Well it’s taken less than 15 days for Trump to get sick of dealing with the virus. The daily briefings are starting late and rambling on for two hours. Much of these briefings are Trump or Pence saying what a great job Trump and his administration are doing in dealing with the outbreak. Everyone noticed that America’s Doctor, Anthony Fauci the country’s leading expert on infectious diseases, was not at yesterday’s briefing. There is reporting now that Trump may be losing patience with Fauci politely pushing back with scientific facts when Trump talks nonsense about the virus and how to contain it. When asked where Fauci was yesterday, Trump said he was just in a meeting with him. Fauci may be happy he wasn’t there. He has said he’s asked the White House more than once to stop the unhealthy optics of the people supposedly in charge of breaking the cardinal rule of social distancing. They all stand shoulder to shoulder at the podium telling the rest of us to stay away from each other.

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There have been great rallying cries in our history to challenge Americans to take action against an enemy or in a national crisis. “Taxation without Representation .” “Give me liberty, or give me death.” “Save the Union.” “Remember the Alamo.” “Remember the Maine.” (Even though history tells us the Spanish didn’t blow up the ship, it was an accident). But, hey it got us into a war which apparently some of us wanted at the time. Our most recent rallying cry, “See Something, Say Something” after 9/11. We were all urged not to be afraid, to go on with our lives. Go to work. Go out to restaurants. But be out there and be vigilant. Don’t let the terrorists win by taking away our way of life. In all of these cases, our leaders were urging us to take collective action. Do something for the good of your fellow citizens. Be part of something bigger than yourself. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Not sure where that got started. But every football coach has used some version of that during a losing streak. Now it’s different.

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It’s only a few hours away. What we have all been waiting for, the first day of spring. Of course, this year it starts in darkness at exactly 11:50 tonight. Many of us will be in bed trying to get to sleep after a long day of looking out the window. There is never a good time for a pandemic, but springtime may be the worst. We all look forward to spring after the dreary winter months when we are struck in the house. We look forward longer days and warmer weather. They actually make us feel better. A study at Brigham Young University a couple years ago found students getting counseling found longer days and more sunlight reduces mental stress. Now we get longer hours of sunlight we can’t enjoy. We usually look forward to getting outside, flowers breaking through the earth, birds sweetly singing, spring training baseball. Opening Day has been delayed at least until mid-May. We look forward to March Madness. We now have silent arenas. We are probably looking at an Easter with no egg hunts or big family dinners. Students look forward to the end of the school year and proms. Seniors look forward to graduation. Now they are stuck in the house taking courses on line on their couch that they have to share with their parents who are working from home, who also have to home school their younger kids at the kitchen table.

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As we all get ready for a new week, all the medical experts tell us the spread of the coronavirus will only get worse. We still have to figure out how to test people. Then we’ll  how know many more people have the virus. So those who have symptoms or been exposed and get a doctor’s approval, can look forward long lines in Walmart parking lots as people in hazmat suits stick a long swab in their mouths to take a sample. Oh, and that great web site that a Goggle subsidiary is working on to tell us how to self diagnose and what to do and where to go to wait on line that the president said would be up and running tonight, not so fast. Trump never says anything that doesn’t need a follow up, correction or explanation.  Google says they’re working on a prototype that will be tested in the San Francisco area. They don’t know when it will be ready. Oops.

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As concerns about the coronavirus grow more alarming each day, we are encouraged to back off each other. Guard your personal space. Touching is off limits. We are reminded about how to wash our hands, sneeze and cough. Stay home. All this comes at a time when the country is more divided and than ever. People can’t talk politics without worrying about getting into serious arguments with family and friends. But this virus is threatening the universal sign of friendship, agreement, cordiality, and welcoming which is already in short supply. The handshake may never come back. It was already on shaky ground even before coronavirus.

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Super Tuesday was a trip back to the future. Everyone thought Bernie Sanders would would be the overwhelming favorite this morning for the Democratic nomination with a commanding lead in delegates after yesterday. Then people voted and showed they weren’t ready for a revolution. The theory that moderate Democrats had to unite around one candidate to stop Sanders proved true. After Joe Biden showed his muscle in South Carolina, Amy, Pete, and even Beto realized Democrats had to stop fighting each other to come together to first stop Bernie, then beat Trump. Elizabeth Warren is still hanging on with no chance of winning. She is probably helping Biden by taking votes away from Bernie. But eventually the money will dry up for her. Mike Bloomberg spent $500 million dollars to win American Samoa and a few delegates. He realized this morning that money couldn’t buy him love and he dropped out. He’s committed to beating Trump and his millions can help buy love for Democratic candidates around the country as he did in 2018.

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A street fight broke out at the Democratic debate last night. There was the smell of desperation which lead to chaos. Seven adults yelling, talking over each other, raising their hands as we used to in elementary school to get the teacher to call on us because we knew we had the right answer. They expanded the time for an answer to 1:15. The moderators found it impossible to get the candidates to shut up. The pack was clearly after front runner Bernie Sanders. They also turned on each other to try to show they were the only real alternative to a Social Democrat who is too far left to win a general election against the crazy “very stable genius” president. Trump has to love what he’s seeing. Frank Bruni of the New York Times wrote “… if I were Trump, I’d edit into a campaign commercial and blanket the airwaves. It’s tag line would be: “Even Democrats don’t trust Bernie Sanders. Why should you?”

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This is the time we look back on the past year and talk about all the good and bad, losses and gains, hopes and dreams. Most of us were probably not aware of two things that happened in 2019. We have all heard about climate change and preserving our natural environment from the real scientists, and even a teenage girl. We’ve heard from the deniers who refuse to believe the obvious. Unfortunately, the current administration is lead by the worst denier of all. Back in June, his administration issued a “clarification” of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. I know what you may be thinking, I’ve got more important things to worry about than bird policy. It’s the twisted reasoning that is behind the “clarification” that should concern us all.

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Enough! I can’t take it anymore. Watching sports on television has become almost impossible. The games are consumed by over analysis, opinion, insight, and obvious explanation, that has developed into white noise. Now I understand why they torture prisoners by playing round the clock loud music to make them give up information. They are driven to a breaking point by the non-stop noise. That’s what televised games are doing to us. First, there’s the one hour, or even two hour, pre-game show. Five people, usually former players and coaches, led by a sportscaster talking about what they think about the game, the players, the coaches, strengths, weaknesses, and funny highlights. Have you ever sat through “C’mon Man” on ESPN? The same bunch of guys will be back at halftime with highlights and tell you what they thought of the game. Have you ever learned anything from one of those guys?

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We entered Rome from the west. It was not very impressive. The buildings looked like they were built in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. It was what I would call grungy, and graffiti was everywhere. Things changed dramatically when we got to the center of Rome behind the what used to be the old wall that protected the city. We drove through a beautiful park to our hotel on the Via Veneto. The city is full of energy. There are very small, even tiny, cars zipping along the main boulevards and the narrow cobblestone streets. They are parked bumper to bumper from one corner to the next. People must be experts at parallel parking. While the cars are parked in the street, the motor scooters line the narrow sidewalks on every block. The traffic is frenetic. One tour guide told us traffic regulations are just “a suggestion.”

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