“Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.” ― Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
(FO)MO on Loved Ones FOMO on the Vote
Whiplash. That’s the feeling I get when I suss out last week’s news. Do you want the good news first? Or the bad news?
The good: Virginia is poised to end the Death Penalty, if not Life Without Parole. Some states are opening up vaccinations to broader populations. Yesterday, California made COVID-19 vaccines available to anyone 16 to 64 years old with pre-existing health conditions; come April 5st, everyone above 16 will be eligible in Connecticut.
The bad: While Democratic governors from two of our two most populous states are “going through some things,” Republican Governors are riding roughshod over rights, rubberstamping laws which effectively ban abortion (Asa Hutchinson in Arkansas); criminalize trans youth (Brian Kemp in Georgia), and of course, enact voter suppression policies (Greg Abbott in Texas; Kemp, again).
This all happens as the calendar marks One Year with Covid.
This week’s FOMO remembers the lives of loved one’s lost to Covid; amplifies The New Georgia Project’s campaign to pressure corporate America to stand against voter suppression; interrogates Section 2 of The Voting Rights Act as SCOTUS debates its legitimacy; looks into the future of climate mitigation; gets local with politics; and considers the state of theater past, present and future.
A year ago this March 14th, the first New Yorker died from complications caused by Covid-19. To represent the loss – and the harrowing milestone of recently surpassing 30,000 deaths -- images were projected on the Brooklyn Bridge this past weekend. Names and photographs were submitted by an online portal collected by the Mayor’s Office and from obituaries published by THE CITY. The project is a collaboration with MISSING THEM, an open data journalism project led by its newsroom, in partnership with Columbia Journalism, Boston College, the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY, and countless volunteers.
Across town, Lincoln Center dimmed its roaring fountain and lit countless candles to commemorate the loss. The Plaza was silent in introspection.
(Image by Sachyn Mital)
FOR THE VAXX SKEPTICS IN YOUR LIFE
Depending on why friends and family are hesitant to get a shot in the arm, one of these videos might change hearts & minds:
•Comedian Vick Krishna’s TikTok on how mRNA (messenger RNA) works.
•W. Kamau Bell has a five-minute video where he interviews Black healthcare workers about the various vaccines. (Find the campaign at GreaterThanCovid.org.)
•Former CDC head Tom Frieden addressed a Zoom panel comprised of anti-vaxxers and gave them Five Facts on why the vaccinations are safe. All 19 participants were persuaded to get a shot followed the doctor’s presentation. The Washington Post’s Dan Diamond breaks down the session.
•In the mood for a positivist look at how Covid-2 becomes as common the cold? Check out this informed Twitter thread.
A GREEN FUTURE?
Mark Pesce is a bold thinker based in Sydney, Australia. His podcast, The Next Billion Seconds, is a highly reported look at emergent trends. For this season Pesce has gone on the record as a futurist – staking his reputation and making bets about which future will come to pass, if not pre-ordained. He’s just started a four-episode climate mitigation arc, beginning with a look at adoption of Electric Vehicles (E.V.’s). Next week’s episode will delve into the various fuels which are vying to commercial attention. While not all global energy policies are alike, Pesce does differentiate why a solution or policy might work in the E.U., for example, but not the States. Note: Pesce is particularly good about the recent standoff between Facebook and his government, included in this episode of whether social media has made us all into conspiracy theorists. G’day, mate!
VOTE WITH YOUR WALLETS
Georgia’s GOP-led State Legislature is on track to pass a raft of laws which end Souls To The Polls, erase dropboxes, restrict early voting, and create higher obstacles to voting overall. As it stands poised for the pen of Governor Kemp, Stacey Abrams’ New Georgia Project, as well as LaTosha Brown’s Black Voters Matter, have taken a page from Sleeping Giants, which goes after advertisers of incendiary cable TV hosts: It’s holding the biggest employers in Georgia accountable to their own words. After the January 6th Insurrection, many corporations not only condemned the violence, but withdrew or froze their donations to anyone involved. At present, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce has explicitly come out against both HB 531 and SB 241; the Chamber’s members include Coca-Cola, Delta, UPS, Home Depot, Aflac, and Southern Company. Given that Texas is now stealing from their playback and passing measures designed to disenfranchise minorities, will we see similar outreach to those who have recently decamped from Silicon Valley for Texas? These include: Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Tesla and Dropbox. If the strategy works in Georgia, it can be a blueprint across these Dis-United States.
While the States are jostling over moving forward by enacting voter reforms or moving backwards with voter suppression, SCOTUS is debating gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the “results test” which Congress added in 1982 designed to prohibit election laws which result in disproportionate disenfranchisement of racial minorities. Last weekend’s Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick has Jessica Ring Amunson as its guest, the lawyer who most recently argued the case before the Court.
JUST VOTE FOR WOMEN. IN NEW YORK, AND BEYOND.
One of the tactics of gatekeeping is mystification. When we make an opaque process transparent, only then can we understand it – much less fathom if it’s worthwhile or in need or reform. When AOC arrived in Washington, she Instragrammed her freshman orientation; she continues to use social media to connect with constituents. Here in NYC, two of NYC’s hardest-working electeds, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou and State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, have recently launched Lit Politics. Their v-log is currently focused on what’s 24/7 in NY politics – Cuomo’s Covid-19 Controversy. Without ignoring charges of sexual harassment – it centers the nursing home data coverup. We learn about the emergency powers the Governor was given a year ago – and why it was reclaimed weeks ago. Lit is an invaluable insight into how the sausage gets made, and I look forward to learning more about the budget – which is currently being negotiated. I also want to commend The Gilded Cast – showcasing women running for NYC City Council. So far host Stephanie Miliano has interviewed eleven candidates! If you know of a hyperlocal politics podcast in your town or city, do let me know about them!
THE PLAYS THE THING
I’ve said it a few times before, but I’ll say it again. Art – in my case, theater, kept me sane during Covid. Beginning this week, The Public Theater is kicking off The Way Forward -- Theater’s Evolution In Moments of Change. This Wednesday features a one-on-one conversation between Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Patrick Gaspard, Cultural Ambassador and Former President of the Open Society Foundations. The second and third sessions in April and May will look at theater over the course of the pandemic, and speculate on the future of performance. The Civilians – which is just about the most civic theater company I am aware of – has been beefing up Extended Play, its online journal. Recent features include “Inventing Worlds: What Theatremakers Bring to Organizing” – on how theatermakers intersect social movements.
If you have a moment today, The 24 Hour Plays is uploading a number of monologues from its from its archives – including those that were created during the outbreak of Covid in 2020 – moments after NYC first shut down.
Here’s to our re-opening; when it’s SAFE to do so.