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© Catherine Haslag
© Catherine Haslag
© Catherine Haslag
© Catherine Haslag
© Catherine HaslagThe Twitterverse
Last year I joined the Twitterverse. I am still not sure it was a good idea. I don’t tweet a lot, but I do go on to see what topics are trending and what people are generally talking about. I find a lot of tweets about politics, sports, and popular TV shows. Some of my favorite topics have been #unvaccinatedsongs, the time Kayleigh McEnany blamed Joe Biden for the 2020 murder rate…even though he wasn’t president, and every…single…#caterday.
The wonderful Twitter content that makes up #Caterday.
I have also used it as a way to practice gratitude. A thank you to a fellow teacher for a very helpful webinar on how to revamp the general chemistry series to be more beneficial for students. Praise to an author for the incredibly good book I just finished reading. Appreciation to a creator for a recent podcast episode.
Kayleigh McEnany’s tweet on Sept 9, 2021 claiming that the US murder rate rose in 2020 under the Biden Presidency.
I am sure there are meaningful conversations being had on Twitter, but I have yet to find them. It mostly seems like its approximately 300 million active users are just shouting into the void. A hurricane slurry of sarcastic comments, crude and vulgar opinions, a plethora of gifs, and a sprinkling of genuine news and good ideas. I have been told that if you know how to use the site, you can track conversations using hashtags, but they change so often and quickly that I don’t see how anyone can keep up with anything. It’s hard to find the useful when it’s mixed in with so much trash. The proverbial needle in a tweet stack.
I set my Twitter preferences, indicating I like to read, and was flooded with so many book discussions that I was overwhelmed. I follow reliable news sources but also get recommendations for other people and companies I might like to follow. Plus all the ads. It’s like playing electronic whack-a-mole. I block Chanel and end up getting 10 other fragrance ads from other companies. There doesn’t seem to be a good way to narrow down the information to a stream that I find useful. To something less than overwhelming. Because of this, I keep my explorations short and sweet so I don’t get sucked irrevocably into a Twitter black hole.
Tweets made under the hashtage #UnvaccinatedSongs. Twitter can provide much creative humor.
I do occasionally shout into the void. It feels good sometimes to get something off of my chest, to contribute my own sarcasm and thoughts to the slurry. I try not to say anything that would be embarrassing if my boss or grandma read it. I also try to tweet something that will improve the public discord. No name-calling, focus on behavior, and stick to the facts. I think I have successfully met most of these goals most of the time.
I hope to eventually find a way to use Twitter in a more efficient and meaningful way. Either that or I will simply stop tweeting and let my account become inactive. In the meantime, I will use it as a snapshot of the public conversation, quick updates on current events, sending messages of appreciation to others…and occasionally shout into the void.
© Catherine HaslagThe Myth of Independence
The definition of independence, obtained from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
I didn’t get out of bed or drive to work in the morning on my own. An alarm wakes me up. Someone who isn’t me designed that alarm. Someone who isn’t me maintains the power grid that powers my alarm clock. My hot shower is possible because of the water heater in my house, who was designed, installed, and maintained by other people. Austin Utilities provides the natural gas and water and maintains the pipes that bring these resources to my house. Someone who isn’t me constructed the bathroom in my house back in 1955, when my house was built by someone who was not me.
Someone who isn’t me paved the road I drive to work in the car I drive, which was built and designed by Mazda. The City of Austin clears the streets of snow and puts down ice melt and sand to make my trip safer.
The definition of independent, obtained from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
What we do today is possible because of those who came before us, who pathed the way for us. We work together to build the communities and world we live in. None of us live in a bubble. There are people who impact our lives that we will never know. The colleague who encouraged your grandpa on a hard day while he served for 4 years in WWII. The neighbor who motivated your great-great-grandparents to immigrate to a small town in rural Missouri in the 1870s. The philanthropist who made an anonymous endowment to your college provided the funds for the scholarship that paid for half of your tuition.
The lie we tell ourselves is that we did it all on our own. That we earned that scholarship without any assistance from another, nevermind teachers, parents, and tutors helped us with our school work. That we got ourselves out of bed and ready for work without assistance. That we take care of ourselves and no one else does. We are interconnected and dependent on each other in this world. None of us gets anywhere on our own. We were all helped by countless others we will never know in ways we can’t imagine.
Interdependence is how a society functions. There is no such thing as true independence if you live in a society. There is no way to be free of the influence of others when you live around others. It’s a myth we tell ourselves to calm our fears, boost our ego, and help us feel safe.
© Catherine HaslagWhat I Didn’t Know
May 25, 2020
I didn’t watch the full video. 8 minutes and 46 seconds. I saw parts of it, but not the whole tape. I can’t watch the video of George Floyd dying, of anyone dying.
I had the privilege of sitting with my feelings on this for a while. To learn more. To take it all in. I began reading. Looking. Researching for anything I could find.
I found a mountain of information. Podcasts. Books. Videos. Theses. Documentaries. Journal articles. Newspaper pieces. Magazine reports. Websites. There was no end to the documentation. What I could read, view, and listen to. New information to learn, to shatter my old misunderstanding, and develop a new, more accurate picture.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by the deluge of resources I found, but I was. It was eye-opening. Once I started looking, learned so much about US history. More than in any class I took. Our history spells out the impact of racism and how far its tentacles stretched. Education, healthcare, housing, travel, restaurants, the GI Bill, voting rights, religion, policing, marriage, redistricting. There isn’t an area of life that isn’t affected by systemic racism. Every person in the United States has either benefited from or been disadvantaged by this disease.
There are many perspectives to history. The white perspective is the primary one told in this country because white is the dominant race, the dominant caste. There is a vast amount of US history that isn’t taught because it doesn’t paint white people in a positive light. This creates an incomplete and unfair narrative of our country, its history, and its people.
Redlining. Gerrymandering. Jim Crow. Segregation. Racial profiling. Stop and frisk. Voter ID. Poll taxes. Travel bans. Internment camps. Reservations. The war on drugs. All forms of racism make it harder for people of color to live their American dream. All efforts to keep the privilege in the hands of white people. White privilege. White power. White supremacy.
Equal rights have not been established. All lives don’t matter until all lives are treated like they matter. Black and brown lives don’t matter in the United States. Four hundred years of history demonstrates this. The evidence is there for anyone to see if one is open to seeing it.
I believe that the United States of America is a great country. I believe in the quest to form a more perfect union…more perfect union for ALL those who call the United States home. I also know that quest is a messy one. We are not a country of saints. Far, far from it. To paint this country as such is a lie and dooms us to repeat our sins of the past.
If you are open to learning about how systemic racism permeates our society, I encourage you to access the Google Docs link below. It is a file that contains the list of resources I found in my research on systemic racism. As I continue collecting resources, I will continue to update this document.
#SystemicRacism Resources Google Docs Link
These resources tell another side of US history, it’s not a pretty one but it’s true. My hope is that the research I have done will help open more eyes to the reality of our nation and those who are mistreated in it because of the color of their skin. My dream is that as we know the fuller story of US history we will break the ongoing cycle of systemic racism.
© Catherine HaslagLiving On the Edge of Science
I teach chemistry. One of the first things I teach my students is about the scientific method, the systematic process by which scientists learn about the world. I wrote the following back in April near the start of the pandemic. I wanted to share it here for your consideration.
Science is the systematic process by which we learn about the world. Scientists are basically professional students and explorers. They are constantly investigating the world around us to learn more about how and why it works as it does.
When you first started learning something, did you instantly know everything about it? At your first piano lesson, were you able to play Ragtime by Scott Joplin? On the first day of Spanish, were you able to speak and read fluently to your classmates and teacher? When you first got behind the wheel of a car, were you able to brake without jerking, shift smoothly, and merge on and off the interstate without concern?
The answer to all of these questions is no. You needed time to learn the keys and the notes on the piano, to learn vocabulary and how to conjugate verbs, and how to coordinate your hand, eye, and foot to smoothly maneuver the car and navigate traffic.
This is what scientists do on a daily basis. They learn, share the knowledge they have obtained, and continue to study so they can learn more. They work with what they know, understanding that tomorrow, they will know more and that may change their working hypotheses/theories about a concept. Scientists are on the frontier of what we know. This is the difference between a scientist and a Spanish teacher – the teacher already knows the vocabulary and how to conjugate the verbs. When they teach their classes, they are regurgitating what they already know. Scientists are not only speaking the language but also expanding the vocabulary and trying to teach others what they know as they learn it. They are on the edge of knowledge.
Most of the science we learn in school and see in the world around us is tried and true. It’s already gone through the process of rigorous testing and investigation. We missed the learning and changing that went along with that process. Coronavirus is on the edge of the science we know. It is still being studied and we are learning new things about it every day. This is why the information changes so quickly. It’s not that science doesn’t know what it’s doing but rather that it is constantly learning new details and getting a better picture of coronavirus. Humans just aren’t used to this rapid change in information and behavior. We like certainty and we don’t have all the information yet about coronavirus to be certain in the situation.
© Catherine HaslagWhat Happened to Flattening the Curve?
I have been following the data on the spread of the coronavirus updated daily by the New York Times since I was made aware of this resource sometime in late March/early April 2020.
On April 9, near the first peak observed, 34,699 new cases were recorded and the 7-day average was 31,544 cases (obtained from the NYT page on coronavirus cases linked above). I am writing this blog post on December 2, 2020, though I am not sure when I will be ready to share it online. The most recent data posted on the NYT page is for December 1. It states that 184,294 new cases were reported yesterday (December 1) with a 7-day average of 161,245 cases. As I write this, the NYT reports that more than 13,888,300 people have been infected by COVID-19 and at least 272,100 people have died due to this virus.
Hospitals are overwhelmed and healthcare workers are struggling to keep up with the demand for care.
- NPR reported on November 10 that hospitalizations are hitting high records.
- On November 10, Mayo hospital reported that over 1,000 staff members were out due to COVID-19. Later on November 18, Mayo reported that more than 900 clinic staff in Minnesota and Wisconsin tested positive for COVID-19 over a 2-week span.
- The Post Bulletin reported on November 10 that over 85% of the critical care hospital beds in eastern Minnesota were in use and that the hospitals in these areas were on-trend to reach full capacity.
- In St. Louis, Missouri, hospitals reported on November 25 that they are “at capacity now” and were routing patients to other area hospitals.
- As of December 1, the NYT reports that 98,691 people are hospitalized because of the coronavirus. This is up 32% from previous days.
- The USA Today reported on December 2 that New Mexico’s intensive care beds were at 101% capacity and that the explosive growth of the virus could overrun our healthcare system for not just COVID patients but anyone needing medical care.
- On December 2, 97% of ICU beds in the 16 eastern Tennessee counties were occupied with only 8 ICU beds open in the entire region. Even 93% of non-ICU beds were occupied.
- Hospitals in Santa Clara County, California were working together to redistribute patients who require ICU care because hospitals in the county were between 84% and 93% capacity.
- Many hospitals are also canceling elective surgeries to free-up beds and healthcare workers to treat the surge of COVID patients.
These are just a few of the stories I found about how hospitals and healthcare workers are currently stretched because of coronavirus. If you do your own search, you are likely to find many, many more.
How did this happen? Back in March and April, the goal was to “flatten the curve.” According to the graph of coronavirus cases reported per day since March, not only have we not flattened the curve, but we don’t seem concerned regarding what the curve looks like at all.
Back in March when the US first began to respond to the pandemic, I realized that there were going to be people who died not because they caught coronavirus but because they had a medical issue and didn’t receive the treatment they needed because of the coronavirus. The person who had a heart attack or stroke and weren’t treated in time because there wasn’t a bed available or enough doctors/nurses to care for them. The woman who’s tumor went undetected because her mammogram was postponed due to all medical staff being needed to treat COVID patients. If our hospitals and healthcare workers are overwhelmed, there may be no help available if you get sick at all, be it from COVID-19 or not.
This is exactly where we are now – if you become ill for any reason, our medical system is so overwhelmed that the help you need may not be available to you. Preventing the spread of the virus isn’t just about keeping people from getting sick from COVID, it’s also about preventing our medical system from being overall so medical services available for all those who need it.
I know everyone is tired, including me. The only things I have really succeeded in doing is putting on the COVID-19 (actually 15 pounds, but still more than I would have liked) and hosting some wonderful Zoom happy hours. I also manage to shower and cloth myself on a daily basis, usually in stretchy, comfy pants. I totally understand the grind that is living in this COVID Groundhog’s day. It sucks the big one, but I believe we need to keep going. Masking. Washing our hands. Social distancing. It’s our only choice if we want to curb the spread of this virus.
2020 has been the longest decade most of us have ever experienced, but I also know we can pull together and beat this. I saw the nation’s reaction after 9-11 and the unity that came out of a horrible tragedy. I experienced incredible acts of kindness, compassion, and community when my hometown was ravaged by massive flooding in 1993. I have seen in my own lifetime how people can pull together and overcome.
When did we lose sight of how to care for each other?
I know we are capable of better than I have seen from us in 2020. I am disappointed that so many aren’t coming together for the safety of their neighbors and community. So many who can’t see the big picture of how to care for each other.
We are capable of better than this.