Category Archives: Life

North Carolina COVID Data

I have been tracking the cases we’ve seen here in Carolina for some time now. The data prior to the recent surge beginning in September or October has stomped out the earlier data. That said, we’re really interested in the most recent data anyway.

The pattern here is really pretty straight forward. We see surges in cases after travel to and then the celebration of the three big holidays; Thanksgiving, Christmas and then New Years. I have the feeling, unsupported by data, that here in North Carolina, people traveled and met with large family groups for each of the two traditional family holidays; Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m guessing that those folks who typically celebrate New Years continued that practice. The cases follow the very predictable lag of 3-10 days. If I were to track hospitalizations and deaths, I would see the lag of each as well. The number I saw the other day was this:

12% of cases result in hospitalizations with 12% of those resulting in ICU. If I can find a reasonably easy data source I’ll run that data to confirm.

Anyway, it sure seems that we are seeing a real reduction in cases here; the trend is real. Today’s case total, 3978, is the lowest total in absolute terms since December 29 and the 7-day rolling average is the lowest since January 1. Expect this trend to continue.

On Definitions

I hope to write more in 2020. Race will be a significant topic of my posts., therefore, I think it’s important that we get on the same page in terms of definitions.

Racism – A person who believes that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

Bigot – A person who regards or treats the members of another group (such as racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.

Discrimination – The prejudicial treatment of a person or persons based solely on their membership in a certain group or category. Discrimination is actual behavior.

I understand that in today’s usage, the words above have different meaning. Much of what might be categorized as either bigotry or discrimination is referred to as racism. Additionally, racism today is often meant to mean systemic, as imposed by the state, government or society. This means that members of some minority groups are incapable of racism because there is no systemic examples of such. While I acknowledge that such systemic did, and may continue to, exist, that is not how I typically use the term.

Happy New – 2010: Onward!

2020 is here. For many people this begins a new decade, but for everybody it begins a new year. Rebirth, renewal and refresh are strong human needs. And we’ve long used the time at or near the winter solstice to mark the time we celebrate this.

So, I do.

Happy New Year!

Take time to reflect, to look back, to measure and to look forward. Plan, promise and prepare.

No, go do!

Parkland, Florida – Solutions on the Spectrum

The horrors we witnessed in Parkland took place a week ago this afternoon.  For many of us, the tragedy is still fresh and frontal.  For a few, those horrors will never end; that day in mid-February 2018 will define their existence.

I can’t imagine.  And, we’ve seen it before – we’ll see it again.  All of us, myself included, after the kids are in bed, are left with this question:

What do we do?  What CAN we do?

In the coming days I’m gonna explore my thoughts and my feelings.  I’m gonna think about what we can do, what I can do; if anything.

I’ve seen what seems like a never ending barrage of thoughts, and arguments, debate and anger.  Rage.  Despair.

And blame.

Which brings me to my point.  As I, we, explore feelings and define the problems looking for solutions – I want to do so from a position of mutual acknowledgement.  Namely that I love my kids, and yours, in the same manner that love your kids, and mine.

Period.

It’s likely, that as intelligent people with different histories and experience, we are going to arrive at separate conclusions after being exposed to the same body of facts.  And that, THAT, has to be okay.  It cannot be that those who shout loudest, most often and without regard to civility are allowed to carry the day.  Neither can we allow the debate to devolve into that place where we question each other’s motives.

This is too important to us.

 

Reason Absent

 

Charlottesville is a hot shitty mess.   And it’s been a long time in coming.

My thoughts, bullet list style:

  • America is not a racist nation
  • White nationalists are racist assholes
  • Black nationalists are racist assholes
  • The first amendment matters
  • The sixth commandment matters
  • Not everyone who voted for Trump is a racist
  • If you are a racist, you likely voted for Trump
  • The Civil War was fought over slavery
  • Many MANY Confederate soldiers and officers were noble honorable warriors
  • Removing Confederate statues does not carry moral worth

 

My heart breaks as Charlottesville unfolds.  So much pain, so much tragedy, so much misplaced … misplaced ‘righteousness’.

Such bullshit.

What is it about human nature that we always see the ‘other’ in the other?  Why is it that we can’t see the common?  See that each of us, almost all of us, wants the same thing?  We wanna love, deeply, and then fall ever deeper in love.  We want a home safe from danger, to live with the front door unlocked, and wake up to sunshine and birds in the yard.

I have never known a neighbor that didn’t want their kids to play in the street, to go to a good school, then a good college and then a good job.  Marriage and kids of their own are next.  We all want that picket fence.  Why do we need to hate?  And hurt?  And be so afraid?

When did we all become so afraid?

Why are we so afraid of the way each lives his life?  Why do we care if he reads Asimov?  Or he reads Othello?  Or she plays chess or he Pokemon?  How can it determine the content if he enjoys listening to this style of music or she enjoys studying this war; this artist or this general?  How can that matter so SO much?

As I watch the news and listen to the radio and read the papers I am inundated.  Inundated with the horror, the rage, the vile nature of the worst example of us.

This is not us – this is not who we are.

Reject it.  Simply reject the premise and make your own way; shit, continue on the glorious noble way that you’ve already forged.  Do it with honor, do it boldly, do it with the same compassion and love that drove you to that place to begin with.

Because the alternative is simply impossible.  It is impossible to live in the world envisioned by those who perpetuate the divide.

For just one fuckin’ second, consider how we are the same and stop focusing on how we’re different.

Doing Minnesota Proud

Young man haulin’ the mail!

Derek Onserio, a senior at Providence Academy in Plymouth, was accepted to eight Ivy Laegue schools. Onserio has four siblings, two of which also attend Ivy League schools. He is the son of Kenyan immigrants.

You go boy!

The Anti Tea Party

 

My biggest concern about Trump is that he mimics Obama and trounces the constitution, expands the scope of the Federal government and inches ever closer to a “too big to fail” executive.

My second biggest concern about Trump is the pendulum – the swing back to a liberal majority.

Perhaps I’m wrong in fear number two:

But what made the tea party successful, according to Theda Skocpol, a Harvard professor whose field studies of the tea party movement became a 2011 book, was a particular climate on the political right. “We thought of the tea party as a set of several intersecting forces that were leveraging each other and helping to build each other’s clout to change and use the Republican Party,” she said. Self-organizing grass-roots groups, top-down professional advocacy and money groups, such as FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity, along with right-wing media, swirled together to make the movement a success, according to Skocpol. It remains to be seen if the climate on the left will prove to be hospitable for the growth of a similarly effective movement.

Personally, my belief is that the Left is made up of fringe groups – each with their complaint.  It might be the environment, or women’s rights, racism, the poor or refugees.  Almost always the group is made up of people who themselves are not injured, but instead are people *representing* the injured.

Further, these groups don’t advocate policy that would require themselves OR the aggrieved to bear responsibility for the work to be done to fix the problem.  THAT responsibility falls on someone else, usually the rich, the white or the man.

As such, because they don’t feel it their responsibility, combined with the fact that it is not them impacted, they will never dig deep enough to do the work.

I shouldn’t fear the professional ‘outrager’, but I admit to some lost sleep.

Minnesota Vikings

Minnesota Vikings

I’m from Minnesota.  And my heritage is, in some part, Nordic.  And I love the Vikings.

I love watching them play, I love watching my son watching them play.  I love me throwing to Randy Moss, Cris Carter, Ahmad Rashad, Sydney Rice and Dirtball Darrin in my back yard.

I love watching him spike the ball when he gets both feet down in the corner to score 6 as time runs out in Green Bay.  Love it.

And I rarely consider what the image of the Viking means; or even what it means to BE a Viking.  Like, a real Viking back in the day.  I don’t consider how they waged war, or how they treated enemies conquered.  I don’t know if they perished by the sword, the disease or famine.  I don’t know much.

But when I do consider why the team decided to go with the name “Vikings” I suspect it’s because they realized that there was a history of Nordic nature in Minnesota.  Many people originate from Sweden or Norway or Denmark in Minnesota.  And – and this is important – they wanted to celebrate that condition of character that stood out as desirable in combat.  Or competition.

I find it … cool that my football team is named after a nation of gifted warriors who were courageous and feared in battle.

And it would seem as if I am among a 90% majority:

Nine in 10 Native Americans say they are not offended by the Washington Redskins name, according to a new Washington Post poll that shows how few ordinary Indians have been persuaded by a national movement to change the football team’s moniker.

As Dan Snyder pointed out:

The Washington Redskins team, our fans and community have always believed our name represents honor, respect and pride

 

 

When the Other is a Hater

Persecuted

Someone can disagree with you and simultaneously not be a hater, a bigot, fearful of anything or anyone or be a racist and love the sound of a baby’s laughter, raise honeybees and dedicate his life to increasing the general goodness around her.

Proof

Alison Krauss is not simply proof that God exists – she is proof that He loves us.