Someone Died While Doing His Job

This is what things have come to.

Forty-three year old Calvin Munerlyn, working as a security guard in a Family Dollar store in Michigan, is dead because he got into an argument with a customer.

He told her she had to leave the store because she was not wearing a face mask, in defiance of a state issued order.

The customer was the daughter of Sharmel  Lash Teague, age forty-five. Teague became involved in a verbal altercation with Munerlyn, who ordered her to leave the store.

She left the store in a sport utility vehicle but returned twenty minutes later. Her son, Ramonyea Travon Bishop, age twenty-three, and her husband Larry Edward Teague, age forty-four, entered the store. Teague then began yelling about his wife having been disrespected.

It was at that point that Bishop allegedly shot and killed Munerlyn.

All three have been charged with first-degree premeditated murder.

In accordance with our legal system, all three are presumed innocent until proven guilty. That is as it should be.

But the fact remains, either way, that Calvin Munerlyn is dead.

Yet another senseless Covid-19 related tragedy in a nation filled with them.

Updated Numbers

As of today, these are the most current figures from the Covid-19 pandemic:

Deaths in the U.S.A. - 62,000

Confirmed cases in the U.S.A. - 1 million

Number of unemployment claims filed in the last six weeks - 30 million

Number of unemployment claims filed last week - 3.8 million

Those number speak for themselves, I think. So I'll leave it at that.

Of Pandemic and Procedures

Would someone please wake me up from this horrific nightmare?

Even as confirmed deaths from Covid-19 in the U.S.A. now sit at 52,000 and twenty-six million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits (with perhaps ten to twelve million more who qualify but haven't been even able to start the process of filing), the federal government continues to fail us.

The President has openly talked of imposing restrictions on aid to states and cities based on their policies, including cities that are sanctuary cities. The Attorney General is actively pursuing
the taking of legal action against states that refuse to end lock down orders. A ten billion dollar
loan to the Postal Service that was authorized by Congress almost a month ago has yet to be released by the Treasury Department. 

Need I go on? Shall I go on?

Congress continues to do nothing more for we, the people. The scheduled return of our Senators and Representatives, which was set for next week, has now been delayed indefinitely.

We continue to deal with an unprecedented crisis on a state-by-state basis.

Some states have lifted their lock down orders. Five states never put such an order into place to begin with. Others have continued to extend them, as New York has done several times now.

The Vice-President visited the Mayo Clinic earlier this week, and to just about no one's surprise, didn't wear a mask.

What's so sad about all this is that lock down orders have worked. Using masks has worked.
Social distancing has worked. Yet, our so-called leaders not only discourage what works,
they have insisted, and continue to insist on actively shutting it all down.

We, the people, have already sacrificed far more than we ever should have had to.

When will those we elected to govern us rise up and meet the challenge they face?

Kicking It Old School

So, here I sit in my room, listening to a locally owned and operated radio station. One whose on air staff includes two announcers I've been listening to for over forty years. And I'm listening on
a 1970s era transistor radio with a pair of very good sounding vintage headphones.

Life is good.

Where Is Spring?

This will be a very short post. I have some errands to run and want to get them done before the snow fall gets to be too heavy.

Yes, you read that correctly. We are almost five weeks into spring and for the second time in the last six days, the Binghamton, New York area is experiencing snow fall. Last Friday, it was just light flurries but right now, it's coming down fairly hard.

I'm going to sigh, now.

Because on top of everything else we have to deal with right now, the weather
locally has been bad for the last few weeks. Temperatures in the day time have been anywhere from ten to thirty degrees below average.

We did have one nice day sixteen days ago, when it was sunny and 70 degrees.

But one day is not enough, not for me, at least.

And as I look out my window, the snow fall has intensified just in the few minutes I've been writing this.

So I'd better get out there and get things done quickly.

Wishing you the best, dear reader.

Pastors And Protests

I am so saddened to have to write this post. In a better America, a saner America, there would be no need for me to do so. But we live in an America where far too many of us are ignorant and proud of it. An America where far too many of us, down deep inside care only about ourselves and no one else.

I was raised up in Baptist churches. The first two my family belonged to were fairly progressive

in their beliefs and actions. More importantly, most of their members practiced what they preached.

They truly did unto others as they would have others do unto them. 

The third church was much more old line. Very conservative and headed up by a pastor

who was in his late sixties and wanted things to be just the way they had always been in his younger years. He was an unpleasant and bad person. He retired not that long after my family joined his church and was replaced by a much younger, much nicer man. 

This man quickly became a very good friend to my late father. A friend who gently helped my dad, for an all too brief period of time, become a much better person. 

When that second pastor left, Dad found it all too easy to regress. He had lost a very good friend, and that hurt him a lot. 

When my parents separated, Dad and my brother stopped attending church services. I joined a

church that was very good and continued attending it until I moved several miles away.

Why am I telling you this?

I am telling you this because over the last few weeks, I've seen just about every church, mosque

and synagogue in my area suspend services or move them online. I am glad to see that. 

Also, I thought it'd be nice to give you a little background information on myself.

And also, because I want to, need to, express my disgust at those ministers who insist

on holding services in person. It comes to no surprise for me that every single one of them I've

read about remind me of that much older pastor who was, as I say, not a nice person. 

In other words, I know their type, all too well. They are among the worst of the worst. 

If one is to know them by their deeds rather than their words, consider carefully for 

those deeds speak clearly and loudly. 

For they choose to break the law by placing themselves and those around them at great

risk. 

They rant and rave about being persecuted, which is one of the sickest, saddest things I have ever witnessed. This is not the former U.S.S.R. where preaching the Gospel could easily get you thrown into prison or committed to a psychiatric ward.

This is the U.S.A., where state and local governments have shown a remarkable measure of restraint when dealing with flagrant and repeated violations of stay-in-place and social distancing orders.

Orders which are under attack by well organized groups. Those attacks have been sanctioned, and sadly, even praised, by the President. 

One such group even has ties to the Devos family and may have received funding from it. That's Devos, as in Secretary of Education Betsy Devos. That group staged a protest in front of the Michigan Capitol building where many of those present were openly carrying loaded firearms.

I honestly believe it's just a matter of time until these protests turn violent and some idiot
opens fire on a police officer or unarmed bystander. That will make for a defining moment in
terms of just how open insurrection will be dealt with.

More Thoughts On Our Current Crisis

As we continue to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, a few things have become clear to me.

The federal government failed to act in a timely fashion because Donald Trump ignored
the warnings he was given. As the death toll mounts, let us keep that in mind.

The American economy is taking a hard hit and a full recovery will neither be easily accomplished
nor happen quickly. Though neither has been officially declared, I consider the economy to be in recession and headed for a depression.

For as bad as things are, they'd be much worse if not for the stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefits. I will state, for the record, that I have received my $1200 payment. I will also state, again, for the record, that I am currently receiving unemployment benefits.

State and local governments have been starved for cash for decades. Now, when their actions are needed desperately, they simply can't get the job done.  I applied for SNAP benefits fifteen days ago.

Broome County Department of Social Services finally mailed paperwork to me two days ago that I received yesterday. It was the landlord form and nothing else. So, once they get that back, I'm looking at another week at least, to have a decision made on my application.

By that time, I'll quite possibly have enough cash coming in that I won't qualify for benefits. But in the meanwhile, those benefits would have helped me out a lot had I received them. I've had to apply for benefits a few times over the years, and the entire process never took more than three days.

I'm sure that the people who work for the DSS are doing the best they can. It's not their fault that
the number of applications has far outpaced their capabilities.

I'm just relieved that I am in good financial shape and will be for the next few months, at least.

And to you, dear reader, I wish safety and happiness.