Covid-19 Past pandemics have connections to war (see Quotation below) and cruelty to animals. We can be grateful now that war doesn’t seem to be playing a large role in making things so much worse – let’s hope it remains that way. However, the pandemic’s economic impact is making poverty so much worse. In addition to all the other lethal effects, economic stress can lead to more abortions, even of planned pregnancies. Abortions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise won’t be counted in the official death toll, but there’s a danger that the actual death toll from the disease will be much higher because of them.
Voting Against Violence: Petitions for Referendums Need Special Help When thousands of petition signatures are needed to put a referendum on the ballot, volunteers mainly take advantage of large events to collect many at once. Because of Covid-19, events large and small aren’t happening. It may be those who think that they’re not interested in gathering signatures as a major volunteer effort thought that only getting a page or two of acquaintances to sign would be so few as to not be worth the trouble. Now, however, that’s likely to be a major way to get more signatures. We’ll need lots and lots of people getting a page or two. Please consider doing this if you’re in one of the states listed below. If you have sympathetic friends and family in one of these states, please send them the idea and the information on their petition drives. Use social media and other ways of communicating to spread the word on the need. States where this may be needed right now, with links: Arkansas (remove slavery as punishment for crime from Constitution) Colorado (prohibition of late-term abortion; they’ve turned in signatures, but may need more if an insufficient number are verified) Idaho (minimum wage) Michigan (two measures on abortion) Missouri (Medicaid Expansion) Oregon (Ban on Assault Weapons) Full website: Peace and Life Referendums
Our Latest Blog Post A post from Ireland is appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day, and so on that day we published this from Maria Horan: Ireland’s Votes for Violence: Sinn Féin and Abortion.
Left: Author Maria Horan. Right: Councillor Noeleen Reilly, who resigned in protest to being bullied.
What happens if parades aren’t canceled during pandemics? Philadelphia found out in 1918, with disastrous results Washington Post, March 12, 2020 Doctors couldn’t seem to convince the city to halt the beloved war-bonds rally. One doctor called it “a ready-made inflammable mass for conflagration” — but not a single newspaper would print his warning . . . city leaders were more concerned about boosting morale for the war effort and too afraid of causing panic. In one ad from the parade organizers in the Philadelphia Inquirer, readers were warned, “Citizens! A Crisis Is Here!” “The influenza epidemic imperils the success of the Fourth Liberty Loan . . . The Government calls upon you not to forget your duty to the Fighters in France” — meaning the citizens better not stay home . . . Within a week of the parade, more than 45,000 people in Philadelphia were infected with influenza, as the entire city, from schools to pool halls, ground to a halt . . . Within six weeks, more than 12,000 Philadelphians were dead.
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