Grieving with the parents of Skylar Herbert

American Girl "Kendall Doll"
looks a lot like Skylar.
I don't have permission to use Skylar's photo.

I grieve with the parents of Skylar Herbert.  Their little girl died two days ago of meningitis and brain swelling caused by infection with the corona virus. 

Her mother, LaVondria Herbert, has been a police officer in Detroit for 25 years.

Her father, Ebbie Herbert, has served as a firefighter for 18 years.

They first took her to their pediatrician on March 23 and she tested positive for strep throat, but antibiotics didn't help.  She had a bad headache.  

The next day they took her to the ER of Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital, where she was tested for the covid-19 virus.  The next day she was given a positive diagnosis.  

On the third day, Skylar was sent home, but the family returned to the hospital because her father was coughing and had shortness of breath. While he was being treated, Skylar's headache returned and she had a seizure.  In the ER, her parents learned that she had meningitis.

See the full article in the Detroit News.  Or the New York Times.  Or the Washington Post.

A parent's greatest fear is the loss of a child.

Skylar was their only child, born when her mother was 41 years old. 

She would not have died if Hillary Clinton had been president of the United States.  

Hillary would have heeded the warnings early in January before the US had any cases of Covid-19 infection.  She would have taken serious measures to prevent its spread in the US.  

Hillary was alert to health issues--she formed a healthcare reform plan in 1993 that was defeated by pharmaceutical and health insurance companies.

In September 2016, a website called To the Point compared the different outcomes for Americans if she were elected with her plan to expand the Affordable Care Act vs. if Trump were elected with his desire to repeal Obamacare.

As it turned out, Trump couldn't even be bothered to read the memos given to him in January about the looming pandemic.  Read "How Trump let the U.S. fall behind the curve on coronavirus threat" in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, April 19.

Any normal president would have ramped up testing in January, traced contacts, and issued stay-at-home orders.

Trump thought only about his impeachment, the economy, and his reelection.

His selfishness and lack of interest in the dangers of a pandemic resulted in the deaths of 45,318 Americans so far--including little Skylar Herbert.

It's still Easter: Risen Indeed

Mask Instructions and Best Practices

 Thank you to Marie Arthur Eggebroten for researching and compiling these instructions and videos on how to make a facial mask for using during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Video with pattern for hand-sewing a face mask:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOQgMt44PPQ

Suay face mask using sewing machine:
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.gblogID=9112746109698291522#editor/target=post;postID=955433565355677135

Best practices in use of facial masks

1. The recommendation is to wear a mask at all times in public spaces because we don’t know who has the virus and who doesn’t. It’s also more socially responsible to wear a mask, even if you’re outside.
2. Always wash your hands before putting on or taking off the mask. 
3. Don’t touch the fabric part of the mask. The fabric is the germ filter and you don’t want to spread whatever germs it has trapped. 
4. Use the ties to secure your mask and to remove it. 
1. The coverage area should go from near the bridge of your nose to down under your chin and stretch about halfway or more toward your ears. 
5. Fidgeting with a mask could introduce germs to your face. If you can’t get a comfortable fit with it on, it might not actually help to wear it. 
6. Another test* shows that using a single paper towel as a filter inside the cotton masks improves filtration. Throw the paper towel out at the end of the day and replace it with a new one the next day. 
1. Other studies have shown that using a shop towel* has even better filtration abilities than a normal paper towel. Brands like ToolBox & ZEP’s had better results than Scott shop towels. 
7. Wash your mask nightly in a machine or a sink, just using regular laundry soap. 

1. You can use the dryer or let it air dry. 
2. Although it’s not necessary, you can also go over it with a hot iron for a full assault on any germs that might remain.
3. DO NOT use chemicals like bleach or hydrogen peroxide as they will begin to degrade the fabric fibers, making the mask less effective. 
8. Masks do make us feel safer, but any benefit of wearing a mask will be quickly negated if we lose our resolve about social distancing and hand washing. Don’t start lingering in grocery stores or spending time with friends because you are wearing a mask. A mask alone will not protect you from the coronavirus.

Most info from: “A User’s Guide to Face Masks” published on 4/10/20 by the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/well/live/coronavirus-face-masks-guides-protection-personal-protective-equipment.html 

What to use to make facial masks

*https://www.businessinsider.com/homemade-mask-using-hydro-knit-shop-towel-filters-better-2020-4 

“The ideal material turned out to be stretchy blue shop towels made from a polyester hydro knit. Inserting two of these towels into an ordinary cotton mask brought filtration up to 93% of particles as small as 0.3 microns, the smallest their machine could test. Meanwhile, the cotton masks filtered 60% of particles at best in their tests, Schempf said.

Polyester hydro knit towels are readily available at hardware and automotive stores. The two brands they tested were ToolBox's shop towel and ZEP's industrial blue towel. Interestingly, Scott's pro shop towels, which are also made with a hydro knit fabric, didn't work as well, Schempf said.”

See also:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/saving-your-health-one-mask-time-peter-tippett-md-phd/?trackingId=6XueG%2F8KwkWZrXc3BKEO7A%3D%3D&fbclid=IwAR1l8v1pbiZ4wzO8wPJPe1aw8QCDEBdliZCMFJ8q7hYDKJr7wZ3KPqJXyF4

How a virus infected the US Navy

This headline in the New York Times begins one of those "How the Camel Got His Humps" stories.

How a Ship’s Coronavirus Outbreak Became a Moral Crisis for the Military

Click on this link to read the story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/magazine/modly-crozier-coronavirus.html

1)  It started with an outbreak of the Covid-19 virus aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with over 4,000 sailors aboard.  The ship had made a port call to Da Nang, Vietnam, in early March.  On March 24, three crew members tested positive for the virus.

2)  On Sunday, March 29, Captain Brett Crozier, commander of the USS TR, asked for permission to dock in Guam and offload the sick sailors on his crew, testing and quarantining them for the virus.

3)  He got nowhere.  His superior, Rear Admiral Stuart Baker, in charge of all eight carriers, refused to allow any emergency offloading He felt the sailors should be be quarantined and tough it out with the medical care available aboard the ship.

It's not okay to announce to the world that one of the eight aircraft carriers in the US Navy is disabled in Guam, according to my sister, whose son is in the Navy.  Doing so would tell our enemies that we're down one player, and some nation like Iran might use this opportunity to attack us.

4)  Then Captain Crozier sent an email to 20 people appealing for help.  The emailed letter was leaked by someone to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published it on Tuesday, March 31.
Here's a line from the letter:

“This will require a political solution but it is the right thing to do. We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors.”

Read the full letter. 

5) Then on Thursday, April 2, Acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly, removed Captain Crozier from command of the USS TR. As the captain walked off his ship, a thousand or more of his crew cheered him.

6) Modly met with a lot of critcism.  So did Crozier.  Among those defending the fired captain was retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who said Modly “has become a vehicle for the president. He basically has completely undermined, throughout the T.R. situation, the uniformed leadership of the Navy and the military leadership in general.”

7)  By Sunday, April 5, 150 sailors on the ship had tested positive for  Covid-19.

8) Modley flew to Guam on Monday, April 6, and aboard the T.R. delivered a speech that slammed Captain Crozier and the sailors who cheered for him as he left the ship.  Modly's speech included calling Crozier either "too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer" if he thought the email would not be leaked.

9)  On Monday night, after facing significant criticism from lawmakers, retired military leaders and the rank and file, Modly issued an apology for the comments he made to the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt. “Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naïve nor stupid,” Modly said in a written statement. “Captain Crozier is smart and passionate. I believe, precisely because he is not naïve and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship. I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused.”

Probably the Commander-in-Chief told him to apologize.  POTUS 45 is sensitive to public opinion, which showed strong support for Crozier.

10) To be continued.  Will any sailors die?  Will Crozier survive, who himself has now tested positive?  Will Trump become sick, like Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?  Will voters reelect him after the fiasco of this pandemic?

Background story:  Trump reversing a Navy decision five months ago

Modly's firing of Captain Crozier followed Trump's praise and support for Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL, after the trial for war crimes in which he was convicted of one minor charge and demoted.  Trump reversed the demotion.  

Then the Secretary of Defense suddenly fired Richard V. Spencer, Secretary of the Navy, for publicly disagreeing with Trump's intervention in the Gallagher case. Clearly, he was following orders from the Commander-in-Chief. 

Suddenly Trump appointed Modly as Acting Secretary of the Navy, and he performed well for Trump this week.


Other resources:

Audio of Modly's speech to crew of USS Theodore Roosevelt (posted on the NY Times website).

Letter of Captain Brett Crozier

Captain Crozier and Teddy Roosevelt

USS Yorktown docked in Charleston, South Carolina

In the military, the correct thing to do is to obey orders from above, even if it costs many lives.

But Teddy Roosevelt made the decision, after getting stonewalled by the Secretary of War in Washington, to send an open letter to newspapers in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

The battlefield commanders, including Roosevelt, wanted to bring the soldiers home. But the leadership in Washington — in particular Russell Alger, the secretary of war — refused, fearing a political backlash. A standoff ensued.

Now a great-grandson of TR supports Captain Crozier by using the example of his great-grandfather in this op-ed in the New York Times, April 3:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/opinion/coronavirus-crozier-roosevelt.html#click=https://t.co/2UTrnaeoH3  

You decide: 

Was TR right or wrong in sending this letter?

Was Captain Crozier right or wrong in sending his letter?

Was Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly right or wrong in relieving Captain Crozier of command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt?

You decide.  Write your congressional representative and your senators.  

Without public intervention, Captain Crozier could face further discipline and lose his pension.

And also vote on November 3.

Students preventing violence

Juan Castillo with his father in 2016
Photo courtesy of Santa Monica Daily Press

Deaths from gun violence continue even though it's only the Covid-19 deaths that reach the headlines.

A 31-year-old woman died a week ago in Whittier CA after being shot:

Danielle Susan Rojas, a 31-year-old white female, died Friday, March 27, after being shot near 7647 Pickering Ave. in Whittier, according to Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner's records.

Danielle was one of 524 people killed in Los Angeles County in the last twelve months.   https://homicide.latimes.com/  

This total is much larger than the 78 deaths from Covid-19 reported so far in Los Angeles County (as of Thursday, April 2). 

We all need to keep up our efforts to prevent gun violence, suicide, and other forms of violence. 

Here in Santa Monica, four friends of Kathy McTaggart banded together in 2013 to set up a scholarship in her memory for violence prevention.  Kathy was a child and family therapist who worked with at-risk kids in the SM-MUSD; she died of lung cancer at age 69 although she had never smoked.

California schools are probably closed for the rest of the school year ending in June, but students are completing courses online and some will be graduating and receiving scholarships and awards. 

This year's Katherine McTaggart Memorial Scholarship for Violence Prevention will be awarded to Samantha Nicole Castillo.  She showed interest in violence prevention by volunteering at the Virginia Avenue Park Teen Center for three summers and during the school years.  She also volunteered with Apex for Kids.  

An AYSO and club soccer player, she participated in the cheer team and pep squad during all four years at Santa Monica High School. Now as a senior coach, she helps new girls learn cheers and also teaches them how to be confident in themselves.  A graduate of the Edison Language Academy, Samantha plans to attend college and major in business administration.

Her cousin, Juan Castillo, graduated from Santa Monica High School in 2016 but was killed on  Feb. 26, 2017, in a random act of gun violence only 12 blocks from the high school.  He played on the varsity football team at Samohi.

"I have always felt unsafe," Samantha says about her neighborhood with its stabbings, shootings, graffiti, and vandalism.  She lives near Cloverfield and Pico, just a mile from where I live, close to Santa Monica College.  

Other worthy candidates also applied for the violence prevention award.  One works on a Teen Line for suicide prevention, and another does after-school tutoring.  One young man took a conflict de-escalation course at his church.  There are many types of physical violence such as shootings, suicides, bullying, and domestic abuse.

You can join in and support student efforts toward peacemaking, conflict de-escalation, and violence prevention.  

Send your donation made out to "Samohi Scholarship Fund" with the tagline "Katherine McTaggart" to P.O. Box 5592, Santa Monica CA 90409-5592.

See also:

The Homicide Report, Los Angeles Times

Shooting in 2017 in Santa Monica

Convicted felon shot Juan Castillo

the