Boots & Sabers

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Category: Culture

Metaverse is Cesspool of Human Degeneracy

by | 0847, 23 Feb 22 | , | 2 Comments

In other words, it’s just like the real world only people get to hide behind their avatars.

Some apps in the virtual-reality metaverse are “dangerous by design”, the NSPCC has warned in response to a BBC News investigation.

A researcher posing as a 13-year-old girl witnessed grooming, sexual material, racist insults and a rape threat in the virtual-reality world.

 

The children’s charity said it was “shocked and angry” at the findings.

 

Head of online child safety policy Andy Burrows added the investigation had found “a toxic combination of risks”.

 

The BBC News researcher – using an app with a minimum age rating of 13 – visited virtual-reality rooms where avatars were simulating sex. She was shown sex toys and condoms, and approached by numerous adult men.

 

The metaverse is the name given to games and experiences accessed by people wearing virtual reality headsets. The technology, previously confined to gaming, could be adapted for use in many other areas – from work to play, concerts to cinema trips.

Mark Zuckerberg thinks it could be the future of the internet – so much so, he recently rebranded Facebook as Meta, with the company investing billions developing its Oculus Quest headset.

How pro-life are Wisconsin’s Republicans?

by | 0658, 22 Feb 22 | , | 26 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

Disturbingly, with the U.S. Supreme Court scheduled to rule on two cases that could improve legal protections for babies by reversing or refining the appalling Roe v. Wade ruling, the Republican Legislature is bottling up a bill in committee that would prohibit abortions after the baby’s heartbeat is detectable. While Evers would certainly veto the bill, it would tell voters what Republicans would do to reshape the state’s abortion laws should the Supreme Court return that responsibility to the states.

 

[…]

 

We know what the Democrats would do. Given the power, they would lift as many restrictions on abortions as possible. We have seen in other states where Democrats are passing laws allowing abortions up to the point that it becomes infanticide. Pro-life Democrats have long since been purged from the party and there are few members left to moderate the leftist dogma when it comes to abortion.

 

What would Republicans do? Would they fight to keep abortions completely illegal in Wisconsin? That seems unlikely. Where would they draw the line?

 

The fetal heartbeat bill is one such line. The bill is modeled after the Texas law that went into effect last year. The law is being considered by the Supreme Court, but was allowed to go into effect, signaling that the court may sanction it permanently. The law prohibits an abortion provider from providing an abortion once a heartbeat is detected. This is usually around six weeks after conception.

 

[…]

 

Every person has a line at which they think an abortion is appropriate and permissible. They also have a line at which an abortion is abhorrent.

 

Given the very high likelihood that the Supreme Court will force the hand of state politicians to rewrite their state abortion laws for a new legal reality, what would the Republicans do in Wisconsin? If they would not draw the line at a baby’s heartbeat, where would they draw the line?

 

This is a question of life and death that the Republicans must answer before the next election. Their answer must be more than more empty pap at a rubber-chicken dinner. Their answer must have the force and detail of a bill that is passed by their legislative caucuses. How pro-life is the Republican Party of Wisconsin when they can’t hide behind a federal court ruling? Hopefully we will find out soon and babies will be able to live with the answer.

 

Virginian Schools Punish Kids Over Mark Choice

by | 1455, 21 Feb 22 | , , | 1 Comment

It is absolutely horrible what we have done to these kids.

“I see these people just not wearing a mask, or wearing one pulled down, like, under their chin,” said Swan, “and my brain just immediately goes, ‘That person does not share the same ideals as me. We won’t get along.’ ” She added: “They may not be a bad person. They may just be thinking the same things as their parents.”

 

Youngkin issued his mask-optional order, which aims to give Virginia parents choice over masking in both public and private schools, on his first day in office. A fierce fight ensued: Seventy of 131 Virginia school districts refused to comply and kept their mask requirements, according to a Washington Post analysis, and parents and school officials filed a flurry of lawsuits for and against the order. This week, the Virginia General Assembly narrowly passed – along largely partisan lines – a law that requires all schools to go mask-optional on March 1, ensuring every one of Virginia’s more than 1.8 million public and private schoolchildren will face masking decisions and tensions at school in days to come.

 

As the adults battle over the merits of masking, Virginia students have been forced to navigate the real-life fallout.

 

[…]

 

Some Virginia students were thrilled to remove their masks – but their elation quickly soured when administrators in districts that still required masking sent unmasked children into isolated rooms or back to their homes. Other students, especially those with health conditions, were horrified to find themselves seated next to maskless peers, unable to do anything except ask to change seats. All too often, students said, their teachers deny that request, citing instructions from higher-ups not to segregate students by mask status.

There’s a lot to unpack in this short excerpt. First, notice how the student is using mask wearing as a proxy for judging someone’s values. We have done that. Instead of teaching kids that everyone is different and can make choices that re right for them regarding their own health, we have taught them that compliance are the highest values. Mask compliance has long since ceased to be about healthcare and has become a symbol of subservience to the state.

Second, notice how willingly the teachers and administrators are willing to punish children for disagreeing with the staff member’s ideology or personal health choices. They have no qualms about torturing kids with isolation and shunning if they can use it to feed to the media for a story like this. Kids are very impressionable and we are using powerful social motivators to teach them that they must surrender independent judgment and personal healthcare decisions to the authorities. Our schools are not teaching them how to think and make rational choices. Our schools are teaching them how to be subjects for the state.

Third, we have put so much fear into our kids that we have turned many of them into frightened flowers. They are so afraid of a virus that poses less threat to them than the flu that they are making irrational and unhealthy choices. We have poisoned our children with fear and done real damage to their mental and physical health.

The pandemic has ended, but the damage to our children will last for their whole lives.

 

Bike Helmets are Racist in Seattle

by | 2011, 19 Feb 22 | , | 4 Comments

Personally, I don’t agree with legally requiring people to wear bike helmets. I do strongly recommend that people wear one. I certainly do and was very thankful to have been wearing one when I went over my handlebars and broke my clavicle. My helmet sure had a nasty scuff that could have been on my head. But to pass or repeal a law based of this “logic” instead of the merits is nuts.

In a county that has made racial justice reform a priority — the King County health board declared racism a public health crisis in 2020 — the regulation pitted the need to address racial equity against the obvious safety benefits of helmets.

 

“We have to have a broad view of public health: Yes, we have to think about brain injury, and we also have to think about the impact on our criminal legal system,” Zahilay said.

 

The health board, made up of elected officials and appointed medical experts from across the county, began to scrutinize the helmet rule in 2020 after an analysis of court records from Crosscut, a local news site, showed that it was rarely enforced, and enforced disproportionately when it was. Since 2017, Seattle police had given 117 helmet citations, more than 40% of which went to people who were homeless. Since 2019, 60% of citations went to people who were homeless.

 

A separate analysis from Central Seattle Greenways, a safe streets advocacy group, found that Black cyclists were almost four times as likely to receive a citation for violating the helmet requirement as white cyclists. Native American cyclists were just more than twice as likely to receive one as white cyclists.

 

Neither study looked at whether homeless people or people of color wore helmets less frequently than other groups — or whether, out of economic necessity, they were more likely to ride a bike. Critics nonetheless said enforcement appeared to be discriminatory.

Emphasis mine. They can’t even prove that it’s discriminatory. It just appears to be discriminatory to their addled minds. And for that, people will die.

Words Matter

by | 2005, 15 Feb 22 | | 28 Comments

Good news is that this is really easy to fix. Just do it quickly.

A priest resigned this month after his diocese announced that thousands of baptisms he had performed were invalid because he had changed a single word. He said, “We baptize you … ,” instead of “I baptize you … .”

 

“It is with sincere pastoral concern that I inform the faithful that baptisms performed by Reverend Andres Arango, a priest of the Diocese of Phoenix, are invalid,” Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix said in a letter last month.

 

“This determination was made after careful study by diocesan officials and through consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome,” he wrote.

 

Arango said, “We baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” instead of “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

 

“The issue with using ‘We’ is that it is not the community that baptizes a person, rather, it is Christ, and Him alone, who presides at all of the sacraments, and so it is Christ Jesus who baptizes,” Olmsted said.

Social Media is Depressing

by | 2010, 13 Feb 22 | | 5 Comments

I would argue that this consequence is not limited to teenagers. It seems there are a lot more lonely adults too.

Today’s teenagers are lonelier at school than those 20 years ago because smartphones stop them talking with friends, a study says.

 

Researchers found the proportion of 15 and 16-year-olds in the UK feeling alienated among peers has tripled since 2000 to 33 per cent – one in three.

 

They said the rise coincides with widespread use of smartphones and social media by this age group.

 

[…]

 

The authors, who studied children worldwide, added that social media in particular is having a negative effect as it may heighten feelings of missing out or lead to cyber bullying.

 

Increases were higher among girls than boys.

 

The study, published in the Journal of Adolescence, said there was a strong correlation between smartphones and loneliness, although definite blame cannot be proven.

 

Researchers said adolescent wellbeing ‘began to decline after 2012, in conjunction with the rise of smartphone access’.

Opposition to Teaching Racism Wins at the Ballot Box

by | 1957, 12 Feb 22 | , | 0 Comments

It’s good to see that there are still a majority of Americans who oppose teaching racism at school.

Conservative candidates for local office have successfully campaigned against critical race theory — a legal framework that considers structural prejudices against minorities in present day racial discrimination — since Republican lawmakers began leveraging it in 2021 to represent general dissatisfaction with school curricula.

 

Meanwhile, their progressive counterparts struggle to gain traction against the narrative that has enticed voters. And with a majority of states holding local elections this year, conservatives may make even more strides at that level.

It’s not just a narrative. It’s real and people really object to it.

America the beautiful

by | 0823, 10 Feb 22 | , , | 6 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News earlier this week.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor.” That quote is often attributed to Mark Twain, who did not say it, but they are wise words, nonetheless.

 

This week marks six months since my wife and I threw off our boat’s bowlines as we spend a year circumnavigating the eastern half of the nation on the Great Loop. As I sit in the Keys at the southernmost point on our journey having sailed almost 2,800 miles from our beautiful home port of Port Washington, I’ve learned a few things about our country. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I relearned them.

 

America’s waterways are truly bursting with crosscurrents of people. Rich people in palatial homes, vagabond river rats, heavy industry workers, agricultural workers, fishermen, pleasure boaters, restaurateurs, hoteliers, vacationers, farmers, retirees, immigrants, middle-class folks, and just about every other kind of person finds their way to the water to intermingle.

 

By and large, Americans are nice. They are helpful, generous, welcoming, and kind. They are open with advice and love to share their experiences. Perhaps these wonderful attributes get lost in the news or in the fires of social media exchanges, but they are as real and true as ever. Americans are a good people. Americans are extremely reasonable and full of common sense. On the COVID pandemic, for example, the vast majority of the people we met were taking a sensible approach. If they were in a high-risk group, they were more cautious. Most people were content to let people make their own choices without judgment or concern. We met one couple who were fellow digital nomads who said, “We heard about the pandemic, but chose not to participate.” To each their own. That “live and let live” attitude is prevalent throughout America.

 

Americans are incredibly hardworking and entrepreneurial. We met one man in Mississippi who used to work in corporate America. After finding out that he had severe hypertension in his mid-40s, he quit and started his own business delivering food to marinas. Through word of mouth, he has expended to a wide list of concierge services. He was working 80 hours a week, but healthy, happy, and hiring. America is still the land of opportunity and new beginnings.

 

Americans are proud, and rightfully so. In almost every town from Chicago to Apalachicola, Fla., people are proud of their communities. Visiting the local history museums, seeing the murals, and speaking to locals opens up the full story of America. From rugged pioneers hacking out a home in the wilderness to industrialists creating an industry to the generations of people toiling to make their community better for the next generation, every town has a rich history and a proud heritage. Sure, I love spending time in New York and Chicago too, but give me a Paducah or Everglades City any day.

 

It is also clear that America’s politicians are completely out of touch with actual Americans. In speaking with hundreds of Americans from all walks of life in dozens of towns of all sizes, people are not talking about the same things as the politicians. People are not talking about racial strife. Most Americans get along just fine with their neighbors irrespective of race or ethnicity. People are not talking about Ukraine. They are talking about COVID a bit but have mostly moved on. Nobody cares about global warming, but they care about keeping their environment clean.

 

What Americans do care about are the things that they have always cared about — the things that are impacting their daily lives. The most common concern on people’s mind were rising prices. One couple we met watched as the price of diesel went up between the time they started pumping and when they finished. They had to pay the higher price. The prices for groceries, fuel, cars, and food are on everyone’s minds.

 

Americans are talking about their kids in schools and how hard the lockdowns, virtual learning, and masking has been on their children and their families. They are talking about crime, but mostly in the cities. Small-town Americans still respect and support their police. Americans are talking about government waste and fraud. They know about Washington spending trillions of dollars to help, but very little of it has actually made a difference in their lives.

 

Americans are worried that their culture is being taken away from them. They are joking about wokeism because it is so foreign to their experience, but worried that the cultural elites will force it on them. Americans are fiercely proud of being Americans, but anxious that they aren’t allowed to be proud anymore.

 

When Donald Trump ran for office with his “Make America Great Again” slogan, I didn’t get it then. I get it now even if I don’t support him running again. He was tuned into something that the rest of our politicians were not. Americans feel like their political representatives are too far removed from the real issues that impact Americans and they are absolutely sick and tired of it. Unless our elected representatives figure out how to reconnect with the people they serve, we will continue to whipsaw between extremes as Americans cry out for someone to listen to them.

Students Protest Christian Celebration in Public School

by | 0749, 10 Feb 22 | , , | 0 Comments

This sounds like a screwup where everything worked out the way it was supposed to. It’s fine for a religious group to host an event during non-instructional time just like any other group. It was voluntary. I imagine that environmental and social justice groups could do the same. A couple of teachers screwed up and thought it was mandatory. Students protested. Administration is taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. America.

If anything, it shows just how much fluffy free time there is in a school schedule.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — Between calculus and European history classes at a West Virginia public high school, 16-year-old Cameron Mays and his classmates were told by their teacher to go to an evangelical Christian revival assembly.

 

When students arrived at the event in the school’s auditorium, they were instructed to close their eyes and raise their arms in prayer, Mays said. The teens were asked to give their lives over to Jesus to find purpose and salvation. Those who did not follow the Bible would go to hell when they died, they were told.

 

[…]

 

More than 1,000 students attend Huntington High. The mini revival took place last week during COMPASS, a daily, “noninstructional” break in the schedule during which students can study for tests, work on college prep or listen to guest speakers, said Cabell County Schools spokesperson Jedd Flowers.

 

Flowers said the event was voluntary, organized by the school’s chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He said there was supposed to be a signup sheet for students, but two teachers mistakenly brought their entire class.

 

“It’s unfortunate that it happened,” Flowers said. “We don’t believe it will ever happen again.”

Ye Olde Fighting Cocks to Close After a Millennium Due to Government COVID Policies

by | 0945, 9 Feb 22 | , , | 1 Comment

Sad. Note that COVID didn’t do this. The government’s policy choices did.

The Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub in St. Albans, England has been around since the year 793 A.D., according to the Guinness Book of World Records, but is finally shutting down due to hardships from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Christo Tofalli, the operator of the pub, shared the sad news in a Facebook post on Feb. 4, saying that they have filed for bankruptcy and have struggled during the entire pandemic.

“It is with great sadness that I have to announce that today, after a sustained period of extremely challenging trading conditions, YOFC Ltd has gone into administration,” Tofalli said in the post.

“Along with my team, I have tried everything to keep the pub going. However, the past two years have been unprecedented for the hospitality industry, and have defeated all of us who have been trying our hardest to ensure this multi-award-winning pub could continue trading into the future.”

America the beautiful

by | 0648, 8 Feb 22 | , | 0 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. I’ve been seeing a lot of this country lately and paused to reflect. Here’s a part:

Americans are proud, and rightfully so. In almost every town from Chicago to Apalachicola, Fla., people are proud of their communities. Visiting the local history museums, seeing the murals, and speaking to locals opens up the full story of America. From rugged pioneers hacking out a home in the wilderness to industrialists creating an industry to the generations of people toiling to make their community better for the next generation, every town has a rich history and a proud heritage. Sure, I love spending time in New York and Chicago too, but give me a Paducah or Everglades City any day.

 

It is also clear that America’s politicians are completely out of touch with actual Americans. In speaking with hundreds of Americans from all walks of life in dozens of towns of all sizes, people are not talking about the same things as the politicians. People are not talking about racial strife. Most Americans get along just fine with their neighbors irrespective of race or ethnicity. People are not talking about Ukraine. They are talking about COVID a bit but have mostly moved on. Nobody cares about global warming, but they care about keeping their environment clean.

 

What Americans do care about are the things that they have always cared about — the things that are impacting their daily lives. The most common concern on people’s mind were rising prices.

 

 

Coexist?

by | 0833, 3 Feb 22 | | 25 Comments

It really is the Left that is so full of hate. How are we supposed to build bridges if one side won’t even stay in the room?

Rudy Giuliani caused quite a stir as he was unmasked during a taping of the first episode for season seven of Fox’s The Masked Singer last week, as reported by Deadline.

 

The 77-year-old politician’s shocking unmasking reportedly prompted a dramatic reaction from judges Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke.

 

The outlet reports that Ken and Robin ‘quickly left the stage in protest’ of Rudy’s involvement.

Buttigieg wants to watch you all the time

by | 1657, 29 Jan 22 | , | 11 Comments

No

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s plan to ‘promote speed safety cameras’ is raising the troubling specter of ubiquitous automated traffic enforcement in the style of the UK, where the cameras are widely despised.

 

Buttigieg’s 42-page plan road safety plan unveiled on Thursday and backed by $14 billion in funding from the new infrastructure bill, contained only brief mention of the speed camera plan, but it was enough to set alarm bells ringing for worried motorists.

 

[…]

 

Buttigieg’s strategy recommends pilot programs to study and promote greater use of speed cameras, which he says could provide more ‘equitable’ enforcement than police traffic stops, as the cameras will have no awareness of the race of the driver.

 

[…]

 

‘They have done nothing for road safety, but are catching hundreds of thousands of drivers of which the majority are otherwise driving safely.’

[…]

However, Hampshire Police revealed last year that the camera has been recording ‘incorrect readings’ for vehicles with a ‘high flat rear’ and at least two drivers have been able to prove they were wrongly caught by the camera so far.

 

[…]

 

Interestingly a 2013 study by the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) Foundation highlighted how cameras in some areas had actually caused accidents rather than preventing them.

 

A total of 21 camera sites had shown data where collision rates had risen ‘markedly’ since cameras were put in place.

Gas Leaks

by | 1958, 27 Jan 22 | | 3 Comments

Sorry, but if I own a B&B and find you wrapping the room in plastic, I’m throwing your butt out, Dexter.

The researchers examined 53 home kitchens in California — many in bed and breakfasts they rented. They sealed most of the rooms in plastic tarps and then measured emissions when the stoves were working and when they were not.

Spotify Removes Neil Young

by | 2006, 26 Jan 22 | | 13 Comments

I guess we know who has more market power at the moment.

Spotify has begun removing music by Neil Young after the rock star called for the streaming platform to choose between him and podcaster Joe Rogan.

Accusing him of Covid misinformation, Young told Spotify this week: “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”

 

Rogan has been criticised for interviewing an infectious disease specialist who opposes Covid-19 vaccines for children.

Spotify said it “regrets” the move and hopes he returns to the platform soon.

 

[…]

 

He also thanked his record label, Warner Brothers-owned Reprise Records, for supporting his decision, saying that around 60% of all of his streamed music comes from Spotify listeners.

 

“Thank you Warner Brothers for standing with me and taking the hit – losing 60% of my worldwide streaming income in the name of Truth,” he wrote online.

“players with vaginas received extra underwear”

by | 2033, 19 Jan 22 | | 5 Comments

Women are being erased from the lexicon

According to two former competitors, players with vaginas received extra underwear on the latest season of “Survivor,” which aired in 2021.

 

[…]

 

Wallace said it “makes sense” to give players with vaginas more than one pair of underwear because “we got stuff going on own there” and they have different needs than those with penises.

 

“I was like, there’s a difference between equity and equality, right?” she said. “Equity is giving everyone the same thing, and then equality is giving people what they need based on their needs.”

ACLU Appoints New Executive Director

by | 0926, 10 Jan 22 | | 11 Comments

Long ago the ACLU transitioned from a somewhat equal defender of civil rights into another leftist activist group. In case you thought any different, allow me to disabuse you of your misconceptions. Meet the Wisconsin ACLU’s new Executive Director. 

Dr. Brennan earned her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies and her master’s degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She went on to earn her doctorate in gender studies at Indiana University, where she wrote a dissertation on the nexus between hate acts, nationalism, white supremacy, and American Islamophobia.

 

Before joining the ACLU, Dr. Brennan served as a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Board Consultant for the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition Project, training and educating board members about disability, race, and class issues related to mobility justice. She also has expertise in the DEIJ space, with years of experience as a consultant and community advocate.

 

“Many of the issues I am devoted to reveal the way difference is weaponized and cast as problematic, rather than honoring difference, being accountable to justice, and supporting communities held at the margins,” Dr. Brennan said. “My commitment to this work is informed by scholarship and action, much of which was done by women of color, queer people of color, and other multiply marginalized leaders who speak truth to power.”

It is certainly the ACLU’s right to be a leftist activist group. But just remember that when the media turns to them as a purportedly “unbiased” arbiter on controversial issues.

Violence Against Government Ever Justified?

by | 1722, 2 Jan 22 | , | 4 Comments

While this story is a rather comically exaggerated story about the January 6th kerfuffle last year, this struck me.

WaPo’s poll, taken between December 19 and December 19, asks US adults: ‘Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to take violent action against the government, or is it never justified?’

 

Thirty-four percent of respondents said it could be, while 62 percent believe it’s never justified.

The response to that question should have been 100% that violence against government could be justified. Our nation was founded on violence against government. In fact, our nation was founded on the principle that it is a citizen’s duty to violently throw off government when that government no longer protects our rights. The Declaration of Independence lays out this principle as:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

No, it should not be done lightly, but to say that it is NEVER justified is downright unAmerican. And the fact that this poll indicates that 62% of the people polled think that violence against government is never justified makes me weep for our future. Docile cows led to slaughter…

Governments Rationing Healthcare Based on Race

by | 2045, 1 Jan 22 | , | 6 Comments

These are the actions of an apartheid government. It is also what happens when we surrender our healthcare to government.

The agency responded the same day, the Post reports, and informed Nasti that they  are prioritizing neighborhoods flagged by the city’s Taskforce on Racial Inclusion and Equity – which has identified 31 underserved neighborhoods to receive preferential COVID treatment from the city.

 

The task force said names were picked based on a DOHMH analysis of ‘health status, living conditions, social inequities, occupation and COVID-19 Wave 1 impact,’ though it did not release the methodology the agency uses to weigh the different factors.

 

The latest revelation comes as reports surfaced that non-white people are receiving priority from the state Health Department to receive monoclonal antibody treatments and Pfizer’s new pills because of nationwide shortages.

 

A representative from the Health Department defended the priority given to minority communities because they have ‘borne the brunt of this pandemic due to structural racism’ and that tests were being distributed through community-based organizations in the selected neighborhoods.

 

According to city data, blacks and African Americans have had 12,808 residents per 100,000 people test positive for the virus since the pandemic began, Hispanics have had 15,309 residents per 100,000 people test positive for the virus and white people have had 13,095 residents per 100,000 test positive.

A prayer for the new year

by | 0828, 31 Dec 21 | | 0 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News this week. May you all have a joyous 2022.

As I sit here contemplating my final column of 2021, there is no shortage of contentious political and cultural issues about which to write. But resting in the warmth of family and the quiet wheezing of a year in its final moments, writing about one of the many societal frictions seems indecent. You don’t want to read it. I don’t want to write it. Instead, I offer a fervent prayer for the new year.

 

Lord, thank you for another year living in your grace. Thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, who lived amongst us to die to atone for our sins. Thank you for reminding me that while 2021 was a very tough year for so many, we are transients on this planet and destined for an eternity in your everlasting light of pure joy. May this knowledge comfort and salve the wounds, seen and unseen, inflicted in this world.

 

Lord, I know that you are with the poor and the oppressed; the cold and the infirm; the lonely and the sad; the hated and the haters; the hungry and the hurt; the lost and the elderly; the children and the wanderers. You are with all without reserve or deserve. May I open my heart to those who struggle as your son taught me to do.

 

Lord, the clouds lurking in the predawn of 2022 are dark and ominous. I hear the drums of war thumping in faraway lands. I see the worrying signs of potential economic ruination. I have been made all too aware of the power of disease to disrupt society. I know the evil purposes of some to use the fear of all these things to abuse and oppress. Please grant our leaders wisdom, restraint, patience, resilience, and humility to make the correct decisions to guide us through these turbulent times.

 

Lord, this year saw a huge increase in the number of people being victimized by criminals. Many criminals are broken people who struggle with addictions or mental illnesses. Please heal them that they may fully participate in our society. For those criminals who are simply evil, please protect the rest of us from them. Please protect those police officers who bravely stand a watch to maintain our civil society from those who would ravage it. May 2022 bring with it the peace of a lawful society.

 

Lord, with the pandemic and our misguided public policy responses, more people are suffering from forced or voluntary isolation. You made us to be social creatures and the isolation is unnatural. It foments depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Please bring comfort to the isolated with the knowledge that even when alone, they are loved. Even if they don’t love you, you love them.

 

Lord, like many others, even when I am with other people, I feel the emptiness of those who are no longer with me. Grief is the price paid for love, so as I grieve, let me reflect on the price that you paid for your love of me. May my faith turn grief to joy as I celebrate that my loved ones feel no pain; shed no tears; carry no burden as they sing your everlasting praises.

 

Lord, while my powers to change the world are limited, your power to change me is infinite. May your power swell my heart, wither my pride, heal my wounds, and give me the courage to fix a few pieces of this broken world before my time on it is done.

 

If life is the childhood of our immortality, as Goethe contends, then let me live as a child. Laugh without trepidation. Trust without doubt. Help without expectations. Give without taking. Love without reserve.

 

Lord, thank you for 2021. May 2022 be a year of growing closer to you.

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