Seat cover on the first Etihad Airlines scheduled flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, April 6, 2021. (Twitter)
Airliner with VIPs arrives at Ben Gurion Airport, UAE Ambassador hails the new service as a sign of growing peace.
By: Paul Shindman
The first commercial passenger Arab airline flight from Abu Dhabi to Israel landed in Tel Aviv Tuesday with Etihad Airways flight flight 598 making its historic touch down at Ben Gurion International Airport.
Etihad has flown several test flights to Israel in the past year including two cargo flights with coronavirus relief supplies for the Palestinians, but Tuesday’s flight marked the inauguration of Etihad’s regular service between the two countries.
The flight carried several VIPs including Mohamed Al Khaja, the UAE’s first ambassador to Israel, Eitan Na’eh, head of mission at the Embassy of Israel in Abu Dhabi, and Tony Douglas, chief executive of Etihad Airways, the UAE newspaper The National reported, adding that all passengers and crew had been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“I am overwhelmed by emotions while on board the first flight inaugurated by the UAE’s Etihad Airways between Abu Dhabi and Israel. This is an additional historical separation in the web of the growing relations between the two countries,” Na’eh tweeted in Arabic.
“Today marks the inaugural flight of Etihad Airways from our beloved capital, Abu Dhabi, to Tel Aviv, the flight on which I have arrived to begin my duties as the first ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the state of Israel,” Al Khaja said.
“Since the signing of the Abraham Accords between the UAE and Israel last summer, the two countries have worked together to embark upon a new and dynamic era of cooperation,” Al Khaja said. “Israel and the UAE have moved swiftly to make the bold vision that first underpinned the accords a reality.”
“As we move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic there will be plenty of reasons to visit us in the UAE,” the ambassador said. “We look forward to welcoming Israelis with true Emirati friendship and hospitality … today, we share a commitment to building a warm peace.”
Al Khaja finished his comments by saying in Hebrew “I am happy to be here.”
Etihad will operate twice-weekly flights using Boeing 787 aircraft and will expand that to seven flights a week beginning in June, the website SimplyFlying reported. Along with Etihad and El Al, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will also begin regular service between Tel Aviv and the UAE later this month and also plans to ramp up to seven weekly flights by the summer. Al Khaja noted that Emirates Airlines and Air Dubai will also start flights to Tel Aviv in the near future.
“In a year that’s seen tourism crippled and the aviation industry face its biggest ever crisis, it’s nice to see history being made this morning,” tweeted The National travel reporter Hayley Scottie, who was on the flight.
Etihad is the second flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates and its head office is in Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi, in close proximity to Abu Dhabi International Airport. Etihad commenced operations in November 2003. Wikipedia reported that the airline operates more than 1,000 flights per week to over 120 passenger and cargo destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America, with a fleet of 102 Airbus and Boeing aircraft as of February 2020. In 2015, Etihad carried 14.8 million passengers, a 22.3% increase from the previous year, delivering revenues of $9.02 billion and net profits of $103 million.
Moreover, Wikipedia reported that in addition to its core activity of passenger transportation, Etihad also operates Etihad Holidays and Etihad Cargo.
Ravi Bhalla, mayor of Hoboken, N.J., joins Rabbi Moshe Schapiro of Chabad of Hoboken and Jersey City in placing coins in a charity box known as the ARK on Education and Sharing Day in Hoboken, N.J.
From the White House to small town America, the country unites in honoring the Rebbe
By: Tzemach Feller
After a year in which schools were shuttered for long months and education faced profound setbacks, dozens of cities and counties, nearly every state as well as the White House have united today in proclaiming Education and Sharing Day, a day focused on the higher purpose of education: building students’ character and emphasizing moral and ethical values. These values were consistently promoted by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. Recognizing the Rebbe’s profound contributions towards the advancement of promoting moral and ethical education, every president since Jimmy Carter in 1978 has proclaimed the date of the Rebbe’s birth—11 Nissan, this year March 24—to be Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A.
Rep. Carlton Wing holds up a charity box, known as an ARK, in the Arkansas House of Representatives
In his proclamation for Education and Sharing Day, 2021, President Joe Biden focused on the significance of the day after a year of pain and loss. “If the isolation and loss of the last year has taught us anything, it is just how much we need each other, how intertwined our lives are, and how deeply we crave conversation, connection, and community. We are at our best when we work together and help our neighbors, whether down the road or around the world.”
“This lesson is at the heart of Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., when we celebrate the role models, mentors, and leaders who devote themselves to the progress and success of each new generation, to reinforcing our common bonds, and to lifting up our highest ideals. Today, we mark the legacy of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, a guiding light of the international Chabad-Lubavitch movement and a testament to the power and resilience of the human spirit.”
Richard David, the mayor of Binghamton, N.Y., presents the city’s Education and Sharing Day proclamation to Rabbi Aaron Slonim, executive director of Chabad of Binghamton. (Credit: Megan J. Brockett)
“This initiative has been supported annually by every President since Jimmy Carter, and underscores the importance of inculcating our young people with good education and values,” Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) Washington, D.C., told Chabad.org. “Thankfully, this initiative has transcended partisanship for decades, and allowed leaders from across the political spectrum to help further the Rebbe’s passionate vision and hope for the betterment of society.”
Shemtov annually coordinates Education Day proclamations across the country together with his father, Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, national director of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) and chairman of Agudas Chasidei Chabad—the umbrella organization of Chabad-Lubavitch—who coordinated the activities surrounding the very first Education Day celebration in Washington, D.C., back in 1978.
Re-Energizing Education After the Pandemic
President Joe Biden’s proclamation was echoed throughout the country, as nearly all 50 states issued proclamations of their own, and scores of municipalities did the same. From Chicago, Ill.; Orlando, Fla.; and Newark, N.J., to Kauai, Hawaii; Vacaville, Calif.; and Altoona, Pa., local governments recognized the Rebbe’s message: that education should not merely focus on the acquisition of knowledge and preparation for a career, but that it focus on building character and inculcating values of morality, ethics and charity.
It’s a message that rings truer than ever following the devastation that the pandemic wrought on education throughout the United States and around the world.
Charlotte Craven, the mayor of Camarillo, Calif., poses with Rabbi Aryeh Lang, who directs Chabad of Camarillo, at an Education and Sharing Day 2021 proclamation ceremony on the grounds of Gan Camarillo, a local preschool under the auspices of the Chabad center.
“There is a concern about the learning loss that children are experiencing due to the remote nature of education this year,” Dr. Ashley Berner, director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and an associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Education told Chabad.org. “Not only in this country but worldwide there is a learning loss, particularly for low-income children, that may endure for a generation.”
State Leaders Give Tribute to the Rebbe
Reflecting on the urgency the pandemic has brought to re-energizing and promoting education, governors from Minnesota to Texas and from California to New Hampshire proclaimed Education and Sharing Day in their respective states. Recognizing that the pandemic has “disrupted the continuity and traditional models of education across our nation and around the world,” wrote Hawaii Gov. David Ige in his state’s proclamation, “has yielded opportunities for educators to adopt new teaching and learning methods, skills and technologies and focus on character development, self-empowerment and well-being of self and community.” At the same time governors such as Delaware’s John C. Carney have urged local citizens to “reach out to those within your communities and work to create a better, brighter and more hopeful future for us all,” as the Delaware state Education Day proclamation stated.
A Global Initiative to Become Givers
On house and senate floors in state capitols, elected officials paid tribute to the Rebbe’s teachings and vision and rededicated themselves and their constituencies to the ideals of morality, ethics and charity. In the Arkansas House of Representatives, charity boxes and accompanying cards had been placed on each representative’s desk.
The charity boxes—known as ARKs for the acronym of “Acts of Random Kindness” or “Acts of Routine Kindness”—also graced the desks in the Texas House of Representatives, part of a global initiative to train people to be givers.
“There is perhaps no greater way of observing Education and Sharing Day than by making giving a habit in our everyday lives,” said Texas House Speaker Pro Tempore Joe Moody, “thereby transforming acts of random kindness into acts of routine kindness.”
“The card is in recognition of Rabbi Menachem Schneerson—who’s affectionately known as the Rebbe—the most influential rabbi in modern history,” said Arkansas Rep. Carlton Wing. “It is his work that has spanned the globe and affected the lives of many.”
“The Rebbe emphasized that the building of character with moral and ethical values as the foundation of a true education is essential,” Wing added. “It accentuates the importance of teaching principled and just behavior and personal responsibility for the betterment of society.”
Idaho Gov. Brad Little (center) poses with Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz (second from right) who directs Chabad of Idaho, as well as several local community members at the signing ceremony of the State of Idaho’s Education and Sharing Day Proclamation on March 24, 2021. (Credit: Dan Berger)
“The Governors of the state of Arkansas have been very supportive of this campaign,” said Rabbi Pinchus Ciment, who directs Lubavitch of Arkansas. “This year, the State Senate and House have joined as well to further promote this day. As awareness has grown, appreciation for the importance of this issue continues to gain more support.”
“Pointing students to the beliefs and systems that call us to something greater than the self is really important,” said Berner of Johns Hopkins. “It’s impossible to avoid ethics, because we answer ethical questions in our every behavior, and it’s impossible to construct a school without referencing some type of moral values.”
Building Character, One City at a Time
Education Day isn’t limited to state capitals and the federal government. In scores of cities across the United States—both large and small—mayors, city councils, county commissioners and town supervisors put pen to paper to promote education and sharing on the Rebbe’s date of birth.
In El Paso, Texas, Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Levi Greenberg emphasized the need to teach young people kindness and unity, recalling in particular the horrific shooting that took place in his hometown in 2019.
“Less than two years ago, El Paso experienced one of the worst mass shootings in our nation’s history, caused by a young man consumed with hatred. We strive to be an example of how to respond to such evil by increasing light and encouraging unity among all people,” Greenberg told Chabad.org. “Education and Sharing Day emphasizes our ability and obligation to nurture compassion, empathy and love in our young ones.”
In Vacaville, Calif., Rabbi Chaim Zaklos, who directs Chabad of Solano County, said the day is a reminder of the tremendous and ongoing affect the Rebbe continues to have on the city.
“The Rebbe’s clarion call is the driving force behind countless social, educational and religious efforts that have changed our community,” said Zaklos. “It is only appropriate that on his birthday all of us—rabbis, teachers, local leaders and community members—rededicate ourselves to the Rebbe’s vision of transforming the world for the better—one child at a time, one community at a time, and one city at a time.”
A prominent leader in her field, Dr. Woolforde helped Northwell achieve the Center of Excellence in Nursing Education designation from the National League for Nursing (NLN), which made Northwell the first health system in the U.S. to earn this elite honor.
A board-certified nursing executive, Dr. Woolforde will lead patient-centered nursing care, quality and safety standards
By: Margarita Oksenkrug
Launette Woolforde, EdD, DNP, RN, NPD-BC, NEA-BC, FAAN, an internationally-renowned expert in nursing and healthcare, has been named chief nursing officer at Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital (MEETH), and Lenox Health Greenwich Village (LHGV). She will be responsible for providing strategic oversight of patient-centered nursing care, including implementing quality and safety standards, as well as for fostering a highly-engaged, supportive nursing environment that ensures professionalism and collaboration. She is board-certified in nursing professional development and as an advanced nurse executive.
Dr. Woolforde previously served as vice president of nursing education and professional development for Northwell Health. In that role, she oversaw a broad scope of strategic efforts and clinical education programs that impacted more than 17,000 nurses across the enterprise. She joined the health system in 2005 and has held progressive leadership roles throughout her tenure, including as corporate director of nursing education and senior administrative director for patient care services. Dr. Woolforde began her career as a nurse in medical, surgical and critical areas and later worked as a nurse supervisor and educator at various Long Island facilities. She is currently an assistant professor of science education at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and has taught at several nursing schools throughout her career.
A prominent leader in her field, Dr. Woolforde helped Northwell achieve the Center of Excellence in Nursing Education designation from the National League for Nursing (NLN), which made Northwell the first health system in the U.S. to earn this elite honor. Committed to investing in nursing education and career development, she has consistently created programs and opportunities to enable Northwell nurses to pursue and earn board certification and career progression. Northwell’s nurse certification rate among nurse leaders and frontline clinical nurses is consistently higher than the national mean for Magnet designated-hospitals.
Her other achievements include launching a centralized, systemwide, interprofessional orientation program; creating a multiphase learning curriculum for the SkyHealth air medical transport program; creating and leading the systemwide Magnet Council; spearheading the development of the oncology nursing fellowship and most recently, the systemwide nurse residency program.
Dr. Woolforde boasts an impressive list of professional achievements and prestigious accolades. She was the recipient of the 2019 International Founder’s Award for excellence in nursing practice from the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society for Nursing and was named a 2019 National Certified Nurse of the Year by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
That same year, Dr. Woolforde was honored with the Columbia University, Teachers College Nursing Education Alumni Achievement Award for nursing practice and was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame. In 2017, she was selected as the recipient of the national Belinda E. Puetz Founders Award from the Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD). She and her teams have been finalists in the Northwell Health President’s Award program over several years.
As a highly sought-after speaker and presenter, Dr. Woolforde has been invited to lecture, teach and consult nationally and internationally on such topics as effectively influencing decision-makers, motivating and inspiring others, driving change, leading in a changing and challenging healthcare landscape, succeeding with interprofessional collaboration, and transforming the practice of nursing. She has been the principal investigator in an array of studies, which have primarily focused on nursing leadership, education and collaboration. She is an author of the current national scope and standards of practice for nursing professional development.
Dr. Woolforde is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) and the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) and a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NAM). She made numerous contributions to the profession in her two terms as a national board governor of the NLN and as a national board director of ANPD, where she launched a national diversity task force among other initiatives.
A driven nursing educator with a commitment to lifelong learning, Dr. Woolforde has earned numerous academic degrees. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Pace University, she went on to earn a master’s degree as an adult clinical nurse specialist from the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing at CUNY Hunter College and a post-masters certificate in nursing education from the College of New Rochelle School of Nursing. Dr. Woolforde subsequently earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and a Doctor of Education (EdD) degree from Columbia University, Teachers College. She is the first nurse at Northwell to earn two doctoral degrees.
Lenox Hill, ranked by US News & World Report as one the top 10 hospitals in the state of New York has a long history of nursing achievement. It recently received the rare and coveted Magnet status for its commitment to nursing excellence and dedication to the highest quality of patient care. The prestigious international designation from the ANCC has been achieved by only eight percent of hospitals worldwide.
Lenox Hill nurses have also been honored with the Gold Beacon Award for Excellence for providing evidence-based care that has improved patient experience and outcomes. Of the 1,200 nurses employed by the hospital, 93% of clinical nurses possess a BSN degree or higher and 42% are board-certified, which is slightly above the national average.
The Commission on Cancer approval is bestowed only to programs that meet national quality care standards in 34 key areas
By: Margarita Oksenkrug
Lenox Hill Hospital has been granted accreditation by the Commission on Cancer (CoC) for its cancer program, which is part of the Northwell Health Cancer Institute, one the largest oncology programs in the New York metropolitan area. Lenox Hill is one of six CoC-accredited medical centers in Manhattan and the ninth Northwell hospital to receive the coveted recognition.
To earn this voluntary accreditation, a cancer program must meet national quality care standards in 34 key areas and maintain specific levels of excellence in the delivery of comprehensive, patient-centered care.
“This very important accreditation is the culmination of many years of hard work and dedication on the part of our talented clinicians and staff,” said Dennis Kraus, MD, vice chair of the department of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery and director of the center for head and neck oncology, who led the charge on pursuing the CoC accreditation. “It highlights the exceptional level of comprehensive, innovative and personalized cancer care we offer at Lenox Hill.”
The Cancer Institute at Lenox Hill provides access to coordinated inpatient, surgical and outpatient programs at convenient locations throughout Manhattan. The vast multidisciplinary network of specialized clinicians offers services at Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital (MEETH), Lenox Heath Greenwich Village and at nearby physician practices, all of which share electronic medical records to allow for seamless, integrated care.
Lenox Hill’s cancer program offers a broad array of oncology services in more than a dozen clinical specialties, including breast surgery, gynecologic oncology, gastrointestinal cancer, head and neck surgery, neurosurgery, urologic surgery and thoracic surgery. The state-of-the-art imaging services and radiation therapy options are complemented by the recently expanded medical oncology program. Prominent cancer experts — renowned for their work in clinical care, research and education — are continually recruited to leadership positions.
As a CoC-accredited facility, Lenox Hill takes a multidisciplinary approach to treating cancer and offers options that focus on the full spectrum of oncologic care, including prevention, early diagnosis, innovative therapies, surgical intervention, rehabilitation, follow-up for recurrent disease and end-of-life care. In addition to the latest medicine-based therapies and surgical interventions, cancer patients are offered a diverse suite of psycho-social support services, including social work, patient navigation, nutritional and genetic counseling, support groups and palliative care.
Patients are also granted full access to information on clinical trials, new treatments and genetic counseling. Northwell has been a leader in cancer clinical trials for more than 30 years and offers 150 active trials at any given time. The Cancer Institute collaborates with researchers at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, as well as cooperative groups across the country to provide access to the latest clinical trials.
Like all other programs accredited by the CoC, Lenox Hill maintains a cancer registry and contributes data to the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB), a joint program of the CoC and American Cancer Society. The nationwide oncology outcomes database is the largest clinical disease registry in the world and is used to analyze trends in cancer care. This gives Lenox Hill access to exclusive information used to create national, regional and state benchmark reports, which in turn help hospital leadership develop essential quality improvement initiatives.
“We are extremely proud to receive a national accreditation from the Commission on Cancer, as this recognition validates that we are well equipped to compete with the top cancer programs in the country,” said Mark Schiffer, MD, executive director of Lenox Hill Hospital. “The cutting-edge oncology programs and services being offering in Manhattan add to Northwell’s long history of delivering superior cancer care to diverse communities throughout the New York metro area.”
Northwell Health Cancer Institute, which brings comprehensive care and support to patients throughout Long Island, Staten Island, Westchester, Queens and greater Manhattan, is one of the largest cancer programs in the country with a team of more than 200 world-class oncology experts across 25 medical disciplines who diagnose and treat 19,000 new cancer patients each year. It seamlessly integrates world-class hospitals, innovative treatments and leading oncology experts that can treat the most complex cancer cases.
Under the direction of Richard Barakat, MD, physician-in-chief and director of cancer, the Institute’s priorities include continued investment in Manhattan oncology services, expansion of clinical trials, development of specialized cancer programs, establishment of centers of excellence in pancreatic care and oncology care for pregnant women, and enhancement of cancer services within the health system’s eastern region in Suffolk County.
According to the New York State Department of Health, more New Yorkers choose Northwell for cancer care than any other health system. In addition to the CoC accreditation, the Institute’s programs have been accredited by several other leading cancer care organizations, including the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC), the American Institute of Minimally Invasive Surgery (AIMIS), the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT), and the American College of Radiology (ACR).
The American Cancer Society estimates that almost 1.9 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2021 and projects more than 600,000 deaths from the disease. After increasing for most of the 20th century, the cancer death rate has been steadily decreasing from its peak three decades ago, for a total decline of 31 percent due to a reduction in smoking, as well as improvements in early detection and treatment. Even with the drop in death rates, cancer continues to be the second most common cause of death in men and women in the US.
Established in 1922 by the American College of Surgeons, the CoC is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to improving patient outcomes and quality of life for cancer patients through standard-setting, prevention, research, education, and the monitoring of comprehensive, quality care. Its membership includes Fellows of the American College of Surgeons.
Pfizer Inc. announced last Wednesday that its coronavirus vaccine is safe and remarkably effective in children as young as 12.
By: Robin Foster & Ernie Mundell
Pfizer Inc. announced last Wednesday that its coronavirus vaccine is safe and remarkably effective in children as young as 12.
In a news release issued by Pfizer and its vaccine development partner, BioNTech, company executives said data from a trial of the vaccine in nearly 2,300 people between the ages of 12 and 15 will be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks.
“We share the urgency to expand the authorization of our vaccine to use in younger populations and are encouraged by the clinical trial data from adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15,” Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said in the news release. “We plan to submit these data to FDA as a proposed amendment to our Emergency Use Authorization in the coming weeks and to other regulators around the world, with the hope of starting to vaccinate this age group before the start of the next school year.”
In the Phase 3 trial, the vaccine was 100 percent effective at preventing symptomatic illness within the trial, with 18 cases of COVID-19 in the group that received a placebo and none in the group that received the vaccine, the companies said. The vaccine triggered immune responses that were even more robust than those seen in young adults.
Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University, told The New York Times that she had expected antibody levels in adolescents to be comparable to those in young adults. “But they’re getting even better levels from the vaccines,” she said. “That’s really incredible.”
The finding is the beginning of what many families have been anxiously waiting to see, though the companies did not release detailed data from the trial, which has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is now authorized by the FDA for emergency use for people aged 16 and older.
Last week, Pfizer-BioNTech also started a trial in younger children, aged 6 months to 11 years. That trial will first establish a safe dose first in children 5 to 11, then in 2- to 5-year-olds and then in children from 6 months to 2 years, the companies said.
“We all long for a normal life. This is especially true for our children. The initial results we have seen in the adolescent studies suggest that children are particularly well protected by vaccination,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said in the companies’ news release.
Moderna is also conducting similar trials to test its coronavirus vaccine in teenagers and young children. Its vaccine is authorized by the FDA for emergency use for people over age 18.
Biden calls for return to mask mandates as cases rise
As new coronavirus cases begin to rise again across America, President Joe Biden on Monday called on governors to bring back state mask mandates.
Just hours earlier, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, delivered an emotional plea to Americans to keep following social distancing measures to stem the spread of COVID-19.
The former Harvard Medical School professor and infectious disease specialist described “a feeling of nausea” she experienced last year when, caring for patients at Massachusetts General Hospital, she saw the corpses of COVID-19 victims piled up, overflowing from the morgue. She recalled how she stood — “gowned, gloved, masked, shielded” — as the last one in a hospital room before a patient died alone.
“I am asking you to just hold on a little longer, to get vaccinated when you can, so that all of those people that we all love will still be here when this pandemic ends,” Walensky said during a media briefing.
Walensky appeared to fight back tears as she admitted to feeling a sense of “impending doom” about a possible fourth surge in infections.
As of Sunday, the seven-day average of new virus cases was about 63,000, the Times reported. That was up from 54,000 a day two weeks earlier, an increase of more than 16 percent.
Although nearly 1 in 3 American adults have received at least one shot and almost one-fifth have gotten their second shot, the nation is nowhere near herd immunity yet, the Times reported. That tipping point comes when spread of a virus slows because so many people, estimated at 70 to 90 percent of the population, are immune to it.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School in Portland, Oregon is currently delaying the adoption of a new mascot, a tree. In today’s hyperpolitical public education system, it seems that even trees are unable to avoid identity politics.
Students were excited to celebrate natural wonders. Unfortunately, the vote on this resolution was delayed because Portland Public Schools Board of Education Director, Michelle DePass has growing concerns that trees could possibly be seen as a symbol of lynchings from the past. She commented, “I’ve heard from a couple of community members now about the idea of using a tree — which, of course, I mean, personally, I love evergreens, I’m from Oregon — but using a tree that’s used to lynch people in our mascot, if there was any consideration as to the imagery there, that we’ve all seen from people hanging from trees and using this mascot.”
According to Ida Wells principal Filip Hristic, “Ida Wells has a very particular connection to Woodrow Wilson, which we thought was a wonderful counterpoint to the history that we were trying to both surface and and move away from. And it was somebody who stood strong and stood proud against what Woodrow Wilson and many others, like him have promoted.”
He went on to state, “And so we felt like she was a very appropriate choice for us in response to his legacy. And in choosing the mascot, as we looked around our community to see what is most prominent, what is most reflective of where we are, evergreen seemed like an obvious choice. The last thing I would want is to inadvertently cause harm, or to in any way be associated with what she devoted her life to fight against,” speaking of the school’s namesake.
Adding noncognitive, natural plants to the ever-growing list of “things considered racist” in modern society is a sign of the times. With critical-race theory being heralded and pushed by many leaders in power, this kind of inadvertent dilemma will not be an isolated incident.
hese are not even half of the list of “things considered racist” by the far Left.
This culture of extreme racial sensitivity may lead us to ponder that if trees are now “racist” because they were once used to lynch people, then wouldn’t fluoridated water be anti-Semitic? The Nazis did fluoridate their own people’s water.
If correlation between objects that have nothing to do with actions continues to grow, at this rate, everything will be considered racist within the decade. If everything is racist, then how will those who do not wish to judge people based on their skin color or ethnicity be able to live freely? How will a simple law-abiding freedom-loving American look to their neighbors without worry of offending or being socially abused into taking offense?
This line of thinking leads down many paths. We, as Americans can never truly unify if trees themselves are considered symbols of racism instead of the beautiful symbols of growth, perseverance, and strength that they should be for high school students, and everyone everywhere.
Trees have historically been used to build homes, furniture, and provide warmth. Without the oxygen they provide human existence could not be possible. These facts are being overlooked by the Portland Public Schools, which draws the question, will oxygen soon be considered racist too?
Jessica is a homeschooling mother of 4 and author of The Golden Rule, Walk Your Path, and The Magic of Nature. She is a contributor to The New American and her work has been featured by the Epoch Times, Evie Magazine, and American Thinker. Find her at jessicamariebaumgartner.com
Read More
To date there is a hefty list of items and incidents being publicly and educationally decried as “racist” as students and teachers work to eradicate all forms of bias from a population of people from varying backgrounds.
Popular brands and mascots across the country have been changed or completely removed over the past few years. From Mr. Potato Head to Mrs. Butterworth, the fear of an image or mascot potentially promoting racism has become a social stigma that will follow generations to come. Even teeth “whitening” products were deemed racist in the recent past, as are sports teams like the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Redskins.
In the 90s it was considered racist to refer to a black person as “black” — they were supposed to be “African Americans,” now those roles have reversed. With the lists of “things considered racist” constantly changing, it’s difficult for any non-racially obsessed American to even know if they are, in fact, “racist” anymore, because racism is no longer about bias toward someone based on their race, it is now just a term thrown around by the extreme Left to politically assassinate anyone not following the narrative.
Just look at the list of “things considered racist”:
Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Remembrance Day will be observed this year starting Wednesday evening, 7 April 2021 through Thursday, 8 April 2021. The official State Opening Ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day will take place on Wednesday, 7 April, at 20:00, in Warsaw Ghetto Square, Yad Vashem, on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem. Israel’s President H.E. Mr. Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister H.E. Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu will both deliver remarks at the Opening Ceremony. Yad Vashem’s Acting Chairman Ronen Plot will kindle the Memorial Torch. Roza Bloch will speak on behalf of the survivors.
During the ceremony, Holocaust survivors will light six torches. First torch: Shmuel Naar; second torch: Zehava Gealel; third torch: Yossi Chen; fourth torch: Halina Friedman; fifth torch: Sara Fishman; sixth torch: Manya Bigunov. During the ceremony, short videos about each of the torchlighters will be shown. Produced and directed by Shlomo Hazan, these videos will be available on the Yad Vashem website in the section dedicated to Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021.
Israeli singers David Daor and Meshi Kleinstein, as well as the IDF Paratroopers’ Honor Guard, will participate in the ceremony, which will also include narrative pieces by Israeli actor Dean Miroshnikov. The moderator for the ceremony will be Hila Korach. The ceremony will last approximately 75 minutes.
As in past years, the ceremony will also feature a traditional memorial service, including the recitation of a chapter from Psalms by Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi David Lau. The Rishon LeZion, Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef will recite the Kaddish mourner’s prayer, and Cantor Avraham Kirshenbaum will recite El Maleh Rahamim, the Jewish prayer for the souls of the martyrs.
Yad Vashem will broadcast the State Opening Ceremony live with simultaneous translation into English, French, Spanish, German, Hebrew and Russian via its websites in their respective languages. Additionally, for the first time, Yad Vashem will offer simultaneous translation in Arabic available on the Yad Vashem YouTube Channel in Arabic. The live feed will also be accessible via Facebook (only live in English and Hebrew).
The State Opening Ceremony will also be broadcast live on Israeli television – Channels 11, 12, 13, 9 and 20, as well as by Walla, N-12 and Y-Net, and via radio – Galei Tzahal and KAN Radio – and will last approximately 75 minutes.
Yad Vashem Online
Yad Vashem has created special mini-sites dedicated to Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day containing information about the events and ceremonies taking place throughout the day. Also included in the mini-sites are relevant educational materials and a new online exhibition entitled, “The Onset of Mass Murder: The Fate of Jewish Families in 1941.” Using photographs, documentation and testimonies from Yad Vashem’s unrivalled collections, the exhibition tells the stories of the Jewish families in the wake of Operation Barbarossa, and their ultimate fate in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Eastern Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania and Yugoslavia.
“Generations Light the Way”
On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, moments before the beginning of the State Opening Ceremony, Yad Vashem and Tzohar invite the public, as families, to take part in the “Generations Light the Way” initiative by lighting six memorial candles in memory of the six million victims of the Shoah, and reciting the traditional mourner’s prayer “El Maleh Rahamim” and/or the poem “Nizkor – Let us Remember” by Holocaust survivor Abba Kovner.
Ongoing Campaigns
Yad Vashem continues to call on the public to fill out Pages of Testimony to commemorate the names of Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Volunteers are available to help Holocaust survivors and their family members submit Pages of Testimony. Yad Vashem is also prolonging the nationwide Gathering the Fragments campaign in an effort to rescue more Holocaust-related documents, artifacts, photographs and artworks, and interview, document and record video testimonies of survivors. For more information on all of these ongoing commemorative projects: +972-2-6443888 or [email protected]
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, was established in 1953. Located in Jerusalem, it is dedicated to Holocaust commemoration, documentation, research and education.
(AP) — The highest-earning New Yorkers would face the nation’s steepest income tax rate under a budget lawmakers expected to vote on Tuesday.
It would serve as a win for the Democratic party’s left-wing, who say that millionaires in Manhattan penthouses have fared far better amid the pandemic then struggling small businesses and low-income New Yorkers.
States including California, Minnesota and Washington are also considering wealth taxes, raising taxes on capital gains or setting new top income tax rates. President Joe Biden — who said on the campaign trail he’d raise income taxes on high earners — has proposed tax hike s on wealthy individuals and families and a corporate tax rate increase to pay for his infrastructure plan.
Democrats in New York hope the tax increase could bring in at least $3 billion and prevent the need for spending cuts in years to come. Assembly Member Helene Weinstein said the bill would be introduced Tuesday, and Sen. Liz Krueger said the leaders of the Assembly and Senate have agreed on the bill.
New York’s top income tax rate is currently 8.82%, while New York City residents face an additional 3.88% top tax rate.
Democrats want to raise the combined top tax rate for New York City millionaires above California’s top income tax rate of 13.3%, though exact details of the proposal weren’t available Tuesday afternoon.
Senate Democratic Majority spokesperson Mike Murphy said he expected the public could view the revenue bill online shortly. Spokespeople for the governor and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s office didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.
Democrats won control of the state Senate in 2018, but they gained more leverage last year by winning a veto-proof supermajority.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed newfound openness to raising taxes on top-earners this year — his budget proposal included a limited, temporary tax increase on high-earners if New Yorkers didn’t receive extra COVID-19 aid.
He’s also long warned that raising taxes on the wealthy could drive them out of New York at a time when the state’s economy is still recovering from COVID-19 economic shutdowns last week. His budget director, Robert Mujica, has said the top 1% of earners pay 40% of New York’s income taxes.
And Mujica has said an additional $12 billion in expected federal COVID-19 aid could prevent the need for a tax hike.
But Democratic legislative leaders who have pushed forward with a proposed tax hike said there’s no conclusive evidence that tax hikes drive out the rich. And they criticize years of “fiscal austerity” under Cuomo, as health care costs rise and educational advocacy groups call for more spending on schools.
Medicaid costs have skyrocketed as New York has boosted enrollment, raised the minimum wage for all workers and taken on more Medicaid bills once shouldered by counties.
(TJVNEWS.COM)Mayoral candidate Eric Adams took to Bronx Courthouse with local leaders in the anti-gun violence movement; SOS (Save Our Streets), Harlem Mothers Save, and National Community Peace Building Commission, and pushed his plan to reduce shootings and crime in New York City following a bloody week of shootings and a huge overall spike in violent crime this year.
“We will not go backward on crime. We fought too hard and lost too many to go back. We need a plan and we need action,” Borough President Adams said. “Today I am putting forward my crime plan for New York City because our city faces an unprecedented crisis that threatens to undo the progress we have made against crime. As a police officer who patrolled the streets in a bulletproof vest and as an organizer who has fought for anti-violence resources four our communities of color for decades, I will not stand by and watch lawlessness spread through our city, infecting our neighborhoods with the same terrible swiftness of COVID-19.”
Adams’ plan to reduce crime includes: reinventing the anti-crime unit as an anti-gun unit; fully funding the City’s Crisis Management System; allowing for more centralized coordination between law enforcement, community groups and hospitals; and improving communication and coordination between CMS and NYPD to prevent retaliatory violence once a shooting has occurred.
“Enough is enough. In 2006 I stood with Eric Adams when I started my organization and asked this question: Who is giving our kids these guns? Eric Adams and I have been doing this a long time. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. We need a leader to take the helm. We need a strong mayor. We need a leader who is going to take gun violence serious.” said Jackie Rowe-Adams of Harlem Mothers Save.
Adams would also change NYPD structure to have cops focus on police work and not clerical duties and other jobs that can be filled by civilians, freeing up budget to go toward the anti-violence groups that are critical work on the ground to keep communities of color safe.
“Talk is cheap. In two months we will have a leader who will decide who lives and who dies. This election is about public safety. The only thing we need from our next mayor is someone who has been there and done that and understands how to save lives. Guess who was there in the 80’s and 90’s? Eric Adams. Guess who understands where we are, where we are coming from and where we need to go? Eric Adams.” said Sheikh Musa Drammeh of National Community Peace Building Commision.
You can read the entire Adams’ Agenda to Reduce Crime here.
“By saving money through technology and efficiency, and using it to fund targeted initiatives that reduce serious crime, I will more effectively deploy resources while ensuring that police do the real police work needed to get the bad guys and prevent crime in the first place,” Adams said.
In just the last few days, the city has experienced a high number of horrific street shootings that have led to deaths and serious injuries. This follows a bloody previous week in which shooting incidents were up 257% from the same time last year, and a month of March in which the city saw a 73% increase in shooting victims from March 2020. Overall, there has been an approximately 50% increase in the number of shooting incidents and victims in New York this year so far compared to last year.
Several Florida Democrats are challenging a report by the CBS News program “60 Minutes” that attempted to paint the state’s vaccination partnership with the Publix grocery store chain as nefarious.
The program on April 4 explored the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Florida, which has experienced a similar COVID-19 death rate to California and other states despite having much looser restrictions.
In one heated exchange, a reporter pressed Gov. Ron DeSantis on the use of Publix stores to administer vaccines, claiming the fact that Publix contributed $100,000 to his political action committee before the chain was chosen could be seen as evidence of a “pay-for-play” scheme.
DeSantis called the allegation “a fake narrative,” offering a lengthy explanation of what had unfolded. It included state officials reaching out to pharmacies besides CVS and Walgreens because those two companies were tasked with delivering vaccines to long-term care facilities. Publix was the first to say it was ready for the second set of distribution and administration.
DeSantis also said he visited four different Publix stores during a trial run and found feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and that he solicited advice from Palm Beach officials.
“Here’s some of the options: We can do more drive-through sites, we can give more to hospitals, we can do the Publix, we can do this. They calculated that 90 percent of their seniors live within a mile and a half of a Publix. And they said, ‘We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents,’” he said.
“60 Minutes” omitted 356 words from DeSantis’ 423-word answer.
The reporter then repeated her “pay for play” accusation.
“I just disabused you of the narrative. And you don’t care about the facts,” DeSantis said.
Jared Moskowitz, a former Democratic state senator who now runs the state Division of Emergency Management, said in a tweet on April 4 that Publix was recommended by his agency, “as the other pharmacies were not ready to start.”
“No one from the Governors office suggested Publix. It’s just absolute malarkey,” he wrote.
In a statement on April 5, Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, also a Democrat, said the “60 Minutes” reporting was “intentionally false.”
“I know this because I offered to provide my insight into Palm Beach County’s vaccination efforts and 60 minutes declined,” he said, adding that he and other officials asked the governor to expand the state’s partnership with Publix, not the other way around.
“We asked and he delivered,” Kerner wrote. “They had that information, and they left it out because it kneecaps their narrative.”
CBS News and “60 Minutes” did not respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.
Publix, in a statement to news outlets, called the suggestion of a link between campaign contributions and the vaccination efforts “irresponsible.”
“We are proud of our pharmacy associates for administering more than 1.5 million doses of vaccine to date and for joining other retailers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia to do our part to help our communities emerge from the pandemic,” it stated.
Florida had administered over 10.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses as of April 5, one of the highest totals in the nation. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP virus.
Other officials said the reporting on April 4 regarding Florida was concerning.
Nikki Fried, Florida’s Democratic commissioner of agriculture, said the program “is exposing the nation” to the governor’s “failings & corruption.”
State Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter, “I made the initial call when pay for play happened in my district. I and so many others fought for equitable distribution of the vaccine in Black + Brown communities.”
Others said another focus of the program, DeSantis’s prioritization on vaccinating seniors, turned out to be the right move, and that the Republican was being attacked because of signs he could run for president in 2024.
“Seniors were prioritized for vaccine, DeSantis was criticized for breaking from CDC and he turned out to be right,” Florida GOP Vice Chairman Christian Ziegler said in a tweet. “Now, in the name of 2024, the media is generating a new narrative to attack.”
The vast majority of U.S. likely voters believe voter ID is necessary and disagree with Major League Baseball’s (MLB) decision to pull the All-Star game and Draft from Atlanta over the state’s election integrity law, a Rasmussen Reports survey released Tuesday found.
The survey asked respondents if they believe voter ID laws are necessary to a “fair and secure election process.” The vast majority, 75 percent, said “yes,” 19 percent said “no,” and six percent said they remained unsure. A majority of both Republicans, 89 percent, and Democrats, 65 percent, believe voter ID laws are necessary for a free and fair election. Seventy-one percent of those unaffiliated with either major party agree.
The survey also asked respondents for their opinions on the left-wing boycotts of Georgia over the recently signed election law, which despite the left’s narrative, actually increases days for early voting.
The law also requires voters to show an identification to vote absentee by mail, although voters can “verify their identities with the last four digits of their social security number; a utility bill; a bank statement; a government check; a paycheck; or another government document with their name and address on it,” per Fox News, which cited Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office.
“Some people have called for a boycott of businesses in Georgia, which recently passed an election law requiring voters to show identification. Do you support or oppose such a boycott?” the Rasmussen survey asked.
Fifty percent said they opposed the boycotts, 37 percent said they supported it, and 13 percent said they remained unsure. However, opinions vary drastically on party lines, as 50 percent of Democrats support the boycott and 63 percent of Republicans oppose it. A plurality of those unassociated with either major political party, 47 percent, oppose the boycott.
The survey, taken April 1 and 4 among 1,000 likely U.S. voters, has a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
The MLB caved last week and announced its decision to move the All-Star game and Draft from Atlanta, a city with a sizeable black population, due to the election integrity measure Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed into law, even though the law actually expands some voting.
“I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft,” Commissioner of Baseball Robert D. Manfred, Jr. said. “Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”
Its decision will cost Atlanta as much as $190 million in revenue:
The MLB has since tapped Denver, Colorado, as the host city despite the fact that it also requires proof of identification to vote and has fewer early voting days than the Peach State.
Qasim Rashad, the Amir of the United Muslim Masjid in South Philadelphia confirmed what many observers over the years have suspected, that the mosque’s goal is to create and sustain a “Muslim only” enclave just blocks away from City Hall
Mr. Rashad was the guest speaker on a recent Council on American-Islamic Relations-Philadelphia sponsored webinar. He made it clear “the Muslims took these buildings over” and expressed disappointment that part of the neighborhood has become gentrified. He spoke with reverence for the mosque’s financial backer, legendary musician Kenny Gamble a.k.a. Luqman Abdul Haqq who, through his Universal Companies, owns many properties in the neighborhood including the building on the corner of 15th and Christian streets where the United Muslim Masjid has operated since 1994. Gamble didn’t hide his intention when he purchased these properties. “We are not just here for Universal; we are down here for Islam.” Lately Gamble has been in embroiled in charges of bribery and the FBI is looking into Kenny’s Universal Properties role in charges of corruption against Councilman Kenyatta Johnson.
Rashad boasted about his membership in the American Muslim Council in Washington DC and his friendship with its founder Abdulrahman Alamoudi who, Rashad admitted, got “caught up in Homeland Security issues.” Indeed, Alamoudi was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2004 for planning to assassinate King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He also raised money for al-Qaeda through the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development which was convicted of raising funds for Hamas. Alamoudi also expressed remorse that the 1998 US Embassy bombing in Kenya and Tanzania did not kill any Americans.
Rashad explained that the American Muslim Council was the forerunner to the Muslim Alliance in North America or MANA. Rashad knew the leader of MANA, Jamil -al-Amin or H. Rap Brown of the Black Panthers who said “if America don’t come around we’re gonna burn it down.” Currently, Brown is in prison for murdering a Georgia sheriff.
Rashad is proud that MANA’s first two meetings were held at the United Muslim Majid. Kenny Gamble sits on the board of MANA along with Siraj Wahhaj, a co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Rashad admitted that gun violence is a problem in Philadelphia and that many perpetrators and victims are Muslim even during the holy month of Ramadan, a time for Muslim reflection and prayer. But he seemed oblivious to the possibility that UMM may be responsible for fostering gun violence. In an effort to attract youth to UMM Rashid said he “gives them want they want,” and what the youth want is target practice. UMM also runs the Jawala Scout camps where Muslim youth engage in firearms training, hand-to-hand combat and wear paramilitary uniforms. One young man on the webinar attended the Jawala Scouts camp and said he “learned a lot about Islam” at the camp.
Rashad said that “Muslims are the best among mankind” especially with their commitment to social justice which, he said is “part of our DNA.” By way of example of social justice advocates he pointed to CAIR, Bobby Seale, the Black Panther party and the Nation of Islam, though admitted that the NOI has a “different perspective on non-violence.”
CAIR was founded by members of the terrorist organization Hamas at a meeting that took place in Philadelphia. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal case against the Holy Land Foundation, convicted of raising money in the United States for Hamas.
Bobby-Seale was one of the founders of the Black Panthers a political organization that had a history of violent confrontation with police.
Both The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League declared the Nation Of Islam a hate group espousing deep racist, anti-Semitic and anti-gay leanings.
Rashad went on to say that Islam is better than Christianity because their Iftar meals take place every day for a month while Christmas was only one day. He is also looking into changing the name of “Christian Street” to “Muslim Way.”
The Muslim enclave in Philadelphia is thought to be the most successful in America. Gamble is also making inroads in Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles. The question is, why are many Muslim neighborhoods quartering themselves off from the rest of society? One of the goals of MANA is to “Promote Islamic unity and tolerance between Muslims . . . within the wide-path of Shari’ah.” Shari’ah law includes controlling an individual’s relationship with its neighbors. According to the National Center for Constitutional law Shari’ah is incompatible with the United States constitution.
While on the surface Gamble’s ridding the south Philadelphia neighborhood of its blight may be commendable its ulterior purpose of setting itself apart from the community in order to follow the dictates of MANA and Shari’ah law is a worrisome proposition and should be a warning sign to the people of Philadelphia.
At the same time Americans’ satisfaction with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine has surged, their concerns about getting the virus and about the availability of coronavirus tests and hospital services/treatment have fallen to record lows.
Thirty-five percent of U.S. adults now say they are very or somewhat worried about contracting COVID-19, the lowest point in Gallup’s trend since April 2020. Twenty-two percent of Americans are very or moderately worried about access to hospital services/treatment, and 14% are just as worried about access to COVID-19 tests.
Line graph. The percentages of Americans who worry about catching COVID-10, access to medical services and treatments, and tests for the disease. 35% of Americans now worry about contracting COVID-19. 22% worry about access to medical services and treatments. And, 14% are concerned about access to tests for the disease.
These data come from Gallup’s latest COVID-19 probability-based web panel survey, conducted March 15-21 as vaccination rates continued to climb across the country. The current 35% worried about contracting COVID-19 is down 14 percentage points from February, and well off the record-high 59% of Americans who voiced concerns about catching the disease last summer. That high came as the number of COVID-19 cases surged following the lifting of restrictions on businesses in June.
Worry about contracting COVID-19 is down among almost all key segments of society since February, especially among older adults. The decline among older Americans, and the decline more generally, may be tied to the increase in the percentage of Americans who are fully vaccinated. That group has one of the lowest levels of worry among all major subgroups, with 21% (down from 36%) expressing concerns about getting COVID-19.
Americans’ Worry About Contracting COVID-19, by Subgroup
How worried are you that you will get the coronavirus (COVID-19)? (% Somewhat/Very worried)
Feb 14-21
Mar 15-21
Change
%
%
pct. pts.
U.S. adults
49
35
-14
Gender
Men
44
29
-15
Women
54
39
-15
Age
18-44
53
42
-11
45-64
46
32
-14
65+
46
21
-25
Race/Ethnicity
White adults
46
30
-16
Non-White adults
56
45
-11
Party ID
Democrats
69
50
-19
Independents
43
30
-13
Republicans
27
17
-10
Education
College graduate
58
40
-18
Not college graduate
45
32
-13
Vaccination status
Fully vaccinated
36
21
-15
Partially vaccinated
55
37
-18
Plan to get vaccinated
66
49
-17
Do not plan to get vaccinated
19
19
0
GALLUP PANEL, 2021
However, substantial subgroup differences in levels of worry persist, particularly by political affiliation. Half of Democrats continue to be very or somewhat worried about contracting the disease, compared with 17% of Republicans and 30% of independents. Additionally, there are substantial differences among age groups, with 42% of those aged 18 to 44 worried, compared with 32% of those aged 45 to 64 and 21% of those aged 65 and older.
Naturally, being vaccinated is associated with lower levels of worry about contracting COVID-19, but this only applies to those who are fully vaccinated. Among those Americans who report having received the full course of the vaccine, 21% are worried about catching COVID-19. But the rate among those only partially vaccinated (defined as receiving only one dose of a two-dose vaccine) is 37%, similar to the national average.
Those who plan to get the vaccine but have not currently done so are the most likely segment of Americans to be concerned about contracting the disease, with 49% saying so. Conversely, those who do not plan to be vaccinated are among the least likely, with 19% reporting worry about contracting COVID-19.
Roughly Eight in 10 Americans See Situation Improving
This decline in worry comes as Americans’ assessment of the COVID-19 situation in the U.S. is the most positive, by far, that it’s been at any point during the pandemic. Seventy-seven percent of Americans now say the situation is getting better, up from 60% in February and 33% in January. Before January, the high was 47%, recorded last June as states were lifting restrictions on businesses. Positive impressions of the situation have sunk below 20% several times, including as recently as December.
Line graph. Americans’ perceptions of the COVID-19 situation in the U.S. 77% now see the situation as improving, while 7% see it as getting worse.
Perceptions that the COVID-19 situation is getting better have improved among all key subgroups, although slight differences persist. Notably, the percentage of Republicans who say the situation is improving increased by 23 points to 75%, though this remains below the 84% of Democrats who now say the same. Additionally, optimism among men rose 20 points; 80% now say the COVID-19 situation is getting better.
Americans’ Perceptions of the Current State of the Coronavirus Situation
What’s your impression of the coronavirus situation in the U.S. today?
Feb 14-21
Mar 15-21
Change in “getting better”
%
%
%
%
pct. pts.
Getting better
Getting worse
Getting better
Getting worse
U.S. adults
60
14
77
7
+17
Gender
Men
60
13
80
6
+20
Women
61
14
74
9
+13
Age
18-44
58
14
74
8
+16
45-64
59
14
77
7
+18
65+
68
12
85
6
+17
Race/Ethnicity
White adults
60
13
77
6
+17
Non-White adults
62
15
76
10
+14
Party ID
Democrats
71
12
84
6
+13
Independents
53
17
69
10
+16
Republicans
52
11
75
5
+23
Education
College graduate
70
10
82
5
+12
Not college graduate
57
14
74
8
+17
Vaccination status
Fully vaccinated
73
8
88
4
+15
Partially vaccinated
74
9
83
5
+9
Plan to get vaccinated
65
14
80
7
+15
Do not plan to get vaccinated
45
14
63
10
+18
Responses indicating the situation is “staying the same” not included
As they have from the early days of the pandemic, a majority of Americans (64%) continue to say their lives have been disrupted a great deal or fair amount by the coronavirus situation. This is down modestly from the 70% who said the same in February and roughly equal to the 65% recorded last June. At that time, states began loosening restrictions on businesses as infection rates dropped. However, the number of cases climbed again shortly after, and these restrictions largely returned.
The drop in the percentage of Americans seeing COVID-19-related disruption in their lives may be at least partly due to a decline in the number of adults who say they are engaging in strict social distancing practices.
Line graph. Americans’ perceptions of disruption in their lives due to COVID-19. 64% of Americans now say their lives have been disrupted due to the disease, while 36% say they have not experienced disruption due to COVID-19.
When asked how long they believe the disruption from COVID-19 will continue, a majority of Americans see it continuing for the foreseeable future. Thirty-three percent say it will last “a few more months,” while 44% predict it will persist through the end of 2021 and 19% see it continuing longer. A different version of this question asked in February found 38% of Americans believing the disruption would last through the first half of 2021 while 52% believed it would continue longer than that.
Bottom Line
Americans have become substantially less worried about contracting COVID-19 as a growing proportion of adults have been fully vaccinated and as satisfaction with the vaccine rollout has improved. These shifts have occurred while coronavirus infection rates have fallen substantially from highs reached in January of this year. Optimism about the COVID-19 situation has also spiked to a record high. Gallup previously observed a meaningful relationship between Americans’ perceptions of the coronavirus situation and changes in reported numbers of daily new cases.
After the March survey was conducted, infection rates began to rise again. This may be at least partially connected to the decrease in reported strict social distancing by Americans at a time when more contagious variants of the virus are spreading. Public health experts see the U.S. now in a race to get large numbers of Americans vaccinated before those variants spread further. The outcome of that race will determine the future course of infections in the U.S. and will likely determine whether Americans show continued increasing optimism about the COVID-19 situation or a course correction in their attitudes.
French security services arrested an 18-year-old woman, along with her mother and three sisters, on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack on a church.
The General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), France’s domestic security service, raided the teen’s home in Béziers on Saturday night. The investigation was sparked by the discovery of a social media post, which led police to believe the girl wanted to commit an act of terror in a Montpellier church during an Easter service.
During a search of the family home, investigators discovered chemicals used in bomb-making and instructions on how to manufacture explosive devices. They also found prepared devices, comprised of several bottles, filled with marbles and taped together, newspaper Le Parisienreports.
The raid also turned up material related to Islamic State and a sword, but it was not clear if the blade was linked to the foiled attack.
According to Le Parisien, the area in which the family lived, the Devèze district, is known to have a bad reputation. Neighbours described the family as being withdrawn, keeping to themselves.
Shortly after the operation, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said: “Thank you to the DGSI and its agents who protect the French every day.”
The foiled attack comes months after a church in the city of Nice was targeted by a radical Islamic Tunisian illegal migrant who murdered three people and injured several others.
Christian churches and other places of worship have been targetted several times in the past by members and supporters of Islamic State, with one of the most brutal attacks taking place in July 2016 when two Islamists murdered Roman Catholic priest, Father Jacques Hamel.
In 2005, I published a book with the title The Death of Feminism. I saw it all coming. But I did not foresee the rise of a transgender movement.
On March 31st, an allegedly feminist Open Letter Supporting Trans Women and Girls, was circulated. Among other things, it stated that “We acknowledge with clarity and strength that transgender women are women and that transgender girls are girls. And we believe that honoring the diversity of women’s experiences is a strength, not a detriment to the feminist cause.”
Interestingly, there is absolutely no mention of trans men — those who were born female but who have or want to become male. As we now know, there is an alarming spike among teenage girls in America who hope to solve their teenage sorrows such as low self-esteem, body image discomfort, trauma based on sexual violence, eating disorders, psychiatric suffering, etc., by cutting off their breasts, surgically removing their uteri and ovaries, and taking potentially lethal hormones to prevent puberty, and to grow facial hair and muscle.
The Open Letter continues: “It is time for the long history of assaults (legislative, physical, social, and verbal) against trans women and girls to end.”
I certainly agree with such a goal but wonder why the letter does not mention, even as an aside, or as context, the long history of sexual, physical, legal, economic, social, and verbal assaults against biological women, in their homes, on the streets, at work, in shelters, and as sex slaves. The letter remains silent about who the perpetrators of such violence might be. I believe they are mainly gay and straight men who buy sex from trans women or who become enraged because they desire them.
The letter loses its way when it claims that “anti-trans sports bans are as unnecessary as they are harmful — and that women athletes at both the professional and college-level support inclusion.”
Is this really true?
I wonder whether these mainly Hollywood Lights (in both senses of that word), who have signed this Open Letter are only in favor of expanding their concept of what is female to include those who wish to dress in stereotypically “feminine” ways? Or those who wish to appear as ungainly, even “ugly” as possible, in female dress and jewelry? Or, more to the point, to those who wish the right to service both straight and gay men sexually for money free of police harassment?
What am I not understanding here? In what way does this constitute liberation for women? If the issue is poverty, racism, illiteracy, and unemployment, why not say so? Why choose to deal with these realities by making it easier for poor girls and women of color — and trans women of color, to work as prostitutes?
The letter insults radical feminists by describing us as “self-identified feminists… whose vitriol is, in fact, not feminist at all… who now cloak their bigotry in language about protecting or supporting women.”
The transgender movement is well known for shaming, harassing, and silencing all those feminists who have a rational, objective critique of what has become a well-funded, Orwellian movement of Big Brothers in which disagreement is not tolerated — in fact, it is howled down. Any other point of view on the trans issue has already been disappeared in the academic world, in the media, and in international and national legal instruments. In fact, it has already made its way onto numerous government medical forms in which unsuspecting elders, waiting in line to be vaccinated, are asked if they are trans, non-binary, or other.
Am I now one of those “self-identified feminists who have been promoting damaging and violent ideas about trans people for years?”
Me? Really? I barely wrote about this subject; I did not even think about it.
Ideally, I believe in civil and equal rights for every human being. However, I do not believe in focusing on a trendy, diversionary minority over and above the totally unmet needs of a majority. We have never had enough shelters for battered women (of all colors, yes) including prostituted girls and women. Why are these signatories not fighting for that?
Ah, but when I read the names of the signatories I grew very quiet. I understand the psychological “rush” that attends being asked to sign a petition with some Very Famous Names on it. The thrill of belonging to a tribe of some kind. The desire for popularity—especially among women.
I understand why Hollywood actors, comediennes, models, celebrities, veterans of the shill game known as the Women’s March, Black Trans activists would sign on. But why would the Center for Reproductive Rights do so? Chelsea Clinton — is she planning to run for the Presidency? The Coordinator of the Lesbian Herstory Archives? The local Domestic Violence Shelters in Connecticut, Iowa, Memphis, and South Carolina? Legal Momemtum, the Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund? The National Women’s History Museum? Planned Parenthood Federation of America? Is the Tahirih Justice Center inundated with trans women of color who are immigrants? Do they outnumber biological immigrant women? Do lesbian activists really believe that the increasingly all-male gay and trans movements include or will include them?
Oh, I would really like to know.
I remember the lesbians who handed out condoms to gay men on Fire Island as the AIDS crisis raged when their ferries docked. I do not remember gay men fighting for funding for research for ovarian or breast cancer.
However, what are Gloria Steinem’s, the Ms. Foundation’s, and Catharine MacKinnon’s names doing here? Are they now all wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democratic Party or of Hollywood? Do they just need to remain au courant? Or do they actually have a feminist and political analysis of the very well-funded transgender movement? If so, I would dearly love to read it.
Do these signatories all really see transgender women as somehow liberating all womankind? From gang-rape? FGM? Honor killings? From sexual harassment, sexual slavery, pornography? And mainly, from bone-grinding poverty?
The Open Letter quotes Audre Lorde: “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” Lorde also said that we cannot abolish the Master’s House by using the Master’s tools. Thus, these revolutionaries-on-the-page alphabetize the signatories by first, not last names. Thus, Alicia Garza may be found under “A” not “G” and “Ashley Judd” is also listed under “A,” not under “J.” Am I to assume that our last names are all slave names? That my honorable father’s name which I have kept all my life was a slave or a slave-Master?
At this moment, I cannot view any of these signatories as part of the solution.
Mahmoud Abbas supporters in Gaza City in 2020. (Majdi Fathi/TPS)
By: Baruch Yedid
There is a great deal of tension within the Fatah’s ranks and senior officials told TPS that there is an atmosphere of rebellion against the rule of Mahmoud Abbas, who is now perceived as responsible for crushing the organization and splitting it into rival factions.
“Disaster, collapse, black day, the end of Fatah,” the organization’s activists say, raising the possibility that the situation will worsen if Abbas also ousts Marwan Barghouti from the Central Committee.
Many elements are now joining the criticism against Abbas, including those who worked alongside Yasser Arafat, including foreign officials, officers and former senior officials, and are attacking Abbas as responsible for the drama and historical division in Fatah.
Fatah officials are even talking about the death of the movement.
Activists of Mouhamed Dahlan and Barghouti are calling for personal accountability with Abbas and his family members and even claim that they should be expelled from the area.
A senior Fatah official said that “this is Abu Mazen’s (Abbas’s) last battle for survival with the younger generation of the movement and he is expected to end his tenure like the Shah in Iran even though he feels strong now, like the Shah, on the eve of the revolution … Abu Mazen is responsible for the destruction of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, and he does not hesitate to allow Hamas to enter the PLO … The Palestinian People’s Court will come for him, not for nothing did Abu Mazen rush to renew security coordination with Israel,” he said.
Fatah is now talking about growing unrest in the PA-controlled territories and the possibility of acts of violence flaring up between the camps in Fatah. It is estimated in Ramallah that the Dahlan camp in the Gaza Strip has also become very strong in recent years and that the number of registered activists there is 92,000.
Meanwhile, there is growing speculation in Ramallah that Abu Mazen is approaching the decisive moment and the chances are high that he will announce the postponement of the elections while justifying the dramatic step in Israel’s refusal to allow ballot boxes in eastern Jerusalem. A senior official says there is an understanding, almost a decision by Abu Mazen, to postpone the election and save Fatah.
A security source in the Palestinian Authority explains that it is not for nothing that the PA recently demanded that 18 polling stations be set up in Jerusalem, and not just six, in order for Israel to refuse and pave the way for Abu Mazen to announce the postponement of the election.
Another source says that Israel is now pushing for Abu Mazen not to continue the election campaign, based on an intelligence assessment that has been formed in Israel according to which he is expected to be defeated.
A senior Ramallah official confirmed that businessmen Samar Khuri and Bashar al-Gaza, Abu Mazen’s friends, were sent to the US and are trying to check the pulse of the American response in case Abu Mazen decides to postpone the election.
The source says that the intelligence services in the US and Europe are increasing their interest in the Palestinian arena in light of the deteriorating situation in Fatah. (TPS)
The letter insults radical feminists by describing us as “self-identified feminists… whose vitriol is, in fact, not feminist at all… who now cloak their bigotry in language about protecting or supporting women.”