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Different faiths, same pain
How to grieve a death in the coronavirus pandemic David A. Schuck, Gina Hens-Piazza, Rodney Sadler Editor’s note: Every religion has its death rites, communal practices developed over millennia to honor the dead and console the living. Some of these rituals are unique to one faith, but more are shared – a reminder there’s a common path toward healing. Yet COVID-19 is forcing many people to grieve in isolation. We asked three faith leaders and religion scholars for their counsel on mourning during the pandemic. Honoring the dead and comforting mourners Rabbi David A. Schuck Jewish mourning rituals follow the principles of “k’vod hamet,” honoring the deceased, and “nichum aveilim,” comforting…
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Did College Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates Go Too Far?
By Sara Talpos September 18, 2023 Like many other institutions, the University of Pennsylvania campus was mostly shuttered to in-person learning when Vincent Kelley began work there as a Ph.D. student in ethnomusicology in the fall of 2020. But when the first vaccines were rolled out to all American adults the following spring, Penn leadership announced that in-person classes would resume for the 2021-22 academic year — with one proviso: Only students, faculty, and staff who had received a Covid-19 vaccine would be permitted to return. Religious or medical exemptions were available, but Kelley, who had chosen to be vaccinated himself, said he still found the mandate overly coercive. Then, when the university…
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Calls for Sonia Sotomayor to retire are ‘ableism, pure and simple,’ advocates say
Sara Luterman/Caregiving reporter April 10, 2024 Commentators have recently singled out the Supreme Court justice, who has type 1 diabetes. Disability lead s say it’s not a reason for her to resign. *Correction appended. Increasing calls from some Democrats for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire because of her age and diabetes diagnosis are biased and misguided, according to disability leaders who say she’s more than up to the job. For months — particularly with the November election approaching — left-leaning commentators like former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan have expressed concern that because Sotomayor is 69 years old and has type 1 diabetes, she may need to be replaced on the…
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Living with a disability is very expensive- even with government assistance
Zachary Morris Nanette Goodman Stephen McGarity Edward Mitchell is 34 years old and lives in Jackson, Tennessee, with a spinal cord injury caused by a hit-and-run accident that happened when he was 17. He has plenty of expenses that all Americans have, like groceries and utilities. But to maintain his independence, he also has to pay for home modifications to accommodate his wheelchair, personal nursing care, dictation tools to help him write and adjustments to his car so he can drive himself to work. He is just one of the 20 million working-age adults living with disabilities in the U.S., for whom it takes more money to make ends meet because of…
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Clubhouse Rules:
New York’s New Young Republican Leader Eyes the Future November 8, 2022 By Asta Kongsted Gavin Wax sat on one of the many brown leather couches lining the studio apartment that serves as the “Clubhouse” of the New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) on a recent Thursday afternoon. It is thanks to Wax that this group has that Midtown apartment at all – a fact which the 28 year-old Queens native does nothing to hide and which no one does anything to dispute. When Wax took over the presidency of the Club in 2019, it had 50 members and nowhere to host them. These days, membership stands at 1,100, while…
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What Makes America Beautiful – Free Speech
Ronald D Ross September 24, 2021 What happens to a society that is allowed free expression? Over 250-years ago, a few brave men were willing to give their “last full measure of devotion” to find out. Over two centuries of free speech in America has demonstrated the following about what those men called “an inalienable right.” First of all, free speech accelerates the discovery of truth. A few centuries ago, many of the “smart people” claimed the potato caused leprosy, syphilis, early death, sterility, and more. So, in 1748 the French parliament banned the eating of potatoes. Do you suppose some government health official declared, “Don’t ask questions, do what we tell…
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For Many Disabled Patients, the Doctor Is Often Not In
By Emma Yasinski November 7, 2022 Ben Salentine, associate director of health sciences managed care at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, hasn’t been weighed in more than a decade. His doctors “just kind of guess,” his weight, he said, because they don’t have a wheelchair-accessible scale. He’s far from alone. Many people with disabilities describe challenges in finding physicians prepared to care for them. “You would assume that medical spaces would be the most accessible places there are, and they’re not,” said Angel Miles, a rehabilitation program specialist with the Administration for Community Living, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Not only do clinics…
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Your Brain on Red Alert
In February of 2020, as a mysterious zoonotic virus winged its way across the planet, I resolved to do whatever I could to stay on top of pandemic reports. I created a coronavirus browser folder, filled it with trusted news links, and checked it multiple times a day. But as the pandemic’s finish line receded into the future, my optimism flagged and my resolve to stay informed dwindled. Soon I felt like a panic-saturated sponge, incapable of absorbing any more bad news. I descended into the numbness so many of us have experienced, but the alerts kept coming. When alarm signals bombard us from every direction, our concentration and judgment…
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‘Canceling’ Student Debt is Unfair to Graduates Like Me Who Sacrificed to Pay Off Our Loans
Matthew Noyes &emsp &emsp &emsp &emsp &emsp &emsp January 26, 2021 A year after graduating from college, I was able to pay off my student loans in full. Now, President Biden wants me to pay for my peers who have yet to do the same. Biden’s platform includes “student loan forgiveness” of at least $10,000 per person. Meanwhile, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer have proposed $50,000 in debt forgiveness per individual. On its surface, this sounds generous. American student loan debt is nearing $1.6 trillion, and the cost of college is higher than ever. But what does this “forgiveness” entail on a moral level? Loans are not “forgiven”…
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Digital Text is Changing How Kids Read— Just Not in the Way That You Think
Holly Korbey Aug 21, 2018 After his bath each night, Julie Atkinson’s eight-year-old son grabs the iPad and settles into bed for some reading time through kids’ book app Epic! Though Atkinson and her husband were accustomed to reading to him, now their son explores different subjects on his own inside the app’s 25,000 titles, reading biographies, history and fiction all pre-selected for his reading level. Atkinson is impressed with Epic’s quality titles, and likes the recommendation feature that makes the monthly subscription service feel like Netflix. But Atkinson, who guesses that her…