Emotions of the Quarantine

 

The masked bear; Creative Common License; Wikimedia

As we face a pandemic, we turn to music. I have been spending time on YouTube listening to all types of music. I have collected a few playlists that express certain themes. One is the depression of many, the loneliness and self-debasement of the bullied, and other emotional issues. On the positive side are the songs of those who have overcome the slings and arrows of others and of their own negative experiences. 

These songs are pure poetry, no matter who sings them. But the videos I have chosen tend to make one focus on the actual words of the poem while the background melodies and harmonies of the music add to the emotional response. I defy you to listen to this playlist dispassionately. I suspect you, like me, will fight tears at some point.

Today, I present songs that will make you think about others and the pain they face. May it make us care for others. I complete the series with, among others,  "Man in the Mirror" sung by Brian Crum. Maybe soon I will add songlists for other memes.  

Do add your song titles in the comments. Feel free to provide links to a song online.

Songs To Set the Mood

"Mad World" sung by Pentatonix

The student ignored at school is heartbreaking. I thought of the disassociation of depression when I listened to the lyrics. 

 "Creep" sung by Brian Justin Crum

This to me is a meme of the bullied, a person so put-down that they cannot see anything good in their own self.

Then there is the classic expression of alone-ness one feels when surrounded by many others, again sung in such a way that emphasizes the words over the music. 

"The Sounds of Silence" sung by Pentatonix

What happens when you reach out only to be disappointed? There are phrases in this next song that speak of disillusionment in man or personal relationships, but still imply a retention of hope and  slivers of faith. 

"Hallelujah" sung by Pentatonix, my favorite version, is here, but this video version is beautiful, too. 

"Hallelujah" (Shrek song) sung by Espen Lind, Askil Holm, Alejandro Fuentes, Kurt Nilsen

You can see the Shrek movie scenes for which this song is the background.

Then there is grief of the loss of a loved one-- sometimes through death, sometimes through dementia or other memory loss, and sometimes through the ending of love or lost friendship.

"I Drive Your Truck" by Lee Brice

Here is the story behind this song.

 Others about loss include these:

"Jealous" sung by Josh 

''Say Something" sung by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera

"With You" sung by lady on Britain's got Talent (Song starts on 1:42 min. into the video.)

Let's Change the Mood.

The songs above take us on a journey of depressing, negative emotions often felt and often ignored when we sense them in others. At times we reach out to each other to ask and receive help with these emotions. We do this through our churches, clubs, and non-profits. We honor the vets and first responders that gave their all. We help each other to get through this. 

 "Man in the Mirror" sung by Brian J. Crum (Song starts at 1:32min into the video.)

I hoped these songs moved you and maybe even inspired you to lean on each other a bit. After all, "He ain't heavy. He's my brother."And "Like a 'Bridge over Troubled Water'..."

(Get the story behind the legendary " Bridge over Troubled Water" with some of the original sounds.)

 (Hear the original soundtrack.)

Closing Thoughts

I want to share Puddles Pity Party's tribute to all those who are helping us with this pandemic.

Remember, to get through the pain, you must recognize that you feel it, you must share it, and you must reach out to others. Throughout the ages, man has used music and poetry to share with each other.

 Check out the Books and Authors blog for the playlist of Fred Zuker. 

There are additional playlists in his set of Quaran-Tunes that begin here.

Y'all take care. 

Who is Fred Zuker? 

Fred Zuker wrote The Zuker Memoirs, a set of books that I edited and that my company Coskrey Biz Published. You can get these books on Amazon as ebooks and in various stores as paperbacks. 

Herd Immunity

 President Trump is experimenting with herd immunity.  

Trump has huge crowds at his rallies this month, many unmasked. He assumes that he is not contagious, but did not quarantine long enough after his own COVID-19 illness to be sure. He encourages the reopening of states even when the number of infections of COVID-19 is increasing. The idea is either he believes one can mentally prevent infection and its complications or that by infecting many, society will soon recover from the pandemic. 

The American Indians of Central America experienced herd immunity when they eventually recovered from the measles epidemic brought on by the Spaniards who followed Columbus into the Caribbean islands and Central America. 

Europe experienced herd immunity when it eventually recovered from the epidemics of smallpox and Black Plague.

Bring on the recovery. We can try herd immunity on Ebola now that we know it works. After all, at times there seems to be as much as a 10%  survival rate. 

Once we recover from COVID-19, we can await the next pandemic, or even just the next epidemic. After all, it only takes a few years to develop a vaccine. And the complications or side effects of a vaccine are deemed acceptable if testing is cut short. 

And now that there is no access to fresh fetal tissue needed to develop the immune therapy that Trump received (His meds cost taxpayers $100,000, BTW.), only the very rich can receive the limited supply of available immune therapy. And since we have no ideas if such therapy actually worked, let the rich be the guinea pigs.

Why Portland?

 Why were the protests of  2020 so extended in Portland? What happened in Seattle?

 

Pioneer Square in Seattle Washington. 

Protests in most cities did not last as long as the protests in Portland, WA. I often wondered why BLM was still actively protesting in Portland when other cities were mostly quiet. 

Today I read through the Seattle Met magazine for Fall 2020, a magazine I take at home in Texas because I have relatives in Washington near Seattle. 

This is a totem pole in Pioneer Square, Seattle, Washington.

In that issue was a story about the Native American woodcarver John T. Williams. He was killed by a lone cop 10 years ago because he had his knife in his hand. Being partially deaf, he would not have understood or even heard the command to drop his knife. After all, what was he doing with it to upset anyone? 

Being a woodcarver, would he have been waving his knife in a conversational fashion at someone walking by? You know, like homemakers do with knives when they are peeling potatoes or chopping onions and someone walks through the kitchen and speaks to them. A friendly gesture. Was he threatening a passerby? When the cop saw him from his car and got out with gun drawn to tell him to drop the knife, what was happening? 

Read the story in Seattle Met and judge for yourself.

The ten-year later approach is informative.  

 

Photo Credits: Both photos were taken in 2014 by the same photographer and are used by Creative Common License from Wikimedia. For the totem pole and for Pioneer Square: Jrozwado / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

I have been silent long enough!

Considering Songs of my Youth and Considering Today

It has been years since I posted on this blog. I have other blogs and Facebook to express myself. However, my anger and angst over today's America has been channeled only into comments responding to other's remarks and on reading The Daily Kos newsletter and blog articles, and The Washington Post.

So maybe now I will find the time to add a few posts here. We will see. My thoughts are beginning to clarify into solid expressions.

Expression #1: VOTE!

Expression #2: Remember the song I grew up on while a military dependent attending base chapels.

• 
   Jesus Loves the 
• Little children.
• All the children
• Of the world.
• Red and yellow
• Black and white
• Jesus loves the
• Little children 
• Of the world.

This song was usually sung with the song below. You can hear it today on YouTube.

Below is the refrain as it goes through my head when I remember it. The YouTube version is a more accurate rendition. I was glad to find it today when I was researching credits for the song. 

• Jesus loves me
• This I know
• Cause the Bible Tells me so....
• Yes, Jesus loves me.
• Yes, Jesus loves me.
• The Bible tells me so.

From Wikipedia/Wikiwand: The song was written in 1859. Wikiwand tells the story behind the song beginning with the partial paragraph below. 

 

"Jesus Loves Me" is a Christian hymn written by Anna Bartlett Warner (1827–1915). The lyrics first appeared as a poem in the context of an 1860 novel called Say and Seal, written by her older sister Susan Warner (1819–1885), in which the words were spoken as a comforting poem to a dying child."..."The tune was added in 1862 by William Batchelder Bradbury (1816–1868). Along with his tune, Bradbury added his own chorus "Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus Loves me..."

Jesus Loves the Little Children can be heard on YouTube. Even today I cannot listen to it without crying. Nor can I sing it without a wobble in my voice.

The music for Jesus Loves the Little Children, ironically, was composed by George Frederick Root for "Tramp Tramp Tamp," a song of the US Civil War. Over the marching song melody, C. Herbert Woolston (1856-1927)wrote the children's song lyrics. It is considered a Christian Child's Prayer song. There are other lyrics and alternate versions collected over the years since Woolston's original lyrics.

Expression #3: How can a society raised on these songs be so divisive today? However, I am reminded of the song "Onward Christian Soldiers" when I consider the background to the song "Jesus Loves Me." 
How can the same Christians sing "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and not seek justice for all no matter what the race or religion of the other?

Credits: Images are royalty from Bing and from Stockvault. The third image is (c)Valerie Coskrey, 2013, and represents a gate to a lovely future from a home full of love. It is the gate in my parent's backyard of one of the many yards of the many homes my parents lived in during their lifetime. These homes were filled with love, even during times of strife. Being children of a US Navy corpsman who retired my second year in college, we knew many backyards. This one is from Dad's retirement years and is of a home we all cherished.

My Response to Paul Ryan Remarks on Climate Change

greenhouse effect
© James Steidl - Fotolia.com #1248622

According to several articles online, Paul Ryan has admitted that the climate is changing. He doesn't see why we should do something to try to stop the warming. Admittedly, having a Republican admit that there is global warming is a step forward. But to claim that any and all attempts to control the warming is a --I assume he regards it as such--tax scam.  (MY words, not his)

In my view, he misses the crucial concern over global warming. Evolution will occur at increased rates due to the stress of climate change. This concept is anathema to the Creationists of the Conservatives, I know, but it is the fear of those who accept modern science as knowing how the world works.

By the way, MRSA is a prime example of evolution in action. Influenza, HIV and ebola are constantly evolving, but viruses are not living entities, just prime examples for modeling how evolution can occur in living species.

A cornfield near Waco, TX, years ago

Consider the idea that many plants and some animals will perish if the carbon dioxide levels change by even just 1-3 % points. Photosynthesis in corn, for example, shifts to favor an alternate pathway. Some plants cannot make the shift successfully. Expect huge evolutionary changes with increased warming, shifting of climate regions, and increased carbon dioxide.

The age of the dinosaurs demonstrates the speciation that occurs with these changes,
as do other epochs and eras. HOW WILL HUMANS CHANGE? The immediate results of the current warming shift will be economic, devastatingly so. But the long-term changes will be biological.

We are headed into a scary future for humankind. REMEMBER, past climate changes resulted in new species, extinctions, and a total change in the ecosystems. Yes, climate change has always occurred. Man's worry is what effect the current change will have on mankind and our culture. The earth as a biosphere will go on, but will we?

Allowing religious conservatives--fundamentalists--to control policy is frightening to me who believes in the correctness of views espoused and accepted by modern science. I really do fear a return to the Dark Ages where only prayer--and midwives and alchemists--could cure disease and only one leader had any say over how the masses lived.  Our entire culture is headed for a massive change where freedoms will by stymied and lives ruled by senseless corporate greed and religious control--where Big Brother is the church spy who tells on you and the punishment is excommunication or stoning.

Biblical Law looks just like Sharia Law, People. Ask the Inquisition or the Salem Witch Hunters. They were good Christian folk, too. So were every Christian nation that sincerely prayed for victory as they fought each other in countless battles and wars.

Only the true believers win? Ask that of each team in a football game when both sides sincerely pray for victory.

Get real!

Is the Pope more Powerful than the US Constitution in Deciding US Law?

SCOTUS, in the form of the 5 - man - majority Catholics, appear to be doing the will of their Pope.

Constitutional Memes ©Angel Simon - Fotolia.com

What does the view of the Pope have to do with deciding the US Constitution? The only question before the Supreme Court is the constitutionality of a US law.

The Robert's Court just gave employers the right to forbid birth control coverage in your employer's group insurance coverage. 

We are seeing the institutionalizing of Biblical Law. Can we continue to decry the harm of following the Fundamentalists of Sharia Law? Do we now take an eye for an eye, as the Bible says we do?

We are seeing the destruction of Freedom of Religion and the destruction of Rights of the Individual in this Court. I honestly fear that America as we were becoming, a just and free people, is going to be lost. We will soon fall as we lose the moral ground, becoming as superstitious and fundamentalist and controlling of others as the Taliban, with the corporations calling the shots.

Our Freedom, our Voting Rights, and our Democracy is at stake, but being whittled away under the Conservatives and the GOP moves to obey fundamentalism, the Kochs and the corporations over their pledge to uphold the US Constitution.

In the past, group coverage without birth control coverage was often more expensive. Will that be true today? Will these employers shove the added expense onto the employees by taking the policy difference out of the employees share of the payment?

Will these corporations now look to their investments to limit their stock options on the makers of birth control and condoms? Will they limit their investments in sweat shops? Will they take their religious convictions to the ultimate expression of actually doing morally responsible business? Or will they continue to cheat on taxes and such?

What has Obama Done for us over his First 3.5 Years?

Here is a blog post that lists the accomplishments of the past 3.5 years of the Obama Administration.
http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/what-has-obama-done-since-january-20-2009.html

Doesn't look like a do-nothing presidency to me.

(Image of President Obama copied from http://northcountrydemocrat.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html as a lisense-free image.)