Easter

With more than a half million COVID-19 cases in the US and more than 20,000 deaths, many in the US are waking up to Easter Sunday to hail the size of tennis balls. Meanwhile, gun sales are at record highs, the stock market is doing well, and many are praising Trump, as he so much loves, while people are dying and crying. Instead of worrying if your neighbor is infected, now you have to worry if your neighbor is armed and dangerous. I have been watching the Andy Griffith show instead of the news while hunkered down at home, remembering how different things were in the 1950s - sure, the show exaggerates but I do recall simpler times and a more caring atmosphere back then as I was growing up in East Tennessee. Now I look at this map of the virus -  https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/health/coronavirus-us-maps-and-cases/ - and I see suffering almost everywhere. 

I read T.S, Eliot looking for something I know not what - "April is the cruellest month, breeding, Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing, Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain."

And then there is the voice of the Rock:

"o world of spring and autumn, birth and dying

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"

And then I think of #45 ... maybe my neighbor with the 44 will do something about that ... maybe there is "balm in Gilead" ... 

maybe "truth crushed to earth will rise again" ...maybe "the American eagle will finally spread its wings and straighten up and fly right" ... 

Maybe some us will survive and learn to live in peace and respect those who are different and help those who are less fortunate ...

Meanwhile, #45 expands his fortune and disparages those who fail to praise his bone spurs ...

Meanwhile, the Rock reminds us:

" The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,
The desert is in the heart of your brother.
The good man is the builder, if he build what is good. " 

And #45 wants to keep building walls ... and dividing ... and gathering in all the praise and benefits he can at any cost ..

Today is a sad day but there are always little glimmers of hope ... someone bringing food to the elderly and disabled ...

and a still small voice voice still says, someday ...

Happy Passover, Easter and Ramadan ...

Unbelievable

I find it hard to believe, that when the international deaths from COVID-19 exceeds100,000 and American deaths from COVID-19 approaches 20,000 with nearly a half million Americans infected already, that someone can brag about how good the American response is working. More and more people are getting infected and dying and someone can look past that to economic recovery ... people are dying and crying and yet some are bragging and boasting ... it is not right ...

So comforting to have a leader who has perfect phone calls, who always has someone else to blame,  who knows everything, and who is doing all the right things ... especially for the rich and powerful ...

Abou Ben Adhem (Leigh Hunt)

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
“What writest thou?”—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.”
“And is mine one?” said Abou. “Nay, not so,”
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, “I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men.”

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest.

A True Story

This is a true story from my years as an Air Force Intelligence Officer during the Vietnam conflict. This happened when I was an analyst at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. I worked swing shifts gathering and reading and filtering and synthesizing information that came in through several top secret coded channels. Every Friday there was a briefing for Colonels and Generals that took a standard format to give the brass a weekly update of the state of the war. Some of my good friends who were also intelligence officers did those briefings. 

JC was one of my closest friends and this was his day to do the Friday morning briefing that I had prepared Thursday night. Rather than go home, I stayed for the briefing so that I could meet and talk with my friend after the briefing. So I sat in the back row of the briefing room waiting for JC to complete the briefing. One item that was always part of the Friday briefing was a casualty update – the number of Americans, South Vietnamese, and North Vietnamese killed in action that week. There was a bar chart on the slide I had prepared that showed virtually no difference in the number of Americans killed that week. The slide showed many more North Vietnamese killed that week even though I knew we had killed the entire population of North Vietnam several times over if one believed these reports. JC simply spoke the numbers ending with the American casualties, and JC said there was a significant increase in the number of Americans killed that week and then the next slide came up. 

The general stopped the briefing and said to go back to the casualty slide which the slide controller did. The general then said I thought I heard you say there was a significant increase in the number of American casualties but the slide shows hardly any difference and the numbers only show a difference of one. Without hesitation, JC said that if you were that one you would think it was a significant difference. I fell out of chair laughing and everyone turned around to look at me. After the briefing, the Colonel called both JC and me into his office. He gave JC a verbal reprimand and told him to leave. He then gave me a verbal reprimand and said he was putting a letter to that effect in my file, which I later learned that he did. The lesson I learned is that day was that the death of a single person is not a laughing matter, although I think the Colonel wanted me to learn a different lesson.

It is our responsibility to save lives in the midst of this pandemic.