Sherman R. Frederick
Battle Born Media
I am bemused by the hand-wringing over the disparity between the number of white people in the Bay Area who have contracted COVID-19 and the number of brown people.
Apparently, more Latinos contracted the disease because they represent a greater percentage of the “essential” workforce. The end result: white residents make up roughly 71% of the local population, but just 24% of the COVID-19 cases.
If I may be so impertinent: What exactly is the remedy for this going forward?
Shall we limit the number of Latinos allowed to work during a pandemic so the numbers turn out right? Or, perhaps we need to mandate more white people get sick and die. (For the humor impaired, I’m being facetious, of course.)
My point here is there’s nothing wrong with crunching the numbers every which way to see what we can see about how the pandemic affected various groups. But let’s be careful about the judgments we make from there. Yes, I know we live in a time when it is fashionable to find a hidden racial motivation for just about everything.
But it must be said that sometimes, every once in a while, there just isn’t.
GOOD FOR THE SEALS
On the American culture front, it should be noted that the U.S. Navy SEALs and the Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen recently changed their ethos and creed statements to reflect a gender-neutral presentation of the elite Navy outfits, doing away with gendered terms like “brotherhood.” One change to the SEAL ethos was to alter a sentence in the first paragraph of the ethos to say, “Common citizens with uncommon desire to succeed” instead of the original, “A common man with uncommon desire to succeed.”
The cool thing about this is that standards for being a SEAL have not been lowered. The wording change was made because there are several women in the pipeline to become this special kind of warrior. It’s just a matter of time and, as always, the SEALS will be ready.
CAN IT GET WORSE?
We don’t need anything else to worry about these days, but I must pass along the latest from those who watch earthquake activity in California:
“Swarms of earthquakes continue to rattle the Salton Sea area in Southern California, with more than a dozen sizable quakes since midnight, the U.S. Geological Survey reported Thursday (Oct. 1).
“Most of the tremors are below 3.0 magnitude, but a few earthquakes registering over 4.5 magnitude have been recorded, the USGS reports. The agency had recorded at least 240 quakes by Wednesday (Sept. 30) night.”
CARDS & LETTERS
I love getting cards and letters from readers. Here’s the latest:
“I look forward to your musings in every issue. We recently moved here from San Francisco. It’s been a great way to connect to our new town. Appreciate you and your humor.”
ONE MORE THING
— Hominy things can you make from dried, cured maize kernels?
— Oh shucks! It’s a•maizing how many corny singles you can meet on E-Hominy!
— I got the words “Jacuzzi” and “Yakuza” confused. Now I’m in hot water with the Japanese mafia…
— I just got a job in a bicycle shop, I’m the new Spokes Person.
And with that, I’ll pick up my knitting and let myself out. Stay safe. Mask up.
Sherman R. Frederick is the founder of Battle Born Media, publisher of intensely local community newspapers in Nevada and California, including the Novato Advance, the San Rafael News Pointer, the Mill Valley Herald, the Ross Valley Reporter, the Twin Cities Times, the Sausalito Marin Scope and the Pacifica Tribune. He may be reached at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
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