Good morning, America.  Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Normally on this day I would repost Christopher Columbus was just another wise guy with a boat, but I’m done with that guy.  This is 2020 and it’s time to stop glorifying assholes.

We wouldn’t have a special day for an astronaut who blasted off for the moon but wound up in a Walmart parking lot.

The point is, you can’t “discover” a place that other people have already discovered and inhabited.

Replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day took root in 1977 at a conference in Switzerland focusing on the mistreatment of indigenous people in the Americas.   

Indigenous Peoples’ Day recognizes that Native people are the first inhabitants of the Americas, including the lands that later became the United States.  It urges Americans to rethink history.

It turns out that we White people are the ungrateful immigrants.

South Dakota became the first state to switch Columbus Day to Native Americans’ Day, inaugurating the celebration in 1990.

In 1991, the Berkeley (CA) City Council declared October 12 a Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People.

Last year, Alabama’s Governor John Bel Edwards, petitioned by Baley Champagne of the United Houma Nation changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day and several other states followed.

Said Champagne, It’s become a trend.  It’s about celebrating people instead of thinking about somebody who…tried to cause the genocide of an entire population.  By bringing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we’re bringing awareness that we’re not going to allow someone like that to be glorified.

Back in the 70’s I used to sell tee shirts at the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Melrose Park, IL, one of the biggest Italian festivals in the country.  There’s at least a half dozen Italian festivals around Chicagoland (in non-COVID years) and we have Little Italy 365 days a year.

Italians have pizza, ices, spumoni, cannoli, chianti and ravioli.  They don’t need a special day in October to take their cornicellos out for a spin.

Italians are by nature gracious, generous and family oriented.  It’s time for them to put those qualities to the test and give up that one, unnecessary day to a group that has lived under our radar for too long.

There’s a little known fact about Pocahontas that might ease the transition.  Her only son was named Thomas Rolfe but, according to legend, she wanted to name him Guido.

If you’re looking for something to do today, check out The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian’s Five Ideas for Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2020. 

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Darwin is an adorable, fast and sweet, six-month-old, male tri-color guinea pig looking for a loving guardian.

Darwin was relinquished to Friends of Petraits Rescue when his human moved to a no pets apartment. Sadly, he had a partner guinea pig that was lost under his human’s porch during the move.

Guinea pigs are happiest in pairs, and we’d love to see Darwin find another young male to bond with. And, I do hope his best friend is located.

Guinea pigs eat a diet of unlimited Timothy and Orchard hays; a handful of guinea pig pellets, and fresh vegetables including romaine, red leaf and green leaf lettuces, cilantro, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, etc. Guinea pigs, just like humans, can’t manufacture their own vitamin C, so they need to supplement with red pepper and many other vitamin C-rich foods.

Please read up on guinea pig care and diet before adopting by visiting this excellent web site http://www.guinealynx.info/.

He would love a home with people who will handle him daily, keep him well fed, and keep his habitat nice and clean.

If you’re interested in possibly adopting Darwin, please contact [email protected] for an adoption application.

He is being fostered in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

His adoption fee of $35 benefits the Friends of Petraits Rescue. For an additional $100, we’ll include a package of absolutely everything you need to care for him including a large cage, pellets, hay, litter, hidey hut and water bottle.

And, yes … Friends of Petraits is handling masked, minimum contact, socially distant adoptions.

Sen. Dick Durbin (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Perverse because Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin’s ignorance about the law, the Supreme Court and the Constitution is astonishing, and dangerous.

That ignorance was on full display today when he was making his opening statement in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings into the confirmation of Appellate Court Judge Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court.

It has become a cliche that judges are not supposed to legislate from the bench; that’s the job of Congress and state legislatures that are elected by the people and that reflect the electors’ wills. The courts’ job is to follow the law as set by the legislative bodies. But it is necessary to repeat this fundamental principle of the Constitution so often that it has become a cliche–nevertheless one that is true.

Instead, Durbin tried to turn the hearing into a debate about policy–something that’s totally outside the judicial branch’s assigned purpose. In this, Durbin was a handmaid for the approach prescribe by the ideological left to turn the hearing into a debate over health care and, by implication, abortion. In essence, Durbin’s argument came down to: We must not confirm Barrett because most Americans favor Obamacare.

Arguing policy has been the preferred ploy of Democrats going back to when they crushed the nomination of Robert Bork because–gasp–he believed that courts should follow the law. The idea that Bork or Barrett would legislate from the bench by making law about healthcare, abortion and many policy issues is a lot of bunk because that is precisely what such judges disdain. In this, conservatives have been entirely consistent.

The always compliant Durbin did a fine job of reading what was written for him and committed high irony when he criticized Republicans for blindly following their leaders by agreeing to vote on the nomination prior to the next term. Nobody is better at following the leader than Durbin.

Durbin’s argument and that of his fellow ideologues is dangerous because it creates a competing legislative branch of unelected, lifetime members. Not at all accountable to the public will. In this, the Democratic standard for selecting high court justices is in itself supremely anti-democratic.

The main things I have written about lately are only related to Covid and politics. This has me on total overload as we find ourselves in month seven of the pandemic. For a good change of pace, I recently I had an opportunity to talk with Danny Raskin, owner of Manny’s Deli about the issues that have faced his iconic restaurant during this time and felt the need to share his story. Keep in mind, it’s not just his story, it’s that of restaurants everywhere that have experienced the impact of the pandemic.

Manny’s opened for business in 1942 and has sustained 78 years of serving some of Chicago’s favorite deli delights. Corned beef stacked high, homemade potato pancakes, delicious soups, lox, bagels, you name it. Although a recent tweet in July and the Jewish Holidays helped give Manny’s a well needed spike in business, there are too many other factors that Raskin is up against that can’t afford him a decent night’s sleep.

After the tweet in July which was featured on the news, people lined up in droves to support the Deli. He emphasizes his gratitude for that and how much it meant to him. Then the unthinkable happened: the looting and riots in Chicago began and hence, business came to a screeching halt. Manny’s is located in the South Loop and amidst the unrest was considered an unsafe place to go. Highways were closed; people were afraid.

Another huge factor in the drop in business are those that worked in the city and have now been relegated to working at home. Many of these people live in the suburbs. To counteract this, Raskin has set up suburban pick ups in many areas that would normally never have had the pleasure of dining on a Manny’s meal. People as far as Michiana, Michigan and Elburn, Illinois have volunteered their driveways as pick up spots as Danny and his staff work tirelessly to prepare the meals for delivery.

As he awaits a permit for outdoor seating in front of the restaurant, he has set up dining in the parking lot. Despite being equipped with heaters that will prolong the inevitable drop in temperatures, his outdoor dining capabilities days are numbered. And this factor alone is what Danny, as well as all the other restaurants in Chicago are dreading. Which is why supporting the Deli and your other favorite spots is so important in the other ways offered.

Remember, there are no Government bailouts for the industry despite their importance to the economy. His initial round of PPP was used to keep all of his employees working however, at 6 weeks he had to cut hours. Then fortunately with the bump due to the tweet, the Jewish Holidays and the suburban pick ups, he has been able to remain fully staffed. This doesn’t mean that the restaurant is making money though – it’s just keeping his head slightly above water. With winter looming, he is afraid of drowning. The costs of maintaining and running a restaurant are staggering; Rents, payroll and taxes don’t go away.

Curbside pick up has become a life saver for many spots but it isn’t enough. We started the pandemic when temperatures were only getting better and there was hope that we would have a vaccine by summer. Now as we face the possibility of having to live through 2021 in the current manner, panic has set in.

No one wants to see a restaurant that has been in business for almost 80 years close.

With a recent approval by the city, indoor dining capacity has been increased to 40% and Raskin would like to reassure his customers of the safety measures he has taken now and looking ahead to the colder weather.

Tables are spaced appropriately for social distancing. All tables, chairs and surfaces are cleaned and disinfected after every patron. Anyone walking in must be masked until seated.  His employees are masked at all times and he is thrilled that not a single employee has tested positive in the seven months of the pandemic. They are all careful and follow all protocol measures.

Danny does recommend that if you are comfortable dining indoors, you do it with only the people that you are either living with or see everyday. Remember, he doesn’t want people contracting the virus in his restaurant. He wants you to go about it intelligently and with thought.

In addition to increasing his indoor dining capabilities, they are working on upgrading their technology for better online ordering for local pick and and delivery. This should be done by the end of the month; keep an eye out for these improvements!

So, if you are not comfortable dining indoors ask yourself this: Do you like Manny’s? Do you love their food? Do you love the fact they have been around for as long as they have and their quality of food remains as good as it was in 1942? Your answer to all these should be yes. And to help them survive, place your curbside orders. Your catering orders. Every occasion you have, Manny’s can help with your food. Order and do a suburban pickup. Volunteer your driveway for a pickup. Keep dining outdoors until it’s absolutely not possible. SPREAD THE WORD. And if you’re comfortable and willing to dine indoors give it a try. Support, support, support. Let’s keep this Chicago treasure around for many years to come.

And may we all get through this by eating a great corned beef sandwich whenever we can.

Should I be tested for covid? You’ve probably asked yourself that during the last several months, and maybe thought, why not? But then perhaps you considered that there aren’t enough tests available for everyone, and labs are overburdened with processing tests.

I certainly wouldn’t have asked for a test out of curiosity. But I had symptoms — maybe. So perplexing is everything about the coronavirus that I wasn’t sure what to make of sleeping longer than usual.

About a week and a half ago, I awoke after 10½ hours and still felt tired. There was also a mild cough. Before last March, neither of those “symptoms” would have received a second thought.

What prompted me to ask my doctor’s opinion was that I was due to see my mother in four days and didn’t want to put her or the other residents of her assisted living home at risk. Either be tested or isolate for two weeks, my MD replied via email. Being tested seemed preferable — potentially a shorter isolation.

My doctor’s office doesn’t test. I was on my own to navigate stage two of the testing quandary: where to be tested.

The Illinois Department of Public Health’s testing sites are nowhere near me. Neither are Walgreens’. Physicians Immediate Care locations had no appointments available for more than 24 hours. A clinic within walking distance would not accept my HMO insurance. I couldn’t locate a nearby CVS site (but later learned of one near the Illinois Medical District, as well as a Rush Medical Center site).

The appointment and insurance details were a surprise. After seeing images of cars and pedestrians lined up at drive-through and walk-in locations, I expected to be able to show up and take a place in line. I also thought the tests were free. In fact, Illinois residents are not paying out of pocket, but if they have insurance, it is billed. Many sites require a screening phone call.

After more than two hours of searching online and on the phone, I found a clinic in Lakeview that would tele-interview me the next day before scheduling a test.

I was instructed to quarantine while waiting three to five days for the test result. I canceled my reservation for Sunday church services and told my mother I’d see her another time.

We keep hearing that testing is key to controlling the spread of covid, so why is testing so complicated and inefficient almost eight months into the pandemic?

Resources are still limited. The United States does not have the capacity, of supplies or staffing, to test widely, so the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has prioritized who should be tested.

You’ve heard numerous times about the failure of the federal government to plan and coordinate a national response to the pandemic. Although more than willing to fault the Trump administration, I was still baffled by people being left to their own devices about whether and where to be tested.

If covid had hit a year ago, when my dad was living, my parents would have been confused about what to do had either shown symptoms. Their experience was that a doctor ordered medical tests and told them where to get them. If the doctor had told them to choose between getting a test or isolating for two weeks, and didn’t tell them where to be tested, would they have known what to do?

My test results came back negative. I wondered whether I had overreacted to a cough and fatigue.

“Most public health officials and infectious disease doctors will say that if you feel you have a reason to be tested, you should be tested,” Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist, commented. “I can’t think of any reason why somebody shouldn’t get tested.”

That sounded reassuring and helpful. Good to remember if another judgment call is needed about how much coughing qualifies as a symptom.

*****

ANTI-TRUMP COMMENTS: 133RD IN AN ONGOING SERIES

“[I]t’s kind of amazing that conspiracy theorists have lined up so supportively behind Trump, when he’s really the most convincing proof yet of all their worst fears.”
Marina Hyde, The Guardian

Here is a question that ought to be contemplated:

But since the quincentennial celebration (1992) progressives have been harshly denouncing the event [Columbus Day celebrations] as resulting in deliberate genocide of the peaceful, ecology-minded, indigenous peoples. According to the new conventional wisdom, Christopher Columbus and his discovery of the Americas is an epochal catastrophe that should be scorned and vilified. But what was it like in the New World at the time of Columbus arrival?

Here are a few of the details:

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the Arawak Indians (also called Tainos) were the relatively peaceful inhabitants of the Caribbean islands whom we associate with pastoral native scenes. But they were not the only native tribe. In fact, the Tainos were preyed upon and suffered as much from the Carib Indians as at the hands of the conquering Europeans. Throughout the many islands, the peaceful male Arawaks were hunted, killed, and even cannibalized by the ferocious Caribs who ultimately ended up exterminating the peaceful Arawaks from many of the Caribbean islands in the Lesser Antilles. The female Arawaks were taken as wives and slaves by the male Caribs. Atrocities by the Carib Indians were infamous and today these atrocities are often discounted or ignored in the protrayal of the New World as a pristine paradise.

A conclusion:

In other words, European historical accounts, indigenous codices, and even pictorial and archeological evidence had been suppressed or misinterpreted by liberal-minded scholars and politicians because it did not square with their socialist views of indigenous peoples. It took relatively recent by fully incontrovertible and irrefutable archaeological evidence to prove what had been evident and argued by other honest and truth-oriented scholars of Mesoamerican culture for years.

This is not to say that Columbus didn’t commit his share of atrocities. But the idea of Native Americans as innocents and victims is warped by progressive ideology.