Camp Constitution at the Open Up Massachusetts Rally May 30
Camp Constitution attended, and participated in the Open Up Massachusetts Rally Saturday May 30 on the steps of the Massachusetts State House. The event was co-sponsored by Super Happy Fun America and Open Up Massachusetts. Rev. Steve Craft set the theme by saying that we are in a “spiritual battle” and opened with a powerful prayer. Speakers included Rayla Campbell, Candidate for Congress; John Hugo, Mark Sahady, Brandon Navon, and Suzanne Ianni of Super Happy Fun America, Hal Shurtleff of Camp Constitution; Diane Lu of Falon Gong, and Bao Chau Kelley of Vietnamese for Trump. Members of the Revolutionary Communist Party were on hand with their vile signs unsuccessfully attempting to disrupt the rally. Boston Police acted in a professional manner and , as with all of the Open Up Massachusetts Rallies, the participants acted in a peaceful manner.
Racism and Riots: Commentary by Loren Spivack-the Free Market Warrior
This is Justine Damond. She happened to be white. She was shot to death by officer Muhammad Noor (who happened to be black.) It happened 3 years ago in the exact same city of Minneapolis, where all the rioting is happening now. Unlike Mr. Floyd, she had no criminal record (he had multiple convictions including for armed robbery.) Nor was she being arrested (as he was, for passing a bad check.) In fact, she had called the police to report an apparent assault behind her house and was running toward the police car to tell them what she had heard. She was in her pajamas. Officer Noor drew his weapon and shot her dead, apparently without any provocation at all. There were no riots.
Let me be crystal clear. Both officers are clearly guilty. I’ve seen the video of the Floyd incident. It’s quite clear to me the officer in his case is guilty of first degree manslaughter, at least. He’s entitled to his day in court. But, frankly, I can’t even imagine what his defense attorney could say that would change my mind.
Sadly, there are bad cops who do bad things. They need to be punished. But I’m far more concerned about the riots.
The riots will kill far more people. There are powerful forces that are trying to destroy America. (Yes, LITERALLY destroy.) And there is a serious chance that they’ll succeed. These forces are mostly in media and entertainment and sports. Some are in politics.
They have decided that every bad thing a white person does to a black person must be interpreted, immediately,in the light of race. This, even though in a country of 330 million people sheer randomness will account for these incidents just as easily.
Black on white crime (far more common) will be ignored.
Black on black crime (most common of all) ignored.
White on white crime? (Are you kidding?)
But all white on black crime must be portrayed as a racial incident without any evidence of racism whatsoever. Cause there’s “a pattern,” see, in what they choose to report!
And it must be the lead story on national news immediately. Regardless of how many identical stories (with the wrong racial makeup) have been ignored. Next the race hustling celebrities will make outrageous statements to the effect that all black people live in constant fear of being killed by any white person who comes anywhere near them. Then the social media, that will censor any conservative statement such as “I like Trump,” because its dangerous “hate speech,” will allow all those incendiary comments to stand. Then they’ll sit back and watch the fireworks.cbThe final stage, will be the infantilization of the rioters. Because the poor dears, who live in constant fear of murderous white people can’t be blamed in they snatched a television or two, you know, for the sake of social justice.
This is the greatest danger facing America today. (If you know me at all, you know I dont often admit to a greater danger than the national debt.) If we’re going to win and save our country from turning into Bosnia, we need to lose our fear of speaking the truth.
Start with this:
There used to be ACTUAL racism in this country (and every other country.) Today there is NONE.
By “actual racism” I mean the sort that actually prevents people from living their lives as they wish and pursuing their dreams. I DON’T refer to someone thinking (or expressing) a thought you don’t like.
By “none” I mean zip, zero, nada. That’s why there’s been a growing business in fake ‘hate crimes.’
Today, in America, we have the least racist society that ever was. Let’s save it.
For our children.
And for the memory of Justine Damond and Gregory Floyd.
Loren Spivack
Ever since Loren Spivack’s store “Free Market Warrior” was expelled from Concord Mills Mall in North Carolina for selling materials critical of the Obama administration in 2009, (Mall owners, Simon Property Group, are major Democratic donors.) Spivack has devoted himself to writing entertaining, educational political parodies, and teaching people the truth about free market economics and how it can save this country.
Loren has appeared as a guest on a number of television and radio programs including Glenn Beck, CNN, NBC News, America’s Newsroom, National Conservative Radio, Paltalk News, and We The People Radio. He has spoken to hundreds of conservative, Republican, Libertarian, and Tea Party groups across the United States.
Spivack authored “The New Democrat,” a parody of the Obama administration based on the famous Dr. Seuss classic, “The Cat in the Hat.” With pitch perfect rhyme and clever illustrations “The New Democrat” transforms political personalities of our time into a conservative morality play. “The New Democrat,” listed as one of the top 10 conservative collectible items, humorously details the numerous failed policies of the current government and the century of liberalism that led up to it. It features Obama as the mischievous, toothy cat, wearing a Soviet-style cap emblazoned with hammer and sickle. Glenn Beck plays the anxious, scolding fish. The book, both thought-provoking and illuminating, ends with America racing full speed ahead toward government rationing and death panels.
In his most recent book, “The Gorax,” based on another famous Dr. Seuss book, “The Lorax,” satirist Loren Spivack, “Dr. Truth,” spoofs Al Gore and the environmentalist movement as a threat to freedom and the American standard of living. Once again with snappy rhymes and equally amusing illustrations Spivack is both funny and poignant as he makes the case that capitalism is the real victim of environmental extremists.
If you think economics is uninteresting, dull, or perplexing, then you have never heard Loren Spivack speak. His “Economic Literacy” seminar is witty, fascinating, and easy to understand. Enter a realm that makes sense and laugh at what we have been taught to be logical. Loren humorously critiques the concepts of John Maynard Keynes (father of Keynesian Economics) which have put the U.S. on the path towards our demise, and deals with today’s real problems in an entertaining way. A link to Mr. Spivack’s recent book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Gorax-Loren-Spivack/dp/B0773BZVLM/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=loren+spivack&qid=1590800842&sr=8-4
Honoring the Memory of Prince Estabrook-One of the First Americans to be Wounded in Battle
On this Memorial Day, Camp Constitution wants to honor the memory of Prince Estabrook. Hal Shurtleff and Rev. Steve Craft of Camp Constitution visit the Prince Estabrook Monument in front of the Buckman Tavern, and across from Lexington Green in Lexington, Massachusetts. They discuss the heroics of Prince Estabrook, a member of the Lexington Militia who was one of the first Americans to be injured in battle. He answered the alarm, and fought in the Battle of Lexington and Concord. At the time of the battle, he was a slave. He enlisted in the Continental Army and after the war, he gained his freedom.
James A. Garfield’s Decoration Day Speech, May 30, 1868
” I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion. If silence is ever golden, it must be here beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung. With words we make promises, plight faith, praise virtue. Promises may not be kept; plighted faith may be broken; and vaunted virtue be only the cunning mask of vice. We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue. For the noblest man that lives, there still remains a conflict. He must still withstand the assaults of time and fortune, must still be assailed with temptations, before which lofty natures have fallen; but with these the conflict ended, the victory was won, when death stamped on them the great seal of heroic character, and closed a record which years can never blot.
I know of nothing more appropriate on this occasion than to inquire what brought these men here; what high motive led them to condense life into an hour, and to crown that hour by joyfully welcoming death? Let us consider.
Eight years ago this was the most unwarlike nation of the earth. For nearly fifty years1no spot in any of these states had been the scene of battle. Thirty millions of people had an army of less than ten thousand men. The faith of our people in the stability and permanence of their institutions was like their faith in the eternal course of nature. Peace, liberty, and personal security were blessings as common and universal as sunshine and showers and fruitful seasons; and all sprang from a single source, the old American principle that all owe due submission and obedience to the lawfully expressed will of the majority. This is not one of the doctrines of our political system—it is the system itself. It is our political firmament, in which all other truths are set, as stars in Heaven. It is the encasing air, the breath of the Nation’s life. Against this principle the whole weight of the rebellion was thrown. Its overthrow would have brought such ruin as might follow in the physical universe, if the power of gravitation were destroyed and
“Nature’s concord broke,
Among the constellations war were sprung,
Two planets, rushing from aspect malign
Of fiercest opposition, in mid-sky
Should combat, and their jarring spheres confound.”
Decoration Day in Arlington National Cemetery, May 30, 1868. This was the first national Decoration Day event and was organized by the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the largest and most influential Union veterans’ organization. Congressman James A. Garfield delivered his keynote address from this speakers’ rostrum. (Library of Congress)
The Nation was summoned to arms by every high motive which can inspire men. Two centuries of freedom had made its people unfit for despotism. They must save their Government or miserably perish.
As a flash of lightning in a midnight tempest reveals the abysmal horrors of the sea, so did the flash of the first gun disclose the awful abyss into which rebellion was ready to plunge us. In a moment the fire was lighted in twenty million hearts. In a moment we were the most warlike Nation on the earth. In a moment we were not merely a people with an army—we were a people in arms. The Nation was in column—not all at the front, but all in the array.
I love to believe that no heroic sacrifice is ever lost; that the characters of men are molded and inspired by what their fathers have done; that treasured up in American souls are all the unconscious influences of the great deeds of the Anglo-Saxon race, from Agincourt to Bunker Hill. It was such an influence that led a young Greek, two thousand years ago, when musing on the battle of Marathon, to exclaim, “the trophies of Miltiades will not let me sleep!” Could these men be silent in 1861; these, whose ancestors had felt the inspiration of battle on every field where civilization had fought in the last thousand years? Read their answer in this green turf. Each for himself gathered up the cherished purposes of life—its aims and ambitions, its dearest affections—and flung all, with life itself, into the scale of battle.”
(The above was from the James A Garfield National Historic Site: https://garfieldnps.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/james-a-garfields-decoration-day-speech-may-30-1868/
James A. Garfield was the 20th President of the United States. He was the only president that was an ordained minister, and the last U.S. President to be born in a log cabin. He was the only sitting member of the House of Representatives to be elected president. On July 2, 1881, he was shot by Charles Guiteau, and died on September 19, 1881
Fauci-Birx climate models? by Paul Driessen and David R. Legates
Fauci-Birx climate models?
Honest, evidence-based climate models could avoid trillions of dollars in policy blunders
Paul Driessen and David R. Legates
President Trump and his Coronavirus Task Force presented some frightening numbers during their March 31 White House briefing. Based on now 2-week-old data and models, as many as 100,000 Americans at the models’ low end, to 2.2 million at their high end, could die from the fast-spreading virus, they said.
However, the President, Vice President Pence, and Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx hastened to add, those high-end numbers are based on computer models. And they are “unlikely” if Americans keep doing what they are doing now to contain, mitigate and treat the virus. Although that worst-case scenario “is possible,” it is “unlikely if we do the kinds of things that we’re essentially outlining right now.”
On March 31, Dr. Fauci said, the computer models were saying that, even with full mitigation, it is “likely” that America could still suffer at least 100,000 deaths. But he then added a very important point:
“The question is, are the models really telling us what’s going on? When someone creates a model, they put in various assumptions. And the models are only as good and as accurate as the assumptions you put into them. As we get more data, as the weeks go by, that might change. We feed the data back into the models and relook at the models.” The data can change the assumptions – and thus the models’ forecasts.
“If we have more data like the NY-NJ metro area, the numbers could go up,” Dr. Birx added. But if the numbers coming in are more like Washington or California, which reacted early and kept their infection and death rates down – then the models would likely show lower numbers. “We’re trying to prevent that logarithmic increase in New Orleans and Detroit and Chicago – trying to make sure those cities work more like California than like the New York metro area.” That seems to be happening, for the most part.
If death rates from corona are misattributed or inflated, if other model assumptions should now change, if azithromycin, hydroxychloroquine and other treatments, and people’s immunities are reducing infections – then business shutdowns and stay-home orders could (and should) end earlier, and we can go back to work and life, rebuild America’s and the world’s economies … and avoid different disasters, like these:
Millions of businesses that never reopen. Tens of millions of workers with no paychecks. Tens of trillions of dollars vanished from our economy. Millions of families with lost homes and savings. Millions of cases of depression, stroke, heart attack, domestic violence, suicide, murder-suicide, and early death due to depression, obesity and alcoholism, due to unemployment, foreclosure and destroyed dreams.
In other words, numerous deaths because of actions taken to prevent infections and deaths from COVID.
It is vital that they recheck the models and assumptions – and distinguish between COVID-19 deaths actually due to the virus … and not just associated with or compounded by it, but primarily due to age, obesity, pneumonia or other issues. We can’t afford a cure that’s worse than the disease – or a prolonged and deadly national economic shutdown that could have been shortened by updated and corrected models.
Now just imagine: What if we could have that same honest, science-based approach to climate models?
What if the White House, EPA, Congress, UN, EU and IPCC acknowledged that climate models are only as good and as accurate as the assumptions built into them? What if – as the months and years went by and we got more real-world temperature, sea level and extreme weather data – we used that information to honestly refine the models? Would the assumptions and therefore the forecasts change dramatically?
What if we use real science to help us understand Earth’s changing climate and weather? And base energy and other policies on real science that honestly examines manmade and natural influences on climate?
Many climate modelers claim we face existential manmade climate cataclysms caused by our use of fossil fuels. They use models to justify calls to banish fossil fuels that provide 80% of US and global energy; close down countless industries, companies and jobs; totally upend our economy; give trillions of dollars in subsidies to fossil fuel replacement companies; and drastically curtail our travel and lifestyles.
Shouldn’t we demand that these models be verified against real-world evidence? Natural forces have caused climate changes and extreme weather events throughout history. What proof is there that what we see today is due to fossil fuel emissions, and not to those same natural forces? We certainly don’t want energy “solutions” that don’t work and are far worse than the supposed manmade climate and weather ‘virus.’
And we have the climate data. We’ve got years of data. The data show the models don’t match reality.
Model-predicted temperatures are more than 0.5 degrees F above actual satellite-measured average global temperatures – and “highest ever” records are mere hundredths of a degree above previous records from 50 to 80 years ago. Actual hurricane, tornado, sea level, flood, drought, and other historic records show no unprecedented trends or changes, no looming crisis, no evidence that humans have replaced the powerful natural forces that have always driven climate and weather in the real world outside the modelers’ labs.
Real science – and real scientists – seek to understand natural phenomena and processes. They pose hypotheses that they think best explain what they have witnessed, then test them against actual evidence, observations and data. If the hypotheses (and predictions based on them) are borne out by their subsequent observations or findings, the hypotheses become theories, rules or laws of nature – at least until someone finds new evidence that pokes holes in their assessments, or devises better explanations.
Real scientists often employ computers to analyze data more quickly and accurately, depict or model complex natural systems, or forecast future events or conditions. But they test their models against real-world evidence. If the models, observations and predictions don’t match up, real scientists modify or discard the models, and the hypotheses behind them. They engage in robust discussion and debate.
Real scientists don’t let models or hypotheses become substitutes for real-world data, evidence and observations. They don’t alter or “homogenize” raw or historic data to make it look like the models actually work. They don’t tweak their models after comparing predictions to actual subsequent observations, to make it look like the models “got it right.” They don’t “lose” or hide data and computer codes, restrict peer review to closed circles of like-minded colleagues who protect one another’s reputations and funding, claim “the debate is over,” or try to silence anyone who asks inconvenient questions or criticizes their claims or models. Climate modelers have done all of this – and more.
Put bluntly, what climate modelers are essentially saying is this: We don’t need data; we have models. If real world observations don’t conform to our computer model predictions, the real world must be wrong.
Climate models have always overstated the warming. But even though modelers have admitted that their models are “tuned” – revised after the fact to make it look like they predicted temperatures accurately – the modelers have made no attempt to change the climate sensitivity to match reality. Why not?
They know disaster scenarios sell. Disaster forecasts keep them employed, swimming in research money – and empowered to tell legislators and regulators that humanity must we take immediate, draconian action to eliminate all fossil fuel use – the economic, human and environmental consequences be damned. And they probably will never admit their mistakes or duplicity, much less be held accountable.
“Wash your hands! You could save millions of lives!” has far more impact than “You could save your own life, your kids’ lives, dozens of lives.” When it comes to climate change, you’re saving the planet.
With Mann-made climate change, we are always shown the worst-case scenario: RCP 8.5, the “business-as-usual” … ten times more coal use in 2100 than now … “total disaster.” Alarmist climatologists know their scenario has maybe a 0.1% likelihood, and assumes no new energy technologies over the next 80 years. But energy technologies have evolved incredibly over the last 80 years – since 1940, the onset of World War II! Who could possibly think technologies won’t change at least as much going forward?
Disaster scenarios are promoted because most people don’t know any better – and voters and citizens won’t accept extreme measures and sacrifices unless they are presented with extreme disaster scenarios.
The Fauci-Birx team is trying to do science-based modeling for the ChiCom-WHO coronavirus – feeding updated data into their models. Forecasts for infections and deaths are down significantly. Thankfully.
So now we must demand honest, factual, evidence-based climate model as well. No more alarmists and charlatans setting climate and energy policy. Our economy, livelihoods, lives and liberties are too vital.
The fact is, models are also only as good as the number of variables they can handle, and the data quality for every variable. There is no way models can possibly factor in the hundreds of infection, treatment, death and other variables associated with COVID – and Earth’s climate is vastly more complex. Simply put, models play a role but should never be a primary driving force in setting important public policies.
Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of books and articles on energy, environment, climate and human rights issues. David R. Legates is a Professor of Climatology at the University of Delaware.
The Weekly Sam: If You’re Home-Schooling, Don’t Worry About College
Many home-schooling parents are concerned about their children getting into a good college or university after completing their studies at home. Will they need a diploma from school, is often asked. The fact is that they don’t. Colleges and mainly universities evaluate applicants on the basis of achievement tests. Admissions people are often impressed by the applications of home-schoolers who usually do very well on SATs and CATs. In fact, some home-schoolers have gotten scholarships to some very prestigious institutions. For example, Joshua and Zachary Kitchen, the Sons of Mr. and Mr. Ron Kitchen of Cincinnati, are now both attending the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Both boys ended their formal schooling with the second grade and were thereafter home-schooled right through high school by their mother. Both boys took SAT tests at a local public school and both received scores in the 99th percentile. Each received a full four-year Naval ROTC scholarship and completed one year at Miami University (Ohio), with Naval ROTC service, while waiting for an appointment to Annapolis. Joshua, 20, is now a 3rd Class Midshipman (sophomore), while Zachary, 18, has just entered the academy as a “plebe” (freshman).
Another inspiring story is that of Dew Colfax who never attended a formal school but at the age of 18 accepted a scholarship at Harvard University after rejecting similar offers from Yale, Princeton, and Amherst. Drew and his three brothers were raised on a remote mountaintop ranch Some 120 miles north of San Francisco. There they were educated by their parents, David and Micki Colfax, at their Mountain School — the ranch house of their sheep-and-goat operation. Drew’s brother Grant, 22, is an honor student at Harvard. Reed, 17, is a mathematical whiz, and Garth, 11, works in ceramics and painting. Colfax and his wife, unhappy with the quality of public schools, decided to teach their children at home. Their school is registered with Mendocino County as a private school, and he and his in wife divide theistruction chores. Laura Clark of Princeton, where only 1 in 6 applicants was accepted in 1986, said: “Drew was one of our most extraordinary applicant ts. He is home-educated and has demonstrated an amazing academic excellence. . He is truly a thinker. We’ve never seen a kid like this.” When he was 16, Drew installed a solar-powered electrical system that gave power to the ranch for the first time in more than 10 years. He is an avid stargazer who has read more than 300 books on astronomy, writes a weekly astronomy column for the local newspaper, and built his own telescope. and an observatory to house it. He ground the telescope mirror by hand. Drew’s father, asked if Drew were a genius, said, “No, no. He and his brothers are ordinary bright kids that work hard. They like to take a problem and solve it.” Some have brought up the possibility of inherited superior intelligence and ability to explain this family’s remarkable achievements, rather than attributing it to good home-schooling. The real story is that the two younger brothers are adopted: one is Eskimo and the other Black.
(Data from Orange County Register°, 4/28/86, and New American, 6/16/86).
(This article was a speech Sam Blumenfeld gave in 1986. Please visit the Sam Blumenfeld Archives: https://campconstitution.net/sam-blumenfeld-archive/
How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Affected the Small Town of North Andover and the Nearby City of Lawrence by Ted Tripp Sr. Political Reporter Boston Broadside April 2020
How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Affected the Small Town of North Andover and the Nearby City of Lawrence
Ted Tripp Sr. Political Reporter
Boston Broadside April 2020
In 1918 the country was fighting a war in Europe and the newspapers were filled with stories of Allied progress, military battles and the fate of local residents.
Against this backdrop, North Andover, a town of about 6150 at the time, began the year like many others. A coal shortage had driven up prices and caused concerns about the affordability of heating public buildings, the textile mills and even private dwellings. In June, Johnson High School graduated 19 seniors with 6 going on to higher education. One student, Charles M. Tucker, to the delight of school officials, was accepted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The class poem that year was “America the Beautiful,” by Katharine Lee Bates.
The Board of Health was complaining that its $700 budget had been cut by $100 from the previous year. It had actually hoped for additional funds to address the issues of infant mortality and milk inspection. Board members noted that the entire budget had to pay all their expenses, including those for “any person ill at any hospital with any contagious disease, the expense of our citizens in the Tuberculosis Hospitals, the expenses of placarding and fumigating, the expenses incident to the free distribution of diphtheria antitoxin, vaccine, and diphtheria and typhoid examinations, and the salary of the Slaughtering Inspector.”
Much of the summer saw citizens raising money for the war effort by selling Liberty Bonds. On the agricultural side, the town’s Moth Department noted that residents could purchase arsenate of lead for insect control at the low price of 12 cents/pound. On August 24th the Stevens and Osgood Mills began their annual 10-day shutdown for equipment maintenance and workers’ vacations.
School started Wednesday, September 4th, with several new teachers because some teachers were lost to other districts where men went off to war. Early September also brought a lot of excitement with the Red Sox travelling to Chicago to face the Cubs in the 1918 World Series.
Unknown to the residents up to this time, of course, the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 had already started. It had begun in March at Fort Riley, Kansas where over 500 soldiers had contracted the so-called Spanish Influenza. Also, at the end of August, many sailors in Boston had become sick with the grippe, as the flu was commonly called at the time, and the overflow of patients had to be sent to the Chelsea Naval Hospital. Finally, in September hundreds of soldiers at nearby Camp Devens became ill and scores were dying every day.
Although there had been several stories in the newspapers about the sickness, area residents first heard about the severity and extent of the problem on September 23rd when the Lawrence Telegram published three front-page stories: “Local Soldiers Ill at Camp Devens,” “Spanish Grippe on U.S. Transport” and “No Abatement in Grippe Epidemic.” Front-page stories about the epidemic continued for about a month, although news about the War always – always – took the headlines no matter how many died from the flu.
On September 26th, at the urging of state officials, the Lawrence Board of Health closed all public, private and parochial schools and theaters until at least October 7th. By noon the next day, Lawrence had reported 279 cases of influenza or the flu. Up to this point, North Andover only had a handful of non-serious influenza cases. This was about to change.
On October 1st, the Lawrence Telegram reported in a front-page article that Lawrence health officials “Have the Situation Under Control.” They were badly mistaken.
Also on October 1st, the Board of Health and selectmen in North Andover closed Johnson High School and the eight elementary schools until further notice. Also ordered closed were the Stevens Library and Red Cross Center. The Methodist Episcopal Church and St. Paul’s Church suspended Sunday services.
By October 2nd, the North Andover Board of Health had reported 50-60 cases of influenza, but only a few were serious. Still, Boston’s Cardinal O’Connor decided to close a two-week mission which had just begun at St. Michael’s (Catholic) Church.
The next day, Massachusetts health officials reported 8000 new Spanish Influenza cases with 151 deaths statewide, in just the previous 24 hours. They urged but did not require that all churches across the commonwealth be closed. Influenza cases were still increasing throughout the area.
On October 4th, the North Andover Board of Health urged the pastors at all five local churches to suspend their services on the upcoming Sunday. That Sunday, October 6th, Rev. George W. Haley cancelled masses at St. Michael’s – the first time in 50 years a pastor had done so.
By October 7th, two of the town’s three primary physicians, Dr. F. S. Smith and Dr. J. J. Daly, had become ill with influenza and were unable to help others who were sick. On the same day, North Andover reported the deaths of Mabel England, 17, Ernest Kennett, 27, and William Thomson, 32, all from the epidemic.
The North Andover Board of Health thus put out an urgent call across New England to all physicians for help, but since many towns were struggling with influenza problems of their own, no doctor was available. Then a stroke of good luck came along. The U.S. Public Health Service realized just days earlier that there would be a physician shortage and, with an emergency $1 million grant from Congress, set out to hire 1000 doctors and 700 nurses from around the country to help where most needed. Thirty physicians from Indiana who volunteered were pressed into service and sent to Boston. One of these, Dr. William Conner, although “fatigued from his trip,” immediately reported to North Andover. When he came he pronounced that “He was all ready to fight.”
By October 10th, over 200 cases of influenza had been reported in North Andover and they were increasing at the rate of 30 per day.
This would turn out to be the high point in the epidemic. On October 11th, the North Andover Board of Health would for the first time report fewer cases than the day before.
On Monday October 14th, North Andover health officials reported there were only 15 new cases over the weekend and none were serious. Also, the Lawrence Telegram, for the first time in weeks, had no stories on the front page about the influenza epidemic. As quickly as the epidemic had hit, it started to rapidly decline.
Tent City in Lawrence to treat 1918 influenza victims – Lawrence History Center
Even though the worst was over, caution was still the rule. The North Andover schools would not reopen until Monday, October 28th, thus being closed for a total of four weeks. Some churches would not resume Sunday services until early November.
Dr. Fred Smith, the school physician, reported that there was a recurrence of the flu in the schools in December, but it was a “milder type” and no deaths were reported.
The official tally for 1918 flu in North Andover was 312 cases of influenza with 18 deaths. Another 14 died of pneumonia, which at that time was difficult to distinguish from influenza deaths. Some of these could have easily been caused by the Spanish Influenza. All this was out of a population of about 6150.
The consensus was that North Andover had been lucky with so few deaths, particularly compared to Lawrence where over 2000 had perished from the epidemic. The town’s Board of Health said: “That our death rate was surprisingly low, was due in a very great measure to the untiring faithfulness of Dr. Conner. The Town of North Andover is rightfully thankful that so able a man as Dr. Conner could help in the time of its great need.” Dr. Conner was the physician from Indiana who had volunteered to come east and help fight the epidemic.
Dr. Conner was obviously helpful, but the real reason North Andover got off easy was probably more due to its rural nature and the suspension of public gatherings. Conversely, Lawrence was much harder hit because of its crowded conditions and high population — about 92,600 or 12,200 more people than today — and the refusal of its Board of Health to close the city’s “saloons.” It was not politically possible to shut down the saloons or bars because many of the male mill workers congregated there after their shift and during the day many merchants conducted their business in such places.
One of the more interesting aspects of researching the influenza epidemic is how the area newspapers of the day treated the health problem. The front pages still allocated a majority of the space to the war in Europe, even during the worst of the Spanish Influenza crisis.
The simple answer for this distribution of news is twofold. First, the war was big news and soldiers were dying at a fairly high rate, including many local residents. Entire communities were committed to support the effort with the involvement of many of their citizens. Second, deaths due to illness, and particularly from contagious diseases, were still fairly common at the time.
North Andover in that era recorded about 100 deaths a year. The 1917 listing by cause reported: heart disease – 13; pneumonia – 10; apoplexy – 9; carcinoma – 8; phthisis [tuberculosis] – 7; old age – 3, diphtheria – 2; typhoid – 1. Although there was no separate listing for influenza, some of the pneumonia deaths could have easily been caused by the common flu. Note that the communicable diseases that are rare or unheard of today still took lives at the time. Also, the Board of Health that year reported “placarding” 14 houses with notices of a contagious disease present.
A similar situation existed in Lawrence, but worse. While over 2000 died from the 1918 epidemic, deaths from flu were common due to the crowded living conditions. For example, in 1917 Lawrence reported 1391 deaths due to influenza and in 1919, 1280 deaths. What made the difference in 1918 was the high rate of infection and the high death rate, both in a very short period of time.
Overall, the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 killed more than 550,000 Americans and an estimated 20-50 million people worldwide.
1918 Public Health Notice
Rules to Avoid Respiratory Diseases
(By the Surgeon General of the U. S. Army)
1. Avoid needless crowding – influenza is a crowd disease.
2. Smother your cough and sneezes – others do not want the germs which
you would throw away.
3. Your nose, not your mouth, was made to breathe through – get the habit.
4. Remember the three C’s – a clean mouth, clean skin, and clean clothes.
5. Try to keep cool when you walk and warm when you ride and sleep.
6. Open the windows – always at home at night, at the office when practicable.
7. Food will win the war if you give it a chance – help by choosing and
chewing your food well.
8. Your fate may be in your own hands – wash your hands before eating.
9. Don’t let the waste products of digestion accumulate – drink a glass or
two of water on getting up.
10. Don’t use a napkin, towel, spoon, fork, glass, or cup which has been
used by another person and not washed.
11. Avoid tight clothes, tight shoes, tight gloves – seek to make nature your
ally not your prisoner.
12. When the air is pure breathe all of it you can – breathe deeply.
This article originally appeared in the Boston Broadside Please visit their website: http://www.bostonbroadside.com/
Yes, our 12th Annual Family Camp is still on, and we are accepting registrations–https://www.campconstitution.net
The History of Pandemics By Nicholas LePan
The History of Pandemics
Pan·dem·ic /panˈdemik/ (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.
As humans have spread across the world, so have infectious diseases. Even in this modern era, outbreaks are nearly constant, though not every outbreak reaches pandemic level as the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has.
Today’s visualization outlines some of history’s most deadly pandemics, from the Antonine Plague to the current COVID-19 event.
A Timeline of Historical Pandemics
Disease and illnesses have plagued humanity since the earliest days, our mortal flaw. However, it was not until the marked shift to agrarian communities that the scale and spread of these diseases increased dramatically.
Widespread trade created new opportunities for human and animal interactions that sped up such epidemics. Malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, influenza, smallpox, and others first appeared during these early years.
The more civilized humans became – with larger cities, more exotic trade routes, and increased contact with different populations of people, animals, and ecosystems – the more likely pandemics would occur.
Here are some of the major pandemics that have occurred over time:
Note: Many of the death toll numbers listed above are best estimates based on available research. Some, such as the Plague of Justinian, are subject to debate based on new evidence.
Despite the persistence of disease and pandemics throughout history, there’s one consistent trend over time – a gradual reduction in the death rate. Healthcare improvements and understanding the factors that incubate pandemics have been powerful tools in mitigating their impact.
Wrath of the Gods
In many ancient societies, people believed that spirits and gods inflicted disease and destruction upon those that deserved their wrath. This unscientific perception often led to disastrous responses that resulted in the deaths of thousands, if not millions.
In the case of Justinian’s plague, the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea traced the origins of the plague (the Yersinia pestis bacteria) to China and northeast India, via land and sea trade routes to Egypt where it entered the Byzantine Empire through Mediterranean ports.
Despite his apparent knowledge of the role geography and trade played in this spread, Procopius laid blame for the outbreak on the Emperor Justinian, declaring him to be either a devil, or invoking God’s punishment for his evil ways. Some historians found that this event could have dashed Emperor Justinian’s efforts to reunite the Western and Eastern remnants of the Roman Empire, and marked the beginning of the Dark Ages.
Luckily, humanity’s understanding of the causes of disease has improved, and this is resulting in a drastic improvement in the response to modern pandemics, albeit slow and incomplete.
Importing Disease
The practice of quarantine began during the 14th century, in an effort to protect coastal cities from plague epidemics. Cautious port authorities required ships arriving in Venice from infected ports to sit at anchor for 40 days before landing — the origin of the word quarantine from the Italian “quaranta giorni”, or 40 days.
One of the first instances of relying on geography and statistical analysis was in mid-19th century London, during a cholera outbreak. In 1854, Dr. John Snow came to the conclusion that cholera was spreading via tainted water and decided to display neighborhood mortality data directly on a map. This method revealed a cluster of cases around a specific pump from which people were drawing their water from.
While the interactions created through trade and urban life play a pivotal role, it is also the virulent nature of particular diseases that indicate the trajectory of a pandemic.
Tracking Infectiousness
Scientists use a basic measure to track the infectiousness of a disease called the reproduction number — also known as R0 or “R naught.” This number tells us how many susceptible people, on average, each sick person will in turn infect.
Measles tops the list, being the most contagious with a R0 range of 12-18. This means a single person can infect, on average, 12 to 18 people in an unvaccinated population.
While measles may be the most virulent, vaccination efforts and herd immunity can curb its spread. The more people are immune to a disease, the less likely it is to proliferate, making vaccinations critical to prevent the resurgence of known and treatable diseases.
It’s hard to calculate and forecast the true impact of COVID-19, as the outbreak is still ongoing and researchers are still learning about this new form of coronavirus.
Urbanization and the Spread of Disease
We arrive at where we began, with rising global connections and interactions as a driving force behind pandemics. From small hunting and gathering tribes to the metropolis, humanity’s reliance on one another has also sparked opportunities for disease to spread.
Urbanization in the developing world is bringing more and more rural residents into denser neighborhoods, while population increases are putting greater pressure on the environment. At the same time, passenger air traffic nearly doubled in the past decade. These macro trends are having a profound impact on the spread of infectious disease.
As organizations and governments around the world ask for citizens to practice social distancing to help reduce the rate of infection, the digital world is allowing people to maintain connections and commerce like never before.
Editor’s Note: The COVID-19 pandemic is in its early stages and it is obviously impossible to predict its future impact. This post and infographic are meant to provide historical context, and we will continue to update it as time goes on to maintain its accuracy.
Update (March 15, 2020): We’ve adjusted the death toll for COVID-19, and will continue to update on a regular basis.
Camp Constitution thanks Visual Capitalist for granting us permission to repost this article. Here is a link to the organization https://www.visualcapitalist.com
Greening Our Way to Infection The ban on single-use plastic grocery bags is unsanitary—and it comes at the worst imaginable time by John Tierney
The COVID-19 outbreak is giving new meaning to those “sustainable” shopping bags that politicians and environmentalists have been so eager to impose on the public. These reusable tote bags can sustain the COVID-19 and flu viruses—and spread the viruses throughout the store.
Researchers have been warning for years about the risks of these bags spreading deadly viral and bacterial diseases, but public officials have ignored their concerns, determined to eliminate single-use bags and other plastic products despite their obvious advantages in reducing the spread of pathogens. In New York State, a new law took effect this month banning single-use plastic bags in most retail businesses, and this week Democratic state legislators advanced a bill that would force coffee shops to accept consumers’ reusable cups—a practice that Starbucks and other chains have wisely suspended to avoid spreading the COVID-19 virus.
John Flanagan, the Republican leader of the New York State Senate, has criticized the new legislation and called for a suspension of the law banning plastic bags. “Senate Democrats’ desperate need to be green is unclean during the coronavirus outbreak,” he said Tuesday, but so far he’s been a lonely voice among public officials.The COVID-19 virus is just one of many pathogens that shoppers can spread unless they wash the bags regularly, which few people bother to do. Viruses and bacteria can survive in the tote bags up to nine days, according to one study of coronaviruses.
The risk of spreading viruses was clearly demonstrated in a 2018 study published in the Journal of Environmental Health. The researchers, led by Ryan Sinclair of the Loma Linda University School of Public Health, sent shoppers into three California grocery stores carrying polypropylene plastic tote bags that had been sprayed with a harmless surrogate of a virus.
After the shoppers bought groceries and checked out, the researchers found sufficiently high traces of the surrogate to risk transmission on the hands of the shoppers and checkout clerks, as well as on many surfaces touched by the shoppers, including packaged food, unpackaged produce, shopping carts, checkout counters, and the touch screens used to pay for groceries. The researchers said that the results warranted the adaptation of “in-store hand hygiene” and “surface disinfection” by merchants, and they also recommended educating shoppers to wash their bags.
An earlier study of supermarkets in Arizona and California found large numbers of bacteria in almost all the reusable bags—and no contamination in any of the new single-use plastic bags. When a bag with meat juice on the interior was stored in the trunk of a car, within two hours the number of bacteria multiplied tenfold.
The researchers also found that the vast majority of shoppers never followed the advice to wash their bags. One of the researchers, Charles Gerba of the University of Arizona, said that the findings “suggest a serious threat to public health,” particularly from fecal coliform bacteria, which was found in half the bags. These bacteria and other pathogens can be transferred from raw meat in the bag and also from other sources. An outbreak of viral gastroenteritis among a girls’ soccer team in Oregon was traced to a resuable grocery bag that had sat on the floor of a hotel bathroom.
In a 2012 study, researchers analyzed the effects of San Francisco’s ban on single-use plastic grocery bags by comparing emergency-room admissions in the city against those of nearby counties without the bag ban. The researchers, Jonathan Klick of the University of Pennsylvania and Joshua Wright of George Mason University, reported a 25 percent increase in bacteria-related illnesses and deaths in San Francisco relative to the other counties. The city’s Department of Public Health disputed the findings and methodology but acknowledged that “the idea that widespread use of reusable bags may cause gastrointenstinal infections if they are not regularly cleaned is plausible.”
New York’s state officials were told of this risk before they passed the law banning plastic bags. In fact, as the Kings County Politics website reported, a Brooklyn activist, Allen Moses, warned that shoppers in New York City could be particularly vulnerable because they often rest their bags on the floors of subway cars containing potentially deadly bacteria from rats—and then set the bag on the supermarket checkout counter. Yet public officials remain committed to reusable bags.
A headline on the website of the New York Department of Health calls reusable grocery bags a “Smart Choice”—bizarre advice, considering all the elaborate cautions underneath that headline. The department advises grocery shoppers to segregate different foods in different bags; to package meat and fish and poultry in small disposable plastic bags inside their tote bags; to wash and dry their tote bags carefully; to store the tote bags in a cool, dry place; and never to reuse the grocery tote bags for anything but food.
How could that possibly be a “smart choice” for public health? Anyone who has studied consumer behavior knows that it’s hopelessly unrealistic to expect people to follow all those steps. If the Department of Health actually prioritized public health, it would acknowledge what food manufacturers and grocers have known for decades: disposable plastic is the cheapest, simplest, and safest way to prevent foodborne illnesses.
Instead, leaders in New York and other states are ordering shoppers to make a more expensive, inconvenient, and risky choice—all to serve a green agenda that’s actually harmful to the environment.
The ban on plastic bags will mean more trash in landfills (because paper bags take up so much more space than the thin disposable bags) and more greenhouse emissions (because of the larger carbon footprints of the replacement bags). And now, probably, it will also mean more people coming down with COVID-19 and other illnesses.
John Tierney is a contributing editor of City Journal and a contributing science columnist for the New York Times. This essay originally appeared in City Journal city-journal.org.
Boston Censorship Continues by Liberty Counsel
News Release from Liberty Counsel
Feb 5, 2020
After the close of discovery, the undisputed facts agreed to by the city show Boston has allowed nearly 300 flag raisings by private organizations on the city hall flagpole, which the city designated as a public forum for private speech.
The city refers to its flagpole as a “public forum” and allows private organizations to temporarily raise their own flags on the flagpoles. However, the city censored the religious viewpoint of Camp Constitution’s flag, which was to be raised for about an hour while Camp Constitution supporters gathered below the flag to celebrate Constitution Week. The flag was part of the ceremony to honor the Constitution and recognize the Christian Founders.
Never before had Boston censored any flag until the Christian flag, which is white with a blue square in the upper corner and a red cross. The flag contains no writing.
Shurtleff and Camp Constitution first asked the city in 2017 for a permit to raise the Christian flag on Boston City Hall flagpoles to commemorate Constitution Day (September 17) and the civic and cultural contributions of the Christian community to the city of Boston, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, religious tolerance, the Rule of Law, and the U.S. Constitution.
Liberty Counsel immediately filed an appeal to the federal court of appeals.
Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The city of Boston’s open censorship continues against Camp Constitution’s Christian viewpoint. There is a crucial difference between government endorsement of religion and private speech, which government is bound to respect. Censoring religious viewpoints in a public forum where secular viewpoints are permitted is unconstitutional.”
Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics. Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.