Pandemic Day 24

March 21, 2020

Today is the 24th day since the first case of coronavirus was diagnosed in NYC. It was a man in New Rochelle and soon after New Rochelle was put into a one-mile radius zone restriction. Today the governor says that it helped and the spread in Westchester has slowed down. New York City has been the epicenter of the virus in NY State, but the data is difficult to use as a measure of spread since it is tied to the amount of testing going on in any area. NYC has been given many more testing sites than other parts of the state and so the numbers keep increasing. Today there are over 4000 cases in the state. The death rate has stayed around 1%, lower than it was in China and Italy.

The City is on a shelter-in-place order; only essential businesses are open and only those workers and first responders are allowed to go to work. The health care profession is suffering from an overwhelming need and inadequate supplies and hospital beds to care for everyone needing care. Students on spring break have been the hardest group to harness; they continue to show up at beaches to play and slowly the beaches are all closing. Unemployment is up to 20%.

I have been thinking about the privilege of being safe and having my needs met during a crisis like this. Even of having the luxury of taking my car to anywhere I need to go to leave the City if necessary. Here's the start of my list following the model of Peggy McIntosh's white privilege list.

1. I can stay in my house in isolation from others and have a library of books to read, music and my violin and piano.
2. I can stay in my house in isolation and access the internet and all it's power to connect and inform me.
3. I can walk to the grocery store or deli to get food.
4. I can order food for take out with a credit card and not have to meet the delivery person to pay them.
5. I can get in my car and drive alone to anywhere I choose. I do not need to use public transportation.
6. I can go out in my garden and have an outdoor space for leisure and nourishment and peace.
7. Even if there were other people in my house there are many rooms and it would not be difficult for each person to find a private space.
8. I have relatives who are doctors that I could call if I needed a medical opinion.
9. I do not need to go to work to ensure I have money to pay bills or have my needs met during this crisis.
10. I can afford fresh food and have access to fresh food and I know how to cook.

The center of the storm - the center of the COVID-19 pandemic

The "storm" has been gaining strength in NYC since the first case was diagnosed on Feb. 27, 2020, close by in New Rochelle. The coronavirus had already spread rapidly through Wuhan, where it was first identified, and other parts of China and Italy. In the weeks since Feb. 27th the cases in New York State have risen to 1500 people with more than 800 in NYC. We are advised to stay home, stay six feet from people when with them, avoid physical contact and stay in small groups or no groups at all. Children have been identified as carriers who do not usually show symptoms and so the most at risk group (over 60 with health issues and over 70) is discouraged from being around the youngest group.

There are drive-through testing tents being set up in major cities. A positive move to identify as many cases as possible, but one more way that inequity rears its ugly head. To drive through you need a car, you need gas to get to Long Island and you need to drive or have someone drive you while putting them at risk of contracting the virus. This is how the first case spread quickly to the cases outside the man's family and quickly turned into 85 cases during the first week after diagnosis. Hospitals are nervous that at its peak there won't be enough beds, but those who can't make it to a drive-through will risk not getting tested or end up in the emergency rooms as well. We knew our health system was broken, but the evidence is so clear now that it is being tested to its limits.

Schools and colleges are closed, movies, museum and theaters are also closed and restaurants and bars are limited to take out and delivery. The economy is struggling to stay out of a recession and many people are unemployed from the jobs that kept them afloat day to day. Many businesses are also at risk. The bars have missed out on St. Patrick's Day, one of their biggest days of the year. The parade has been cancelled and the Kentucky Derby delayed. Professional sports has called off the rest of their seasons and the Final Four has been canceled.

I feel like we are in the center of a storm and will need to wait until the coast is clear to step back out into daily life and see what the real damage is. Let's hope that as we try to piece life back together that we gain a new perspective, new priorities and a clearer vision for positive change.

50 years of activism

April 18, 2019 will mark the 50th anniversary of the taking over of the Straight at Cornell. It was the end of my sophomore year and finals were cancelled. I understood so little about the unresolved issues and demands of the African American protesters.

On April 23, there was a takeover of Day Hall.

Dale Corson was named president soon after the Straight takeover. His obituary gives one perspective on the event.

Summer and fall 1969

April 5, 2019, Auckland

It's Friday in Auckland and already this week we've had two birthdays, two cakes and two celebrations. Tomorrow is Andrew's brother's birthday and Sunday the family will get together to celebrate all the April birthdays. It's sunny and warm and what started out as a walk to the store this morning turned into a long, leisurely walk through Cornwall Park and a hike up to the peak to see how the trees are doing. When I was here in June 2016, Andrew and I went up to the watch the tree planting ceremony. It's described here in the Auckland Council report.

"A tree will once again stand on the tihi (summit) of Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill following a decision by the Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau Authority at their hui on Monday 19 October 2015. Planting will take place in winter 2016, during Matariki (Māori New Year) celebrations, where the previous iconic tree stood...Initially, a small grove of three young tōtara and six young pohutukawa, along with a shelter-band of native shrubs, will be planted to ensure the optimum chance of survival in the exposed conditions on the tihi. 

Over the course of several years, and overseen by arborists, a process of selection will see the stronger trees emerge. The aim is that after a decade there will be a single pohutukawa or tōtara.

All of the young specimens that will be planted in the new grove have been grown from parent trees at Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill. Some of the pohutukawa specimens have been sourced from seedlings that were found growing on the former Monterey pine tree that stood on the tihi. The pohutukawa seedlings were saved when the pine tree was removed and were cultivated in nurseries."

On the left, is the photo taken in 2016. You can barely see the fence to the right of the Obelisk and behind the shrubs. On the right, the trees in the center are now rising above the height of the fence.

The animals were all out in the park today and before I finished my circle around the park, the cattle had been moved from one field to another. The information cottage had a new display giving information on the trees, birds and ecology of the park. There were people everywhere in the park, many running the distance up to the obelisk and many pushing baby carriages. I made it my mission today to only take photos in which I could appear and with the bright sunshine I was able to let my shadow stand in for me. It was hard to resist photos I might have taken of the breathtaking views from the park, but I stuck with the exercise and the results are below.

 

December musings

December 19, started...December 22, completed

December and the holiday season, already half over. There is an anxiety I associate with the end of each calendar year; a feeling that there is no turning back and that the past is moving farther away. It's this last idea that sits heavily especially as memory starts to pale and what you remember loses the nuance of the experience.

I am sitting in a Starbucks at the corner of 73rd and Broadway looking out at a row of trees that have been wrapped in bright white LED lights; so white the color is almost silver. As late afternoon sets in, the trees are brightening. It's the week before the winter break for most NYC independent schools and the last few days left for Christmas shopping. Lots of shopping going on.

It's the sixth Christmas since Gregory died and still he is in every holiday step I take. Buy, don't buy... spend the money, don't spend the money...turn on the Christmas playlist...put out the creche...make sure there's enough wine... These things swim around in my head as I move through the season. It feels so different with no one to confer with, no one debating the exact gift for the girls. A long way from our traditional midnight run to Toys R Us when we used to check out the hottest items and get angry over the separation of boys' and girls' toys. That shopping trip always led to arguments over whether children would be happier receiving toys or clothes or other more enduring playthings; signature dolls, wooden toys. It wasn't always that Gregory loved the little bake ovens and doll houses and all the things the girls would see on TV and exclaim, "I want that!" There was the year when Gena was the only child and he and Christopher bought a wooden rocking horse in the City and Gregory carried it home on the hour-and-a-half subway ride to Queens. Or the time he insisted that Kathryn needed a horse of her own and Splash, a neighing, rocking spring horse, took up residence with us. But those efforts quickly got embedded in family schedules and collective enthusiasm for advertising and we were swept up in the mad dash for Cabbage Patch Dolls and Lullaby Ernie and Chatbot. Gregory was the grumpiest in anticipation of the holidays, but the happiest on Christmas morning if the girls were playing with something new and exciting amidst piles of ripped off wrapping paper, the one unique wrapping we saved for Santa to use.

It is the third Christmas since Mom died and I feel her energy all through the season. I have images of her at the piano playing Christmas Carols and memories of her choir at Legacy. She made community wherever she went; something I am still learning to do and am not sure I will ever do in the ways that she could. Her socks have become more dear and keep me warm all winter. I finished the sock yarn blanket from all of her half-used skeins of sock yarn thinking I'd give it away; soon it will be a gently used gift.

We are gathering in Rochester this year for Christmas. Georgia and her family will be here and we'll see Ellen's and John's families at Kathryn and Pat's open house today.  Emma is in New Zealand and we will miss her family though knowing they are in the throes of summer helps to ease the absence. Some year we will all be there enjoying the sun and beach. Some of us will eat Christmas lunch at FBH with Dad. He seems to have lost energy for showing up, but is always interested in knowing where we all are. I hope Ruby gets some fun toys so that we can all play with them on Christmas morning, but I'm certain they won't come from PoPo.

A trip to Montgomery, Alabama

We have been in Nashville since Thursday at the Annual People of Color Conference. The teachers and students have all gone home and three of us stayed on to take a bus trip to Montgomery, Alabama for the day. It seems fitting to enter Montgomery in a bus, to honor those who had the courage to hold a bus boycott to fight for justice. The boycott began on December 5, 1955, almost 63 years to the day, and ended after more than a year on December 20, 1956  with a Supreme Court ruling declaring the laws in Montgomery and Alabama that segregated buses to be unconstitutional.

Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative and it is EJI that has created the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. They also created the Memorial for Peace and Justice a remarkable expression of affirmation and declaration. The walk through the memorial was a slow and measured walk through the collective presence of 4400 people, named and unknown, who were hanged, burned alive, shot, drowned, and beaten to death by white mobs between 1877 and 1950. In the beginning you are standing side-by-side with these individuals who are named on large steel columns. They are grouped within the counties where they died. As you work your way down a decline you realize that at some point you are looking up and the steel columns are hanging above your head.

The entrance to the museum has these words:

"...we remember the thousands killed, the generations of black people terroroized, and the legacy of suffering and injustice that haunts us still....telling the truth about the age of racial terror and reflecting together on this period and its legacy can lead to a more thoughtful and informed commitment to justice today."

Elsewhere these words appear:

We will remember.

With hope because hopelessness is the enemy of justices.
With courage because peace requires bravery.
With persistence because justice is a constant struggle.
With faith because we shall over come.

November 4, 2018

It was a beautiful Fall day in New York City for the annual NYC marathon. My sister, Barbara, was visiting from Tennessee and we donned our Allbirds shoes, the most comfortable shoes ever, and headed downtown to see the runners and to make sure that Barbara made her first trip to Brooklyn. It was her one request when I asked what she wanted to do while in NY. "I've never been to Brooklyn! even after growing up in NYC." Thinking about it I probably hadn't been either up until the time I left for college.

We got off the subway at 110th and Broadway and walked across 110th to Central Park. It's a wide expansive street especially since they built a roundabout at the northeast corner of the park. We crossed into the park and walked along the Harlem Meer, a man-made lake named meer meaning lake in Dutch. We turned the corner at 110th and Fifth Avenue and found a spot to watch the runners. Slowly, we strolled down Fifth Avenue.

The sound of the marathon is very distinct. It's a cacophony of human and percussive sound. At one point we stood to wait and see if we could catch a glimpse of a friend and ended up next to a young woman. She had great enthusiasm and stamina as she cheered on the runners by repeating one phrase over and over again. We were there 30 minutes and her voice became the backdrop. "Great job, runners!" There was something in the flat, even as it expressed excitement, intonation of the word "runners" that sounded strangely familiar and I finally realized that it was the nuance of the voice I've heard on YouTube videos that play with toys as children watch. My granddaughter is fascinated with these videos and the voice is constantly talking.

Along the way we passed the gate to the Conservatory Garden and decided to step in and walk through the garden while still heading south. The Conservatory Garden is a groomed European garden that in spring is filled with annuals. I can't remember seeing it in its fall colors; very green with some deep purple flowers appearing here and there. There are two promenades that are beautifully landscaped under an arch of trees and lined with benches. We walked down one and turned the corner at the end to return through the other.

As we approached the second walkway I needed to re-tie my shoe and stopped to perch my foot on the first bench. I had mentioned to Barbara as we entered the garden that I had a friend who was a volunteer in this garden. It's through her that I had learned to appreciate the care and attention the garden requires. She is always with me as I walk through this garden, sharing its beauty. Sadly, her son had died years ago and she had spent many hours of the years that followed volunteering in the garden. As I tied my shoe I noticed the plaque on the back of the bench dedicated to "Our beautiful boy." It was Christopher's bench.

There is no way out of the park on the East Side during the marathon so we continued walking through the park heading west and got on the subway at 86th and Broadway. We got off at the first stop in Brooklyn in Dumbo, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. I'll take this moment to say that I have always thought of Dumbo as the section of coastline that is between and under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. In describing it to Barbara I know I said, "Dumbo. Down under the Brooklyn Bridge." Looking at it in writing it is a nonsensical statement. DUBB is not DUMBO. I stand corrected and it may explain why we had to walk a distance to get from Dumbo to the entrance to the foot path of the Brooklyn Bridge on our way home.

We ended the day with a quick bite to eat, a walk across the bridge and the subway ride home.