Following the killing of George Floyd last Monday, the US has burst into brutal protests. There's too much rage and grief to process, let alone write about, so we spend Saturday watching the launch of the Crew Dragon space capsule and the Demo-2 test flight.
Like the success of Apollo 8 against the backdrop of 1968, it's thrilling and relieving to see something work so well. And like 1968, it might be a great time to leave the planet, if only vicariously.
Today, we are watching the Endeavour capsule dock with the International Space Station. The images are clean and cinematic – as if they are being staged by Stanley Kubrick. Everything is being executed as planned and all autonomously, like parking a Tesla. Congratulations to NASA and SpaceX.
The two American astronauts exit the Demo-2 capsule and are greeted by another American astronaut and, un-ironically, two Russian cosmonauts. Unlike Apollo 8, this mission cannot reclaim any purity of purpose and thus its capacity to bring us together is diminished – a public-private mission using the hardware from a company owned by a willfully nutty eccentric and a COVID-19 stay-at-home critic, and on behalf of an Administration uninterested in science.
In this deeply charged climate, plagued by injustice and marches, we search for some common catharsis. But here we must acknowledge that someone is building a business and someone is endorsing a viewpoint. While we appreciate the achievements, there is extraordinary sorrow in our inability not to politicize.
At the end, listening to Sen Ted Cruz's, Rep Brian Babin's, or even NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine's offering stiff flattery, like a sour coda, we snap back to the real.
Regarding the weekly stats for the COVID-19 pandemic, things continue essentially unchanged. Georgia is maybe headed down just slightly (after going up then down); Portugal is maybe headed up just slightly (on a flat line). For the past week, Georgia has averaged 584 cases and 26 deaths per day. Portugal has averaged 247 cases and 13 deaths per day. So, Georgia is maintaining a rate that more than doubles Portugal, but at least things are steady.
Tomorrow, Portugal will move to Phase 3 of it's pandemic plan, with cinemas and child care centers open, and further restrictions lifted on dine-in restaurants – the Health Minister calls it Portugal's 'day of great deconfinement'. Lisbon's R0 value has risen just above one, so shopping malls in the area will remain 'curbside', at least til Thursday.
cases: 6,200,772 global • 1,819,797 USA • 32,500 Portugal
deaths: 371,763 global • 105,634 USA • 1,410 Portugal
UPDATE: Last week, The New York Times 'The Daily' podcast featured John Mooallem and his book This Is Chance! – which I mentioned a few weeks back. The podcast includes more audio recordings of the radio broadcasts featured in the story. It's just as compelling in this other format – the voice of a woman holding her community from chaos during an epic earthquake.
No comments:
Post a Comment