Calamity News and Politics
VETERAN’S DAY SPECIAL VLOG 11/11/2020
Thoughts and thanks for my 2020 Veteran’s Day experience. A visit to a restaurant for a free meal with some Veterans reminded me of all the thanks we receive. But in return, it brought the realization how much Veterans want you to know we thank you too. Not just on Veteran’s Day but always we thank you for thanking us!
We often see flags waving on porches across our country and special social media posts of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, or the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, or one of the National Cemeteries, with prayers or poems on Veterans and Memorial Day in honor of those who have served our nation. There are many restaurants that offer free meals, movie theaters offering complimentary admissions, and other giveaways to vets on November 11th, and a national hair care chain offers free haircuts as a thank you for veterans; often our former and current servicemen and women are asked to stand for a round of applause at sporting and concert events, but are these accolades enough?
How are we really taking care of those service women and men who suffer from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)? Many of our veterans return home to find they have no home. More than 40,000 of those who have served our country are homeless. And PTSD is a major factor in causing homelessness. It is estimated that as many as 33% of veterans, suffer from this debilitating illness. Mental illness is a significant factor in homelessness among veterans.
There are 3 main symptoms of this disorder. First, “arousal”: anger, difficulties with sleeping, or concentrating. Second, “reliving”: nightmares and flashbacks which can impede daily activities, and can lead to loss of employment income. Third, “avoidance”: a feeling of utter detachment from life and those around them, often leading to depression so severe it is not possible for the sufferer to function well enough to keep, a job or take care of a home.
Cognitive decline is one of the biggest hurdles facing aging adults. As we grow older, our bodies change, including mental functioning. Mental decline is not inevitable, however. Here are some tips from the experts to insure good brain health. Every day we are learning about new research into brain health. That research gives us insight into how to keep our brains sharp throughout life.
Regular exercise helps all the muscles and organs of the body, including the brain. A good workout can lower blood pressure and reduce cholesterol levels which is good for both brain and heart. Research shows that regular exercise increases the number of tiny blood vessels that supply oxygen-rich blood to the areas of the brain that are responsible for thinking.
The MIND diet is designed to help prevent dementia and slow the loss of brain function that can happen as we age. Dieters are encouraged to consume vegetables, berries, nuts, whole grains, olive oil, fish, beans, poultry and wine. The diet depends on frequent servings of green leafy vegetables. Kale, spinach, broccoli, collards and other greens that are packed with vitamins A and C and other nutrients. At least two servings a week can help, with memory. However, researchers found six or more servings a week provide the greatest brain benefits.
Today home automation and security are of growing importance. But between high start up fees, monthly costs, and the constant speed at which technology outpaces itself such technological upgrades can be expensive. Instead of buying something you will need to upgrade in a couple years, look to your old smart phone. Recent developments enable your old device to do a myriad of tasks. I have discovered a way to automate and protect my home with my old cell phone, an app, and a bit of ingenuity.
Choose an app that’s features are most important to your homes safety and find an app that’s going to best suit your needs. Once chosen download the app onto your current phone and your new one. Walk through the setup on your new phone, then log into the app on the old phone. Be sure to select “camera” rather than “viewer,” if that is an option.
Point your old phone’s camera toward whatever you want to watch and protect. The device will have to be connected to a power source since the phone will always be on, and you may want to purchase a cheap wide-angle lens to provide a wider view. Then you simply check the app on your new phone to periodically check in on your home.
Home security isn’t the only thing your old smart phone can do. Create a baby monitor. Much like a security system, you can turn your old phone into an affordable baby monitor. Set up the old phone in the baby’s room and use your new phone to Skype into their room. You can find apps to make this process easier.
Cloud platforms are not your only photo storage option. You can delete all the apps on your old phone and use it for photo storage, freeing up space on your new phone. This is a great option for anyone looking to limit their online presence.
Your old phone can serve as the universal remote for all your home’s smart devices, like a central hub that controls everything. Specialty apps like iRule an link all your platforms together. All you need is the app, Wi-Fi, and an old phone that can connect to the Wi-Fi.
Our nation just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which gave women the universal right to vote. “You’ve come a long way, baby…” but we have an even longer way to go. The women’s suffrage movement was a decades-long fight, giving females their voting rights, but the battle for equality is far from over.
In 1875, women’s suffrage had reached a monumental mark when Mrs. Virginia Minor filed suit against the State of Missouri for her constitutional right to vote in the presidential election. The case wound up in the Supreme Court. Unanimously, the justices claimed the privilege to vote was not a fundamental right of United States citizenship, and further asserted the denial of her voting rights was not protected by the 14th Amendment.
Before 1890, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), specifically worked toward securing a woman’s right to vote by a federal Constitutional amendment. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) had their focus on the passage of women’s voting rights legislation on a state-by-state-basis. That year they joined forces, becoming the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Strategical arguments had threatened to derail progress towards the goal on more than one occasion.
The 1920 ratification brought enormous changes for ladies in that decade. These “Thoroughly Modern Millie’s” were scandalous, bobbing their hair, tying their pearls in a knot, painting their faces, and raising their hemlines. Men found themselves in a quandary, as these new-fangled females were standing strong as empowered women. As the musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie” put it about the watershed change of the time:
There are those
I suppose
Think we’re mad
Heaven knows
The world has gone
To rack and to ruin
What we think is chic, unique and quite adorable
They think is odd and Sodom and Gomorrah-ble
But the fact is
Everything today is thoroughly modern
Check your personality
Everything today makes yesterday slow
Better face reality
It’s not insanity
Says Vanity Fair
In fact, it’s stylish
To raise your skirts and bob your hair
In a rumble seat, the world is so cozy
If the boy is kissable
And that tango dance they wouldn’t allow
Now is quite permissible
Goodbye, good, goody girl
I’m changing and how
So beat the drums ’cause here comes
Thoroughly modern Millie now!
Everything today is thoroughly modern
Bands are getting jazzier
Everything today is starting to go
Cars are getting snazzier
Men say it’s criminal what women’ll do
What they’re forgetting is, this is 1922
Have you seen the way they kiss in the movies
Isn’t it delectable?
Painting lips and pencil-lining your brow
Now is quite respectable
Goodbye, good, goody girl
I’m changing and how
So beat the drums, ’cause here comes
Thoroughly modern Millie now!
I remember singing and dancing to that song at the age of 15 – it was the opening number for my modeling school’s graduation. I was completely inspired by those lyrics, and I was armed with my Great Lash Mascara, Bonnie Bell Jumbo Lip Smacker in the very grown-up flavor of watermelon, Aqua Net big hair, and brand new platform sandals. Just like those teenage girls getting their first experience with cosmetics when Bonnie Bell rolled out their skin care line in 1927, I was ready for these new, “all the rage” conveniences.
I stood on street corners with NOW (National Organization for Women), asking people to, “go to bat for girls in sports”. And, of course, doing everything I could to see the ERA ratified. After all, I was almost 16; surely by the time I finished my education and joined the workforce, equal rights and equal pay would be a given. My enthusiastic, “Young Miss” brain was mistaken – the fight continues on.
The 19th Amendment changed women’s lives in many ways, moving closer to equal rights in many aspects of life in the United States of America. Ladies were now advocating for education, birth control, sex education, equal wages, job opportunities, and the like. Another baby of the 1920’s, the original ERA was written in 1921 by fellow activist attorneys and feminists Alice Paul and Crystal Catherine Eastman. Ms. Paul held three law degrees and had been an instrumental leader of the women’s suffrage movement. Ms. Eastman, of Erie, PA, was a socialist, anti-militarist, journalist, and lawyer, educated at Vassar, Columbia, and NYU.
The original phrasing read, “No political, civil, or legal disabilities or inequalities on account of sex or on account of marriage, unless applying equally to both sexes, shall exist within the United States or any territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1923, and in some form had been resubmitted in every subsequent session for almost fifty years, until it’s passage in 1972.
Virginia was the 38th state to ratify the ERA since it was proposed in 1972. That ratification pushed the ERA across the threshold, however, the original deadline had run out in March of 1979. But President Jimmy Carter signed into law an extension passed by Congress, granting additional time for the ERA to be ratified until June 1982. Prior to this, though, five states had “rescinded” their ratifications, the legality of which still remains unresolved. Many hurdles still remain in the amendment’s path. It received bipartisan support with recent ratifications by Illinois in 2018 and Nevada just the year before, but these occurred after the inactivity of four decades. Whether the amendment protecting the equal rights of women will actually be added to our Constitution remains yet to be seen.
In the words of the immortal Shirley Chisholm, “You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.” “I want history to remember me…not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the Presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself. I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America.” “At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.”
“I have certainly met much more discrimination in terms of being a woman than being black, in the field of politics.” “I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.” Those of us that watched the Democratic National Convention will recall with pride a video clip of Ms. Chisholm exclaiming, “Why shouldn’t I run for president?”
Many women now serve as elected officials, holding public office, but none has yet to break the ultimate glass ceiling of our nation. Hilary Clinton came very close, winning the popular vote against Donald Trump in the 2016 election, but lost by electoral votes. Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris may just be the break we need to shatter the enormous barrier. Marginalized minorities – Native Americans, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asian women – still fall through the cracks.
Outlandish arguments against the women’s suffrage movement are still in effect today, still being used against women’s rights. For example, many men feared women voters might disrupt harmonious family relations, distracting away from family values and the institution of marriage, with the possible consequence of divorce. Why women even may go to the extremes of wearing pants, cowboy boots, and neckties.
Both the 19th Amendment and the Equal Rights Amendment are succinct and simplistic in their directness: Amendment XIX: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
Equal Rights Amendment: “Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.”
We as women voters owe a debt of gratitude to these sash-wearing, determined ladies of yesteryear, and those that followed in their stead. Geraldine “Gerry” Anne Ferraro, the first woman to be nominated as a vice-presidential candidate by a major political party, quipped, “Vice president-it has such a nice ring to it!” She faced much opposition, saying, ”The polls indicated that I was feisty, that I was tough, that I had a sense of humor, but they weren’t quite sure if they liked me, and they didn’t know whether or not I was sensitive. I readily admit I was not an expert on foreign policy, but I was knowledgeable, and I didn’t need a man who was the Vice-President of the United States and my opponent turning around and putting me down.” Ms. Ferraro, who’s desk drawer was filled with all kinds of prayers, humbly revered her place in history.
Author, feminist, and journalist extrordinaire Gloria Steinem reminds us, “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” Vocalist Helen Reddy recorded an anthem for empowered women everywhere:
I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an’ pretend
‘Cause I’ve heard it all before
You can bend but never break me
‘Cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
‘Cause you’ve deepened the conviction in my soul
I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin’ arms across the land
But I’m still an embryo
With a long, long way to go
Until I make my brother understand
Oh yes, I am wise
But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can face anything
I am strong
(Strong)
I am invincible
(Invincible)
I am woman
For the women who planned and marched, setting the bar high for those of us that followed a century into the future, I will honor your suffrage and legacy. With a blue vote to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, I will take my stand for equality, so that the next chapter in our history may be written with dignity and relevance. Women will decide this election; let us pave the way for our first female Vice-President of the United States. Ladies, “this is our moment. This is our mission.” (Joe Biden)
By definition a “puppy mill” is problematic. These breeders raise animals purely for profit. At best, conditions barely meet legal minimum standards. Most often there is flagrant disregard of laws and the animals’ welfare, subjecting animals to horrendous conditions.
Per Wikipedia, a codified uniform legal characterization has not yet been made. A case law definition was established in 1984 by Avenson v. Zegart, as “a dog breeding operation in which the health of the dogs is disregarded in order to maintain a low overhead and maximize profits”. “Emphasis on quantity over quality, indiscriminate breeding, continuous confinement, lack of human contact and environmental enrichment, poor husbandry, and minimal to no veterinary care”, is how The Humane Society of the United States’ (HSUS) Veterinary Medical Association describes the practice.
Senior director John Goodwin of The Humane Society of the United States is spearheading a stop puppy mills campaign. The goal of the campaign is to activate the average citizen. Goodwin believes it is imperative that citizens report puppy mills and then refuse to patronize stores who sell animals that come from these suppliers. Some Mennonite and Amish communities have concentrations of puppy mills, particularly in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The Midwest has a large percentage of the offenders: the animal protection organization’s “Horrible 100” has five Indiana dog breeders on the list, for example, one of which is tied for the seventh worst. Missouri, who has the highest number of puppy mills in the U.S., reported two breeders with significant numbers of emaciated dogs and abhorrent conditions.
An Iowa puppy mill with 650 dogs had more than 50 that were ill or injured. Some of these operations have over a thousand canines in their charge. Circumstances at smaller breeders aren’t necessarily better. The Attorney General of Michigan is pursuing action against an AKC breeder for allegedly deceiving customers, euthanizing unwanted puppies, and selling sick animals. A Kansas puppy miller admitted to shooting and killing over two dozen dogs. Some others have been known to drown animals rather than go to the expense of humane euthanasia.
Having a car gives a person freedom. Recently, two of my close friends have lost their driver’s licenses. In both cases, medical issues were the cause. It made me think about driving despite advancing age. The number of drivers who are 70 years or older is increasing. There have been significant strides in reducing deaths among elderly drivers. Over the last two decades the number of people over 70 killed in car crashes has dropped by nearly 20%. In fact, today’s older drivers are involved in fewer crashes per mile traveled than those in any previous generation.
Today people are walking away from crashes that might have killed their grandparents. One reason for the dropping death count is that vehicles are safer than ever before. The side air bag was introduced in 2008. The benefit of the side airbag has been dramatic with deaths dropping significantly. Furthermore many older drivers today enjoy better health than driver’s of the same age decades ago. Such factors allow older drivers to function safely longer. However, there will come a time when you will need to consider giving up your car keys.
Many health conditions can compromise driving skills. Some of the most common conditions are cataracts, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, sleep apnea, and diabetes. The decision to quit driving is a major life decision, it can have resounding effects. Emotionally the former driver may feel less competent and capable, more dependent and as such more vulnerable. They may become depressed. With that aside, the most important question to ask is it safe to keep driving?
Five questions to ask:
1.) Has reading road signs become difficult?
2.) Are you anxious and stressed while driving?
3.) Have family or friends said they are scared to have you drive?
4.) Physical limitations ? (Such as not being able to look over your shoulder).
5.) Taking medications that cause drowsiness or side effects that impair driving ability.
If you said yes to any of the above questions and you want to continue driving consider the following suggestions.
If your medication makes you drowsy or interferes in your concentration you should talk to your doctor. Your doctor may be able to switch you to a medication without those debilitating side effects. In some cases your doctor can place restrictions on your license. A study found that older citizens successfully self regulate their driving after it becomes clear that certain restrictions are warranted. An examples would be no night driving.
A driver rehabilitation specialist can help a driver who has become anxious and uncertain about their continuing ability to drive safely. The specialist offers suggestions based on their assessment of the driver’s capabilities. For example he or she may suggest vehicle modifications that could help make the time behind the wheel less physically taxing.
The driving environment has changed dramatically over the last fifty years (since you got your first license). There are many new laws and there is much heavier traffic. Taking a class for older drivers can give a senior driver new confidence. Participating in a senior driving course could also qualify you for a car insurance discount.
The Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has identified several upgrades that are proven to help reduce crashes for older drivers: rearview cameras that can help drivers see better while backing up; automatic emergency braking systems; collision warning systems; and blind spot and lane-departure warning systems that help drivers avoid lane change crashes.
Shame is one of the strongest human emotions. It has long been a key weapon used by the powerful, particularly those in religious authority. The Catholic Church was a prime offender. Popes even stooped so low as to peddle Papal Indulgences. Papal Indulgences were basically ‘Get Out of Hell Free Cards’ for so-called infractions the church decided were “sinful.” Queer behavior was often targeted as “sinful” by religious leaders.
Two of the biggest targets of shame through the eons have been women and members of the Queer community (or LGBTQ+ if you prefer). As with all unjust behavior comes opposition, injustice inflaming those who fight to bring about change. That push for change culminated recently when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that civil right’s law protect gay and transgender individuals, making it illegal to dismiss individuals from their employment for being homosexual.
All has not been rosy for our dear friends of Dorothy. For a sickeningly long time, in even the alleged “land of the free”, it was illegal to be gay. Punishments ranging from torture and death to imprisonment, depending if it was the courts, or a posse who decided an individual were “deviant” as it was then called. Prison often being the best of the options available.
A 2oth century warrior against gay discrimination was filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Anger is an open Luciferian (he has the word LUCIFER tattooed across his chest). He is a life-long contrarian with a near-suicidal need to thumb his nose at oppressive authority. The fact that Anger (still kickin’ at 93) is also gay is actually the least interesting, or controversial, thing about him. He was used to being hated and knew his life was at risk for speaking out. But still, Anger had no qualms and pulled no punches in terms of overtly gay imagery in his films, knowing full well he could be arrested or even killed.
In 1968 playwright Mart Crowley’s groundbreaking play The Boys In the Band premiered off Broadway. The play focused on a group LGBTQ+ males but every one of the characters is a fleshed out human being, going well beyond the stereotypes of the time. Some of those stereotypes enforced by law, such as the section of the Hays Film Code which dictated that all gay characters be villains and/or tragic. Crowley presented neither. The Boys has long been credited with inspiring what would come just one year later.
There is still some disagreement about when or how the modern LGBTQ+ Rights Movement started. After years of police intimidation in the summer 1969 the gay community fought back. On the morning of June 28th police raided the Stonewall Inn. Yet another in a sustained pattern of harassment against New York City’s sizable LGBTQ+ community. On that day, years of abuse came to a head and the Stonewall Inn occupants started fighting back. What was supposed to be a routine raid, at least from a police perspective, turned into a full-on, brick throwing riot.
The Stonewall riot happened four years before San Francisco politician Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man elected to public office in 1973. The election became a bitter-sweet victory when Milk was murdered by his colleague Dan White. White, a former police officer, claimed he was in a psychotic state from eating too many sweets. According to White he killed Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk while on a “sugar” high. It would later become known as “The Twinkie Defense.” White was ultimately convicted of man-slaughter, sparking off what became known as the White Night Riots in 1978. White committed suicide in 1985.
Things are moving in the right direction for LGBTQ+ rights. Certainly miles ahead of where they used to be. Though it is important that we not get complacent. All my Queer brothers and sisters, along with our allies and friends, must keep an eye on things to ensure that the advancements made over the last few decades remain intact.
America has an ugly history of racism, on both the systemic and individual level. Even the Irish, who are known to crackle audibly in the sun, were not considered “White” in the capital W social-economic sense in America until the late 19th century. One of the most diverse places in American cities during the Victorian era were the ghettos. Irish, Scots, Pols, Blacks and Asians all lived side by side, often in close quarters with little animosity between them. A grouping galvanized by their common enemy. The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elites who thought they owned the land because their families fended off the British after stealing it from the natives. It wasn’t until after the Civil War and enforcement of Jim Crow Laws that black and white separation was solidified.
This situation is not, of course unique to America. There have been many instances of the intentional segregation of “othered” minority groups throughout the history of the world. Two groups often targeted for exclusion are the Jews and the Roma. The oppression of Africans, while mostly limited to nations involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, primarily Britain (who abolished it in 1833), the United States of America, and the islands of the Caribbean, have been among some of the longest lasting and most brutal.
An example of colonialism on Africans in Africa, is South Africa. Despite constituting roughly 8% of the overall population, the Dutch and British settlers in the southern tip of Africa managed to dominate the entire area. At least that is the simplest description of what happened. The white colonialists created the segregated state that the Republic of South Africa was to become. A long history of separation of the races in South Africa was perpetuated after the Boar War which ended in 1902. The National Party election in 1948 led to enforcing policies of formalized segregation. Control allowed them to push through the notorious Apartheid doctrine.
Change would eventually come to both America and South Africa, though it would come in very different ways at different times. Both nations have gone through years of unrest. Many black groups including the African National Congress battled against the government of South Africa and the apartheid model. The world took notice and placed paralyzing sanctions on South Africa.
The Apartheid era in South Africa was deeply and openly racist. No one denied it, least of all white South Africans. Though it is easy to forget that the end of the Afrikaans Party was spelled by the party itself. First came the release of Nelson Mandela form prison in 1990 and then the opening of the 1994 general election to the native population for the first time since colonization in 1652. The election ended in a historic moment of poetic justice, when Nelson Mandela became the nation’s first black president. There is still a long way to go to repair the damage of hundreds of years of colonialism but they are at least aware of this and taking the first steps.
The general belief by white Americans has been that systemic racism ended with the Emancipation Proclamation and went away entirely, including on the personal level, some time in the late 1960s. The names changed but the situation hasn’t. The policy of segregation turned to red-lining, voter suppression, mass incarceration and veiled police brutality.
In America the Civil Rights movement fought for change with aggressive activities in the 1960’s. Two factions evolved. One militant and one peaceable, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King occupying opposite ends of the spectrum. MLK and Malcolm bravely stood up against government oppression, most clearly represented by the segregation doctrine of Jim Crow. This era of activism peaked with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Recent events have shown racism is alive and well in America. Numerous high profile murders of African Americans by the police or individuals claiming to be making citizen’s arrests on the behalf of the police have inflamed activists. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks have spotlighted police brutality. These murders have slapped complacent white America in the face. Nearly nine minutes with a police officer’s knee on a black man’s neck caught on video shook up the American psyche. White America for the first time has been shaken to its core. Black Lives Matter activists have filled the streets with protesters. For the first time, protesters are as much white as black. Hopefully, America is finally looking racism in the eye and is willing and ready to do something about it. The demand for a multi-racial democracy is louder in the United States than ever before.
Humans are complex. Neither angels nor devils, but something in between. As with many things it is a continuum. Abraham Lincoln understood this perfectly and touched on it when he referred to “the better angels of our nature.” As with human nature, so with human action. Which assists in understanding our history of civil disobedience. Particularly when it happens to turn ugly. Such as when legitimate protests based on genuine grievances turn into deadly riots.
Henry David Thoreau was a vocal abolitionist, anti-expansionist and a conductor of the underground railroad. In 1849, Thoreau, an infamous proto-anarchist, published his essay “Resistance to Civil Government”. “Anarchist” in this case meaning classical Anarchism. A political ideology that accepts rules, but opposes the notion of rules in a top-down coercive system, where using lethal violence, or the threat thereof, to keep the populace under control. Thoreau advocated “resistance to an unjust state.” He said, “I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government”. Thoreau said “the government that governs best is that which governs least.” Though notice the phraseology. Government. To govern. There being a vital difference between a government and an administration.
America has a long, rich history of civil disobedience. “Fight the Power” being the unofficial national motto. Setting the American Revolution aside, one of the places this first came into focus was in lower Manhattan in 1863. From July 13th to July 16th, during the throes of the American Civil War, hundreds of citizens, many of them immigrants took to the streets to protest the draft that would send them to fight the Confederacy. What started out relatively peacefully soon grew into a large violent, three-day riot. In the end an estimated 120 people lay dead.
"If puppies and kittens don't make you smile, you might consider therapy." D. S. Mitchell 2015.
Self-isolating has forced us to turn even more to telecommunication and social media.
The Major Cause Of Sex Trafficking Is Poverty
Many great charities, here are a couple that I support: Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, ACLU, and Planned Parenthood.
