Remembering 9/11 in the midst of a pandemic

Each year around this time I write some poems about remembering 9/11 and the year that’s past. In this poem I put 9/11 and the pandemic side by side:
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Déjà Vu
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8/18/20
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Ghosts of yesteryear
Walk hand in hand with fear
Across the silent plaza
Where once the Towers fell.
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The terror of that day
Rears its head in another way.
We flattened the pile
Now we must flatten the curve.
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Essential workers today
Hold the line against the virus’ sway.
Like the First responders of 9/11
They think of others not themselves.
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Empty Ground Zero
Shuttered even to heroes.
It’s worse than that horrible day
When rubble was all that remained there.
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Never the same
World changed and rearranged.
Let us never forget
The sacrifices made both times.

Where do words come from – Vaccine

Daily we hear the word vaccine. If we could develop one against the corona virus we’d be home free to returning to normal. There are as many opinions about this as there are people on this planet. Will it be safe considering how fast things are moving to develop it? Will it provide protection for more than a few months? No one right now has any answers but what we do know is that vaccines and the concept of vaccination has been around for a long time.
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The word vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae (smallpox of the cow), the term devised by Edward Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the long title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae Known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox. In 1881, to honor Jenner, Louis Pasteur proposed that the terms should be extended to cover the new protective inoculations then being developed.
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A brief history (thanks to Wikipedia)
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(It is ironic that given our current corona virus comes from China, they led the way centuries ago with an early method to inoculate people from the smallpox virus.)
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Prior to the introduction of vaccination with material from cases of cowpox (heterotypic immunization), smallpox could be prevented by deliberate inoculation of smallpox virus, later referred to as variolation to distinguish it from smallpox vaccination. The earliest hints of the practice of inoculation for smallpox come during the 10th century in China. The Chinese also practiced the oldest documented use of variolation, dating back to the fifteenth century. They implemented a method of “nasal insufflation” administered by blowing powdered smallpox material, usually scabs, up the nostrils. Various insufflation techniques have been recorded throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries within China. Two reports on the Chinese practice of inoculation were received by the Royal Society in London in 1700; one by Dr. Martin Lister who received a report by an employee of the East India Company stationed in China and another by Clopton Havers.
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Sometime during the late 1760s while serving his apprenticeship as a surgeon/apothecary Edward Jenner learned of the story, common in rural areas, that dairy workers would never have the often-fatal or disfiguring disease smallpox, because they had already contracted cowpox, which has a very mild effect in humans. In 1796, Jenner took pus from the hand of a milkmaid with cowpox, scratched it into the arm of an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps, and six weeks later inoculated (variolated) the boy with smallpox, afterwards observing that he did not catch smallpox. Jenner extended his studies and in 1798 reported that his vaccine was safe in children and adults and could be transferred from arm-to-arm reducing reliance on uncertain supplies from infected cows. Since vaccination with cowpox was much safer than smallpox inoculation, the latter, though still widely practiced in England, was banned in 1840.
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The second generation of vaccines was introduced in the 1880s by Louis Pasteur who developed vaccines for chicken cholera and anthrax, and from the late nineteenth century vaccines were considered a matter of national prestige, and compulsory vaccination laws were passed.
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The twentieth century saw the introduction of several successful vaccines, including those against diphtheria, measles, mumps, and rubella. Major achievements included the development of the polio vaccine in the 1950s and the eradication of smallpox during the 1960s and 1970s. However, vaccines remain elusive for many important diseases, including herpes simplex, malaria, gonorrhea, and HIV.
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Today we are searching at “warp speed” for a vaccine for the corona virus. Will one be developed or will we have to live with this virus like we do with HIV? Only time will tell.

 

Words Matter – “the Constitution”

The words that matter most to us are contained in our Constitution. They guide our rule of law and our ethics as a nation. It’s not a perfect document but it has helped steer a course through many a troubled time. This quote from President Trump’s former defense secretary, General James Mattis, says it all about how the words of those in office have created murky waters hoping to wash away our Constitutional rights:
“We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”

Quote of the Week

“Those who wonder if the glass is half full or half empty miss the point. The glass is REFILLABLE!” – Anonymous

Words Matter

It was 1967 and I was 16. We saw our brothers and fathers shipped off to a useless war half way across the globe. We cut classes and protested, peacefully, chanting “Hell no we won’t go.” Does anyone remember that? On the racial front we had Martin Luther King’s words “I have a dream.” Did you think it was just a slogan? Look how many peacefully rallied around him some even willing to die. The decades have passed, slogans have been created and buried, but the great ones, the ones that moved and motivated live on. “Black Lives Matter” now being cried out on our streets in the midst of a pandemic has rallied peoples of all colors and ages to gather together and change the way our nation does business. And I sincerely hope <>Lewis’s “Good trouble” will also be shouted from the rooftops and down the alleys and side streets of our hurt cities.
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Behind these great motivating slogans, uttered by great Americans, there lies a dark underbelly of words. Words spoken by individuals who wish to continue to divide us, take away our Constitutional rights, toss the rule of law out the window. Individuals who wish to convince us that science is wrong, that the pandemic is a hoax, all in order to allow the person running this great country more time to destroy it.
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100 years ago a pandemic raged this country and the globe, just as it does today. But the politics were very different, the scientists weren’t demeaned and discredited, and falsities were not able to spread through social media as truth because there was no social media. Today, more than ever, words matter. One wrong word, one misconstrued press briefing, can spread like a virus via social media. We’ve seen how this can affect the nation thanks how one individual uses his Twitter account. But the sad fact of today is that there is no one can monitor the truth in all these postings, fact checking like in the old days of printed newspapers is impossible. Who are we to believe?
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Words of falsehood and the virus of the pandemic are at an intersection. Both spread unchecked. The vaccine for the virus is still a dream but will eventually become a reality. Sadly there never can be a vaccine created to protect us against words of falsehood. Words matter… I will be writing more about that in future posts.