This morning I woke up to the awful news of the death of George Floyd on the corner of 38th and Chicago. He said his last words with a (now fired) police officer's knee on his neck as he lay handcuffed on the street, under arrest for allegedly trying to pay for something with a fake $20 bill. You're going to see this story unfold through the lens of the news cameras. You're going to come to conclusions about the neighborhood, the police, Mr. Lloyd, the city of Minneapolis. The scene of this horror will seem like it's far away from Chanhassen, but it's not. The neighborhood isn't "sketchy" or "troubled" or "dangerous." It's mine--and I care about it, a lot. George Floyd died four blocks from my home. I've lived in my house for 24 years. I know everyone on my block and many, many people on the blocks around me. I know the corner of 38th and Chicago well. My best friends go to church down the street and I regularly walk or run through that intersection when I'm exercising. As a white person I cannot begin to imagine the anger and trauma this brings once again to people of color, but I can tell you that our neighborhood is heartbroken that it's happened again. So now, in addition to all of the perspectives you'll get on social media and from the local reporters, you have another one--this time it's from someone who cares deeply about the neighborhood where this happened. Other people live here too. My neighbors. Now you know someone who lives here. You can ask questions of a real person that you know. If you were keeping up with the news in the last month, you'd have noticed a lot of talk about another place I really care about. New Mexico is not usually the first state on the minds of many other Americans. Some people haven't even gotten the memo that it's in the United States. I've told you all stories about how kids with whom I went to college asked me if I would drive to LA on the weekends (not realizing it's 800 miles away). Yep, it's gorgeous. People visit from all over the world. It's also one of the lowest-income states in the country. Even when income is counted to include noncash and cash public benefits, New Mexicans don't earn a whole lot of money. A big part of the reason that New Mexico is a high-poverty state lies in its lack of population density. Unfortunately, wealthy people visiting and moving there from other parts of the country have not helped much in stimulating New Mexico's economy. The reality of New Mexico and the New Mexico that visitors see are usually very different pictures. When people tell me how much they love Santa Fe and Taos after visiting and finding out that's where I grew up, I often groan inside--none of the people who served these folks in the hotels and restaurants they enjoyed can afford to live in either of these places. Workers commute many miles from neighboring towns to serve folks from out of state. How do I know this? I grew up there. That's what a number of my friends from high school, some of whom grew up without being connected to the electrical grid or a water system, ended up doing. Native Americans in New Mexico are experiencing COVID-19 in a very different way than most of you have in Carver County. The Navajo Nation in particular, this country's largest sovereign Native American nation, has been particularly hard hit. They've got the highest rate of infection in the country, 4633 confirmed cases, 153 deaths in just over 156,000 people (there are about 350,000 Navajo, or Dine, people in the United States in total). At that rate, everyone knows someone who has suffered, is suffering or has died from COVID-19. The Pueblos, where I grew up, are getting hit even harder. Facts don't move us off of our preconceived opinions, interestingly. We tend to think that we are correct even in light of facts that contradict our own conclusions. What moves us out of our silos is relationships with people who are different from us.
There are different places. You can make the most of finding them by doing what I asked you to do on the first day of class: entertain the idea that there is a possibility that you might be wrong and then ask other people from other places what they think. If we were in class together, I'd tell you that someday you're going to want to explain this time to yourself. Open your mind to the fact of other places and start asking questions.
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You're looking at the Keukenhof Gardens outside of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. You can take a virtual tour as well, here in Geek Out.
This post isn't about flowers, though. Yesterday the Atlantic published the most remarkable column by Albert Brooks (not the comedian): “Ruminating over what might have been and what might happen will reliably deliver unhappiness,” he explains. “If you practice eliminating these mental errors during the pandemic, you’ll be happier today, and better equipped to deal with the hard parts of ordinary life, whenever it resumes.” (keep on reading, this is a link!) I thought of you all as I read that this morning. Every high school student in the world is experiencing a very different life than they expected to have. If you're feeling angry, sad, lonely, etc. you are most definitely not alone. Yet you still have to try to figure out where you will be on the other side of this, because there will be another side of this. You don't have to put the things that are important to you aside forever, or even for now. Check out these stories of teenagers who are doing wonderful work. Remember what I told you in class: if any teenager is getting up and speaking truth to power, even if you don't agree with what they're saying, they deserve your attention. We can all learn from their commitment and engagement. That's because we're all going to need you to run the world someday. Get ready! Yesterday Governor Tim Walz announced Minnesota's plan to begin testing people for COVID-19 at a level of intensity that we have not seen anywhere else in the United States (and in many countries, for that matter). Operating from the position that we'll be more successful in addressing the effects of COVID-19 if we actually know how many people have the virus, we are likely to see huge increases in reported cases in Minnesota over the next few weeks. Compare the 23 confirmed cases in the circle above to the likely 28,000 actual infections in major US cities as of March 1, in today's New York Times. We know that hidden cases of this virus spread just like confirmed cases do. This will be hard to watch.
However, think about how much harder it would be to live somewhere that isn't taking this position right now. Governors of several states, including Texas, Florida and Georgia are lifting some restrictions on businesses and even Donald Trump appears now to be nervous about this. As usual, you can imagine that I will strongly suggest that you maintain your balanced media diet. Start by seeing for yourselves what the numbers are all over the world using this great tracker from Microsoft (in the interest of full disclosure, yes, this came from my brother who works there). It uses AI to predict 7 days out and it will be interesting to see how it accounts for Minnesota's aggressive testing. Compare it to the resources I shared earlier. The trick to keeping up with the news now (and anytime, really) is to look for facts that are verified in several different sources by different journalists. For example, are you seeing exciting stories about a medication that hasn't been tested much yet, but commentators say is likely to be a "game-changer"? A great exercise is to see which, if any, other news sources are independently investigating the claims while the claims are being made. In the case of hydroxycholorquine, commentators' excitement led to hoarding of the drug (actually useful for people with Lupus) and people buying all the tonic water in the country. Now, the story is different. Put yourself in a position where you can see that coming next time by making sure you have a balanced media diet. As you know, the title of this blog came from one of your colleagues' responses to my questions at the beginning of school closure. This is indeed, the weirdest year of any of our lives so far.
Think about the way you were encouraged to set up your lives before this to get some perspective. Most of my students readily shared with me that they were scheduled within an inch of their lives before the pandemic. Jobs, robotics team meetings, band practice, dance practice, softball lessons, helping family out at home, hockey club practice, meetings related to religion and faith, debate, quizbowl, speech, student council, DECA...all of this on top of and in competition with a full day of school and homework. During that school day, you were mostly told exactly where you needed to be on a moment-by-moment basis. When I would ask students why they maintained such hectic schedules, they'd invariably talk about how it would prepare them for the future, ranging from participating in activities as "resume builders" for college applications to work that would allow them to save money, develop specific skills and build direct connections for their next life. And now many of you seem to be pretty bored. Of course you are--think about it! It's impossible for adults to fill your lives right now at the level to which you were used to keeping yourself occupied. You'll get very few chances in live to hit the pause button and it's just been hit for you. How are you getting through it? What sort of person do you want to be when you come out on the other side?
To begin with, this is from Texas, and not the Great State of New Mexico My Home State, but I will say this is the coolest thing I've seen this week. Roma High School is down by the border. Throughout the Southwest, Mariachi music is a Big Deal--this is one of their award-winning high school bands:
Are you curious about how every single other school district in the country is handling the COVID-19 outbreak? Visit ArcGIS/MCH's masterpiece, below:
You'll notice that these are state by state decisions. That's because schools are under state jurisdiction. The 10th Amendment provides that any power not specifically given to the federal government in the Constitution goes to the States and the people. Only governors can close schools statewide, just as governors have the right to issue other emergency orders. There was some debate about that this week as the President learned that he would not be able to force states to open their economies sooner than they think is prudent under any "absolute authority". The 10th Amendment does not even imply that the President needs to authorize or give permission for states to exercise this power. You just saw a constitutional question play out in public that you are unlikely to ever see again in your lifetime, as long as our system continues to exist. Pay attention.
In case you're curious about the epidemiology that's informing the Department of Health here in Minnesota, the University of Minnesota has been producing a really remarkable series of podcasts called Health in All Matters. The most recent episode explains how hard it will be to reopen any state economy until people can access tests for COVID-19. State epidemiologists across the country are reporting that shortages of tests as well as supplies needed for tests (like q-tips, for example) make it impossible for them to know how many people have the virus. You'll recall that we talked about testing during the second week of March in class. Meanwhile, the President has apparently decided to pull $500 million from the World Health Organization. Fox News has this coverage and this as well. Compare the BBC and Fox. How are they similar and different? If you were sitting in my classroom today, we'd have discussed this along with the critical importance right now of maintaining a balanced media diet. Please reflect on this: this week, where have you gotten your news? How do you think that's affected your perspective? Why are we shutting down the economy if we only have 10 cases of covid-19 in carver county?4/6/2020 If this is your question, the answers lie in the way that epidemiologists use math. Here's the most effective explanation for how a pandemic works that I've seen yet, produced by Twin Cities Public Television.
Another thing to consider is that we are highly mobile people. It's easy to assume that population density would be the biggest contributor to the spread of this virus, and indeed New York is showing us that disease is spreading rapidly there. However, think about all the other reasons we move ourselves (and our personal copies of this virus) around. CityLab has this awesome analysis of why density isn't the only factor. A few countries have tried to deliberately and quickly build "herd immunity," which is based in the argument that if a lot of people get this virus quickly, then the virus won't have any people left to infect. The UK was notable in pursuing, and then backing off, this policy. The problem with "herd immunity" is that, because we use our health care system to save people's lives instead of just letting people die, we'll overwhelm our hospitals before we see the benefits of immunity. Now UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in the hospital with COVID-19 and Queen Elizabeth delivered a rare speech to the country. (For you language enthusiasts, here's BBC Pidgin's coverage of the Queen's speech--is Pidgin a language or a dialect?) So, answer your own question. Why have epidemiologists told everyone in the country to stay inside? Why are we willing to risk the economy for the sake of limiting transmission? Let's hear it for crowdsourcing!
If you have a smartphone, you're likely contributing to the enormous amount of data which are allowing journalists to analyze where people are moving around, even if they've been told not to. Check out this amazing set of maps from yesterday's New York Times. Here, you can see all kinds of geography and sociology at play. For example, I can tell you for sure that people are still moving around in eastern New Mexico because in many of those communities the nearest grocery store might be more than 20 miles away. However, in communities that aren't food deserts, these data can also show us how seriously people are (or are not) taking what epidemiologists are telling us all about the spread of the virus. Also, check out this app. Much like the amazing Mapaton, which allowed Mexico City residents to design their own city's public transit plan by showing who went where on thousands of private transit trips, the COVID Symptom Tracker is collecting millions of people's self-reported data on how well they're feeling. This will allow for a real-time tracking of SYMPTOMS, instead of waiting for test results. As we all know, COVID-19 tests are scarce in the United States and elsewhere, can take up to 15 days to provide results and are only being administered to people who already show serious enough symptoms to land in the hospital here in Minnesota. I've signed up myself and I've been reporting that I'm fortunate, so far, to be feeling good! This is all brought to you by geographers through the majesty of GIS. Have I mentioned lately what an awesome career cartography is now, and how it's one of the fastest growing fields of employment? Hope you're all well! Hello from my living room in South Minneapolis. Thanks, everyone, for answering my questions about how we'll go from here. The title of this blog was a comment by one of your colleagues in response to my check in with you at the beginning of this online school adventure. I thought it was a very efficient way to describe where we all are right now. Overwhelmingly, you told me you want to study this pandemic in the context of our coursework. This page will collect resources that we can all use to maintain our balanced media diets. I'd appreciate your help. If you come across a cool map, a particularly insightful analysis, etc. please send it to me through the comments here or via email. I'll get it out here for everyone to see. If you have a question about the pandemic and its effect on everyone on the planet, please post it in the comments. We've been using GIS to map the coronavirus in real time. Most of these maps are updated daily. They show an astonishing spread of COVID-19, especially in the United States. You know I've been making masks at the request of my local hospital. Never in a million years did I imagine I would be doing this. We're talking more about masks lately than any of us have before, ever. [The Atlantic's coverage of the pandemic, in my opinion, has been outstanding--and it's free to everyone] A few weeks ago I recommended this excellent piece from Foreign Affairs. See if you can identify some of the things we've all learned since. Looking back is just as important as trying to look forward in this situation: we will learn from history. And finally, what are all those sportscasters up to now that sports are cancelled? Andrew Cotter from BBC Sport is finding competition everywhere. "Olive focused, relentless, tasting absolutely nothing!" Your teacher has watched that at least 20 times in the last four days. More to come. Hope you're all well, friends. |
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