The Red Velvet Lawyer

  How a Pandemic Caused Economic, Political, Social, and Religious Upheaval in France The Black Death  reached Italy's shores at the Messina port in October 1347.   The Genoese ship had stopped previously in a port on the Black Sea.  They offloaded trade goods and a devastating infection.   The diseased sailors showed strange black swellings about the size of an egg or an apple in the armpits and groin.  The swellings oozed blood and pus and were followed by spreading boils and black blotches on the skin from internal bleeding.  The sick suffered sever pain and died quickly within five days of the first symptoms. As the disease spread, other symptoms of continuous fever and spitting of blood appeared instead of the swellings or buboes.  These victims coughed ans sweated heavily and died even more quickly, within three days or less, sometimes in 24 hours.  In both types everything that issued from the body -- breath, sweat, blood fro...

One of the Happiest Days of my Life This morning on my Facebook feed, I saw a call to action seeking poll workers and poll watchers for the election in Ohio.  It reminded me of one of the happiest days of my life.  On that day, I served as a Democratic Party poll watcher in St. Louis County, Missouri.  Background On October 16, 2000, I woke to the NPR radio station in St. Louis announcing the death of then-Governor Mel Carnahan, a Democratic candidate for one of Missouri's U.S. Senate seats.  Overnight, Mel, his son, Randy, and his campaign manager had died in a plane crash as he left a campaign event south of St. Louis.  Standing in bare feet on the cold wood floor, I started crying, my shoulders slumped in complete defeat.  My boyfriend offered little emotional support or understanding. I slammed the door as I left his house and never returned.  Had he completely misunderstood (or worse, devalued) the countless hours I had devoted to getting Democra...

Isolated.  Confined. Extreme Environments. Stay home.  Stay 6 feet apart. Wear a mask properly.  Wash you hands frequently.  We know the precautions the experts advise us to take. Yet even in Qatar, where most people have followed government guidelines, people have let their guard down.  During my venture to the mall this week, I saw some people, including shop employees, ignoring these rules.   Afterward, I returned to my one bedroom apartment.  Took off my "outside shoes" at the door.  Sprayed them with disinfectant.  Washed my hands.  Sterilized my mask.  Shed my clothes and took a long shower.  Then, I put my clothes in the washer.  Then, returned to my purchases.  Sprayed them with disinfectant.  Then washed my hands again.  I've been doing this since March 10 when Qatar University switched to distance learning. Some days, I want to skip a step.  But, I don't.  For me, pandemic fatigue ha...

The High-Risk of Aging Into Poverty or  Social Security is a Feminist Issue Over the last week, the two parties in the US tried to reach agreement about a relief package providing benefits during the pandemic that would help unemployed people buy food and other necessities and forestall evictions from housing .  When impasse in the negotiations continued,  Trump stepped in with several (potentially unlawful) executive orders providing some relief. However, he also gave employees and employees relief from payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare benefits for older people in the US. This week a Democratic campaign strategist, Paul Begala, discussed his book, You're Fired: The Perfect Guide to Beating Donald Trump (Simon & Schuster 2020).  In an interview , he said that Democratic candidates should run on this messaging: the GOP wants to gut Social Security (SS), Medicare, and Medicaid, and abolish the Affordable Health Care Act during a pandemic....

Phase 3 Re-Opening August 1, 2020 represents to significant events.  First, Phase 3 re-opening in Qatar is now in effect.  And the Muslim population is celebrating the Eid holiday.  Since July 19, 2020, new COVID-19 cases in Qatar have fallen below 400 cases per day.  The last time we saw new cases below 400 was March 14, 2020 .   Admissions to ICU have dropped to the single digits.  Deaths of one to three people a day continue, with a few days in which no one has lost his or her life.  Since July 23, 2020, people as young as 23 and as old as 91 have died.  But, the death toll remains quite low despite the very high numbers of reported infections per 1 million population  (39,571/1 mill. -- the highest in the world). By the end of July, the death toll stood at 174 .   Experts attribute these results to several factors : a younger population, good medical care, an aggressive testing program, a well-managed contact tracing prog...