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SOCI4421
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2020-05-15
Covid Playground
This is a photo I took while out for a walk at a park that I grew up by. It was a park I had been going to all my life, and a playground that saw me as a 3 year old. Never in my life have I seen it closed. But on that day, I saw a sign that declared it closed until further notice, to stop the spread of the virus. It was straight out of fiction to me, because I had never seen anything like it. I was shocked, and had another of the (too common nowadays) moments of "wow, this is really happening." -
2020-05-15
The Bank
This is a photo I took in line at the bank, when I had to deposit a paycheck. I took this photo because of all the stories I herd about during the depression, when people would line up at the bank, demanding their money back. Was this the case on that day? Maybe, but probably not. Is this another great depression. I sure hope not. *Original text in "Contributor:" Matthew Paluzzi, Fordham University, SOCI4421 -
2020-05-15
Mobile Palm Sunday
This was a funny story. We were walking around for a bit in my grandmother's neighborhood, when we saw a priest in a car while we were crossing the street. My dad gave him a bowing gesture, and in return, the priest gave him a sign of the cross. But then, once we had crossed the street, the car pulled over to us, and offered to give us our Palm Sunday palms. He told us they had been sanitized, and blessed, and that he had a whole box of them he had been giving out. He told us that he had been going around all day giving palms and blessing to people. It was quite the uplifting experience, as we hadn't at all expected to get anything Palm Sunday related this year. -
2020-04-17
A Walk through Covid-19 Brooklyn (Nathan's Famous - Coney Island)
Sign informing customers they must wear a face mask posted outside Nathan's Famous in Coney Island, Brooklyn. -
2020-04-24
A Walk through Covid-19 Brooklyn (Prospect Park Sign)
Electronic sign in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. -
2020-04-29
A Walk through Covid-19 Brooklyn (Shore Road, Bay Ridge)
Chalk writing found on Shore Road in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. -
2020-04-17
A Walk Through Covid-19 Brooklyn (Coney Island Beach Boardwalk Sign)
Walking along the boardwalk in Coney Island, a sign reminding the public how far apart they should stand appears. -
2020-04-29
A Walk Through Covid-19 Brooklyn (Dyker Heights Residence 1)
Many residents in Brooklyn have posted signs outside their homes relating to the pandemic. This sign was found while walking around in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. -
2020-04-12
A Walk through Covid-19 Brooklyn (Shore Road Park Sign)
Sign informing the public how far apart to stand from one another (6 ft.) near Belt Parkway entrance on Shore Road in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. -
2020-04-07
A Walk through Covid-19 Brooklyn (Shore Parkway Courts)
Walking along Shore Parkway, I see a locked gate and sign informing the public that playing in groups is not permitted. -
2020-04-24
A Walk through Covid-19 Brooklyn (Prospect Park Playground)
Walking in Prospect Park, I see a sign informing the public of a playground closure. -
2020-05-10
A Walk through Covid-19 Brooklyn: We're all in this Together
As college seniors approaching our last few months, we have all been talking about how we wanted to spend our final days together. We were aware of the reality of having more responsibility after graduation. And just like that - the time we had left vanished. It isn’t fair that our college experience didn’t have the closure it deserved. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. But among the things that seem unfair right now, who am I to complain about something so selfish and short sighted? My college is in the Bronx, and while most people returned home to their families for quarantine, I simply switched boroughs. New York City is a warzone, over 200 people are dying everyday. One day, the death toll exceeded 800. And while I have never seen my city mourn like this, I have never seen it come together like this either. Every night at 7 pm, Maryann, two houses down from mine, stands in her driveway and plays “God Bless America” on a speaker for all the neighbors to hear. Amanda that lives down the block became a licensed nurse a few months ago. Her mother, Fran, has made a hobby of making masks out of old fabric. My sister spends hours on the phone talking to her special education students and their families about the adjustments being made. As a result of this pandemic, Dalia across the street has had an increase in patients wanting appointments because of the increase in mental health problems. When I go for my daily walk, everyday I see a new sign thanking healthcare and essential workers, signs saying things like, “Brooklyn Strong!” Nothing brings people together like tragedy. There are differences among all these people I have mentioned and they are all being affected in different ways. However, at the end of the day, any one of us can get sick. We are all human. We have different ethnic origins, identify as different genders, practice different religions, have different mental and physical disabilities, but viruses don’t care about that. Although certain health or economic factors may make specific groups more at risk for serious illness from the virus, a virus is non-discriminatory when it comes to the presence of cognitive or physical disabilities. It will survive and debilitate any human body. We all share a common enemy. During this pandemic, so many different kinds of people are fighting for something bigger. This fight against a force imperceptible to the human eye has in fact diminished differences, brought people together to fight for change in new and influential ways, and shown the strength of the fabric of our society. -
2020-04-06
A Walk through Covid-19 Brooklyn (Shore Parkway Bench)
Walking along Shore Parkway, I encounter this coronavirus graffiti. -
2020-05-09
Quarantine Thoughts
March 25 This time has truly been a busy and challenging one. It is worrying and stressful. I believe that the 24-hour news cycle is part of the cause for this stress. There is no escape from the virus. I used to watch a lot of sports, but now there is nothing on TV. All ESPN has become is how Covid-19 is affecting the sports world. All anyone talks about now is the virus, nothing else really is being focused on. While this is a very negative view of this whole situation, I have observed one positive myself from this whole ordeal. I have been able to spend more time with my family and this has made weathering this whole situation easier. But this does make me feel for those who are not in the same situation as me. There are many whose parents are still working outside the home because their job requires them to or to help those with the virus. To those people I offer my gratitude and wishes for their well-being. April 15 What I have found most interesting about these times has been how hard it is to do work. I really did not think it would be this challenging. I expected some change, but it really is much harder to concentrate and get motivated in these times. But the more I think about it the more it really makes sense as to why it is so hard to do work and focus. At Fordham I would normally go to the library for 2 or 3 hours a day and be able to focus and tune out the rest of the world and just focus on the tasks at hand. It wasn't hard to focus back then. My biggest worry was the next exam or my GPA. A pandemic wasn't on my mind always in the background. This pandemic makes it hard to tune out the world. It is all over the news and all anyone talks about, so it’s just hard to think about anything else. It is also harder to do work at home. At the library I was there for one reason, to do work and I left when I finished. It is different at home. There are distractions everywhere and it is not a place I am accustomed to doing so much work. It was a place I came to relax and take a break. This whole ordeal has really been an adjustment. But I count myself among the lucky ones. My challenges are mundane in the face of what others are facing. All I can truly say is that this is truly a crazy world we live in today. It is like a movie playing out before our eyes. April 21 Over the last week it looks like things are starting to improve a little bit in New York. We are making progress against the virus and the curve has begun to flatten according to Governor Cuomo. We still have a long way to go though. But hopefully this trend continues, and New York will be able to go back to some sense of normalcy this summer. Not every state is like New York though. Not all states are taking the proper precautions about Covid-19 or are truly taking it seriously. New York is thinking of opening in June. Other states are considering reopening next week. This is truly concerning. All the leaders of these states seem to care about is the economy. They want to open back up as soon as possible to restart the economy. What these leaders fail to consider though is that if they reopen too early the economy would be even worse than it is now and so many more lives will be lost. But they do not seem to think about the future, just the present. April 22 I thought I would post an update today. I have not left the house frequently since the Covid-19 outbreak started but today I did. While looking out the car window I was truly shocked at the amount of people I saw not wearing masks. There were construction workers, runners, and bikers all not wearing masks, even though the governor mandated them days ago. These individuals looked like they were coming in close proximity with others, so I was surprised they were not taking the proper precautions. While I understand those, who cannot get their hands on a mask due to supply issues, I believe that there must be some way to cover your face to protect yourself and others. A simple bandanna or even a scarf could go a long way toward protecting yourself. To me this seemed to show that some people are not taking the pandemic seriously and are ignoring it. May 9 Today I wanted to discuss a particular issue that I have observed during the Covid-19 crisis. This is the issue of ableism in society. I was encouraged to read more into this topic after a classmate had mentioned it a couple of weeks back. Ableism is already an issue in society today, so you may wonder if it can really get worse. It indeed has gotten worse since the Covid-19 crisis has begun. The reason ableism in has gotten worse in society, actually has to do with something called a ventilator. Many states have found themselves woefully unprepared for this crisis, lacking many key products. One of these key products is a device called a ventilator. Ventilators are important because they can provide mechanical ventilation for people whose lungs have shut down due to an injury or infection, such as Covid-19. Ventilators were in short supply towards the peak of this crisis, but the issue has mostly been solved for the time being. At the beginning of the crisis however, some state officials tried to conserve their dwindling supplies of ventilators. Some states took this effort too far though. They enacted policies that could deny individuals a ventilator based on if they have certain underlying conditions such as dementia, cystic fibrosis, or “severe” intellectual disabilities. Upon reading into these policies, I was highly disturbed. We are deciding who lives and who dies based on these policies. In a way we are judging who is more “worthy” of life. The way these policies are written makes it is clear who these policy writers are considering more “worthy” and less “worthy”. These policy writers clearly believe that disabled individuals are less “worthy” of life then the rest of mankind. By denying disabled individuals a ventilator, you are denying them life and enforcing the notion that these individuals are not “worth” keeping alive. I truly believe this is wrong in every way. These policies blatantly violate the rights of the disabled and treat them as “inferior” to the rest of society. -
A Troubled Case
This scene happened outside my house in the early days of the pandemic. My brother noticed a was car parked outside of our house for multiple hours, and was starting to get suspicious. I thought nothing of it, until two police cars pulled up beside it. After talking for a while, 3 more police cars and an ambulance showed up. It was quite the scene. After more talking, the man in the vehicle was eventually arrested and taken away. It turns out that the man inside was certain he had the Covid virus, and did not want to go home to his family. He had nowhere else to go, and it was a cold night, so he tried to park his car on our street and sleep there. It seemed like a valiant thing to do in my opinion. But, for whatever reason (there was probably more details we were not told), he was arrested, and his car was towed. It made me think: should he have been allowed to just sleep there? Was he doing anything wrong? I can't even imagine being too scared of yourself harming someone that you can't even go home. It was certainly a night to remember. -
2020-03-09
Corona Party
I cannot believe how badly this picture aged. This was taken the day that Fordham cancelled classes due to COVID-19. We all gathered on the green and threw a party to celebrate being out of school. Now all we do it sit at home and be sad about it. In a way it was a nice happy way to say goodbye, but in another way it was very ignorant to the reality of the situation. -
2020-04-27
Grandma's Cookies (from a safe distance)
My grandmother still makes sure to give us the cookies she makes when we visit, but from a safe distance. We put them in the "no man's land" on a table between us, and take from the table one at a time. Of course it's not the same, but it's the best she can do. -
2020-04-05
Route 93 - Boston
Snapped this picture while in the passenger seat on the highway. It captured for me for the the real dystoptian feeling hanging over our heads these days.