George W. Bush and the 2005 Pandemic Warning

Politics has a way of creating divisiveness like few things.

Back in the early 2000’s, former President George W. Bush was, like any President, liked or disliked based on where one stood on the political scale.

Just this morning, a news story caught my eye. Fifteen years ago, the former President Bush was on vacation and reading a book about the 1918 Pandemic. This book spurred him to push his administration to create a plan if a pandemic should occur in the future.

I was not a fan of his politics or his actions as President back then. But knowing now that they were preparing for a future pandemic, especially given the inaction of the current Presidential administration, I appreciate President Bush’s stubbornness in regards to the subject.

In 2017, Will Ferrell became President Bush once more at the Not the White House Correspondence Dinner. He asked the audience how they liked him now. If anyone would have asked me that question fifteen years ago, my answer would have been different than it is today. Right now, I like him as President much more than the current occupant of the White House.

Happy Sunday.

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Practicing One’s Faith During the Coronavirus Only Needs a Little Creativity

It is without a doubt that the coronavirus has upended our lives as we know them to be.

This includes religious practice. With the holidays of Easter, Passover, and Ramadan coming quickly, the faithful must find new ways to celebrate their respective holidays while following the recommendations of the experts.

Across the country and across the world, religious leaders are turning to video conferencing services programs such as Zoom, Google Hangouts, and other programs to hold services.

What is frustrating to me is that there are some who are are willingly putting their lives and the lives of their loved ones in danger by acting as life is normal. Last month, a Fundamentalist church in Indiana held services in spite of warnings against holding large gatherings. In Israel and in my hometown of New York City, some ultra-Orthodox Jews ignored the edicts by the government to prevent coronavirus from spreading further than it already has spread.

Anyone who has read this blog knows of my Jewish faith. Though I am not as religious as others, my faith is important to me. Passover starts Wednesday night. My family, like many other families, are being creative when it comes to the Seder and the traditional ways of telling the Passover story.

If the coronavirus has taught us one thing, it is that it takes a little flexibility to get through tough times. To say that we are going through tough times is an understatement. That requires us to understand that we cannot live as we did a month ago. Those who willingly ignore that fact endanger us all.