319 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6af20ac8e28e5734829a62ee853dfc09.pdf 79955cee9ff05170bc29e081dcebc23f PDF Text Text Day 220: Saturday October 17. And 17 days to the election. by windoworks Covid Travel �Guides This was an example of one stop voting for New Zealanders. Last night in New Zealand, this happened: �Washington Post CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was headed for a runaway reelection victory on Saturday after widespread praise for leading a successful battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Her government’s response to outbreaks of the coronavirus— including some of the strictest lockdowns and border controls in the world — is attributed to achieving some of the lowest death rates in the world with just 25 recorded fatalities. We will not take your support for granted and I promise you we will be a party that governs for every New Zealander,” Ardern said. “And governing for every New Zealander has never been more important,” she said, noting “we are living in a polarized world where more and more people are losing the ability to see each other’s point of view.” Her embrace of international cooperation and pan-national issues, including climate change, earned her the nickname “the anti-Trump” among her supporters. �Did you notice the death toll in New Zealand due to Covid-19? 25. Now I know there’s many mitigating circumstances such as global location (at the bottom of the world); 3 small islands; socialist government etc. but the biggest difference is this: the person in charge sat down on video and explained at the onset, carefully and clearly, what the actions were going to be and why the government was taking them. She said clearly: we are all in this together and I will always listen to you and explain every next step and why it is necessary - so you will know and understand. Their first lockdown was hard, very hard, and yet most New Zealanders cooperated without too much grumbling. Of course it helped that the police did their job and policed the lockdown and arrested anyone who was blatantly non compliant. All I have heard here for months (8 months actually) is, oh we couldn’t do that here, Pamela. Its a transgression of our rights. And that’s true. The right to hold onto an enormous amount of freedom at a huge cost to yourself, and all the other people near and dear to you. Sometimes the greater good overrides the personal freedom. So here we are. Yesterday the new daily case count in the US rose to 70,451, and 909 people died. 909 mothers and fathers, and sons and daughters and aunts and uncles and grandfathers and grandmothers and babies and toddlers and best friends and choir members and church attendees and party holders and jail inmates and front line workers. Each one of the 218K who have died since March was important and left behind a hole where they used to be. But that’s okay, because your personal freedom overrides my desire to keep living. And let me just remind you - this is the middle of October. They are predicting the worst months will be January and February. That’s when numbers will rise exponentially, because the numbers now are alarming but not as bad as what is to come. You can tell I’m depressed and fed up and I’m betting that a lot of you are too. In political news, Trump and Biden held competing virtual town halls. The worst comment made about Biden’s town hall was a comparison to Fred (Mr) Rogers. On the other hand Washington Post The town hall shows how deeply in denial Trump remains about coronavirus Wisconsin reported more than 4,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, a record high. With medical facilities running low on intensive-care beds, authorities just opened a field hospital on the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds. Soon, it will be able to treat more than 500 patients. “We know that this is going to get worse before it gets better,” the head of the state’s health department, Andrea Palm, warned during a Thursday afternoon briefing. A few hours later, during an NBC town hall in Miami, President Trump declared: “What we’ve done has been amazing, and we have done an amazing job, and it’s rounding the corner.” �More than 63,500 new cases were reported in the United States on Thursday, the highest number since July. “Forty-four states and the District of Columbia have higher caseloads than in mid-September,” Joel Achenbach and Jacqueline Dupree report. “During the past week, at least 20 states have set record sevenday averages for infections, and a dozen have hit record hospitalization rates. … The cumulative number of cases in the United States since the start of the pandemic is likely to surpass 8 million on Friday.” Sadly, the president is wrong. The contagion is not in its last throes. Nor is this a regional crisis isolated to the Midwest. This is a national emergency. One of the 8 million is the president himself. But Trump’s three-day hospitalization this month has not seemed to chasten or humble him. He downplayed the severity of his own illness, just as he publicly downplayed the lethality of the virus in the spring. Questioned by NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, the president declined to say whether he had taken a coronavirus test on the day of the first presidential debate, as required by the rules. Here’s what Chris Christie said this week: Washington Post Former New Jersey GOP governor Chris Christie released a statement Thursday saying he was “wrong” not to wear a mask, both during the Sept. 26 Rose Garden ceremony at which Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee and in multiple debate preparation sessions with the president. “I believed that when I entered the White House grounds, that I had entered a safe zone, due to the testing that I and many others underwent every day,” Christie wrote. “I hope that my experience shows my fellow citizens that you should follow CDC guidelines in public no matter where you are and wear a mask to protect yourself and others.” Christie contracted covid-19 and spent seven days isolated in the ICU of a New Jersey hospital. Now he is back home and convalescing. “It is something to take very seriously,” Christie said in the statement. “The ramifications are wildly random and potentially deadly. No one should be happy to get the virus and no one should be cavalier about being infected or infecting others. Every public official, regardless of party or position, should advocate for every American to wear a mask in public, appropriately socially distance and to wash your hands frequently every day”. �By Friday (yesterday) more than 22M Americans had voted, either by mail or in person. I don’t pay attention to the polls, I just vote and hope for the best. If Biden wins decisively, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel. If Trump wins, there will be no limit to his self serving behavior. And whoever wins, there may be civil unrest. My hope is that Biden wins and the insane Trumpers say: Bugger! Oh okay. And they take their guns and slogans and hate and just go home. Yesterday our daughter asked us if we had built our panic room yet. She was joking and of course we’re not building one, but its a thought that brings you up sharp. One of my neighbors is concerned that the election will result in a new civil war - and this is a calm, reasonable person. �What exactly is the 2nd Amendment? A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. This doesn’t exactly say that everyone can own a gun and it doesn’t refer to any type of automatic weapons either. Their militia had rifles that had to be reloaded with gunpowder each time they were �fired, so any advanced weaponry wasn’t included in the amendment. There is much more I could say about the Constitution and the Amendments but that would be unAmerican. ��Laughing - probably at his mother. And the ever present runny nose. Bangkok. It took us about 2 hours to drive from the port to the city of Bangkok. Added to that, there were active student demonstrations occurring against the then Prime Minister and so our day’s itinerary was hastily reorganized. Our first stop was the Royal Palace. The Grand Palace (Thai: พระบรมมหาราชวัง, RTGS: Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang is a complex of buildings at the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. The palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam (and later Thailand) since 1782. The king, his court, and his royal government were based on the grounds of the palace until 1925. King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), resided at the Chitralada Royal Villa and his successor King Vajiralongkorn (Rama X) at the Amphorn Sathan Residential Hall, both in the Dusit Palace, but the Grand Palace is still used for official events. Several royal ceremonies and state functions are held within the walls of the palace every year. The palace is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Thailand. Wikipedia. In the above photo, people are lighting incense prayer sticks. �Craig and I in the palace grounds. �So if you know Craig, you know he is wearing shorts. Shorts were not allowed in the Royal Palace and so he had to hire some colorful Siamese pants for the duration of our visit. You’ll note I was wearing an ankle length dress. �Some golden pagodas of the palace. Another day is here. 17 days to the election. Numbers of ill people are climbing. Lets keep us all 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_2020-10-17_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-220 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 2020-10-17 Title A name given to the resource Day 220 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/ae9c6300c7530963f24d8ca513aa3884.pdf 822b41f9cc2c2830d2c3381052337878 PDF Text Text Day 219: 18 days to the election by windoworks So here we are. After I finish writing this post this morning, Craig and I are going to the grocery store to buy some food that we don’t need right now but will need in 18 days time. And before you ask, read my post. Remember that boat we were all trying to keep our balance on? There might be a storm lurking on the horizon - in 18 days time, if not before. If the winds increase. “We are prepared. Every polling place will have a direct line to the AG office and to local law enforcement — who can be on the ground immediately. What I’d say to those listening to the president is, follow the advice of the president of the United States at your own legal peril." Michigan AG Dana Nessel Whoever said that before? Whoever felt the need? New York Times �In rural Iowa, Laura Hubka, the Democratic chair of Howard County, recently took out a concealed-carry gun permit after signs for Democratic candidates in her region were vandalized with bullet holes and she was personally threatened, she said. In central Wisconsin, Tom Stepanek’s wife sat him down last month at the kitchen table and warned him that the president might not accept a peaceful transfer of power if he lost in November. “Are you sure you want to be doing this?” she asked her husband, who is the chair of the Waushara County Democrats and had also been threatened. “You’re going to be a target here,” she told him. In Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Burdick, a Trump supporter who owns a gun store with her husband in redhued Mercer County, said, “Sales have been crazy.” “People are afraid,” she said. “They’re afraid of what’s going to happen” after the election if Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee, wins. With polls showing the president behind Mr. Biden nationally and in key states, Mr. Trump has descended into rants about perceived enemies, both inside and outside his administration, triggering in his staunchest supporters such fears for the outcome — possibly a “stolen” election, maybe a coup by the far left — that he is emboldening them to disrupt the voting process, according to national security experts and law enforcement officials. So now you know why we’re carefully stocking our cupboards, just in case. �In Georgia the machines recording voters stopped working. Investigators found that a cable had be severed. People waited in long lines for it to be fixed so they could continue to vote. But wait, didn’t this happen before at a previous election? �Washington Post With less than three weeks to go before Nov. 3, roughly 15 million Americans have already voted in the fall election, reflecting an extraordinary level of participation despite barriers erected by the coronavirus pandemic — and setting a trajectory that could result in the majority of voters casting ballots before Election Day for the first time in U.S. history. In Georgia this week, voters waited as long as 11 hours to cast their ballots on the first day of early voting. In North Carolina, nearly 1 in 5 of roughly 500,000 who have returned mail ballots so far did not vote in the last presidential election. In Michigan, more than 1 million people — roughly one-fourth of total turnout in 2016 — have already voted. The picture is so stark that election officials around the country are reporting record early turnout, much of it in person, meaning that more results could be available on election night than previously thought. So far, much of the early voting appears to be driven by heightened enthusiasm among Democrats. Of the roughly 3.5 million voters who have cast ballots in six states that provide partisan breakdowns, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by roughly 2 to 1, according to a Washington Post analysis of data in Florida, Iowa, Maine, Kentucky, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Additionally, those who have voted include disproportionate numbers of Black voters and women, according to state data — groups that favor former vice president Joe Biden over President Trump in recent polls. Dozens of voters who have shown up on their states’ first day of early voting over the past several weeks have described a desire to cast their ballots at the first possible moment as a statement against the president. And now to the virus. Craig listens to the news on the radio every morning when he’s making breakfast. This morning one of the headlines was the big increase in cases this week in Kent County. A bigger increase than in the counties that encompass Detroit. We live in Kent County. Crooked Media The U.S. is now experiencing its third surge of coronavirus hospitalizations (though we cunningly avoided a second wave of infections by simply never making it out of the first wave). The worst spikes are ravaging the midwest and northern plains—North Dakota hospitals are near capacity, and Wisconsin, where Trump is scheduled to hold a superspreading rally this weekend, opened a field hospital on Wednesday. The worsening outbreaks have already had a measurable economic impact: new unemployment claims rose to 898,000 last week, the highest level since late August. Stats: yesterday the US had 64,000 new cases in one day, Michigan had 2,030 new cases in one day and Kent County had 200 new cases in one day. I’ll just let those numbers sink in. �Here’s a comparison between the 14th century Plague and the 2020 Coronavirus Washington Post: FLORENCE — When the new disease first arrived, little was clear beyond the fact that it killed with terrifying speed. Near-certain death trailed the first symptoms by four days or less. The doctors were helpless. This city was soon overwhelmed with corpses. Workers in church yards dug pits down to the water table, layering bodies and dirt, more bodies and dirt. One writer of the time compared the mass graves to “lasagna.” Seven centuries later, the plague in Europe stands as an example of a pandemic at its worst — what happens when so many people die so quickly that some foresee the end of the human race. Few places were hit harder than Florence, whose population in 1348 was cut by at least a third and possibly far more. We had figured a trip to Florence might provide some comforting perspective on modern times — a chance to dwell on a period that was patently deadlier and more fear-inducing than the coronavirus pandemic. But instead, as we spoke with historians and searched for the plague’s lasting marks, what stood out most were the similarities, 672 years apart. Theirs was a mysterious bacteria spreading at a time when people didn’t yet understand disease transmission; ours, a novel virus infiltrating a world that prides itself on its medical knowledge. But in both cases, the first instinct was to close borders to try to keep the disease at bay. When that didn’t work, officials called for strict rules — but only some people paid attention. All the while, there was a proliferation of conspiracy theories. Many tried to blame the disease on outsiders or minorities — in medieval Europe, often Jews. “Much has changed since the 1340s,” author John Kelly wrote in his book on the plague, “but not human nature.” Then like now, people were divided over how to face the threat. Some in Florence shut themselves inside their homes and lived in isolation, according to a detailed account from 14th-century writer and poet Giovanni Boccaccio. Others ventured out in public, armed with herbs and spices intended to purify the air — a medieval version of HVAC filters and masks. Still others were cavalier about the disease and went about their lives socializing, drinking heavily, “satisfying their appetites by any means available,” Boccaccio wrote. Nobody was safe, and isolation scarcely worked as a safeguard in a dense city. But the people who gathered in groups courted greater risk. Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, a wealthy Florentine, wrote of daring dinner parties in which a host would gather 10 friends, with plans to reconvene again the next night. At the next dinner, Stefani said, sometimes “two or three were missing.” Lippi said that before the coronavirus pandemic, she had studied the plague with the “distance of a historian.” But she thought about the pits of plague victims in March, when hundreds were dying of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in Italy every day, when crematoriums couldn’t �keep up, and when military trucks were called into the city of Bergamo to haul away the dead. “It’s a very close connection,” she said. So it seems human behavior never changes and we don’t learn from history. We didn’t even learn from the global flu epidemic in 1918-1920. And an update on a possible vaccine? Not before the end of November possibly. There goes that carrot that Trump was dangling in front of his voters. Oliver ��Black finger paint and glitter. What more could a little boy want? Sihanoukville. Our last visit was to Wat Krom Buddhist Temple. Pagoda closeup �More pagodas �Painting of the faithful. �Reclining buddha with monks �Standing monk statues �And back to the ship after a busy day. On to Thailand tomorrow. Its the start of another day here in Covid Central. If only we had someone in charge at the top, leading us, who could issue orders for restrictions, PPE manufacture, unemployment benefits etc. Oh that’s right. We have Trump. If I keep myself safe, will you keep yourself safe too? �� 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_2020-10-16_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-219 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 2020-10-16 Title A name given to the resource Day 219 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/8c3626568c8332674b5b022446c737a2.pdf e07a2e28e6328b6a7ecf9addcd3050d1 PDF Text Text Day 218: 19 days to the election. by windoworks Two days ago, my mother-in-law (who reads my posts) was talking with a group of friends and the topic switched to ‘When did America stop being great?’ I wonder how we would all answer that. In my mind there is no question that America began its slide away from greatness when Trump began campaigning in 2015. We all laughed at his onscreen antics and we were sure that each new disturbing statement would signal the end of his presidency hopes. Remember ‘I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and they would still love me’? The problem was, and is, we - the reasonable people of the world, the ones who try to always engage ethics and morals in our everyday life - we couldn’t (and still don’t) really understand his followers. And that’s our problem: we keep expecting Trump, his Republicans and his followers to �suddenly become real, normal humans who try to do their best every day. Its never going to happen. That’s a hard pill to swallow. These people are who they are. As far as I can tell, they have no rules to live by. They really are the epitome of “anything goes” and “whatever helps you get to the top”. So once we all accept that, life becomes easier. It much easier to live, day by day, knowing that these people, encouraged by Trump, will do anything and everything to stay on top. There is no depth to their actions, no bottom of the pit. So the trick is to live in as responsible and ethical way as you possibly can, and make sure you do everything in your power to change the person and his group in charge. I think we all forget that politicians are voted into power by us. Their power is given to them to work for us. If we do not like or approve of the way they are using that power, we can (shock!) vote them out and vote in someone else in their place. When a candidate tells us: I will do my best for you if you elect me - they should be held to that promise. Otherwise, find someone else. Its not that we should expect our representatives to be perfect. I always remember this: every person puts their underwear on, one leg at a time. Politician are just people who chose a career in politics instead of being a teacher or a plumber. Here’s this cheering news from Crooked Media: In total, about 15 million Americans have already voted in early. In North Carolina, nearly one-in-five voters who cast early ballots didn't vote in 2016. So, 19 days. Meanwhile, Trump continues to hold rallies. and here’s a roundup of his craziness also from Crooked Media: • There’s simply no need for the media to help Trump spread misinformation when he’s so prolific on his own. On Tuesday night, the president inserted himself into the controversy over the California Republican Party’s fake and illegal ballot drop boxes in counties with competitive House races with a fullthroated endorsement of election fraud: “You mean only Democrats are allowed to do this? But haven’t the Dems been doing this for years? See you in court. Fight hard Republicans!” On Tuesday Trump also retweeted a next-level deranged QAnon conspiracy theory that the Obama administration staged Osama Bin Laden’s death and had a Navy SEAL team killed, so it seems like things are going well for him. • The good news is that however irresponsibly the media, the president, or a pack of GOP senators behaves, everything hinges on what the rest of us do in the next three weeks. We can choose to ignore the polls, take nothing for granted, and share the information that matters—and we must. �The above is funny and awful at the same time. So this leads us on to the virus, from New York Times: The autumn wave of the coronavirus has reached a dangerous new stage. The number of new daily cases has risen almost 50 percent in the U.S. over the past month. The situation is even worse in Europe. For the first time since late March, the per capita number of new cases in Europe exceeds the number in the U.S. “The virus is everywhere in France,” the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said yesterday, while imposing a nighttime curfew in major cities. �The almost deserted Jardin des Tuileries in the middle of Paris. The onset of cooler weather, which is driving more people indoors, seems to be playing a big role. And many people seem to have grown tired of pandemic restrictions, leading politicians — in both Europe and the U.S. — to lift restrictions prematurely. But the pandemic hasn’t gone away. While treatments are getting better, many people are still dying — including almost 6,000 in India over the past week, 5,000 in the U.S., 1,700 in Iran, 850 in Spain and about 600 in both Britain and France. A widely available vaccine is still months away, even if the current research trials go well. Amid all of this bad news, it’s worth keeping in mind that some countries continue to fight the virus successfully. The per capita rate of new cases in Canada is less than half as high as it is in the U.S. In Australia and much of Africa and Asia, the rate remains near zero. In many places where case counts are rising, political leaders are reluctant to impose new lockdowns, because the public is tired of them. But that creates something of a Catch-22: The most reliable way to reverse big outbreaks of this virus has been through strict crackdowns. And here’s that new idea from the White House. From Crooked Media: The White House has reportedly embraced a declaration by a group of scientists arguing for a herd immunity strategy—a fringe position that horrifies most epidemiologists. That approach would call for authorities to allow the coronavirus to spread freely among young healthy people, who famously have no �misgivings about potential long-term neurological damage and other symptoms, and/or death. The declaration, which top administration officials reportedly support, has medical signatories which include names like Dr. I.P. Freely, Dr. Person Fakename, and Dr. Johnny Bananas. Meanwhile, new coronavirus cases have been trending upwards in 39 states, 36,051 people were hospitalized as of Tuesday evening, and Trump continues to shout dangerous misinformation at unmasked crowds on a nightly basis. His behavior encourages this: Crooked Media: A Wisconsin judge has blocked an order from Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) limiting bar and restaurant capacity. Elsewhere in Wisconsin, a bar owner who hosted an interview with Donald Trump, Jr., and is now in the ICU with coronavirus would like to punch the president. As would we all. I’m reminded of a favorite saying: you hold him and I’ll hit him. The virus is still here and now its surging again. Pay attention. Don’t become a superspreader and don’t allow yourself to become a victim. And to emphasize how serious it is, from NPR’s New Normal: • The New York Philharmonic has canceled all of its scheduled concerts through next June. It’s the first time in the orchestra's 178-year history that it has canceled an entire season. If that won’t make you sit up and take notice - nothing will. Oliver at daycare. �Sihanoukville. Next we visited the markets. �A monk walking through the market �Market produce �Shellfish. Next we visited Ochheuteal Beach. it was a lovely beach but very disconcerting with signs which said something like - children may be used as sex slaves here, please report to authorities. There were also signs warning about pickpockets. ��More Sihanoukville tomorrow. As the weather cools and the virus surges, we must remember to wear masks outside the home, wash our hands carefully and stand well back from everyone. We can do this. I’m counting on you. � 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_2020-10-15_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-218 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 2020-10-15 Title A name given to the resource Day 218 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/d47f12a08cbd6049e9035838455c0c57.pdf d9429136b4c257d259a7a305f937dcdc PDF Text Text Day 217 by windoworks Its 7:26am, pitch dark and 44F. The statistics in Michigan are rising. The charts I usually use have not been updated for 2 days - which makes their numbers meaningless. In Kent County we continue to see an average of 120 new cases per day. I’m not sure what is causing this rise. Some K-12 schools are back in a hybrid face-to-face system near us and their regime is strictly enforced. There have been few outbreaks in these schools. There have been more outbreaks at colleges - you can control university students to a certain level, but after lectures finish for the day, it is harder to supervise students. Here’s an excellent breakdown of the virus from new scientist.com A team from the Covid Symptom Study has split the disease into six types: 1 Flu-like symptoms, no fever Headache, loss of smell, cough, sore throat and aches and pains, but no fever. Around 1.5 per cent of this group will go on to require breathing support in hospital. 2 Flu-like symptoms with fever Similar to group 1, plus a loss of appetite and fever. 3 Gastrointestinal �Diarrhoea alongside loss of smell and appetite, headache, sore throat and chest pain. Typically, no cough. 4 Fatigue This cluster is considered more severe than the previous three, as 8.6 per cent require breathing support. Fatigue accompanies headache, loss of smell, cough, chest pain and fever. 5 Confusion Another severe category. People experience confusion in addition to symptoms listed in cluster four. Around 10 per cent will require breathing support. 6 Abdominal and respiratory Considered the most severe cluster, because almost half will require hospitalisation, and around a fifth will need breathing support. Symptoms include headache, fever, loss of smell and appetite, cough, sore throat and chest pain, along with shortness of breath, diarrhoea and abdominal pain, muscle pain, confusion and fatigue. Here’s a link the study’s own diagram - https://covid.joinzoe.com/earlysymptomsdiscoveries In other virus related news, scientists have recorded at least one case of reinfection. Science Alert COVID-19 patients may experience more severe symptoms the second time they are infected, according to research released Tuesday confirming it is possible to catch the potentially deadly disease more than once. A study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal charts the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection in the United States - the country worst hit by the pandemic - and indicates that exposure to the virus may not guarantee future immunity. The patient, a 25-year-old Nevada man, was infected with two distinct variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, within a 48-day time frame. The second infection was more severe than the first, resulting in the patient being hospitalised with oxygen support. The paper noted four other cases of reinfection confirmed globally, with one patient each in Belgium, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Ecuador. Experts said the prospect of reinfection could have a profound impact on how the world battles through the pandemic. This morning the news was that a second person in the US had contracted the virus for the second time. There’s talk at the White House that herd immunity might be the answer - because hey, doing almost nothing to help hasn’t worked so well, so why not take it down a notch? Washington Post Allowing the coronavirus to spread unchecked in an attempt to reach herd immunity is “simply unethical,” the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday, noting it would mean �“unnecessary infections, suffering and death.” But the idea, which the NIH chief calls “dangerous” and “fringe,” has found an audience inside the White House and at least one state capitol, appalling top scientists. And all the while, Trump is out rallying (oh I’m sorry, campaigning) again. From the ‘pull no punches’ Crooked Media: Hoarsely addressing a packed, largely maskless crowd in Florida on Monday night, Donald Trump finally hit on that perfect blend of pandemic recklessness and predatory sense of entitlement that suburban moms go crazy for: “I feel so powerful. I’ll walk into that audience. I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women—everybody.” In a sign of how well things are going for Trump since his diagnosis, he has a rally planned in Iowa this week and surrogates scheduled to campaign in Georgia, Nebraska, and Ohio—traditionally red states where he’s been bleeding support. Remember the many vaccine trials? Here’s another hiccup from Crooked Media : Eli Lilly has paused clinical trials of its coronavirus antibody treatment, and Johnson & Johnson has paused trials of its vaccine candidate due to safety concerns. Which means that some volunteers got sick and they have to determine the cause. Vaccines take years to develop safely and even then they’re not foolproof. Each year when we get our flu shot, the drug company promises that if you do get the flu, it won’t be as bad as if you didn’t have your flu shot. Cold comfort. In the meantime, the trials of the ‘kidnap Whitmer and put her on trial for treason’ protagonists have begun in Grand Rapids. It had been reported that the militia members involved had also discussed kidnapping Governor Ralph Northam, the Democratic governor of Virginia. Whitmer thanked everyone involved in the surveillance and arrests but apparently forgot to grovel at Trump’s feet - nobody can explain why he thought that was justified. From the Washington Post, quoted from the trial: Here’s the reality: President Trump called upon his supporters to ‘LIBERATE VIRGINIA’ in April — just like Michigan. In fact, the President regularly encourages violence against those who disagree with him. The rhetoric coming out of this White House has serious and potentially deadly consequences. It must stop. So, as always, Oliver, ��After Vietnam we sailed on to Cambodia. Our first stop was a fishing village near Sihanoukville. Despite being the country's premier sea side destination, after decades of war and upheaval the town and its infrastructure remain very much disjointed and architecturally unimpressive. Infrastructure problems persist, in particular related to water and power supply, while international standard health facilities remain limited. Sihanoukville also faces challenges related to crime, security, and safety with the city frequently being the focus of scandals linked to serious organized crime, petty crime, and corruption. Wikipedia Fishermen playing cards �This fishing village is largely on the water - one side of the dock is where their boats dock and on the other side, their small dwellings. �Making underwater repairs to a fishing boat. �Drying the fish. This was one of the poorest places I have ever visited, but the people seemed happy, perhaps because they were paid to allow us to visit them. Its 8:34am, cloudy skies and 43F. So, same old, same old. 20 days to the election but who knows how long until someone is declared a winner. The virus is surging again and we are still sheltering in place. Remember: MASK UP! � 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_2020-10-14_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-217 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 2020-10-14 Title A name given to the resource Day 217 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/5231c29f86b9d4ce6044db5e87ec6c2e.pdf aed6180d1e4a69d84a2a62459023cbf5 PDF Text Text Day 216: exactly 3 weeks to Election Day by windoworks There are more and more mornings where I don’t know where to begin. I once wrote that subconsciously, all my life, I had wanted to live in the United States. I looked at magazines with girls wearing plaid skirts and Bobby socks and matching sweaters and I wanted to be that girl. Then as John Lennon sang: Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. 18 years ago Craig was offered a tenure track position at Grand Valley State University and we sold the house and all our possessions, packed 2 suitcases each and shipped 54 boxes of Craig’s books, said goodbye to the children and our family, and moved to Grand Rapids Michigan. My sister wrote: at last, one of the Smyth girls lives in the States. She and her husband had moved here after their wedding and were never returning to New Zealand - but then my mother became terminally ill and my sister was a nurse.......... but that’s another story for another day. Although the first few weeks here were hard without family and friends, I soon settled in and began to get involved in the neighborhood and then the city and so on. I even became friends with our local policeman, who one memorable day, rolled down his car window and called across the street: Hello Miss Pamela, How are you? I felt at home. I was not stupid. I knew there were inequalities and barely concealed racism and poverty. There are many stories of my experiences I could relate here - but today is not that day. When Trump was elected in 2016, we were living in the south of France. We woke in the morning to the news. French strangers offered commiserations (and free desserts) when they realized we were Americans. In the area we lived in for 2 months, politics existed but farming and living comfortably within your means was more important. It may be very different in the French cities, but the countryside lets those in the big cities get on with it. We returned home at the beginning of 2017 and everything gradually began to change. What bothered me the most was the anger. And it was anger aimed at people like me, because I was “liberal”. In these past 4 years I have felt like a bystander watching something catastrophic unfold - you know its a train wreck but you can’t look away. I finally understood what was happening the other day, after Trump made 2 secret service men take him for a drive while he was still in hospital and contagious. Trump is the President of the United States and he uses his unlimited power to get anything he wants. If he says: take me out for a drive, that’s exactly what the secret service men had to do - they had no choice. There is no one in the world who can say no to Trump. No one. So here we are. You’ll be glad to know that in places overseas we are regarded as the most entertaining reality show on TV. How nice it is that we are able to provide such light relief to the rest of the world. But �its not just a TV show to those of us living here. I have actually said to friends - please don’t tell me you’re a Republican. If you do, I simply can’t be your friend. The new dreadful items that appear in my news feed are so unbelievable I have difficulty grasping them. Here’s an example: Republicans have set up fake absentee ballot collection boxes in California, so people can put their ballots in there and by inference, help the Republicans win the presidency. Wait, what? Do they have safety stickers saying: only Democratic ballots, please? In Texas the Republican Governor removed all ballot drop boxes except one per county, and some counties cover 2000 square miles. A judge blocked this, but then 3 Republican lower court judges blocked his block. In our city, they have put 24 hour cameras on each Dropbox and they clear the boxes twice a day. They have received our ballots - I checked online. What bothers me the most, is that none of this is done surreptitiously. Its all done in plain sight with the smiling face which says clearly: we can and you can’t stop us. I’ll admit that when I first moved here, I knew there was a very ugly underside to America, I wasn’t that naive. But gradually over the past 4 years, a truly unpalatable view of America has emerged where there are fewer and fewer checks and balances. This morning I read this: Washington Post Roughly half of Trump supporters agreed with the statement: “Once our government leaders and the authorities condemn the dangerous elements in our society, it will be the duty of every patriotic citizen to help stomp out the rot that is poisoning our country from within,” which Altemeyer and Dean characterize as “practically a Nazi cheer.” And meanwhile the virus continues to infect more and more people, both here and across the world. Businesses are failing, people are homeless and starving and hospitals are struggling to keep up. In the US Coronavirus Cases: 8,038,391. Deaths: 220,021. In Michigan - Coronavirus Cases: 136,465. Deaths: 6,898. In Kent County - Coronavirus Cases: 10,636. Deaths: 169. It is getting harder and harder to obtain daily statistics. Using the Kent County Health Dept site (the only updated site I could find) tells me that there was an increase of 1,810 new cases from yesterday in Michigan and an increase of new cases from yesterday of (wait for it) 235 new cases in Kent County. Is this the second or the third surge? I forget. Oliver at daycare - they used toy cars to paint with on ‘roads’. ��Once again, there are 21 days until the election. What will happen? No one knows. In the meantime, do your bit to keep us all safe. Wear your mask, physically distance yourself (at least 6 feet and preferably more) from others and wash your hands, all day long. 21 days. 21 days. 21 days. 21 days. 21 days........................... � 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_2020-10-13_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-216 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 2020-10-13 Title A name given to the resource Day 216 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/67fadc6850aa810c3ad9f8a856d98bab.pdf 4c42302c73117dd9795ffbf5000bd72f PDF Text Text Day 215 by windoworks Some trans Tasman flights will begin on October 16, one way between New Zealand and Australia. There are conditions - at this point New Zealanders would have to fly from the South Island only. Australians are not allowed to fly to New Zealand. When New Zealanders return home, they will have to quarantine for 14 days and be tested. In Melbourne, there is a slight lifting of restrictions. My son and his housemate were permitted to have a picnic on Sunday with 2 members of another household within their 5 km circle. When you look at the statistics for Australia, yesterdays total cases was 27,286 and 20,295 of those total cases were in the state of Victoria. Total deaths for Australia: 898 and 810 of those deaths were in Victoria. You can see why all states in Australia closed their borders. Borders around Victoria may still be closed but the large majority of cases and deaths have occurred in the city of Melbourne. Every exit from the city is closed with army personnel patrolling them. The city has done a great job of containing the outbreak amid growing unrest from a section of the community. The Premier of Victoria is prepared to be voted out of office for his strict lockdown actions. Here’s a sign from Sydney: �Meanwhile from ClickonDetroit �As of Sunday, data shows that Michigan currently has an infection rate of 1.12 -- meaning each person infected with COVID-19 is infecting 1.12 other people. The state’s infection rate had improved throughout August after increasing in July, but began to increase again throughout September. Covid Act Now considers an infection rate “critical” if it surpasses 1.4. Michigan’s current infection rate of 1.12 is considered “high," and is contributing to the state’s worsened risk status for virus spread. Another factor contributing to Michigan’s high risk status is the number of new COVID-19 cases recorded each day per every 100,000 people. On Sunday, Covid Act Now reports that Michigan is recording 11.7 new COVID-19 cases each day per every 100,000 residents -- a number that the research group considers “high.” Any number higher than 1 is considered “medium” and anything above 10 is considered “high." A state has reached “critical” standing if it reports more than 25 daily new cases per every 100,000 residents. Michigan is currently experiencing its largest spike in COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic. On Saturday, the state reported a total of 134,656 confirmed virus cases, recording an increase of 1,522 new cases since Friday -- the highest single-day increase since April 7. As of Saturday, the state’s 7-day moving average of new cases reached 1,020. This is the first time Michigan has recorded a 7-day moving average above 1,000 since April 17. ���Did Trump have the coronavirus? We’ll never know. The White House medical team seemed to have set aside the Hippocratic Oath all doctors are supposed to take and chosen instead to follow Trump’s lead. Trump is again setting out for rallies and meetings, declaring loudly: I am immune. Again - we’ll never know. He is promising a vaccine for all before the Election Day on November 3. But most of us know that any vaccine delivered that early will not have had anything like complete testing. I am not an anti-vaxxer but even I would not be willing have an early vaccine administered to me. And here’s a thought I have - he’s on a fairly strong dose of steroids. Here’s some of the side effects: Difficulty sleeping High blood pressure Increased appetite, weight gain Insomnia Lower resistance to infection Muscle weakness Nervousness, restlessness Stomach irritation or bleeding Sudden mood swings There are other side effects as well but these seemed the most pertinent. �On a completely different subject here’s this: Washington Post �Think about the changes we have accepted in our own lives in response to the pandemic. We have agreed to isolate ourselves for long stretches. We have worked, attended meetings and had deeply personal conversations by talking to our laptops. We’ve taken online courses and have seen doctors and therapists using telemedicine. In a month, companies changed policies that would normally have taken them years to revise. Overnight, cities turned avenues into pedestrian walkways and sidewalks into cafes. Attitudes toward people previously ignored or overlooked are shifting, as can been seen in the newly adopted phrase “essential workers.” And governments have opened up their coffers in ways that were once unimaginable and could lead to much greater willingness to invest in the future. The pandemic has made so many — nations and individuals — turn inward and become selfish. Its up to us now, which way we go forward. Should we continue to make positive changes in the world, in OUR world, or should we turn inward and become selfish. I can only say that I know what path I will choose. Some time ago I watched all of the Handmaids Tale on TV. Margaret Atwood wrote the book in 1985 and many critics found it to be implausible. In the last 4 years I have seen numerous references to the book and TV series as being all too plausible right now. If you have never read it, the book explores themes of subjugated women in a patriarchal society and the various means by which these women resist and attempt to gain individuality and independence. In 2019, Atwood published the sequel: The Testaments. The novel is set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale. I think that what I liked most about it was that it showed how any dystopian society will ultimately crumble from the inside. And here’s one change that has already happened: New York Times Online orders have surged for retailers in the pandemic, as curbside pickup helps Americans satisfy their desire to hop in a car and drive to the store. What started as a coronavirus stopgap is likely to have a permanent impact on the way people shop. Speaking of which, this afternoon Craig and I will drive over to the Penzeys store to pick up my curbside order of herbs and spices. And I am waiting for my order of assorted English teabags to be delivered in the next few days. �Here’s Oliver back at daycare surrounded by his favorite toys. �Our last photos from Ho Chi Minh City - The Reception Room in the Palace with an incredible lacquer landscape �In the Vietnam National Museum - a triumphant mural. ��This museum was a popular place for bridal photos. �Saigon parking. On to Cambodia tomorrow ���22 days. Rise up and vote as if your life depends on it. � 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_2020-10-12_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-215 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 2020-10-12 Title A name given to the resource Day 215 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/ab83a5b3002074b5bc5bb477974c3a24.pdf 471be6e301689c4330b95bededebdf99 PDF Text Text Day 214 by windoworks So, Trump has been declared no longer contagious (when did he contract the virus?) by the “doctor” and he has taken that as a sign to begin holding strictly unregulated rallies while continuing to post extraordinary assertions on Twitter. His fans are very excited because he has rallied from death’s door to lead them to his promised land - again. The thing is, Trump will promise anything if he thinks it will win him a second term. Meanwhile Joe Biden and Kamala Harris continue to hold safe, strictly regulated town halls and stump speeches while the Republican misinformation service continues to throw all kinds of ridiculous allegations against them. I suppose that when you decide to stand for any sort of office, you must recognize that your opponents will find all kinds of scurrilous trash to broadcast about you, and that’s a risk you’re prepared to take. And the virus. It is gradually dawning on everyone that the world is now experiencing a resurgence. In France the cases are rising again, and Paris has shut down bars etc., in an attempt to bring the daily numbers down. Britain is seeing a dramatic rise in cases while Boris Johnson is hesitating on shutting the country down again. There is also an ongoing discussion about how fit he is to govern after his hospitalization 6 months ago with Covid-19. Plus, the Scots have had enough and want to hold another referendum about detaching Scotland from the United Kingdom and returning to the European Union. New York Times More than one million new coronavirus cases in three days. The world recorded the highest total ever in such short span, a reflection of resurgences in Europe and the U.S. and uninterrupted outbreaks in India, Brazil and other countries. The number of new cases is growing faster than ever worldwide, according to a Times database. Boris has yet to unveil his plan for Brexit - and times up at the end of this month. In New Zealand, the level dropped to Level One last Wednesday which means life returned to almost normal except for traveling out of New Zealand. In Australia cases are almost nonexistent in all states except New South Wales and Victoria. Our son Asher, who is still locked down in Melbourne continues to be cheerful but I assume its becoming an effort. In Sydney, Oliver came home at lunchtime on Friday from daycare because he had a temperature and was unhappy. Zoe couldn’t get in to see her own doctor, so she took him to the nearby hospital ER. Because he had a temperature they were put into a room with a bed while they waited to be seen. The nurse came in dressed in a Hazmat suit and tested Oliver for Covid (which he didn’t have). So Oliver is cranky and teary, very tired and very thirsty - all regular virus symptoms. While Oliver really loves daycare, it does seem a hothouse for all kinds of viruses. �This morning I came across this in my daily research scan: ��These are real cruise ships. They’re being broken down for scrap metal as yet another casualty of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has docked ships across the globe. After the Michigan Supreme Court overturned Gov Whitmer’s State of Emergency regulations, the Michigan State Health Department took over - and they’re stricter with stronger penalties. They’re asking businesses to facilitate customers signing in so that they have reliable contact tracing sources. The Republicans are not happy. Awww. Careful what you wish for. And Crooked Media says it so well: • The U.S. reported 56,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Thursday, the highest daily increase since mid-August. In technical epidemiology terms, this is what is known as “the wrong direction.” • The White House reportedly blocked a CDC order that would have required everyone to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transportation. In technical epidemiology terms, this is what is known as “the type of shit that sent us in the wrong direction.” The reason why Lindsey Graham refused to be tested for the virus is not because he cares about the debate with his opponent but because, if it turns out that he is positive, he wouldn’t be able to chair the Senate committee for Amy Whatsherface’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. And oh, here’s another tidbit after the debacle (read superspreader) in the Rose Garden where a possibly already contagious Trump introduced Amy to the party faithful, her children went back to school and uh oh! Spread the virus there. �Perhaps its time for a little education on cause and effect. Oh that’s right. No one who is a faithful Republican believes in Science. Because facts are so depressing, aren’t they? On Friday morning we visited Meijer Gardens. We thought the quick pass through the enclosed entrance would be worth it. Now I am glad that we went, but the number of people pushing past us or standing still in the middle of the walkway - almost all maskless - was disturbing, so we won’t go back for a while. We walked around the boardwalk and looked out over the wetlands. Here are a group of swans landing on the water. �It is a chilly morning, so I rugged up. ��Pointing is his new big thing. Our next stop in Ho Chi Minh City was the former palace. Evidently Ho Ch Minh refused to live there, but had a stilt house built for himself in the grounds. The Cabinet Room. �Craig and the gate. In the final stages of the war, a North Vietnamese tank came crashing through the gates and this symbolized the end of the war. �The preserved tank. �Palace communications room More Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow Its 23 days to the election. In the manner of Tsunamis, the voter water has drawn back, leaving Trump and the Republicans flopping on the sand. And far in the distance, they can hear hear the roar of the returning enormous Blue Tsunami. Make it happen, my tribe. �� 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_2020-10-11_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-214 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 2020-10-11 Title A name given to the resource Day 214 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/44da199dd885945644385c31c17b38bc.pdf 898e6199b60152391cabd28bb33b1275 PDF Text Text Day 213: Saturday October 10 by windoworks From a FaceBook post by Heather Cox Richardson: On October 8, 2020, the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, appears to be melting down. Over the course of the day, he has called for the imprisonment of his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, as well as his own predecessor, President Barack Obama, and called Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris a “monster” and a “communist.” He released a video addressed to seniors, who are leaving him in droves, calling them "my favorite people in the world," and speculated that he could continue to hold rallies as early as this weekend, before his quarantine period is over. He called into the Fox News Channel twice, ranting. Of his bout with coronavirus, he said: “I’m back because I’m a perfect physical specimen and I’m extremely young.” He is erratic enough that tomorrow, the House will begin to consider a bill seeking to enforce the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, designed to provide an exit ramp for a president who is experiencing physical or mental impairments that make him unable to lead the nation. The bill, advanced by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, will not pass, but it will keep focus on what seems to be the president’s precarious mental state. The 25th Amendment. This is couched in heavily legal terms, but it says that for whatever reason (and frankly that leaves it pretty wide open) , if the President is removed from office, then the Vice President steps in. NBC NEWS WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., introduced legislation Friday that would create a bipartisan commission to determine a sitting president’s ability to carry out the duties of the office. At a press conference unveiling the legislation with its original author, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Pelosi said the measure is not intended specifically for President Donald Trump, but she suggested he was the impetus for it. “This is not about President Trump. He will face the judgment of the voters, but he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents,” she said. "This legislation applies to future presidents, but we are reminded of the necessity of action by the health of the current president." The idea for the legislation stems from the 25th Amendment, which provides procedures for transferring power to the vice president in case of the president's death, incapacitation, removal or resignation. The amendment was ratified and approved in the wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. One of its sections provides the vice president and the majority of either the Cabinet "or such other body as Congress may by law provide" with a mechanism to transfer power from the president. �The commission would consist of 16 members, chosen both by Democrats and Republicans, who are medical experts or former high-ranking executive branch officials such as former members of a president’s Cabinet. The 17th member, the chair, would be selected by the rest of the commission’s members. I am watching events unfold with a jaded sense of disbelief. Trump seems to have descended to an unbalanced hell of his own making. He is now ordering actions that are nonsensical. He ordered Bill Barr to arrest Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton with no real idea of what imaginary crimes they might done. His doctor has said that he has completed the COVID-19 treatment regime and Trump has taken this as a sign that he can go out, maskless and begin his superspreader rallies again. However, in a radio interview with Fox, his voice was raspy and he kept trying to clear his throat and coughing. And the one phrase that really bothered me was ‘I’m extremely young’. Now Trump can boast that he’s a perfect physical specimen and I’ll allow him that fantasy - but extremely young at 74? Well I must be a babe in arms then at 70. I think that shows his mental unbalance perfectly. In the meantime, Dana Nessel, the Attorney General of Michigan posted this: NPR.ORG Investigators found the men's mission is what white supremacist groups call "the Boogaloo," which Nessel described as an uprising or a second civil war. "This effort to have a mass uprising nationally is something that we should be very concerned about because, again, it's not just a Michigan problem, this is an American problem." FBI Director Christopher Wray in February announced that the threat posed racially motivated violent extremists had reached a new "national threat priority." Nessel said she concurs with that assessment and contends racist militia groups currently operating across the country are taking advantage of the unrest that's been caused by the COVID-19 epidemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. “They're using it to recruit and to formulate plots," she charged. Part of the recruitment effort took place during a protest at the state capitol over the summer where militia members stood on the steps holding guns and rifles. "I think that those protests were used actually as recruiting stations to add more members and to find people that were angry with the governor, angry with the government, and frankly, I think encouraged by the words of our president," Nessel said. Joe Biden responded quickly to the news of the plot - As a nation, we are at a crossroads. We have come to a point where, despite our shock, we are not surprised that such a heinous plot was even conceived — a plot by Americans to blow up a bridge on American soil, threaten the lives of police officers and other law enforcement officials, and kidnap an �American leader, take her hostage, and stage a mock trial for treason. It’s the kind of twisted plot we expect from ISIS, but now it’s here at home. The words of a president matter. They can move markets. They can bring peace. They can bring war. They can heal divisions or incite violence. And here’s a takeout from Gretchen Whitmer’s opinion piece in the Washington Post: But just moments later, President Trump’s campaign adviser, Jason Miller, appeared on national television accusing me of fostering hatred. I’m not going to waste my time arguing with the president. But I will always hold him accountable. Because when our leaders speak, their words carry weight. When our leaders encourage domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit. And when a sitting president stands on a national stage refusing to condemn white supremacists and hate groups, as President Trump did when he told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during the first presidential debate, he is complicit. Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry. So the country is in the hands of a crazy person who is struggling with a serious dose of the virus which is not helped by his obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol count - and before you tell me that his doctor says the last two are perfect - so are my blood pressure and cholesterol because of the medications I take every day - just like Trump does. He doesn’t look so good, no hair dye, no tanning bed and no one left around him because they’re all sick or quarantined. We will never know how long he was asymptomatic. We will never know how many were infected through the White House, and how many more were infected down the line. Democratic candidate Jamie Harrison who is running against Republican Lindsey Graham, asked for him to have a Covid test before their debate. Graham refused - so no debate. �Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, was one of the people at a rally in East Lansing this week, still protesting Gov Whitmer’s orders to keep us all safe. Almost immediately, a group of strong Whitmer supporters did this outside the State House: New York Times �Yesterday’s arrests are the latest evidence that a small but meaningful number of Americans believe that violence is the only answer to the country’s political divisions. “We’re seeing more and more citizens expressing openness to violence as more and more partisan leaders engage in the kinds of dehumanizing rhetoric that paves the way for taking violent action,” Lee Drutman, one of the political scientists who oversaw the YouGov poll, told me. Since May, more than 50 people have driven vehicles into peaceful protesters. Armed protesters shut down the Michigan legislature in May. Armed groups on the left and right have done battle in Oregon and Wisconsin. Extremists have attacked journalists, including an instance in Brooklyn on Wednesday night. And top Republican politicians have encouraged violence in ways no prominent Democrat has. Greg Gianforte, a Republican congressman now running to be Montana’s governor, pleaded guilty to assaulting a reporter who asked a question he didn’t like in 2017. 24 days. I’m just exhausted by this. It never stops. I’m pretty sure that the person leading this country is insane and his minions encourage his insanity for their own financial gain. I feel as though each of us is �standing on an ice floe which day by day, gets smaller and smaller. When I began writing this post I thought is would be about the virus, but gradually it has morphed into a document chronicling the gradual dissolution of the United States. It doesn’t feel at all United to me. Perhaps, more realistically it should just be the the States. I could list all the egregious actions going on in a large number of States as the incumbent Republicans try desperately to hold on to their voter base, but you would lose interest after the first 4 bullet points and accuse me of writing fiction. Last night, a helicopter buzzed over Grand Rapids for 2 hours or so. FaceBook filled up with local citizens complaining about the noise (which Craig and I were completely unaware of). Just a few posts said ‘rather helicopters than gang fights and terrorists with guns’ and gradually the people posting said “ well yes, I suppose thats right’. 24 days. If you think Trump is off the rails now, just wait. He’ll have to be marched out of the White House under guard if Biden wins. 24 days. Vote. Vote in such enormous numbers that there can be no mistake. ��“And he’s starting his run with the ball. The crowd goes wild - is the batsman out? Yes! Is the resounding cry. (Cricket) French architecture in Ho Chi Minh City. The French invaded Vietnam in 1857 and claimed it as French Indochina. After the French left, Vietnam was divided into North and South Vietnam in 1954. For much more information, check out Wikipedia. Ho Chi Minh statue and the Hotel de Ville behind. �Inside the French train station �Notre Dame de Saigon �Saigon Opera House. �Saigon Post Office. These buildings were are clustered together in the center of the city. Each building had been lovingly maintained but odd to see in a Vietnam city. �I can relate to this! Remember 24 days. 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_2020-10-10_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-213 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 2020-10-10 Title A name given to the resource Day 213 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/c38b82caf6ce543de25bbcce30cf18ac.pdf bd091de3c53dc254e170b7910ce36cec PDF Text Text Day 212 by windoworks We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. �And this: �And really, thats all I’m going to say about the VP debate. But interestingly, after refusing to wear a mask (against debate organizers rules) and having a hissy fit about the plexiglass safety shields, Pence has �canceled his trip to Indiana? (can’t remember, don’t care) for no reason whatsoever. Could he be ill?? Voters want to know. And this from The Atlantic: About that fly … “It symbolized the whole Pence vice presidency,” David Frum argues. For the past four years, Pence has been “the man who pretended not to notice.” I think we’ve reached this moment and I can safely say this: we’re going to hell in a hand basket. Oh what does that mean, Pamela? It sounds so bad. Here’s what it means: To go to hell in a handbasket means to go to one's doom, to deteriorate quickly, to proceed on a course to disaster. Yep, I think we’re there. Yesterday an astoundingly upsetting and frightening thing came to light. The FBI, State Police, the State Attorney-General and the 2 US Attorneys for Michigan arrested a total of 13 men who were planning a civil insurrection to overthrow the state government and their opening shot was to kidnap and possibly murder Governor Gretchen Whitmer and her family. They had held gun training sessions and tried to construct an anti personnel bomb with shrapnel, and they had checked out the location of the abduction carefully and methodically. There is ongoing investigations with possible further arrests. As soon as the news broke, Joe Biden called Gov Whitmer to check that she was all right. So did Charlie Baker, the Republican governor of Massachusetts, someone Gretchen didn’t know all that well, but he still called to check on her. Did the COVID-19 Superspreader in the White House call? Or VP Pence? That would be a resounding no - but Trump did, once again, castigate Gretchen for not thanking him for the FBI. Boy, those drugs have really loosened his tenuous grip on reality. David Holtz FB post �In April Donald Trump publicly sided with armed militia, calling them "very good people" who stormed our state capitol. "Liberate" Michigan, Trump tweeted at the time. By June right-wing extremists were meeting and organizing to kidnap Gov. Whitmer and put her on "trial" for treason. Vote. Please vote. And how’s that virus load going for him? I don’t think anyone’s actually seen him but he’s firing up Twitter all night long (side effect of steroids in large doses - you can’t sleep at all but you’re convinced you’re Superman) and he’s calling in to Fox News. He’s not sounding too great either - congested and struggling to breathe. Remember how I told you that the virus can fill your lungs with a Jello like substance? Yeah. �Because he’s convinced anything virtual won’t be a real debate because they can (Shock! Horror!) cut off your microphone if you start ranting and rambling. Plus, you won’t be able to infect your opponent so you can level the playing field. Oh. Trumpy - that ship has sailed. And from Crooked Media who always say it so well: On Thursday the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that the October 15 town hall-style debate would be virtual, on account of Trump’s continued status as (paraphrasing) a walking bucket of murder germs. Trump refused to participate in a format in which he a) could be easily muted and b) couldn’t cough on his opponent, and announced he would hold a superspreader rally instead. His campaign then called for the debate to be delayed altogether, an idea the Biden campaign immediately rejected: “Trump's erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar, and pick new dates of his choosing.” After Trump backed out (cue Elizabeth Warren chicken noises), Biden set up an ABC News town hall on October 15 to address voters on his own. The final debate on October 22 is, for now, still on. Its time for stats: US had a total of - Cases 7.64M +56,045 from yesterday. Deaths total 213K +928 new deaths from yesterday. Michigan had a total of Cases 147K +1,417 from yesterday. Deaths total 7,194 +23 new deaths from yesterday. Kent County had a total of Cases 10,112 + 113 new cases from yesterday. Deaths total 167 and the site continues to say no new deaths, although the total number keeps climbing one death at a time. In other news, a new hurricane is set to make touchdown as a Category 2 in Louisiana later today, 6 weeks after the last one on the same trajectory. More people at the White House are testing positive, Trumps ‘doctors’ won’t release his scans or x-rays, and won’t tell us how long since he last tested negative. From the Atlantic: Meanwhile, the White House remains a Trump bubble. This week Trump’s “staff again seemed to cater first to the president’s emotional needs, rather than the country’s interests or even his own health,” Peter Nicholas reports. I’m so exhausted by all this and I can’t imagine what tomorrow might bring - but at least we all have Oliver to distract us: ��I’ll just climb up here on the coffee table ......... He should be really good at ballet stretches at the barre in future. Still Nha Trang Fishing boats on the Cai River at Nha Trang. �Po Nagar Cham Towers. Po Nagar is a Cham temple tower founded sometime before 781 C.E. and located in the medieval principality of Kauthara, near modern Nha Trang in Vietnam. It is dedicated to Yan Po Nagar, the goddess of the country, who came to be identified with the Hindu goddesses Bhagavati and Mahishasuramardini, and who in Vietnamese is called Thiên Y Thánh Mẫu. Wikipedia. ��Po Nagar drummers �Po Nagar dancers - with clay pots on their heads. Tomorrow Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Hanoi). �Craig and I Stand With ‘That Woman From 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_2020-10-09_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-212 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 2020-10-09 Title A name given to the resource Day 212 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/a966fc82c71e5fb4e04c3598714fafe3.pdf 45cd69a7c90b694359c24c7a6a6ef24f PDF Text Text Day 211 by windoworks ��26 days! 26 days! 26 days! Yesterday I watched Kent County Health Department’s Dr London report. At the beginning of the pandemic, he would update us every day. Then it became every weekday, and lately, once or twice a week. Last week he said our positivity rate (that is, the percentage of positive cases) was 3.3%. During April and May, the positivity rate had fallen to just over 1% - which is very good. Last week he said that we wouldn’t want it to climb up to 4% because that would mean the virus was spreading and there would be a chance that our hospitals would be overwhelmed. Last night, talking to us (possibly from home) he said our positivity rate had risen to 3.9%. And it isn’t even winter yet. I didn’t watch the Vice Presidents debate. There is only so much anxiety, anger and fear I can tolerate. But from what I have read this morning it appears that Pence has swallowed Trump’s fantasy world, hook, line and sinker. He told whoppers during the debate, which is what happens when the truth will be unpalatable to his followers. I don’t have Twitter but according to Craig, Pence was awarded 4 Pinocchios for fibbing. And that fly that landed on Pence’s head? It has its own Twitter account now. But more seriously, the Republican Party is in disarray and incumbents are being strongly challenged by Democrats contenders. For a sitting Republican up for re-election, Trump leadership is a huge problem. Here’s what they’re contending with: Washington Post The Trump presidency has presented scores of painful lessons on the limitations of the power of positive thinking. Climate change continues to make fires, floods and hurricanes worse, even if Trump denies it and his political appointees seek to erase mentions of it from government reports. Russia interfered in the 2016 election and the intelligence community agrees the Kremlin is trying once again to influence the 2020 campaign, but Trump struggles to accept that reality because, current and former aides say, he believes that acknowledging the Kremlin’s support for his campaign would undermine his legitimacy. And so on. But nothing captures the hubris of trying to spin the primal forces of nature into submission more than the president’s response to the novel coronavirus. Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), a conservative in a tight race and close to GOP leaders, said, “I think the biggest mistake people make in public life is not telling the truth, particularly in something with as much public interest as here because you know the real story is going to come out.” Vulnerable Republicans are beginning to distance themselves from President Trump’s dismissive response to the coronavirus pandemic and his dramatic termination of negotiations with congressional Democrats over federal economic relief, with the latest cracks carrying enormous implications for Trump and the party with just four weeks until Election Day. Facing a political reckoning as Trump’s support plummets and a possible blue tsunami looms, it is now �conservatives and Trump allies who are showing flashes of discomfort with the president, straining to stay in the good graces of his core voters without being wholly defined by an erratic incumbent And all the while, more Pentagon officers are testing positive and Trump has moved back into the Oval Office and is insisting he will start up rallies again. Fortunately, the commission in charge of presidential debates has decided that the next debate this month will be a virtual town hall - and I’m assuming Trump and Biden won’t be in the same room. As I typed this, a post came in from the Washington Post: Trump says he won't participate in virtual debate format announced by organizers The president said he just learned of the decision by the Commission on Presidential Debates that the second debate, scheduled for next week, would be virtual and that he will not take part. “I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That’s not what debating is all about," he said in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business. The problem is that traditionally, the President of the United States was seen as the leader of the free world. Actually those words seem meaningless now. The presidency is a position of great power and control IF the president works with his advisors and others, like the Joint Chiefs. Trump has never worked with others in his life. As a businessman (and that’s another blogpost, but not today), he was in charge. His word was law. Why were we surprised when he approached the presidency the same way? Its all he knows. I remember Craig saying don’t worry, there are checks and balances. Unfortunately, checks and balances disappeared just under 4 years ago, and the only check has been the unending number of lawsuits brought against him, by State Attorney-Generals and the UCLA. Our AG, Dana Nessel, once famously said: I was prepared to take Trump to court - but I never imagined I would be doing that every single day. Here’s some new information regarding the virus. Livescience.com The new coronavirus can linger on human skin much longer than flu viruses can, according to a new study from researchers in Japan. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, remained viable on samples of human skin for about 9 hours, according to the study. In contrast, a strain of the influenza A virus (IAV) remained viable on human skin for about 2 hours. Fortunately, both viruses on skin were rapidly inactivated with hand sanitizer. The findings underscore the importance of washing your hands or using sanitizer to prevent the spread of COVID-19. At the same time, the CDC has released information that the aerosolized virus particles spread and remain in the air in enclosed spaces for much longer than originally thought. This comes right on the heels of the CDC’s proclamation that 6 feet apart is not far enough, especially indoors. However, search as I may, I can �find nothing more than “more than 6 feet is better”. What? 8 feet? 10 feet? 12 feet? Its not enough to say 6 feet may not be far enough. Words have been extremely scarce on vaccine development. At least one trial has halted because they cannot secure enough black or brown participants. Apparently vaccine trials need people of all ethnicities to be a successful measure, but when you think about it, its not the most reliable result to say: our vaccine works 100% on white people but we have no idea about anyone else. This made me laugh, but its bittersweet. And finally, its Oliver time. ��He’s really into dinosaurs. More Nha Trang. Craig reminded me that we had a very packed day excursion to Nha Trang. Inside Lon Son Pagoda �The Lon Son Pagoda with the Buddha above. �The memorial for martyred Buddhist monks and nuns at the base of the White Buddha. 7 stucco likenesses of Buddhist martyrs, monks and nuns who died protesting the repressive Ngo Dinh Diem regime in southern Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Some of them immolated themselves and the white Buddha was built to their memory in 1963. �A reclining Buddha is an image that represents Buddha lying down and is a major iconographic theme in Buddhist art. It represents the historical Buddha during his last illness, about to enter the parinirvana. In Buddhism, parinirvana is commonly used to refer to nirvana-after-death, which occurs upon the death of someone who has attained nirvana during his or her lifetime. Wikipedia. So here we are. 26 days to the election and probably a week later until we know the result unless there is a Blue Tsunami. I’ve done my part, have you? This made me laugh - and hope. �� 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_2020-10-08_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-211 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 2020-10-08 Title A name given to the resource Day 211 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/3fe9fe5f3ad92ee0c4913cd4da49d962.pdf df53ad5f5d9fd0d694d8e397cdc3d7d2 PDF Text Text Day 210 by windoworks This morning I offer a piece from a friend I met on our first ever cruise (the one I am posting at the moment). Her name is Auli and she lives in Finland with her husband. Here is her ‘View from Far Away’. There are 5.5 million inhabitants in Finland. In Helsinki (our capital where we live) there are over 600 000 inhabitants. Our population density is low which is good in this covid situation. The total number of infections today (counting from January) is 10,929 infections and 346 deaths in Finland. All in all, we have managed quite well so far - at least when compared to most of the other countries in Europe. In March when the number of infections started to grow it was a shock to most of the people. Our government made strict decisions. Schools, museums, theatres, swimming halls, libraries , restaurants etc. were closed in the whole country. Also quite many shops were closed because there were no clients. Our government also gave a recommendation to people to work remotely. Our maturity of digitalization is high so many people started to work at home - and the transition was quick and smooth. In April we had the metropolitan lockdown, i.e. one could come from the other parts of Finland only with serious reasons. That was unbelievable : there were police and army on the roads stopping people on the borders of our metropolitan county. Our public healthcare system is very good but doctors were worried how the healthcare system can handle the quickly increasing number of hospitalized patients. In spring the testing capacity was insufficient and there were also problems to buy enough masks. Anyway our hospitals managed quite well with those patients who needed normal and intensive care - nothing like we saw on TV how the situation was e.g. in Italy. Then the summer was a time to relax. The number of infections was very low. Libraries, restaurants etc. were all opened. With my husband Juhani we met our relatives and friends and ate at restaurants. We even attended a 100-year-birthday party in July (my uncle's wife). None of us (about 30 guests) got an infection. We were happy and so was the birthday hero. Now the situation is unfortunately getting worse. The number of infections has started to grow from September and just today 6th of October it looks strongly that we are in the second wave. Many people who got an infection now are in their twenties or thirties. We have got recommendations to use masks in public transportation, in shops, museums etc. Moreover, there are strong covid infection spots also in other parts of the country, not only in the metropolitan area. That differs from the situation in spring. Very many people (like me) are now worried when the fall goes further and the winter starts - how severe the covid situation will get. And some experts expect at least one more severe infection wave (namely the �third one) coming in the spring. I and my husband Juhani try to walk a lot outside and get the fresh air to keep us in good condition. ************************************************************** It is always so interesting to read about other countries and how people are coping during the pandemic and somehow, comforting. We’re all in this together. New York Times Rational fear “Don’t be afraid of Covid,” President Trump tweeted, on the same day that the White House outbreak spread further and another several hundred Americans died from virus complications. The president has survived Covid-19 so far, with help from more aggressive medical care than virtually any other American would have received. But about 210,000 of his fellow citizens have not survived, according to the official death count. The real toll, based on the number of excess deaths this year, is probably closer to 275,000. �Given Trump’s campaign to make the virus seem like a minor inconvenience, I think it’s worth taking a minute this morning to take stock of the virus: Only cancer and heart disease will kill more Americans this year than Covid. Already, the virus has killed more than twice as many Americans as either strokes or Alzheimer’s disease, about four times as many as diabetes and more than eight times as many as either gun violence or vehicle accidents. Outbreaks are again increasing in the U.S. The number of new cases per day has risen more than 25 percent since mid-September. “Covid-19 is spreading again across most of the U.S., hammering rural America and smaller cities and raising anxiety in New York,” Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The outbreak connected to the White House is responsible for about 30 known cases so far — more than the average daily number of new cases recently in all of Australia. The virus is genuinely terrifying for thousands of people. In addition to the more than 200,000 deaths — and all of the Americans mourning those deaths — many other people have spent weeks battling fatigue, shortness of breath, cardiac problems and more. Last night the news was broken that all but one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were quarantining because one of them tested positive. In case you weren’t sure, here’s Wikipedia: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces and is the principal military advisor to the president, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and the secretary of defense. The chairman convenes the meetings and coordinates the efforts of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), an advisory body within the Department of Defense comprising the chairman, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief �of staff of the Army, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the Air Force, the commandant of the Marine Corps, and the chief of the National Guard Bureau. You know that saying: it never rains but it pours? Yeah. Crooked Media: Meanwhile, as more people in the White House’s orbit fall ill, the administration has worked systematically to make sure we never learn when Trump last tested negative, or how many people contracted the virus from him or people at his superspreading events. Stephen Miller has it. Nearly all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are in quarantine after a Coast Guard admiral tested positive. Trump’s Coast Guard aide Jayna McCarron has coronavirus, as does one of his active-duty military valets and a third press office aide. New York Times reporter Michael Shear said his wife has now tested positive: “The collateral damage is going to be pretty significant, I think.” White House employees are rightly scared and angry; one source told Axios, “It's insane that he would return to the White House and jeopardize his staff's health when we are still learning of new cases among senior staff. This place is a cesspool.” This morning I saw posts of a near deserted White House being disinfected by people wearing full Hazmat gear. Meanwhile Trump is refusing to stay in the residence, wear a mask or stop tweeting. I would say I am astonished but I think we passed astonished about 7 months ago. I cannot imagine how insulting his proclamation of ‘COVID is nothing’ is to the thousands of bereaved people across the States. Somehow Trump telling me not to be afraid of it, doesn’t make me any less worried. And here’s a story to let you know its all around us, right now. I have been suffering with headaches (which could be largely stress induced) and my friend has been going to a local clinic which specializes in acupuncture, massage and Chinese medicines. On her recommendation I booked an appointment for later today. However, last night I received a text from the practice which apologized profusely and said they were canceling my appointment. A client had attended the clinic last Thursday who had tested positive for COVID. They are all isolating and will contact me for a new appointment sometime soon. This clinic is a few blocks from my house and my friend says they run a tight, sanitized, careful practice. Here’s a new positive development: ���News & Guts A surprise winner from a rarely heard source, The Queen of England. Monday morning, Queen Elizabeth released a statement in support of journalists: The pandemic “has once again demonstrated what an important public service the established news media provides… Having trusted, reliable sources of information, particularly at a time when there are so many sources competing for our attention, is vital.” I just thought I’d put that in today, the Queen is always very careful not to get involved with politics or the news - so this statement is significant. And here’s another statement from Maureen Dowd, a journalist at the New York Times: When Trump walked through the doors, Walter Reed had a stellar reputation. As he walks out 72 hours later, its reputation is in tatters. There's nothing Trump can't ruin. Oh so true, Maureen. Yesterday Gov Whitmer held a press conference to talk about the mess the Michigan Supreme Court has made, regarding the governor’s executive orders. Here’s the interesting thing - thy didn’t rule against the governor, they stated that the 1945 ruling was incorrect. Wait, what? Do I smell the distinctive odor of fear and dismay rising from every Republican politician, state or federal? Could it be that they have all backed the wrong horse? And through this, all of this, think of how historians will portray 2016 onwards in the years to come. It won’t be pretty, it will be harsh, factual, well researched and unforgiving. It will be meticulously documented and astounding to read. I can only imagine - remember, I’m married to an historian. So, Oliver ��This mornings favorite. Zoe said: I turned my back for one moment, and he’s in my seat. Look at his face how clever am I? Our next stop was Nha Trang. Nha Trang is a coastal resort city in southern Vietnam known for its beaches, diving sites and offshore islands. Its main beach is a long, curving stretch along Tran Phu Street backed by a promenade, hotels and seafood restaurants. Aerial cable cars cross over to Hòn Tre Island, and the nature reserves of Hòn Mun and Hòn Tằm islands, reachable by boat, have coral reefs. This was the market at the dock. �We visited an embroidery business and this was one of our guides. �Very busy downtown market in Nha Trang. �And here’s its beautiful Main Beach. More Nha Trang tomorrow. 27 days. There must be some kind of way outta here Said the joker to the thief There's too much confusion I can't get no relief Oh Jimi - you said it. 27 days. Stay safe, stay well and stay kind. � 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_2020-10-07_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-210 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 2020-10-07 Title A name given to the resource Day 210 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/677da1600b19e92ea4848125f4ab726e.pdf 793f1683e986fdc2d301722511a7037b PDF Text Text Day 209: 28 days until the election by windoworks I am beginning to think I may be living in an episode of The Twilight Zone. Last night, Trump overruled his fake doctors and returned to the White House. He tore off his mask and said: Don’t be afraid of COVID. �How insulting. How despicable. How depressing. I don’t need to list the dreadful facts of COVID but perhaps we should take a quick look at today’s stats: in the US - Total cases 7.49M +42,222 new cases since yesterday. Deaths 210K +425 new deaths since yesterday. Michigan - Total cases 143K +1,470 new cases since yesterday. Deaths 7,141 +16 new deaths since yesterday. Kent County - Total cases 10,683 +179 new cases since yesterday. Deaths 175 +0 new deaths since yesterday. . �And speaking of Michigan, apparently the Michigan Supreme Court ruling re the Governor’s Executive Powers wasn’t a ruling, it was an opinion. A federal court had asked for an opinion only. Now there are a number of consequential dance moves to follow in this, but in the meantime, every Karen, Chad and Trump believer out there has taken this (and Trump’s irresponsibility) to heart and is trying to barge into stores etc without a mask, causing deep distress to business owners and other shoppers. But wait - all is not lost. The Michigan Health Department has issued orders of its own, which mirror Gov Whitmer’s Executive Orders and their orders come with actual punishment - 6 months jail time (where you’re guaranteed a dose of COVID) or $200 fine or more - I think I saw $1000 written down in bold letters. Meanwhile I think Crooked Media said what I am feeling best: After causing a serious coronavirus outbreak within the White House and trying to cover it up, President Trump has returned from the hospital while still contagious to a) remove his fucking mask and b) share his big takeaway from the experience: COVID-19 is no big deal, actually. • Trump announced he would leave Walter Reed with the monstrous message that dangerous corticosteroids taken for coronavirus had left him with a youthful spring in his step, and shouldn’t be feared: “Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!” Powerful words from a still-sick man receiving a level of care that most Americans can neither access nor afford, for an illness that’s caused unimaginable suffering and grief for millions of families. • The president’s insane return to the White House followed a weekend of recklessness, cover-ups, and staged propaganda photos. On Sunday Trump went for a joyride to wave at the Proud Boys and QAnon followers gathered outside Walter Reed, reportedly as a compromise after he demanded to be discharged from the hospital. That plague parade photo-op put the Secret Service agents in Trump’s hermeticallysealed SUV at enormous risk, prompting an attending physician at Walter Reed to speak out on Twitter: “Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.” �• On Sunday the White House casually explained that Conley’s briefings were meant to lift Trump’s spirits, not provide the public with “facts.” Conley contended that he wasn’t “necessarily” involved in a cover-up, he just “didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction.” (We must have missed when the FDA approved magical thinking as a coronavirus therapy; that’s our bad.) • The White House has also refused to disclose the total number of infected staffers, decided not to conduct contact tracing, prohibited the CDC from doing so, and didn’t send an email to employees about the outbreak until Sunday. As Donald Trump enjoys the finest available medical care and conceals the full scale of the harm he’s inflicted (and continues to inflict) behind the scenes, it’s impossible to imagine a more dangerous and disrespectful message for him to give vulnerable and grieving Americans than “Don’t be afraid of COVID.” There can be no coming back from that. 28 days. 28 days. 28 days. 28 days. Shall I keep going? This morning I am truly at a loss for words - and I know you are sending me kind thoughts and saying ‘hang on in there’ . Hanging on in there is my only option. I have voted (and if you are an American I hope you have a good voting plan). I have yard signs, and I write this blog. But every morning the world �tilts a little more off its axis and I try to strengthen my grip. You know those dreams you have where you’re suspended over a life threatening drop and you’re hanging on to a railing by your fingernails? Yeah. Oliver. ��“Reading”. On Sunday we drove to Silver Lake for a picnic lunch (I’m getting very good at picnic lunches) And nearby Lake Michigan. It was a wild and windy day: ���Da Nang �����From the top: two views of the Guanyin Buddha; inside the Buddhist grotto; Da Nang view; fishing coracles and boats. ��Best carved pumpkins I’ve seen yet. Remember, 28 days. My mother used to say to me: Pamela, rise about it. I don’t think its working. � 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_2020-10-06_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-209 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 2020-10-06 Title A name given to the resource Day 209 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/bbb083036aac8b1beab2a86ead2061a3.pdf 513e1f8fa23154a71b6e2aa720979638 PDF Text Text Day 208 by windoworks There is a Chinese saying which is mistakenly thought to be a blessing. Its not. Its a curse: May you live in interesting times. The expression is always used ironically, with the clear implication that 'uninteresting times', of peace and tranquillity, are more life-enhancing than interesting ones. �New York Times The sacrifices of many Millions of Americans have gone months without seeing some of their closest relatives or their colleagues. They have canceled weddings and graduations. They have said goodbye to dying loved ones by phone. But when many of the nation’s political leaders gathered at the White House nine days ago to celebrate the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, they decided the pandemic rules that applied to �everybody else didn’t apply to them. Some of them assumed, wrongly, that because they had received a fast-response virus test when arriving at the White House, they could not be infectious. Others simply chose not to think about the virus, it seems. Instead, dozens of them sat, unmasked, within inches of one another. They shook hands, hugged and kissed. After starting outdoors, the event moved indoors, where the participants continued to celebrate like it was 2019. There is now reason to believe that the gathering was a superspreader event for the coronavirus. The president and the first lady are sick, as are two senators who attended, a former governor, the president of the University of Notre Dame and multiple White House staff members, journalists and others. And anyone infected at the White House that day may have later infected others. Andrew Joseph of the health publication Stat wrote this weekend that the event at the White House “offers a case study in what experts say has been the administration’s recklessness.” Rebecca Ruiz of Mashable tweeted, in response to a photo of the indoor reception for Barrett: “I haven’t hugged my parents since March 8 and they haven’t hugged their grandchildren since then either”. David French of the conservative website The Dispatch, wrote, “What a breathtaking contrast to the way so many millions of Americans have lived their lives.” I have no words. I think I have used them all up, every word that described how monstrous Trump and his minions and followers are. Every morning I wake up in COVIDLAND and think there can’t be anything worse than yesterday and every morning there is. Trump wants to go back to the White House because, as we all know, he knows better than the team of doctors caring for him. �Washington Post The episode continued what has been a days-long torrent of falsehoods, obfuscation, evasion, misdirection and imprecision from those surrounding Trump as he faces the greatest threat to a president’s health in decades. From the chief White House doctor to the president’s chief of staff, the inability to provide clear, direct and consistent information about Trump’s condition has been widespread since the coronavirus began rapidly circulating in the West Wing. Any patient with Trump’s symptoms and treatment who wanted to be discharged from the hospital three days after their admission would likely need to sign out against doctors’ orders because it would be so illadvised, said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical School And not only that - and I can’t believe I’m telling you this - yesterday he made 2 Secret Service agents drive him out of the hospital to wave through the car window at his trusty little band of supporters. Now 2 Secret Service agents (swathed in PPE) will have to isolate for 14 days while being tested for the virus. Dear God, will this never end? 29 days. Have you voted yet? This morning I read the Monday newsletter from Jim Talen, a Kent County Commissioner. He told us how he and a colleague recounted the votes in 2 precincts after the August Primary election. They did this to check on whether the counts were correct. He was careful to say that �the ballots were anonymous and the two of them were strictly supervised by the County Clerk. Jim reported that we can have absolute confidence that all ballots, in person and by mail, were correctly counted and the system in Kent County works perfectly. So that’s a good thing. And in other news, 5 new ballot drop boxes have been installed in the Grand Rapids area. When I began this Pandemic Diary I imagined it would be about life in the pandemic. I never foresaw the debacle that has ensued. I never imagined the rise of the Far Right White Militants with their heartless, selfish aims. I believed the Trump supporters were misguided and as time went by they would see him for who he is and move away. What I missed entirely (and listen up because this is important) is that they DO see him for who he is, and they don’t care. At all. They believe he is sent by God to restore all their lost privileges- you know, the real ability to denigrate anyone who doesn’t look like them. They want to be the ascendant race in the world and they believe Trump will make that happen for them. It doesn’t matter if they’re rich or poor, it just matters that they’re white - because they all know Jesus was blonde and blue eyed. Which must have been a surprise to Mary and Joseph when he was born. And the underlying belief must be that God is white. Of course he must be - and all his angels too. White is Best. Here’s something I’ve held onto for days, but this seems the right moment. �But as my Big Historian husband would tell you, that ship has already sailed. In the years to come humans will look more and more alike - some shade of brown and probably with almond shaped eyes. The evolutionary process has already begun. No matter how much you might want to turn back time, at this point that’s only science fiction. Deep breath. Oliver Time! ��Oliver on his tricycle. Look! He’s a little boy - where did the baby go? So, Da Nang. Da Nang is a coastal city in central Vietnam known for its sandy beaches and history as a French colonial port. It's a popular base for visiting the inland Bà Nà hills to the west of the city. Here the hillside Hải Vân Pass has views of Da Nang Bay and the Marble Mountains. These 5 limestone outcrops are topped with pagodas and hide caves containing Buddhist shrines. During the Vietnam War, what is now the Da Nang International Airport was a major air base used by the South Vietnamese and United States Air Forces.The base became one of the world's busiest aircraft hubs during the war,reaching an average of 2,595 aircraft traffic operations daily, more than any other airport and airbase in the world at that time. ��These 2 photos were taken on ‘China Beach’. China Beach was part of an R&R area in Da Nang for American troops during the Vietnam War. On our way there, our bus drove along a good road which was one stretch of the landing strips at the old airport. The beach was beautiful white sand and the water was warm. �Here are US airport hangars. When the war ended, the American troops just walked out and left everything behind. Perhaps these hangars are being used and perhaps not. �The ornate Dragon Bridge over the Han River. More Da Nang tomorrow. And I’ll leave you with this (would that it were true) �� 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_2020-10-05_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-208 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 2020-10-05 Title A name given to the resource Day 208 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/659f778fcd17aefb2a43fcf706830045.pdf 2768265e04b1e0cc2e0e20f49096d266 PDF Text Text Day 207 by windoworks Well here we are. Because the president has so degraded journalists and every news source except FoxNews, and confabulated every event he has held from Day One and his inauguration, because he can’t hear anything except flattery, questions are being asked. The main question is: is he really sick? Does he really have COVID-19? Yesterday morning an unidentified team of 9 people wearing white coats stood behind a man wearing a white coat with the label Physician to the President of the United States, Dr Conley. He spoke for some time and hedged on a number of questions. Because he didn’t answer truthfully and clearly and because Mark Meadows came out later and described how ill the president was when they decided to send him to Walter Reed, we now know nothing. No one (and believe me I’ve searched) no one knows anything definitively. �Of course we wonder when did he actually get sick? When did he know he was sick and contagious? If he knew by Wednesday, why continue to hold events with no masks, close quarters, handshakes and hugs? Perhaps I could understand it if he was meeting with Democrats, but these were his major funders and supporters. Here’s a side story: 3 Republican Representatives who had traveled on Air Force One with a possibly contagious president ( and who knows who else), then boarded a Delta flight to go home. Now reports seem conflicting but evidently the Delta crew knew they had been in contact at least with Hope Hicks and they still allowed them on the plane and didn’t mention it to the other passengers. Shame on you, Delta Airlines. So in a moment fraught with worry and fears for the long term outcome, we have an added stressor. But in stark contrast, Joe Biden continues to be tested (perhaps every other day) and has committed to telling us the truth about his test results. He has had his team start removing all attack ads against the president. Because that’s the caliber of man he is. Is he perfect, you ask. No of course not. No perfect human exists, although you might argue that some have come close. But Joe is truthful and believable and overall, kind. We seem to be struggling with kind at this moment. Is it because kind is too hard and takes too much of an effort? Is it easier to be mean and cruel? I don’t know the answers to these questions. The senior Republicans seem to be dropping like flies at the moment. But their main theme seems to be continuing to be self serving, selfish and careless. The party as a whole seems to operate on ‘what’s in it foe me?’ Thats not a pretty picture. Apparently Mitch McConnell is determined to go ahead with the hearing for Amy Whatsername for the Supreme Court on October 12 - even though 3 Republican committee members have tested positive and are in isolation. I think Mitch might be missing the point here - testing positive for the virus isn’t the end point. Some people have symptoms and some people get really sick and oh that’s right - some 209,000 people have died in this country. And not to forget - they died alone in hospital, fighting to breathe. If they were lucky, they had a nurse holding their hand as they died. But Trump’s okay. If he really is sick, they’ve given him every drug and procedure at their disposal, never mind the cost or if its not yet approved by the FDA. And here’s the shocker for me: I’ve had 3 covid tests. The first 2 were covered by my expensive health insurance. The 3rd test which I had to have in order to have cataract surgery, will cost me $68 because my health insurance won’t cover the whole cost. Have I used up my Covid test allocation? What about the election, I hear you ask. Because if Trump dies, what happens to all his votes? This is another, ‘no one has any idea’ scenario. But here’s what’s in place already: NPR House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is warning Democrats that they must win the majority, not just of the House of Representatives but a majority of each state delegation, in case the House is called upon to decide the election in January. �If the outcome of the election is not clear by Jan. 6, the decision goes to the House. But the vote is not as straightforward as Democrats having the majority of seats overall. Each state would get a single vote, which would be determined by the party that has the majority of members from that state. Pelosi outlined the once far-fetched scenario in a letter to Democrats over the weekend. She called on her members to shift money to House Democrats' fundraising arm, House Majority PAC, to help shore up campaign funds in battleground districts. "We cannot leave anything to chance. House Majority PAC is doing everything it can to win more delegations for Democrats," Pelosi said in the letter, sent from her campaign email. "It's sad we have to have to plan this way, but it's what we must do to ensure the election is not stolen." And just in case you thought things weren’t teetering on insane: New York Times • The White House overruled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and will allow cruise ships to begin sailing again after Oct. 31, rather than February. Because, as we all know, cruise ships are the safest place during a pandemic. Is this an opportunity to see Cruise Ship Coronavirus Catastrophe 2 as we all enjoyed Cruise Ship Coronavirus Catastrophe 1 so much. The citizens of Australia are still enjoying the ‘Dreadful Story of the Ruby Princess and how One Ship caused a Superspreader Event across Australia‘. Stay tuned for the outcomes of the myriad court cases and federal investigations going on right now. Here’s something to consider: �And �Seems reasonable. The return of Oliver ��Practicing for hiking? Don’t you love his hair? It has a mind of its own. Somehow its becoming his trademark. Flashback: more Ha Long Bay photos This is a floating village - amazing. �I think these were called Two Chickens �A fisherwoman ��Ha Long Bay was every bit as magical as I thought it would be. Off to Da Nang tomorrow. For better or worse, we’re all in this together. � 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_2020-10-04_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-207 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 2020-10-04 Title A name given to the resource Day 207 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/56cabc8770ff9054930fb8439e3008af.pdf 04cddcc48b0ef6a5d465f455bd26a119 PDF Text Text Day 206 by windoworks Is this the end of the world yet? The above quote was from a woman awarded the tinfoil hat for being far right of the most conservative people on earth. No I don’t find it odd. Prominent Democrats listen to scientists and doctors and follow their recommendations. It takes years of study to become a doctor or scientist. You have to pass exams and you have to pass them with more than a passing grade. You have to compete with other talented people to get into programs. You always have to do better at each level. And even once you gain a prestigious position in an organization or a hospital, you have to continue to research and keep up with new developments in your field. Hell, even your family doctor or dentist has to read monthly publications in their field and attend ongoing training in new techniques and procedures. Scientists and doctors never stop learning - and if they do, its time to retire and let a younger, more up to date person take over. It is sometimes disconcerting to meet an E.R. Doctor who looks like your 17 year old grandchild, but in your heart you know they know all the new procedures and developments and they are your best chance. So yesterday. It began with - the President and First Lady have tested positive. Then segued to - they are showing mild symptoms. Next - the President has a fever, cough and nasal congestion. Later in the day, he was flown to the Walter Reed Hospital in a ‘bout of extra caution’. But wait, he’d already been given a dose of 2 antibodies in an experimental (read: untested) drug. He went to the hospital while he was still able to walk (read: he didn’t want to leave the White House on a stretcher or in an ambulance). I don’t think he’s doing so well. �Democrat representatives and senators are doing a wonderful job in refraining from saying ‘we told you so!’ And dancing up and down. Joe Biden gave a great press speech about this development and was, as ever, gracious and kind - but hammered the need to wear a mask regardless of your political beliefs. He concluded by telling us that we are Americans - we can get through this just as we have got through everything else. After the news had sunk in and journalists had begun investigating where and when Trump caught the virus, shocking facts were exposed. I think the thing that bothers me the most is that the White House knew that Hope Hicks had fallen ill on Wednesday afternoon and subsequently tested positive that evening - and yet nothing was said and the President (by this time displaying minor symptoms) went ahead with in person, unmasked and close quartered events on Thursday. I would not wish the virus on anyone - but shame on you Mr President. I think this is known as all your chickens coming home to roost. Since this development, many Republicans have announced their positive diagnosis. I imagine there will be more announced in the days ahead. Trump is not working from hospital as promised, and VP Pence has already begun taking over duties. The White House is in chaos and like all of us, the rest of the world is gobsmacked. In another, totally unrelated development, through trickery and deception, a group brought a petition before the Republican majority Supreme Court in Michigan to overturn the Governors’s Emergency Powers. You know, the powers that have worked tirelessly for 7 months to keep Michiganders safe and for which I am deeply grateful. The court ruled in their favor and the State of Emergency will expire in 21 days. This was 5,000+ residents in a state of 10M. Did the courts ask the other 10M of us what we thought or even more important - was this what the overwhelming majority of Michiganders wanted? Is this the end of the world as we know it? I don’t know about you but I have carried on, day after identical day, keeping myself and my husband safe, following all recommendations and rules in the faint hope that one day, this might become a routine virus that we take an annual vaccination for. That one day, I will actually be able to climb on an airplane and fly safely to New Zealand and Australia, to visit my sister before her memory leaves completely and meet my 14 month old grandson face to face before he begins school at 5 years of age. Do I expect everyone else to do their part to help this virus begin to subside? Hell yes. In case you were laboring under some other misapprehension, there is only one inhabitable planet - and we’re on it and we’re all in this together. Trump testing positive and falling ill shows conclusively that the virus doesn’t’ give a shit. If you don’t follow the rules, shame on you for endangering yourself, your loved ones and every passing stranger. �There are no photos or flashbacks this morning. Just today I don’t have the heart for it. Is this the end of the world as we know it? � 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_2020-10-03_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-206 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 2020-10-03 Title A name given to the resource Day 206 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/2cdcf03510e1989168cec8264b081f94.pdf d41b3c8cbf33d506dbafde794b269087 PDF Text Text Day 205 by windoworks So unless you’ve been living in a cave in an unexplored island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you’ll have heard the news: Trump and Melania have tested positive for Covid-19. Now a lot of Premiers and Prime Ministers and so on have tested positive for the virus - and Boris Johnson was hospitalized and had 3 days in which the doctors thought it could go either way. But for months and months Trump has continued to downplay the virus and mock everyone who wears a mask, including Tuesday night at the debate when he mocked Joe Biden. Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it? Now while I feel vindicated that he and Melania (birds of a feather) have succumbed to the virus, this puts us all in a tricky position. There are 31 days until the election and many, many people have voted already. My children have been speculating about the succession. The only procedure that is certain, is that during the isolation period for Trump, Mike Pence becomes president.However, Mike Pence was on the plane with Trump this week and appeared with him a number of times. If Pence tests positive, then the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, becomes President. And as a precaution, she is isolated all ready. Now the other worry is that Joe Biden may have contracted the virus from being on the same stage as Trump on Tuesday night - and as we know, Trump never shut up. He blew enormous amounts of hot air towards Biden for 90 insane minutes. So all in all, we are entering uncharted waters here, and Americans don’t like uncharted waters. I can only imagine the frantic meetings (via zoom) that are being held right now, right across the country. We have been teetering on the edge of a civil war for months. After Trump’s calls this week to private armies such as the Proud Boys to stand by, his followers are ready to repeat the intimidation they carried out on the early polling stations in Virginia. Its time to dust off your copy of the Constitution and its 27 Amendments, and find out exactly who is allowed to do what. Here’s a reminder of the stats: US - Cases 7.31M +46,398 since yesterday. Deaths 208K +847 since yesterday. All while Trump insisted it would ‘magically go away’ and ‘it’s just a cold’. 208K deaths, and honestly, most if not all of those people (family members, friends) died alone in hospital - and it wasn’t an easy death. As I write this, the news is that Pence and his wife have both tested negative. We’ll wait and see. Here’s some new thoughts on the virus spread from Crooked Media; We might be able to get a better hold on coronavirus by looking at the variable k: a measure that looks at whether the virus spreads steadily, or in large bursts. Up until now, we’ve been focused on R0, which defines a pathogen’s average contagiousness, but that average smooths out variability in the way a virus spreads. A growing number of studies suggest that a small percentage of infected people might account for a huge percentage of coronavirus transmission, while many people barely transmit it at all. That �imbalance—overdispersion—means that a few early superspreading events (or lack thereof) can lead to dramatically different outcomes in otherwise similar countries, and underscores the need for cheap, rapid tests to find infection clusters quickly. It also underscores the absolute lunacy of President Trump continuing to hold packed superspreader rallies all over the country, including in Wisconsin this weekend, where coronavirus rates are already fully out of control. Its a terrible thing when you begin to believe your own lies. From my friend Heathe on FaceBook: It amazes me that there are "undecided voters" in America right now. I honestly think Donald Trump could have had caged immigrant children shackled to his podium while he personally performed a forced hysterectomy on a woman of color while Joe Biden stood at his podium curing cancer with his presence and there would still be people in this country like "Gosh, I just don't know who I'm going to vote for a month from now. It's such a tough decision…" We really need to change the education system in this country to teach critical thinking skills instead of cookie-cutter-curriculum designed to pass the ACT. I think the following is the clearest explanation I’ve read so far: New York Times There is a theme that has run through President Trump’s entire re-election campaign: He is afraid that he cannot beat Joe Biden. It explains his extraordinary efforts last year to prevent Biden from becoming the nominee. And it explains his more recent efforts to discredit the election. Rather than running against Biden, Trump now seems to be running against democracy itself. I think it’s useful to think of the 2020 Trump campaign in three distinct stages. The first was during the run-up to the Democratic primaries, when Trump used the powers of the presidency to pressure at least one foreign country, Ukraine, to smear Biden (an effort that led to impeachment). Trump took no similar steps to damage Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris. Why? Trump often acts on instinct, and he may have done so in this case. But he is also a voracious consumer of polls, and polls consistently showed him faring worse in a hypothetical matchup against Biden than against any other Democrat. The second stage began after Biden clinched the nomination, and Trump doubled down on efforts to damage him. He portrayed Biden as a corrupt old politician, not so different from Hillary Clinton, or a closet socialist. It hasn’t worked. Biden’s lead over Trump has remained stable.That has led to the third stage: Try to prevent a normal election. �Trump, with help from other leading Republicans, has increased his efforts to make it difficult to vote. His campaign has filed lawsuits in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and elsewhere to restrict voting by mail. (The Times Magazine has a new investigation on this subject, including Mike Pence’s role.) In recent weeks, Trump also began what seems like an obvious attempt at voter intimidation, encouraging his supporters to show up at polling places, purportedly to prevent voter fraud, which almost never occurs. Donald Trump Jr. has released a video calling for an “army for Trump’s election security operation.” Tuesday’s debate was the apex of the strategy, at least for now. Trump refused to allow a normal debate, constantly interrupting Biden. For voters, the result was a chaotic jumble. For Trump, it was one more attempt to undermine the normal functioning of democracy. There is still more than a month until Election Day — an eternity in politics. At this point, though, the picture from the last year and a half is remarkably consistent. Trump seems to believe he would lose a normal election to Biden. But in an abnormal election, with low turnout and protracted fights over ballot eligibility, who knows what will happen? And if Trump does lose, he is laying the groundwork to make the false claim that the election was rigged. As my colleague Maggie Haberman put it yesterday, “People close to him are blunt that the president knows he’s losing and is scared of it.” �So, we’ll wait to see what develops. But Craig and I and many of our friends have already voted. Some delivered their votes to the clerks office, and some like Craig and I, put them in a Dropbox. I know they �received ours - I checked online. The staff read the barcode on your ballot envelope and enter it into the system. You still have time to register and to vote. Wool art ��Also, Oliver. ��Laughing while watching the Tuesday debate. Flashback: we sailed for a day and a night and then docked at Ha Long Bay. Hạ Long Bay, in northeast Vietnam, is known for its emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone islands topped by rainforests. Junk boat tours and sea kayak expeditions take visitors past islands named for their shapes, including Stone Dog and Teapot islets. The region is popular for scuba diving, rock climbing and hiking, particularly in mountainous Cát Bà National Park. Here are all the boats waiting to take us on a tour of Ha Long Bay. ����Ha Long Bay was amazing. I had seen it used as a location in several movies but nothing prepares you for the sight of all those stone towers rising up from the water. We stopped at this beach for a snack and a bathroom stop. More Ha Long Bay tomorrow. I watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel yesterday and I had forgotten the famous line from it. It seems appropriate today. It will be all right in the end, and if it isn’t all right, then it isn’t the end. � 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_2020-10-02_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-205 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 2020-10-02 Title A name given to the resource Day 205 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/0abaa3d4806f2057c11af572131579b5.pdf df34bed8915748aba1d92afddecf65eb PDF Text Text Day 204 by windoworks This morning I offer a piece from my sister-in-law, Kym, who lives in Canberra, Australia. Canberra, the capital city of the Australian Capital Territory, is a planned city. It became the Australian capital as it is in the middle between Sydney New South Wales and Melbourne Victoria - both of which were vying to be Australia’s capital city. The federal authorities bought the land from a local farmer and Canberra was built. Here is her piece: View from far away: Living in Canberra – the capital of Australia, has proved to be a really lucky thing during this pandemic. To date, we’ve only had a total of 113 cases of which 110 recovered and three, sadly died. After a dreadful and tragic summer filled with anxiety and choking, eerily red colored smoke filling our skies, life finally seemed to settle back to normal by February. Early in March, we all started to hear about this ‘strange’ virus affecting people overseas, but it never really occurred to us that it would become a big problem in Australia. As the months progressed, a sense of fear started to sink in as the doom and gloom of news reports made us all realise that this was really serious and life-threatening. Watching TV reports from overseas was terrifying as you saw hospitals overwhelmed with medical staff dying, refrigerated trucks being used for temporary morgues in NY and mass graves being dug to cope with all the bodies. It was absolutely terrifying, and we really started to worry particularly about our 88-year-old mum who lives independently in a retirement village. The village locked down but was amazing and continued to care for its residents with daily hot meals. We protected mum by not letting her see any of us in person other than dropping off her groceries. Mum’s very positive, happy attitude, saw her through and she was actually healthier than she’d been because she wasn’t pushing herself and rushing around. She really missed seeing the great grandkids and the rest of us. By May, things were not too dire here, so we started back doing family lunches and mum was thrilled. I sing in and manage a choir which should have been celebrating it’s 30th anniversary this year. Our last rehearsal was March 6th and at that stage because of talk about the virus, we agreed to have a break until after Easter in April, as that’s all any of us thought was going to be needed to sort this strange virus out. Little did we know then, that choirs would be classed as ‘dangerous’ and singing would not be allowed to happen. A sense of anxiety and panic seemed to invade all normally rational and sensible Australian people and supermarkets became a battle ground with grown women having fights over toilet paper. There were constant reports of basic grocery supplies being emptied off the shelves as soon as they were stocked. You struggled to get flour, pasta, pasta sauce and toilet paper. Watching it all unfold on TV, we thought ‘what �stupid people being this ridiculous and panic buying’. Unfortunately, you soon felt the need to do the same thing as your supplies ran out and a bunker mentality and almost a survival of the fittest attitude, seemed to infiltrate us all. Australians are normally very generous and are great at helping out a mate in times of crisis but anxiety and panic can sadly change people for the worse. It’s such a cliché to say it, but this year has been ‘surreal’ but it’s also turned out to be a year of reassessing what’s important in life. Surprisingly it has ended up being quite a creative time for my choir and I have worked really hard to keep us together. I have mastered Zoom rehearsals (something I had never heard of), plus we have now created three virtual songs together which are nothing like singing together but certainly so much better than not singing at all. A slight anxiety about a second wave will probably always be there in the back of our minds but spring’s warm weather has arrived encouraging us all outdoors – a much safer prospect when catching up with friends. Living in our beautiful city has seen us all back to leading our normal lives albeit, socially distanced and using hand sanitiser all the time. We haven’t had an active case for about three months which means we are back to normal except for border closures but since we’re very content to stay put, it’s not really affecting us.Life is good for us, except for the really sad fact that choirs are still not allowed to start back. Who knew what a deadly group of people we were when we sing!!! I am starting to see a recurring theme with all these ‘views from far away’ and that is that each of these correspondents have talked about reassessing their lives and realizing what are the most important things. I hope you are enjoying these glimpses into different lives as much as I am sharing them with you. �Sorry - I thought we needed the laugh. Here’s a piece from CNN that I have held onto. This seems like a good moment. As 2020 slides into and probably infects 2021, try to take heart in one discomfiting fact: Things are most likely never going "back to normal." It has become a well-worn phrase our politicians, officials, experts, even family, like to lean on — an ultimate, elusive prize. Perhaps it's nostalgia for the world of January, a place where daily life more closely resembled our past decades. Perhaps it's a bid to show control, to revert to a time when change was not so universally imposed upon us. �But January is long gone, and it's not coming back. And, psychologists will tell you, that's only bad if you can't come to terms with it. We are slowly learning if this year's changes are permanent. If work — for the lucky among us — will remain from home. If we will visit the grocery store less but spend more. If we will find wearing a mask on the metro to be just part of life. If shaking hands and embracing will become less common. If most of your daily interactions will occur via video conference (rather than in person). "Five years' change in six months" is a common slogan for the pandemic. The disruption has upended lives in jobs lost and relatives who live alone or perhaps died without saying the right goodbyes Yet permanently severing ties with January is not necessarily a bad thing, psychologists say. The danger comes from hankering for normalcy again, rather than getting on with working out how to deal with whatever is ahead. "Politicians who pretend that 'normal' is just around the corner are fooling themselves or their followers, or perhaps both," said Thomas Davenport, the president's distinguished professor of information technology and management at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. People who suffer tragedies eventually return to their previous happiness level," Davenport said via email. "But I think that COVID-19 is a little different, because we keep expecting it will end soon. So there is no need to permanently change your attitudes about it." The human tendency to believe change is temporary and that the future will again resemble the past is often called "normalcy bias." �So here’s my last word on the first debate (why on earth would we want two more?) Crooked Media To the great astonishment of all spectators, President Trump made Tuesday’s presidential debate the least watchable television experience since, well, the 2016 debates. • Here’s what you may have been fortunate enough to miss: Trump repeatedly interrupted and spoke over both Joe Biden and hapless moderator Chris Wallace to drown out any substantive discussion of his failures with interjected lies and personal attacks. If we were to sum it up in five words, they’d be Joe Biden’s: “Will you shut up, man?” The night was so chaotic that the Commission on Presidential Debates has promised to add “additional tools to maintain order” in future debates. Mics that can be turned off? �Stage trapdoor? Nickelodeon-style slime penalties? The American people demand answers. • In the debate’s most horrific moment (and it’s a competitive field), Trump defied repeated prompts to condemn white supremacy. Instead, Trump told the violent, far-right Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,” adding, “somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left.” The Proud Boys naturally celebrated his comments on social media, interpreting them as a greenlight to “go fuck them up.” Republicans attempting to sweep up the mess have weakly suggested that perhaps Trump misspoke; Trump himself cleared everything up today by falsely claiming total ignorance of the Proud Boys, and declining to denounce white supremacists again. • Minutes after that rock bottom debate moment, Trump dug out a sub-basement by encouraging his supporters to descend on polling places and “watch very carefully;” i.e., go hog wild with illegal voter intimidation. The remark was part of a larger cascade of lies about mail-in voting and postal workers dumping ballots in creeks, as Trump once again suggested that he would turn to the Supreme Court to help him win a contested election. If only some third party, maybe a moderator of some kind, could have told the millions of people watching that all of this was untrue. Ah, well. Wool animal time: Oliver ��Our first ever cruise. Craig was invited to be part of a group of professors lecturing to a group of travelers. These passengers had paid extra to be part of a Scientific America lecture series with Insight Cruises. Craig was contracted to lecture on Big History. I had no idea what to expect. I had friends who were veteran cruisers and they told me I would love it. I wasn’t sure. To board the ship we flew to Hong Kong. This was the first of many destinations I had never been to. Just a note here - I have no photos of this cruise at all. Craig has photos but he suffered a computer virus attack sometime last year and some photos were lost. ������Like all Insight Cruises, you usually arrive the day before the ship sails which allows time for a sightseeing tour the next day before boarding begins. We drove around the city and then up to Victoria Peak for wonderful views. In the 3rd photo you can see our ship at the wharf. Then it was back to the harbor and onto a sampan for a trip around the harbor itself. From our sampan you can see the enormous (and popular) floating restaurant. We boarded the ship mid afternoon and explored the Volendam. Here we are on one of the decks. Our cabin was on Deck 4 just above the crews quarters. The last photo is of Hong Kong as we sailed out of the harbor. Here’s a poem to finish (thanks Mum) If the mountain seems too big today Then climb a hill instead If the morning brings you sadness It’s OK to stay in bed �If the day ahead seems heavy And your plans feel like a curse There’s no shame in re-arranging, Don’t make yourself feel worse If a shower feels like needles And a bath feels like you’ll drown If you haven’t washed your hair in days, Don’t throw away your crown A day is not a lifetime A rest is not defeat Don’t think of it as failure, Just a quiet, kind retreat It’s OK to take a moment From an anxious, fractured mind. The world will not stop turning While you get realigned. The mountain will still be there When you want to try again, So climb it in your own time ….and love yourself til 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_2020-10-01_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-204 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 2020-10-01 Title A name given to the resource Day 204 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/fbb2f7929494a745c0463893dca43173.pdf 4afdcb4dff02f035214e58f8233a8dcd PDF Text Text Day 203 by windoworks No, I didn’t watch the debate. If I had I would have considered that 90 minutes of my life I would never get back - and at this time, every minute is precious. I have read the myriad of reports and it was (pretty much as expected) a debacle. Trump has no idea of debate - and why would we expect this? The man doesn’t read and usually struggles to complete a sentence. He also inadvertently (or perhaps on purpose) gave the Proud Boys their new slogan. Because of course that what the leader of the free world would do. And anyway, we’ve voted and they have received our ballots. Like Piglet said in one of my favorite Winnie the Pooh stories: I have done all I can and it must be up to someone else now. And from one of my favorite Sting songs: I'll send an S.O.S. to the world I'll send an S.O.S. to the world I hope that someone gets my I hope that someone gets my I hope that someone gets my �Message in a bottle, yeah Message in a bottle, yeah I feel like our votes are an S.O.S. So what else is happening? Crooked Media: Is That Hope? MIT researchers say the compact fusion reactor they’re building is likely to work, which could be a huge step forward in the fight against climate change. A federal appeals court has upheld a six-day extension for counting absentee ballots in Wisconsin. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has signed a law allowing California to develop its own line of affordable generic drugs. Remember the US Postal Service debacle? Washington Post Some of the U.S. Postal Service's 630,000 workers are quietly resisting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s changes, which came in the middle of a pandemic and a push to expand voting by mail. As the controversial new procedures snarled post offices and stirred fears of how it would manage mail ballots, the carriers, sorters and other workers began to bend the rules to make sure important mail was delivered on time.Postal Service employees told The Post they feel a responsibility to counteract cost-cutting changes implemented by their new boss, who they believe is politicizing the institution to serve President Trump. On everybody’s mind - when will we get a vaccine? The Atlantic A COVID-19-vaccine rollout could be chaotic—and a true logistical nightmare, our health reporter Sarah Zhang warns in an essential new piece. We caught up with Sarah to find out why—and hear the latest on the search for a vaccine. The conversation that follows has been edited and condensed. Caroline Mimbs Nyce: Why does this vaccine rollout have the potential to be such a headache? Sarah Zhang: First, you have the challenge of getting what is very likely two doses of a vaccine to hundreds of millions of Americans in the middle of a pandemic. And they’re not interchangeable. If you get the first dose of one vaccine, you have to get that same vaccine as a second dose. So there’s gonna be a lot of paperwork involved. Second has to do with the specific vaccines that are furthest along in clinical trials right now. They use �new technology called mRNA, which hasn’t been used in vaccines before. The downside is that the technology is extremely fragile physically. One vaccine has to be kept at –94 degrees Fahrenheit, which you’re just not gonna find in a regular doctor’s office. All these decisions have been made to get the vaccine out faster. But the trade-off is that they make them much harder to use in the field. Caroline: You write in your piece that the first vaccine may not be the most important. Can you explain what you mean by that? Sarah: Imagine: How are you going to get a vaccine that needs to be stored at –94 degrees into a developing country or a rural area? It seems pretty unlikely that that’s the vaccine that is going to be widely used across the world. In the beginning, speed is really important. But as we hopefully develop more vaccines, how easy it is to use is going to be really important too. Caroline: You’ve been cautioning readers to temper their expectations around a vaccine. What’s your advice going into this winter? Sarah: Be patient. There’s a lot of cautious optimism that some of the vaccines that are in clinical trials are going to work. It’s okay if some of them don’t; that’s the whole point of doing a trial. There will probably be news that feels disappointing, but that’s just a part of the process. The fact that there are literally dozens of vaccines in the pipeline means that it’s very likely we’re gonna have one—or probably several—options. It’ll just take time, so we gotta hunker down, and wait for it. And here’s the word from the frontline: Washington Post The CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, talked to The Washington Post Magazine about the pressures of creating a coronavirus vaccine. We asked him about safety concerns, the unprecedented timeline and what he's considering in terms of pricing. He also spoke about the magnitude of the task — developing and testing a vaccine while the world waits, hoping it will end a devastating pandemic. “What is at stake is beyond imagination,” Bourla said. You can read the full article for yourself. In other, other news: Fires are burning out of control in the Napa wine area Disney is to lay off 28,000 workers as the pandemic hurts attendance at theme parks U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's "sanctuary op" could start as soon as this week and would expand to Denver, Philadelphia and other cities, according to three U.S. officials. The operation, which �would come weeks before the presidential election, would bolster President Trump's law-and-order campaign rhetoric. Stats: Michigan had 1,117 new cases and 21 deaths since yesterday. Kent County had 72 new cases and 166 deaths in total. And here’s a depressing piece of news: Washington Post Trump on Monday dismissed criticism that his administration is failing to lead the country through (and ultimately out of) the pandemic and to come up with a nationwide strategy for testing. Instead, Trump boasted about rapid tests being distributed to nursing homes. But that deployment, too, has been plagued with problems. State health officials say there has been poor communication, false results and a frustrating lack of planning. All of that means the data we rely on to track the pandemic in the United States is becoming less accurate. So this is where we are. While other countries seem to have well laid plans for dealing with new outbreaks, we lag behind. Our insistence on personal freedoms seems to hamper our ability to follow guidelines which lead to suppression of the virus. What a number of Americans fail to realize is that their insistence on personal freedom impinges on another’s personal freedom. I don’t think the Founding Fathers visualized anything quite like this. Also, I find the well worn term Founding Fathers insulting. Did anyone ask a woman’s opinion? Well stop me before I climb on that hobby horse. No more leaf art but wool art instead. �And now to Oliver: ��It finally happened. He climbed up to look out the window - and thank god it was shut! Traveling home. Craig and I drove to the town of Brive and stayed overnight on our way back to Paris. ������Christmas was still in full swing in Brive - and those are chocolate Panetone in the bakery window. The next day featured a dreadful drive through Paris traffic. We arrived at our airport hotel and this was the sight that greeted us the next morning. It wasn’t fog, it was smog. A sad end to 6 months away. As I have looked back over our 6 months in Europe, I am reminded of how much I loved it and what pleasure it has given me to relive it through these photographs. Today I’ll leave you with this: Mashable.com People totally forget that the GOP lost the midterms by 8 percent — roughly the same as Biden's nationwide lead over Trump, the most stable lead in presidential polling history. Losing the midterms was not good for the GOP. If they could have avoided that, they would have. They couldn’t avoid it. They lost. 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_2020-09-30_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-203 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 2020-09-30 Title A name given to the resource Day 203 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/7417dd77f592c9046159a7613ee5adfc.pdf 26095845082242bd17f3c5abb6d3e670 PDF Text Text Day 202 – 35 days to the election. Have you voted yet? by windoworks At the beginning of this pandemic in March, restaurants and cafes all around us closed and then came up with alternate ways to continue business. Many offered curbside pick up - you ordered and paid either by phone or online, and then you drove over and they brought your order to the car. The rules have been relaxed somewhat and now, restaurants are offering dine in opportunities. But its not as easy as it might sound. Here’s the story of a popular diner in Kansas: Washington Post Before the shutdown, Ladybird Diner was a busy spot on the main street of this college town, where up to 600 people a day packed into the tiny space, a swirl of chaos and vitality, pancakes and pie — coconut cream with lofty meringue, apple with rustic latticework and the one they called the Duchess, with a sour cream custard and blackberries, topped with oat crumble. The “Fresh Daily” case was empty now, the turquoise vinyl booths devoid of diners and the rotating dessert tower turned into temporary storage for loaves of bread. Days after Heriford closed her doors in March and laid off her staff, she and two former employees began making sack lunches for anybody in town who needed one — “no strings, no questions, no substitutions.” The need was acute — the homeless population had been increasing even before the pandemic with 9,100 people in the county out of work in April, about a quarter of them from the food service industry. At first, it was a simple: white paper bags with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some chips, but word spread quickly. Eventually, they were feeding more than 200 a day in a program funded by community donations, some 13,000 meals for furloughed factory workers, laid-off bartenders, cleaners with no homes to clean, mechanics with nothing to repair. Now, her state is in the middle of a rocky reopening and Heriford, 46, finds herself facing the same tough decisions many restaurateurs and chefs are grappling with across the country as the restaurant industry recovery has stalled and the United States remains in the grip of the deadly coronavirus. Amid this pandemic summer, some restaurants have yet to reopen, still struggling to find a workable way forward with diminished capacity or takeout only. Others tried to restart, only to shut down again as cases surged. And many more are gone forever — more than 100,000 restaurants have closed nationwide since the start of the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association, with tens of thousands more expected to close. And this story from Oregon Washington Post �Bonnie and Israel Morales felt the impact of the coronavirus at Kachka Alfresca from the start. The couple behind Kachka, a popular Russian restaurant in Portland, Ore., introduced outdoor dining in June, on a stretch of concrete previously used as a parking lot. Nearly 30 picnic tables, each under its own tent and some covered in a blue-and-white striped cloth that evoked Russian naval shirts, were spread far enough apart to keep diners at a safe distance. Portlanders ate it up. Despite its success, Bonnie and Israel Morales don’t plan to prep the tables for winter. They’re not going to rent outdoor heaters (assuming they can even find them) or construct greenhouse-like pods to shelter diners from the elements. They’re planning to kill off Kachka Alfresca on Oct. 11 in favor of other ways to generate revenue, including takeout and retail sales of their frozen dumplings and forthcoming horseradish vodka. The pandemic has already devastated the country’s restaurant industry. Millions of jobs have been lost, and nearly 100,000 restaurants have closed permanently or indefinitely since the outbreak, according to a recent surveyfrom the National Restaurant Association. Restaurateurs are expected to lose $240 million this year, and the worst may be yet to come as winter looms, threatening to slow down or shut down outdoor dining spaces that have given owners hope that they might survive this crisis until a vaccine is widely available. Winter is approaching here in Michigan and the outdoor social zones won’t be warm enough to allow customers to eat safely outside. I was always so proud of all the varied restaurants, bars and cafes within walking distance from our house. It seems only those establishments with drive through facilities will survive the winter. But to be honest, we are not take out consumers, preferring instead to cook our own food. After 202 days, it gets a little tired thinking of new meals to make. As a child I remember restaurant meals as a once a year special occasion event, and this seems to be my future! Certainly, the pandemic has allowed Craig and I to hone our cooking skills and my pantry now holds items that we will eat as opposed to new items we might try. The last 3 ‘perhaps we’ll eat this someday’ items went to a nearby food library 2 days ago. Tonight is the first presidential debate. Its irrelevant to me as we filled in our absentee ballots yesterday and drove down to one of the seven drop boxes in Grand Rapids and dropped ours in. However, in impeccably timed news released, Trump’s taxes will feature in everyone’s thinking. Here’s a piece from Crooked Media; A bombshell New York Times report found that Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017, and paid no federal income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years. He pulled that off by reporting staggering business losses, leading to the inevitable conclusion that Trump has either a) lied to voters about being good at business, b) lied on his tax forms, or c) lied about everything, at all times, to everyone, while stealing from lower-income taxpayers to prop up his own businesses. A real headscratcher! The tax returns expose not only Trump’s failures as a businessman, but his vulnerability to pressure from �authoritarian regimes. During his first two years in office, Trump’s revenue from abroad totaled $73 million—including revenue from licensing deals in geopolitically sensitive countries like India, Turkey, and the Philippines. (In a damning reflection of our broken tax system, Trump paid substantial taxes in those countries while stiffing the U.S. government.) Trump’s records also show that he raked in $2.3 million from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, courtesy of a family with close ties to Vladimir Putin. Trump has been fighting the IRS over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million income-tax refund he claimed and received in 2010; if he loses, he could be forced to pay back over $100 million. He’s already personally responsible for loans and debts totaling at least $421 million, with most of it coming due in the next four years. That kind of debt would rightly preclude most people from receiving security clearance. If reelected, what’s to stop Trump from making national policy decisions based on what his (unknown, potentially foreign) lenders demand? Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 to boost his flagging marketability, has used the office to support his failing businesses, and is now prepared to steal an election to avoid accountability for the mountain of debt he can’t afford to pay. Trump was terrified of voters finding out that he is, above all, pathetic. We can work with that. And what do prominent Republican lawmakers have to say about this: New York Times G.O.P. nonreaction: Republican lawmakers — including Senator Mitch McConnell — reacted with nearly complete silence to the revelation that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, and that his businesses are riddled with debt. In other news, the world reached a terrible milestone this week: New York Times. An agonizing toll One million people worldwide have now died from confirmed coronavirus cases. It is a staggering toll — greater than the number of people estimated to have died from malaria, influenza, cholera and measles, combined, over the same period. And the real number of coronavirus deaths is almost certainly higher. The U.S., with 4 percent of the world’s population, has suffered more than 20 percent of deaths. And if that wasn’t depressing enough, there’s this: Washington Post Despite early hopes that contracting covid-19 would confer immunity to the coronavirus going forward, a large national study estimates that fewer than 1 in 10 Americans has antibodies. Combined with similar �results from other recent research, it’s evident a large majority of the population is still susceptible to the coronavirus. “This shows us how it’s not over here, not even by a long shot,” said Eli Rosenberg, an epidemiologist in New York. So that’s where we live, here in the US and in most other places in the world. So we have to make the best of what we have - phone family and friends, eat well, sleep soundly and as winter approaches, stay warm. Keep washing your hands (I can’t remember not counting to 20 each time I wash my hands), wear a mask outside, stay in your bubble and distance from everyone else. Here’s a reminder of how not to wear your mask: One more time for the people in the back - it covers your mouth AND your nose. Thank you. �The last leaf art (don’t worry, I have something else for tomorrow) �Its Oliver time again: ��My in-laws keep finding these treasures on the side of the road and they’re always a treat for Oliver. �And so its over: �����The children packing up their rental car, waving good bye and driving out of sight. After cleaning the house, we packed up our car and began the journey home. I’ll leave you today with this: �� 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_2020-09-29_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-202 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 2020-09-29 Title A name given to the resource Day 202 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/9410bb2c991b53d0506ca9e13c9826ef.pdf 08e973a565592fe2f35da1c8256a75f9 PDF Text Text Day 201 by windoworks Lets go for another 200 days, shall we? As I write this morning, it is dark and gloomy. After 3 days of warm sunny weather, it is cold and raining. Ah well, it can’t be summer for ever. Today it is 36 days to the election. Craig and I received our Absentee Ballots and will be delivering them back later today. The crazy continues to ramp up. Over the weekend the New York Times finally received copies of Trump’s tax returns that he fought so hard for 4 years to conceal. Here’s a brief summary of what they found: Even though taxes on wealthy Americans have fallen sharply in recent decades, most still pay a lot to the federal government. A typical billionaire pays tens of millions of dollars in federal income taxes each year. Yesterday, The Times published an investigation of Trump’s finances, based on thousands of pages of documents that had not previously been public. They showed that Trump paid no taxes in 11 of the 18 years between 2000 and 2017. In both 2016 and 2017, he paid only $750. He was able to do so both because many of his businesses report losing large amounts of money — which reduces his taxable income — and because he has engaged in questionable tax practices. Even while declaring losses, he has managed to enjoy a lavish lifestyle by taking tax deductions on what most people would consider personal expenses, including residences, aircraft and $70,000 in hairstyling for television. The investigation also found that: • As president, he has received more money from foreign sources and U.S. interest groups than previously known. • Ivanka Trump, while working as an employee of the Trump Organization, appears to have received “consulting fees” that also helped reduce the family’s tax bill. • Trump is facing a series of large looming bills in the next few years, and it is not obvious how he will cover them. I have to say that the $70,000 paid for hair styling was wasted. I wonder how much he spends on his fake tan? Yesterday we packed our lunch and drove to Saugatuck and Douglas. Saugatuck was packed - people were eating lunch and wandering the streets but there was hardly anyone shopping inside stores, and yes, most wore masks. Douglas was much quieter. They had interesting yard signs. �To be honest I thought Joe Biden fitted the ‘anyone’ category. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we drove to Olive Beach to eat our lunch. ��The lake was wild and once again, the beach has been eroded by the rising water level. There were areas of slips along the lakeshore and many of the dunes have been declared unstable. I have a friend who lives on the lakeshore and they have installed boulders on the sand below their house in an effort to shore up the foundations. Here’s a piece which explains how Trump governs: Washington Post President Trump thinks he knows better than anyone, but not because he actually knows very much. His 2016 campaign was run from the gut, under the explicit rationale that “experts are terrible” and that whatever someone with a degree and years of experience could do in any area of government, he could do better relying on instinct. His White House has conducted itself according to this philosophy, to devastating effect. From debt to taxes to renewable energy to trade to jobs to infrastructure to defense, the president has declared himself the best informed in all the land. What need, then, for a science adviser — a post Mr. Trump left vacant for 19 months? Why worry if more than a third of senior positions in the Pentagon or Department of Homeland Security have no confirmed appointee? Why not drive out most of the �workforce of the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service, as the administration did, intentionally, by abruptly moving the agency to the Kansas City region? The best sort of expert, in Mr. Trump’s view, is the kind with no independent judgment at all. And look where that has got us. The first debate is on Tuesday night and here’s Trump’s plan: Washington Post President Trump is gearing up to launch blistering personal attacks on Joe Biden and his family in the first presidential debate on Tuesday, while Biden is bracing for an onslaught and worried allies are warning the Democratic nominee not to lose his temper and lash out, according to people with knowledge of the strategies in both camps. Trump has told associates he wants to talk specifically about his opponent’s son Hunter Biden and mused that the debates are when “people will finally realize Biden is just not there,” according to one adviser. The president is so eager to lay into his rival that he has called aides to test out various attacks, focusing on broadsides that cast Biden as a longtime Washington insider with a limited record of accomplishment, said another adviser, who like many interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe private talks. Trump has coined the phrase ‘Sleepy Joe’ to describe Joe Biden. Biden has taken this onboard and said that its correct, because all Americans will be able to sleep at night when he is president. And actually, Joe, that’s true. I want a president I don’t have to think or hear about every single day, so I can get on with dealing with virus life uninterrupted. Speaking of the virus, here’s a heavily edited piece from an anonymous FaceBook source (not Dr Fauci): Chickenpox is a virus. Lots of people have had it, and probably don't think about it much once the initial illness has passed. But it stays in your body and lives there forever, and maybe when you're older, you have debilitatingly painful outbreaks of shingles. You don't just get over this virus in a few weeks, never to have another health effect. We know this because it's been around for years, and has been studied medically for years. Herpes is also a virus. And once someone has it, it stays in your body and lives there forever. We know this because it's been around for years, and has been studied medically for years. HIV is a virus. It attacks the immune system and makes the carrier far more vulnerable to other illnesses. It has a list of symptoms and negative health impacts that goes on and on. It was decades before viable treatments were developed that allowed people to live with a reasonable quality of life. Once you have it, it lives in your body forever.We know this because it has been around for years, and has been studied medically for years. �Now with COVID-19, we have a novel virus that spreads rapidly and easily. The full spectrum of symptoms and health effects is only just beginning to be cataloged, much less understood. People testing positive for COVID-19 have been documented to be sick even after 60 days. Many people are sick for weeks, get better, and then experience a rapid and sudden flare up and get sick all over again.This disease has not been around for years. It has basically been 6 months. No one knows yet the long-term health effects, or how it may present itself years down the road for people who have been exposed. We literally do not know what we do not know. The more things we can all do to mitigate our risk of exposure, the better off we all are. Not only does it flatten the curve and allow health care providers to maintain levels of service that aren't immediately and catastrophically overwhelmed; it also reduces unnecessary suffering and deaths, and buys time for the scientific community to study the virus in order to come to a more full understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short and long term. Leaf art And Oliver, of course. �Last day and last outing. We went up over the Pyrenees to Puigcerda, for lunch, shopping and sightseeing. �Fabulous painted walls inside the church. �A building decorated for Christmas. �Inside the church �Standing on the wall to photograph the Pyrenees. �On the way back, Leah and Zoe standing between the two towers - yet another castle/fortress. It was so much fun having the children visit but it was coming to an end. We went home and packed, ready to leave in the morning. It is getting harder to write this post. The president and his cohorts seem to have thrown all decent behavior to the winds and each day there is a litany of stupid, thoughtless, selfish acts carried out. We are voting, we have yard signs and we have prepared for as many outcomes as possible. Now we are waiting and seeing. Its not my favorite occupation. � 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_2020-09-28_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-201 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 2020-09-28 Title A name given to the resource Day 201 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/02d49b73a3d266c17a6bb94831d75f37.pdf cb022353bd9174a3ab45a3587cffcbaa PDF Text Text Day 200! by windoworks Well here we are. 200 days. In 3 days it will be 29 weeks. The leaves are turning and from tomorrow the temperature is dropping and fall is upon us. Soon it will be time to close the storm windows and prepare the gardens for winter. I was talking to my friend Paul yesterday and he posts a photo online every day from his folders. He said he has pulled a photo from every folder and now he will have to begin at the first folder again for the next round. We both agreed that never in our wildest dreams did we think this would go on for so long. And it seems we may not even be half way through. �There are 37 days left to the election. Last night Trump nominated a far right leaning female judge to fill Judge Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court. At least half the country is up in arms about this. His motive is transparent - he thinks a conservative SCOTUS will rule in his favor regarding the outcome of this election. And what is motivating all the cries of foul play regarding absentee votes, by Trump, you ask? News & Guts A nutty week by any standards. But I want to call attention to what Donald Trump is really aiming for. It’s not a distraction, it’s not to motivate his base, it’s not based on anything other than fear The orange perp knows that what awaits him in 39 days is a resounding electoral defeat. Yes, his cronies may pardon him on federal level but his bigger issue is with the distinguished Manhattan District �Attorney Cy Vance whose team has sniffed out this Trump family scam. They are ready to pounce. Everything Trump thinks/breathes everyday is aimed at 1 thing, staying out of jail. He wants leverage to get a pardon from New York Gov. Cuomo before he will leave 1600 Penn. Prison won’t suit him or family well and his survival instinct has kicked in. The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr. says his office is investigating “public reports of possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.” Vance and his office have also announced that his office has the grounds to investigate the president and his businesses for tax fraud, according to New York Magazine. The thing that jumps out at me from this is Trump asking for a pardon from Governor Cuomo. Really? Governor Cuomo detests Trump and I can’t imagine him even considering a pardon. Maybe Pence? And I was thinking - who would be interested in a Donald J Trump Library? Not even Donald himself - I don’t think he reads much. Crooked Media: Mary Trump has sued her uncle Donald and his siblings for fraud, alleging that her family cheated her out of an inheritance worth tens of millions of dollars. Name a more wholesome family, we’ll wait. So, attack from all sides and even from within! Meanwhile, here’s significant change in fashion: The New Normal The last six months have been incredibly hard on retailers. Ann Taylor, Brooks Brothers, J. Crew and Lord & Taylor all declared bankruptcy in 2020, and they all had another thing in common: They made fancy clothes for the office. With so many white collar professionals working from home, sales of men’s formal wear have fallen off a steep cliff. But the business suit has been a cornerstone of men's business attire for hundreds of years. Has the pandemic finally killed off the fashion item that’s stood the test of time? Stats: numbers are not updated online over the weekend but as of Friday the US had 54,536 new cases and a total of 7.1M. Total deaths: 204K. Michigan had 1,043 new cases and a total of 134K. Total deaths: 7,044. Kent County had, as of Saturday, 83 new cases and a total of 9,048. Total deaths: 165. This daily new case total will probably bring our Kent County positivity rate over 3%. GVSU is trying to control outbreaks and it remains to be seen if Ottawa County will lift the Stay in Place order this week. Most of Craig’s students have just one face to face class. There are competing stories out there about vaccines. Who is making them, how are the trials going? Will a vaccine be safe? Now if you’re like me you would suppose that a vaccine is a vaccine is a vaccine. Not so. There are a huge number of different types of vaccine in development. Now, lets be honest - although �Trump (abetted by McConnell and Graham) can try to get a Supreme Court judge confirmed by Election Day, even he can’t magically produce a safe and effective vaccine in 37 days. Here’s a much abridged article from the New York Times: SCIENCE|Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker: Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine by next year. Researchers are testing 42 vaccines in clinical trials on humans, and at least 93 preclinical vaccines are under active investigation in animals. Work began in January with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March, but the road ahead remains uncertain. Some trials will fail, and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus. PRECLINICAL TESTING: Scientists test a new vaccine on cells and then give it to animals such as mice or monkeys to see if it produces an immune response. We have confirmed 93 preclinical vaccines in active development. PHASE 1 SAFETY TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to a small number of people to test safety and dosage as well as to confirm that it stimulates the immune system. PHASE 2 EXPANDED TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to hundreds of people split into groups, such as children and the elderly, to see if the vaccine acts differently in them. These trials further test the vaccine’s safety and ability to stimulate the immune system. PHASE 3 EFFICACY TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to thousands of people and wait to see how many become infected, compared with volunteers who received a placebo. These trials can determine if the vaccine protects against the coronavirus. In June, the F.D.A. said that a coronavirus vaccine would have to protect at least 50% of vaccinated people to be considered effective. In addition, Phase 3 trials are large enough to reveal evidence of relatively rare side effects that might be missed in earlier studies. EARLY OR LIMITED APPROVAL: China and Russia have approved vaccines without waiting for the results of Phase 3 trials. Experts say the rushed process has serious risks. APPROVAL: Regulators in each country review the trial results and decide whether to approve the vaccine or not. During a pandemic, a vaccine may receive emergency use authorization before getting formal approval. Once a vaccine is licensed, researchers continue to monitor people who receive it to make sure it’s safe and effective. COMBINED PHASES: One way to accelerate vaccine development is to combine phases. Some coronavirus vaccines are now in Phase 1/2 trials, for example, in which they are tested for the first time on hundreds of people. (Note that our tracker would count a combined Phase 1/2 trial as both Phase 1 and Phase 2.) Authors note: there are several different types of vaccines, all under trial, and all work in different ways: �1. Genetic Vaccines Vaccines that deliver one or more of the coronavirus’s own genes into our cells to provoke an immune response. 2. Viral Vector Vaccines Vaccines that contain viruses engineered to carry coronavirus genes. Some viral vector vaccines enter cells and cause them to make viral proteins. Other viral vectors slowly replicate, carrying coronavirus proteins on their surface. 3. Protein-Based Vaccines Vaccines that contain coronavirus proteins but no genetic material. Some vaccines contain whole proteins, and some contain fragments of them. Some pack many of these molecules on nanoparticles. 4. Inactivated or Attenuated Coronavirus Vaccines Vaccines created from weakened coronaviruses or coronaviruses that have been killed with chemicals. 5. Repurposed Vaccines Vaccines already in use for other diseases that may also protect against Covid-19. 135 vaccines in trials (at least). Now under each of those 5 headings there is an exhaustive list of individual companies/universities - but you can look that up for yourself. Hopefully one vaccine will prove effective and safe and available to all by late 2021 - or not. So in the meantime its what we have: the Big Three. Hand washing, masking and social distancing. Leaf art! �And Oliver, of course. ��This morning I have a video of Oliver watching a clip on his mothers phone and dancing (and then ‘singing’ ) along with it in his high chair. Almost the end of our 6 month sojourn in Europe. �����After the visit to Grotte de Niaux, it was time for lunch and we had brought a picnic lunch with us. Nearby was the ruined Chateau de Miglos. After lunch the children scrambled all over it even though it said clearly (in French) Keep Out. And then to end the outing, we took everyone to Foix, as Zar and Alva and Leah hadn’t been there before. ���To finish off our last day, we went to dinner at our favorite cafe in Mirepoix. �Which was lit up for Christmas. Then back home for our last evening in front of the fire. �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_2020-09-27_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-200 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 2020-09-27 Title A name given to the resource Day 200 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/fb034fcf0ca4ef40e190fc86b177df2e.pdf 299148485d3bfc9ddfab119bc73e6667 PDF Text Text ���� https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/55546846aa4f69aa48935d3dafc68c0e.pdf 724c81c924297d3f2a70d0621b298510 PDF Text Text [RHC-93_Agnes_1945-03-13] [Page 1] March 13, 1945 My dearest Darling: Received your V-mail of Mar. 4, and sure was glad to hear from you again. I sure hope the letters keep coming like they used too, and you’ll feel more like writing. Do you think you’re going to like your new assignment? Its such a relief to me to know you’re not going back to the front again. I still love you with all my heart “darling” and miss you very much. I’m praying that you’ll soon get a furlough and come home to me. I sure do like the picture you sent me “sweets” and I keep looking at it all the time. I want to thank {red lipstick imprint} [Page 2] you again for the souveners in case you don’t get some of my letters. Spring is almost here again. How time does fly! Do you ever hear anything of Ray? I haven’t heard anything about him for ages. Alice wrote and told me Carolyn’s brother is getting married. He’s marrying a girl from Maine. I don’t think Carolyn’s got a boyfriend. I wonder if she believes yet that we’re engaged. I shall have to close “sweets” because this is the last of my paper. All my Love Your future wife Agnes {signature accent mark} {red lipstick imprint} [Envelope front] Agnes Van Der Weide 1913 Berkley Ave. S.W. Grand Rapids 9, Mich. {Postmark} GRAND RAPIDS �MAR 14 3 PM 1945 MICH. VIA AIR MAIL S/Sgt. Joseph P. Olexa (12016893) [?] A.P.O. – [?] c/o Postmaster New York, N. Y. [Envelope back] S.W.A.K. � 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 Joe Olexa letters Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Olexa, Joseph P. Van Der Weide, Agnes Description An account of the resource Collection of letters between Joseph Olexa and Agnes Van Der Weide, dating from 1941 to 1946. Olexa fought in the U.S. Army 26th Infantry Division, Company "L", and eventually attained the rank of Staff Sergeant. Over the course of World War II, Olexa was engaged in North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium, and Germany. He fought in the Invasion of Normandy, the liberation of Belgium, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge. While deployed abroad, Olexa maintained regular correspondence with Agnes Van Der Weide, a young woman he met through mutual friends. Agnes was the daughter of Benjamin and Minnie (Ter Meer) Van Der Weide. The Van Der Weide family lived in Jamestown, Michigan and Ashburnham, Massachusetts until moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1943. While the letters do not contain details relating to Olexa's military activities, due to heavy censorship of soldiers' correspondence by the U.S. Army, the letters do depict the daily activities of an infantry soldier and illustrate the blossoming romance between the two. Joseph and Agnes were married July 23, 1945, and lived in West Michigan until Agnes's death in 1993. Joseph Olexa died December 3, 2000. They were survived by their son, Karl Olexa. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant World War II Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941/1946 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/543">Joseph P. Olexa WWII memoir and correspondence (RHC-93)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource United States. Army. Infantry Division, 26th World War, 1939-1945 Soldiers -- Michigan Correspondence Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-93 Language A language of the resource eng 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 RHC-93_Agnes_1945-03-13 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Van Der Weide, Agnes Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1945-03-13 Title A name given to the resource Letter from Agnes Van Der Weide to Joe Olexa, March 13, 1945 Description An account of the resource Handwritten letter and envelope with transcript by Agnes Van Der Weide to Joe Olexa, dated March 13, 1945. The envelope is sent from 1913 Berkley Ave. S.W., Grand Rapids, Michigan, dated March 14, 1945. In the letter, Agnes expresses her relief over Joe's new assignment away from the front lines and hopes he will receive a furlough to return home once again. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Army. Infantry Division, 26th World War, 1939-1945 Soldiers -- Michigan Correspondence Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href=" https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/543">Joseph P. Olexa WWII memoir and correspondence, (RHC-93)</a> Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) 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 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant World War II 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/f043caf7986a9e312463b848095221cc.pdf 3153fc76f0d1db3be2a4560f3c7fc349 PDF Text Text ����� https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/41efa8ffa4685408f98f5e6d4ec4ab55.pdf 92786ab404824c7082599ade05aec963 PDF Text Text [RHC-93_Agnes_1945-03-08] [Page 1] March 8, 1945 My dearest Darling: I either don’t hear from you at all, or everything comes at once. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I got your picture. I’m so please with it “honey” that I can hardly tell you in words. I’ve got it in front of my now, and I wish I could take you right out of the picture into my arms. Wouldn’t that be heavenly though. I sure do think you’re looking good, and as far as I can see you haven’t changed one bit. My folks think its swell too. So much for the picture. I also got the souveners you sent me, and I sure was tickled. I think they’re darling, and to think you made [Page 2] them with your own hands. Last but not least I got the valentines and they sure are sweet. I’m so pleased with them. I hope you got the one I sent you. Don’t think I forgot about your birthday “darling” but it’s going to be a little late. I’ll tell you I had my picture taken for you, just like I did last year, and for some reason or other (paper shortage) it takes a long time to get them made. However, I think you’ll be pleased when you get it. A new furniture store opened downtown and its open every night this week for inspection. Mother, Dad, my girlfriend and myself [Page 3] went down to look tonight. Oh! “darling” it just puts me in the fever to buy furniture. I wish we were furnishing our home already, don’t you? We could have so much fun. Anyway we’ve got something to look forward to. My mother and I are redecorating my bedroom. I painted the ceiling all by myself. Do you believe me. Its sure going to look different. I hope you’re going to like my cedar chest “darling.” I’m pretty sure you will though. {red lipstick imprint} Mother got her letter from you, and she was very pleased. I didn’t get mine though, as yet. I sure hope [Page 4] and pray you get that 30 day furlough. Keep on trying for it and don’t give up. �I’m sending you a couple snapshots and hope you like them. This will give you an idea what my fur coat looks like. I shall close until later. Your future wife All my Love Agnes {signature accent mark} {red lipstick imprint} [Envelope front] Agnes Van Der Weide 1913 Berkley Ave. S.W. Grand Rapids 9, Mich. {Postmark} GRAND RAPIDS MAR 9 7 PM 1945 MICH. VIA AIR MAIL S/Sgt. Joseph P. Olexa (12016893) Det. of Patients 4152 U.S. Hosp. Plant A.P.O. – 63 c/o P.M. New York, N. Y. � 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 Joe Olexa letters Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Olexa, Joseph P. Van Der Weide, Agnes Description An account of the resource Collection of letters between Joseph Olexa and Agnes Van Der Weide, dating from 1941 to 1946. Olexa fought in the U.S. Army 26th Infantry Division, Company "L", and eventually attained the rank of Staff Sergeant. Over the course of World War II, Olexa was engaged in North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium, and Germany. He fought in the Invasion of Normandy, the liberation of Belgium, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge. While deployed abroad, Olexa maintained regular correspondence with Agnes Van Der Weide, a young woman he met through mutual friends. Agnes was the daughter of Benjamin and Minnie (Ter Meer) Van Der Weide. The Van Der Weide family lived in Jamestown, Michigan and Ashburnham, Massachusetts until moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1943. While the letters do not contain details relating to Olexa's military activities, due to heavy censorship of soldiers' correspondence by the U.S. Army, the letters do depict the daily activities of an infantry soldier and illustrate the blossoming romance between the two. Joseph and Agnes were married July 23, 1945, and lived in West Michigan until Agnes's death in 1993. Joseph Olexa died December 3, 2000. They were survived by their son, Karl Olexa. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant World War II Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941/1946 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/543">Joseph P. Olexa WWII memoir and correspondence (RHC-93)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource United States. Army. Infantry Division, 26th World War, 1939-1945 Soldiers -- Michigan Correspondence Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-93 Language A language of the resource eng 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 RHC-93_Agnes_1945-03-08 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Van Der Weide, Agnes Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1945-03-08 Title A name given to the resource Letter from Agnes Van Der Weide to Joe Olexa, March 8, 1945 Description An account of the resource Handwritten letter and envelope with transcript by Agnes Van Der Weide to Joe Olexa, dated March 8, 1945. The envelope is sent from 1913 Berkley Ave. S.W., Grand Rapids, Michigan, dated March 9, 1945. In the letter, Agnes expresses her excitement over receiving the care package from Joe including a treasured photograph of him, handmade souvenirs, and valentines. She also writes that she is looking forward to his birthday and dreams of the day when they can furnish their future home together. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Army. Infantry Division, 26th World War, 1939-1945 Soldiers -- Michigan Correspondence Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href=" https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/543">Joseph P. Olexa WWII memoir and correspondence, (RHC-93)</a> Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) 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 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant World War II 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/e5100e72f2f71719bdf63b2598fcb000.pdf 02789c906db9da4abae982f4525f0b49 PDF Text Text ����� https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e1960555fd2060a9109028fa885bd0e5.pdf 1964cc4ead76cade0294f7d5f49a997c PDF Text Text [RHC-93_Agnes_1945-02-22] [Page 1] February 22, 1945 My Darling, Received your letter of the 9th and must say I was very pleased to get it. I sure do appreciate your letters, especially when they’re so few and far between. I thought you sounded quite cheerful in this last V-mail, and I was quite encouraged. I’m anxiously waiting to get the package you sent and I’m wondering what’s in it. I know you just love to keep me guessing don’t you? Yes, darling I did visit Helen and I had a grand time. To think I wrote to you everyday while I was there and you didn’t get any of my letters just about makes me sick. [Page 2] I’m still praying for your safety “darling” and I hope the Lord will send you home to me soon. It seems as if you’ve just got to come home soon. Don’t you think so? Oh! darling I’m so anxious for you to see my cedar chest. I had my order in for quite awhile and I finally got mine. It’s walnut and sure is very pretty. Dad says it’s made good and has a good finish. I paid for it out of your money $40.00. I did this because you wanted me to have one, and you’ll have a lot of use out of it someday too. I got it on Valentine’s Day so I can {red lipstick imprint} [Page 3] call it a valentine from you. I always think of you “darling” and not a day goes by that I fail to. I still love you with all my heart, and miss you just as much. Oh! happy day when you’re home again to stay. I got a letter from Janice the other day, and by the way she writes, I guess they are coming here for Easter. I hope so, and I wish you were going to be here too. Well “sweets” I shall close for this time and write real soon and often. Yours always With all my Love Agnes {red lipstick imprint} �[Envelope front] Agnes Van Der Weide 1913 Berkley Ave. S.W. Grand Rapids 9, Mich. {Postmark} GRAND RAPIDS FEB 23 2 PM 1945 MICH. VIA AIR MAIL S/Sgt. Joseph P. Olexa (12016893) Det. of Patients 4152 U.S. Army Hospital A.P.O. – 63 c/o P.M. New York, N. Y. [Envelope back] S.W.A.K. {Postmark} U.S. ARMY 1 BPO 13 MCH POSTAL SERVICE CONTROL SECTION � 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 Joe Olexa letters Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Olexa, Joseph P. Van Der Weide, Agnes Description An account of the resource Collection of letters between Joseph Olexa and Agnes Van Der Weide, dating from 1941 to 1946. Olexa fought in the U.S. Army 26th Infantry Division, Company "L", and eventually attained the rank of Staff Sergeant. Over the course of World War II, Olexa was engaged in North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium, and Germany. He fought in the Invasion of Normandy, the liberation of Belgium, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge. While deployed abroad, Olexa maintained regular correspondence with Agnes Van Der Weide, a young woman he met through mutual friends. Agnes was the daughter of Benjamin and Minnie (Ter Meer) Van Der Weide. The Van Der Weide family lived in Jamestown, Michigan and Ashburnham, Massachusetts until moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1943. While the letters do not contain details relating to Olexa's military activities, due to heavy censorship of soldiers' correspondence by the U.S. Army, the letters do depict the daily activities of an infantry soldier and illustrate the blossoming romance between the two. Joseph and Agnes were married July 23, 1945, and lived in West Michigan until Agnes's death in 1993. Joseph Olexa died December 3, 2000. They were survived by their son, Karl Olexa. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant World War II Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941/1946 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/543">Joseph P. Olexa WWII memoir and correspondence (RHC-93)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource United States. Army. Infantry Division, 26th World War, 1939-1945 Soldiers -- Michigan Correspondence Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-93 Language A language of the resource eng 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 RHC-93_Agnes_1945-02-22 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Van Der Weide, Agnes Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1945-02-22 Title A name given to the resource Letter from Agnes Van Der Weide to Joe Olexa, February 22, 1945 Description An account of the resource Handwritten letter and envelope with transcript by Agnes Van Der Weide to Joe Olexa, dated February 22, 1945. The envelope is sent from 1913 Berkley Ave. S.W., Grand Rapids, Michigan, dated February 23, 1945. In the letter, Agnes writes how she is eagerly awaiting the gift package Joe sent to her and how sorry she was regarding her previous letters being undelivered during her time away with Helen. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Army. Infantry Division, 26th World War, 1939-1945 Soldiers -- Michigan Correspondence Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href=" https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/543">Joseph P. Olexa WWII memoir and correspondence, (RHC-93)</a> Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) 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 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant World War II Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives