“I think that reopening schools would be (alas, will be) an unprecedented catastrophe… Clearly, if we are to depend on remote learning, we must address some serious issues” by Bob Shepherd

“A new article by Dale Chu, on the Fordham Institute website, describes remote learning as being like the ‘security theatre’ that we got in response to 9/11. I found that quite interesting.

“Oddly, the question about whether we should reopen schools has some folks in Deformist/Disrupterist organizations arguing that remote learning stinks and some members of the Resistance to arguing that it’s what we have to do given the circumstances. These positions are exactly the opposite of those for which they usually advocate.

“I’m definitely of the second camp, though I have long defined remote learning as a purported educational system in which there is a remote chance that learning is taking place.

“Alas, we now know, from recent studies, that while children under ten are less likely than adults to show overt symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, they have 10 to 100 times as much viral load in their upper respiratory tracts as adults do and are twice as likely to transmit the infection to others.

“We also know that even people who get through an infection without major overt symptoms can suffer serious long-term health consequences due to the effects of the virus on the rest of the body–blood clotting and inflammation throughout bodily systems. For these and many other reasons, I think that reopening schools would be (alas, will be) an unprecedented catastrophe.

“A few states are now rejoicing that their numbers of infections and deaths are decreasing. But it’s pretty obvious, or ought to be, I think, that the ideal way to turn that around—to ensure that those states will once again become Covid-19 hotspots—is to reopen schools.

“Which leaves us to think about what we might do as an alternative to reopening schools. Clearly, if we are to depend on remote learning, we must address some serious issues:

–How do we ensure that kids have home access to high-speed internet connections and computers and software?

–How do we ensure that poor kids who no longer have access to free breakfast and lunch programs have regular meals?

–What do we do about kids whose parent or parents have to work? Who is going to watch the kids?

–What do we do to compensate for the loss of the safety checks that schools provide with regard to dangerous home environments, ones in which kids are inadequately cared for or subject to abuse?

What kinds of learning can be conducted remotely and how? What would ideal remote/distance learning look like? Yes, we ALL understand that remote learning stinks. It’s child’s play to make the long, long list of its deficiencies, but, if we haven’t a sane alternative, what can we do, given the circumstances? What does the best better-than-nothing remote learning pedagogy look like?

“These are all big questions. We should be thinking very seriously about them, now. Instead, we are thinking about how to ‘reopen safely,’ which is like thinking about how to jump safely out of airplanes without parachutes.

“One way to begin thinking about the last question–the one about remote learning pedagogy–is to ask, what can we do well at a distance? In what ways can computers actually be used effectively, at a distance, as learning tools? What are they good at? Well, they can be used

“to provide easy, ready access to enormous numbers of texts. What if every poor kid in the US had a gift card for purchasing online books from a curated list, for example?

“for direct instruction videos. (How many teachers have simple video-editing software and know how to use it?)

“to provide directions for projects to be carried out by students on their own.

“to provide demonstrations–walkthroughs of procedures, for example (think of how-to recipe videos, for example).

“to provide curated links to instructive materials online. The Internet is the freaking Library of Alexandria writ large.

“to collect assignments and return them with feedback. (How many teachers have been instructed in how to use Word editing features or Adobe Acrobat mark-up tools for marking manuscripts? Precious few, I imagine.)

“to do online check tests or quizzes with immediate feedback. (How many teachers know how to use Zoom’s built-in quiz feature? How many know how to use online quiz-making programs like Kahoot?)

“to provide instructive graphics–picture galleries, maps, timelines, and so on.

“to conduct online discussions and some modicum of community, via Zoom.

“to provide share-point folders for collections of class documents. (How many teachers are skilled at organizing such share-points?)

“to present beautifully typeset equations. (How many teachers know how to use the Mathtype add-in for Word to do that?)

“NONE OF THIS IS IDEAL. OF COURSE, IT ISN’T. But it’s better than risking the lives of students, teachers, administrators, staff, and relatives and acquaintances of all these. But here we are, wasting time discussing safely jumping out of airplanes without a parachute when we could be spending this time instructing teachers on using these tools and setting up mechanisms for teachers to share with one another what has been working for them in their online classes.

“One thing that should be avoided like the plague, I think: online computer instruction programs with diagnostic tests and instructional modules. These are failed behaviorist programmed instruction modernized with graphics. They are extremely demotivating. Kids hate them, and what they learn from them, mostly, is to hate what they are supposed to be learning.”

-Bob Shepherd

Bob Shepherd is a writer, editor, graphic designer, and teacher. He blogs at https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/

Chicago's Archer Avenue Is Allegedly the Most Haunted Stretch of Road in America by Sabrina Ithal

“Murder, beheadings, mad monks, and communion with the deceased. While this may sound like a Satanist's calendar appointments, it's actually just some of what lurks on the most haunted road in America. Originally an old Native American trail, Chicago's Archer Avenue is considered one of the most powerful spirit lines on the planet.

“A stretch of Archer Avenue is saturated in paranormal occurrences that have terrified many and spawned tales passed among Chicago residents for decades. Tales that include vanishing hitchhikers, black magic rituals, and blood-drenched ghouls. Some attribute the intense energy connected to the street with surrounding bodies of water, some with magnetic lines in the earth, some with Native American remains found along the route.

“Regardless of what lures such darkness to the area, time has proven the creepiest stories from Archer Avenue endure. The real question is whether this haunted trail will continue to produce further horrors.

“The most famous ghost in Chicago is Resurrection Mary. This ethereal specter has haunted the strip of Archer Avenue between Resurrection Cemetery and the Willowbrook Ballroom - formerly the O'Henry Ballroom - since the 1930s. No one is quite sure of the young lady's identity but a widely accepted origin story conjectures that Mary, after dancing the night away, left the ballroom in a huff after a fight with her date. Tired and angry, Mary may have been struck by a vehicle while walking down the pitch-black, wooded stretch of Archer Avenue. What makes Mary unique from other hitchhiker tales is that witnesses claim when offered a ride, she accepts and then directs drivers up Archer Avenue only to disappear when the car reaches Resurrection Cemetery.

“Mary appears as a young, pale, blond woman dressed in a white party dress and further witnesses claim to have seen Mary roaming around Resurrection Cemetery at night. On August 10, 1976, a passerby noticed a girl grasping the bars of the cemetery and, fearing she was locked in, alerted the Justice police. When the police arrived, they combed the cemetery but found no one. They did, however, find that the rails of the fence bent at sharp angles with two blackened scorch marks indicating where they had been pulled apart. The marks were in the shape of hand prints and appeared to have the texture of human skin.

“Monk's Castle acquired its local moniker after numerous sightings of phantom monks in the woods dressed in brown robes, carrying lanterns, and chanting in Latin. The site is actually named St. James of the Sag Church and it is most notorious for rumors that a group of rambunctious teens were once caught there by evil monks who tormented them in hideous ways. These monks supposedly haunt the church and its cemetery. Legend has it they will go after teenage trespassers.

“Along Archer Avenue, in the Bridgeport section of Chicago, lies the infamous Kaiser Hall. Back in its heyday, Kaiser Hall was a popular ballroom that not only catered to the immigrants of the neighborhood but supposedly to the devil himself. According to legend, a young woman was swept off of her feet by a handsome, dashing man at one of the hall's dances. After hours of dancing with the young man, the woman happened to look down at her partner's feet and screamed at what she saw. Men in the vicinity assumed the man had made an unwelcome advance on the woman and chased him up to the second floor of the Kaiser. Once cornered, the man jumped out of a second-story window, landed with ease on the ground, and walked away. The stranger got away, but in the cement where he landed was the imprint of cloven hooves.

“Right across from Resurrection Mary's infamous ballroom, O'Henry's, is a restaurant said to have been one of Al Capone's speakeasies during his reign. Known as O'Henry's Roadhouse, it served as an alcohol-fueled gambling den and brothel with a basement used for interrogations and the slaughter of Capone's enemies. The walls contained hidden compartments to hide gangsters, and there were underground tunnels for escape routes.

“While the building itself showcases shadowy specters and strange noises, the most jarring manifestation reported is the pulverized face of a sex worker that is sometimes seen in a bathroom mirror. This same woman once appeared in front of the building's owner and informed him of how much she appreciated the renovations that were taking place. Sightings surrounding the establishment include men fleeing through the woods, corpses being carried off, and the sounds of gunshots and screams. Some visitors claim to feel as though they are being intently watched by something just beyond the trees.

“One of Archer Avenue's most infamous stories is that of a phantom, driverless, horse-drawn, hearse that tears up and down the road and through the cemetery. Built of black oak and glass, horrified witnesses have seen the coffin of a child inside the hearse. The origins of the crazed courier are hotly contested. Some believe it is either the hearse that Resurrection Mary's parents used to transport her coffin or a carriage described in an 1897 sighting reported to have occurred at St. James of the Sag. Wherever it hails from or why it haunts Archer Avenue, the hearse is the most energetic of spirits seen on the road, pulled with fervor by its devil-spooked horses.

“Maple Lake is located in what is considered the ‘Archer Avenue Triangle,’ a section around the main thoroughfare that bursts with excess paranormal energy. The area has been frequented by cults, been the site of black magic rituals, and a teenage girl's body was once discovered there. However, the lake's main claim to fame is the bright red ghost light that moves slowly along the edge of the northern shore.

“The source of this orb has no definitive explanation, but stories abound as to its possible origin. Some claim it is the lantern of an early settler slain by Native Americans who now searches the shoreline for his lost head. Others claim the opposite: It's the ghost of a beheaded Native American also looking for his head. Due to the prevalent crime in the area in the 1920's, some believe it's the specter of one of Al Capone's victims.

“Red Gate Woods is a forest preserve along Archer Avenue that served as home to the world's first nuclear reactor burial site back in the years of the Manhattan Project. About a half a mile away from the project site is an area known for equally dark reasons. For years many have claimed that these woods play host to a Satanic cult that performs dark rites and chases off anyone who dares approach their ritual clearing.

“Hikers tell tales of finding strange red symbols painted on trees and an altar of logs and stone. Chicago forest preserves that are close to cemeteries have often been thought to be a lure for demonic cults and local radio shows have sent willing participants into the woods on Halloween night to antagonize Satan worshipers. Common advice passed on to those who may stumble across a demonic ceremony in the Red Gate Woods was, if pursued, to run in a zigzag pattern to avoid the pits cultists dug near trails in order to trap trespassers.

“Bethania Cemetery, a predominantly German burial ground in the Chicago suburbs, is plagued by two distinct specters. During the autumn months, late at night, motorists have spotted an elderly man in a red flannel shirt walking the grounds. He appears with rake in hand burning a large pile of leaves near a maintenance entrance. Although he wears a friendly smile, passersby can't help but slow down to gawk at anyone doing yard work between 2 and 4 a.m. Upon closer inspection, the man always disappears.

“Another of Archer Avenue's most ghoulish phantoms frequents this cemetery. A man completely covered in blood has been witnessed leaping onto the roadway while frantically waving a flashlight as though flagging down help. Cars that stop to assist report the man returns back down the embankment towards the cemetery fence before vanishing. One driver said he was driven off the road by the blood-soaked ghost when blinded by his flashlight.

“The eeriness of Fairmount-Willow Hills Memorial Park comes not only from the rumors of spirits roaming among the tombs but also from the oppressive clock tower situated on a hill near the entrance. Shadowy figures are seen sloping across the park's hills one of which may be the ghost of a woman who was found slain on the cemetery grounds.

“A phantom face has also been seen peering from behind a window in the clock tower. More infamous is the bizarre harpsichord music heard bleating out of the park's White mausoleum. Most often heard at dusk, the music is especially baffling considering the interior of the White mausoleum is completely filled in with concrete. 

“The Why Not Drive-In isn't remembered most for its decades of serving up fast food and post-war era hospitality but rather for dishing out a heaping side of amour fatal. On foggy nights, a ghost named Debbie is said to park her 1965 Ford Fairlane in the lot of this greasy spoon. She waits for an interested young man to pull up next to her and tells him if he will follow her, she will escort him out on the town that evening.

“The unsuspecting gentleman is led on a dangerous chase through thick fog, trying in vain to keep up with red taillights that are always just beyond reach. To date, it is unknown if anyone has ever caught up with Debbie or what that may have cost them” (Archer Avenue Is Allegedly the Most Haunted Stretch of Road in America by Sabrina Ithal).

Hitler’s Visage in Trump’s Shadow by Charles Davidson

“It should come as no surprise that Donald Trump, fearful of defeat in the upcoming November election, would seek to emulate Adolf Hitler’s strong-arm tactics which swept over Germany during the 1930s.

“While considerable differences pertain between Hitler’s campaign of national socialism and Trump’s present Republican rule, at their core the two personalities bear an essential likeness — as pathological authoritarians.

“Trump is the sociopathic bully who having been bullied in childhood by a sociopathic father now bullies his way across America, taking his cues from ‘strongmen’ like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and the long shadow of Hitler who bullied his way across the Rhineland and Europe.

“The late Austrian-American psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut wrote of Hitler’s pathology: ‘The core of the self, except for one nucleus of infantile grandiosity, is lost. . . It never acquires the capacity for modulated empathy with others. Such a personality is characterized by a near-total absence of compassion, except where total identification is concerned, when the ‘other’ is totally experienced as part of the self.’¹

“Kohut continued: ‘Narcissistic leader figures of this type experience the social surroundings as a part of themselves. The mere fact that other groups, nationalities, or races are different from themselves and do not react as they expect them to react is a deep personal afront, a frightening, inimical disturbance of their solipsistic universe. The situation can only be remedied by wiping out those who dare to be different.’²

“Hitler’s attempt at a core cure for his severely diseased and hollow inner self was to turn his infantile grandiosity outwardly into that of a predator who bolstered his tormented, fragmented, and fragile ego by inflicting pain, suffering, and destruction upon the world. This is what dangerous sociopaths do when exercising undeterred power that becomes the face of evil. They take delight in declaring, as Trump repeatedly did in his own notorious words, ‘You’re fired!’

“It is apparent that Trump’s currently militarized political strategy represents more of the same pathology, yet to a greater degree. To further empower his decrepit ego, he is now saying, in effect: You’re fired upon! Literally so. Witness the recent onslaught of his version of Hitler’s storm troops in DC’s Lafayette Square, and once again their surreptitious appearance on the streets of Portland, Oregon, firing upon, rounding up, and secretly whisking people away.

“The archetypal sociopath, being incapable of empathic up-building of the social order, tears down and destroys it under the pretense of quelling violence by begetting violence. He projects his own internal weakness upon the body politic by ramping up his paranoid culture war into a hot war foisted upon his perceived enemies, which makes him feel strong.

“Trump’s enemies are immigrants, people of color, ethnic minorities, Democratic governors and mayors, administrative officials standing up to him by testifying to his malfeasance in office, and those he can self-servingly, even fictitiously classify as ‘anarchists.’ To the latter he can assign blame for civil protest as the occasion to justify imposing draconian measures upon citizen and politician alike who dare to oppose him.

“Beneath Trump’s conscious surface, the slogan ‘make America great again’ is really about Trump’s lifelong escapade to make an enfeebled Trump feel great again. It is about his vaunted ‘Trump Tower’ persona and his grandiose struggle against the inner demons of nothingness that for decades have possessed his soul.

“Under the banner of law and order, he takes aim at his foes as ‘criminals’ while flagrantly flaunting the powers of the presidency as one who himself deigns to act lawlessly. This fits Hitler’s ploy ‘to a T.’

“In the Führer’s malicious mind, the downward spiral commenced with the branding of Jews as unfit for Germany. In Trump’s demented thinking, the perilous descent began with targeting refugees and asylum-seekers as ‘illegals,’ many of whom now languish in detention camps. The consequence is that citizens and non-citizens of diverse stripe and color have already paid a steep price for Trump’s perfidy.

“As Trump unleashes his dark forces upon people gathered in the streets of American cities, exercising their constitutional right to peaceful assembly, he singles out the relative few who turn to violence and looting as his ruse for taking aim at all who raise their voices in protest.

“Parenthetically, as reported, his campaign ads now employ neo-Nazi symbols, including the red triangle with which Hitler stigmatized communists, socialists, trade unionists, and various political prisoners for extinction in Hitler’s concentration camps. As William Faulkner correctly said in ‘Requiem to a Nun,’ ‘The past is never dead. It is not even past.’

“The ‘surge of federal law enforcement’ into cities like Portland, Chicago, and Albuquerque reveals a silhouette. It is the visage of Hitler’s ‘Sturm and Drang’ appearing in the shadow of Trump’s strike forces. Whenever uninvited secret agents and storm troops swarm the landscape of a democracy, they spell not its preservation but its desecration and destruction. Such is the initial phase of Trump’s undeclared declaration of his civil war, with which he seeks to save his presidency.

“Not to be overlooked is the pathetic feebleness of the obsequious Republican Party mirroring Trump’s diseased self and ennobling his sociopathology. Dictators cannot dictate apart from the dictator’s willing accomplices. Their complicity, voiced or silent, grants permission.

“The consequence? America has reached a tipping point that calls, throughout all segments of society, for non-violent resistance to the strong-arm antics that Trump instinctually crafts from Hitler’s playbook. The nation’s houses of worship, alongside the general populace, must summon the prophetic courage to take their stand as the vanguard of an unflinching resolve to resist the wiles of this devil in our midst, lest the impenetrable night come when it is too late.

“The German journalist Sebastian Haffner, who lived through Hitler’s reign of terror and escaped in the nick of time to write about it, put it succinctly: ‘The devil has many nets, crude ones for crude souls, finer ones for finer souls.’³ Those who cling to the denial that something so terrible cannot happen in America have one foot already ensnared in the webbing while others willingly carry the nets” (Vox Populi).

¹Heinz Kohut, Self Psychology and the Humanities (New York: W. W. Norton, 1985), 90–2.
²Ibid., 54.
³Sebastian Haffner, Defying Hitler: A Memoir (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000), 200.

---

Charles Davidson is a retired Presbyterian (PCUSA) pastor, psychotherapist, and professor of pastoral theology, care, and counseling. He is the editor of George Buttrick’s Guide to Preaching the Gospel (Abingdon Press) and the author of Bone, Dead and Rising: Vincent van Gogh and the Self Before God (Cascade Books)

Scientists warn of potential wave of COVID-linked brain damage

“A study by researchers at University College London (UCL)described 43 cases of patients with COVID-19 who suffered either temporary brain dysfunction, strokes, nerve damage or other serious brain effects. The research adds to recent studies which also found the disease can damage the brain. ‘Whether we will see an epidemic on a large scale of brain damage linked to the pandemic – perhaps similar to the encephalitis lethargica outbreak in the 1920s and 1930s after the 1918 influenza pandemic – remains to be seen,’ said Michael Zandi, from UCL’s Institute of Neurology, who co-led the study. 

“COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is largely a respiratory illness that affects the lungs, but neuro-scientists and specialist brain doctors say emerging evidence of its impact on the brain is concerning. ‘My worry is that we have millions of people with COVID-19 now. And if in a year’s time we have 10 million recovered people, and those people have cognitive deficits ... then that’s going to affect their ability to work and their ability to go about activities of daily living,’ Adrian Owen, a neuro-scientist at Western University in Canada, told Reuters in an interview.

“In the UCL study, published in the journal Brain, nine patients who had brain inflammation were diagnosed with a rare condition called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) which is more usually seen in children and can be triggered by viral infections. The team said it would normally see about one adult patient with ADEM per month at their specialist London clinic, but this had risen to at least one a week during the study period, something they described as a concerning increase. ‘Given that the disease has only been around for a matter of months, we might not yet know what long-term damage COVID-19 can cause,’ said Ross Paterson, who co-led the study. ‘Doctors need to be aware of possible neurological effects, as early diagnosis can improve patient outcomes.’

“Owen said the emerging evidence underlined the need for large, detailed studies and global data collection to assess how common such neurological and psychiatric complications were. He is running an international research project at covidbrainstudy.com where patients can sign up to complete a series of cognitive tests to see whether their brain functions have altered since getting COVID-19. ‘This disease is affecting an enormous number of people,’ Owen said. ‘That’s why it’s so important to collect this information now’” (Reuters).  Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Alison Williams

"Trump is now going after a core pillar of our democracy. Will anyone do anything about it before it is too late?"

(CNN) On the same day that three former US presidents joined in a moving tribute to civil rights hero John Lewis and just after the release of government data showing the worst quarterly plunge in economic activity ever recorded, President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the news agenda with a jaw-dropping suggestion: Consider delaying the November election.

The idea, delivered in a tweet Thursday morning, was quickly blasted by commentators -- even members of Trump's own party in Congress. But it did keep his name in the headlines.

"It's insulting to the American public to even suggest that this sacred constitutional right should be undermined by an authoritarian President tanking in the national polls to Joe Biden," wrote historian Douglas Brinkley. "From the earliest days of the republic, regular elections and orderly transfer of power have been signatures of American democracy," he added, noting that even in wartime voting dates have been sacred.

But the tweet had a purpose, John Avlon pointed out: to sow doubt in the election results. Trump "is terrified that he will be exposed as a loser," and is "willing to dismantle faith in our democracy to avoid that personal pain."

In the New Yorker, Susan Glasser warned, "this is the kind of statement that should haunt your dreams. It is wannabe-dictator talk. It is dangerous even if it is not attached to any actions. And those who think that some actions will not follow have not been paying attention. My alarm stems from having covered Russia when Vladimir Putin was dismantling the fragile, flawed democratic institutions that the country had established after the fall of the Soviet Union."

"The upcoming election is our biggest opportunity to check a runaway President," noted Julian Zelizer. But with his attacks on the legitimacy of the election and on mail-in voting, Zelizer wrote, "Trump is now going after a core pillar of our democracy ... will anyone do anything about it before it is too late?" (CNN).

“The Trump administration's attempts to politicize, privatize, and gut USPS in the middle of a pandemic and unprecedented vote-by-mail is one of the biggest scandals in American politics right now”—Ari Berman, Mother Jones

“Leading congressional Democrats are warning that an emergency loan agreement announced Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy—a major donor to President Donald Trump and the GOP—could ‘accelerate the demise of the Postal Service’ by giving the administration unprecedented access to the popular agency's internal operations.

“‘Secretary Mnuchin and the leadership of the U.S. Postal Service appear to be exploiting this public health pandemic to hold the Postal Service to unreasonable loan terms without even consulting Congress,’ said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) in a joint statement Wednesday evening.

“According to a loan term sheet (pdf) made public by the lawmakers, the USPS will gain access to $10 billion in emergency funding approved by Congress back in March provided that the agency adheres to a number of requirements, including providing the Trump administration with ‘historical and protected business, financial, operational, contractual, and planning data that Treasury may determine is necessary to evaluate USPS's current and future financial condition.’ 

“The agreement also requires USPS to give the Treasury Department access to proprietary information about the Postal Service's private-sector shipping contracts and bars the agency from accessing the emergency funds if its ‘cash balance exceeds $8 billion. In a statement, Mnuchin hailed the deal as a step in the direction of ‘the president's goal of establishing a sustainable business model under which USPS can continue to provide necessary mail service for all Americans, without shifting costs to taxpayers.’ In April, Trump called the USPS a ‘joke’ and demanded that it dramatically hike package prices amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused a sharp decline in mail volume.

“Maloney, Peters, Connolly, and Carper said Wednesday that the terms agreed upon by Mnuchin and DeJoy—who took over as head of the USPS just last month—'would inappropriately insert the Treasury into the internal operations of the Postal Service.’

“‘These terms would severely limit the Postal Service's access to capital and could accelerate the demise of the Postal Service that all Americans, especially seniors, small businesses, veterans, and those living in rural communities, rely upon every day, especially during the pandemic,’ the lawmakers said. ‘We will not stop fighting to protect this critical service that communities depend on and to ensure that every American can safely participate in the November elections.’

“The new loan agreement comes as DeJoy continues to rush ahead with sweeping operational changes at the USPS that postal workers believe are part of a deliberate effort to sabotage the beloved government institution and put it on a path toward privatization—a longtime goal of the conservative movement.

“Last week, as Common Dreams reported, USPS leadership launched a pilot program that could result in significant delays in mail delivery by barring postal workers from sorting packages during their morning operations. In Portland, Maine, letter carriers allege they are being instructed to delay first-class parcels in order to prioritize Amazon packages.

“‘Undermining and degrading the Postal Service helps frustrate the customer, which sets the stage to privatizing it,’ Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, told The Intercept. ‘The Trump administration is on record for raising prices, reducing service, and reducing workers' rights and benefits.’

“Motherboard reported Monday that ‘post offices around the country are slashing their hours—including during the busiest times of day—with little notice as yet another abrupt cost-saving measure’ implemented by DeJoy, previously the CEO of New Breed Logistics, a private firm with a history of union-busting activity.

“‘In addition to West Virginia and New Jersey, post offices in Berkeley, California; Petersburg, Alaska, Youngstown, Ohio, and Knoxville, Tennessee have announced similar plans to reduce hours,’ Motherboard reported. ‘All of the changes Motherboard has reviewed were announced only by signs hanging on the post office doors.’

“In addition to harming the credibility of the USPS—which ranks as the most popular government agency in the United States—DeJoy's cost-cutting measures also threaten to disrupt upcoming elections as an record number of Americans turn to vote-by-mail as the safest way to cast their ballots amid the pandemic.

“‘The Trump administration's attempts to politicize, privatize, and gut USPS in the middle of a pandemic and unprecedented vote-by-mail is one of the biggest scandals in American politics right now,’ Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman tweeted Wednesday.

“In an op-ed for NJ.com this week, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) warned that ‘the electoral implications for the destruction of the Postal Service are momentous. If it is forced to curtail its service,’ Pascrell wrote, ‘our ability to hold a national election could be obliterated’” (Lawmakers Warn 'Onerous' New USPS Loan Terms Imposed by Mnuchin 'Could Accelerate Demise of Postal Service' by Jake Johnson for Common Dreams).

This Retired Teacher's Concerns by Glen Brown

This is a letter to retired teachers who have been uninterested, disinterested or indifferent to the injustices inflicted on our teaching profession: such as the retired teachers who ignored the assaults on our pensions but benefited, nonetheless, because of retired activists who fought indefatigably to safeguard our constitutionally-guaranteed right to a defined-benefit retirement income. These retired teachers who ignored the onslaughts on our pensions still disappoint me.

But this is primarily a letter to retired teachers who knowingly disregard the current crisis that teachers confront this fall and most likely next spring because of the dangerous Covid-19 pandemic.

Let me begin by asking them a few questions:

Where is your concern for current teachers (who, by the way, are funding your pension)? Have you forgotten or lost your love and respect for what teachers do each day? Is it because of your callous self-absorption or self-regard, or is it your indolence and complicity that make you uninterested, disinterested or indifferent?

I want to know where is your protest against the dangers of reopening schools in a pandemic? Where is your outrage? Where is your moral courage? Where is your sensibility and compassion? Where is your sense of community and sense of duty? Where is your responsibility and solidarity with today's teachers? 

I want to believe it is not because you are just too damn busy enjoying your retirement to care about the prevailing and serious quandary that current teachers contend with right now.

Of course, I presume many of you could have health issues, vulnerabilities, or other responsibilities; nevertheless, many working teachers have medical problems, susceptibilities, and other obligations as well.

Now, imagine you are a teacher today:

You are afraid that you cannot teach effectively because you are afraid: You are afraid of contracting the coronavirus and infecting your family and others. You are afraid of your students contracting the coronavirus and infecting their families. You are afraid for students who ride buses and for bus drivers who bring them to school and home each day.

You are afraid that frequent hand-washing is impossible for students to do throughout the entire day. You are afraid there is not enough space in your classroom for proper distancing. You are afraid social distancing and wearing cloth masks for hours is impossible for students. You are afraid of students eating lunches without masks, passing in hallways, and congregating in bathrooms or by their lockers. You are afraid your students cannot safely "socialize" in a pandemic despite the irrational push to send them to school. You are afraid some parents will undermine your safety concerns ("This pandemic is a political hoax").

You are afraid of airborne transmission of the coronavirus that thrives indoors, especially in closed spaces. You are afraid the windows cannot be opened or will not be opened in inclement weather. You are afraid your school's ventilation system is antiquated or poor (where "air is not properly filtered, diluted and exchanged"); that the HVAC system has not been upgraded and will easily spread the coronavirus. You are afraid that every surface in your school will not be sanitized each day.

You are afraid your school will have insufficient Personal Protective Equipment to keep everyone healthy and safe, such as portable HEPA air purifiers for each room, N-95 masks, Nitrile gloves, face shields, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizers... 

You are afraid you will not be able to tell the difference between the symptoms of the coronavirus and the flu, or the difference between the coronavirus and the common cold, or the difference between the coronavirus and common allergies. You are afraid of asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus.

You are afraid your school cannot guarantee everyone’s health and safety through reliable and consistent testing and contact tracing. You are afraid there are not enough nurses and custodians for each school. You are afraid administrators and the school board lack the expertise to determine health and safety measures for students, teachers and staff. 

You are afraid of the blatant incompetence of some of your administrators, the risky agenda of the school board, and the selfish irrational priorities of many parents in your school district. You are afraid for your students’ lives. You are afraid of dying needlessly for the U.S economy.

You would be afraid too.

Until this country has a unified and coherent federal, state and local strategy; until the federal government increases its funding for health and safety for all schools across this nation; until there is federal funding for parents to assist with their at-home childcare and technology and federal funding to feed disadvantaged children; until business entrepreneurs and the Trump administration (and not the schools!) solve the false choice they have created for parents of school-age children—all schools and universities across this nation should open only on online this fall and not until this pandemic is totally under control!

Furthermore, until the morons among us stop spreading misinformation and conspiracies because of their own gullibility and ignorance; until the Creons among us cease their stubbornness and spitefulness; until the pathological narcissists among us end their gas-lighting, this unabated coronavirus will continue to proliferate, and thousands of Americans will die.

-Glen Brown

Retired Teacher