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2020-09
What do you do when you cannot do what you normally do?
In Arizona the guidelines of the Governor have been pretty light except for a couple of weeks on April 2020, otherwise he was very proud to say that Arizona would follow the CDC guidelines “the Arizona way”. Meaning? We recommend the mask but is up the business to decide the extent of the enforcement; six feet distance, the same; stay home if you feel you have symptoms, of course. I have to say that the business, for the most part, have taken a more responsible posture than the authorities. Even today April 2021, when the Governor remove any obligation to wear mask, I continue to see most of the business, and population at large, that continue to wear the mask in public.
So, with these light restrictions what do you do when you cannot do what you normally do?
The answer for many Arizonians, and visitors, has been outdoor activities! Hiking, biking or simply going to the park.
My story is of last September 2021. I too decided to resume my mountain biking activity in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve and I sent my bike to a shop for routine maintenance and replace of my old tires. What I find out is that the shop could not find any tire of my kind through their suppliers in fact, they told me, it is getting difficult even to buy a new bike, the bike market just exploded . . . I was not alone. They suggest for me to go to Amazon and look for tires and I was lucky to find my tires from a pool of only 7 in all US!!!
Silver line: thank to Covint-19 the US population is finally exercising, I’ll take it
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2021-04-25
For many reasons, The Journal of the Plague Year internship is the culmination of my graduate school experience. Other than my Public History Methodology course, my exposure to this field was quite limited. Now, this internship is prompting me to broaden my scope of professional interest and explore all that archival and preservation work has to offer. It is an exciting prospect that I look forward to pursuing soon.
There are so many aspects that I enjoyed during my time with JOTPY. Although the curation experience I gained and the people I met tie at a close second, my favorite experience was identifying silences within the archive. I had no idea that within a year of reading Marisa J. Fuentes’s, Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive, I would be identifying an Indigenous silence within the JOTPY archive. Creating the collection, Indigenous Point of View, to combat this silence was a unique experience that I will never forget. I gained invaluable experience writing its Call for Submissions and Indigenous POV Press Release while critically thinking how to build the collection. I learned so much about resilience within Indigenous culture throughout North America and look forward to other ways to assist in Indigenous land sovereignty efforts and the demarginalization of this beautiful culture.
As for other notable experiences, my time with JOTPY allowed me to practice thinking like a historian while curating, conducting oral histories, and co-creating a digital exhibit. Also, I was able to informally network with JOTPY leads during some of the weekly Town Hall meetings and observe planning sessions on marketing events such as the one-year anniversary of the archive. It was fascinating to participate in these conversations while getting to know JOTPY partners across the country. What an invaluable opportunity.
Thank you to Dr. Mark Tebeau, who quickly responded to my email expressing interest in the internship. Also, an enthusiastic thank you to Dr. Kole. Not knowing what to expect when I started with JOTPY, I wondered how much the interns would work together. However, her peer-review assignments and her encouragement for intern collaboration created many opportunities to connect. Her method of facilitation was succinct, fun, and fostered so much collaboration within my cohort.
Enduring the COVID-19 pandemic with fellow interns across North America made these first four months of 2021 so much more bearable. We shared a moment in history in a way that the majority of the world never will. I leave this unique internship with valuable new archival skills that I am confident will serve me well. I move forward with more historical tools in my toolbelt, new professional connections, and new friends. A great way to conclude indeed.
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2021-04-25
Now that the CDC has cleared the J & J one shot and done again after the scare of blood clots people are ready to get their shots. Will people line up to get the J&J shot? I hope they will as there are lots of them in stock here.
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2021-04-23
People in the LGBTQ community feel that the former Democratic Presential nominee is not out for their best interest but instead is just using them for their vote. They feel like he should push more for homelessness, housing, healthcare, and other issues important to the LGBTQ people but Mr. Yang says he loves and supports the community. He is running for New York City mayor and is the former nominee of the democratic party.
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2021-04-07
A new law making its way through the North Carolina legislator would force educators to out Transgender students to their parents. It also would not allow for people younger than 21 to have hormones for transgender surgery or to have surgery or anything like that.
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2021-04-25
The internship experience has been one that has taught me many new and different skills that I did not have before or were very low on my abilities prior to this experience. Before I started this internship I had no experience in the field of public history or curation. I gained skills like learning how to preserve various sources for future posterity. I learned the process of properly using a system like Omeka, securing digital sources for the future, working on collections, oral histories, and more. The oral history part of my internship gave me skills that I can bring into my current role as a Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator by having some of our teachers encourage our students to conduct oral histories of our local town members in order to meet their standards in our state. My school uses the hands-on teaching method in order to bring the curriculum alive and this could be one way to implement and bring history alive.
I also sharpened my skills of teamwork, collaboration, and virtual zooming in order to meet a project end goal. One thing this experience has taught me is that the pandemic has caused technology and collaboration to be taken to a next level and that I feel it will continue to grow and change in the future. This experience will also be memorable due to the fact that the actual documentation of the history is occurring while the events are happening not after the fact which is a unique experience.
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2021-03-29
The website designed was chosen to focus on the topic of healthcare workers and their role during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It showcases multiple elements of media from pictures, videos, social media posts and other engagements that compile information and stories about frontline healthcare workers that are putting their lives on the line to save people. It is necessary that the general population has an understanding of what our healthcare workers are going through during such an unprecedented time. It was important for me to show this side of healthcare workers because they are the heroes amongst our society, and we all talk about fictional heroes or figures and whatnot, but we need to appreciate those that are fighting and sacrificing themselves, for the betterment of our health. This archive project was for university course that I took this semester, and it required extensive research, but additional to that I also had the opportunity to reach out to healthcare workers and get their stories, combined with the many stories that are shared online by them, and compiled, they have helped in constructing this body of a work which I was fortunate enough to create. A large gratitude to them because without our healthcare workers, there would be no health in our societies.
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2021-04-24
This is my portfolio from my experience of working as an intern with the Journal of the Plague Year Public Archive.
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2020-07-12
Tucson Medical Center went from no Covid patients in January 2020 to approx 160 at the peak (actually our third) in January 2021. It was amazing to see how quickly beds were repurposed, negative flow rooms were engineered, elective surgeries were cancelled and all the staff rallied around the ever changing patient case loads.
Paula Marshall, RN July 12, 2020 at TMC Bed Control Department
I work at Bed Control. We accepted patients from mostly southern Arizona from our ER and from the surrounding rural hospital. The Covid Surg line would call distributing covid patients needing admission throughout the area.
When I graduated from nursing school in 1974, I never guessed that our world would experience a pandemic in my lifetime. I never knew that my job would change the way my family viewed my job. I don’t work at the bedside but work in an office and contribute to bed utilization. My son’s family lives 6 miles from me but I was invited to visit 4 times during 2020. My granddaughter said, “you work in a hospital. You could have Covid and not know it.” Gee whiz
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2021-02-12
The Sikh community has been working vigorously to help the communities they are in as much as possible. In San Joaquin County, Sikh temples have temporarily transformed their worship areas into massive COVID-19 testing sites. As the article notes, Sikhism “is based on giving back to the community and believing in community service.” Even though vaccination is continuing to roll out, the Sikh community is working to help drive down the positivity rate by getting as many people tested as they can.
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2021-04-10
For most religions, helping in the community is a necessity. For Sikhs, it is no different. This article details how a Sikh temple has allowed its building to be used for the distribution of 1500 COVID-19 vaccines. Throughout the history of Sikhism, a premium has been placed on service and charity. By providing its building for easy access to vaccines, this Sikh temple is playing its role to help get back to normalcy.
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2020-09-21
When looking at the pandemic, regardless of one’s religious beliefs, or lack thereof, nearly everyone’s spiritual wellbeing has been tested. On one hand, spiritual struggle has been linked to higher mortality rates as well as depression. On the other, however, proper spiritual care has been shown to help people get through a rough time. Chaplains play a major role for those who are sick or injured. Simply because someone does not identify with organized religion does not mean they can be provided with spiritual care.
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2021-04-23
My reflection is to bring awareness of the increasing divide of our country through the impact of a pandemic . This is important to me because I believe that it affects the way we approach and solve global issues. My hope is that this reflection will give insight of the major issues that have occurred throughout this pandemic, and inspire those in the future to create possible solutions.
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2021-04-24
I have been witness to some really traumatic life events. This has made me experience the pain and agony of individuals and their families during this pandemic. This has also made me grateful for keeping me and my family safe.
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2021-04-23
At the beginning of the pandemic, a surgical mask was not something we thought about daily. As cases began to rise and people began to get sicker and sicker a mask was the most wanted item in the world. All around the news and internet, we would hear not to leave our house without a mask or be around other people without one. This lead everyone in the world to be on the hunt for masks. The next thing we knew everywhere masks would be sold out or on backorder and people began to panic. Mask at the beginning of the pandemic was very hard to get your hands on but as time went on businesses got more interested in mass-producing masks and saw to take the opportunity to make a whole lot of money on a needed item. We can now see masks being sold in every store from corner stores to grocery stores and even designer brands like Saint Laurent Paris. Businesses saw the opportunity to make a lot of money on items that were needed by consumers every day but they knew consumers would buy them because nowadays people want to match them with their outfits. These masks have become such an essential part of our daily lives that we no longer reach for our keys before we leave we look for our masks. Although there are many people who follow the mandatory rules of wearing masks there are still many others that believe wearing a mask is taking away their freedom. It is unbelievable to think that a simple cloth that goes over your face that can protect the lives of many others and yours has become such a controversial and important part of our everyday life when it was never something that affected us before March 2020
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2021-04-23
How the pandemic effected me personally at home and at work
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2021-03-15
Dear COVID,
You tried to break us. You were rampant. You were brutal. You did not discriminate. You were careless. You hit NYC hard, and didn’t stop. You stormed through our diverse neighborhoods. Our middle class and hard working people. Our less-fortunate. Our most vulnerable. Our elderly and incapable. We became the epicenter at one point, and it didn’t stop there. You halted our way of life. You shut down our small businesses. Our restaurants. Our bars. Our necessities and invaluable operations. Our transportation systems. You divided families and friends. You caused us to feel lonely and scared. Worried. You put people out of work. You ruined lives. You murdered many. But, we’re still here. And we aren’t going anywhere.
We fought back. We’re still fighting back. You haven’t gone anywhere, but we’ve learned to live with you. For now. We have regained some aspects of our way of life. We continue to support each other in times of need. We support our small businesses and give back to our communities. We are finding ways to comfort each other and be with one another again. We are being smart. We are being considerate to others and continue to do so. You may still be very present in our everyday lives, but not for long. We will come back from this, stronger than ever. Thank you for showing us what we are made of.
Sternly,
NYC
COVID has been tough on us in the States, more particularly in NYC. This virus is ruining many lives and is still very present. NYC has been affected in many ways, and still continues to be. This has something our city has never had to experience. Unfortunately, the process has been very slow. However, with vaccinations, and herd immunity, we shall get through this and bring back our city with a bang. My family and I have been very fortunate thus far and I always try my best to find ways to give back and support local businesses and families that have been hit hard. I believe everyone should do this to the best of their ability in a time like this. Through all this, we as a city is still standing strong and our will is not broken. The photo attached is a small glimpse of ways we are getting by while also be weary of our actions. You can see a couple enjoying their time at a restaurant, while in the reflection, a stranger wearing a mask and being mindful of other’s health.
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2021-04-23
This is based on my personal experiences. I started off 2020 by having just separated from my wife, such that we were both looking for divorce. This can lead to many difficulties even in a normal setting, but it took the normal difficulty of the things I was going through and turned it up a few notches. I started the year off without a job, car, or place to live. I was able to move in with my mom and take care of the housing situation temporarily by living in her front room. I then had to start looking for jobs. I found a job through a temp agency to get me back on my feet. Eventually, it became time for my to find a more permanent job better suited to the path forward I wanted in life. My last day of work at the temp job was right before spring break. I had planned on taking care of life things during spring break, before looking for another job shortly thereafter. There were no jobs. So many businesses closed during and after spring break, that the number of people desperate to get money for rent and necessities, took all available jobs almost instantly. I spent nearly 2 months looking for another job. Eventually I was forced to cave, simply because what should have been adequate amounts of money while looking for a job, was used up in the wait. I not only had to take another temp job, but the only ones available were jobs with a high rate of people leaving them. So I worked at one of the worst jobs I have had the displeasure of working. In that process, there was an instance of covid starting to spread through the factory. So this factory with over 1000 workers, made a mandatory covid test for it's workers, and sent us all home for a week. Anyone who's test came back positive, had their id rejected at the turnstyle when we resumed work. Unfortunately my body couldn't take the hours required for this job. And so I was forced to leave it also. And in doing so, I was no longer able to stay with my mother. So for the second time in a year, I was jobless and homeless. And this time, the root cause was covid. I went to stay with my aunt. But my grandmother and grandfather are particularly elderly and vulnerable, so everyone there was on high alert and wary about covid. So I was quarantined for an entire week to one room so that I would be able to be monitored for any symptoms. Shortly thereafter I was back on the hunt for a job that would help me progress forward in life. But yet again, even in a completely different area of Oklahoma, there weren't any jobs to be had. I was only able to push myself like that for a month before I looked for another solution. I had a friend, who would lend me his couch even on a permanent basis if needed. So I took him up on that offer. And I moved from Oklahoma to California. That drive was more or less the most impactful part of covid to me. I had seen the roads get empty on my way to/from work as people had stopped non-essential travel. But Oklahoma didn't have an enforced mask mandate. We could still go to the store, or pay for gas for our car, without being required to wear a mask. Many businesses still had indoor dining even. But in that trip, the realization of the impact of covid, hit me. It was at the only gas station for 20 miles in either direction in the mojave. I walked up to the door to go in and pay for gas. And for the first time that year, I saw a sign saying masks were required to enter. After that, every other location I stopped at was the same. There were no more places I could go without a mask. Covid, was having a real and significant impact on other things in the world than just jobs, and people's financial struggles. After having made it to California, in a particularly populated area with plenty of jobs, I was still unable to find a job for two months, simply because of how the rest of the year had gone for me. Simply by requiring a stable work history, I was no longer able to apply for most jobs. Finally I did get a job. I got one in the food industry. And the impact of covid hit hard there too. After having finished my training, and worked for about a week, the state mandate came that closed both our indoor dining. A month later, outdoor dining followed suit. We weren't allowed to take drinks back to add things we may have forgotten, and instead had to remake them entirely, because of covid safety precautions. I've had my temperature taken every single work day since I started, which was unheard of in times before covid. Twice, we've shut down the store because a partner tested positive for covid, and everyone that worked with them was placed in a mandatory two week quarantine. The impact is so strong, that the company is even providing 2 hours paid time for both doses of the vaccine, as incentive to get vaccinated. It's clear to see, covid has had an incredibly strong impact on life, and turned the difficulty level of many peoples lives up beyond manageable levels.
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2021-04-23
This past year has brought many challenges with it for almost everybody. For me, and my family, this past year has brought equal challenges and blessings (although they usually appeared as blessings in disguise initially). Throughout the pandemic, I achieved great things at work, ended up quitting that job, started helping my family's business, experienced deep trauma after my wife was assaulted by a friend, navigated the legal system amid Covid-19 to seek justice, experienced justice being denied first-hand, worked through the grief caused by the denial, and then came out the other side of the trauma with an even stronger relationship, and I experienced a continued strain on all of my relationships caused by the distance required by quarantine. For me, this pandemic didn't greatly affect my work-life - I still had to physically work the entire time - but it changed the way all of the people around me lived. This was difficult, of course, because change is scary, but the change also became a catalyst for myself and others to change ourselves for the better. Personally, work got harder as tensions rose throughout the pandemic, and while dealing with the backlash of these tensions was difficult, this opened my eyes to the fact that I truly wasn't happy at work. I enjoyed the people I worked with, but I didn't enjoy the work or the product of my work. So, while I was grateful for the opportunity, the stress brought on by the quarantine woke me up to the realization that it was time for me to move on. There are many things that this pandemic brought, and while I wish I could elaborate on all of them, the short version of the long story, is that it was a traumatic event for everyone, but after working through the trauma, many of us found blessings in disguise or used the stress to give us the courage to change.
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2021-04-23
The global pandemic that started in 2020 has been extremely hard on a lot of people, especially extroverted people that need social interaction to feel normal. I feel I am incredibly lucky in this regard as I enjoy my solitude without the hustle and bustle of social activities. When the pandemic started back in March 2020 and we all were advised to stay inside to help combat the virus it was the easiest task in the world for me. I personally practice social distancing in general since I don’t enjoy people being in my personal bubble and I also dislike being around large groups due to personal anxiety. So overall when this all started, I honestly did not notice a big change in my life.
One thing I did notice was that people in my phone and on my friends lists through various platforms were suddenly super active in their messages being sent to me. I can empathize with others in this regard because even introverted people like to engage in social activities every now and then. Another big thing I noticed was all my favorite software got major updates and were revamped due to so many people now working from home many companies actually saw their productivity explode in 2020 while wonderful it is very sad to see companies not giving their workers more options to work from home now in 2021 despite seeing boosted productivity. I was also able to go shopping for groceries with less crowds which to me was a nice thing to not be surrounded by so many people as I would be in any other situation.
I also really like wearing masks when its cold out because it keeps your face from being hit by harsh cold winds and you kind of feel like a Mortal Kombat character. Now that things are getting a bit more under control with more vaccines out in the public space and people going back to work, I hope people who need to socialize get the chance to do so. I will also remember 2020 because so many people globally did not live to see 2021, I feel fortunate that my family and I made it through 2020 in one piece.
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2020-06
In the beginning of 2020, fear and uncertainty resonated within everyone’s mind. Face masks and social distancing became the norm. Shops, restaurants, and bars closed their doors. Social events were either postponed or cancelled. People fought loneliness and depression. I gave birth to my first child in March of 2020, a week after stay at home orders were announced. I was allowed one visitor the entire hospital stay due to strict COVID precautions. To this day, my child has never met his extended family in person. The pandemic taught many of us that life is precious and should never be taken for granted. It has been an eye opener for many and a reminder that we have a lot of work ahead of us. As the COVID-19 cases rapidly increased, more evidence of police brutality and racism surfaced on the internet. The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many others made most Americans question authority. Political controversy divided our nation. Asian Americans were blamed for the spread of COVID-19 and Asian elders were attacked in broad daylight. Although there were many instances of hate crimes, many also stood in solidarity amid a global pandemic. The pictures I’ve shared were taken by a family friend during the Black Lives Matter protests in San Diego on June 2020.
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04/21/2021
Mini oral history with La Verne Ford Wimberly from Tulsa, Oklahoma
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2021-04-23
The numbers increase as time goes on. Every month more people catch COVID-19 and more pass away each second that ticks away on the clock. Allah calls out to me. He calls for me to pray. And yet I have never prayed before. Mosques closed for teaching. COVID-19 restrictions on how many people may enter the sacred place to pray. Yet I feel a deeper connection to Allah than I have in all my life. Months of distracting myself from the world around; I turn off the news and look away when I hear the numbers. I bury myself in books and my studies to try and numb the pain. How horrible it is to feel that any time I leave my house I could have just risked someone’s life. The coffee shop stays open and selling more than before because we are “essential.” And to Allah I cry out: “Why now? What have we done to deserve this pain?” But He stays patient and continues to guide me. “Come to me my child. Come pray. You will see.” The aching in my chest does not go away. How? How can I pray there is nobody to teach me, nobody to lend a hand? Countless hours searching and researching trying to find the path that He has set out for me. I make mistakes and try again. I fail and fall but I always get pushed back up to try once more. We are divided and far apart from one another. Ramadan and Eid spent alone. Praying alone. Learning alone. Always isolated and alone. However, not once did I feel lonely. Like the warmth and weight of a blanket wrapped around me He guides me. I pray and pray for those around me like millions do around the globe. I pray for myself, for my family, for those I will never get the chance to meet. I pray and I hope for this to go away. For the pain to heal and for us to come together once more. A community rebuilt in the ashes and from sorrow we get stronger. Allah please accept our prayers.
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2021-04-23
We were crazy careful. In a bubble of two, for months. We went inside a grocery store maybe three times over the course of a year and not for the first six months. We always wore a mask. We honestly believed given given our personal situation, the best thing we could do was to remain isolated. We worked really hard at this. In the beginning, our mail sat in quarantine. Any groceries that came into the house, we we wiped them down. Some people, described my personal efforts as over the top neurotic. My parents older we’re careful as well. If you haven’t figured it out, this article was written with voice recognition software and the nuances that come with that. However they were older and this meant that they did require assistance. Fortunately they were not in a facility where it swept through. Instead they had caregivers who came from a reasonably fortunate demographic sample in terms of access to healthcare. In other words they probably had better than average odds then someone in an old age home. They always had masks, they have a supply of sanitizer in the car at all times. I’m at the beginning that is not in the beginning, they began to have their personal support workers do grocery shopping, thanking I know banking, pharmacy and pretty much anything that required them to occupy a shared space with others. In December, almost 10 months into the pandemic, my mom did not get Covid. However she required hospitalization. She had been sick for a long time and it appeared to be another infection. Well that was it. Just before Christmas, she began to make a recovery, which included physical therapy. My dad will go to the hospital every day. And during the other visiting hours, my brother would go. Unfortunately over the Christmas holidays, and due to hospital staff being overly per cautious, they had a shortage of staff and we’re not able to conduct the physical therapy. This certainly helped in terms of limiting their contact with others. However, My mom really needed physical therapy. So the progress that had been hard earned, prior to the holidays was Dowsett back and look like it was going to resume in January. My mom spent Christmas and New Year’s in the hospital, with my dad at her side. Then, the hospital restricted visiting. It wasn’t eliminated it was just more restrictive. In the end including my mom go to 13 patients four died of Covid. My dad who what is elderly and heard degenerative bone issues he’s not a patient had not been there obviously the entire time he passed five days before my mom. Once it was determined he had Covid and required hospitalization, they took him from his home to a different hospital than my mom. Each of them passed without any knowledge of the other passing. My dad had remark to me when I was expressing doubt over my overly per cautious approach did he didn’t think it was crazy, I actually thought it was wise. We held a virtual service, it was the first 100% virtual service the funeral home I had done. Again the grammar here is all messed up because of the voice recognition. We begin to settle back in our routine. And March I didn’t feel well, that was on a Thursday. I got tested on Saturday and by that time my wife is symptomatic yeah and we both had Covid. Fortunately, we didn’t require hospitalization, but it did hit us hard and we were never sure if we were going to end up going to the hospital. Our son, who took little to no precautions, lived at our house in a separate section. Where a wall had been constructed. Heating occurred through different systems. He was tested, he never got sick. Recently, I had my second shot, Moderna. The next day, I was as sick, same symptoms as during the Covid infection. It was a severe as the worst two days my Covid infection. Fact in fact, I had managed to work straight through by infection, however I did finish work early on a Friday and got out of bed maybe three hours until starting late on Monday. I’ve always heard that it was the second shot that hit people hard. I was discussing this with a friend of mine, who is generally pretty insightful and has a reputation for solving things others don’t. I don’t know if he was just trying to make me feel better or this was another one of his really good insights. Anyways he had suggested that this was like my body‘s second shot. I thought that was interesting and perhaps someone who reads this may also I’ve had a similar experience or comment on. That is my Covid story And my wife after patiently listening to me dictate this through voice recognition whispered as I was done and I’m sticking to it
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2021-04-23
For me, the pandemic has been the exhaustingly consistent cherry on top of everything that’s gone sideways in my life over the past year. Now, this isn’t meant to be a pessimistic rant about the past 12 months, but just a sequence of events that kept things spiraling out of control while I tried my best to stay on top of the chaos and maintain an energetic passion for life and hope for the future. These traits used to come super naturally, as I had been following my ten year plan pretty successfully as of last March, until the rest of the year, which I thought to be set in stone, was pulled out from under my feet.
I was having the time of my life in Rocky Point over spring break when Covid started hitting the fan. ASU announced a ‘temporary’ switch to online classes while I was on the road coming back home, and I drove straight into midst of a sudden global pandemic. Luckily, I had gotten out of Mexico in time before the borders were closed down.
I was working at Harkins Theaters at the time, and my last shift was one with a whole bunch of disposable gloves and excessive new sanitization rules in concessions. I left that night not realizing that that would be my last shift there. I was at least planning on being there for another few months, before I would start a summer job I was recently contracted for. I was going to go on tour as a videographer with the Cavaliers drum and bugle corps, filming professional marching band videos and cutting together rad highlight reels all while traveling the country and getting paid for it. That was canceled soon after I was furloughed from Harkins.
I went back home to visit my dad and brother in the midst of it all, but I don’t think my brother was ready for that kind of personal contact. He wound up giving me a black eye after I ended up getting too close to him and intentions were misconstrued. Shortly after, while already recovering from a destroyed face, I came down with a long, rough sickness that was aligned with the known symptoms and assumed by everyone to be Coronavirus. Unfortunately Covid tests were far from accessible at that point, and I was never able to confirm if that was the case.
Trying to get away from the bleak outlook of everything, I took a few of my friends up to my grandparent’s empty house in Sedona. My roommate proceeded to secretly bring alcohol, drank too much and fall off a ladder, leaving a large-man-sized hole in the wall of my grandparents’ expensive house. While staying in Sedona the following week on one of my trips to head up and fix the wall, I got a call from my dad that my mom had passed away. She had been suffering for the past twelve years from a stroke and aneurism she had when I was eight, and on April 6th she finally let go. So that was a lot of emotion to throw on top of everything.
After spreading my mom’s ashes with my dad and brother, I came back to find a baby monitor camera had been hidden on a shelf in my bedroom. I didn’t know who put this camera there, hidden in a sock, but it had been filming my girlfriend and I for the past three days and had gotten some pretty personal stuff on camera. It wasn’t hard to put together that that was the whole point of the monitor. My roommate felt violated as well, as he said he thought it was one of his friends who had put it there, and was on board with the whole police investigation we launched after the fact.
I trusted my roommate, and while he had gone through a bit of an alcoholic phase the month before, I thought he was doing better. He had been one of my best friends for over five years at this point, and I didn’t want the worst case to be possible. But a few weeks later, my girlfriend’s phone mysteriously went missing in my apartment for a night. The next day she found a monitoring app downloaded onto it. My roommate had taken her phone, copied off all of all her private, ‘personal’ images of herself, and installed a program to track her and check in on her camera and microphone without her knowledge. Luckily we found this evidence soon enough, but it wasn’t an enjoyable experience kicking my best friend out of our apartment. The police found evidence that he put up the camera soon after and he was arrested. Two counts of voyeurism, one count of lying to the police, and everything he had taken off my girlfriend’s phone. I haven’t talked to him since last May, I can’t legally, it’s currently April of ’21 and his trial has yet to reach sentencing.
After all that had happened, Summer was not what I had initially thought it would be. But it wasn’t all that bad. People started wearing masks, I got a temporary job making dough at Little Caesars, I was able to hang with my actual friends and the worst of it looked to be over. And while that much was true, the pandemic itself was far from over and slowly the months of lost experiences and thoughts of unfulfillment and wasted potential began to sit in.
I got a different apartment in August, but it was an older and more run-down first floor unit with unexplainably loud upstairs neighbors. I’ve spent the entire lease of that unit trapped inside and longing for a normal college experience. These were supposed to be the craziest years of my life, and I felt like I had missed out on countless memories. I was working as a video editor from home on top of online school, and the days blended together into hopeless rituals of helpless procrastination. The motivation to thrive while held up in the new apartment was hard to find.
But I still made it.
I didn’t give up on pushing forwards. I’d put things off and the passing of time ultimately became an illusion, but I kept making sure I stayed productive. I edited together a vlog series through the beginnings of the pandemic, worked on other personal projects, and was able to get a pretty sweet internship doing remote editing work for a television studio in LA that I ordinarily wouldn’t have been eligible for as in person work. I made it through the 2020-2021 school year, my junior year, with good grades and came out on the other side more hopeful than ever. I got fully vaccinated a few weeks ago, I’m beginning to live again, and the bright outlook of a fresh start in a soon to be newly reintegrated world gives me an unparalleled excitement. I am looking insanely forward to all the new people I’ll meet, memories I’ll make, and experience I’ll gain through my senior year being back in person.
Everything’s coming back together, and as long as everyone can make an effort to get vaccinated and keep each other safe, calm, and hopeful, I’m more than prepared to cram 13 months of missed experiences into the best, jam-packed, fulfilling, productive and exciting year of my life.
…Yet.
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2021-04-23
The pandemic created a rift among people. Everyone’s lives were up hauled and not many people found themselves living the life they didn’t think they were going to live. People have been getting sick, people have been dying, and the negativity this plague has brought has only multiplied in society.
I believe one of the main issues for the negativity, hate, and chaos we’ve seen in the country this past year is because people are bored. Not just bored and wondering what to do this afternoon during the plague, but the kind of bored that results when that thought repeats itself every day for months on end. And with nothing better to do, and no hope to be found, people start to look for something believe in. Everyone has become more hard-set on their beliefs, and voices have gotten exponentially louder.
Left-leaning people find community in the fight for justice and equality. The protests and rallies have been bigger. Without much else in life going on to care about, people can care more about the overall issues they believe matter.
Right-wingers found themselves deep in the fan club of President Trump. Their voices got louder, more arguments and fights began to break out among people. The election was a bigger deal with a bigger turn out than the nation has ever seen. The country felt very divided, yet at the same time, people were coming together more than we’ve ever seen.
With the pandemic came a wave of loneliness among many people, attributing to why so many have so comfortable found their place in the political group they believe in. It’s a community in public life when there’s no public life to really find a community in during a pandemic.
The issues of gender, race and power have all been largely argued over as a result of this newfound divide. Overall, I believe the country can be better off now that the pandemic has focused people on such societal issues, as getting people to care and getting people to make a stand is the way to make change happen.
And then on the religious side of things, many religions have found a deeper sense of community as people come together in hopes of connecting and caring throughout the plague. These voices prove to be heard, too, usually coming from the right-wing side of the divide, complicating the progressive movements that left-wingers campaign for, movements which ordinarily would be understood as in accordance with the faith and ideals of many religions.
This results in a lot of complicatedness, arguments among people, and chaos in the country. It’s a difficult time, but it’s a time of growth for everyone. For everyone in the public sphere to figure out what they believe in, and hear the voices of others. After the pandemic is over, and many people have gone back to caring about other things in life, maybe people will evolve their ideals with an open mind and open the nation to more active discourse and change going forward.
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2021-04-22
What has life been like for me during COVID-19? Well this photo pretty much sums it all. For this past year, I have spent the majority of my time on my computer which mainly consisted of it being completing work for my classes and watching TV shows during my spare time. The gyms were closed. I couldn’t eat at the restaurant my family and I go to every Thursday anymore. And seeing other family and friends became very limited as well, so I was alone by myself most of the time. The beginning of this pandemic was very difficult for me as my lifestyle changed drastically. I am a little bit of a procrastinator and when you have a nice comfy bed next to you 24/7, it makes it really hard to do things. But I understood that life goes on, so it is up to me to keep on moving forward. And that is exactly what I did. During this pandemic, I felt I was really able to focus and improve myself. I have become a more productive person and it has really helped me in finishing my classwork and doing other daily tasks. It has relieved some of that unnecessary stress that was on me that I had put on myself before this pandemic. At home, I didn’t have any weights to work out, so I decided to work on my flexibility/mobility. With the gyms beginning to open back up and going there just recently, I noticed the benefits of it in both my weight lifting and martial arts. In addition, I was able to gain new hobbies and one of them is cooking. Life during this pandemic has greatly helped me improve myself on many aspects. Life is unpredictable at times, so sometimes you just have to make the best out of it.
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2021-04-23
It has been a tough year for everyone, the impact of COVID 19 changed our lives forever. As people across the world practice social distancing to help slow the spread of COVID-19, many things have changed. In one way or another, we have all been touched by this pandemic, whether that means working from home or transitioning to online classes. Personally, I felt like the pandemic was going to be my downfall when it came to school. I have always struggled to stay focused and concentrate on different tasks. Having to transition from in person classes to complete remote learning scared me. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to continue with my education. As weeks went by, having to be isolated from the world and it just being me and my computer was very difficult. I suffered from depression and anxiety but I didn't want to give up. Education has always been important to me but it was really affecting my health. With pandemic getting worse and having more restrictions it felt like I was trapped. Usually when I feel that way the only thing that would give me peace was going to church. That wasn't an option anymore. Due to everything being closed I couldn't even go to the one place where I would feel safe and at peace. This pandemic taught me to be strong, and even in the hardest moment have faith. Have faith that everything gets better, and that we are capable of more than we think. Even though I had some tough times in school now I'm doing a lot better and I'm proud of myself for overcoming those obstacles. I'm now more appreciative of things that I took for granted before the pandemic. Even the little things, like being able to go to church. Overall, the pandemic taught me many things about myself. I am stronger and happier than I was before.
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2020-03-13
When covid-19 first arrived, I was a senior in high school getting ready to graduate. At the moment, I'm writing this; I am currently in college, finishing my freshman year. When I first heard about covid 19, i did not think it was going to affect me because, at the time, the government was telling us that it wasn't a big deal. But that later turned out to not be true when everything shut down on March 13th. Even after the virus proved to be much deadlier than previously thought the most of the government still pushed that covid 19 was not a risk or that it would just simply go away. At the time, I can remember being confused because people were clearly dying. Yet, the government was urging people to act like everything was normal.
After that day, the world changed forever. Nothing was the same, not even school. After March 13th, my high school went entirely virtual, with the plan being to come back after two weeks. Still, eventually, those plans like prom or even a regular graduation were canceled. I remember this time of my life being kind of hard because everything was shut down, and the world seemed to fall into chaos. Around may is when I would say things reached the height of the chaos of 2020. In May of 2020, George Floyd died when it seemed like the world went up in smoke. There were protests and riots, a lot of which I think stemmed from both the death of George Floyd and tension resulting from decades of racial tensions. As a black person myself, at this time, I felt anger but seeing as though there was still a virus and violence on the streets, I did not go to any of the protests.
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2021-04-23
I remember when covid-19 was a far away danger, some natural calamity removed from my normal routine: waking up, doing yoga, meditating, working, and so on. Every day just like the others. China was in lock-down and we mindlessly scrolled past news stories from there of inventive ways people were relieving their boredom. But just like other tragedies that were affecting the unfortunate of other lands, the stories faded into the background of repetition.
I remember when the first case was found in Washington, the surreal fear that hung like a thick cloud over my city, first forming as a gentle mist then accumulating into heavy dread. Once that first case was identified, things multiplied very quickly. Within a week, we were in lockdown with cases rising in an incredibly frightening exponential manner.
I remember the last time I was in the room with someone without a mask on... that was.. 13 months or so ago. I was going into an interview for a funeral service assistant's position. It was raining. I was asked to accompany her to an home funeral the next morning, assist her in transporting the body of a family's child who had recently died. This frightened me, I didn't know if I could do it. And even then, the threat of a global pandemic seemed far off, even the lady blew it off, saying that the solution lie in an healthy immune system. "Healthy people don't need to worry about it." I drove home in the rain and picked up tacos for lunch. Everything was normal.
But by the morning we were in a national lockdown as a result of the discovery of how widespread the virus was and just how deadly it could be. I never went to that child's funeral and I haven't talked to that lady since.
Every day in those few long weeks in March of 2020 built on the growing panic and grief that was building in the depths of my heart, radiating out into my limbs, making it hard to think, or write, or sing. Every moment was spent obsessing over the potentialities of each moment. "What was going to happen? What were we going to do? How many people were going to die? How many of my friends and family members were going to do? " Going on and on and on. My mind revolved around the fear as a maypole where my body and emotions danced wildly around. Even in the bath, while taking long morning walks, while eating meals, everything centered around the pandemic. Doom-scrolling terrifying news articles telling of the devastation that would likely occur in the next months, criticizing the narcissistic, science-fearing president, who only increased the velocity of widespread horror, watching the rising death count with enrapt panicked attention. All of these things contributed to the slowing of time, which passed by moment by moment in a long exhale of a nation struggling to catch its breath after being engulfed by a wave that came on too fast and hard. Going into the grocery stores to find that most food and toilet paper were gone... that the supply chain might be limited, the reality of my city home's lack of food security becoming too real. I never thought I'd face this kind of global disaster in my lifetime. It was hard to accept. Even now, it is hard to fully accept. Approximately 3,000,000 people have died from this disease to this day, and many more will. Even though vaccinations are underway, the death rate now is at 42,847 on this day (April 4, 2021) as compared to the meager 5,989 on April 15th of last year. Then, we were horrified at that number. But now, we have grown so accustomed to daily deaths that were a numb from feeling any grief. It is hard to say what kind of effect this will have in the future years. All I know is, those first weeks have been burned into memory. I have been changed, for better or worse, by the year 2020.
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2021-04-15
The Klamath Tribes stopped administering the J&J vaccine on April 9, 2021 after concerns of major side effects, a few days before the FDA and CDC paused administering of the vaccine.
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2020-03-18
From the start of Covid-19 schools begin to get cancelled and change their way of teaching the students. Children, teens, adults, and seniors had to change everything involving their lifestyle. What we knew as a normal life could no longer be the same. Everyone had to be cautious of their surroundings and use protection gear. Before everything changed our lives my family and I would always get together every sunday. After the CDC recommended that there should be an approximate of 8 people per house in gatherings we decided to not get together as often since a family member worked in a senior home and we had learned that at that time seniors were more likely to get the virus. As the number of cases grew in Arizona and the border closed we didn't get time to see some family. It has been over a year since I haven't seen my grandparents. We call each other to see how we are doing. In my household it is only my mom and I along with my 3 dogs. What we took out of this was better bonding time, school ended early and jobs started to lay off employees because there weren't enough jobs. I had time to train my dogs and learn more commands, which was fun. I learned to do new things. My mom is a cosmetologist so she taught me how to cut hair, and how to apply gel polish. As things started to calm down families around my neighborhood would come out their front yard together and play with their kids and pets more. Families would eat outside and have a good time. But now everything is going back to normal. Sporting events are getting open to the public, and schools are going back to in person. I had learned that many families around my neighborhood shared the same experience.
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2021-04-21
"The Coquille Indian Tribe has suspended use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine. This action is taken in response to a federal recommendation involving six reported U.S. cases of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot."
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2020-03-31
"Avenue S" a new addition to "Ghost City," 1998-2020. It is a ongoing creation of new web pages begin in March 2020 containing fragmented images and texts that are a poetic meditation on isolation. Because it felt like a ghost town everywhere at the beginning of the pandemic: the streets were empty; the beaches and parks were closed people stayed at home or walked alone wearing masks, I wanted to provide an alternative experience. Avenue S, in retrospect has become a visual journal of the year of Covid-19.
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2021-04-13
"Native American tribes in north-central Montana are responding to today's CDC and FDA recommendations that the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine temporarily stop being used. The reason for the "pause" is because it has been linked to blood clots in at least six people out of the more than 6.8 million who have received that version of the vaccine."
Tribes including Little Shell Tribe, Rocky Boy Reservation, and The Blackfeet Tribe are coordinating with providers and pausing use of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
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2021-04-13
IHS, Shoshone-Bannock Community Health Center (HRSA), and Tribal Health and Human Services (THHS) will halt the Johnson and Johnson vaccination until we have official confirmation of the vaccine safety and guidance.
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2020-06-01
During quarantine, I spent quite some time walking trails and exploring the great outdoors. The first trail I started out on was located on the Red Mountain campus of Mesa Community College. It was here that I noticed the large amount of trash scattered along the dirt trails. While on these quiet walks, I would have a lot of time to look inwards to heal myself, and yet look outwards at the trash building up. I then decided that I wanted to try and clean up as much trash as I could during my quarantine walks. I thus spent large amounts of my quarantine time cleaning up the desert alongside my loving fiance. We even turned cleaning up trash into a game; the person who collected the least amount would have to cook dinner when we got home. We had wonders spending time outside cleaning up miscellaneous trash scattered everywhere. This made me realize that we depend heavily on the earth, however, we sometimes forget to take care of our planet. My REL101 class helped me see that we can use our resources to help out, no matter how small the contribution. So please, spread the love and have fun while cleaning up our earth!
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2021-04-23
This story tells my experience of having Covid-19 along with being the mother of a brown child during the pandemic and BLM movement. I also share how this year drew the line in the sand for our family's faith and how my partner and I finally found the courage to come out.
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2020-06-08
Although the meme is meant to be comedic, I feel that it reflects the reality of the stressors many people faced during the pandemic. To begin, the anxiety that the coronavirus disease brought into the public severely affected the mental health of many individuals across the globe. During the mandated lockdowns, I , like many others around me, began experiencing a decline in my happy hormones. At the time the pandemic restrictions were being put into place, I was living on campus with three other roommates. With the fear of spreading the disease unintentionally, the three moved out of the dorm right away and I was left to be on my own due to personal housing issues taking place at the time. The lack of interaction with anyone took a toll on my mental health. I missed my friends and my mom, I just wanted to be around someone, but we could only have visitors if they were helping us move out.
On top of personal mental health struggles, events taking place across the country were also scarring. Protests in response to racial injustice under an administration that made it hard to feel safe unless you were a white male in America only added to the helpless state of being. Watching cases upon cases of unjustifiable abuse made the environment only more threatening than it initially seemed when the pandemic was first reported. The election of November 2020 was suspenseful in terms of who would be elected could potentially determine vital living situations for people all across the United States, whether it be immigrant status, being a person of color, or not being able to afford paying for housing in general.
Financial troubles took over the country and the stimulus checks were not enough to cover housing, food, home essentials, especially when some dependents and entire families were not able to receive help because of their citizenship or dependent status. Many tried to turn towards their faith, the keyword being “tried.” Although not all religions focus on gatherings or physical objects, many people were unable to get access to these common preferred forms of practice and felt that virtual gatherings seemed ingenuine or illegitimate.
Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic had many more severe effects on a global scale in all aspects of life. From concerns of the health of others, oneself, finances, practice of faith, and fear of safety in your own home, the negative effects are consistent as it seems that everything continues to pose a threat to daily living. I hope that everything eventually falls back into place and that justice is put in place so that people do not have to fear their own existence.
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2021-04-23
Religious Expression vs. Freedom
My faith had been deconstructed long before COVID-19 hit United States soil and the first (of many) lockdowns began. Where as many decided to lean heavily on their beliefs during a time of fear, confusion, and loneliness, I had ample time to reflect upon my own moral code, belief system, and lofty open-ended ideas regarding human origins, the afterlife, and my mortality. And while I am certain many of these concepts will never be answered, the pandemic has certainly shed a light onto the beliefs, values, and behavior of the religious USA.
Certainly not all, but a large portion of Evangelical Americans and the non-religious have collided on freedom as a concept as well as how to exercise it. The arguments were especially heated in terms of gathering, which was banned in most areas for months in order to protect general wellbeing. As someone who found comfort and solace in my Sunday morning worship sessions, I understand the importance of such community gatherings. When faced with an unknown time without the habit and release of worship, there is bound to be friction.
While friction was certainly there, most Americans followed CDC regulations and recommendations at the start. However it took very little time for discourse, blatant disregard, and conspiracy to settle into communities across not only the USA, but the world. Was the government really able to tell people how to exercise their freedom of religion, even if it meant health was at risk? It seems many Americans value their freedom over health choices. While I found it difficult to wrap my mind around, as I have followed CDC guidelines from the start and since received the Pfizer vaccine, I also understand the individualistic spirit of America as a whole. Patriotism seems to be synonymous with the religious right of America- and our country’s political polarization is nothing new under the sun.
Most churches I am aware of meet weekly or more, masks are scoffed at, and doctors are seen as agents of the state keen on stripping freedoms away from every man, woman, and child. Freedom is clearly more important than both individual health and the health of others around them. I have heard that god will protect those who he chooses to (not the millions who have died, just those he sees fit to protect), that COVID is simply a conspiracy, and that I am a sheep for listening to recommendations of specialists. As COVID regulations and vaccine rollouts continue, there are more questions that will occur. For example, what is the legality of vaccine regulations to enter places of business? There are already areas in which vaccines are nearly mandated (save for certain religious stated opt-outs) such as schools and universities. I feel only more questions regarding freedom and government-orientated safety will continue to occur as this discussion regarding covid gathering has just scratched the surface.
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2020-08-09
This picture was taken in my hometown of Elko, Nevada. My girlfriend and I decided to take some days off and go visit as her parents live in this small mining town. This small town had some pretty lenient restrictions, or they were being poorly enforced. One specific place or I guess monument when looking at the context of the town, the catholic church, was keen on maintaining social distancing protocols and doing what they could to protect those who decided to attend mass. I myself am not much of a religious individual and to be fair my girlfriend isn’t either, but her parents are. Due to this we decided to attend a bright and early 8 am mass. This is a selfie that she took as we are walking into the sermon, masks on of course as we were both wanting to follow the recommendations for our safety as well as the safety of others. This picture only shows half of the changes that were made to the normal sermons, every other pew was closed off and they made sure that people kept the masks on and made sure that each family was at the appropriate distance. This picture means a lot to me because it is the last time, I saw her family and it is mostly due to COVID reasons. Travel is harder and more expensive it seems, and this makes it all the more difficult to plan a trip. The past year has been difficult on every individual and everyone has gone through their own battles and experiences with COVID. This is a memory that brings a little bit of light to an otherwise very dark situation. Personally, speaking this may be one of my favorite memories of the past year and although I am not a religious person I would relive this moment again because of how much it meant to me.
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2021-04-23
My story is very similar to all my fellow military members.
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2020-03-15
My personal experience with COVID-19, My active involvement in my religious community and my public life reflection during times of a pandemic and political/ social unrest.
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2021-04-22
This story is a personal one. i hope it encourages others to love their loved ones and hold them close.
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2021-04-22
In March 2020, I learned about a graduate fellowship for a project called The Journal of the Plague Year. I was intrigued because of my undergraduate work with collecting oral histories of Vietnamese refugees. I really missed doing research in my life as a classroom teacher. This Fellowship seemed to be a way of fulfilling that undefinable project I’d been looking for. When I received an invitation after applying to join the project, it was like a public history baptism by fire. I knew nothing about public history, and I learned a great deal during those five months. However, with so much uncertainty with how my school district was going to respond to COVID, and the eleventh hour decision that we would not be starting the school year in person and all the changes that went along with that, I made the difficult decision to step away from JOTPY when the summer ended.
During the fall, I greatly missed the collaborative community, the curating, the debates about metadata, and the entire building of this rapid response, digital archive. This led me to join the Spring 2021 internship. I am so incredibly thankful to have been part of this internship because I learned so much additional information about public history. One of the aspects that I didn’t learn over the summer was the humanities portion of public history. The archive was so new that we really specialized in different areas, mine was building the teaching site. We did have weekly meetings that I greatly enjoyed, but they were more logistical as we tried to figure out how to best build the archive. Many of our meetings dealt with curation and the best process for that. I absolutely loved my summer team, but it was difficult for me to articulate exactly what I did when the summer was over. Going through the internship step by step, I feel far more equipped now to explain exactly what JOTPY is and the process behind it. I also was able to experience many different aspects of the archive, including curating and collecting oral histories, building a collection, writing a call for submissions, and writing public history. The two parts of this internship, aside from curation which I genuinely love doing, that I feel were most beneficial were oral histories and writing the blog post. These are both areas I would like to continue to pursue in some way, even if it not related to this particular project.
I did not begin the MA program with any inkling of being part of an internship team or being part of any sort of public history project. However, JOTPY has been the single best part of my graduate program. My work with JOTPY has been a perfect marriage of my two passions, teaching and history. I love being part of a project that is accessible to the students I teach. Not only does it demonstrate to them that history transcends the walls of the classroom, it was a space they were able to be part of by sharing their own stories. I also was able to fulfill a personal desire to be part of project outside my teaching world. I love history. I am incredibly passionate about it, and I am grateful every day of my life that I get to spend my days sharing that passion with teenagers. Yet, I have been wistful for some sort of research to be part of. I love writing, and as a teacher, my writing isn’t really seen beyond the realm of the classroom. I didn’t know public history is where I could fulfill this sort of void. Overall, I am incredibly grateful to have had this experience.
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2020-06-15
During this first year of Covid-19 has taken place, I can sum it up in a single word "wearisome". When this pandemic started in the year 2020, the southern part of Texas seemed to be unyielding in the hustle and bustle of everyday life down here. The attitude and lack of being a courteous person continued until about the middle of July. This was the starting point of the pandemic begging to affect people enough to begin to take notice of this "uncertain time" as if a miracle the everyday average Joe wasn't hassling me for being wearing a mask. This tale of endless misery starts at the beginning of Covid-19 and stretches until the middle of June 2020. Some background information about the antagonist of this tale is a religious youth group of about twenty would come to every Thursday and order an obnoxious amount of items all very rudely. This instance in particular struck a chord with me. This one religious group of younger children (probably about eleven to fourteen) and an older gentleman named Moshi. This group I loathed, just for the sole reason that these children would run about with no mask and caring not for social distancing, and this gentleman was pushing these children to not follow CDC protocol. Well about after a good eight months these children and a new gentleman came in all wearing masks and seemingly decent and well-mannered. This new individual had replaced Moshi and lectured this devil-children about the importance of wearing a mask and being just at least a decent human. This religious youth group had come in and sat on our patio every Thursday and seemingly never once did these children follow protocol until Joel the new instructor stressed the importance of being not a walking health hazard. I and all of my co-workers appreciate that man greatly.
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2020-11-11
On November 11, 2020, my middle child and I went for an art walk in midtown Sacramento to celebrate her birthday. Amongst the murals, many of which were put up during Wide Open Walls events of the past few years, we came across a new collection on the WEAVE building. The mural collection commemorates 100 years of the 19th amendment. WEAVE (Women Escaping a Violent Environment) is "the primary provider of crisis intervention services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Sacramento County."
The artist of these murals is Maren Conrad, a Sacramento artist. She put these up during the pandemic, in October 2020.
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2021-04-22
Numerous times in the past couple of months, we’ve been wondering if CA colleges would require the vaccine. Today it’s official - the answer is yes. To be transparent, this Californian who has friends and family employed by the UC system is extremely happy. I realize there is vaccine hesitation but I am relieved for the safety of students and staff that the universities are taking this step. And it’s not just the UC system, the Cal State system and Stanford are also instituting the same requirement (actually Stanford announced first). The UC system is often a trend setter - if it does something, other universities follow. I’m hoping this will begin a trend, not only in higher education but at the K-12 level. I know, super controversial, but schools already require other immunizations, why not this one? Public health, people!
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2021-04-22
I am submitting this for my Rel 101: Religion, Culture, and Public Life course.
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2021-04-22
The pandemic has showed me the importance of religion in many people's lives including my family's.
