dean of William James College from 1972 until 1980. In this interview, Adrian discusses the quality of education at William James College and how the experience brought meaning to the lives of those involved. This interview is part 8 of 8 for Adrian Tinsley. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education College administrators Women college administrators Women in higher education Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4082a53062701be1ef0f139a40d64be7.mp4 6bf51067c429ce5698da83268a6142b9 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2126441a7c7ddbae8e0ccd5ab59d2336.pdf 3bf07d5bad3b1264044f6441d7f2d581 PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Adrian Tinsley Date: 1984 Part: 7 of 8 [Barbara] Oh, I always ask you to do it when the cameras are warming up. [Tinsley] Alright. Okay, let’s see a piece of white paper in front of my… [Barbara] Okay, it’s all wound up. It's not in really great shape, truth be told. I kept it, though, for some reason… must have something I'm supposed to do. [Tinsley] Yeah, you’re supposed to tell them how to allocate your TIAA and your CREF. [Barbara] Oh yes, I think I'll just let it set. Thank you. I didn't really plan on that saving me anyway. Alright, we are almost good. Best thing about your experience at James? Is that a meaningful question? [Tinsley] Oh, I think it is. It's like a psych quiz question, but, yeah, the best thing about it is that it had meaning – it really had meaning – and it was important. You felt like you were using your life for something useful. I've always liked Marge Piercy's poem "To Be of Use." And you felt like, at James, you weren't just treading water, you were doing something very, very useful. And that was the best thing about it. And you were also doing it in the company of like-minded people who were friends, and intimates, and you really had a family that you were doing it with. So, I think those two things were the best. We weren't the only institution that was doing this; there were other colleges like us. FIPSE, the grantmaking agency in Washington, was very much like us. A lot of little enclaves of people doing this kind of work and it seemed real and important. [Barbara] If you… [Tinsley] And it was! Sorry. [Barbara] I'm being a bad interviewer. I'm really listening to you. I am listening to you, but I was thinking of the next question. Which is: if you had to sum up the nature of William James College in just one sentence, what would it be? [Tinsley] Well, I actually frequently did have to sum up the nature of William James College in just one sentence for a variety of public relations and mission definition purposes. But I don't remember any of the sentences and I'm sure �none of them were very real. William James was a place where people talked about real things and did real work, and really loved each other. [Barbara] No two people have said anything resembling the same thing. They just go with the strength of the college and its weakness. And no one has said “synoptic” either. [Laughter] [Barbara] Okay, there is one question around in my head and it’s something that I wrote down in the beginning. It has to do with power, and you sort of talked about it when you talked about CAS and all that sort of stuff. Couldn't have we been more political? Even though we were small, dammit, some small things survive because they are so political, because they do their own PR so as well. Do you have any feelings about that? [Tinsley] Well, let me think about it. I am myself a structuralist, and I believe the structure of Grand Valley – not the structure of William James – worked against us. In the back of my head is the nagging thought: "Suppose we really had been more like them?" Because I don't think you can fudge that, because you can't go around pretending to be like somebody when you're really not. Suppose we're really more like them, and our values, and what we want to do, but our values were sort of more like theirs, would it have helped? My honest answer is no, it probably wouldn't have. Because, structurally, we just had a very difficult situation to deal with. But that's from my perspective. I sure did everything I could. And so, you know, maybe it's in my interest to not be able to think of anything else that could have happened. [Barbara] Richard talks about a siege mentality being very useful to us, energizing us. To go out more would have destroyed some of the energy that helped us work as well together as we did. [Tinsley] Yeah, I don't think going out more on the Grand Valley campus would've helped us a lot. I really don't. Because it would've been that painful work of trying to make friends with CAS. And they didn't really want… it takes two to make friends, it really does. If we would've been able to get outside into the local community even more than we did – and we did a lot – that might have helped. [Barbara] Do you want to do it again, quickly, the story about… the story happened because you were talking about how we could not… how this could not work, how we were at a disadvantage. One example was losing computers, and you made that bit by the anecdote of the day we lost computers. And if you want to retell it using euphemisms, fine by me. [Laughter] [Tinsley] [Laughter] I don't think so, the point of the story comes from the cast of �characters. But I will trust you not to use it on the tape. [Barbara] What about first part, when you talk about them being from Holland? Is that okay? [Tinsley] I think. [Barbara] I think so, too. [Tinsley] I think it’s okay. [Barbara] Is there anything to say here? [Inaudible] [Tinsley] Oh golly, well there probably is, but I can't think of it at moment. [Barbara] It’s tiring at this point. [Tinsley] It is, it is tiring. No, I mean I would like to talk on about it for another ten hours, but I don't have anything in particular at the moment. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_32_Tinsley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tinsley, Adrian Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Adrian Tinsley interview (7 of 8, video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Adrian Tinsley by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Adrian Tinsley was Dean of William James College from 1972 until 1980. In this interview, Adrian discusses the highlights of her experience at William James College and the overall nature of the college consisting of community and conversation. This interview is part 7 of 8 for Adrian Tinsley. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education College administrators Women college administrators Women in higher education Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bb6b0043b473fdc2973378dc4ed2ac99.mp4 5f271fddab80448de0ebc486388ae64a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a00bd1f1e28160b998aaa9f5aeb65626.pdf d016e24b77f01d78e6d14cf11831bdeb PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Adrian Tinsley Date: 1984 Part: 6 of 8 [Barbara] Come on, camera! There you go. Nope, not yet. Sorry. I’m still getting in there, so I don’t have your finger [in the shot] and you have an incorrect white balance. Hey, you didn’t do it! There it goes. Alright. We’re actually rolling. We can go any time. [Tinsley] Okay. [Barbara] We were talking about the legacy of the college as a partially conservative... [Tinsley] Okay. The legacy of the college… that's a really broad question. And I guess what I'd say about that is that we were very early strugglers with some things that now need to be struggled with less and are just a very normal part of the college scene. The whole issue of professional programs, for example, we struggled hard over that, both intellectually and personally within our college community. And we were dealing with professional programs, I think, long before they became such a very important feature of collegiate life. Nowadays it's a very rare student who majors in anything other than a professional program. I think we struggled with some issues around how you do liberal education in a professional program context. I think we came to some really good solutions to that issue. And that, you know, probably that hasn't filtered out as much into the larger community as I wish it would. I think there are a lot of articles to be written there, if everybody's looking for articles to write about the college. Because ninety percent of the students who go to college major in professional programs now. So, I think that's important. I think, for students, a lot of the things that we wanted to do for students and with students exist in very mainstream colleges. You know, all the way from independent study, to at least some credit no credit grading, to certainly internships, to stress on projects related to community needs. A lot of stuff that was very innovative when we did it is not particularly innovative now and is pretty much an accepted thing now. So, I think we were sort of the first wave of a lot of new stuff that was coming into higher education. That kind of legacy certainly remains; what doesn't remain is a space, you know, a local habitation in the name; a place where you can go to get something. I'm not sure I how want to put this. Where you can go, where you don't have to worry about what the meaning… I'm literally going to take this answer again. Let me think about it a second. I've talked to some of the William James faculty the last year or so, talked to Richard, to Margaret Proctor, to Barry. Barry, I think it was, �has talked in an interesting way about what it means that the William James faculty are mainstreamed now and they're part of the ordinary units at Grand Valley. And they haven't just disappeared into those units. I mean, they have begun, maybe this is grandiose, but they have begun a little bit to transform the settings that they're in. I know, you know, some of the William James faculty are doing that in the places where they are at Grand Valley. And what Barry said about that was: "Well, you know, as long as we had each other to talk to you, we didn't really have to talk to the other faculty." And we didn't very much. But the place was poorer because we didn't. And that's right. So, there is some sense in which I think Grand Valley as a whole is enriched by having William James faculty in the mainstream. It's the same argument you might have if you were talking about women's studies, you know. [Tinsley] To what extent do you want to have a special place that women can go and totally deal with their own issues and one another, and deal with women's courses? And to what extent do you want to say every course in the university should contain topics of particular relevance to women and should address its subject matter from the perspective of the new scholarship on women. What's missing is that there is no place you can go to now where you go there, and you know that all the people there share your values, and care about the same kinds of things that you care about, and want to… [Barbara] Okay, [inaudible] we'll use the rest but [inaudible]. Okay? [Tinsley] Okay. No place you can really go where you know that everybody shares your values and cares about what you care about. And I think having that space is really important to our students and to our faculty. [Barbara] Why? [Tinsley] One answer is because it was there, and it was safe, and we didn't have to create it every day. You had it. It gave you some identity. You didn't have to always be creating it at all the time. It was a place where you could go, and it gave you some identity because you shape it and it shapes you. [Barbara] But Barry said, in his interview, that… you know, he very much believes in this notion of moving out into the mainstream, and that its working, and that in his classes that he is still teaching in a Jamesian way. But he said: "Of course, I don't know how long it's going to last. I don't know how long my energy can last since it's not being infused anymore." [Tinsley] Yeah. [Barbara] Because that's what the places does. �[Tinsley] Yeah. If you concentrate the energy there and concentrate the people there, you can go deeper, and you can replenish it. And that's what's missing because the space isn't there. And I suppose all of us are looking to find some other similar kinds of space out in our lives. [Barbara] Including the students? [Tinsley] Yeah. [Barbara] Would you put this in personal terms now. What does it mean to personally spend the eight years you did, working very hard? [Tinsley] Well, I suppose… let me say what it meant to me professionally really first, rather than talking first about what it meant personally. I went from William James to the state… stop. Let me think about this another minute. I don't want to, you know, falsely romanticize the period at William James; although, I personally do believe it was a kind of Camelot. I do know that when I did go back and do administrative work, I felt very strongly that I wasn't ready to go back to another campus. I couldn't give my heart to another campus in the same way. And so, I took a job in the central office of the state university system. And two things seem important to me that I want to say. In Minnesota, I've been in a very mainstream administrative situation. I work with seven separate state universities, with their vice presidents, with their presidents, with strategic planning, with academic policy. The people in that system are very good. They are very competent, professionally. Minnesota, I would guess, is one of the very advanced states in the union, in terms of not only its support for higher education, but the professionalism with which their system is managed. And what I've learned is that, although I work with an incredibly competent professional people, professional values are not enough. The change for me was growing from a place where, I mean heaven knows we did want to be competent, but there was a real value beyond competence. There was a reason you wanted to be competent. There was a reason you were doing what you were doing. So, by the contrast that existed at William James, simply, the value of professional competence is not enough. It doesn't keep you warm at night. It's too thin. I'm on my way to go to Glassboro State College in New Jersey and I 'm now ready to be back on the campus, and I am just really excited about going back to campus, and, you know, and having a substantial leadership and management role on a new campus now. But here's what I asked myself: I say, at William James, everybody knew the meaning of what they were doing, so you could stand up and so recite the litany, or you could have an external person to come in and recite the litany and say this is what's important about what we're doing, this is why it's important to work this hard, and this is why we're not cynical. Because here's why we're doing what we're doing, and we really care about it. I go to �Glassboro and I say, you know, what does the vice president do? The vice president has got to find that thing that the institution is doing that's important and put that in the public space and say: "This is what we're doing, and this is important, and it's important that we're doing it and we're doing it well." And I don't find it really easy to look at a Glassboro or at the state colleges in Minnesota and say: "Here's what I can say about that. Here's why it's important in the mid nineteen-eighties to be doing this." And I think that's a problem that we are dealing with in higher education. It's hard to talk about why we're doing what we're doing and why it's so important. And it's hard to get that into the public space. [Tinsley] I remember when the colleges were about to be dissolved, and Robert said: "The problem is that it's not that I don't want to work in CAS, I mean all those people are fine, but I've got to have something I can believe in. I just can't work with people who are cynical or who are apathetic." And so, what I'm saying is there was no cynicism, or very little, or little apathy at William James. And how do you find in a mainstream institution… how do you find, sort of, what you hang your hat on for the meaning of it. And I think that's the question that we answered at William James. And that's the question I want to try to answer now at a more mainstream institution. I don't think finding that answers is going to be just real, real easy. [Barbara] This is going off from that answer what we thought was important in James and the reason that we would be energizing and uniting the kind of notions that we had. Were they specific to the time? Are they not specific now? Why can't you just take those notions to your new job? [Tinsley] No, they're not; they are specific to the time and let me talk a little bit about that because I have thought a lot about this and I really believe it. In the midseventies, the agenda of the society was access and new opportunities. And it was very important to open higher education up to women, and black people, and minorities of all kinds, and older students, and people that hadn't been to college before. And we put a lot of stress on that. And William James came out of that milieu and that was very important to us. That is not a value in nineteen eighty-five. In nineteen eighty-five, we talk about quality which is – depending on how you look at it – is either a positive or negative from my perspective. I think there is some genuinely good work being done under the rubric of upgrading quality, but there's also some genuinely reactionary stuff being done under that rubric. And the agenda for the institution is the economic development of its region, science, and technology. The issues that the institutions are dealing with are very different. In the mid-seventies, we had the federal government really pushing access, really putting money into social services. Now we have science, and math, and technology. I think there's no reason that we can't relate to this �new agenda. But we haven't really thought about what it means for the values we had in the seventies. So, I think the times are very, very different. And I think that's why it's hard to find the spine of the institution in the eighties. I mean that's what I learned from dealing with seven mainstream institutions in Minnesota and the state legislature. [Barbara] Because my experience… I'm blinking again. My experience… � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_31_Tinsley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tinsley, Adrian Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Adrian Tinsley interview (6 of 8, video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Adrian Tinsley by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Adrian Tinsley was Dean of William James College from 1972 until 1980. In this interview, Adrian discusses the legacy of William James College and the importance of having a community with shared values, in addition to the importance of keeping the William James philosophy alive. This interview is part 6 of 8 for Adrian Tinsley. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education College administrators Women college administrators Women in higher education Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/21006ae57ddf7f3e23506b884642356e.mp4 f37ac2cb1e5e843082adab1b0311588d https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7e428a4e09dbdc4c76a863dedfae8083.pdf 558a57f961c0488dfb7f959fe7009be4 PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Adrian Tinsley Date: 1984 Part: 5 of 8 [Barbara] It’s meant to warm up [the camera]. [Tinsley] Okay. [Barbara] Okay. We are balanced. [Tinsley] Okay. [Barbara] When you left… [Tinsley] When I left… [Barbara] Yeah. Did you think that we would…how long did you think we would survive? [Tinsley] When I left, I didn't think the college would not survive, but I thought it was problematic. And the reason I thought that is that the college was getting smaller. We were finding it more difficult to hold onto programs. I started thinking about leaving in seventy-nine, actually the end of seventy-eight, and left in the summer of nineteen eighty. And I left for two reasons. The compelling reason was I needed a rest. I needed to find out who I was when I wasn't being the Dean. If I could've gotten a year’s sabbatical, I probably would have stayed. And I discussed that with Glenn and while he was not opposed to a sabbatical, he felt that he couldn't spare the Dean for more than three months. And there was some reason to that. In any case, I decided I would simply move it on. Another thing in my thinking about that was that I did not see how Grand Valley could continue to put the kind of money into administrative salaries it was putting into to run the collegiate structure. I thought that the collegiate structure was getting marginal from a financial perspective. If you think about what it cost to have at William James, a Dean. We had – for most of our time – an Assistant Dean at least part time. We ran the Records Office – Hank Mei's operation. We put money, you know, modest amounts of money into Student Services – that was a lot of overhead. If you counted that up that was probably a hundred thousand dollars a year in the administration of William James College. We were smaller than many departments. I mean, we were twenty-two, twenty-four faculty. If I looked at Grand Valley – and you remember at Grand Valley at its peak was at six collegiate units and by the time it ended was at four – that’s a lot of salaries and �administrative overhead and that made me nervous. So, I thought that was problematic about the college's survival and I was just tired. I thought I needed to do something else. It's, you know, it was a long… I was Dean, what, eight years, I guess. And that's a number of years of working very hard and cheerleading so I needed a rest. When I left, I said to myself: "This is a window in the college’s history. Right at this moment, I perceive us as very secure, nothing is threatening us. It is time for me to leave and this is a good moment to leave," because I didn't want to close the college – that was last thing I wanted to do. And so that’s kind of why I decided to leave and when I decided to leave. [Tinsley] And at the time I decided to leave, I did not think we were in any danger, though I was well aware of what the administration of those collegiate units was costing. And I was also, by the way, well aware - and I haven't said this on this tape - you know, if you think about it, the Deans of the two alternative colleges were women. Women were pretty well represented at Grand Valley during the time I was there. But we were running the alternative colleges and I said, and I remember saying this, you know: "When we choose the next Dean, we have to choose someone who's more like them. We have to try to get this embedded in Grand Valley." So, I was not, you know, looking for another woman. I was hoping that the college would get someone who could maybe do a better job than I had of getting the college really embedded in the Grand Valley social structure. And those were my thoughts as I left. [Barbara] It occurs to me that it in your last answer, you said there were two levels of administration and you talked about Bruce Loessin. What kind of feedback did you get from the other level? [Tinsley] You mean from Glenn or from Don. [Barbara] I don't know. [Tinsley] Oh, the second… once we started reporting to Glenn, I talked about getting feedback about programs. Glenn certainly never said anything to me to suggest anything other than he supported William James and he was working very hard to understand William James. He found a lot of it incomprehensible, but I believe he did work to understand it. And I believe as long as he thought it was supportable, he worked to support it. That's not a very good answer. [Barbara] Okay, I understand. I was envisioning Lubbers. [Tinsley] Yeah. Let me talk a little bit about… you know, some question like: were there any major threats to the college or… [Barbara] Yeah, what were they? �[Tinsley] You’ll remember that towards the end of the seventies, things starting to get – financially – really tough in Michigan. And Grand Valley had to go through a retrenchment and reallocation, and I believe that happened in seventy-nine. And that was the first serious and significant threat to the college. And that one, we came out of okay. And I guess I'd like to talk a little bit about that because I don't think many colleges could handle that situation the way that we did. [Tinsley] The deans were not involved in making the decision to reduce and reallocate; that was done at the level above us. We were simply brought together and told Grand Valley was going to reduce and reallocate; that it was probably going to cut Thomas Jefferson and that we had to prepare budgets. Well let me go back because I want to get this accurate. I'm going to pick that up again. The deans were brought together and told that Grand Valley was looking at a shortfall of money that we were going to reduce and reallocate. And we were given targets. We were given, I think, three levels of targets for cutting: the deepest, the middle, and the lightest. And we were told to go home and figure out how to do that. To go home to our college. Go home, it sounds like home, we go home and figure out how we do that and come back prepared to meet those three levels of cuts. And also, to figure out where the new money would be reallocated. The family obviously didn't want to do that. I mean that is a very painful thing to do. But when I went back to William James, and I remember that afternoon because I went back on a Friday afternoon to say: "The news is we’re going to have to reduce and reallocate; here are the levels we have to shoot for." I said, "How do you want to do this? If you like, I'll just do it. If you like, you can. I am open to suggestions; we'll do this any way you want to." And the faculty… it wasn't a council meeting; it was just the faculty. We didn't take any votes, people just said: "Look Adrian, let's make a committee of people that we all agree we trust and then you guys just do it and come back and tell us what you've done, and we'll tell you if it's okay." So, a committee was made of Robert and Barry and Kathleen. The next morning at five in morning, the phone rang and my father was dead. So, he died literally the next morning. And that committee came over and we sat around my dining room table before I flew off to my father's funeral, figuring out how to do this. And then that committee just sat down and figured out, you know, what we could do and what they could live with. And we brought it back to the college and nobody fetched, and nobody screamed, nobody said: "Kill the administration." Everybody just said: "Well, you folks have done the best you could, thanks." I was really amazed. [Barbara] What percentage cut did we lose? [Tinsley] I can't remember, but it was deep. It required a retrenching. I think in the end three faculty. It was not clear if it was going to be five, four, or three, and my memory is it in the end was three now. It wasn't clear, at that point, whether the �cuts in Thomas Jefferson were going to be so deep that the college was going to die as a result. And we had one meeting that was sort of the last critical incident of my watch, as it were. We were all given to these nautical and military metaphors. But I do think of it as my watch, and it was the last critical incident, and I'm rather proud of it so I guess I want to tell it on this case. [Tinsley] The deans were all brought together in the Dean’s conference room and we simply were to go around the table and talk about how we'd like to meet the budget shortfall, and so I presented our plan, everybody did. It was very clear that the senior administrators wanted to deal with the problem by merging Thomas Jefferson and William James. And they thought that would take two units, both of whom we're getting so small that they might be marginal, and perhaps give them enough substance to be able to survive as a joint unit. I thought that would be an absolute disaster. Just an absolute disaster. I thought that although, indeed, the two of us we're both alternative colleges, and we both had women deans, that didn't mean our operating philosophy is… our ideologies as colleges were just so different. I could not see anything positive would come of that. And I knew that it rested on me to prevent that from happening right that moment. And I can remember taking a deep breath and remembering, and knowing I had to get on my feet. I had to somehow get some height in the room and to be able to speak with the kind of authority I wanted to speak with. And there was a folding blackboard in that conference room which was closed and I can remember getting up and very slowly walking to that thing, opening it up and getting a piece of chalk and beginning to draw diagrams on the blackboard. And I have no idea what I drew, but I was trying to get myself, you know, organized, to make the pitch to show how different we were. So, I drew these diagrams and delivered a little lecture about the differences between the two colleges. And maybe talked for ten minutes, you know, as compellingly as I remember going about anything. And when I finished there was a long silence. Nobody said anything for about a minute and then Doug Kindschi – and I will be grateful to him for this to this day – said: "You know, that's right. William James and Thomas Jefferson are very different and if we put them together, we'll likely lose what's good in William James." And that was it, you know, and then they passed on to other topics. So things were tense during that last… that reduction. And then, of course, there were further reductions to be had after Forrest had come on board as Dean. So [Inaudible] started getting really tough in seventy-eight and seventynine. [Barbara] And that's the… you said, plural, the threats, buts that's what they did? [Tinsley] That was the most compelling one that I had to deal with. [Barbara] What about hostility from CAS all along, did we feel it? Did you feel it? �[Tinsley] Oh sure, sure, it was a real pain. I didn't feel it from my colleagues because, you know, they weren't allowed to for one thing. And also, it was simply we were at a level where we were kind of above that. But for the faculty it was very tough because there was that constant grinding: "You're different, you're not as good. We won't play with you. We don't have to. We're traditional, we're good." And it was so ironic because our faculty was one of the finest in the country. I mean, we didn't come from Michigan, we came from all over the United States. And we had superb degrees from superb schools. And we had to put up with this kind of "Well you're not good enough for us to let you, you know." We took all of CAS's courses for credit. But CAS was always very picky. "Well, we might not take that, it might not be up to our high standards." And so that was a constant problem for us; and it's too bad. And it happens in all kinds of places that try to do this kind of thing. [Barbara] That's true. What would it have taken for us to survive? [Tinsley] Well, I don't think we could've survived. And I have really given that a lot of thought, obviously, because I've had to think: "Is there something I could have done that would've made a difference for us." And here's why I don't think we could've survived. It wasn't financial; although, as I indicated earlier, it was very expensive to have four, or five, or six different deans. That was a problem, but the reason we didn't survive wasn't because of money. And I think that was clear when Grand Valley reorganized itself into schools or colleges. They didn't leave faculty off, at that point, because the issue wasn't financial. The issue was twofold. One, and they're both important, but the first issue was Grand Valley was always fighting with itself. The problem could never be solved that the units were competitive with one another. There was no way to make them stop fighting each other. And particularly not if you're working in a political model. I often thought, if the presidential just said: "There will be no more fighting. I won't have it. The next complaint, the person will be fired." Maybe it would have stopped, although I doubt it, because it is human nature. But it would have put the central administration at a very autocratic position, saying: "CAS will do this, William James will do that, and that's the end of it. I don't want to hear any more about it.” And they didn't want to that do that. And I can't blame them. They would've come off as tyrants, and they would not have won any friends with CAS, which was much larger and more powerful a unit, just to kind of save us. But because they didn't do that, everything was in a constant state of turmoil. And Grand Valley, in the end, just couldn't afford that. We needed to pull together and put our energies outside the institution, not with constant battles inside. And I believe that's the reason that it couldn't work and that cluster colleges, in general, have a very hard time working. I think, also, and I never used to believe Bruce Loessin about this, but I think it gave Grand Valley a kind of weird image in the community. It's a very conservative community. We always used to say that William James is really lucky to be embedded in a community this conservative because it kind of… that �Grand Valley protected this, really quite radical unit, in a very conservative community. But even having the different collegiate units, in the end, was pretty hard for Grand Valley. [Tinsley] It gave it a weird reputation and it couldn't afford that. And in the end, it needed to get rid of it. So that's where I think we couldn't survive. [Barbara] Can you see that light? You're doing a good job knowing right when it ends. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_30_Tinsley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tinsley, Adrian Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Adrian Tinsley interview (5 of 8, video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Adrian Tinsley by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Adrian Tinsley was Dean of William James College from 1972 until 1980. In this interview, Adrian discusses her experience transitioning away from William James College, the conversations surrounding combining WJC with Thomas Jefferson College, and her perspective on the college's future. This interview is part 5 of 8 for Adrian Tinsley. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories College administrators Women college administrators Women in higher education Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/14658cb13005e4c207bd82efbcb54138.mp4 ec8e601ad6311d86c6027e320ed57869 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b14e73f4cd28bbe0f70381f282ef762a.pdf c143e2bb8723b3c16a980e7665f3bef3 PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Adrian Tinsley Date: 1984 Part: 4 of 8 [Tinsley] Yeah, test at the end. [Barbara] Question will be: [inaudible] the administration at Grand Valley, at various times, would give you, sort of, “We're not completely happy – shape up” or “You're doing very well – this is going to go on forever.” Did you get that kind of feedback from [inaudible]? [Tinsley] Yeah. [Barbara] That's not phrased very well, is it? Do you know what I mean? [Tinsley] Yeah. It's another version of "What did the administration think was happening." [Barbara] Yeah. Okay, anytime you feel comfortable. Let me just double-check that we’re rolling. Yeah, we are. What kind of feedback were you getting from the administration? [Tinsley] It's interesting that I'm having a difficult time answering questions about feedback from the administration at Grand Valley and there were really two parts to the administration at Grand Valley. The first phase was during the period that I reported to Bruce Loessin. And I might just say, parenthetically, that one of wonderful things about being totally greenhorn, an inexperienced dean, and being a woman and never having served in the army, I was told I reported to Bruce Loessin. I guess the first year I reported to Harold Colbert; I had no clue what it meant to report to somebody. I had no notion what the term meant or that I was supposed to tell them what was going on in the college and that was what it meant. But from the college’s second year, up until about nineteen seventyseven, I would guess, Grand Valley had a structure which differentiated where the colleges reported. And William James and Thomas Jefferson reported to Bruce Loessin and the other colleges reported to Glenn Niemeyer. That function was split. In seventy-seven, or whenever the reorganization took place… it may be seventy-seven, maybe seventy-eight. Let me start this answer again Barbara. Okay. [Barbara] No harm. �[Tinsley] Let me think about it for a minute first. Okay, the question that you asked is what kind of feedback, criticism, encouragement, direction that you got from the administration of Grand Valley. There were really two administrations at Grand Valley during the time that William James existed. During the first administration, I reported – William James reported – to Bruce Loessin. Grand Valley had a structure in which the vice presidents were all equal and they were all called the Vice President of the College. [Tinsley] Bruce was, at that time, the vice president of the college William James and also Thomas Jefferson reported to him. This is not just a bureaucratic thing of interest to administrators. Bruce was responsible for William James and for Thomas Jefferson and so he wanted us to do well, as well as he wanted us to do good and fight evil. And he bent his fairly considerable energies to helping us do that and to fighting our battles. You didn't ask if I had any mentor at Grand Valley; if I ever did, it was Bruce. He was a kind of funny mentor, you know, a little short guy. People used to laugh about little, short Bruce and his high heels. But he looked out for William James because it was his – it reported to him. What I got from him was: "You’ve got to make it so it looks like the other colleges. You can't be out there looking weird. I don't want to change anything you're doing; I don't want to change you. I think William James is great and I think you have the finest faculty at Grand Valley, but you have to not look weird." And that was really, to tell you the truth, that was right. Bruce was right about that. He would give me a little pep talk about not looking weird. I'd go back; try to get us not to look weird. But he helped us, you know? He would fight for us when we had clashes about who was going to offer what or were we going to be able to get our name out in advertising brochures. Bruce was there fighting for us. So, he had an interest in us. And seventy-seven or seventy-eight… this was a bizarre structure at Grand Valley with these deans, the vice presidents at the college and the academic units reporting lines split. Don changed the reporting structure and Glenn became the Vice President for Academic Affairs and all of the collegiate units reported to Glenn. Now, you have to understand I'm not saying anything about Glenn or Bruce personally; I'm talking about structure. The day that reorganization came down, Bruce took me to lunch at the Matterhorn and he said: "I just want you to know, that I've always been on your side, always before, and I have really busted my ass to make sure William James got its fair share and survived, and I've been your friend, but you need to know that I'm on the other side now." And I said: "Right. I understand that. I appreciate your just saying that upfront, you know? Thanks for everything Bruce." And in some ways, I mean, you could say that was the beginning of the end. When the college is reported to a different vice president, what it felt like was you had your very own knight. When I needed something, I went to Bruce; CAS needed something, they went to Glenn. Then Bruce and Glenn got into their suits of armor and rode out to go like this to one another. And, you know, sometimes one won, sometimes the other, but the Dean just kind of sat back, you know, and waited to see who was �going to triumph. When all the units reported to Glenn, we had entered the era of rational planning and the emphasis went to program. When the units reported up different lines the emphasis was on, not program distinctiveness, but distinctiveness of mission, distinctiveness of student body, distinctiveness ethos. [Tinsley] When all the students reported to the same vice president – and maybe this would have been true whoever the vice president was. I'm suggesting that I think a lot of the issues were structural; the issue then was which college will do what? We'll have a rational plan, and programmatically, we'll differentiate programmatically, you know. And I think people do have to understand that this was not an individual decision that Glenn made because he was an individual; it had to do with rational planning with the kind of accountability that he had placed on him. Because we were entering a time of much tighter money and Grand Valley couldn't really afford to have computer science programs in both places. It was confusing, it was messy, and it was expensive. So that's the apologia. What actually happened when we started reporting to Glenn was that the whole emphasis went on programs and on new programs. What Glenn wanted from Williams James was that it would develop new, sexy new programs that would attract new students and that could give us a niche that we could occupy. And we fiddled with a lot of things there, at one point, I mean, computers was our thing. At another point it was going to be environmental science and planning; at another point it was going to be social work. The problem that happened there… rational planning might've worked as a model, but the units were of such a different size and political power. We could make all the bargains we liked, we can say "We'll do social work and you do nursing. We'll do arts and media and you do fine arts." But every time a decision was made, we do this and they'll do that, and what we were doing looked interesting or looked like it was drawing students, then the other unit wanted to do it. And we didn't have it – I don't think it was the political clout – we didn't have the size. There were too many faculty angry that little William James got to do this and they didn't get to do it. And so those faculty would go to Glenn or they would go to Don. And Grand Valley was governed in a political way. It was and probably still is on the political model. There are books written about styles of academic governance and you can have the bureaucratic model, and you can have the hierarchical model, and you can have the political model. And Grand Valley was governed in the political and that meant that we couldn't keep our gains. So, the problem for us was that Glenn would say: "Develop some new programs." And our tongues would hang out and we'd say: "My god, we developed a whole new college. We've got zillions of programs. We've got three programs per faculty member." You know? We need to consolidate some programs; we need to grow some programs; we need to develop; you know, we need to let some programs get bigger and stronger. When we got good stuff, we'd lose it. We couldn't hang on to it. �[Barbara] Like what? [Tinsley] Like computers. I suppose that was a real good example. [Tinsley] The deal was, initially, when I went to the college that the math department wanted to do computer science. Right at the beginning, the math department had an opportunity to hire Ken Hunter and had refused to do it. And William James had hired Ken Hunter. Ken had a genius for understanding how to teach the use of computers in business and applied context. And that's what our students wanted to learn. And he built a super program in that area. It was called Administration and Information Management. Very strong in information management. And it was very clear where the lines were. It was rational planning. Mathematics Department did computer science and students who did that went to graduate school and they became computer scientist and if you wanted to be an information managing specialist and work in business in an applied way, you went to William James. Along about the middle or end of the seventies, it became clear that we were in a gold mine; we were sitting on a gold mine. We were sitting on top and what everybody wanted to do. And the math department began to want to do it. And the math department had a lot of political power at Grand Valley. The lines were clear, you know, there was no question about what the agreements were. But there was a lot of political issues, so Don Lubbers set up a task force to look into the matter. And he hired a consultant who came and spent a couple of months on the campus one summer looking into the matter. And then he called a meeting and we all trooped into the President's office to have the meeting at which we were going to decide what was going to happen with computer science. And Don VanderJagt went in from the College of Arts and Sciences; Bruce Klein at that point was already in the College of Arts and Sciences or maybe he was with us, I can't remember this. The punchline of the story was VanderJagt trooped with the Dutch guys from Holland and this area and William James trooped in with the woman, the Jew, and the Martian. And I thought: "I think I know how this is going to turn out." In the end, you know, I suppose I should be careful putting that statement on this tape. [Barbara] Maybe you need to say that again. [Tinsley] Yes, probably… I will say that again. [Barbara] Why don't I change the shot… it's accurate, but I don't think you're really… [Inaudible]. [Tinsley] Yeah. [Barbara] Okay, let’s see. So, then William James trooped in. You can go from there. �[Tinsley] Yeah, so then William James trooped in with a fine program, but we didn't have the political clout of the people that had been at Grand Valley for a very long time and we're very close friends of Niemeyer and of Lubbers. [Tinsley] We were a smaller unit; we didn't have nearly the potential to make trouble for Lubbers that CAS had to make trouble for Lubbers. So, somehow we ended up losing out. Now the way in which we lost out was not that Don said: "I've thought about this and on the face of it the College of Arts and Sciences is a bigger unit, it has more students, it makes more sense for the program to be there." Don said: "I've thought about it and it doesn't make sense for me to prevent the College of Arts and Sciences from doing it. I'm not going to prevent them from doing it. I certainly want you to keep doing it; you're doing a wonderful job. Let many flowers bloom." And when you broke down the trade agreements and let many flowers bloom, it was very hard for William James to compete. So that's why it was very hard for us to hang onto students, because we were a smaller unit. Now you might ask me, it might be good question to say: "Why was it hard for William James to compete, you know, in an atmosphere that said 'let many flowers bloom.'" And that's the real question. Because we were smaller, because we were viewed as an alternative, because as the decade began to draw to a close, people in large numbers began to be a little afraid. Maybe they always were, but it was a little closer to the surface of their mind, they didn't want to go to a school that was weird. So, if you wanted a real straight-line thing, like computers in relation to business, and you had your choice of taking it at CAS or in William James, chances were unless you were an unusual student, you would take it at CAS. Because we really were an alternative to that. And yet it meant it was hard for us to hold onto our programs if they took equipment because we couldn't develop enough students. That was a rambling answer, but you can maybe use parts of it. [Barbara] It's blinking at me anyway. [Tinsley] Okay. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_29_Tinsley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tinsley, Adrian Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Adrian Tinsley interview (4 of 8, video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Adrian Tinsley by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Adrian Tinsley was Dean of William James College from 1972 until 1980. In this interview, Adrian discusses the two administrations at Grand Valley during the time of William James College and how the college developed over time. This interview is part 4 of 8 for Adrian Tinsley. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories College administrators Women college administrators Women in higher education Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/87ae057bb80134a199788b0801fac231.mp4 9b6d9cb5256e7ae095f44fae10bcfb88 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d532358870b38f47b104952ec650a917.pdf 44e7f725305ce13c81a99d6004dfe4b3 PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Adrian Tinsley Date: 1984 Part: 3 of 8 [Barbara] There you go. There’s a good tape… [inaudible]. Okay, we’re a go. Just tell me, just [inaudible] about the beginning. [Tinsley] Well, what I really remember about the beginning – although, of course, I didn't realize it at the time – was we were all so young. I sometimes think about the three older faculty who are in their fifties, who were hired because the initial core faculty had some sense that we ought to have a spread of age and experience in the college, which was an absolutely right instinct. But I wonder what it must have felt like to Willard and Doris and Phyllis to arrive with this entire college that was so very, very, very young. And I look at the pictures of us from those days, and it's kind of interesting to see us. We were very concerned to build a sense of community in the college and that expressed itself in a lot of ways. The first year, I recall, the first fall that I was there we decided to go on a retreat together. And we all packed up our camping gear and we went off. I can't even remember where – somewhere on a river. I remember being out on a rowboat with Pat and Inge and Romano. I remember that Robert wouldn't go because he didn't believe in going camping. And I remember that Richard expressed the sentiments that he would not know how to pack the right food and he was hooted down for the sentiment and told that he would have to work like everyone else. We had the phrase – which I'm sure many people have referred to – we wanted to integrate our work and our lives. We wanted to be an intentional community. In some ways, as the years went on, that wore a little thin as we realize that the integrating our work and our lives meant basically abolishing our private lives. And spouses were not always thrilled to be part this of intimate, intentional community. But I remember the first fall… our way of doing business was typified by the first fall. We had a confrontation. One of the students, a black student, whose name I have forgotten… I may be putting two or three incidents together. But there was some real criticism of how we were doing business. I believe it came from a black student, although I have forgotten his name at the moment. And to deal with that, we simply shut college down for a day and all got together to talk about it. And that seemed to be the most reasonable thing in the world to do. Toni Cena wrote a very moving statement which she read. I can remember us all sitting around on the floor, talking earnestly about whatever these charges were that had been brought, and how we can do better as a college, and how students could take more of a hand in the college. And that seemed the most natural way in the world to do business and very, very good. And we did a lot of �that. I remember the first year we painted the walls of Lake Superior together and that was very nice. And I can remember – or maybe it was the second year – Rhonda was the Assistant Dean, and I can remember people painting mustaches on me and Rhonda and taking pictures of us. [Tinsley] I had a good friend that I worked with in the Modern Language Association who visited me in the first year and I brought her out to the college and showed her around and she turned to me and says: "You can't fool me, Adrian. I know what a college is; this is not a college; this is a summer camp." I always remembered that because I took that as a compliment. There was a real attention to community. [Barbara] Where did that attention come from? Where did that ethic come from? [Tinsley] Well, I think Robert, as he did so many things and gave it articulation. We were – this is not Robert 's formulation – we were not to be alienated from our labor. That's not Robert 's formulation; Robert would have talked about not being cynical. Robert would have talked about, you know, controlling the conditions of your work life so that they were human and met your human needs. They came from the whole movement in the sixties to make work life more responsive to human needs. And I think most of us had felt very alienated in our graduate kind of experiences… had felt we were part of big faceless bureaucracies. It was also a time in American history where there were an awful lot of communes. It was right in the middle of the “back to the commune” movement. So, I think it came from those places. And then once we were all there, is when it kind of took on a life of its own. And I think was, probably for me, it was one of the very, very appealing parts of the college. That it was not only a workplace, but it was a place where you really were yourself, and you know, in a sort of a whole human way. [Barbara] Some people I have talked to acted as though there were two William James Colleges: the early one and the late one. Would you comment on that? With the kinds of things you're talking about, how much of that persists? Or why did it change if it changed to something other? [Tinsley] Yeah. Well, I like to like think it persisted. And for me, of course it persisted. [Barbara] Me, too. [Tinsley] So I don't have the sense of their being two colleges. The college changed in its externals. The college change in some of the externals of its organization to reflect demands that came about as Grand Valley put them on William James, and as the State of Michigan put them on Grand Valley. I learned as I'd gotten older a lot more about the kind of demands that come from the outside that mean �you don't operate as free agent, if you're looking to the state for your money. And as Grand Valley began to get its act together. You asked me earlier what Grand Valley wanted from William James. Grand Valley didn't have its act together, they didn't know how they were going to develop. As they began to get their act together, they wanted William James to fit into their structure. [Tinsely] And so we began to have to do some things to suit Grand Valley. For example, we always had a great deal of flack around the title of the course, "Uptight About Writing" – it became symbolic of kind of conflict we were always in. The faculty thought that the title absolutely expressed with that course was about. The Grand Valley administration thought that that course title made William James look silly and made Grand Valley look silly. We did a lot of changing of external things so that Grand Valley didn't feel it was looking silly. Some of that was legitimate, I think. So, my view was that what changed a lot was our way of fitting into the bureaucracy. The student body changed, you know. That seemed very real to me even though I was not, myself, in the classroom often. I taught maybe once a year. I could tell the students were changing. And the students wanted different things. And I think that's where the sense that there were two William James' comes from. The later students came because we had an Arts and Media program. They just wanted to learn what they, you know, were supposed to learn so they can get jobs in arts and media. The kind of students that really wanted to direct their own education, we had very few of them towards the end. So, I think that was a real change. But for me the other stuff was superficial. [Barbara] I would argue, being in Arts and Media, some of the guys that just graduated and the last people to graduate… I interviewed one of them, and he's typical, okay? And pissed off because they took James away. And he articulates and personifies something that is far more than just a hard nose, "I now have my professional stuff and I'm going out in the world." He talks about being in Steven's class before William James was closed and afterwards and the difference in the other student. You know what I mean? [Tinsley] Yeah, oh yeah. [Barbara] I'm still not convinced it's just the students changed. [Tinsley] Well, it may not be. But my first answer to the question: I didn't feel there was an early William James and a late William James. Perhaps there was in a sense that we were younger earlier and it was fresher. We believed it was a good idea to all go camping with one another. Probably after ten years, we didn't think it was a good idea to all go camping with one another. But that's just sort of time passes and, you know, life happens to you. I didn't think what was at the center of the college changed much. I really didn't. �[Barbara] That makes two of us. [Tinsley] [Laughter] [Barbara] Where did the seminal ideas come from? We talk about feminism – and that's really important – but how did William James actually… it seems like a miracle. I don't understand how James suddenly, genuinely, infused the college… something that had been dead for X number of years, you know. [Tinsley] I think it came from a really happy confluence of a lot of streams of thought and a lot of things that were happening. I think we all acknowledge we were awfully lucky to get the name "William James" and I don't think we thought that up. I believe Tom Cunningham named the college, so we had that to work with. We also had that very thoughtful document that the task force had put together, which embodied a lot of the ideas of the late sixties but pointed forward in his emphasis on careers. So, it gave us something we could kind of sink our teeth into. I think we came from a lot of different intellectual places. We were just Godgiven lucky that it just worked together. Robert, for example, whom I knew the best of anyone because I had known Robert – we had been graduate students together at Cornell. Robert was very interested in the philosophic base the college was working off. He cared passionately about not making what he used to call invidious distinctions between the liberal arts and practical subjects. Roberts was a person… it was very important to Robert to view himself as, simultaneously, a philosopher and a practical man. From his philosophic side came many of the ideas that carried the college forward. And then in the next year also from Stephen. For me, I didn't come to it by reading philosophy. I came to it by teaching at the University of Maryland in the English department. The University of Maryland had, like, fifty thousand students on the College Park campus. There were over one hundred faculty in the English department. And I couldn't figure out what anyone was doing there. I used to look out over the rows of parking lots and say: "I know why I'm here; I'm getting paid to be here. But why are the students here?" I really didn't understand that. It was the late sixties and early seventies. All of the students who were majoring in English were paralyzed, they didn't know what to do with the lives, their degrees we're not going to fit them to do anything, the Vietnam War was going on. The students I knew spent most of their time smoking dope and being very scared. And really not knowing how to interact with the world that was going to greet them when they left the University of Maryland with a kind of a third-rate degree in English literature. For me to come to a college that was going to put some emphasis on being able to do in the world was really important. I mean I cared passionately about that and when I was interviewed, the Grand Valley administration said to me: "Well you have a PhD in English literature, what makes you think you can be the Dean of a college that is practical?" And I said: "You just don't know how much I desire this. This is the desire of my heart." And then I think feminism came in also, with its �stress on theory and practice. I think a lot of people came to the college from an ideologically feminist perspective wanting to combine those two. [Tinsley] So all that came together. And I don't want to say we were just lucky, but we were living at a historic moment where it could come together. [Barbara] This comes from another question that I forgot to ask you. What is a male synoptic heavy? [Tinsley] Oh, a male synoptic heavy? Well, that's the men in the college and it was interesting how it did tend to divide on gender line. [Barbara] Oh damn. Adrian, I just moved the damn thing again. [Tinsley] Oh well, we'll do it again. [Barbara] Keep going anyway. [Tinsley] One of the tensions in the college was that a compelling interest in discussing the philosophical base of the college seemed to divide along gender lines. It divided, to some extent, on professionals versus the liberal arts line, but really it was on gender lines. And there were a group of men that were perceived as the male synoptic heavies, and they carried the flame of the sort of philosophic base of the college. The women saw themselves, in many ways, more as the doers and tended to rely, in many ways, more with the professional faculty. And yet those two had to talk to one another. One of the tensions in the college had to do with one's synoptic credentials. Only on a tape about William James College could one talk with a straight face about one's synoptic credentials. But I can remember at faculty retreat, prior to one of our years, in which we had facilitators come in to get us going for the year. And that's what came out – that there seemed to be a distinction between the philosophers, the synoptians – those who were seen as guarding the flame of those who were appropriately liberal artsy and the others. It was an interesting tension in the college and people felt very insecure about it. The man who did not see themselves as the liberal arts heavies felt very insecure about it, as did some of the women. The women in the college who have those credentials to be synoptic heavies were sometimes impatient with it. I felt that I could really relate to both sides, and those were the strengths. And that the college needed both… because one of the things that gave the college power was that it did have a concept – it really did – and that gave it enormous power. [Barbara] Concept of? [Tinsley] Theory and practice. And using theory and practice to make a difference in the world. �[Tinsely] And we spread out from there – the concept got broader from there. But it had that core concept. [Barbara] End of tape. Good answer. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_28_Tinsley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tinsley, Adrian Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Adrian Tinsley interview (3 of 8, video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Adrian Tinsley by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Adrian Tinsley was Dean of William James College from 1972 until 1980. In this interview, Adrian discusses her memories of the early years at William James College and the importance of community, in addition to how the college developed over time and the role of feminism in theory and practice. This interview is part 3 of 8 for Adrian Tinsley. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories College administrators Women college administrators Women in higher education Feminism Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/354f3ad1f96b741ab62276b0aeb34e68.mp4 baa701d267c1fb3b7ffeb14aacdcabc3 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ddd97b05c966bf3ee59f9b5f4e0e1cdb.pdf a1814268b269c8fe86f32b0836c9badf PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Adrian Tinsley Date: 1984 Part: 2 of 8 [Barbara] And I'm rolling. [Tinsley] Okay. [Barbara] And I wanted to ask you: we refer to some mysterious beast called a “real William James student.” What's a real William James student? [Tinsley] Well, again, you know, a real William James student – you knew one when you saw one. We wanted students to take responsibility for their own education; we painted it up on the walls in Lake Superior Hall… that wonderful cartoon of the student we didn't want which was somebody having knowledge poured into his head through a funnel. We wanted students to do it themselves. And so, a real William James student was a person who knew what he or she wanted to learn and took their own route in getting there. [Barbara] I just screwed up, Adrian; I just pulled the panhandle. Can you repeat the last part? [Tinsley] Sure. [Barbara] I’m sorry. [Tinsley] A real William James student was a student who knew what he or she wanted to learn and desired to take responsibility for learning it. Wanted to use the faculty as resource people. Wanted to figure out how to learn and was willing to hustle to, you know, really move their butt to get what they needed. Willing to go to a lot of sources and use a lot of resources. Had some drive and motivation. I think in the early days, the real William James student was somebody who was specifically seeking an alternative education, who shared the views of the faculty. In the areas, for example, of grading. That letter grading was at the root of all evil. Who wanted the freedom to design their own way of studying things, who wanted to do independent studies. And as those students became fewer and fewer in number because we had many more those of in the early days of the college, you know, then I think the real William James student became simply the one with energy. The one who was self-initiating. �[Barbara] How did we teach them this? [Tinsley] I don't think we taught them to it, they came with us. They came with us. [Barbara] But there was a phenomenon of students who were lost for a year and then turned it on. [Tinsley] Well, that's true. But I don't know how that happened. But you have to remember, I was not in the classroom teaching the students so that I got to know the good students and I got to know the problem students. [Tinsely] But I could not explain how that mystery actually happened in the classroom because I wasn't there. [Barbara] Let me grab my notepad out of here. Oh, the rocking adds a nice comfortable touch. We were profoundly egalitarian, and yet you were in a leadership role. How does one lead a commune? [Tinsley] That is a very good question, and I must say what I learned about leadership in that situation… that's probably the most important learning I took from the college actually. I guess I'd answer that by saying I didn't go to William James; I didn't set out to be the leader. I didn't know enough to know I was supposed to set out to be the leader. And I think one of the things that is important about William James and my contribution to it is that not only were all the faculty very young, I was very young. I have never been a dean before. I didn't know, really, what deans we're supposed to do. All of us made this college up out of we what we knew. And all of us had a critique, but none of us really knew how to make the college happen. I think it's important for the college that I did not arrived with an agenda. I arrived responsive to the same social climate that everyone else was responsive to. We had a variety of ideologies, a variety of critiques, but I didn't go there saying "I am the Dean and this is my vision of alternative education". I think that the role that I played… and I don't want to give the impression that I was the colleges facilitator, because I don't view what I did in that way. But I think what I did I think I had the gift of being able to understand what kind of vision for the college motivated most of the people who were there. And they were very different visions and I think my gift was to be able to find some common ground among those visions that we could agree to and put that in the public space and affirm it. And I think that – as I thought about in later years - I think that is probably the quintessential quality of leadership. Pat Labone used to say to me that what the dean should do is read the litany. She had a Catholic childhood and there was some real truth to that. I often used to long to have a chapel and William James that everyone was required to attend so the little inspirational speeches could be made. I think it's important that an institution have that and I think that I brought that to the college. And I think that I had the ability to bridge �among the various kinds of faculty at the college. I think it was extraordinarily important to success of the college that I could talk to heavy male synoptic types, that I could talk that language and that I valued that. I think it was important that I could talk to the women. And I think it was important that I could talk to the people who brought professional skills into the college but more scared, frustrated, and sometimes irritated at the quality of intellectual discourse that went on because they felt insecure about participating in it. And I truly believed there was room for everybody. And I think that I kind of could embody that. And I think I also – in terms of leadership – was able to work with the college's peerpressure structure. [Tinsely] Because you can't tell people to do things and you can't make people do things, and an administrator has to work with what's there. You can say "no" but you can't make it happen. And so, the trick to it is to be able to mobilize the energy that's there, give it some focus, and get people on the same wavelength. And the college had very strong norms of behavior. I mean there was a lot of peer pressure in the college that said, I believe, what faculty were supposed to do and what they were not supposed to do. And I think I was able to work with that and I think I was able to find some constructive channels for using people's energy. Not always, but if there was a trick to operating as a leader in that kind of setting, that's how I would describe it. [Barbara] But surely what you just described at the end of your answer would be true of being an administrator at any college. [Tinsley] Yeah, it is, but it was more so at William James because we had a rhetoric about – and said and really meant – that we were non-hierarchical. I think that's how the whole critical issue format developed, which I think was a very healthy one for the college. As inexperienced as I was – and I really was absolutely green when I came to William James as Dean – and I remember, practically, the first week that I was there we were drafting the governance document for the college. And that was drafted by Robert and Inge and it was very elaborate, and it was really a model for participatory form of governance that worked neither on hierarchy nor Roberts Rules of Order, which was what we wanted. But even though I was I very green and I looked at that and I said: "Wait a minute, the Dean has responsibility beyond, simply in a consensus fashion, gathering the will of the faculty and implementing it.” There are probably issues at the college that I am responsible for and there are issues that the faculty is responsible for, and yet we’re all responsible for all of this together – how can we sort that out? And out of that came the notion of a critical issue. That most of the times we would all be on the same wavelength about what we wanted to have happen. But because we had different responsibilities and sat, in a sense, in different chairs, there might be times when the college would want to do X, but I would know it couldn't. It absolutely couldn't. And thus, was born, you know, the critical issue and the �veto. An elaborate way of saying: "But the college says this and the Dean said that, the Dean would say 'no.'" And then you'd go back and discuss it some more. And you might still come out with yes and no but their would be ways so… I didn't abrogate what was my real responsibility to make sure that in matters of relating to the structure at Grand Valley, the college didn't harm itself. And that the college at some basic level operated in the way it ought to: in trust from the people of Michigan, through the Board of Control, you know, through the President, and down to me. I had real, legal, responsibilities there. [Tinsley] And yet at the same time I was a member of the community and wanted to be involved in the process of working out what the college was going to be and do. Because I didn't know. So, I was both part of the process and outside of the process. [Barbara] Presuming that some people are going to see this tape that have no direct experience with James, would you care to give an example of a critical issue that actually came up? [Tinsley] Yes. The critical issues came up around hiring issues and around money. And two examples were: at one point the council voted to hire a faculty member and I felt the decision was untenable, that it was made not because the person was the best candidate, but because there were a great many…the person was known to us, there were many personal feelings involved. And I felt it would be irresponsible of me to let that decision go forward, so I vetoed it. Another issue came when we had a very elaborate, as you will recall, salary administration policy. And which I did not like, but never really interfered in because I felt that was the faculty's business to determine. I did not approve of it. In one particular year, it works to really the detriment of an older member of the faculty who was going to end up with a less than a cost of living raises as a result of the operation of this policy and I said "No, that would not be acceptable." There may have been others that were more, you know, policy issues but I don't recall them. One of the interesting things was that these issues arose very rarely because we have did most of our work by persuading one another. It was very interesting; we were frequently compared with Thomas Jefferson College because we were both alternative colleges of sort of different kinds of stripes. I thought, and I think many people agree, that there were very different leadership styles at the two colleges. Thomas Jefferson was run by guru, a bearded, alternative education dean who put his picture on the front of all the colleges brochures. And then, in fact, the early brochures, you know, showed his face with his beard and the little legend was: "This man runs a college." The faculty at Thomas Jefferson seem to be very pleased to have a dean who would be their guru and who would not tell them what to do exactly but would take care of them. That was basically what it amounted to, would take care of them. And we had a model that was much more political. Our model was: everybody had to understand how this works, �everybody has to have an operator manual because we all have to understand the political context we're working in order for to work, I guess. I don't want to say, "We won't survive," because we didn't sit around thinking "Well, maybe it won't survive." But we all had to understand it. [Tinsely] And I felt really strongly about that and I think most of the faculty felt strongly about that. And I was not there to, you know, be there to take care of them, and they were not there to be, you know, recipients of somebody's guruism. I think that was real important as to how we worked. It was like a marriage, it really was. People called me Adrian, but if they were really angry at me, they referred to me as the Dean and I didn't like that, you know. I can recall saying: "I am not the Dean!" or "I am Dean, but my name is Adrian!" So, there was, you know… I don't quite know where I'm going with the rest of that answer but… [Barbara] Let me check on the tape. Ah, look there! See, I have this sixth sense. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_27_Tinsley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tinsley, Adrian Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Adrian Tinsley interview (2 of 8, video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Adrian Tinsley by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Adrian Tinsley was Dean of William James College from 1972 until 1980. In this interview, Adrian discusses what makes a "real William James student" and her experience as a first-time dean of William James College. This interview is part 2 of 8 for Adrian Tinsley. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories College administrators Women college administrators Women in higher education Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a5ebf586a38a740256eb61c049b22f66.mp4 d85f0b989c29931c790ad3bd782d7669 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5fefd6df044f016e68be5bede9225881.pdf e60d6081691d0d5440a0935d4297cb6b PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Adrian Tinsley Date: 1984 Part: 1 of 8 [Barbara] Hit the light. Okay, now I actually am running. [Tinsley] Okay. [Barbara] When you came to James – you know, it would be nice of you to mention when that was, when you actually came as Dean – what did the administration tell you about what was expected at the college? [Tinsley] I came in the summer of nineteen seventy-two. The college had completed one year of operation when I came. I can't say that the administration of Grand Valley told me anything about what they wanted the college today. Let me just start this again. It’s going to take me a little... [Barbara] Well, I'll adjust the shot. [Tinsley] Okay, it's going to take me a little bit to kind of warm up. [Barbara] I know, it always does. [Tinsley] It's like doing a practice interview. [Barbara] It is, so start again and take as many times as you want. I have an entire case of tapes. [Tinsley] Okay. [Barbara] What was it like? What did the administration tell you? "Hi Adrian, here's what you're supposed to do." [Tinsley] Well, I came to the college in nineteen seventy-two. And I can't say that the administration told me anything about what they wanted the college to be. The college had completed its first year of operation. I knew that Grand Valley was beginning a cluster college operation and that William James was the third college and that Grand Valley anticipated that there would be more colleges. That the decision had been taken early in Grand Valley's life – in fact, it had been a plan George Potter's, I believe – that instead of just growing bigger, because �Grand Valley expected to grow significantly. Instead of just growing large, they would develop a whole series of colleges and each would have its own mission and its own curriculum. So, William James… I understood William James was to be part of that. And I understood that there had been a task force to set up William James chaired by Tom Cunningham. And I understood that what was written in the task force document was what the administration wanted the college to be and that was a career-oriented college. What I did not understand was that even at the point at which I arrived at William James – in its second year – there was some significant concern in the Grand Valley administration about the direction that the two cluster colleges, Thomas Jefferson and William James, were taking. [Tinsley] And, in fact, after I had been the Dean of William James for a year, the Vice President to whom I reported, Bruce Loessin, said to me with a big smile: "Well you've really done a good job – the college has survived! Most of us didn't think that was going to happen!" And that was my first indication that there was any question in anybody's mind that the college would survive. [Barbara] Two things about that I didn't understand. I don't understand who Potter is… you made a reference. [Tinsley] Potter was, I believe, a Vice President for Academic Affairs at Grand Valley and the first president of Grand Valley, James Zumberge… I don't know if it was Potter or Zumberge that had the notion of developing a cluster of colleges. They had that idea but didn't implement it. Don Lubbers was the president who caused that to be implemented. [Barbara] Why… I mean, when Loessin said that to you, you must have said whatever [Inaudible]. Why start a college and presume it's going to fail? I don't understand it. [Tinsley] And reasonably enough you don't understand it. William James was supposed to be a career-oriented college. When the first faculty were hired by Bruce Loessin, he took pains to hire a faculty that came from the traditional liberal arts disciplines and were very – not traditional – but very good faculty in the traditional sense. They had good academic degrees. They were not interested in doing career education in the sense that I think Grand Valley had in mind. I think Grand Valley had in mind that William James would be what they later had to start Kirkhof in order to get. So, there was a sense right from the beginning that they were looking for a technical college and William James was becoming something quite different from what they had in mind. But what can they expect, given the faculty that they had hired to found the college? [Barbara] Turn this off for a second. Make sure this thing is running right. I get a certain �amount of neuroses… paranoia, that's the word I'm looking for. Tell me… Ah! Tell me… let’s get you in the shot. [Tinsley] Tell me, whoever you are. [Barbara] Okay. Tell me what the administration said… what did you observe? What was it in total, you know, really meshing all kinds of things? What was going on when you arrived? What kind of place was it? [Tinsley] It was struggling to be born when I arrived. It had been in operation for you a year. It had had no planning time. It had been started just immediately, crack off the bat. After that, the task force report had been completed; an acting dean had been put in; the faculty had been brought in. [Tinsely] And they had no lead time, they were just told that you are open in September and get your curriculum together. So, they were struggling that whole first year to put together a first curriculum and hire a new staff. There was not much opportunity to do anything other than run very hard to accomplish those tasks. But my belief about the college… and I knew it pretty well because I interviewed for its deanship before it started and then did not come at that time…had other commitments and then came a year later. So, I had a chance to talk to Robert Mayberry and Bruce Loessin that very first summer, and then again in the interview process for the second year. What I observed were that the faculty that were at the college took that planning document – the Cunningham Task Force Report – very seriously. And they were about the business of trying to make that happen. And I observed that the most compelling part of it – it certainly was to me and I believe it was to the faculty – was the notion of good work. We had a lot of words for that, you know. Vocation with a "V," career-oriented, the notion of doing something useful in the world. And we struggled a lot because we didn't want this college to be simply career-oriented, but we wanted to have utility to do something useful in the world – to make social change – and there were a whole bunch of ways of talking about that. But that's what I saw when I came… that people were looking at the college to be and that people wanted the college to be. Everybody came to the college with a critique of their own graduate education because we were all young. So, we were very clear about what we wanted the college not to be and, in fact, that was kind of a problem early on. We kept defining ourselves in terms of what we didn't want to be. We didn't want to have grades. We didn't want to have majors and disciplines. We didn't want to have a sterile kind of research focus. So, everybody had their own critique and everybody, I think, also had their own dream of what the perfect college would be, what the perfect society would be. The piece of it that was in the public space right from the beginning was making a difference in the world and that's what I thought people wanted to do in the world. �[Barbara] Change the shot here. [Tinsley] Does the tape pick up your questions? [Barbara] Yes, but what I'll do is redub them because I'm off mic. [Tinsley] Okay, okay. [Barbara] You can hear them, but you have to strain to hear them. [Tinsley] Okay. [Barbara] So I get a chance to clean up my act. [Barbara] James operated as a sovereign state. You would agree? [Tinsley] Yes. [Barbara] Did we seize that sovereignty or was it given to us? [Tinsley] Neither really. We didn't seize it. Seizing implies some kind of resistance. I think in the early years, the Grand Valley administration did not have a particular plan as to how they thought the college should develop or indeed what they wanted from it. We took a lot of freedom, but we didn't really have to fight them for it. [Barbara] If we can just stay in this shot. How did feminism infuse the college? [Tinsley] Well, feminism was extraordinarily important in the college. I think… you obviously are going to have to edit this because I will get rolling in a little bit but I'm not yet. I think feminism was probably one of the most important social forces that operated in the college. It's an interesting mystery why the initial first eight male faculty turned around and hired a number of strong women faculty and the women dean. But that's in fact what happened. I said earlier that everybody brought their own dream to the college. I think the women, in particular, brought a feminist dream and you have to remember this was nineteen seventy-two, so feminism was just really becoming a significant social force. And feminism embraced both notions of, you know, gender equity and also notions about organizational structure. There was a lot of talk in the feminist community at that time about non-hierarchical decision making. About rotating authority. About everybody taking turns doing the job so that everybody got a chance to do all the jobs. A lot of talk about how you didn't want to specialize into male roles and female roles or faculty roles and administrative roles, you know, to go by extension. So, the whole philosophic context of radical feminism came into the college as in many ways as the dream – or at least the strong interest – of a lot of �the women faculty that came. And particularly as it related to, you know, malefemale relations and organizational structures. The men were coming in with the same kind of a dream. They may have come to it through feminism per say or they may have come to it through some other kind of social analysis. But there was general agreement on what our politics and then for the social structure of the college. So, I guess I would say feminism affected the college because there were a lot of women there. I mean we were very unusual in that there were so many women and that the women really were in positions of a good deal of authority, respect, and influence – both formally and informally. Whether they were program coordinates, or the Dean, or whether they were just strong faculty who were “Weighty Friends” in the Quaker sense in the design of the curriculum. Feminism, I think, influenced a lot of our early attempts and organizational structures. [Tinsely] The whole governing structure, the coordinator's temporum, or the notion that we would take turns doing the college's jobs. And I think it influenced the way we treated each other. It influenced what kinds of interactions were acceptable in the public space of college and, indeed, in people's home lives. And I think it was interesting in that regard the ways they interacted with each other – the men and women in college. We never fell into sex roles – or the kinds of gender-based, sex-based teasing – that is real frequent in other situations. The place that feminism didn't affect the college terribly strong was we never developed a very strong Women's Studies program. I often felt as Dean, you know, I was really remiss in the kinds of formal curricular or extracurricular things we could offer our women students. I often saw women students come in, you know, if they’re first in their family going to college, with very conventional aspirations and it was possible for women students to go through this structure that was a college and be a little untouched about what was going on. And I thought that was a real weakness. And I think it came from the fact that the women were so busy in their nontraditional roles - sort of running the college, developing the curriculum – that there really weren't people to spare for developing the more usual Women's Resource Center, Women's Studies program, and the like. [Barbara] I think to me, a question that follows that when we were interviewing faculty, we went through these long interview processes – forty-eight-hour things – and we always knew what we were looking for. What were we looking for? [Tinsley] Well, I think the easy answer to that is we were looking for people like ourselves. But what did it mean to be like us? I think we were looking for some sort of real evidence of commitment to social change. We were looking at people's politics. We had political litmus tests and I think there's… you know, we shouldn't blink that fact. I can remember interviewing a candidate for psychologist at one point – a woman – and she was asked something that had to do with feminism and then she responded that she didn't care to define herself; she didn't care to take on a �label. It was very important to us that people we label that they have politics. So, I think we were looking for that. I think we were looking for breadth. I think we were looking for people that were interested in a lot of things. And I think we were looking for people that weren't interested in sort of narrow, discipline based, traditional academic interest. I think we found them kind of pompous and kind of boring. We could know us when we saw us. But how you'd write that down on paper it isn't really clear. Except we did know us when we saw us, and we were anti-pomposity and we were pro-politics. But our politics had a very broad definition. We were pretty inclusive in our politics, but we demanded that people have politics, I believe. [Barbara] It’s coming up to the… conveniently this blinks at me when we’re running out of tape. [Tinsley] Okay, okay. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_26_Tinsley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tinsley, Adrian Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Adrian Tinsley interview (1 of 8, video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Adrian Tinsley by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Adrian Tinsley was Dean of William James College from 1972 until 1980. In this interview, Adrian discusses her arrival at William James College during its second year of operation, in addition to how feminism infused the college. This interview is part 1 of 8 for Adrian Tinsley. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories College administrators Women college administrators Women in higher education Feminism Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives