Philip Vincent Bruce, 1968-2020

Philip Vincent Bruce was born November 25, 1968 in Columbus, Ohio, and died April 21, 2020 in the home of his parents, Robert and Norma Bruce, in Upper Arlington, Ohio. He so longed to be in his own home in Canal Winchester where he'd lived for many years, however, a diagnosis of glioblastoma on October 1, 2019 meant he needed around the clock care in his last months. Phil attended Tremont, Jones and Upper Arlington High School, graduating with the class of 1987, enjoying all the amenities of the pools, parks and athletic leagues growing up, and the spiritual guidance and programs of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church where he was confirmed. He later took a few business classes at Columbus State. Although Phil learned to read before kindergarten, what he really cared about was not books or degrees, but people.  From the time he could walk, his interest was gathering a crowd for play or friends to visit, or standing on a stool to reach the kitchen wall phone. In pre-school at First Community Church, story hour and sitting still were not interesting; the playground or playing in the corner with other "busy" boys was his idea of a good morning. And that never changed. To the end of his life, he maintained friendships from his old neighborhood, elementary and high schools, the work place and church.

For both socializing and alone time, he loved music, especially guitar. Although he did have a few guitar and piano lessons, for the most part he didn't have patience for that and preferred working out the details on his own, and for that he would be absorbed for hours. He loved to put words together and wrote his own music.  It was his solace in alone time to unwind after a hectic day at work and his main vehicle for building friendships and socializing. Phil from the beginning was spiritual--and often would express his tenderness in comforting or visiting the suffering. His parents heard many stories about his reaching out to families of his friends or to co-workers in difficult times.  But he was also religious and enjoyed the sacraments, structure and organization that holds Christians together when we gather to worship Jesus as the visible church. As a little guy he would comment that he could feel the water on his head while the pastor gathered the children to watch a baptism. The last decade of his life he participated in the fellowship of Gender Road Christian Church and enjoyed playing in the praise band. He dearly loved his church, and even at the end of life would talk about going back to church in a week or two. His last communion was on April 14. A final prayer service with his family was held at his bedside after he died with Pastor John Romig of GRCC and Pastor Paul Ulring of UALC.  At this time, the funeral at Gender Road Christian Church has not been scheduled until we can gather freely and remember Philly B with stories and songs.

Phil is survived by his parents, Bob and Norma Bruce, his sister and brother-in law, Phoebe and  Mark Doncevic, many aunts and uncles, Jean and Bob Poisal, Debbie Sterling, Rick and Kate Bruce, Joanne and Nelson Miller, Stan and Casey Corbett, and many cousins, especially Joan and Dan Poynter, and some who sat on his lap as babies and then grew up to be bigger than he was becoming good friends as adults, and devoted friend to the end, Sara Reichly.

Phil was blessed with many grandparents and knew and loved them all--great grandparents Joe and Bessie Corbett, great grandmother Irma Byrum, Jim and June DeMott, Howard and Olive Corbett, and Bob and Rosie Bruce. Two brothers, Stanley and Patrick Bruce, died before Phil was born, but he always included them. Phil had been married and divorced, and for many years enjoyed being a step-father.  Phil loved animals, and after his last dog Rosa, a chocolate lab, died in 2018, he didn't get another dog, but started a pet sitting business and loved each client as his own.

For most of his adult life Phil had worked in the automotive repair business, in Grandview Heights with his Bruce Automotive Services, with Jack Maxton as the Quick Serve manager in Worthington, and most recently with Jeff Wyler in Canal Winchester.  He also had been an insurance agent at Collins Financial Services.

Baptism, 1969

With Grandma Corbett at the farm, Franklin Grove, IL 1971

With Grandma and Grandpa DeMott, Phoebe and Mom, Indianapolis

Phoebe and Phil at cousin Joan's for Christmas holiday

2018 Praise Band, Gender Road Christian Church 

2019 high school friends

Myths about the prison system

How many myths about the prison system are you believing—they are mostly drug offenders? Wrong. Long sentences? Wrong. Media and activists aren't telling you the truth. The truth doesn't sell. Or bring in donations for liberal think tanks. Most criminals have victimized their own communities. Think on that. Reduce the population? But they hurt their own communities, not yours.

https://www.prageru.com/video/why-are-so-many-americans-in-prison/

Reading and cycling

My office was cleaned out to the bare walls and moved to the laundry room to make way for our son’s hospital bed and supplies. At first the exercycle was in my husband’s office, but I pushed it into the laundry room so I could multi-task.  My washing machine, which I’ve written about before, is a little touchy and likes to dance around if not loaded evenly, so sometimes I just jump on the cycle during spin.

But it’s sort of boring, so I’m reading a new book I was sent for review: American Harvest, God, Country and Farming in the Heartland, by Marie Mutsuki Mockett, a Californian with a Japanese mother, and American father.  There’s been a 7,000 acre wheat farm in her family for over 100 years, although her grandfather had left the area as a child.

What caught my interest was not just the farmer angle, but the Christians who annually harvest the wheat using teams from the Pennsylvania Anabaptist country. I’m only in chapter 2, but so far, unless her liberal side takes over, I’m enjoying her vivid descriptions of the farms and her compassionate look at the harvesters she travels with to get material for this book.  I can go 3-4 miles a day with Marie.

http://www.mariemockett.com/books/american-harvest/

Here’s a review, but it sounds like the reviewer only finished the first 2 chapters, which is how far I am on my exercise plan. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-04-03/evangelicals-marie-mockett-american-harvest

Bookworm says:

“It turns out that not all of us are news junkies. She [clerk in the grocery story who still has a job] didn’t know what was going on in California or Michigan or any other state that has placed people under lockdown in their own homes.

“How can they do that? That makes no sense. People have bills to pay. We have to work.”

Her words struck me strongly because I’ve been struggling to articulate the different emotional responses I’m seeing from the left and the right when it comes to responding to the Wuhan virus. The leftists are saying that the lockdown should continue for another year or two, and are accusing those who want normal life to return of being living embodiments of the Grim Reaper, determined to kill everyone through their greed, carelessness, and a refusal to recognize facts that can derive only from watching Fox News."

Bookworm (and although anonymous, I think the writer is a she) goes on to opine about liberals and how they feel about death.

"Consistently, lefties are driven by a raw emotional fear of death that the more sophisticated later dress up as sophisticated reasoning about controlling a pandemic. The sophistication is a veneer, though, because the fact that the models have all proven wrong is irrelevant. Their lizard brains are activated and won’t be calmed until the disease risk is reduced to zero."

". . . the leftist fear of death drives everything. It’s what allows their leaders to manipulate them about climate change (never mind that people ultimately do better in a warmer world), about guns (never mind that guns in America save more lives than they take), about organic v. non-organic food (never mind that if all farming were organic people would starve), socialized medicine (never mind that socialized medicine gives people access not care), about serving in the military (never mind that if we are undefended, many more can die in a sustained attack against America), and so on."

http://www.bookwormroom.com/2020/04/19/the-different-mindsets-political-parties-have-towards-the-wuhan-virus/

You can thank Pelosi for soup lines if it comes to that

Democrats want Americans in soup lines again, or jumping out of windows, just like the 1930s, when they were in control. Other countries pulled out of the Depression, but under FDR, we were stuck with the promises of more government programs until WWII came along and created a labor shortage. Now we have massive infusions from our taxes returning to "save" us, and Democrats don't want to give them up. Stay home; don't work; we'll take care of you. Attend a mindfulness Covid19 class or a concert at the Kennedy Center--whee--it's all to help with the pandemic.

Pelosi goes on TV and claims she supports the paycheck plan for workers, but she's lying. She's sitting on billions of loan money for the little guy while she flashes her $25,000 frig in front of her adoring fans. Ice Cream Nancy is killing the small businesses in your town and neighborhood--It's the Democrat Way.

Pelosi supports your business not expanding; she will stop you from keeping your employees, even churches' food pantries and non-profits; she supports ending your brother's business before it gets off the drawing board and makes a business plan. Eventually she can stop the supply lines to the grocery stores by destroying the small businesses that do that, and you won't just be missing toilet paper.

Facebook fact checkers are actually censors

"I dig into the prevailing media narratives about coronavirus, including “fact checks,” that have themselves been proven false. You’ll be amazed at who Facebook is letting help censor information about China’s controversial Wuhan lab. (Hint: she’s a scientist who works at the lab…)"

There are a few investigative reporters left in the country. Sharyl Attkisson is one of them.

https://sharylattkisson.com/2020/04/facebooks-fake-coronavirus-fact-check-podcast/

Other good sources to confirm the liberal lies from Kelly Kullberg:

Just the News, https://www.facebook.com/JustTheNewsReports/

Luke Rosiak at Daily Caller, Kevin Mooney at The Daily Signal

www.InfluenceWatch.org by Capital Research Center

Israeli researcher says . . .

". . . irrespective of whether the country quarantined like Israel, or went about business as usual like Sweden, coronavirus peaked and subsided in the exact same way. In the exact, same, way. His graphs show that all countries experienced seemingly identical coronavirus infection patterns, with the number of infected peaking in the sixth week and rapidly subsiding by the eighth week."

https://townhall.com/columnists/marinamedvin/2020/04/15/israeli-professor-shows-virus-follows-fixed-pattern-n2566915

What governors have done

COPIED--and please note--these were done by governors, not the president

WAKE UP & LISTEN, VIRGINIA and other US States!!

Gov. Northam could've said, "If you’ve been quarantined for 3 weeks and are symptom free, go to your camp or cabin. Buy groceries from the local small business grocery and liquor stores. Fish from the rivers...they have been waiting all season for your return. Just exercise social distancing."

He could've...but he didn’t say that.

Gov. Northam could have said, "Plant a garden! Virginian's need to get outside and work in their yards. Order supplies to be delivered from your local nursery, and spend some money there. They are stocked and ready for you!"

He could've...but he didn’t say that.

Gov. Northam could've said, "Take this time to work on a home project. Call your local hardware store and have them mix a gallon of paint. Pay over the phone, use social distance to pick it up."

Gov. Northam could've said that...but he didn’t.

He could've said, "Restaurant owners... reopen, but at just half capacity. You can only seat every other table, and wait staff must wear masks. We want you to survive, so let’s use common sense and appropriate social measures."

He could've said that...but he didn’t.

He could've said, "Landscapers who staved all winter for lack of snow...get to work! Book your jobs over the phone. Accept payment via cash apps. Work single crew jobs or small crews where you can keep your distance. Let’s work with local stores to have supplies delivered or waiting for you to pick up. We know you’re cash based, and aid hasn’t come yet. Be safe...but work!"

But he didn’t say that, either.

He could have said, "Go back to your place of worship! Sit one family per pew, and use every other pew. Practice social distancing, but go and celebrate Passover and Easter."

Oh, he could've...but he didn’t.

Sure...Walmart's still gonna Walmart, Costco's still gonna Costco and Target's still gonna Target...but Virginia's small business owners? They're drowning!! What did he do? He tossed them a cement block instead of a lifeline.

When will people in Virginia realize that he doesn’t want to help us?!?! He wants us so broke and so hungry and so desperate and so afraid that we turn in our own neighbors, we hide in fear, we stay glued to the fear-mongering news and we deplete anything we have saved! And when it’s all gone, and we are desperate and broken and depressed...who will we turn to? Why the government, of course! They're sure to save us!

Gov. Northam could have said and done a lot...but he didn’t. Do NOT ignore the message that man is sending us...because where he stands and what he’s about is loud and clear. You just need to wake up & listen.

Things our Governor has done:

Deemed abortion clinics "essential" health care,
Released convicted criminals from jail,
Restricted personal liberties,
Trampled our Constitutional Rights,
Implemented red flag laws that are proven to be ineffective, Raised gasoline tax,
Singed a law to limit firearm purchases to 1 every month,
Closed small businesses...

Does any of the above sound familiar? If it does, it's because it's been posted by other US citizens in other Democratic-run US states. I just changed the name of the governor. Apparently, this is going on across the country. WE ALL NEED TO WAKE UP AND LISTEN.

Copied on Facebook.

Minority set asides and Nancy Pelosi

Thousands of small businesses can't get loans to pay their millions of employees because Nancy Pelosi with the overstocked, latest model refrigerator (she showed it on TV) is sitting on the additional funding. She is blackmailing Republicans to have 1/2 to go to women and minority owned firms. So if you're a woman or Hispanic who works for a white owned business (the majority of the workers) you're screwed. Or if your boss is a minority and female (like my daughter's) you're also screwed because she won't release the money. Thanks Fancy Nancy with the Fulsome Fridge.

That's the old Democrat trick for getting votes--pay them to vote for you so you can keep them on the plantation to work on the cheap. Minority set asides don't advance or help the people intended. They've been around a long time. I remember having the veterinary library painted around 1990, I think. We were state of Ohio, so of course, had to have a minority owned firm get the bid. Here's how that worked. A minority owned firm would partner with a non-minority firm, which would get the job and do the work because the minority firm didn't have the staff or experience. Meanwhile, the black owned firm did not have to compete or try to grow. Or in the architectural business (my husband's field), there was one major black owned firm in Columbus, and he'd get everything that had minority set asides. That pretty much stopped the competition from smaller minority firms because he held the keys (was also a good firm).

Meanwhile, Pelosi is hurting the very people whose votes she is recruiting with her pay to play scheme.

Blessed are the poor in spirit

I haven't found the exact article on line I read today in the March 2020 Magnificat written by Kimberly Shankman about the meaning of her son's suffering, “The Richness of Poverty of Spirit.”  But this one about the last normal day she had with her son in 2014 https://www.thegregorian.org/2014/johns-last-normal-day  reminded me of the last "normal" day I had with mine before his diagnosis October 1, 2019. We had lunch together the last Saturday in September at the Chef o Nette Restaurant in Tremont shopping center in the neighborhood where we began our lives together, across the street from his elementary school, the swimming pool, the ball fields he played in and the library we visited every week. That day he was impatient and edgy, but nothing unusual. We both ordered "Hangover and fries," a specialty. No outward sign of the large tumor growing in his brain.

I'm not where Mrs. Shankman is yet on the meaning of suffering. She was reflecting on the Beatitudes in the article I read. She wrote that now she understands "poor in spirit" whereas before she didn't. "All the money in the world couldn't buy what I needed. What could save us--what did save us--was the recognition of my utter, total, abject poverty (of spirit). All I could do was beg God every day to show us his path on this rocky road. And he has responded with breathtaking generosity, showering blessings on us directly and through those he surrounds us with. The love of friends, support of neighbors and caring of strangers answer our prayers and bring us profound peace."

Flu, pneumonia and falls

From October 2018 through early May 2019, up to 61,200 people died due to flu complications, while up to 647,000 people were hospitalized, according to preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During the 2017-2018 flu season, approximately 900,000 people were hospitalized and 80,000 people died due to flu complications. (Prevention website)

Every 19 minutes, an older adult dies from a fall. Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury and the most common cause of nonfatal trauma-related hospital admissions among older adults. 50,000/year.  Those who are hospitalized often die of pneumonia.

So let's guestimate that about 150,000 older adults die each fall/winter season from just these 3 problems, and maybe a million are hospitalized plus thousands of younger people who are also susceptible at a lower rate because they may have preexisting conditions like heart, lung, kidney problems, or do silly things like climb ladders to clean gutters. Only the family and friends care when they die--they mourn their losses and pay the bills. We cry and share stories about grandma or the neighbor who used to help us out with maintenance or walking the dog. We spend hours settling estates and packing up or distributing the earthly wealth of those we loved. We give away watches from the retirement gala, the jewelry box, and old Bibles. We personally have the gold pocket watches of both Bob's father and grandfather, we have my grandmother's hymn book from her college days in the 1890s, and my grandfather's 11th, 12th and 13th editions of Encyclopedia Britannica. We know how they died and it wasn't a pandemic, but was from common problems of aging. But we didn't close up shop, we didn't deny medical care to others for different, less fatal causes, we didn't stop having Easter services, and we didn't destroy our pensions and equity in our homes because maybe 200,000 people died of illnesses that had been with us since the people made a golden calf to worship just in case Moses got it wrong.

https://www.prevention.com/health/health-conditions/a22813625/flu-symptoms-prevention/

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/pneumonia.htm

The spinmeisters, CNN—Jake Tapper

Dr. Fauci exposed CNN's spin on Trump and mitigation. “The first and only time that Dr. [Deborah] Birx and I went in and formally made a recommendation to the president to actually have a, quote, ‘shutdown’ in the sense of not really [a] shutdown, but to really have strong mitigation … the president listened and went to the mitigation. The second time that I went with Dr. Birx into the president and said 15 days are not enough, we need to go 30 days … at that time the president went with the health recommendations and we extended it another 30 days.”

If you listen to CNN's spin, you are a sucker. Freedom of the press doesn't mean you have to believe them.

https://www.cnsnews.com/article/washington/melanie-arter/dr-anthony-fauci-hypothetical-questions-can-get-you-some

Official guidelines for the Covid19 pandemic

Here are the official Coronavirus guidelines:

1. Basically, you can't leave the house for any reason, but if you have to, then you can.
2. Masks are useless, but maybe you have to wear one, it can save you, it is useless, but maybe it is mandatory as well.
3. Stores are closed, except those that are open.
4. You should not go to hospitals unless you have to go there. The same applies to doctors, you should only go there in case of emergency, provided you are not too sick.
5. This virus is deadly but still not too scary, except that sometimes it actually leads to a global disaster.
6. Gloves won't help, but they can still help.
7. Everyone needs to stay HOME, but it's important to GO OUT.
8. There is no shortage of groceries in the supermarket, but there are many things missing when you go there in the evening, but not in the morning. Sometimes.
9. The virus has no effect on children except those it affects.
10. Animals are not affected, but there is still a cat that tested positive in Belgium in February when no one had been tested, plus a few tigers here and there…
11. You will have many symptoms when you are sick, but you can also get sick without symptoms, have symptoms without being sick, or be contagious without having symptoms. Oh, my..
12. In order not to get sick, you have to eat well and exercise, but eat whatever you have on hand and it's better not to go out, well, but no…
13. It's better to get some fresh air, but you get looked at very wrong when you get some fresh air, and most importantly, you don't go to parks or walk. But don’t sit down, except that you can do that now if you are old, but not for too long or if you are pregnant (but not too old).
14. You can't go to retirement homes, but you have to take care of the elderly and bring food and medication.
15. If you are sick, you can't go out, but you can go to the pharmacy.
16. You can get restaurant food delivered to the house, which may have been prepared by people who didn't wear masks or gloves. But you have to have your groceries decontaminated outside for 3 hours. Pizza too?
17. Every disturbing article or disturbing interview starts with " I don't want to trigger panic, but…"
18. You can't see your older mother or grandmother, but you can take a taxi and meet an older taxi driver.
19. You can walk around with a friend but not with your family if they don't live under the same roof.
20. You are safe if you maintain the appropriate social distance, but you can’t go out with friends or strangers at a safe social distance.
21. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours, no, four, no, six, no, we didn't say hours, maybe days? But it takes a damp environment. Oh no, not necessarily.
22. The virus stays in the air - well no, or yes, maybe, especially in a closed room, in one hour a sick person can infect ten, so if it falls, all our children were already infected at school before it was closed. But remember, if you stay at the recommended social distance, however in certain circumstances you should maintain a greater distance, which, studies show, the virus can travel further, maybe.
23. We count the number of deaths but we don't know how many people are infected as we have only tested so far those who were "almost dead" to find out if that's what they will die of…
24. We have no treatment, except that there may be one that apparently is not dangerous unless you take too much (which is the case with all medications).
25. We should stay locked up until the virus disappears, but it will only disappear if we achieve collective immunity, so when it circulates… but we must no longer be locked up for that?

**Copied & Pasted**

Aerosol-generating procedures—the guidelines

I haven't seen the pre-Covid guidelines for aerosol-generating procedures, but maybe Trump haters could tell me why these guidelines weren't being written and followed BEFORE anyone had been hospitalized or died of Covid? Were they in the Bush and Obama pandemic/bioterrorism guidelines?

Why shouldn't a businessman/president know more than the doctors?

https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/-/media/files/wexnermedical/features/covid-resources/clinical-guidance/inpatient-clinical-care/guidance-regarding-aerosol-generating-procedures-for-suspect-or-confirmed-covid-19-patients.pdf?

I saw these guidelines in an OSU e-mail and wondered why they were just now being issued, and why did I need to know?

So if it took 69 not 68 or 67 minutes (does someone have a stop watch?  Is there an alarm?) , I thought I should look up AGP, in case someone hasn't been following guidelines:

Endotracheal intubation and extubation
Tracheostomy suctioning and changing a trach
Bag mask ventilation (manual ventilation)
Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (BiPAP, CPAP)
Bronchoscopy/bedside NP scope
CPR unless the patient is invasively ventilated and connected to a ventilator

We need to re-open soon to save the country, guest blogger Glenn K. Beaton

"My generation had it easy compared to our parents and grandparents. After a lifetime of comfort, it’s not too much to ask me and my old friends to avoid crowds. To wash our hands frequently. To use hand sanitizer.

If against all odds, I still get the virus, I’ll deal with it. If against even greater odds, I die from it, I’ll deal with that too.

The one thing I cannot deal with is destroying the country I love, the world I cherish and the opportunity for the next generation to similarly love and cherish.

So re-open our country soon. Re-open your lives. Re-open the world. A hunkered down life is no life at all."  The Aspen Beat

There are many ways to die from Covid19—listen to the other experts

By listening only to the "experts" in certain fields of health, the President and Governors--like DeWine of Ohio--are not listening to experts in other fields that do count the health costs for those with early or obvious signs of other health problems that need attention and can't get care, the health costs to the mentally fragile and poor, the health costs of shortages, the health costs of careers interrupted that might have solved future problems, the health costs of shifting billions of tax dollars to every department in government itself rather than basic needs of workers. The big winner--big government. The big loser--the people.

A call for plasma

Today I read "that Ohio State researchers and clinicians have found a way to take plasma from someone who has recovered from COVID-19 and deliver it to patients who are currently battling the virus to aid in their treatment and recovery." Hey, that's great news. But in that e-mail people who'd had Covid19 and been symptom free for 28 days were urged to donate plasma. Huh? Don't we have a billion dollars worth of EMR in Ohio and the other 49 plus DC and territories so some researcher can data mine our health records even if our MD has to call for it? Doesn't Dr. Brix always say, "the data show?" If the first known death was Feb. 29 in the U.S. and it wasn't in Ohio and many had it and didn't know it, maybe even me or you, should everyone who's had a mysterious cold or cough since the fall be tested?

Ohio has had less than 8,000 confirmed cases and barely over 2,000 were hospitalized. Doctors' offices are swamped with calls from clients who can't even be tested without all the signs. Surely somewhere in all those computers there's a record of the people to contact.

And President Trump will probably be blamed for OSU not knowing where to look for donated plasma. After all, isn't it his fault he didn't close down the economy before anyone had died?

Government the big winner of CARES

Government, not businesses and workers, is the big winner in the stimulus package. Out of $2 Trillion I’m thinking about ¼ goes right back to government agencies—federal, state, local. I saw two very minor examples in the last 5 minutes just looking through my mail.

1) The Dean of the Library School at U of I (my school, and it has a different name now) Eunice Santos did a study published as a chapter in a technology proceedings in 2013 on the 2009 pandemic which originated in Mexico (and from her photo and name she is Hispanic), and it has been resurrected as some sort of modeling technique for this covid pandemic. https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/8711/1/Modeling-emergent-border-crossing-behaviors-during-pandemics/10.1117/12.2018201.short?SSO=1 What this has to do with libraries, I have no idea, but I do know there will now be more funding.

2) And here’s another: “April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.  Child abuse takes place in every part of the population and takes many forms.  Children suffer from neglect, endure physical and sexual abuse, are exploited by pornographers and sex traffickers, and become collateral victims of drug abuse and other types of maltreatment every single day in America.  Fortunately, Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) across the nation are providing critical services to these young victims and helping to safeguard their legal rights, especially during this national COVID-19 pandemic.”

Obviously, this tragedy of child abuse and sex trafficking takes place every day and night, but there will be more money to study the other studies because of Covid19. And Mexicans fleeing Mexico during the 2009 pandemic will somehow be considered relevant to a model of the Covid19 pandemic—although no one will ever read it—it will be funded as part of this package.

Please, Mr. President, stop the insanity and put people back to work and get them off the government dole before the government sops up all the aid.

https://www.ncsl.org/ncsl-in-dc/publications-and-resources/coronavirus-stimulus-bill-states.aspx

Covid19—when I realized we’d turned the corner

A week or so ago there was a sign covid19 was coming under control. What did I see? The task force noted it was time to start throwing more time and energy at racial disparities. So much of our medical research dollars have been spent the last 30-40 years looking at poverty, obesity, sexual promiscuity of gays, family dynamics, educational achievement, smoking, drugs, and now transgenderism, it's no wonder CDC and NIH don't get the viruses and bacteria under control.

Today I saw: "Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and Columbus Public Health Director Dr. Mysheika Roberts have opened the Center for Public Health Innovation to address racism as a public health issue. The new center seeks to reduce health inequities to increase life expectancy and improve quality of life. The center will also address racial disparities related to COVID-19 in Columbus and around the country." This is regurgitating epidemiology, social sciences and public health research that has been going on since the 1960s, and some earlier pieces are classics, still true. Behavior affects health, whether white, Asian, Hispanic or black. More money to advance careers and enhance resumes.

We don't prevent or cure AIDS by studying how gay men think about the size of their penises, yet that research has been on going for years. You don't solve diabetes by measuring the girth of Filipino Americans compared to Swedish Americans. You can't end nicotine addiction by more funding of support groups on-line paid for by Medicare. And concluding that LaTisha and LaToya had too many "daddies" in their home growing up, isn't going to make them want to exercise when they are 50 and overweight. Bridget and Bonnie are also overweight and their parents were married and faithful.

There are thousands, maybe millions of these articles stuck deep in data bases now--we don't need more to tell us behavior matters in keeping us healthy and happy. If anyone, of any race or culture, eats too much, smokes and drinks too much, sleeps around, and only exercises long enough to change the channel, he or she is not going to be healthy based on statistical studies and grandma's advice.

There. I could have saved the tax payers billions, although no one will take my advice because it's too lucrative for academics and politicians.

On Pascha, sermon by St. Melito of Sardis (d. 180)

"One of the greatest sermons ever written is titled On Pascha (Easter), written by Melito of Sardis in just the second century. In the sermon Melito asks us to recognize that from the beginning God has been working through the failures of humanity to complete His plan for us in Christ. Here is a brief excerpt of this beautiful sermon. . ." from Pastor Thomas Cowell, St. John's Lutheran, Burt, Iowa, Newsletter March-April 2019. https://www.stjohnsburt.org/uploads/8/5/6/4/85643360/messenger_mar_apr_2019.pdf

69. This is the Pascha of our salvation:
this is the one who in many people endured many things.
This is the one who was murdered in Abel,
tied up in Isaac,
exiled in Jacob,
sold in Joseph,
exposed in Moses,
slaughtered in the lamb,
hunted down in David,
dishonored in the prophets.
70. This is the one made flesh in a virgin,
who was hanged on a tree,
who was buried in the earth,
who was raised from the dead,
who was exalted to the heights of heaven.
71. This is the lamb slain,
this is the speechless lamb,
this is the one born of Mary the fair ewe,
this is the one taken from the flock,
and led to slaughter.
Who was sacrificed in the evening,
and buried at night;
who was not broken on the tree,
who was not undone in the earth,
who rose from the dead and resurrected humankind from the grave below. […]

To read more of this glorious sermon, which continues, see the link above:

103. “So come all families of people,
adulterated with sin, and receive forgiveness of sins.
For I am your freedom.
I am the Passover of salvation,
I am the lamb slaughtered for you
I am your ransom,
I am your life,
I am your light,
I am your salvation,
I am your resurrection,
I am your King.
I shall raise you up by my right hand,
I will lead you to the heights of heaven,
there shall I show you the everlasting father.”

(Melito of Sardis, On Pascha, trans. Alistair Stewart-Sykes (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001).