Dear Reader,
For better or for worse, I went a little link-happy in this week’s Second Drafts, as I kept coming across good and interesting stuff to pass on; thus, I didn’t include a feature article this week.
However, know that I try to be careful as to what I link, so none of this week’s September smorgasbord is mere filler. Take time to read and enjoy the goods as if they were my own.
In the meantime, here are some comments from readers in response to last week’s newsletter. This note is from a reader down south and focuses on my 9/11 reflection:
“Wow, my friend, you really nailed it this week! You articulated so many things that I have been feeling and didn’t know how to come to terms with. I am so thankful for our hope in Jesus and know that no matter what happens on this earth, we still get to be in heaven when it’s all over. I mourn for people who don’t have that hope and are living in fear and hiding out from COVID because our media has been scaring them everyday. Keep up these amazing columns. I love them.”
This reader’s comments were more to the point, but just as heartfelt:
“Man this hits home, hard!!!”
This reader’s comments seemed more in response to the Hot Takes on government overreach:
“I read this between waking up and getting up - after a last 10 days that, even speaking charitably, are best described as ‘fraught with righteous frustration and weariness.’ You really nailed everything in this one. High stakes issues and great writing (made even better because I agree). Great work.”
And this reader is a lot more comfortable with a permission-required society than I’ll ever be:
“Boy, you were a little wound up on the Hot Takes, indeed! I guess to answer your question regarding who is the ‘our’ of ‘our patience is running thin,’ well, it would be me, my family, the majority of my friends, and all of my musical colleagues who count on a society where public events can happen in order to make a living. It includes all of the music educators I know who couldn't have a single band, choir, or orchestra concert for the last year and a half, as well as all of the students involved, who are praying that things don't continue to deteriorate to the point that things start getting canceled again this year. As it is, audiences will have masks and band and choir students will be performing in them. It includes people like my parents who live in a retirement community where things were starting to get back to normal, but now their dining service is restricted again and as well as the ability to socialize with their neighbors at their community events.
I agree that the vaccine should not be mandated by government. And contrary to what people think (much like people who claim censorship when they're actually confusing the first amendment with terms of a service agreement), unless you are being arrested and put in jail or fined for not getting the vaccine, it is not being mandated by the government. However, I am fine with a ‘membership has its privileges’ approach at this point. Want to come to see your favorite band or sports team play at this venue? Show proof of vaccination. Eat inside at this restaurant, go see a Broadway show, see a movie? Same thing. And yes, I don't mind employment being tied to it, either. This is a public health issue. We don't want people driving after drinking, either, because that is in the interest of public safety. Sure, it's possible that you won't transmit Covid, and it's possible if you do that it won't be fatal to the next person, but it's also possible that the drunk driver will make it home safely and we have laws about that anyway.
I also think that anyone choosing not to take the vaccine without a valid reason (like being allergic to it or not being old enough to receive it, not ‘I don't want to be microchipped’) should also be required to sign a waiver for health care if they catch it. In addition to the damage they are doing to society just as a health issue, I read recently (I don't remember the exact figure off the top of my head) the billions of dollars that the unvaccinated are costing in health care, which of course will be passed along to the rest of us.
Interestingly, I was reading some writings of Martin Luther recently in regard to the bubonic plague, and found this interesting passage:
‘They are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague. They distain the use of medicines; they do not avoid places and persons infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are. They say that it is God’s punishment; if he wants to protect them he can do so without medicines or our carefulness. This is not trusting God but tempting him. God has created medicines and provided us with intelligence to guard and take good care of the body so that we can live in good health.
If one makes no use of intelligence or medicine when he could do so without detriment to his neighbor, such a person injures his body and must beware lest he become a suicide in God’s eyes. By the same reasoning a person might forego eating and drinking, clothing and shelter, and boldly proclaim his faith that if God wanted to preserve him from starvation and cold, he could do so without food and clothing. Actually that would be suicide. It is even more shameful for a person to pay no heed to his own body and to fail to protect it against the plague the best he is able, and then to infect and poison others who might have remained alive if he had taken care of his body as he should have. He is thus responsible before God for his neighbor’s death and is a murderer many times over.’
For writing that is almost exactly 500 years old, it's like he could have written it last week.”
As a reminder to readers, I’m not anti-vaccination, have been personally vaccinated (J&J in May), and encourage others to get vaccinated if it makes sense to do so. However, the point of last week’s Hot Takes was not vaccinations per se, but the gall with which President Biden and his administration are overreaching - going against everything they are on record as previously saying, and threatening to trounce the freedoms Americans have or have had.
As to the Luther quote, I have no qualms with his plague advice (though it is but a fraction of all that Luther wrote in his letter). However, one passage that often gets left out of these appeals is the one below, which captures his spirit of not being afraid of plague or man:
“You ought to think this way: ‘Very well, by God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal. Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.”
Again, get the vaccine or don’t, but don’t make either decision out of fear - of plague or man.
As always, thanks for reading,
Craig
P.S.: As a reminder, you’re welcome and encouraged to email me directly with feedback, ideas, links, etc. at cmdunham [at] gmail [dot] com. Just know that, unless you specifically tell me not to, I may quote you here (though it will always be anonymously).
PPS: For what it’s worth, below is the absolutely best thing I’ve seen on the question of vaccinations and vaccine mandates, passed on to me by a friend who is a nurse (in California of all places). Dr. Zubin Damania gets it on all levels, and is the medical spokesperson we’ve needed from the start (think of him as the Mike Rowe of medicine).
Hot Takes
“Scorned Wife Raids Ex-Husband’s Cryogenics Lab Stealing Frozen Brains of People Who Hoped to Be Brought Back to Life” - This is concerning on a variety of fronts, not the least of which is The Sun's incorrect headline confusing cryogenics with cryonics (note: the latter is not what we do at Montana Instruments). “Know your cryo,” I always say. This is an example why.
Valeria Udalova and a team broke into her ex-husband's lab where he was storing frozen bodies. “Return of the Mammoth? George Church-backed Company Launches with $15 Million for Elephant-Sized Quest” - Speaking of other questionable ideas:
“Church and his colleagues announced Monday that Colossal, a startup focused on ‘de-extinction,’ had raised $15 million for a project that involves CRISPR technology to reengineer Asian elephants to be more like mammoths.”
In other words, Colossal is going all Jurassic Park with woolly mammoths, despite three books and five movies - as well as plenty of argument (granted, perhaps more ethical than scientific) - having told us this is generally a bad idea.
In a role surely to one day be played by Jeff Goldblum,
“David DeGrazia, a philosopher known for his thinking on animal ethics, was far more critical, framing it as an issue of animal rights. ‘Elephants are not just sentient creatures. They’re really smart, they are really self-aware and emotionally complex. I don’t think we should involve them in experiments that are not in their best interest,’ he said, though he added he would need more information to be certain in his conclusions about potential harm to the animals.”
We’ll see if “Life…uh…finds a way.”
A woolly mammoth skeleton is seen in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington. “Broadway’s Back: 'Hamilton,' 'Lion King' Among Blockbuster Musicals Reopening Today” - Speaking of life (or at least theater) finding a way, Broadway is back open for business…but not without some caveats:
“The highest grossing Broadway musical of all time returned to the stage Tuesday along with other blockbuster hits as the Great White Way springs back to life after 18 months in the dark due the coronavirus pandemic. The Lion King, Hamilton, Wicked and Chicago will once again raise the curtain -- this time for crowds that are fully vaccinated and wearing masks.”
As one might imagine, people are excited…and perhaps given to a little American centrism in their enthusiasm:
“The Broadway League launched ‘This is Broadway,’ a historic initiative to welcome theater lovers back to Times Square following the industry's historic shutdown. ‘This is Broadway’ is the result of unprecedented partnerships between theater owners, myriad behind-the-scenes professionals, and industry competitors to create a unified comeback campaign that shouts to the world ‘Broadway is BACK!’ and celebrates an international art form that is quintessentially American.”
Quintessentially: “used to emphasize the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class.”
(Shhh. Nobody tell London’s West End…or Shakespeare.)
Broadway shows in New York City in 2021.
Post(erity): “September’s Third Weekend”
Each week, I choose a post from the past that seems apropos of something (of course, you’re always welcome to search the archives yourself whenever you like).
This week’s Post(erity) post, “September’s Third Weekend,” dates back to September 20, 2008, and a collection of nostalgic reflections and pictures from the Griggsville Apple Festival, my Illinois hometown’s annual fall celebration, which was always one of my favorite weekends growing up. An excerpt:
“For as long as I can remember, my hometown of Griggsville, IL (population 1,300 and self-proclaimed ‘Purple Martin Capital of the Nation’), has always hosted its annual Apple Festival on the third weekend of September.
Put briefly for my more urban readers, the Apple Festival is a semi-epic celebration of small town life, complete with more small town culture than you can shake a stick at...and I've got proof.”
Read the whole post (and for those in Pike County, have a great time this weekend).
Friends Doing Cool Things
It’s been a while since I’ve posted this category, but not because I don’t have friends doing cool things. I do; the question is whether they admit to being my friend!
This week, I thought I’d feature some of these peeps who happen to be good writers and also wrote something I appreciated this week. Enjoy.
“Sweeping Up the Glass” - Along with his wife and daughter, my friend Seth now lives in St. Louis - a town our family loves, having lived there six years ourselves. I know lots of folks with a connection to the STL, so you might find his new Substack newsletter (Saving St. Louis) interesting.
“Turd Ferguson and the Philosophy of Hope” - My friend Dustin wrote a thoughtful piece on recently-deceased comedian Norm MacDonald for The American Conservative. Reverently retrospective.
“The Black Mark of a Bachelor’s Degree” - My friend Tony, writing in American Greatness, pines for the day when employers will say, “Let's hire anybody but a college graduate.” I’m with him. So good.
Fresh & Random Linkage
“2021 Fall Foliage Predication Map” - Fall in Montana is just too short.
“An Interview with a Founder” - Imagined interview with Alexander Hamilton.
“‘West Side Story’ Drops Grandiose Trailer for Spielberg Remake” - Maybe because it’s on the heels of another recent Puerto Rican musical (read my review of In the Heights) or I enjoy the original, the jury’s still out for me here.
Until next time.
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