A leisurely day – The migrants at the Mexican border – A killer’s apologist – Another bit of Trumpery – Yo-Yo Ma performs – Evening statistics
I was involved in several errands yesterday, as well as CERT training that ended at about 10:00 PM, so I had little time to follow the news. Today was somewhat more leisurely, with no pressing errands and with extremely wet weather that discouraged outside activity. Nonetheless I went out for a time: walking in the rain when there is little wind and when one is equipped with an effective rain jacket, is not unpleasant. The air was fresh and cool, but not chilly, and at times it seemed as if leaves and flowers were unfurling before my eyes. The cherry trees are beginning to blossom and I have no doubt that in DC itself (which tends to be slightly warmer than its suburbs) they are already flowering.
The most pressing news of today is the number of illegal migrants coming over the border with Mexico. Many of these are minors unaccompanied by parents or older relatives. Biden has been slow in reacting to this matter and he has even imposed an unofficial gag order upon the Border Patrol as to the amount of information it can disclose to the media. This response is unfortunate, for it is giving the Republicans fuel for their campaign to discredit him and to promote the Trump faction. Already Biden’s approval rating has gone down as a result of his irresolution in dealing with the issue. Several news outlets refer to those opposed to admitting the migrants as the “anti-immigration” party, but the label is an over-simplification. One doesn’t have to be an opponent of immigration or a white supremacist to be concerned that a large number of people are entering the country without documentation of any kind. And the dilatoriness of the administration in confronting this influx seems all but suicidal in light of the fact that we are in the midst of recovering from a pandemic. The good effects of the aggressive policy of vaccination could be completely undone if thousands of people, almost certainly unvaccinated and all of them fleeing from a country whose medical care system is saturated with COVID cases (there are stories in Mexico of oxygen canisters being stolen from deliveries to hospitals, sometimes at gunpoint), enter the country without any sort of tracking.
From a passage in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice concerning the attempt of Mrs. Philips, the sister of Mrs. Bennet, to assist the Bennet family when the youngest daughter elopes with the villainous Mr. Wickham: she “visited them frequently, and always, as she said, with the idea of cheering and heartening them up, though as she never came without reporting some fresh instance of Wickham’s extravagance or irregularity, she seldom went away without leaving them more dispirited than she found them.”
The Atlanta police have recently been offering consolation in the style of Mrs. Philips. Earlier this week Robert Long went on a shooting spree at three separate spas in the Atlanta area and killed eight people, the majority of whom were Asian women. At a press conference Captain Jay Baker solemnly announced that the killings were motivated by the suspect’s sexual addiction rather than racial bias – as if that made any difference to the people who were killed or to their relatives – and rounded off this judicious assessment by saying that Long was having “a bad day.” It isn’t exactly the same thing, I suppose, but it does appear to me that the eight people whom he slaughtered had undergone a little reverse in fortunes as well.
Donald Trump has proclaimed that the justices of the Supreme Court should be “ashamed” of not having ratified his claims that the presidential election was stolen from him. However, It seems that his influence has been waning since the day he stepped out of the Oval Office. It could be, of course, that behind closed doors the Supreme Court justices are bewailing their error in sackcloth and ashes; but, externally at least, they appear to have suffered this rebuke with unruffled composure. For that matter, in more than 60 post-election lawsuits, a total of 86 judges—including 38 Republican appointees and eight chosen by Trump himself—rejected all of the election challenges. Not a single Trump appointee on any court voted to support his fraud claims, not even the three whom Trump appointed to the Supreme Court.
Another regional area is undergoing a lockdown as a result of the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine and a growing number of cases. Paris is now in the grip of a third wave of infections, with an incidence rate of 400 in every 100,000 inhabitants (well over 85000 total in the greater metro area and 43000 in the city alone). President Macron has imposed a month-long lockdown in the area and in some arrondissements to the north of the city. Barbers, clothing stores, and furniture shops are directed to close, although bookstores and others selling essential goods can stay open. Schools will stay open and people will be allowed to exercise outdoors within a 10 km (6.2 miles) radius of their homes. Travel out of the worst-hit areas will not be permitted without a compelling reason. At this point France will not undergo a nation-wide lockdown, although that measure has not been ruled out for the future. But the current lockdown is far-ranging in its own right: the greater metro area of Paris accounts for a fifth of the nation’s population and 30% of its economic activity.
In the midst of all of these stories of distress or chicanery, there is a more pleasant scene to dwell upon. Those who received their vaccines today at the Berkshire Community College field house in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, were treated to an impromptu concert in the room where the post-vaccination waiting period was held. The famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma brought his instrument with him and as he waited he played Schubert’s “Ave Maria” to his delighted listeners. I met him many years ago, when my mother and her friend Eva Hornyak were running the University Community Concert series. He was a promising young newcomer at the time (Eva Hornyak was the sister of Isaac Stern, the celebrated violinist, so she had extensive contacts in the musical community, and in addition was very shrewd in spotting upcoming young talent), but even during his earliest years his supreme musical gifts were apparent to the dullest comprehension. And his personality, then as now, was modest and unassuming; it was a great pleasure to meet with him on a purely social level, independently of his music.
Yesterday’s statistics as of 10:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 121,805,497; # of deaths worldwide: 2,691,832; # of cases U.S.: 30,294,798; # of deaths; U.S.: 550,649.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 122,351,719; # of deaths worldwide: 2,702,255; # of cases U.S.: 30,357,206; # of deaths; U.S.: 552,303. As a result of the third wave of the virus in the European Union nations and our own decelerating incidence rate, the U.S. has gone down on the list of nations with the highest death rates; it is now twelfth on the list instead of the tenth, as it was formerly.