CONTENTS 6/5/2020
Peaceful Solidarity Rally For Justice
Whatcom Phase Two
March To Truth: Betsy Brown MD
Virtual Chalk Tour
Lawn Care
Radio Free Fl!p: Nina Simone
I Wish I Knew How It Feels To Be Free
PEACEFUL SOLIDARITY RALLY FOR JUSTICE
Saturday June 6 at 3 PM – 5 PM at Maritime Heritage Park
Join the peaceful protest rally, organized by black community leaders. Columbia neighbors are invited to show solidarity by meeting at Elizabeth Park at 2:15, and at 2:30 we will walk together to Maritime Park, following a 10ftX10ft. banner that says Black Lives Matter.
Jill MacIntyre Witt, Walnut St.
The organizers request that everyone bring masks, hand sanitizers, and be aware of social distancing. Please do that! The park is a large area. Please spread out in it as best you can.
I am repeating this quote from yesterday, because it helped me understand why so many people who have been faithfully staying home for months, may be coming out for these rallies: “…perhaps it is proof of the fundamental decency of ordinary people…that maybe people are not willing to risk other people’s lives for money, but when other people may lose their lives if they do not act, they rise to the call of action…in terms of standing up for civil rights, as a nation…” ~Claus Joens
WHATCOM PHASE TWO
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/coronavirus/article243249861.html
“It’s possible Whatcom County could see a return to Phase 1 restrictions if there is a significant increase in cases or other benchmarks are not maintained,” the statement said. “Every resident of Whatcom County has a role to play in making Phase 2 successful and allowing our community to move to Phase 3 as quickly as possible.”
Phase 2 will allow these activities, according to the Health Department:
▪ Social gatherings — inside or outside — with no more than five people from outside your household per week.
▪ More manufacturing and construction, domestic services, retail stores, real estate. services, professional services, nail salons and barbers, with some restrictions.
▪ Restaurants can open at 50% capacity but without bar seating.
Practices that should continue in Phase 2, according to the Health Department:
▪ Hand-washing and sanitizing.
▪ Physical distancing, remaining 6 feet away from others.
▪ Wearing a mask in public spaces.
▪ Staying home and away from others with any symptoms of illness.
In response to the Phase 2 approval, both the Bellingham Public Library and the Whatcom County Library System said they plan to begin curbside pickup for new material for their patrons starting June 15.
If you’re still feeling cautious, British Columbia has started their reopening with Double Your Bubble. Their process is to encourage households that have been staying home to open up to just one other household that has also been staying home. I think of it as Safe Start. Love/Fl!p
MARCH TO TRUTH
From Betsy Brown MD
From Seattle
Tomorrow morning after a long week, I am getting up early to go back downtown to meet up with local physicians and health care workers to march from our county hospital/trauma center to the Mayor’s office to show our support for the Black Lives Matter protests. We are all learning right now. What the COVID-19 pandemic has made even more clear to me are the health disparities between people of color and others. The data in the this article in the New England Journal of Medicine is damning. In Louisiana, 30% of the population is black but in this group of patients almost 77% of people with COVID-19 were black and 70.6% people who died were black. However, when they controlled for sociodemographic data, like public insurance and living in a poorer area, as well things like obesity and other conditions, blacks were no more likely to die than whites. The conditions that caused risk are often cause by poverty and living conditions, but not by the medical risk of race. In a pandemic, weakness are laid bare. Systemic racism becomes visible. . .
…I am learning more, and agree with our march tomorrow in support of learning about and facing our own racism. Our march in the morning is organized by University of Washington physicians who wrote an open letter (link below) advocating a non-racist response to the demonstrations. It directly called out the lethal dangers of white supremacy and the difference in response to the earlier white armed protestors. More than 1200 public health professionals and physicians signed it. These efforts have helped the health department shift to supporting the protests, despite the risks of the Coronavirus. They called for the police to stop the use of teargas because it can increase transmission of the coronavirus and today the Chief of Police announced the ban, recognizing that the vast majority of protesters are peaceful. Looting was not done by the demonstrators.
[It’s worth reading her whole blog tonight.]
https://betsybrownmd.substack.com/
VIRTUAL CHALK TOUR
Jonny has been hard at work on internet support for the Chalk Festival! YES! It looks like we’ll be able to upload our photos of our own Chalk (and Chalkers?), linked to our location, so shut-in neighbors can still come see. And we’ll all have plenty of time to see all the chalk. Our neighborhood is really pretty big: 1700 houses! If a whole lot of us join in, it will help if we can take weeks to see it all.
Jonny added a place on the registration form where neighbors can donate the sidewalk in front of their own house if they don’t plan to chalk on it.
Hey! Does anybody have a drone with a good camera? It might be cool to get a bird’s eye view of our joyful sidewalks.
Yes, I’m still making this up as I go along, but now other people are starting to make it up too. I’m pretty excited! And Zeke’s cousin sent another big box of chalk. And a neighbor dropped off an envelope with a donation to get still more chalk. I’m starting to believe that if you can’t find chalk, we may actually be able to come up with enough for everyone!
LAWN CARE
My son and two friends are feeling entrepreneurial.
Grass too tall? Give us a call!
Three Whatcom Middle School students are ready to mow your lawn and help with other yard work. We will bring our own equipment and will abide by safety standards. Email us at lawncare272@gmail.com or call at 360-410-2474. Prices negotiable. ~ Noah Bandstra, Soren Vanyo and Archer Burns.
~ Jessica Bandstra
RADIO FREE FL!P: NINA SIMONE
I Wish I Knew How It Feels To Be Free