I was sent this heartwarming story of Sephardi Jews who miraculously survived the Holocaust having a son who went on to lead an effort to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.  Maybe it's a natural inclination to treat all ethnicities and worshipping beliefs equal, or ignorance, but it occurred to me that at my advanced age I knew very little about the Jewish religion.   When I grew up in Hawaii, there was the dominant Caucasian sector, and everyone else as second-class citizens.  Being Japanese, there was also the matter of where Okinawans fit into this society.  My junior-year English-Social Studies teacher Mildred Kosaki and her husband had just returned from the Mainland, and she kept emphasizing the matter of Civil Rights, but we students just had no concept of Black-White relationships.  Nor were we aware that there was another group, Jews, in this national mix. Then I went away to college, when I remember a girlfriend asking me if I knew what a Jewish girl looked like.  I immediat

Last night President Joe Biden did nothing I suggested, but he did indicate that a vaccine will be available to all Americans by May 1.  How are we doing compared to the rest of the World ?  We are #8 in doses/person: Israel  1.03 Seychelles  0.9 UAE  0.67 UK  0.37 Maldives  0.36 Bahrain  0.33 Chile  0.33 U.S.  0.30 The world average is 0.044 with 3.35 million shots.  The U.S. is just about now up to 100 million, with 10% of the population fully vaccinated.  Israel is at 46%. How close are we to herd immunity?  Assuming those 100 million will soon reach immunity, add the 30 million who have already been infected, plus another 30 million for the asymptomatic cases ( this percentage is supposedly 40% by both the CDC and Dr. Fauci, but I think it is closer to 70%--I used 50% for this analysis ), or 160 million.  Our population is 328 million, so we are just nearing 50%.   According to the Mayo Clinic, we need to attain 94% .  However, Johns Hopkins says 50% to 90% , so maybe we're alr

As the USA enters its worst phase of this COVID-19 pandemic with a crippled economy and too many in financial desperation with true fears of eviction, it's a good time to Count Your Blessings , a song no doubt being sung in many churches this Sunday morning.  Some hopeful signs that good change might be forthcoming: The vaccines are coming.  Two for sure in a week or two, and a third soon thereafter.  A lot more in the pipeline ( from New York Times this morning ):  A bipartisan Senate economic relief package seems likely to be approved by the end of next week. The worst president in the history of the country will be gone on January 20.   Well, fans of James Buchanan might complain, so  read this .  Compared to Trump, all Buchanan did was not avert the Civil War. Two of Trump's most cloying sycophants, Attorney General Bill Barr and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp , defied The Donald, regaining a measure of self-respect.   You can add Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to t