Amy Hill Hearth

My mother never knew either of her grandmothers. They had both died in the 1918 flu pandemic, several years before my mother was born.

A century later, we are grappling with Covid-19.

As a babyboomer, and therefore at higher risk, I'm staying home and taking every precaution that is known, to date. 

The much greater impact on me personally from Covid-19 has been the death of my mother, possibly from the virus. When she died on March 25, we were told the cause was pneumonia unrelated to Covid-19, but I now have my doubts.

Not much is known yet about Covid-19 although new insights and discoveries seem to be happening by the day. Evidently, social distancing and wearing masks do prevent (or at least greatly reduce) the spread of the virus. For this reason, I wear a mask each time I go out of my home. I would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to a deadly disease.

I don't consider wearing a mask to be a burden or an intrusion on my rights as an American. On the contrary, I see it as my civic duty. 

In areas of our country where people have not been greatly impacted, I hope and pray that it remains that way. Please stay safe and stay well.

The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer has enraged the world, and rightly so. Abuse of Black persons by law enforcement is not new, however. It is entrenched. As a reporter early in my career, I saw it firsthand.

That is not to say that all American police officers are guilty of mistreating Black persons. I suspect, and hope, that only a small percentage of law enforcement officers are capable of carrying out racist violence. They must be held accountable. Even better, we need to prevent them from becoming officers of the law.

More common than outright violence, probably, is the subconscious bias that seems quite common among white Americans, some of whom happen to be police officers. In general, there is a lack of understanding among white persons - or perhaps it's denial - of the extent of institutionalized racism and the damage it has done.

When my white ancestors came to America, they were able to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps," but make no mistake, this would have been all but impossible had they been Black. The Black experience is entirely different, and unfortunately, a significant number of white people can't see that. I believe there should be more study in public schools of Jim Crow laws and how they blocked any attempts at progress by Black citizens, and for a very long time. The fact is, no one can pull themselves up by their bootstraps when the path has been blocked every step of the way. 

Again, referring to my own ancestors, upon their arrival in America, they were in a position, as white people, to make rapid progress, which they did. That is not to say it was easy. They worked extremely hard, saved, and sacrificed. But they were free to try.