Flashback 2011: Neither snow, nor rain, nor Congress . . .

     While I don't want to suggest that the Donald Trump era is anything other than a flaming swan dive into unprecedented widespread disaster, it isn't as if we didn't cope with these issues before, to a lesser degree. The government certainly was busy kneecapping the postal service long ago, while President Clownshow was still hosting "Celebrity Apprentice."

     I'm passing this along to offer some background, and as a nostalgic look back at when folks still worked downtown and bumped into stuff, a dynamic I fervently hopes returns very soon, along with good government and an operative mail system.

     Like you, I didn’t think much about it when the U.S. Postal Service announced it might need big cuts.
     Who gets mail anymore? When was the last time you got a letter you were eager to read? Junk mail, bills — we pay most of ours online. The volume of first class mail has dropped 25 percent in the past four years.
     Sure, people feel residual affection for the local postman, whose job harkens back to an era when there was a milkman and a butcher and a baker and a candlestick maker.
     But postal carriers (I’ve always disliked that term; PC, sure, but it makes them sound as though they’re transmitting postalosis) are like Congressmen: you have affection for your own, but as a group they can go hang.
     Then I turned a corner this past Tuesday and saw 500 postal workers gathered in front of the Thompson Center, a crowd of zippered blue sweaters and sensible shoes.
     I might have kept going, but they seemed to be chanting to reduce funding to their own retirement health care. That made me pause.
     In 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, designed to increase the post office’s flexibility. Tucked in was a provision forcing it to fully fund its retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, which costs the postal service $5 billion a year; another payment was due Friday. In the past it borrowed — this one it missed.
     Now a bill, HR 1351 — stalled in our gridlocked Congress — would end the obligation to fund health care for employees the service might never hire and audit the situation.
     “We don’t want no handouts, we don’t want no bailouts,” said Sam Anderson, president of the Chicago branch of the American Postal Workers. “All we want is our money.”
     The postal service has about 600,000, down 110,000 through attrition. Earlier this year, it floated a report suggesting the work force will have to be decreased “more aggressively,” according to Chicago district spokesman Mark Reynolds.
     “It suggested we need flexibility in terms of layoffs to stay alive and hopefully profitable again.” Layoffs would need Congress’ approval, which is pending, in the form of HR2309, which would allow the postal service to void its union contracts, fire people at will, close post offices and contract delivery.

     “It would destroy the postal service,” said Mack Julion, president of the local branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers.
     It would also be a kick to the struggling African-American middle class. The protesters at the Thomson Center were overwhelmingly black — Julion estimated that some 70 percent of letter carriers in Chicago are African American. This potential impact is one area where management and unions agree.
     “The postal service has been a gateway to the middle class for generations of Americans; my grandfather used to work for the post office,” said Reynolds. “When the American economy sneezes, the black economy catches a cold.”
     “It’ll hurt,” said Julion. “It is a very diverse workplace.”

     The unions insist that, without the funding obligation, they would be profitable, to the tune of half a billion since 2006. Eliminate the funding requirement, problem solved.
     Not so simple, says the postal serivce.
     “The unions believe if we get money back we’ll be fine, that we don’t have to reduce delivery [to] five days and close retail units,” said Reynolds. “We don’t believe that. We want long-term legislation to address operational ability. We could save $3 billion a year by going to five-day delivery.”
     The post office is a national resource, and to simply let it fall apart seems risky.

   “We’re still important because, No. 1, everybody isn’t online and everybody isn’t going to be online,” said Reynolds. “No. 2, we deliver everywhere. We serve the bottom of the Grand Canyon, we serve people living on summer cottages in Lake Erie islands, we do it through rain and sleet and snow — that’s 150 million delivery points we service. When the post office was created 200 some odd years ago, the notion this would bind the nation together, as the nation has grown we have continued to fill that purpose. We are additionally the straw that stirs the drink of a trillion-dollar mailing industry. Two of our biggest customers are UPS and Fedex — they’ll deliver packages to local post offices and we take the packages to the customers. America still relies upon the postal service and we still want to be here for America.”
     The future, though, can’t be chanted away.
     At the rally, a reader from Indiana came up to say hello. I asked her why she was there. “I got an email telling me about it,” she said.     
               —Originally published in the Sun-Times, Oct. 2, 2011

Fresca’s back! Mystery of its absence solved

     Hooray! Fresca’s back, Fresca is back. At least back at the Jewel in Northbrook. In liter bottles, at first, and now in the way God intended: cans.
     And no, I did not clear the shelves. The sign said “Two for $4” and I limited myself to two of the big green plastic bottles and then, on my next visit, two 12-packs of cans. Why deny others the joy of slugging back that cool, grapefruitish non-calorie beverage?
     For those whose attention has wandered — understandable, between raging pandemic and erosion of every institution and value Americans once held dear — it was late June that I hesitatingly asked: “What happened to Fresca?”
     That column exploded. I heard from frustrated Fresca drinkers all over the country.
     “I couldn’t find it anywhere in/around Sacramento CA and even called the local distributor who gave me no information, no call back, zero,” explained Rebecca Weaver.
    “Here in the Dallas, Texas area, my husband and I covered a 20-mile radius searching for it,” commiserated Jamey Garner-Yeric.
     “After a fruitless search today in Charleston, SC, I found your article on the internet,” wrote John Shilling.

To continue reading, click here.

Jim Thompson, dead at 84

     

     Back when there was such a thing as a liberal Republican politician, James Thompson was the GOP’s rising star.
     “Big Jim” — he stood 6 feet 6 inches — was Illinois’ longest-serving governor. The native Chicagoan was elected four times and served 14 years. Though the most popular governor of the past half century, talk of his running as a Republican candidate for president in the late 1970s was scuttled in part by his strong convictions, beliefs that he refused to abandon merely to achieve his lifelong dream. 

     “I still believe that a reasonable pro-choice position is not only right but is a majority view of my party,” he once said. “But it’s not the majority view of the people who control my party.”
     Thompson died Friday, according to his wife, Jayne Thompson. He was 84.
     As a zealous federal prosecutor in the early 1970s, he sped the collapse of Cook County’s Democratic machine. Early in his career Thompson helped put one Illinois governor in prison and toward his career’s end he worked tirelessly and in vain trying to keep another out of jail.
     As governor, Thompson spurred construction of more highways and prisons than any other governor — he needed those prisons to house all the inmates incarcerated after he pushed through Class X mandatory minimums in his first term.
     Thompson expanded McCormick Place, fought to keep the White Sox in Chicago when the team was practically on a plane to Florida, and built the $173 million salmon-and-blue Loop government office building later named for him. He also supported legislation that cleared the way for what would become the United Center.

     To do all this, however, he had to raise taxes — the largest increase up to that point in state history — which caused his popularity to suffer in his last term, particularly after he arranged for the legislature to double his own pension.

To continue reading, click here.

Texas Notes: Redheads

Trionfo Di Virtu. Libro Novo, 1563 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

     As a fan both of poetry and of writing that sets you in a particular place, I especially enjoyed today's essay from Austin bureau chief Caren Jeskey.

          I picked up a clumsy log 

          And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.

          I think it did not hit him…

          And immediately I regretted it.

           I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!

           I despised myself and the voices of my accursèd human education.

          And I thought of the albatross,

          And I wished he would come back, my snake.

          For he seemed to me again like a king,

          Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,

          Now due to be crowned again.

          And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords

          Of life.

          And I have something to expiate:

          A pettiness.

                                                                      —Snake, by D.H. Lawrence

     Living with scorpions isn’t so bad. The night I moved into a house in the woods I noticed one of the little buggers crawling up my new bedroom wall. I screamed bloody murder and ran and told my sister that she couldn’t possibly leave me there—I’d have to move back into her home where I’d been living.

     It was settled. Being the stoic one, she calmly said “I’ll take care of it,” and she did. Once it was gone she heartlessly left me there, alone. I may or may not have slept that night. This was back in 2016 when I was still a wimp. After three and a half years of living in a heavily wooded lake community outside of Austin, I mastered the art of living with these heretofore dreaded arachnids. Other fun and frequent victors were pinkish transparent geckos, arthropods of shapes, sizes, and breeds new to me, beetles—ok, giant tree roaches to be honest— and even a couple of red headed centipedes. My own little menagerie. 

     My friend Vivian and her husband John visited from Chicago once, the night of the Cubs big win a few years back. When we got home I remembered that I’d neglected to shake out the sheets and check under the foam mattress that rested right on the floor. They said “oh no, don’t worry about it! It’s late.” I insisted. My heart leapt when I saw the first telltale sign. A scorpion’s molt under the blanket on the top sheet. Vivian said “oh! Looks like the skin of a scorpion.” Yep. I knew what that meant. “Let’s lift the mattress up,” I said. “Oh no, we’re fine,” they said, not wanting to put me out. “I insist,” I said as I raised the mattress off the floor to see the little guy scurry quickly away. I propped the mattress up and grabbed the nearby glass jar and piece of cardboard one must always have handy in homes like this. I caught the little guy and escorted him or her outdoors and my job was done. I hope they were not too freaked out.
     I learned that as long as you don’t stick your hand in a dark place without checking first and you shake towels, sheets and blankets out, the chances of getting stung are rare. Even if one did sting you it might hurt quite a bit for a while but would heal up rather quickly. Scorpions do not prey upon and attack humans, they only react if startled. Dangerous scorpions are not endemic to Texas.
     I’d run around the house catching geckos in said jar while they briefly joined me as roommates, and escort them gently outside. They were cute as heck.
     The first time I saw a wolf spider in the kitchen I must admit I jumped. When I learned that they are harmless and quite beneficial in eating up the small insects they catch, I left them alone. I’ve heard it said that spiders dwell in the homes of kings, so I take them as honored guests. I learned to identify the violin pattern and extra set of eyes on brown recluses, and luckily never saw one.
     The cutest were the jumping spiders with their big eyes that seemed to watch me. Turns out they are able to see very well since their eyes act like telescopes. They hear well via sensory hairs that take in vibrations, and they sing and dance to woo their mates. Who would kick a jumping spider out? Not me.
     The roaches have such a bad rap that even I, lover of creatures small and large, had to help them find the door. They are not hard to catch as long as you are committed. Some of them fly, so hunting and catching them sometimes involved tall step ladders, patience, and a very quick hand to pop the jar over them and slide the cardboard over the jar while the fast and furious mini armored submarine tried to wriggle its way out. When their long antenna would get caught in the struggle and become casualties I’d feel bad, but hopefully they were able to sprout some new ones once they got back to their homes in the trees where they belong. 

     One day I ran the water to warm it up for a shower and went to grab a towel. When I got back to the tub I beheld a magnificent being. It’s long purple body was partially stuck in the drain, and it’s countless yellow legs were moving the speed of light, trying to break loose. It’s head looked like a mini lobster with long curly tentacles. I went to the kitchen, got the tongs, and gingerly removed it from the drain to a table on the back porch. I thought it was a goner since it looked like a drenched noodle. I left it there, took my shower, and by the time I got back outside to check on it, it was gone. I told my neighbor about it and she scolded me. “Never let one of those go! You should have killed it.” It was a red-headed centipede and can grow to the size of a large man’s forearm. It’s sting is incredibly painful and it can do damage to small pets. I also learned that their favorite meal is scorpions. I wonder what kind of ecosystem I’d destroyed by escorting this guy outside?
     I’m now tough as nails when it comes to critters of the arthropod and small reptile variety. The next frontier will be snakes. Wish me luck.

Field is famous, but Ward’s legacy echoes

"Spirit of Progress" atop former Ward's Building.  

      History is not fair. It does not dole out fame in strict proportion with significance, but instead assigns it haphazardly, based on eye-catching flourishes.
     For instance. Most Chicagoans know Marshall Field, the department store founder whose namesake flagship State Street store became a beloved icon. Field didn’t originate the idea of a department store, he perfected it, forging cherished personal memories for many Chicagoans who made pilgrimages in December to ogle fabulous Christmas windows.
     But the truly revolutionary Chicago figure, whose legacy outstrips Field’s though his name is more remote from public memory, is a clerk who worked for Field: Aaron Montgomery Ward. It was Ward who, in mid-August, 1872, printed out a single sheet of 163 items for sale and mailed it to farmers. Ward created the first mail-order catalogue.
     We forget how revolutionary Ward’s business really was. People at the time had trouble wrapping their heads around it. The Chicago Tribune denounced Ward, editorially, as an obvious crook. “Beware! Don’t patronize Montgomery Ward & Co. They are deadbeats!” the paper warned Nov. 8, 1873. Beside the impossibly low prices and suspiciously wide range of goods, the company “retired from the public gaze,” with no roving agents or actual place of business. What was that?

To continue reading, click here.

"This is how they operate."

By Paul Cabet (Musee d'Orsay)

     Over a year ago, I wrote about "targeted individuals"—people who are convinced that they are being followed, harassed, experimented upon by shadowy forces: coordinated teams of strangers, satellites, shadowy government forces. You might think that the idea that passing aircraft are watching you is crazy. They do not.
    Since then, I have received regular emails from such individuals. Some mistake my soft tone as sympathy, and share their situations. Others assume I'm vastly fascinated with the topic and load me with information. Some detect my skepticism and object that they are being wronged. 
     Then there is this email, received Wednesday, which expresses all of that, and more. I'm sharing it, through the miracle of cut-and-paste technology. I'm not expecting you to read the entire thing. I certainly didn't, and in that case it is the first thing I've posted here without actually reading it all, for reasons that will become clear if, as I did, you try to do exactly that. I imagine that you'll start with good intentions, and at one point skim, then abandon the effort. 
     An actual caustic hard ass would just shrug and move on. Alas, that's only a pose with me. I thought carefully about my reply. Sometimes I write back with a version of Prof. LaPorte's stinging question: "What is it about you that makes a congress of agencies want to keep tabs on you?" They never answer. This time I wrote something heartfelt, designed to help. Naturally, I never heard back so I assume the effort was wasted. But I did try to help her in the best way I knew how, and I think that counts for something. 
    I'll shield her name, for her sake. LC writes:

Sad you blame the victims in your story who are suffer total social ousting, if you did your job sir you'd find out those of us this is happening to had very wonderfully normal lives before someone very powerful stole it out from under us. These people love that no one defends or believes us as it gives them power to harm more one by one. What if I had recorded evidence of what these people do? What if I told you I caught very unethical behaviors going on to show how far they will treat you? Its funny how many articles like yours drown out horrific things happening to many people you mock in disbelief and silence its due to our country having zero outlets of places we can report incidences to that really take the report seriously, that really research anything being said as for all we know there may be no honest people at the top of our media or any other agency who isnt part of this horrific domineering issue. I am a videographer, I also wrote a column for 3-4 years, I was blessed with many talents but I was born onto something no one should be and I assure you sir Im not nor have ever been crazy. I was born in CA, I learned recently about a DNA researcher who was injecting things into babies in 1966-68. In 1958 just prior you can find the very document that started this project signed by John McCain and Travelers insurance. Its a public government document that would shock Americans if they ever really decided to listen for a change to those of us whose lives are being decimated, I also have videos of how they are sending signaling late at night hovering over specific neighborhoods and there is on record stories that support using radio frequencies to harm military personnel and they killed a government official down in South America, but of course the stories quickly are told then forgotten. They have to have GPS signaling from one device that had an end receiver, its a known hazard of attack for military after navy ships were hit by their enemies, but the unsuspecting public blames those of us who know all this with falsified labels the medical doctors push to explain away all the physical damages. Well I have a surgeon talking about it on tape, its disgusting, they see the damages in you and they sit there nonchalantly speaking about it like its no big deal after you've been crippled into poverty status from painful attacks that are ruining your organs one by one. There excuse is upper management doesn't allow them to investigate further its against company regulations. The doctors get sloppy though, every once in awhile you get documents your not suppose to have but then what they do is force you in threats until they can get them back and destroy it, my phone, computer its constantly being controlled and hacked you can find the tracking files in the back end of the OS and system files but Im not so good at IT as I don't know C++ but I aim to learn it some day so I can get rid of the files I don't have permissions to delete but I sure in hell know why they are there. After Obamacare there was a change in lab requirements at the CDC, it made labs chosen for population research studies exempt for regular policies. If you are harmed as a citizen labs and doctors do NOT have to report anything to the patient not even if it causes terminal illnesses. So until you sir do more than merely make a judgement against those of us fighting for our health these people ruin as well as our chance to survive in the real world you have done a severe injustice in your reporting. In my case Cleveland Clinic caused vile harm, those of us sick we are funneled into a program called QMB, my disability judgment I had attorney present was totally violated, they found a way to take everything the judge granted away from me through lousy doctors and state officials who only pose to be interested in helping you to find out what you have as evidence they need silenced forever. This is when you phones are tapped, you might come home with your door open or your gate might explain to you people are getting in you don't know or authorize. There's a lot of ways they operate. It worldwide network and they operate through a religion. They've managed to get into our schools, our local police, several cutting edge technology companies that then got bids for important satellite and government security programs. Once your on the list you never get off and they own the legal system so its impossible to find an attorney to help defend you. If I do a search with entering my information on Bar Associations I get a message "you are not authorized to access" same thing happens if I try and retrieve medical history but its only with the doctors who are taking part, the problem is our devices and searches are being heavily controlled by these same organizations and believe me I can prove every last thing Im saying here, so I know when you ignore this email and pass me off for crazy why. See people like you and the moral majority cant imagine much of anything if its not you its happening to but its your ignorance and lack of interest to do real research that will allow the rest of us to be victimized over and over again. We cant even tell our stories to anyone in the age of online police patrolling....  why? Why are words silenced today, why are people so afraid of truth? So you understand clearly Im sending you a second email with photos of the damages I live in day in and day out and so you clearly understand how much these people take, you give me an address sir I have recordings, videos, and major supporting documents to support every damn thing Ive tried to be heard on since my government decided to run aerosol testing over my neighborhood then refuse proper metals testing for 6 years so I now am battling the

beginning stages of small cancerous masses forming all over my body while my doctors play paddy cake, tictoc and allow us to die under COVID hoax, and Im not saying people aren't sick from COVID, Im saying people would be outraged if they really knew the truth. If you think your safe, you aren't, everyone is dispendable here, if you're untouched its merely luck. In my case I have a rare blood type they don't understand which makes me a real find for experimentation and believe me I can tell you sheer horror stories of what they've already done. Most of us just want justice, we want the right to live without harassment and restrictions, we want the torture to stop. Im pretty sure I will die at the hands of these people. As of this moment my disability was cut off, been refused legal representation, they tried to empty my bank accounts through Chase, but when that didn't succeed they cut off my debit card I use at a time my rent was due and I needed a rental car from being rear ended, I don't trust my family after my father drug me down the road intentionally then lied to cops stating I jumped out. I actually felt unsafe in the car as they threatened me so I announced I was getting out at a stop sign, the injuries I suffered were unforgivable. Yeah my father was AF, German decent, ex Bill Gates IBM. The lack of support and what I consider sheer sabotage of my life let doctors know I was open target for experimentation, they've, destroyed my GI system, partially collapsed my lungs, given me heart damage, and have left me with masses forming in my liver, gallbladder, right lung, neck, and I just got two more painful ones that formed down left arm. Heparin bleeding then weaken my abdominal/pelvic region so I have two hernias Ive been refused surgery for so I keep retaining toxins, if you want to experience life in hell well Im living it. Then my dad just somehow trashes the backend of my car and deserts the situation. I have a classic Del Sol, loved this car, very reliable transportation on a below poverty income my government strapped me to illegally. I should be receiving SSI and SSDI this was my legal judgement, but never seen a dime of it after paying an attorney 6k to defend a health issue even the supporting pulmonary doctor announced to the judge and me crying that I would NEVER get better. Even I had more hope then that so it was horrifying to be sentenced into all this with zero sympathy to acknowledge I was listening in the room. See they knew what I was being exposed to, it took me several years to understand the weight of what this doctor knew that was at the time being hidden from me. So my insurance gets odd, starts stalling, their collision center trashed my car further than refuses to fix a simple loose bumper and I spent 1700 in my draining last of funds account only to get a call after weeks no one was going to fix it. The collision center tries to keep my entire bumper as he knew he pumped up the costs to let insurance do a false totaled claim, my car is a highly priced collectors item and they can cash in on the parts or soup it up for resale, either way me as the non responsible party gets screwed. No damages happened to the person who hit me who then cant once again tell the truth , once again Im the problem. Was shocked my dad even was given a traffic citation and they didn't lie and hand it to me instead. So the day I remind my Travelers Insurance (you know the company that signed the 1958 John McCain bill for population research under fake green projects), they first send me to Enterprise where I was denied a rental for reasons not explained, then even though my insurance policy states I should be reimbursed a 5 day rental, they used the denied rental as a way not to honor my policy and I pay instead with my dwindling reverse Im watching go fast due to stripping out my disability income I counted on for living on, then I go to pay and learn my bank shut off my debit card just coincidentally at the same time my family has stopped supporting me as they forced me to move after my home of 5 years was taken away due to my failing health. Then the day I get my bumper returned, Im referred to a new collision center who proceeds to ask if they can take the tension bar and another piece from my trunk, I said "well after last collision center tried to steal my entire bumper yes I do mind." He snaps out "well I cant help you then." I should of left with that remark, but I fell for the "well I need them to check on my computer for correct parts." Sadly these parts were in perfect condition, he never brought them back out, when i asked for them back before leaving after he sat down grinning while telling me he was no longer going to fix my car, he used the while "oh your so pretty I tell you what let me hang onto it longer and ill try and find the pieces you need." So I learn that if i file my claim I needed those pieces in order to pass inspections for the salvage title. I cant afford my rent, in 5 months my funds will be gone so I can't qualify for a car loan. Same day a certified letter arrives from my pcp, claiming I have psychological illness, I cant get legal counsel, are you understanding the set up these people have accomplished in two short months? This is how they operate, its a whole network and as Chase told me as I called to get back my account they illegally tried to take, "we did this because we can....click!" Im currently trying to buy cheap land but I am totally broke in 5 months and so far no one will let me see the land I can afford, weeks go buy and they gleefully tell me oh I just sold that today. Im not allowed a car, land, home, loans, low income housing, employment (I have chronic open wounds Ive been told its a company liability issue), they wont let me apply for food stamps or fix my disability/Medicaid they took from me. The whole time doctors try and force QMB where they have full control of who you see and what they do, its live lab rat human experimentation, but no one cares no one!

I replied:

Dear Ms. C.:

     Later this morning, I'm visiting someone I think of as my "alcohol guy"—a counselor who specializes in addiction. I've been visiting him regularly for 15 years, not due to any crisis, but the way a person goes to the gym, to stay in shape and healthy. Going to see a mental health professional is not a sign of reduced sanity; in fact, like exercise, it is a necessary habit of the determinedly stable. I mention this personal detail to you, a stranger, to illustrate that there is no shame in seeking professional help, or talking to a counselor. If you're looking for someone to care about your very complicated situation, I would consider doing that rather than flinging your situation at journalists and demanding they care. It isn't that I don't care, I do, and I am illustrating that care by taking the time to point out the path you need to take if you want to soothe your distress. It is not easy; true solutions seldom are. But you are the one who needs to care about yourself, and to manifest that care by seeking trained help. Thank you for writing.

NS

Teachers ‘scared’ as they ponder return to classroom

"Happy birthday, Miss Jones," by Norman Rockwell

     Printing letters has gone the way of pounding out copy on a manual typewriter. Just as well, it was mostly a summertime strategy for work-averse columnists to dispatch their duties without much effort. 

     However. My column Monday discussing the wisdom of the Archdiocese of Chicago holding in-person classes during an epidemic drew insights from a number of school personnel.So I picked three, condensing for space and scrubbing their messages of any track-’em-down-and-fire-’em details that vindictive school administrators — are there any other kind? — could use to go after them.

     “I have been a teacher in the Archdiocese of Chicago since [an important sporting event in the 1980s]. I have loved being a teacher for the past 25 years, with a break to raise my own children. My passion as [an elementary school] teacher is to prepare my students for the sacraments. What a gift I have been given!     “As we prepare for the reopening of our Catholic schools, I am scared... All of the public schools in the surrounding suburbs are doing remote learning. We are the only school system reopening in person. This puts faculty, staff and our children in danger.
     “My expectations of keeping my students safe involves taking temperatures before the students even leave their cars. I am not a nurse. I am a teacher. I daily 
put myself in harm’s way if a shooter enters my classroom. Now I am being expected to put myself in harm’s way with a known assailant, COVID 19.
     “Without a union, I feel voices of Catholic school teachers are unheard. Many of us are scared. I am scared for myself, my coworkers and the children and families I love. I pray the Archdiocese changes their in person plan before we see sick teachers and children, or lives lost.“

To continue reading, click here

.