Studies are showing wearing two face masks is more beneficial than a single layer.
We are in Covid-fatigue, having fought it for the better part of a year. Somewhat, we are just content to let it run out its string. We aren't as quick to take up ideas that might help, because it seems nothing works.
But, if double-masking will help, we should do it. And, our leaders should be encouraging us to do it.
A moment's silence and a silent prayer for the seven people who died in connection with the storming of the Capitol last week. Two were police officers, and five were supporters of Donald Trump.
At least two died from violent acts committed upon them. One died from a heart attack, another from a stroke, and another of an undisclosed condition. One of the two officers died from suicide. The cause of death of the seventh person has not been disclosed.
I don't know that any of their deaths qualify under the criteria for flying the flag half-mast. But, if we do only fly it half-mast for the officers, let us not leave out the others in our mourning.
Kevin Greeson, 55, Athens, Alabama. As someone who often posted on Parler, in December he reportedly urged action to support President Trump. "Load your guns and take to the streets!" NBC reported he posted. He urged Proud Boys to give "hell" to antifa. Greeson had high blood pressure and died of a heart attack. Another reported post of his (not NBC doing the reporting), said, "I'm in.. call me I have guns and ammo!" Greeson had high blood pressure and died of a heart attack. A source named Chris Evans reported on Twitter that Greeson accidentally tasered himself multiple times before he died of the heart attack.
Rosanne Boyland, 34, Kennesaw, Georgia. Died of an undisclosed medical emergency. One source said she collapsed during the protests and another suggests she was trampled.
Christopher Stanton Georgia, 53, Alpharetta, Georgia. News of his death came today, though he died Saturday. It hasn't been confirmed that his death is connected to the insurrection, but he was there, participated, and was arrested, and it appears connected. Investigating officers removed two rifles from his home.
Brian Sicknick, 42, originally from South River, New Jersey. Sicknick was involved in physical confrontation with the mob. The Associated Press reported he was hit with a fire extinguisher. He died about a day later.
Howard Liebengood, 51, Virginia. United States Capitol Police officer Liebengood committed suicide three days after the attack on the Capitol. Little else was released about his death. He was off-duty at the time. He had served in the Capitol since 2005.
Ashli Babbitt, 35, San Diego. An ardent Trump supporter, Babbitt was shot and killed by an officer as she and others tried to force their way into the House chambers. She was an Air Force veteran who identified as a libertarian.
Benjamin Philips, 50, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Reportedly died of a stroke. Philips founded a pro-Trump website and helped coordinate rides to the protest at the Capitol.
I never did find why I thought the Constitution warned against being too quick to call someone out for treason -- or have I?
In the days leading up to the Capitol insurrection, I reflected on how it is wrong -- dangerous to democracy -- to run around accusing each other of treason.
And, now, here we are. I haven't heard the word "treason" yet used on Donald Trump, but perhaps that is just because I am not listening closely enough. Either way, he is being accused of more than I think we should saddle him with. And, it is not only the president, but others who are facing potential punishments that are unwise. There are calls for senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to resign (or be expelled).
Could we ask what Cruz and Hawley did wrong? They continued to lead a wave of discontent with the election results. They continued to suggest the election was a fraud. That is all. These are not things for which we should remove them from office.
There is this danger in our times. We have been endangered by President Trump. But, also dangerous to freedom are these efforts to silence those who feel the election was a fraud. Now, I am not among those who think it was a fraud. Joe Biden won, fair and square. But, there is danger in the way we are fighting the deceit being practiced by Trump's lawyers and leaders.
When lies are silenced by persuasion, that is the just way of silencing them. But when they are silenced by edict, you only strengthen them. Truth comes not by edict, but only through earnest discussion. If the fact that Biden won fairly is to carry the day, it must be done by pointing out the deception being practiced by Trump's people -- a deceit that has fooled perhaps 75 million people. And, though they are swallowed by deception, they honestly believe they are right.
Government cannot dictate what is truth. Instagram, Cameo, Twitter, and Facebook cannot by edict proclaim the truth. Amazon, Apple and Google should not be shutting down Parlor. Our freedom of speech is in danger.
Did Trump incite an insurrection? Yes, depending on how you look at it. By stirring up the people to believe the election was unjust, a riot did result. But, I don't know if he ever directly suggested violence. "You will never take back our country with weakness," he said. That might have been about as provocative as he got. Rudy Guiliani was more provocative. "Let's have trial by combat," he said.
You cannot just shut these voices down. Sometimes, there is a right to free speech even when it brings the danger of insurrection. We lose our freedom of speech and that is not to be counted as a small thing. And, so, I say, do not expel Cruz and Hawley from office. Do not call for State Attorney General Sean Reyes and others in Utah to resign. Do not impeach the president.
I think I've found it: "Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
The founding fathers did not want to make it easy to convict someone of treason. They purposefully put restrictive limits on what it was. In the annuls of time, accusing someone of treason has been the hallmark of dictators. They throw in jail those who oppose them. This has been the very danger we have had with Trump. He would have marched off to prison everyone from Hillary Clinton to James Comey. Everyone who opposed him, by his way of thinking, belonged in jail. He fired every person who dared stand up to him.
Let us not be guilty of the same thing. Let us not endanger the freedom of our nation by being too quick in going after someone for their beliefs. We've 75 million Trump supporters, would we run all of them off Twitter, or off Facebook? Heaven forbid the freedom of speech that would be lost.
Truth's banner has never been so important, not for the United States. It is under assault as never before. There have been times people have questioned the free press. The study of the public's confidence in the press would be an enlightening one. Call it coincidence -- for whether it is, we do not know -- but I would not be surprised to find a decline in trust of the free press shifting in somewhere back in the days of the old Soviet Union. And, going wild just in these recent years.
We have known all along the communists are into disinformation, propaganda. From the Cold War and before, they have long been its exponents.
And, they have become its experts. We speak of trade wars. No nation exports more disinformation than the Russians. Of all the trade deficits we have, none are more one-sided than this one.
Would you deny it? Would you suggest otherwise? If we told you Robert Mueller sat on Congress's witness stand and said that even as they were discussing the issues, the Russians were spreading their disinformation -- if we told you our intelligence agencies have warned us like this, would you still deny it?
They have become the experts of the world, both in cybersecurity and disinformation. Believe otherwise only at the peril of our nation. Laugh at the notion they are destroying us even as they continue to destroy us.
Blessed are the Peacemakers, it is said. And, now would be a good moment for them all to step forward. Let's run a little experiment, and see if we can get twenty of you to step forward as Peacemakers. Any takers?
First, how many of you are willing to forgive those who assaulted the Capitol. You need to be someone who opposes Trump to qualify. You are not saying you justify the looting, nor anything else that was done that was wrong. But, you are forgiving them. And, you are offering them friendship. And, you are not calling them names, nor saying they are traitors, nor treasonous. You are not condemning them. You understand them. You allow that they believed what they were doing was right. You allow they felt they were doing something to save the country. You might think they were misguided, but at the same time you are not condemning them. Do we have any takers? Any at all? Will any of you step forward to be this Peacemaker?
America has plenty people waving the red flag of Republicanism, and plenty of people waving the blue flag of Democratism. What we need are more of are those who are willing to raise the white flag of Peacemaking. Notice how when we refer to the flag as the Red, White and Blue, white is in the middle, even as a Peacemaker is in the middle, keeping the other two apart. If you took white out of the flag, there would be no stars and there would be no stripes. We would be left with but strife and contention in our land, with a sky of Democrats and a sea of Republicans.
Peacemakers are not quick to condemn, but to forgive. There will be times they must condemn, but they will weigh the moment well before they walk that ground.
Peacemakers do not find fault, they forgive it. Who will be this class of Peacemaker for us?
Peacemakers are fair in their judgement of others. They look not for fault, but for fairness. So, let's look at the faults being cast, and see if we can find Peacemakers willing to drop their fault-finding, drop their aspersions, drop their name-calling, and accusations. Can we find even one who will fill this category? Speak up, if you will, for this is the hardest of all category to fill. I'm guessing there will not be so much as a soul who will be this type of Peacemaker. But, to help you along, that you might be this rare soul, let me point out that false accusations are the heart of contention. So, if we are to be less contentious as a people, we must cease our false accusations. We should consider the Ten Commandments, and how one of them is to not bear false witness. A Christian nation, it would seem, would run from bearing false accusations, would shun as a sin the bearing of false witness.
There are other types of Peacemakers close to the one just mentioned. There is the Peacemaker who does see a fault, but sees past it. They might find fault in a politician, and even verbalize it, but they reach a point of contentedness instead of contention. They allow others to disagree with them about that politician. They live with the facts. The show a measure of tolerance even though they do not approve of the politician.
Peacemakers? Is there someone who disfavors Trump, but is willing to go without impeaching him? Ten days are left, and he will be out of office. Is there an anti-Trumper who will be willing to at least be that much of a Peacemaker?
Here is a type of Peacemaker I doubt will step forth. There have been accusations made of everyone from Hillary Clinton to Robert Mueller. Is there anyone willing to step forth and say, You know, there really isn't any good evidence that Hillary is guilty of some of the things she is accused of?
I suppose, on the flip side, some would ask those of us who feared Trump to likewise apologize. Realize, though, that now is the moment our fears have come to fruition -- at least in our eyes. Still, if there are things about Trump that have not proven to be more than unjust accusations -- in the name of being a Peacemaker -- are we willing to apologize?
We are a nation divided. If we are to quit fighting, we have to quit finding reason to fight. If we no longer see the need to condemn our neighbor, we can love him or her like the Bible suggests.
I will repeat: Peacemakers do not find fault, they forgive it. And, if that is not true, this is: The Peacemaker might see a fault, but forgives it. (That does not mean they say those doing wrong should not be punished. ) The warmaker invents the fault and refuses to forgive it.
False accusations are the heart of contention. So, if we are to be less contentious, we must cease our false accusations.
Well, I was going to rewrite this before posting it. It rambles and isn't organized enough. I'll go ahead and post it as is. Maybe I will rewrite it and post a better version in the future.
One last thing. I uppercased Peacemaker throughout this post. The roll of a Peacemaker is such that the person filling it deserves that uppercase treatment.
Were envelopes bearing the voter signatures destroyed? (Cobb County, Georgia)
The envelopes destroyed were not the signature envelopes. It is deceitful that social media posts are saying they were. The envelopes with the signatures were placed inside another envelope, a privacy envelope. It was those, outer, envelopes that were destroyed. Whoever came up with all the social media posts saying the signatures were destroyed either didn't check their facts or knowingly ignored the truth and posted the falsehood anyway.
Were people locked out and not allowed to be vote challengers? (Detroit, Michigan)
The video of people locked out and not allowed to come in and be challengers doesn't take into account that there were already at least 400 challengers there. It reaches a point where you have to say, We can't fit any more in. Security and Covid restrictions both dictate that you put a limit on how many are allowed. The limit was 134. They soared way past that before they realized they better cut it off. The video is deceptive. It would have you believe they weren't allowing challengers. Four hundred or more, though, were there. Once again, this is a case of the Trump people being deceptive.
Was a suitcase of ballots dragged in that hadn't been there the night before? (Fulton Co., Georgia)
Rudy Giuliani or someone presented a tape of the Fulton County election, but it was an edited tape, showing only parts of the video. Then, though those parts were omitted, Giuliani declared, "The video tape doesn't lie. Fulton County Democrats stole the election. It is now beyond doubt." To begin with, there were no suitcases brought in containing the new ballots. They were standard containers. They were simply the containers the election workers use. And, they were opened and prepared for counting in full view of observers. Nobody waited for everyone to go home and then pulled out these hidden "suitcases" and ballots and viola, there they were the next morning, a suitcase of ballots that hadn't been there the night before. Trump's people (Giuliani or whoever) selectively edited the video footage to make it appear to be the way they wanted. That, too, like so many other things they have alleged, is deceitful. Why would Giuliani do this? It would seem he would know he was being dishonest. Or, if it was an honest mistake on his part, eventually he must have found out the truth, and he failed to take back his false accusation.
