To the editor:
Thursday, a 2021 message from Jewish Family Service CEO Rabbi Will Berkovitz landed in my inbox. I was so moved by the title, Our Imperfect Union, and the content that, with the author’s permission, I want to share part of his message with the whole community. The emphases are his, and you can listen to a reading of the unabridged message here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_isMvKmSL0
“…Between COVID-19, the insurrection at our nation’s capital and the “peaceful” transfer of power we witnessed on January 20, we have been swerving and careening wildly out of control—leaving many of us with emotional whiplash even if we avoided catastrophe for the moment. …
“There is nothing normal about what we have been enduring. For many people we work with at JFS—like survivors of the Holocaust or newly arrived refugees—seeing a violent mob overrun our Capitol brings back very real memories of some of the worst experiences of their lives. As a Jew, seeing someone wear a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt at the center of our democracy is an appalling reminder that antisemitism is on the rise—as is ignorance.
“And for any Black American, videos of people swaggering around the marble halls with Confederate flags and a gallows fouling the lawn is beyond mere blasphemy; it is a reminder of just how comfortable far too many of our citizens are with overt racism. Saying this was just a few bad actors is like saying it was only locker-room talk. It was not. Willful blindness is a poor excuse for silence and bland condemnation. It is the equivalent of thoughts and prayers when much more is needed—some serious soul-searching. Ownership and not more denial. And equally, a recognition that inaction, like actions, have consequences. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, ‘In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.’“
Susan Kostick
Edmonds
I loved this and I totally get it. I am a Liberal too. I just am scared if we take it too far it won’t be a good thing. Not for all. I totally agree and I can’t imagine what it does to you but yet I can. When I see the pictures. When I read Memories of the Camps. I was horrified. I was horrified before about the Holocaust and I always felt total sympathy and sadness about slavery. Horrible all of it. SO yes SIr I sure agree. I don’t want silence I just don’t want a repeat of any of those types of things. EVER. So please don’t think I do. I am unlike the extreme left who seems to care more about Palestine than Isreal, on the side of Israel… However I have many friends not here but where I can from who sympathize with Palestine. We have used Israel for years. I think they deserve some respect for that. I don’t know a lot to tell the truth about it but I hope it continues to improve. So yes, I get it. Love to you. I will always have your back. I am just a boring old Methodist. I do not attend a church. I do it myself with me haha. Again Love to you . I highly recommend the Book I mentioned. Memories of the Camps. Its old and people should read it! THE horror will astound them. Have you read it? XO Deb. Let me know. Peace in Love.
Everyone please click on the link to Rabbi Berkovitz’ full message~ it’s less than 5 minutes. It’s a very thoughtful and touching commentary on our troubled times.
A wonderful sermon by the Rabbi. Please click the link and listen. His words are powerful and meaningful.
There has been nothing normal for a solid year now. Shutting down our civilization and way of life is what is blatantly obvious and should be addressed. Enough is enough! Our rights and our means to earn a living has been taken away and everyone like sheep just follow along. The death rate is not any higher this year than previous years. They’re lumping pneumonia, the flu, and COVID into the Covid numbers. This is all about power. And control.
As far as someone wearing an Auschwitz shirt, carrying a confederate flag, or wearing a Buffalo hat, I think we can all agree they are aholes. I’d be more triggered over the fact Germany is starting camps again. This time over Covid: https://thenewamerican.com/covid-19-jails-open-in-germany-for-quarantine-offenders/.
And here in the US, AOC says we need to do the same but for a different reason. To be re-educated or deprogrammed. And to top it off half of the US is being shut down from free speech denying out first amendment rights. I sense a huge dichotomy here. You’re putting out your flag for what?
Re your “The death rate is not any higher this year than previous years.” That’s just flat wrong. Look up “excess deaths due to COVID” or “excess mortality,” these all describe the much larger death toll due to COVID compared to normal deaths in previous years before COVID. See https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm#data-tables
Since Jan 8th, there has been over 3,000 deaths per day from COVID. At the height of the Vietnam War in 1968, there were 16,899 US deaths which averages to 46 deaths per day. The September 11, 2001 attacks resulted in 2,977 deaths.
To date (Feb 2, 2021), there has been 446, 885 deaths in the US from COVID. This eclipses the 405,399 US deaths from World War II, which was the 2nd highest total US war deaths. The Civil War had the most US war deaths at 620,000. And we are currently on track to exceed that number from COVID.
Wearing masks and social distancing does not make us “sheep”. If anything, it makes us “wolves”… working together as a pack to “kill” this virus. That is, if we all do our part to work together!
I couldn’t find the original source but here is one.
https://www.plaintruth.com/the_plain_truth/2020/11/more-corona-proofs-of-fraud-2020-death-rates-the-same-as-2019-and-before.html
Yet another report from a senior Johns Hopkins lecturer’s analysis concludes that the coronavirus had no overall effect on the total number of deaths in the United States. Genevieve Briand, a longtime professor of economics and statistics, was overrules by the hospital and was forced to withdraw her fact based report. However, the CDC statistics she sites proves her conclusions.
Briand was asked by the Johns Hopkins News-Letter to address the question of whether COVID-19 deaths can be called misleading since the infection might have exacerbated and even led to deaths by other underlying diseases.
She said that if the COVID-19 death toll “was not misleading at all, what we should have observed is an increased number of heart attacks and increased COVID-19 numbers.”
“But a decreased number of heart attacks and all the other death causes doesn’t give us a choice but to point to some misclassification,” Briand replied.
The News-Letter clarified: “In other words, the effect of COVID-19 on deaths in the U.S. is considered problematic only when it increases the total number of deaths or the true death burden by a significant amount in addition to the expected deaths by other causes.”
“Since the crude number of total deaths by all causes before and after COVID-19 has stayed the same, one can hardly say, in Briand’s view, that COVID-19 deaths are concerning.”
No one asked Briand to do any research on Covid-19 counts. She did this on her own. Her analysis is flawed. She compares apples to oranges and has a bit of magic in it for the 2nd part of the analysis.
How many other webinars by Ms Briand are out on the Johns Hopkins You Tube Channel?
She is very skilled in statistics. I’m sure she knows how percentages and proportions can diminish counts. Her mission was accomplished. She used her employment with Johns Hopkins to get people to believe her findings.
You should go and look at peer review info on the Johns Hopkins Newsletter website. https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/12/public-health-experts-and-biostatisticians-weigh-in-on-covid-19-deaths-a-look-at-u-s-data-webinar
I downloaded the data from the CDC as of 12/2/2020. And I repeated her analysis.
That was false or speculative reporting at the time (late May I believe) as the media narrative drove the excess deaths debate. If the study had of proved out the excess death number after the massive increase in cases and deaths WITH Covid since the excess death number report should have shifted to over 1 million, which it did not. World Health projected as part of a metric that is done years in advance and continually updated 2.88 million deaths in the US for 2020. CDC reported on Jan 1, 2021 there were 2,902,664 deaths from all causes. The overage is within the estimation error limits and when increases in homicides and suicides attributed to the lockdowns are factored we are well under the 2.88 million mark.
Pretending and asserting that a worldwide pandemic is not a significant human event defies all logic and basic intelligence. Much of what is used to support or disprove people’s statements in this thread is pretty much irrelevant to the issue.
The problem is that the pandemic has caused an unusual over burden and potentially paralyzing effect on our health care system, first responder systems and end of life associated systems (nursing homes, funeral services etc). The disease causes greater death rates in the elderly and the people with weaker immune systems for what ever reason and regardless of age in some cases. The more and faster it spreads, the greater the problems for the society as a whole.
How many people died in the civil war and WWII have little to do with any of this. Those figures are more significant just based on the relatively much smaller over all population of those times and, in terms of the civil war, more people having died of disease, poor sanitation and bad prisoner of war conditions than from bullets and swords. More people also died of the so called “Spanish Flu” than from bullets and poison gas in WWI. The point being, that world wide health epidemics and conditions are always a big deal and something to be concerned about for the human species.
Woman Banned From All Hospitals In UK For Proving Hospitals Are Empty
https://thewashingtonstandard.com/woman-banned-from-all-hospitals-in-uk-for-proving-hospitals-are-empty/