11 thoughts on “March 30th – Some Good News With John Krasinski”
Hope you and your family are doing well, Bruce. WE are not on lockdown, but are supposed to stay at home. If people don’t obey, we may be in lockdown eventually.
Where we live, every night at seven, the police, ambulance and firefighters come lights and sirens blazing to our hospital to support the health care workers. I live across the street from the hospital, and it is quite a sight. My cat is spooked by noise, though.
Hey Bob. Thanks for the additional thoughts on this video. Sorry it had the opposite reaction for you. My state has put us on lockdown until the middle of June….so even though the video got my day off to a good start….it ended up being another dreadful day of bad news.
HI BRUCE: Thanks for your further comments and as you wish us to keep cheerful I’ll say to you tongue in cheek that it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good: this site will benefit from you being confined to your house and not being able to galivant for a while !!! Seriously though keep safe and give my regards to all in the Cogerson household.
By the way it may interest you to know that it’s not just the types of workers who have been mentioned in the press opinions that I have sent you that many editors and journalists feel have been short-changed in the past. In an editorial this morning there was a long piece about those workers who ARE valued by society but who still do not receive the pay they deserve [over here at least] and among those listed are SENIOR nursing staff; the police; soldiers and – wait for it – teachers!
I agree with that. Life without Brando/Archibald/Sir Maurice/Thins et al would be very dull; but we could get by without them. Where though would we be if we did not have good educational personnel to teach our children/police to enforce law and order and soldiers to defend us?
I did not support a lot of the foreign wars that have been launched in the past; but without the presence of the British soldiers to hold the ring here in Norther Ireland a couple of decades ago and keep the two sides apart we would have been engulfed in civil war over here and indeed the British troops arrived just in the nick of time to prevent slaughter. As it is therefore if I was near where you live I’d be organising your students to appear outside your house and give YOU a round of applause!
There was a senior American politician who stood for the presidency years ago whose creed was said to be self-sufficiency and he believed that he WAS an island and needed nobody else in society because he was such a talented and creative self-made man – ie he had made a lot of money. It was said of him that if he wanted to move into your motorway lane and you slowed down to let him in he wouldn’t have thanked you for your courtesy because as far as he was concerned you had nothing to do with his successful lane switch: HE had achieved that through his motoring skills and determination. Good luck to anyone who thinks that way at present.
NOTE: 7:11 am post today should have been marked Part 3. Apologies
APPLAUSE IS NOT ENOUGH Editorial continued
It is heartwarming and right that the jobs which have carried little social status are now being seen in a different light. But as Britain learns the myriad lessons of a crisis that has exposed our assumptions to the harshest scrutiny, the need for a new deal for workers in the everyday economy should be high on the list.
Because here we are with the natural order of things upturned. Keeping the streets clean is more important than designing handbags. Keeping the shelves stacked is more important that a football galctico.
We will learn the hard way that we must value the people who keep us from death’s door; though even those already accepted as valuable to our society are still greatly undervalued. One thinks of not just SENIOR nurses but many from various other tasks or professions such as farmers, teachers, policemen and even the solider who guards our country. Many not in the know would be surprised at how often numerous of those in such groups have never been properly rewarded financially by our society.
All along there have been those whom our society has treated better than others who deluded themselves that their wealth has been entirely due to their own efforts and they were so self-sufficient that they owed nothing to any man and it was therefore right that they for example avoided paying taxes if they could because they owed no part of their income to society and those less fortunate than themselves. Not for them the adage that “No man is an island.”
It used to be said of former US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney that he was so steeped in the philosophy of the self-made man that if you gave way to him in your lane on a motorway he wouldn’t acknowledged your courtesy because as far as he was concerned YOU had nothing to do with his ability to switch lanes: he achieved that all by himself. Best of luck to him with that philosophy in the current situation.
The Guardian view on key workers: APPLAUSE IS NOT ENOUGH-Editorial
Cleaners, refuse collectors and food industry workers along with health workers are playing a vital role in this crisis. They deserve better pay and status
There are those who don’t want to hear about the ‘sins of the past’ not least because some of them want to escape accountability for previous neglect and among that set will be those who want to return to old ways once the current crisis is over. But the negative aspects of the current situation deserve thinking about because they reflected a mindset that paid too little attention to the vital but unglamorous types of work that knit our communities together.
Many are no doubt moved by the national outpouring of affection for carers last Thursday evening. But it should not have taken such traumatic times for the low-status and often badly rewarded occupations that enable society to function to be properly valued.
There are those who will argue that we must not depress ourselves by dwelling on unpleasant considerations as we must be cheered up to maintain a healthy mental attitude in the face of the coronavirus.
That’s understandable and partially true; but before one adopts too lofty a moral attitude over it one should bear in mind that for a long time the people we are now clapping had themselves very little to feel cheerful about as their professions and even their own jobs and livelihoods were not just undervalued but actually despised and even ravished by many of those now cheering them on
This got my day going in a good way..
HI WORK HORSE: You shared this with us in good faith and I thank you for that. However whilst a lot of people are sincere in their praise of the health workers many public officials over here who are out on the streets clapping the health workers have been involved in running down the health service over the years to cut government budgets so that they have rendered the facilities far less effective in coping with the coronavirus than would have otherwise been the case and more lives than need be are probably being lost as a consequence even as we write.
All 3 parties who have been in government over here have been involved in or supported to an extent-the cuts so I am not making a party political point here.
We as a public too are in general guilty of a certain degree of hypocrisy. Brilliant surgeons for example who daily save lives do their work under the radar and are taken for granted whilst we as “the man in the street” drool over some overblown “blonde bombshell” or virtually talentless action hero.
Some of our so called constitutional representatives who are making a big show of clapping the health workers were among those Members of Parliament who not so long ago also clapped when they defeated a bill which would have given the nurses [traditionally underpaid] a decent pay rise. As one columnist observed their clapping now reminded him of the old complaint: “They killed me then walked at my funeral.”
So don’t get too excited over a lot of the clapping now going on with public officials and other possible hypocrites falling over themselves to get in on the act – “Look at ME: it’s all about ME!”
My own take is that there are many doing the clapping [and a I am sure you are one of them] who are sincere and would always have appreciated the health workers, nurses etc; but I am cynical enough -healthily so I believe – and cautious enough to want to avoid being part of those easily fooled as is often the case. In short I don’t want to end up among those about whom Uncle Abe wrote “You can fool some of the people all of the time!” See Part 2 for a professional view
GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER ENGLAND – Today
“Empty is what these gestures of clapping etc are when they come from those whose past record and current performance suggest nothing close to “supporting in any way we can” which they claim they will do.
Frontline health staff do not have sufficient protective equipment or even access to coronavirus tests: they are merely instructed to self-isolate once their symptoms reach a certain threshold.
And the reason so many such staff have to work extra hours with no pay is because they do not have the resources to do otherwise – something that many of us knew as we stood up and clapped and cheered for them as a nation.
Those resources have been consistently and deliberately drained from the health service since the beginning of the last decade.
From defunding nurse training to selling off parts of the Service to profiteers and carpetbaggers , the parties in power have hobbled the healthcare system’s ability to deal with the everyday, let alone the exceptional.
Members of Parliament cheered the result of a parliamentary vote in 2017 that blocked a pay rise for nurses, of which there is a severe shortage in the NHS – 40,000 in England alone.
Politicians have the licence to clap a National Health Service their parties have suffocated because our rulers have successfully created an ecosystem that fortifies them against the consequences of their mendacity and their failure.
In stable times the cost of that can be hidden. Austerity has already claimed lives; but, because of their speed and visibility, coronavirus deaths are not as easy to style out. We no longer know how to hold a government to account on the truly important matters of the day. The pandemic needs to be a wake-up call – or else the status quo will continue to kill us, then walk at our funeral.
Meanwhile the ecstatic clapping ringing in our ears from all quarters has all the air of a friend who had habitually ignored you, then one day unexpectedly needed you, and so returned with empty gestures of affection.”
Hey Bob. As always I appreciate your comments. This time I want to keep everything on the positive. This video got me really going this morning, things are not the best here in the world I think we need more good news and bad news. Good Stuff as always
HI BRUCE: Thanks for the feedback and your kind words. Certainly we can use all the happy news that we can get at the moment and it has been no picnic for me either.
I am subjected to virtual ‘house arrest’ under government restrictions as being over 70 I am in one of those groups reckoned to be most vulnerable and therefore a high risk as both a potential victim AND a carrier of the virus. I can be stopped by the police and sent home if I stray too far out of doors.
Also you should understand that many of us find it offensive and upsetting that public officials and others who we feel did a lot to make the health service over here less effective than it might otherwise have been in coping with the coronavirus are being lauded for putting themselves at the forefront of those who are applauding health workers whose work they have minimised for years and whose livelihoods they have threatened with extinction or reduction. “They shut the gates of mercy on mankind.” [Thomas Gray]
Many of your viewers will no doubt be pleased with the link and I wish them well with that. However it had the opposite effect on me personally to that which you obviously intended it should have generally; and I acceot that there you acted in good faith.
In courtroom scenes in the fictitious Perry Mason stories the district attorney as prosecutor will often touch on a line of questioning that brings in new features for which no legal groundwork has been prepared and when Mason tries to follow up on that the DA will realise his mistake and object on the grounds that Mason is continuing with a line that is not legally sound.
Invariably the judge will inform the DA “YOU were the one that opened up this matter Mr Burger. You may proceed with your questioning Mr Mason.” Within that context I feel that I am entitled to state my own opinions on a link that has in effect been presented to me as a viewer of this site for my consideration.
Hope you and your family are doing well, Bruce. WE are not on lockdown, but are supposed to stay at home. If people don’t obey, we may be in lockdown eventually.
Where we live, every night at seven, the police, ambulance and firefighters come lights and sirens blazing to our hospital to support the health care workers. I live across the street from the hospital, and it is quite a sight. My cat is spooked by noise, though.
Hey Bob. Thanks for the additional thoughts on this video. Sorry it had the opposite reaction for you. My state has put us on lockdown until the middle of June….so even though the video got my day off to a good start….it ended up being another dreadful day of bad news.
HI BRUCE: Thanks for your further comments and as you wish us to keep cheerful I’ll say to you tongue in cheek that it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good: this site will benefit from you being confined to your house and not being able to galivant for a while !!! Seriously though keep safe and give my regards to all in the Cogerson household.
By the way it may interest you to know that it’s not just the types of workers who have been mentioned in the press opinions that I have sent you that many editors and journalists feel have been short-changed in the past. In an editorial this morning there was a long piece about those workers who ARE valued by society but who still do not receive the pay they deserve [over here at least] and among those listed are SENIOR nursing staff; the police; soldiers and – wait for it – teachers!
I agree with that. Life without Brando/Archibald/Sir Maurice/Thins et al would be very dull; but we could get by without them. Where though would we be if we did not have good educational personnel to teach our children/police to enforce law and order and soldiers to defend us?
I did not support a lot of the foreign wars that have been launched in the past; but without the presence of the British soldiers to hold the ring here in Norther Ireland a couple of decades ago and keep the two sides apart we would have been engulfed in civil war over here and indeed the British troops arrived just in the nick of time to prevent slaughter. As it is therefore if I was near where you live I’d be organising your students to appear outside your house and give YOU a round of applause!
There was a senior American politician who stood for the presidency years ago whose creed was said to be self-sufficiency and he believed that he WAS an island and needed nobody else in society because he was such a talented and creative self-made man – ie he had made a lot of money. It was said of him that if he wanted to move into your motorway lane and you slowed down to let him in he wouldn’t have thanked you for your courtesy because as far as he was concerned you had nothing to do with his successful lane switch: HE had achieved that through his motoring skills and determination. Good luck to anyone who thinks that way at present.
NOTE: 7:11 am post today should have been marked Part 3. Apologies
APPLAUSE IS NOT ENOUGH Editorial continued
It is heartwarming and right that the jobs which have carried little social status are now being seen in a different light. But as Britain learns the myriad lessons of a crisis that has exposed our assumptions to the harshest scrutiny, the need for a new deal for workers in the everyday economy should be high on the list.
Because here we are with the natural order of things upturned. Keeping the streets clean is more important than designing handbags. Keeping the shelves stacked is more important that a football galctico.
We will learn the hard way that we must value the people who keep us from death’s door; though even those already accepted as valuable to our society are still greatly undervalued. One thinks of not just SENIOR nurses but many from various other tasks or professions such as farmers, teachers, policemen and even the solider who guards our country. Many not in the know would be surprised at how often numerous of those in such groups have never been properly rewarded financially by our society.
All along there have been those whom our society has treated better than others who deluded themselves that their wealth has been entirely due to their own efforts and they were so self-sufficient that they owed nothing to any man and it was therefore right that they for example avoided paying taxes if they could because they owed no part of their income to society and those less fortunate than themselves. Not for them the adage that “No man is an island.”
It used to be said of former US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney that he was so steeped in the philosophy of the self-made man that if you gave way to him in your lane on a motorway he wouldn’t acknowledged your courtesy because as far as he was concerned YOU had nothing to do with his ability to switch lanes: he achieved that all by himself. Best of luck to him with that philosophy in the current situation.
The Guardian view on key workers: APPLAUSE IS NOT ENOUGH-Editorial
Cleaners, refuse collectors and food industry workers along with health workers are playing a vital role in this crisis. They deserve better pay and status
There are those who don’t want to hear about the ‘sins of the past’ not least because some of them want to escape accountability for previous neglect and among that set will be those who want to return to old ways once the current crisis is over. But the negative aspects of the current situation deserve thinking about because they reflected a mindset that paid too little attention to the vital but unglamorous types of work that knit our communities together.
Many are no doubt moved by the national outpouring of affection for carers last Thursday evening. But it should not have taken such traumatic times for the low-status and often badly rewarded occupations that enable society to function to be properly valued.
There are those who will argue that we must not depress ourselves by dwelling on unpleasant considerations as we must be cheered up to maintain a healthy mental attitude in the face of the coronavirus.
That’s understandable and partially true; but before one adopts too lofty a moral attitude over it one should bear in mind that for a long time the people we are now clapping had themselves very little to feel cheerful about as their professions and even their own jobs and livelihoods were not just undervalued but actually despised and even ravished by many of those now cheering them on
This got my day going in a good way..
HI WORK HORSE: You shared this with us in good faith and I thank you for that. However whilst a lot of people are sincere in their praise of the health workers many public officials over here who are out on the streets clapping the health workers have been involved in running down the health service over the years to cut government budgets so that they have rendered the facilities far less effective in coping with the coronavirus than would have otherwise been the case and more lives than need be are probably being lost as a consequence even as we write.
All 3 parties who have been in government over here have been involved in or supported to an extent-the cuts so I am not making a party political point here.
We as a public too are in general guilty of a certain degree of hypocrisy. Brilliant surgeons for example who daily save lives do their work under the radar and are taken for granted whilst we as “the man in the street” drool over some overblown “blonde bombshell” or virtually talentless action hero.
Some of our so called constitutional representatives who are making a big show of clapping the health workers were among those Members of Parliament who not so long ago also clapped when they defeated a bill which would have given the nurses [traditionally underpaid] a decent pay rise. As one columnist observed their clapping now reminded him of the old complaint: “They killed me then walked at my funeral.”
So don’t get too excited over a lot of the clapping now going on with public officials and other possible hypocrites falling over themselves to get in on the act – “Look at ME: it’s all about ME!”
My own take is that there are many doing the clapping [and a I am sure you are one of them] who are sincere and would always have appreciated the health workers, nurses etc; but I am cynical enough -healthily so I believe – and cautious enough to want to avoid being part of those easily fooled as is often the case. In short I don’t want to end up among those about whom Uncle Abe wrote “You can fool some of the people all of the time!” See Part 2 for a professional view
GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER ENGLAND – Today
“Empty is what these gestures of clapping etc are when they come from those whose past record and current performance suggest nothing close to “supporting in any way we can” which they claim they will do.
Frontline health staff do not have sufficient protective equipment or even access to coronavirus tests: they are merely instructed to self-isolate once their symptoms reach a certain threshold.
And the reason so many such staff have to work extra hours with no pay is because they do not have the resources to do otherwise – something that many of us knew as we stood up and clapped and cheered for them as a nation.
Those resources have been consistently and deliberately drained from the health service since the beginning of the last decade.
From defunding nurse training to selling off parts of the Service to profiteers and carpetbaggers , the parties in power have hobbled the healthcare system’s ability to deal with the everyday, let alone the exceptional.
Members of Parliament cheered the result of a parliamentary vote in 2017 that blocked a pay rise for nurses, of which there is a severe shortage in the NHS – 40,000 in England alone.
Politicians have the licence to clap a National Health Service their parties have suffocated because our rulers have successfully created an ecosystem that fortifies them against the consequences of their mendacity and their failure.
In stable times the cost of that can be hidden. Austerity has already claimed lives; but, because of their speed and visibility, coronavirus deaths are not as easy to style out. We no longer know how to hold a government to account on the truly important matters of the day. The pandemic needs to be a wake-up call – or else the status quo will continue to kill us, then walk at our funeral.
Meanwhile the ecstatic clapping ringing in our ears from all quarters has all the air of a friend who had habitually ignored you, then one day unexpectedly needed you, and so returned with empty gestures of affection.”
Hey Bob. As always I appreciate your comments. This time I want to keep everything on the positive. This video got me really going this morning, things are not the best here in the world I think we need more good news and bad news. Good Stuff as always
HI BRUCE: Thanks for the feedback and your kind words. Certainly we can use all the happy news that we can get at the moment and it has been no picnic for me either.
I am subjected to virtual ‘house arrest’ under government restrictions as being over 70 I am in one of those groups reckoned to be most vulnerable and therefore a high risk as both a potential victim AND a carrier of the virus. I can be stopped by the police and sent home if I stray too far out of doors.
Also you should understand that many of us find it offensive and upsetting that public officials and others who we feel did a lot to make the health service over here less effective than it might otherwise have been in coping with the coronavirus are being lauded for putting themselves at the forefront of those who are applauding health workers whose work they have minimised for years and whose livelihoods they have threatened with extinction or reduction. “They shut the gates of mercy on mankind.” [Thomas Gray]
Many of your viewers will no doubt be pleased with the link and I wish them well with that. However it had the opposite effect on me personally to that which you obviously intended it should have generally; and I acceot that there you acted in good faith.
In courtroom scenes in the fictitious Perry Mason stories the district attorney as prosecutor will often touch on a line of questioning that brings in new features for which no legal groundwork has been prepared and when Mason tries to follow up on that the DA will realise his mistake and object on the grounds that Mason is continuing with a line that is not legally sound.
Invariably the judge will inform the DA “YOU were the one that opened up this matter Mr Burger. You may proceed with your questioning Mr Mason.” Within that context I feel that I am entitled to state my own opinions on a link that has in effect been presented to me as a viewer of this site for my consideration.