The Workhouse and Occoquan Regional Park – American women suffrage – Brooks turns on Trump – The evanescent quality of Biden’s courage – Why some people have escaped COVID – A long-deferred diploma – Evening statistics
RS led a hike from the Workhouse, a former prison that was shut down in 2001 and then converted, somewhat improbably, to a collection of art studios. The facility was notable in its time, for several reasons. When it was first created during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, it was unusual in that it concentrated on rehabilitation. The prison contained some acreage that the prisoners worked to raise food for themselves and several worked at other handicrafts in addition, which in some cases served them well once they were released. On the other hand, it was the prison selected for punishing the suffragettes who protested at the White House during Woodrow Wilson’s administration – and when I say “punishment,” I am not exaggerating. The prisoners were force-fed, beaten, and abused in the most shameless fashion, even though their offense was ostensibly the minor one of blocking city traffic. One of the prisoners had her head bashed against a wall, causing her to become unconscious as a result of the concussion, and a second prisoner had a heart attack upon witnessing this assault, in the belief that her companion had actually been killed.
There is a monument to the events that led to women suffrage in the neighboring Occoquan Regional Park, where one loop of the hike took us. It was completed quite recently. I was last there less than a year ago, and the monument was still under construction. It contains a series of handsome panels outlining the course of events that led to women suffrage in this country – nineteen in all, to coincide with the 19th Amendment that gave American women the right to vote.
Indeed the park and its environs are still being developed; the second part of the hike went along an area that when RS and I for the most part bushwhacked when we were last there and which now has well-defined trails. RS, in fact, plotted out the route of several of these, and he is good enough to say that my accompanying him on his exploratory excursions in this region has been of some use.
Mo Brooks has testified against Donald Trump, stating that Trump had urged him to overturn the 2020 election, including the months after President Biden took office. This development is to some extent gratifying, marking the first time that a Trump ally has accused the latter of urging illegal actions in order to restore his presidency. On the other hand, Brooks has maintained a discreet silence about his own conduct on January 6th, 2021, when he exhorted the rabble – no, no (begging their pardon), the tourists – to undermine the certification of Biden’s win by any means possible. Still, his admission may not be without its use. John Eastman, Trump’s legal adviser, has challenged his subpoena from the investigating committee, on the grounds that he was providing legal advice based on his own interpretation of the Constitution in urging Mike Pence to halt the certification. If Trump is ever forced to mount a legal defense on his own behalf, he is likely to plead along similar lines. But Brooks’ allegations undermine such claims, since it shows that Trump had continued his campaign after leaving office and long after he could lay any claim to holding on to the White House.
I have, regrettably, given Biden credit for more spine than he actually possesses. After he said, with (as I thought) refreshing honesty, that Putin “no longer should remain in power,” he is now backpedaling. When a reporter asked whether he was advocating a regime change, he simply said “No,” and various officials are anxiously assuring the public that he never even hinted at anything so shocking and improper. “The U.S. does not have a policy of regime change in Russia,” said Julianne Smith, the U.S. ambassador to NATO. “Full stop.” And it appears that it indeed is a full stop to any determined opposition on the part of the U.S. against this vicious and bloodthirsty tyrant intent on shattering the peace of the entire European continent.
Ma Sang-hyuk, a physician in South Korea, has provided an explanation of why some people have not yet caught COVID: they have no friends. “The adults who have not yet been infected with COVID-19 are those who have interpersonal problems,” he wrote on Facebook for his March 16th entry – and then hastily deleted it after the amount of backlash it created. South Korea is only slightly below the U.S. in infection rate – 23.0% as opposed to 24.4% — but that still means that over three-quarters of its population has managed to escape COVID to date. It strains the imagination a bit to assume that all of them are living in complete isolation. There are slightly more plausible theories as to why some have escaped the disease after it has been raging for more than two years:
- The vaccines, use of facemasks, and social distancing have been effective preventatives, even if they are not perfect;
- A significant number of the immunocompromised have indeed cut back on social interaction as a protective measure, thereby reducing the risks of spreading the infection among their associates;
- Some people may have contracted the disease without symptoms and thus have not realized that they have been infected (one study suggests that as many as 43% of Americans have actually been infected, even though the official figure is barely over half that amount);
- Household transmission, though it occurs frequently, is not inevitable, so that even if a member of a household comes down with the disease it does not mean that everyone else in the household will automatically become infected;
- Some people are just lucky, I guess. I like to think that I’m one of them.
I have phrased that last one rather facetiously, but in fact Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus, chief of infectious diseases at UConn Health in Connecticut, has said pretty much the same thing: “There’s a lot of randomness to COVID. There are people who seem to have minimal exposure who come down with it, and there are people who have heavy exposure who seem to do OK.”
Sometimes a sad story has a happy ending. Merrill Pittman Cooper had attended Storer College from 1934 to 1938, at which point he was forced to drop out after his family moved away from Harpers Ferry to Philadelphia for financial reasons. Storer College was founded just after the Civil War to provide black students with an opportunity for education and indeed was the only such resource for them in the entire state of West Virginia for many years – decades, in fact. Eventually, as restrictions against black students moderated, the institution shut down in 1955. One can hardly imagine a more beautiful setting for a school. It is perched high on the hill overlooking the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, as well as the lower part of Harpers Ferry itself. I have been on its grounds many times, by means of a spur trail from the town that skirts through the former campus to the Appalachian Trail. To return, however, to Cooper’s story: He went on to complete a long and successful career in the transportation industry, eventually becoming union vice president. Nonetheless, during a family visit to Harpers Ferry in 2018, he uttered some remarks to his relatives about the regret he felt in never having been able to obtain his high school diploma. Whereupon his family reached out to park service members (Storer College is now part of Harpers Ferry National Park), and they in turn worked with local, regional, and state official partners to honor Cooper with a ceremony and diploma on March 19th. So just a few days ago, at the age of 101, he has acquired his diploma at long last. A photo shows him proudly holding up his diploma for all the world to see, his features radiant with a joyousness that is impossible to forget or describe.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 481,859,155; # of deaths worldwide: 6,147,878; # of cases U.S.: 81,621,888; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,003,467.