Items

• 2021-10-05

  The Road Rager

  It was late October 2021. The quiet and muted reactions to my provocative liberal bumper stickers on my Toyota Prius became louder and louder as the pandemic restrictions concluded. I was drinking my kale smoothie when I heard loud shoutings while waiting for the light to turn green. I immediately felt fear as I thought a violent incident was happening outside. I looked to my right and left and noticed an angry truck driver. As I pulled my window down, I thought about how much life had changed during these last two years. Folks crippled with COVID anxiety and forced inside had returned to the jungle that is car traffic. The result? Anger at the other side. Anger at those they deemed responsible for their restricted life. Anger at those who they believed were trying to muzzle and isolate society. The noises subsided, and I noticed I had just thrown my medium Burger King Drink at the car. Was I the angry road rager? Yes.
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  2021-10-05

  Child's Letter to Doug Ducey

  Twitter user @amybchan tweeted a photo of a letter that a 7-year-old student wrote to Governor Doug Ducey. She tells him that she and her sister both got COVID and asks him to make masks at school mandatory. Governor Ducey has not only refused to mandate masks at K-12 schools in Arizona but he has punished public school districts in the state that have chosen to require masks by withholding federal funding meant for COVID mitigation strategies. Parents, students, and educators have been outspoken about this policy and the federal government has weighed in over the mishandling of these COVID relief funds. My children are in a district that requires masks and have put in a grant application for those specific funds but have been told that it is "pending review" and has not released the money to the district. It is hurting districts who are actually trying to keep students and families safe and rewarding schools for not following proven mitigation strategies. At a time when children under 12 cannot get the vaccine this is especially troubling to many Arizona families.
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  2021-10-05

  COVID-19 vs. Me

  My story is raw and surely relatable by many of my peers. It captures the pandemic driven adversity I had dealt with during my senior year of high school as well as through my freshman year in college. It also includes a reflection that highlights our recent societal progression into a more normal and pandemic-free near future. This submission was simply meant to be another story regarding how COVID-19 has promoted upheaval and destruction in the lives of so many while reflecting on the current somewhat-improved state of the pandemic.
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  2021-10-05

  Pandemic 2020

  The pandemic affected many of our day to day lives. To start off it isolated us from socializing with friends, family, coworkers and others. It restricted us from doing our normal daily activities and routines. It made us miss important events and milestones that we can’t take back. For me the pandemic was very difficult, although the pandemic has not ended, the start of the pandemic was the biggest hardship. To start off, I had just started a new job that required me to help others get through the pandemic. I was assisting about 12 dr offices in scheduling patients. This was overwhelming to say the least and caused stress and anxiety. Many of us were facing challenges that can be stressful, overwhelming, and cause strong emotions in adults and children. Public health actions, such as social distancing, were necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19, but that could make us feel isolated and lonely and could increase stress and anxiety. I know for me it was very hard not to be around my family. I’m very close with my family and not being able to see them and hang out with them definitely took a toll on me. For starters I was not able to be in the delivery room with my sister who was pregnant at the time and I was not able to meet my niece in person for months. The first time I met her was through FaceTime, which was not the same as being able to hold my first niece. Adults struggled adapting to new social routines—from choosing to skip in person gatherings, to consistently wearing masks in public. Daily activities that one would normally do were taken. For me my daily activity was the gym and with the pandemic it caused a shut down and once it reopened it was difficult to adjust to the new “normal”.
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  2021-10-05

  Nate LeMonnier Oral History, 2021/10/05

  It was fun to ask my son about his experience during the pandemic. He handled the whole thing really well which comes across in the interview. I've transcribed the text in the attached Word doc.
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  2021-10-05

  Marci LeMonnier Oral History, 2021/10/05

  As her parent, it was interesting to ask my daughter questions about the pandemic and hear her responses. As a family, we were really lucky to stay healthy and be able to spend a lot of extra time together. I've transcribed the interview in the attached Word file.
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  2021-10-05

  Life During a Pandemic

  This is a brief look into life during the pandemic and how society has changed as well as what I have learned about the world and myself throughout the last two years. This is important to me because history is a great way to learn more about where we are today, if I am able to contribute to giving an insight to future generations about how our lives were affected by the global pandemic, I would be happy to do so.
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  2021-10-05

  PTA during Covid-19

  I have been volunteering in the PTA for the last 13 years. Two of these years occurred when I was the PTA president at my daughter's middle school during the Covid-19 pandemic. Once the pandemic started and Utah moved all schools to online in March 2020, PTA had to adjust. We cancelled all of our meetings and delivered the end-of-year teacher gifts to the teachers’ and staff’s homes. The next school year (2020-2021), the students returned to school but had to wear masks and large group activities were cancelled. PTA held our monthly meetings outside or via Zoom (once it became too cold to hold them outside) and we cancelled our assemblies. The school district required PTA to individually wrap treats/food that we provided for the teachers. Rather than the potluck-style lunches that we had always provided, we needed to cater the lunches which tripled our costs. We went from a budget of $700 for teacher lunches/treats/gifts to $2200. We made significant cuts in other areas in order to make this adjustment. The pictures above show treats for the teachers from 2021 that are individually wrapped and a partial list of teacher addresses and driving times when the PTA delivered presents to the homes of teachers and staff in 2020 because they were working from home. It took about eight volunteers, each with a 1 1/2 to 2 hour route, to get everything delivered.
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  2021-10-05

  Wide Range of Acceptable Socializing during Covid-19

  This meme shows the four members of the "family" in the movie "We're the Millers" reacting to houseguests during Covid-19. The "Dad" says, "My houseguests won't come unless we wear masks!" The "Mom" says, "My houseguests won't come unless we text them our vax cards!" The "daughter" says, "Our houseguests won't come unless we've had a negative covid test in the last 48 hours!" And the son says, "You guys are having houseguests?" The meme represents the wide range of "rules" that people are setting for themselves during Covid-19. Where I live in Utah, there are no official rules right now except that mask mandates are banned in public schools. In public, most people are not wearing masks and very few students are wearing them in schools. This meme, although it describes having houseguests, represents the varying degrees that people are socializing in all venues: at home, restaurants, movie theaters, amusement parks, family reunions, etc. Some people are still very cautious while others are "back to normal."
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  2021-10-05

  Masks in Puerto Rico with Five High Schoolers

  This summer (2021) my husband and I were lucky enough to take our two high schoolers along with three of their friends to Puerto Rico. It was a way to escape the boredom of Utah as well as its high Covid rate. Of course we wore masks in the airport and the airplanes and continued to wear them in all public places in Puerto Rico, even outside. The teenagers were resistant to wearing masks because Utah had stopped wearing them in March 2021. I explained to them that not only was the Puerto Rican government asking us to wear masks, but the local culture was expecting them too. I realize that this picture shows them not wearing masks but they wore them indoors and when we were near people outdoors – but almost never for pictures!
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  2021-10-05

  Turistas Ignoran Aislamiento Social en Rincon PR

  Maria del Carmen Gonzalez de Telemundo PR entrevista al alcalde de Rincón, Carlos López Bonilla. El alcalde dice que los turistas están ignorando las reglas de distancia social y los toques de queda. Maria del Carmen Gonzalez: "Nostotros con se encuentra el alcalde de rincón, Carlos López, a quien le agradecemos que esté aquí con nosotros durante la tarde de hoy. Como el municipio a manera de las situactión para controlar a los turistas a tenido a problema con el." Carlos Lopez Bonilla: "Sí, ese es situactión un mucho problema. Cuando comenzó todo esto, el toque de queda, por lo menos tuvimos que nosotros a intervenir con más de 100 ahorita en las diferentes calles, las diferentes playas, extraído poco a poco. En el segundo día fueron menos y hay hoy en el día de hoy ya ha sido 88 personas que nosotros tenemos que ir con otro. Personal a intervenir con ellos y hablar con ella."
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  2021-10-05

  Puerto Rico Requires Negative Covid Test

  Beginning July 15, 2020, the governor of Puerto Rico ordered all tourists to show a negative, molecular Covid test in order to enter the island. The governor had tried to close down all US mainland flights from coronavirus hotspots but the FAA did not respond to her request. Instead, the governor required tourists to show proof of a negative Covid test, using this QR code (above), in order to leave the airport. Throughout one's stay in Puerto Rico, the government texted/emailed everyday asking for any symptoms. For the first several months, the questions were only in Spanish (above).