There are so many good things that are happening as we adjust to the scary new normal of hunkering down, staying at home. But every time I listen to the President at a White House COVID-19 task force press conference I am simultaneously repelled and outraged, and the good things happening on the ground slip …
Continue reading COVID-19 crisis: silver linings and rot at the top
My last blog warned about the need to separate reliable COVID-19 information from misinformation, whether intentional or unintentional, and rumor. Last week an esteemed British scientist passed on a podcast to my brother-in-law, who shared it with me. I vetted it as best I could and now share it with my readers. Joe Rogan is …
Continue reading An infectious disease expert speaks: worth a listen
Everyone has an opinion on how serious is the WHO-identified pandemic coronavirus. Many share guidance on how to deal with it. Far fewer share evidence-based science. Disturbing though it may be, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised at how much our assessments divide on partisan lines. According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll: unease is strongly …
Continue reading Beware coronavirus misinformation, well-intentioned or not
2020 vision gives us clarity to see the world around us. 2020 hindsight is a way of understanding where we got it wrong in the past. Today, my New Year's gift to you is a list of headlines I hope to see in 2020. Some are the triumph of hope over experience. Some are aspirational …
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. The author of The Underground Railroad has done it again, this time with a story of a prison-like reform school in Florida. Worse-than-Dickensian abuse occurred throughout this narrative, based on the real-life revelation five years ago about the Dozier School for Boys in the Florida panhandle town of Marianna. …
The hammering from daily political news has kept me away from devouring my normal quota of books on contemporary politics. If you too are on overload, here are some non-fiction alternatives I've recently enjoyed. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candace Millard, published in 2006, was loaned to me by thoughtful neighbors …
Philosopher George Santayana famously said in 1905 that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Winston Churchill liked the lesson so well that 43 years later he intoned, "Those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it." Either wording, we get the idea. Would that Donald Trump were as …
Massachusetts is officially the most Irish state in the country, with nearly 22 percent of residents being of Irish ancestry. Considering how many of the politicians I've covered are "Irish," it is surprising that only recently did I travel to the Emerald Isle. The month of June changed that, and what a treat it was. …
Franklin Park Zoo isn't my grandfather's zoo, or the one my father took me to eons ago. It isn't even the zoo I took my children and grandchildren to. It's becoming a jewel of a zoo, with animal attractions for people of all ages, from the entertaining antics of the prairie dogs to the graceful …
Despite our desire for a Trump-free ten days in Ireland, our President was on too many minds over there. Landing at Shannon Airport, we had to pass the VIP Lounge where just days before Trump and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar met because Varadkar didn't want an official visit to be at Trump's golf course, …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 