The pool hadn’t been maintained for a few weeks, so I inquired to see if we were on the schedule.
My friend Chris responded: Nate (the maintenance man), tested positive for coronavirus two weeks ago and his quarantine will be finished this weekend.
I now know someone whose had corona virus.
CV19 was previously like a war on a different continent. I knew it was happening, but wasn’t affected by its harshest effect: knowing an infected person.
Days earlier, I'd learned that My friend Robyn, a nurse who lives in Oregon, had spent a few months volunteering in New Jersey.
Her father said, "For those people who don't believe it's real, they just need to talk to Robyn." Like dice in his head, he was rolling around his daughter's CV19 stories. "I have a brother who is saying it's all a hoax. He needs to talk to Robyn."
How did we get here?
Yet, we've always been here. Nothing is completely real and believable until we experience it ourselves or only when we can trust the source enough to have a vicarious experience.
It's like when I was a kid and my mom wouldn't let me have a club soda, "You won't like it," she insisted; I insisted and so she gave in. Bam--my nostrils burned, my tongue repulsed, and Mom was right. It gave me confidence to believe her the next time she said "No."
Studies have proven that people choose details and facts that support their beliefs or the things they want to believe. Since news and social media voices are dishing up a hefty dose of every belief, we can literally choose the proof to match our opinions and we've become a nation divided--all because we want to believe what supports our beliefs.
But every once in a while, a disturbing and compelling-for-change video comes along and forces us to look at things differently--if we're willing to see.
~~
I have always pitied Senator Joseph McCarthy who between 1950-54 created some thick dust over the Red Scare--a claim that communism was invading America and the infiltrators were some of America's most elite citizens. The scare was rampant, and President Eisenhower even implemented a government loyalty test and pledge.
I'd read McCarthy's speeches, watched video footage of his inquiries while serving on the Committee of Government Operations. Finally his rein of horror came to an end after he'd accused the US Armed Forces of being communists and their special counsel Joe Welch, asked McCarthy, "Have you no decency?"
McCarthyism was a set in stone period of history when a senator with too much power had gone amuck; I taught his story as such.
But much to my astonishment, while perusing the library's history section I found there was a different perspective on ol' Joe McCarthy who drank himself to death over his legacy: Blacklisted by History. The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and his fight against America's enemies. My jaw dropped as I read the book's side panel theory that ol' Joe might have been right and his actions justified. Who would have thought?
I'll read the book. It's my obligation to give the other side a chance. To even teach the theory if it has any validity---but will it? Will I? Because I already believe otherwise.
My friend Chris responded: Nate (the maintenance man), tested positive for coronavirus two weeks ago and his quarantine will be finished this weekend.
I now know someone whose had corona virus.
CV19 was previously like a war on a different continent. I knew it was happening, but wasn’t affected by its harshest effect: knowing an infected person.
Days earlier, I'd learned that My friend Robyn, a nurse who lives in Oregon, had spent a few months volunteering in New Jersey.
Her father said, "For those people who don't believe it's real, they just need to talk to Robyn." Like dice in his head, he was rolling around his daughter's CV19 stories. "I have a brother who is saying it's all a hoax. He needs to talk to Robyn."
How did we get here?
Yet, we've always been here. Nothing is completely real and believable until we experience it ourselves or only when we can trust the source enough to have a vicarious experience.
It's like when I was a kid and my mom wouldn't let me have a club soda, "You won't like it," she insisted; I insisted and so she gave in. Bam--my nostrils burned, my tongue repulsed, and Mom was right. It gave me confidence to believe her the next time she said "No."
Studies have proven that people choose details and facts that support their beliefs or the things they want to believe. Since news and social media voices are dishing up a hefty dose of every belief, we can literally choose the proof to match our opinions and we've become a nation divided--all because we want to believe what supports our beliefs.
But every once in a while, a disturbing and compelling-for-change video comes along and forces us to look at things differently--if we're willing to see.
~~
I have always pitied Senator Joseph McCarthy who between 1950-54 created some thick dust over the Red Scare--a claim that communism was invading America and the infiltrators were some of America's most elite citizens. The scare was rampant, and President Eisenhower even implemented a government loyalty test and pledge.
I'd read McCarthy's speeches, watched video footage of his inquiries while serving on the Committee of Government Operations. Finally his rein of horror came to an end after he'd accused the US Armed Forces of being communists and their special counsel Joe Welch, asked McCarthy, "Have you no decency?"
McCarthyism was a set in stone period of history when a senator with too much power had gone amuck; I taught his story as such.
But much to my astonishment, while perusing the library's history section I found there was a different perspective on ol' Joe McCarthy who drank himself to death over his legacy: Blacklisted by History. The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and his fight against America's enemies. My jaw dropped as I read the book's side panel theory that ol' Joe might have been right and his actions justified. Who would have thought?
I'll read the book. It's my obligation to give the other side a chance. To even teach the theory if it has any validity---but will it? Will I? Because I already believe otherwise.
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