Our leaders need to do everything in their power to to slow the spread of coronavirus. Now.
Use this letter to ask your mayor and governor to issue mandatory shelter-in-place orders to slow the coronavirus & COVID-19 pandemic
I recently sent letters to my city’s mayor and my state’s governor asking them to issue mandatory shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. I hope you will, too.
I’ve included a link for a downloadable and customizable version of the following letter at the bottom of this post. Please download it, edit it in whatever way you see fit and send it to your mayor and the governor of your state as soon as possible. Remember to include your contact information.
Fargo, N.D. residents, send your letter to Mayor Tim Mahoney using this form, or call him at 701-241-1310. If you’re in another U.S. city, search your city’s website for contact information.
North Dakota citizens can contact Gov. Doug Burgum directly through the online contact form, or email his constituent service representative, Shelley Haugen, at skhaugen@nd.gov. If you’re from another state, find your governor’s contact information here.
Upper Great Plains: Time to recommit to social distancing.
Don‘t Do It!
Social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19 has been relatively easy so far in North Dakota and Minnesota. March has been the tease it usually is, with above-freezing temps but windchills still down in the single digits or teens.
But now the temps are rising – 40s and 50s in Fargo (N.D.)-Moorhead (Minn.) for the next 10 days or so, warmer the farther south you go.
We’re all looking out the window, thinking about how luxurious the spring sunshine would feel on our backs and how great it would be to share a cold one on the neighbors’ patio, even if we still have to wear a light jacket.
The pull is especially strong after a couple of weeks mostly in isolation. People… we need to be around people!
Resist the urge.
Getting together, standing in lines, stopping for chats…. You’ll not only be putting yourself in danger of contracting coronavirus and developing COVID-19, you’ll be putting others in danger. One person with coronavirus infects two, two become four, four become 16, 16 become….
To give you a little more context for my point of view – my wife is a registered nurse at Sanford Health caring for patients with coronavirus and COVID-19 patients directly. People who go out and interact with other people literally put her life at greater risk.
Just don’t do it. Please.
Go walk your dogs, keep six feet between you and anyone on the same side of the street, hang out with the kids in the backyard, sure. Take care of your family’s mental health. Absolutely. But keep using technology like FaceTime if you have it to “hang” with anyone who doesn’t live in your household.
COVID-19 is out there, like a wolf waiting to make a break for anyone who stumbles from a herd.
The junior senator from North Dakota needs to make this as right as possible with a real apology.
That’s just not good enough, Kev.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., has once again embarrassed the citizens of the state he is supposed to represent.
Yesterday Cramer tweeted about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. “She’s retarded,” he wrote in reply to a post by Daily Caller about Pelosi’s comments regarding COVID-19 relief bills.
Today – in the spirit of the Nixon White House responding to a Washington Post story about the Watergate scandal, a response that Editor Ben Bradlee famously called a “non-denial denial” – Cramer issued a “non-apology apology.”
The Ol’ DC Two-Step
Cramer behaved no better than Nixon and his communications staff in blaming the tweet on fumbling fingers and autocorrect, saying he was attempting to tweet, “She’s ridiculous.”
He must think people are either terribly stupid or incredibly gullible.
We’re not.
Try misspelling “ridiculous” in as many ways as possible. Your autocorrect will not substitute in “retarded.” It’s simply not possible. I just tried it myself. Instead of seeing autocorrect default to “retarded,” it gave me an opportunity to learn a new word. In case you were wondering, “reticulated” means “netted,” or “covered with a network.” Who knew?
Back to Cramer….
What was it Forrest Gump’s mama always used to say? Ah, yes, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
Unfortunately, the news media is calling his “non-apology apology” an actual apology, which it most certainly is not. The headline from U.S. News is typical:
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. Associated Press photo by Jose Luis Magan
Non-Apology Apology
What he said was, “I’m really sorry it happened.”
Well, heck, I’m sure he is really sorry it happened. News outlets all of the nation have been carrying the story and he comes off as an insensitive, distasteful person to say the least. I’d go so far as to say he’s made himself look like an imbecile. Apply your own judgement.
Regardless, I’m willing to bet there are a lot of people around the country who are wondering how this man ever became a U.S. senator. Let me tell you what I believe, non-North Dakotans:if this state wasn’t so doggone deep red, he wouldn’t have had even an inkling of a chance.
Regardless, what he said was a non-apology apology, and it’s not adequate. What he needs to say is, “I apologize TO SPEAKER PELOSI for using such an offensive word to describe her.”
Simple.
So easy, in fact, that the vast majority of us learned how to make a proper apology before we started kindergarten.
Obligatory, as well.
Cramer also needs to apologize to everyone else on the planet for using the pejorative term at all. He needs to say, “I’m also sorry for using the term itself to describe anyone, due to its infamous history as a pejorative term used to describe people with mental and physical disabilities.”
What he’s said is simply not good enough. What he’s said is an embarrassment to North Dakotans who voted for him (I am not one). What he’s said insults the intelligence of every thinking person, regardless of whether they agree they’ve been insulted.
Finally, he needs to stop insulting our intelligence. Drop the “ridiculous” charade and own up to what he Tweeted rather than trying to blame it on technology.
Inasmuch as anything like this can be made right, Cramer needs to make this right with a real apology. He owes it to Speaker Pelosi, to the office she holds, the citizens of the nation and, last but not least, the people of North Dakota.
But I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Cramer, like most kindergarteners and former Watergate operatives, probably believes he can keep quiet by holding his longer, anyway.
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Featured image: Associated Press photo by Jose Luis Magana
Our 18-year-old daughter opened our bedroom door late. We’d been sleeping for nearly an hour already. I sat up quickly, saw her silhouette in the light spilling in from the hallway. My wife, an RN at one of the local hospitals, had a 5 a.m. shift the next day; she slept on. My daughter motioned for me to come.
She was crying.
We went down the hall to her room, sat on the edge of the bed and I put my arm around her. She let me, which is unusual; my daughter has never been physically demonstrative, even when she was a baby. It’s just part of who she is.
“What’s wrong, Honey?” I asked, one word echoing through my mind before she spoke:
The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to investigate and call bullshit on the load of crap North Dakota’s senior senator is trying to sling.
You’re Busted, Senator!
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and he’s trying to tell us that since his digits haven’t quite curled around a treat yet, he’s done nothing wrong.
We call B.S.
According to a story first reported on CNBC, Hoeven purchased stock in the BlackRock Health Sciences Trust II fund five days after receiving a briefing on the coronavirus. After that same briefing, several of his colleagues sold off shares of stock, presumably in anticipation of the market taking a nosedive due to the crisis that was coming. As they’d just been told by “health and State Department officials.”
As The Hill reported, “According to financial disclosure forms, Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) each sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks within days of the Senate holding a classified briefing on Jan. 24 with Trump administration officials on the threat of the coronavirus outbreak.”
Since he hasn’t avoided the loss of millions, like his colleagues, Hoeven’s still flying a bit under the radar. But that certainly doesn’t me he’s done nothing wrong.
Will and Ben knew what they were talking about. Too bad they aren’t talking to government leaders about the coronavirus pandemic.
Government Responses to COVID-19 Spread Defy Logic
* Editors Note, March 16, 2020 – Hours after IV Words published this post on March 15, N.D. Gov. Doug Burgum announced statewide school closures due to coronavirus. By that time, every state around us – Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota – had already announced closings. Fargo Public Schools sent announcements to students and parents shortly thereafter. As of today, about 30 states have shuttered schools for the purposes of social distancing in the hope of at least slowing the spread of the virus.
“Discretion is the better part of valor” is a bit of wisdom based on a line from Shakespeare’s “King Henry the Fourth, Part One.”
“Caution is preferable to rash bravery,” Falstaff said in the play.
Another way of saying it these days is “Prudence is the better part of valor.” Either way, the old saying means it’s “wise to be careful and avoid unnecessary risks.”
Seems to me too many people are OK with taking unnecessary risks with the coronavirus pandemic right now.
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