Monthly Archives: March 2020

medical news, Uncategorized

Always known it’s a pandemic? Really, Mr. POTUS?

Donald Trump thinks he is president of a nation of rubes.

He said this the other day when asked why his tone about the coronavirus pandemic had changed: “I have always known. This is a real pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic … I’ve always viewed it as very serious.”

No. He hasn’t. He lied again. Just as he has done over and over and over. The president couldn’t tell the truth — and please pardon the reference — if someone held a gun to his head.

As The Atlantic has reported, Trump has said the virus could disappear in a miracle. He has said it has been “contained.” He has declared that he knows more about medical matters than anyone in the world, that he has a “gift” of this knowledge.

Now he wants us to believe that he’s known all along that the pandemic is serious?

Please. Stop. Shut up.

media news

Time of My Life, Part 47: 9/11 changed the dynamic

Events can shape people’s lives and even influence the direction their careers take.

The terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 was a date that changed damn near everything in this country, not to mention the career I had chosen to follow.

I cannot prove this with actual, tangible evidence. It’s an anecdotal thing, to be truthful. But the 9/11 terror attack opened the floodgates for me as an opinion writer and editor.

I was working on 9/11 as editorial page editor of the Amarillo Globe-News. I got word of the attack from a colleague who stuck his head into my office to ask if I had heard about the plane that had crashed into the World Trade Center.

Well, the rest is history, right?

One element of that momentous day was the absolute flood of issues on which we could comment at the Globe-News. It never stopped after that terrible moment in our history.

There had been times in the years preceding 9/11 when I had to look for issues on which to offer editorial comment. As they say in the news business, “There are good news days and bad news days.” The good news days always gave opinion editors grist on which to comment; the bad days forced us to look for that grist.

The post-9/11 era — which lasted essentially for the duration of my career a dozen years later — often filled me with the greatest dilemma an opinion editor could face: too many topics on which to comment. 

There were a lot of days when I would go to work and have to face a decision. What issue can we set aside for another day? Think about that. I seemed to never face the problem of having to look for ways to fill that space on our opinion page with editorial commentary.

It was a curious phenomenon that I cannot quite explain even to this day. It just happened. The world was changing. The nation went to war against international terrorism. That era spawned issues that demanded leadership from newspapers that at that time were still considered beacons for their communities.

I hated the circumstance that caused that phenomenon to occur. However, I was oddly grateful that it did occur and gave me a treasure trove of topics on which to comment.

Those were the days, man.

media news

Keeping the streak alive

I’m on a roll. Actually, I’m on fire!

I just recorded my 265th consecutive day of posting items on High Plains Blogger. I once had a lengthier streak than the current one, but it was snapped because of a technical malfunction on the platform on which I publish these musings.

I went a day without being able to post a blog. That was, well, 265 days ago!

I’m at it again. A dear friend of mine in Oregon has told me of her “awe” at the prolific amount of items I post daily. I don’t consider it worthy of anyone’s “awe.” I appreciate the good word, though. I long have stated that I am an expert at nothing, but I do have a lot of opinions on a lot of matters.

I also do not shy away from my bias. I admit to having it. We all have bias, even when we don’t acknowledge it in ourselves. Of course, I certainly recognize it in others who do not share my world view of politics or public policy.

I suppose this is all just my way of saying that High Plains Blogger has allowed me to stay more or less in the game. It allows me a forum on which to vent about this and/or that, about those who influence policy and also about slice of life issues that grab my attention.

I also want to say “thank you” to those who read these items. I also want to offer special thanks to those of you who share them with your social media network friends, family and acquaintances.

Moreover, I also want to thank the critics out there who take me to task. Believe me when I say this: You keep me humble.

local news

County judge asking us to counsel total strangers?

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has been a man under the glare of publicity of late, right along with local officials at all levels who are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

It is taking a toll on the county he governs, with incidents of disease rising hourly, let alone daily. Today he issued a “shelter in place” order for Dallas County. If you live in Dallas County, stay home unless you’ve got some necessary errands to run.

He actually went on the air today to ask us all to do something that is going to make a lot of Americans uncomfortable. I am going to take him seriously.

Jenkins asks us that if we’re out and about running “essential” errands to counsel folks we might see who aren’t practicing “social distancing.” He asked us, in the event we see individuals who are standing or walking too closely to each other, to “politely remind” them about the social distancing requirement. Just say, “six feet,” he said.

Got it? So, if you’re going to the grocery store and you see folks standing within the six-foot minimum, you’re being asked to tell ’em to spread out.

My wife and I have been quite careful. We’re holed up in our house in next-door Collin County. We don’t go out much at all. I went to the hardware store briefly this weekend to purchase something for my lawnmower; I also went to the grocery store to purchase a package of toilet tissue (hooray!) and some antiseptic wipes.

We are following the guidelines handed out by Gov. Greg Abbott and also by the federal response team working with Donald Trump to manage the crisis.

It’s going to take some nerve that I’ll need to muster if I see someone not following the rules. I’ll give it a shot and see what happens … whenever I decide to leave the house.

local news

‘We’ve got this!’

Community solidarity is alive and well in Princeton, Texas.

Our street was the scene just a while ago of an apparently ad hoc parade of about 15 vehicles. They rode down our street, some with signs that proclaimed “We’ve got this,” meaning that “we” are going to whip the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the world by its throat.

Those in the parade waved at households they passed … and then they were gone. Down the street and around the corner to the next street and perhaps beyond even that.

If you ask me, that is precisely the kind of American spirit that will prevail as our government at all levels struggles to find a solution to this crisis.

Yes, we are in what arguably is the greatest health and economic crisis many of us have ever seen or experienced.

Whoever did it, they need to know we appreciate it.

May this community solidarity live on.

***

This just in: It turns out the parade was orchestrated by teachers at Lowe Elementary School, who wanted to let their students know they miss and love them. The Princeton Independent School District will remain closed at least until May 4.

Well done, folks.

media news, national news

Media become ‘straw man’ for Trump, supporters

I want to push back against those who have taken to blaming the media for Donald Trump’s wholly inadequate response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Michael Goodwin, a columnist for the New York Post, posited an opinion that the media are more interested in taking Trump down than on reporting the facts. Goodwin writes:

In the real world, events are unfolding at a pace and scale impossible to comprehend. But at too many news outlets, the aim is not to inform. It is to render the harshest possible judgment on the man journalists love to hate.

Goodwin’s mind- and heart-reading ability must be astonishing in the extreme. To my way of thinking, he is letting his own bias get in the way of anything sort of rational analysis.

The media are trying to pry the truth out of a president who so far in his term in office has demonstrated incessantly an inability to offer the truth. Reporters and editors deal with truth. It is what they peddle as they seek to chronicle the news of the day, to inform the public about what their government is doing for them or, sadly, to them.

The coronavirus pandemic has gotten away from the federal government. It is running rampant now throughout the nation. We haven’t seen the worst of it. My hope and the hope of all our citizens — and that includes media representatives — is that we’ll get to the worst far sooner rather than later. Then maybe we can start to return to some semblance of normal life.

The media’s task is to tell the public whether their government is doing what it can to make that happen.

Donald Trump just happens to be the head of the executive branch of government. He hasn’t performed adequately. The media are reporting on his decisions and the processes that lead to them.

Do the media’s reports flatter the president? Do they gloss over the actions he has taken or failed to take? No and no. Is the media’s responsibility to cast the president in a positive light? No. Their responsibility is to tell us the truth.

Period.

I’ll provide Goodwin’s column here. I also will stand by my pushback against those who seek to blame the messenger who insists on doing an unpleasant job, which is to deliver bad news.

national news

Politics invading serious discussion

A Facebook meme popped up on my news feed that deserves a quick rebuke.

It wonders how much money that the government spent on impeaching Donald Trump could be spent fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Whoa! Let’s hold on here!

Yes, I will criticize the president’s reaction to the pandemic. I will question whether he has the smarts or the empathy or the understanding to lead us in this fight. I will not re-litigate the impeachment or drag that issue into this current matter.

I now want to implore those who seem to support Donald John Trump to avoid the temptation to dredge up that miserable chapter in our recent political history.

We are being swallowed up by this coronavirus issue. It’s enough to cause plenty of worry and anxiety all by itself.

How about keeping our eye on the enemy that stands directly in front of us … right now?

medical news, national news

Step aside, Mr. POTUS

This is far from all I want regarding the coronavirus pandemic crisis, but it’s up there … near the top of my wish list.

I want Donald John Trump to stop talking to us about what the national response team is doing to fight this conflict.

I want the president of the United States to hand the microphone over to the experts he has enlisted to do the heavy lifting, to wage the fight. You see, the president cannot — or will not — deliver a truthful assessment of where we stand, where we are going and how we intend to accomplish this important mission.

Trump stands before the world at those briefings and manages to mangle the message. He tells us testing equipment is available, when it isn’t; he berates the media, which are trying to report to the public what the government is trying to do; he talks about vaccines being nearly available, then gets contradicted by medical experts who tell us that they are far from being deployed.

If the president would merely stand down, step aside and let the pros talk to the nation, many millions of us just might feel more secure in our self-quarantined conditions.

Donald Trump is unable to lead.

medical news

Can a ‘snake’ get a presidential disaster declaration?

I am getting this sick feeling in my gut about how Donald Trump might react to a request from a governor he recently called a “snake.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is asking the president to issue a federal disaster declaration for the state that once was known as Ground Zero for the coronavirus pandemic that has wrapped itself around the world. Ground Zero in this country has shifted to New York City; the worldwide location is in Italy.

Inslee also was a Democratic candidate for president and said some unkind things about Donald Trump. I guess the president holds a grudge. Vice President Mike Pence took a trip out west to see the pandemic damage for himself and made some supportive statements about the job Inslee is doing to lead his state in its fight against the coronavirus.

Trump’s reaction? Pence can say those nice things, Trump said. “I don’t have to.” He called Inslee a “snake” and a “terrible governor.”

Now Inslee is asking the president for help. My gut is telling me that Trump is going to allow his anger at Inslee to keep him from doing the right thing and making the declaration, which would expedite federal assistance to one of our 50 states that is in dire need of it.

Say it ain’t so, Mr. POTUS.

medical news

Pandemic fatigue sets in

I don’t have the stick-to-itiveness that I used to have. I could stay glued to media outlets incessantly, seemingly forever, to get all the info I could soak in about an ongoing story.

These days I find myself coming down with a form of fatigue. I am sorry to admit that the coronavirus pandemic has triggered it in me.

I find myself watching some of the TV streaming services I get at home rather than watching the news. Every single item reported these days has some connection to the pandemic.

I understand fully how important the story is to the whole world. It’s a gigantic story. The United States of America could go into a total lockdown. For all I know they might declare martial law … but that’s not likely. At least that’s my hope.

States can act on their own. I don’t know what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is inclined to do. I am confident that when he makes such a decision that we’ll all be made aware of it.

Absent a declaration such as that, or a declaration that the coast is clear and we can resume our normal lives, I am going to look elsewhere for my TV-viewing pleasure.

I know about the risks. I know what to do to minimize my exposure to the virus. I know about “social distancing.” We have plenty of food in the house. We also have plenty of the necessary paper products … if you know what I mean. We have soap and running water.

We are hunkered down. I’m going to seek to relieve myself of pandemic fatigue. Wish me luck. I’ll do the same for you.