Dear Reader,
My new audio book, “Listen Deeply; Be Amazed; Tell the Story,” is scheduled for release in the January – February timeframe. Its focus is the arc of our lives: Childhood; Adulthood; Elderhood.
Why Listen To This Book?
Content: No-holds-barred interviews with a wide range of lively people including; CEOs; iron workers; street vendors; musicians; storytellers; dancers; therapists and physicians. It also includes snippets from my one-man shows in front of live audiences.
People: Along with ordinary people, interviewees include well know people from fields as diverse as jazz, politics and drag racing: Chris Brubeck; Daniel Ellsberg; Big Daddy Don Garlits; Gloria Steinem; Congress woman Anna Eshoo.
Topics: sex, religion, politics, childhood, mentors, risk-taking, business, medical challenges, humor, old age, and the meaning of our lives.
As the book comes together, I will continue to publish snippets on this blog to generate interest. I have launched a Face Book page to promote the book. You can visit the page (like it if you want) here: www.facebook.com/LeterRipProductions.
Juneteenth: A National Holiday?
Dear Congress: How to help reduce racial tension: Make Juneteenth a national holiday.
Why: For years, Juneteenth has been celebrated as the actual day, June 19, 1865, when word came to Galveston Texas that all slaves had been freed by the Thirteenth Amendment. Mostly I’ve heard that it is celebrated around the country by “black folk.” (BTW, let’s retire the word “folk.” It is reminiscent of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Let’s just say, “black people.”)
Slavery, along with what we did to Native Americans has been the original sin of our republic. The racist pain it brings us is universal and unrelenting, including the Second Amendment, the Electoral College, and our healthcare disaster.
After WW II, Germany acknowledged its Nazi past. It is taught in the schools with the idea that awareness of that past can prevent it from happening again. So, too, if we gave a full-throated admission of the horrors and tragedy of this part of our history, perhaps we could begin the healing. Why wouldn’t everyone in this country – especially the white Europeans whose forebearers were responsible to this greatest of all sins – want to celebrate its ending? What a profound message this would be to all our fellow citizens of color.
Things change, fortunately. Look at how we are re-evaluating our Civil War past with statues coming down all over the place. Amazing: Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis were guilty of treason – attempting to bring down the United States Government by force and violence. These are not people we should be celebrating.
Along with all this is a new appreciation for what the Thirteenth Amendment meant. All Americans should celebrate the end of slavery – including White Folk.
Also, let’s get Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill – right now.
A Covid-19 Prevention
Did you see this in the NYT, Nov. 5, 2020?
Nasal Spray Prevents Covid Infection in Ferrets, Study Finds
Scientists at Columbia University have developed a treatment that blocks the virus in the nose and lungs, is inexpensive and needs no refrigeration. Amazing story. They tested the nasal spray on ferrets. All experimental ferrets were exposed to other ferrets that had been infected with C-19. The ferrets that received the nasal spray did not get infected. Those without the spray got infected.
The study has not been peer-reviewed, and, of course the spay has not been tested on humans. It works like an antibiotic works against bacteria. It attacks the virus directly preventing it from replicating. It is effective for about 24 hours. The spray is inexpensive, and does not have to be refrigerated. It would be easy to mass produce.
Imagine how this could help bring normalcy back into our lives. You go out to a party, wedding, or ball game, and as you leave the house you give yourself a little spritz up the nose and you are protected for the whole day. Until we get an effective vaccine, this might be the ticket. Hope to hear more about this soon.
The original article:
www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/health/coronavirus-ferrets-vaccine-spray.html
