Items

• 
  2021-03-20

  If You Need To Read Lip's...

  At Muir Woods National Park the park ranger had a sign displayed, If you need to read lips just let them know and they will remove their face coverings to communicate with you. I was super impressed. This year has be rough. I make my husband do the shopping after a man yelled at me at the beginning of the pandemic because I didn't hear the cashier the next isle over when she said she could help me. The man yelled, "What are you deaf?" and I was too embarrassed to defend myself. I don't wear my hearing aids now because of the mask. Insurance wont cover the cost of the hearing aid and it costs more than my car. I am worried a hearing aid will fly off when I remove my mask so against the advisement of my audiologist I just keep them off. It's whatever. Seeing signs like this just impress me. Inclusivity matters.
• 
  2021-03-18

  Moving During a Plague Year

  2020 began as an optimistic year. In January, I decided to apply to the Public History MA program at the University of Colorado, Denver. We were living in Amarillo, Texas, and dreaming of a home that allowed us to thrive in our chosen fields, something that was unlikely in our hometown. So in early March of 2020, we decided to make the out-of-state move to Denver, Colorado. I had not yet been accepted to a grad program, and my husband did not have a job in our new city. "We'll figure it out." That's typically how it goes for two easy-going free spirits: set the destination and let the journey figure itself out. We looked forward to our April 4th move date as the reality of the Pandemic slowly set in. I was thankful for my workplace shutting down because it gave me plenty of time to pack up the house with a blissful ignorance for the year to come. I packed, taped, and organized dozens of cardboard boxes while dreaming about my sunny balcony in Denver. I planned going away parties and meticulously arranged coffee meet-ups with my closest friends. Against my best efforts, the in-person experiences faded away as the isolation began to set in. "No worries," I thought, "this will only last a couple of weeks." Oh, how wrong I was. I'm typing this story on March 18, 2021, for an assignment that was given online after a lecture that was presented online. A year later and my life continues virtually. We moved with hope for our future. We weren't hoping that the future involved facing our deepest emotional issues or learning how to love each other in complete isolation. It certainly did not contain a life of unemployment and disappointment. Slowly, begrudgingly, we got to know ourselves and began to heal from years of emotional suppression. I was diagnosed with ADHD for the first time in my life. It changed everything, and I owe my current success to the therapist that offered a discounted rate in my time of need. My husband learned just how deep his depression went. But most importantly, we learned that we could do it, that we can hold on long enough to see the light at the end. My husband just accepted an incredible job, and my academic life is flourishing. Even as I grew increasingly annoyed at the idea of a "bright side," the bright side came and lit up just how far we've come as people and as a couple.
• 2021-01-28

  Silences in the Archive

  As I've been reading through the archive and seeing the stories shown, I have been struck by one important missing group from the narratives of Covid-19: Those who haven't taken it seriously. There are countless stories of people who see the wilful ignorance and even maliciousness of those who either don't believe Covid is important or is simply a hoax, there is little to no input from those kinds of people themselves. This cannot be blamed entirely on the archive, to be sure. Every contribution here is voluntary, and if you are someone who is already disinclined to believe that Covid is important then you are less likely to attempt to talk about it in this space. Moreover, as this archive was created by and shared among academics, it is less likely to reach people who largely only use sites like Facebook on the internet and exist in their own bubbles. There is also the point that giving a space and platform to toxic conspiracies is not exactly a great idea. We live in an age of alternative facts and wildly different sources of news and entertainment. Future historians using this archive will need to keep in mind that most of what is presented here is just one of the many realities people have been dealing with this past year.
• 
  2020-12-08

  Most Memorable Curations

  As I have learned to curate for the Journal of the Plague Year Archive this semester, I have been exposed to the many stories of different types of people during this awful pandemic year of 2020. Of the many items that I have curated, quite a few really stood out to me, and I tried to narrow it down to just one, but I couldn’t, so I chose two. The reason these two items stood out to me, and why many did, was the fact that they were relatable and they were emotional. The first item that really stood out to me was submitted by a woman that talked about why the pandemic terrifies her. She talked about how sad it was to see people not taking this seriously, and how ignorant people were being. She also spoke about the violence, and the rush to buy an insane amount of items from the store to prepare for what felt like an apocalypse. The part that got me was at the end, she discussed how she had been furloughed in her company and she had no source of income, so she had to move into an apartment. You could really tell how scared and stressed she was just by reading it. I could really feel her emotions and it really made me sit back and think about how many innocent people are being put through such hell. The second item that really stood out to me was submitted by a woman whose mother was in a nursing home. There was a picture submitted with the text that showed her mother peeking through her window. Nursing homes are among the many businesses that are very strict and are taking extra precautionary measures, so her mother is not allowed to have any visitors, only through a window. Her mother is 98 years old, and it saddens her to not be able to see her mother, especially not knowing when the next time she will be able to. I can personally relate to this because my grandma lives in a nursing home back in my hometown of Lewiston, ID. It is hard enough to live so far away and not be able to see her, but now I am not even allowed to see her when I visit home. It has been a hard year for my family because my grandma has dementia, and not being able to visit her cuts even deeper. My mother has especially had a rough year, because she has to sit and wait to see her mom, not knowing when that will be.
• 
  2020-10-19

  A Government Against It's People

  Finding any type of media that will accurately show what little the government has done and the lack of support the people of America have is unbelievably easy. In fact, I had a hard time choosing between which cartoon illustration was better. I knew our government wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t until Donald Trump being elected and the coronavirus pandemic hitting our homes did I realize how terrible things really are. These cartoons depicted so well how our government has harmed us more than helped us. The dangerous lies told by our own president and how the government won't take responsibility. When corona made its way to the U.S it was deemed unserious. On March 11th, 2020, President Trump said, “The vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low.” At that time there were 1,105 cases and 33 deaths documented in the U.S. The next day my highschool as well as every other school within the country closed down as an “extra week of spring break” due to the virus. This “break” soon became eight months and in the U.S alone there are now 8,128,524 ( plus 47,035 new) cases with 218,986 ( plus 475 new) deaths . The scare became real, people started stocking up leaving nothing for anyone else. We have almost 15 people in our home, it took my mom multiple trips to different stores in order to get the necessities for our family. You would think when a pandemic is spreading throughout people in the country you were placed in position to protect you’d address the problem seriously and work hard to find a solution. All Trump and our government has done was ignore the citizens deaths and provide false hope. What we did get was our president being sarcastic and telling us to inject lysol into our lungs. The citizen’s of America have seen other countries rise in numbers of coronavirus with us and then watch their governments actually handle the situation causing their numbers to decline while our numbers are still shooting through the roof. The panic of this virus does not even cross the mind of those who are rich, the group that our current president only cares about. They didn’t have to worry about medical bills in a country where the president doesn’t believe free healthcare is a human right because they know they are important in his eyes. At the end of this virus, it will be the stories from the one percent belittling the destruction of this virus rather than those who have actually suffered. America is running on ignorance right now. Our own president and government is not concerned with the health of the country. It is the government's job to protect and provide for its people, whether it be an outside threat or a threat within the country. When I look at those cartoons of Donald Trump and the coronavirus, it makes me remember how badly I want our country to actually function the way it is intended to.
• 
  2020-04-20

  A Conflicting Agenda

  This image portrays two women in downtown Sacramento in protest of the shelter-in-place lockdown that Governor Gavin Newsom implemented. One women is seen holding a sign that portrays Governor Gavin Newsom as part of the Nazi regime or compared with Adolf Hitler. Another woman is seen in the foreground carrying a child on her back with another sign declaring that “All Businesses Are Essential”. Both women are protesting against business closures, unemployment, and being unable to return to the workforce. While with some jobs work is almost guaranteed like those who work for the state, other private and small businesses are suffering. On the other hand, while having the freedom to assemble and speak openly comes with its benefits, the sign depicting Gavin Newsom as a Nazi is quite extreme. The level of ignorance present in this photograph equates its offensive demeanor and deeply undermines the experiences of Holocaust survivors and the other millions of lives lost. For me fellow Sacramentans, seeing signs and descriptions such as these make me feel less proud of the town I live in. I thought the pandemic would help us realize our insensitive words and unnecessary slurs but it’s only reminded many people of a troubled past. The pandemic has truly brought a side of the American people that I have never seen and as a young student seeing adults act with rational thought makes me wonder where our world will be in the next few decades. If the world changes, so do we. Some people have a hard time overcoming adversity and the pandemic has exposed triggers amongst the American people. One of them being economic downfall. The image clearly represents what some individuals believe to be most important and valued in life. It seems that we have reached a point through this pandemic that we no longer prioritize the lives of each other but rather how much money is in the bank. In many ways, this is a reflection of what America was built off of.
• 
  2020-05-07

  Mask vs. mask

  Photo posted on Instagram showing a women wearing a face mask. Who knows when this foto is from, but it makes fun of people's ignorance about health and safety. Although, the empty bus suggests social distancing measures might be in place.
• 
  2020-04-28

  week of april 27

  Week of April 27, 2020 I am from Myrtle Beach, SC and as most people know South Carolina was one of the first states to open back up after President Trump gave his blessings to each governor to make their own decision regarding how quickly and what to open up and what to restrict. During this entire month, Covid 19 has revealed some uncomfortable truths about America. Every day brings a reminder that we are a country of extreme haves and have nots – and this applies to people have accurate information. We as a country have the most Nobel prizes in science and also the most willfully ignorant people when it comes to understanding science. How else can we explain electing a low information buffoon who pushes bullshit cures and disinformation that will actually kill people. Injecting disinfectant??? Really? Trump knows that there is no disinfectant at stores. But he like many Americans believes that science is just an opinion instead of trying to understand it. These people are far better at dismissing inconvenient science than trying to understand how it will affect their lives. Thinking is hard. Repeating memes is fun. And after all, isn’t not believing in Darwinism really Darwinism? When facts are inconvenient, these folks just scream that “I can’t hear you.” This goes to prove another fact, that America cares more about the corporate health of its companies that the actual health of its citizens. Corporations got most of the bailout cash. And corporations and the politicians corporations pay are behind the “grassroots” push to prematurely open America. Georgia has one of the lowest rates of testing in the country and it is the first to completely reopen. That’s what happens when you make medical decisions for political reasons. Like the mayor of Las Vegas offering to make her city a control group with testing. It would be like a doctor saying they were going to treat cancer with lower taxes. Republican governors believe that sacrifices have to be made for corporate profits. Frankly, I don’t want to be a statistic. And because of trump’s attitude toward this has been that he won’t take any blame, our response to the pandemic has been ad hoc, conflicting, and piecemeal. Some states have had responses founded on research surrounded by states with policies founded on Twitter hashtags. It is amazing to some that viruses don’t respect state lines or how deadly they are. The conflicting responses are like having a no smoking section in my car or a no peeing section in my bathtub. I have to give credit for most of this post to a post I follow on Facebook called Mrs. Betty Bowers. It reflects my feelings and frustrations but says it far better than I could.