Happy Tuesday to the world. I am on spring break and, unfortunately, furlough. This means, I suppose, that I have some time to share here the kinds of things that I’m reading:
Cuban-Americans and their anti-Communist stance made their presence felt in a new poll that showed a 66% lean against returning to Obama-era policy towards Cuba. Another notable result: Where six years ago only 36% supported the embargo, that number has now risen to 66% wanting to keep it in place.
Increasingly, the pandemic news moves away from minorities having the highest numbers of Covid-19 cases and instead we now read more and more about those same minorities having the lowest numbers of vaccine access. Locally, for example, “[m]ore than 80 percent of the population in Lawrence is Latino, but only 2 percent of Latinos there have received at least one dose of a vaccine”. At the same time, “nearly half of Lawrence’s white resident have received at least one dose, although they account for just 12 percent of the city’s population”. The story both around here and in the whole country seems to be that when we are talking about minorities, the numbers are high for getting sick, but low for getting protection.
It is not difficult to find news stories that talk about immigrants and, particularly, young immigrants coming to the US border. In some cases, you can see words like “flood” and “crisis”. However, the Washington Post examined this ongoing story from a rhetorical point of view, including a headline that describes the Chicken Little rhetoric: “Migrants are not overrunning US border towns, despite the political rhetoric”.
Lastly, Haitian protests have made the news for a couple of weeks. In general terms, the unrest seems focused on insecurity, particularly in terms of gang violence and kidnapping. Last Friday police had a violent confrontation with gangs that resulted in several deaths.
Cuban-Americans and their anti-Communist stance made their presence felt in a new poll that showed a 66% lean against returning to Obama-era policy towards Cuba. Another notable result: Where six years ago only 36% supported the embargo, that number has now risen to 66% wanting to keep it in place.
Increasingly, the pandemic news moves away from minorities having the highest numbers of Covid-19 cases and instead we now read more and more about those same minorities having the lowest numbers of vaccine access. Locally, for example, “[m]ore than 80 percent of the population in Lawrence is Latino, but only 2 percent of Latinos there have received at least one dose of a vaccine”. At the same time, “nearly half of Lawrence’s white resident have received at least one dose, although they account for just 12 percent of the city’s population”. The story both around here and in the whole country seems to be that when we are talking about minorities, the numbers are high for getting sick, but low for getting protection.
It is not difficult to find news stories that talk about immigrants and, particularly, young immigrants coming to the US border. In some cases, you can see words like “flood” and “crisis”. However, the Washington Post examined this ongoing story from a rhetorical point of view, including a headline that describes the Chicken Little rhetoric: “Migrants are not overrunning US border towns, despite the political rhetoric”.
Lastly, Haitian protests have made the news for a couple of weeks. In general terms, the unrest seems focused on insecurity, particularly in terms of gang violence and kidnapping. Last Friday police had a violent confrontation with gangs that resulted in several deaths.
