Panera in a Pandemic

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There were 73,000 new cases of COVID-19 in Florida yesterday, July 24, 2021. Florida can now boast one fourth of the cases in the United States as the Delta variant rages across the country. Florida leads the country in cases and hospitalizations. In Orlando, a woman reported on her trip to a local hospital. Has had to go to the hospital frequently for outpatient care and her doctor sent her to the ER. She is used to being wheeled straight in but not this time. Patients lines every hallway, some curling up in the middle of the floor. Paramedics waited in line to drop off patients. Social distancing was impossible. Some people lowered their masks to cough and then lifted them back up, while a woman vomited into her hands two feet in front of her.

Because of the recent surge in cases, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has advised that everyone should wear masks when in crowded places indoors. Of course everyone interprets “Crowded” differently. Some folks don’t think a room is crowded unless their nose is physically inside someone else’s open mouth and their nipples are pressed up against someone else’s chest.

I had promised my class a trip to an air conditioned restaurant to sketch on location before the Delta variant surge had gained steam. I let them all know that we could go if they agreed to all wear their masks the entire time we were inside the restaurant. In an overheard conversation one man said that Panera is less crowded on Sunday, which was the day we were there to sketch. The place was packed. Staff all wore masks and I noticed that the cashier washed his hands each time he handled money.

Besides my students, no one in the restaurant was wearing masks. Most of the students ordered food and drink and after eating only one student put her mask back on. I respected another student who put her mask on any time I approached to give advise or notes. I chose to eat at a table outside and then came back in to get a quick sketch. I worked on my tablet at first but the battery died, so I did this second sketch on paper which never blinks off and dies.

Since my students didn’t follow my advised safety protocol, I will not be bringing them to any other venues. From now on classes will be held outside on the Crealde campus where they can go mask less. With CDC guidance contradicting local advice, people are left to navigate a grey area of health and safety measures. If you give people the option to ignore science, they will live in joyful ignorance every time.

American Tourists

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It was the first hearing held by the House Select Committee investigating the attack by pro-Trump rioters who were trying to stop the certification of the presidential election.

Four officers — Pfc. Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell of the U.S. Capitol Police, and Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department — each gave opening statements and answered questions from committee members.

Some toady of a Republican representative from Georgia said that he felt the rioters walking through the halls of the Capitol looked to him like tourists. The same representative on January 6th was photographed barricading the doors of Congress to try and keep the rioters out of the chamber. The officers in the Committee Hearing were asked about the tourist comment. Daniel Hodges said, “Well, if  that is what American tourists are like then I can see why other countries do not like American tourists.”

Fanone decried those in Congress who are “downplaying or outright denying what happened” that day, saying, “I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them.”

“The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!” Fanone shouted as he pounded the witness table. “Nothing, truly nothing has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny the events of that day. And in doing so betray their oath of office.”

 

After Pulse: Jessica Brooks

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At the time Pulse happened, Jessica Brooks was an emergency communications specialist for the Orlando Police Department. On that evening she was a call taker.  A call taker answers the 911 calls as well as non emergency calls and they collect all the information and they put it in the computer. A dispatcher then get that information and gets it out to the officers who are responding.

On June 11, 2016 she was on the 3PM to 3AM shift taking calls. The entire week had been insane to the point where they wondered what was going on. They were busier than they have ever been. They thought that maybe the Christina Grimmie murder at the Plaza Live was the end of the insanity. Everyone was burnt out. There had been a car jacking that day as well.

Six call takers worked the lines. She was handling six radio channels. She had worked as a dispatcher for eight hours and for her last four hours she became a call taker. Things usually slow down between midnight and two. At to AM it can pick up because that is when the clubs let out. She was on her last break and it was just before 2AM. She took a bathroom break and when she walked back in the room, the phones were ringing off the hook. Co-workers wee standing up. She heard there was an active shooter at Pulse nightclub. She wasn’t sure it was legit. She decided to plug back into her headset and take a few calls and she would take a break later.

She doesn’t remember many of the calls. The first call she does remember was the worst call she had ever taken. It was a female who was stuck in a bathroom. She was scared and begging for help. She encouraged her and let her know there was an officer on the scene. Then Jessica heard gun shots. They were not in the bathroom but they were close. Then they were in the bathroom. She heard screaming and horrible things. There was moaning for a while and then silence. She stayed on the line putting it on hold and handled other calls hoping she could go back to the line and get a response, but she didn’t.

The next call was a minor traffic accident with no injuries and she had to inform the driver that there were no officers available. Some of that evening is a blur. She took another call from someone what was trapped in an office at Pulse. She was on the phone with him for a while. There were ten others in the room. She got his basic information and kept him calm. Inside she was panicking because of hat had happened to her last caller. She didn’t want that to happen to him. Ultimately she got to hear who went in and pulled him get out. She could hear her co workers talking to people in bathrooms, and the same room as her survivor. She knew of parents who were texting their children who were trapped in the bathrooms.

It was a loud insane night. The final call she took that night was from the shooter. She couldn’t hear him because it was so loud in the room. He claimed his allegiance to an Islamic state. He said, “I am the Orlando shooter.” She muted her phone, and told her supervisor that she had the shooter o the phone. One of the lieutenants was there and he made his way to her so he could take over the call. She asked the shooter where he was, and he said he was at Pulse. Her computer screen showed a map, that map shows where the call is coming from. He was indeed right at Pulse. He spoke in another language at another point. Then he hung up on her. The lieutenant took her console and she was done for the night. She wanted to stay but they wouldn’t let her. Some people worked 16 hour shifts but they must have seen on her face that she had enough. The first call is what got to her the most. She could not sleep for 48 hours.

At home she did click on the news which announced that 20 had died. She felt sick and turned it off. She felt she would never be the same. A friend came over from work along with a pastor and she was surrounded by love. The next day she went to church in search of hope. She was off work for 4 days.

 

After Pulse: Deacon David Grey

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Deacon David Grey is from the Dioceses of Greater Orlando. Catholic Deacons, priests and the bishop provided pastoral care and leadership to the Hispanic community and the Orlando Community following the Pulse nightclub massacre.

On June 12, 2016 David as sitting at home on the front porch following a run. They found out what had happened. He connected with the chief operating officer at the Diocese. There tragedy was just down the street from the church. They needed to be involved in doing something. David needed to get dressed and get down there.

He ended up at the hotel which became the staging point. It was very chaotic since no one had experienced something of this magnitude before. Families clung to the hope that they would find out what happened to their loved one but those in charge needed to know who next of kin were. Finally at the end of the day news was not forthcoming for the families. It just wasn’t possible.

A Federal Response team was on route to Miami for a training exercise and they were diverted to Orlando. The Federal agents took control form city and county agencies. This threw off notifications. Some notifications were done. There was chaos and anger. One person walked around with a cell phone with a photo and he told people , “If this is your son, he is not coming home.” He was frustrated and angry. Pizzas came in that were ordered by people from California. People wanted to help in any way they could so there was food and water. Translators started manning tables and taking in supplies.

Word went out among the priests in the hospitals that there needed to be a response. Because of his position, as a deacon, David knows most of the priests. They needed to find priests who speak Spanish. He called Catholic Charities, to find people who were bi-lingual. He assembled a team who were bi-lingual and they immediately came down. This was on a Sunday when they had to juggle masses. The day was open and unstructured as they walked with families in their moment of uncertainty and need. The bishop had flown to California and when he landed he heard about the Pulse massacre and he got right back on a plane to Orlando.

Universal prayer services were planned soon afterward. A timetable structure had to be developed so that Spanish speaking priests could meet with families. Then came funeral arrangements. Family were coming in from other countries. In the midst of a challenge like this you have to have hope. That can be hard to come by. There were challenges in the family structures in the midst of the tragedy. Unity was the primary message moving forward in both the city response and the church response. We stand together, Orlando Strong.

The Rural Unvaccinated

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The number of American getting vaccinated fr COVID-19 has plummeted over the past several months. The number of people getting vaccinated each day has dropped 88% from April of 2021. Americans have been offered free beers, scholarships and multi million dollar lottery prize but many don’t want the vaccine. States with the lowest vaccination rates supported the former president.nws is specifically encouraging it’s viewers to not get vaccinated.

With the Delta variant spreading like wildfire across the country, the unvaccinated are falling sick and dying. Frustratingly those deaths are “completely avoidable” now that vaccines are available. Across the country, more than 99% of US Covid-19 deaths in June were among unvaccinated people, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Coronavirus case numbers are rising sharply in the Sunshine State once again as the Delta variant spreads. The Florida Department of Health reported more than 23,000 new coronavirus cases last week — an 8,000-case increase over the previous week. Only 58% of the eligible population in Florida has gotten vaccinated. A sharp rise in COVID-19 cases has prompted Orange County to abruptly change course and suggest that all people, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks when in crowded environments. The announcement by Mayor Jerry Demings came late Monday July 12, 2021 at an Orange County coronavirus news briefing. “A pandemic within a pandemic is starting to occur,” he said. Orange county’s 14-day rolling positivity rate hit 7.8% on Monday, almost double that of 4.28% two weeks ago. 406 cases of new infections were reported to Florida department of health July 11, 2021. The party only ends one way for the unvaccinated.

After Pulse: Anna Eskamani

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Anna Eskamani is an activist in Central Florida. At the time of the oral history she was a senior policy director at Planned Parenthood. She has since been elected the State Representative for District 47.

The day before the Pulse shooting, June 11, 2016, which was a Saturday, Anna had a meeting at a coffee shop across from the Plaza Live. There were trucks around the Plaza because there had been a shooting there the night before. Singer Christina Grimmie had been killed outside the venue. They were discussing advocacy for gun safety. The crime scene was a reminder of why they do the work they do.

Later that day she went to the Don Quixote awards that the Hispanic Chamber does each year. She met a friend she hadn’t seen in a while and felt good when she left. She and her sister live a mile and a half from Pulse. Her sister was sleeping, jet lagged from a long plane flight having returned from vacation. Anna went to bed herself and woke up to the sound of helicopters about 3AM. She checked her phone and saw notifications from CNN. The Pulse nightclub had a shooting. She began texting Latino friends to see if they were OK. She had to turn on the TV and they kept playing the same footage over and over. On Facebook she found that the husband of one of her friends was an emergency responder, so he was in the hospital helping get people there. At the time there was a rumor that there was a gunman inside the hospital. She supported her friend by phone.

She was going to work out that morning with a trainer and she kept putting it off. She needed to see the next press conference. She finally decided she wanted to keep some semblance of normalcy and went to the work out. They trained outside and the sound of helicopters were even more predominant. She cut the workout short. She couldn’t do it. She has 185 co-workers and they began texting. Mass e-mails went out to staff to make sure they were OK. Planned Parenthood wanted to issue a   statement. This was before anyone knew the final count. Anna began crafting a statement for the national office. She hadn’t cried yet. She finally cried on a phone call with a co-worker.  She had been to Pulse in the past and she had friends who go to Pulse. The emotions welled up. She got the statement off to National and local press.

About 4PM there was a press conference at the Center. She needed to be there to show solidarity. The Center became the hub for the response in the beginning. She wore a t shirt that said “My Health My Life No Matter What.” It was so hot inside. The AC was not working. People were crying. There was so much press. There were at least 30 cameras. She wasn’t planning to speak. However all the advocacy groups were asked to speak. She got nervous. She spoke about how Planned Parenthood stands in solidarity with the LGBTQ community. Planned Parenthood is no stranger to violence and the community can not be paralyzed by violence. She pointed out, the community needs to push back and just like the health centers our spaces need to remain safe. This is very real for all of us. In Florida no practical efforts are being made to insure that when you go to school or you walk your neighborhood, or go to a club or movie theater, that you will  actually be able to get back home.

After Pulse: Carlos Guillermo-Smith

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Carlos Guillermo-Smith represents East Orlando House District 49 in the Florida House of Representatives. He was elected in November of 2016. He is Florida’s first openly gay Latin X lawmaker.

When Pulse happened he was a declared candidate for the Florida House. On the evening of June 11, 2016 he was at a Union Conference at the Double tree Hotel near Universal Studios. After the conference he went home.

Carlos found out about the shooting on his phone. He got a series of push notifications. He woke up a 5:30Am and those messages were the first thing he saw. Two messages stood out in particular. One was a CNN push alert, and another was from WFTV Channel 9. The CNN notification announced reports of a mass shooting in an Orlando night Club. He sat bold upright in bed and tried to process.

He then went on Facebook, and he turned on the TV to see CNN which had limited reports. Helicopters hovered over the club. Other than what he saw, he didn’t have any facts. People began to mark themselves safe on Facebook. He got text messages asking if he was OK. He got a blanket e-mail from the CEO of Equality Florida making sure everyone was alive. Everyone needed to confirm. He decided the easiest way to check to see if his friends were OK, was to look at each Facebook profile at a time to see if they had marked themselves as safe. For others he fired off texts. Anyone could have been there that he knew. That morning, Terry DeCarlo was the first person he recognized on TV.

When they announced that 20 people were deceased, panic started to set in. When Mayor Buddy Dyer went on TV and announced that actually 50 people were deceased, Carlos sat speechless. He didn’t know what to feel. He bean to think, “What next?” This was his community, he needed to get in gear. The need to emotionally process was overwhelmed by the need to act. Next pp was an 8Am conference call with Equality Florida. They agreed  to deploy and find out what the needs were. There were 5 Orlando staff. One of things they agreed needed to be done right away was to create a Go Fund Me page to raise money for people impacted. Ida Eskamani figured out how to launch the Go Fund Me. That Go Fund Me page raised 9.5 million dollars.

What do people know about Orlando other than the theme parks? We needed to show that Orlando was not a broken community or a hateful community, we are an inclusive and caring community. He made his way to the Center. It was packed. There were too many cooks inn the kitchen. He felt he wasn’t needed there so he made his way to a press conference of Muslim and LGBTQ leaders. At this press conference he spoke with Pastor Joel Hunter who leads the largest evangelical church in Central Florida. They shook hands and an APP photographer snapped a photo. In “Christian America” a large publication the pastor said he was embarrassed that this hand shake as the first time he had met Carlos. He felt he wasn’t doing any outreach to the LGBTQ community. He said, “Evangelicals must repent on LGBTQ oppression.

Next was a 5PM press conference at the Center.  This was to be the LGBTQ communities press conference. Every LGBTQ leader as there. This was their official response to the tragedy. It was so hot in the Center. There were so many bodies. The press were not local. It was international media. This was also when he first saw some of his closest friends. When you see familiar faces after such horror, that is when you start to process what is happening. Christopher Hanson, a survivor of the shooting walked up to Carlos and hugged him. They are now friends.

That night there was a faith service and Carlos offered a few words. By this time things were n overdrive with phone calls and text messages. His campaign staff helped manage it. The rest of the day was a blur. Weeks and even months later he began processing the news coverage. The next day was the first vigil for the 49. The day was a bur of media phone calls up until the vigil  at Dr. Phillips. Carlos was on the program. He went feeling unprepared. He peered around the stage, he saw the crowd and was stunned. He had prepared his remarks to be bi-lingual. He was nervous about what he needed to say in Spanish. He wanted to get it right. It turned out he was one of the few who spoke Spanish in the program.

Last minute changes happened. He realized there wasn’t much Muslim representation among the speakers. A friend of his, Rasha Mubarak, was Muslim and had a long history of involvement with the LGBTQ community. He found her nearby, and asked her if she could speak at a moments notice. She thought and said, “OK.” No pressure. He decided it was better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. After his remarks he would be with Nancy Rosado reading the names of the 49 victims. It was the first time the 49 names were read in a public space.  The Segway between his remarks and the reading of the names, he squeezed Rasha in. Her shared remarks form the Muslim and Islamic community and shared in the responsibility of reading the 49 names.

Saint Augustine Food Tour

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Pam set up a food tour on July 4, 2021 for her niece in Saint Augustine. The tour guide told me thee would be 6 stops on the tour, so I discuses my sketch page into 6 sections. I knew ther would be little time to sketch so these small thumbnails would have to suffice. We all met at Old City House across the street from The Leitner Museum and City Hall. This was my favorite stop. We were served large shrimp over a bed of mashed potatoes and asparagus. Neither Pam or her niece like shrimp so I got to eat theirs. I was full by the time we left for the second stop on the tour. Historical stories all seems to abound with insanity fueled by laudanum. Henry Flagler’s wife was certifiably instance and he had her institutionalized and then married her nurse.

‘The second stop was Ancient City Brunch Bar where we had pitchers of Sangria and some French toast slices. Here we got to hear out tour guides back story having been born in Chile and being do-ted by Jewish parents in America and moving south to Saint Augustine. The city is small with a crush of tourists. Between stops we stopped in front of a former Woolworths where black sit ins were held in 1964. I hadn’t realized the Saint Augustine was such a epicenter of civil rights activism. I thinks the stories told about the Civil rights era were my favorite on the tour.

We then stopped into Athena’s Greek Restaurant for some flaming saginaki, which is a delicious cheese. The red wine served was strong and bitter but went well paired with the cheese. I didn’t finish my wine, preferring to focus on the sketch. From here we went to a store which had tasting stations to try herb infused olive oils. The several I tried were delicious and Pam picked up several items here. Notably she bought an infused mayonnaise. I note this since I was handed the mayonnaise any time she rummaged through her bag. I leaned my umbrella up against a counter as I sketched knowing this would be a quick stop. We left in a rush and I didn’t have time to get my sketchbook back into my bag.

At the next stop, a cigar store and Cuban Cafe and Bakery, I realized I had forgotten my umbrella. Grey clouds quickly loomed overhead and it started to rain as we sat outside away from the cigar smoke. A trickle became a deluge as we ran through the stone covered streets to put next destination. The guide ran up onto a bed and breakfast porch to tell us a story which was once again about insanity and laudanum. Huge lakes formed on the streets.

The rain let up just a bit and we started our way to the last stop. Pam let me use the small folding umbrella which kept my sketchbook dry. However the sky opened up again and it poured as we ran past a cemetery. Everyone was soaked to the bone. The last stop was a cheese cake store right beside the cemetery. We had three slices to taste, and my favorite was the chocolate one. The walls of the parlor were a deep purple chocolate color. Each cheesecake was paired with a sip of wine.

Pam called the store where I left my umbrella but the damage was already done. The rain had come down so hard at a 45 degree angle so even the large umbrella might not have made a difference.

It Ain’t Over Till the Fat Lady Sings

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COVID-19 is not over. Though numbers of cases are as low as last March 2020, they have begin to rise 10% over the last week. Part of the reason is that the vaccine roll out has slowed and there is a new variant from India now called the Beta variant which is 60% more transmissible.  The World Health Organization has asked that vaccinated individuals should continue to wear masks to help stop the spread of the virus. Fully vaccinated individuals are 75% to 90% less likely to get infected. However there are breakthrough cases which are less severe than getting infected with no vaccination.

The CDC in America however has not changed it’s no mask recommendation for vaccinated individuals in America. Should someone have a breakthrough case, they might be a symptomatic and have a mild case, however any unvaccinated people they might meet could get a far worse case of the virus and die.

It ain’t over till the fat lady sings. I am going back to wearing my mask indoors. The Beta variant is 60% more transmissible that previous strains of COVID. It has been known to infect people crowded into stadiums and outdoor concerts.

After Pulse: Zoe Colon

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Zoe Colon is co-founder of Proyecto Somos Orlando and she is a director of the Hispanic Federation‘s chapter in the South East.

Zoe was supposed to go to Pulse on the the night of June 12, 2016. She had been doing voter registration and was supposed to do voter registration at the clubs. She and the canvases were all ready to go. Ricardo, a canvasser who  had recently arrived from Puerto Rico called and he said that the club had advised that it was probably not a good night because Gay Days had just ended and it was going to be super packed. Zoe was upset. It would have been a great opportunity to even set up in the parking lot.

The next morning Nancy Rosado called and asked if Zoe had seen the news. Ricardo, the canvasser had decided to go on his own. He texted at 4 AM saying they should not go to Pulse. He had no shoes on and he was in someones car. There was a shooting and his credit card was still inn the club.

Co-workers from New York began to text asking if she was OK. The magnitude of what had happened hadn’t sunk in. Every radio was tuned to the news. The world stood still. As the names were published, she realized how many were Latino. Zoe decided to go to the Center. She spoke to Christina there about how Spanish speaking counselors  would be needed. That is how it all started. There were people inn the club that night who were undocumented. Family might not come forward to file a claim for fear of deportation. She was concerned that people might be re-victimized if they were paired up with someone who did not fully understand them or empathize with them. Clergy could also do more damage than good. Nancy Rosado brought in an amazing wealth of knowledge and years of experience.

After the Center, she went to the Hampton Inn with Christina, and Nancy. Families up to this point had not been able to talk to anyone in Spanish. At least 10 people at the Inn wanted to help bring about advocacy. That night they called a press conference. It was held at the Hispanic Federation inn the court yard. There were about 60 people there. They wanted the Latino community to know the phone numbers they needed to call.

Somos Orlando started out as a hashtag. It means Latinos, Latin X, LGBTQ, we all are Orlando. This was a movement about not being invisible.  She went to the Hispanic Federation and asked what could be dome to move things forward. The Federation has a relationship  with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jennifer Lopez. They ended up creating a song which raised money for Somos Orlando. Things happened so fast. It was emotionally draining. Love Makes the World Go Round.