After Pulse: Olga Molina

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Olga Molina is an associate professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Central Florida (UCF). On June 12, 2016 Olga was in her car and turned on a Spanish speaking radio station. She heard announcements that blood was needed and that people were lining up at blood banks. Something terrible must have happened. For the longest time they didn’t say what had happened. When she got back home, she turned on the TV and started seeing the images of people coming out of the nightclub. She didn’t know how many had been killed yet. The community came together very quickly, bringing water to those in line to give blood.

Several days later she went to a conference in New York City. There she met the executive director of Hispanic Family Counseling who said that they were short of bilingual social workers. They were being overwhelmed with the number of clients they were seeing. There are not enough bilingual social workers in Central Florida. Olga volunteered. They were doing a lot of home visits since people were so frightened that they didn’t want to leave their homes.

Olga began a Spanish speaking support group for survivors. These were people who were in the nightclub on the night of the attack. About 6 survivors came into the group. They met for about eight sessions. Then people were transferred to therapists. That happened between June and October of 2016. The meetings happened once a week for about two hours. The stories were horrific. Confidentiality and safety and trust were important. It was about mutual aid. They were the only ones who had gone through this experience and so they would best know how to help each other.

Some could not sleep at night. Many lost their jobs. Several became homeless because the FBI was asking questions and the landlords didn’t want problems. Anxiety was high. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder had to be overcome just to go to the meetings.

They exchanged phone numbers, and began contacted each other during the week. After the group meeting they would go across the street to the coffee shop and talk for several more hours. They became friends, some attended church together, Some took English classes together. It was empowering.

After the eight weeks they decided they wanted to keep meeting and so a new counselor was brought in to continue the sessions. They worked with the new counselor for several more months and then decided to end the group. Progress was made as they shared and made their way back to society. The eight weeks were not enough for any type of full recovery but everyone made their own progress. People are still hurting and there are long term consequences of the attack. Bridges still need to be built.

After Pulse: Zebra Coalition

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Heather Wilke is the director at Zebra Coalition. After the Pulse nightclub massacre the Zebra Coalition provided significant services for the LGBT community. Zebra assists LGBT youth. Heather was at Zebra for about a year and experienced an exciting year of growth and then Pulse happened. Things turned for the entire community. Zebra was suddenly in the spotlight. Everyone was in crisis. For two weeks media was swarming everywhere. As the director she kept getting calls from media for at least six months.

The night before the shooting Heather went to bed at 9pm. She announced on Facebook that she was putting her eye mask on and turning the phone off. With a small child, sleep becomes precious. It was 6 am when she got up and first looked at her phone. She checked on family and friends and then the Zebra kids and staff. Everyone she contacted was fine.

She went to the Center at 8:30am. There was a press conference with LGBT leaders at 10am. That evening there was supposed to be a dinner with friends. That went on hold. The day was a blur of response and reactions. Everyone was in crisis mode. The streets were blocked off in every direction down by Pulse and media was swarming. Police had to redirect traffic on Mills because of the Center across the street. At the Center board members were scrambling to figure out what could be done.

The Center was packed. People needed a community. They needed to physically be around people and have a place to gather. The Center became that. It was a beautiful thing to witness.  Security came out to figure out who could go in. People brought food. Overflow supplies went to the Zebra Coalition.

The Zebra Coalition put everything aside and responded to the community needs. They responded to survivors, youth that were in the club at the time of the shooting. Zebra became the hotline for two weeks. They already had a 24 hour hotline that then was directed towards the crisis. Mental heath counselors in the community all stepped up. All the volunteers were organized. People rotated through Zebra. Counselors came in for 3 to 4 hour shifts 24 hour a day. Many of the calls were not from youth but instead from people who wanted to help.

People started bringing water to the coalition. They had water from floor to ceiling in the back room. Startbucks came by every day with coffee. Universal Studios brought lunch every day. Church groups and school groups came by delivering trinkets. At one point all the windows at Zebra were full of art. One group delivered rainbows so there were rainbows everywhere. Therapists made “You Matter” cards. The school of holistic medicine brought by essential oils.

After several weeks the Orlando United Assistance Center (OUAC) took over the organizational aspects of donations and distribution. Zebra went back to business as usual with a different lens. They were always supporting youth in crisis, but now they had this trauma lens. Youth felt unsafe. It was about a week before many regulars started coming back. They were scared, they didn’t want to leave their houses. When they already had anxiety and depression issues, they wanted to get them back to actively engage with them. That fear lingers. The past Pride, people didn’t want to go into massive group gatherings. People felt they have a target on them.

Zebra did work with several youth who were in the club at the time of the shooting. Noises can trigger the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One youth didn’t reach out for help until six months later. For the most part however, OUAC handled survivors and families of the victims.

For six months Heather was working in non stop crisis mode. After six months she finally got some time to decompress and the enormity of what had happened sank in.

 

 

 

After Pulse: Magic

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Alex Martins is the CEO of the Orlando Magic and served as chair of the board of directors for the One Orlando Fund.

On June 12, 2016, his phone started buzzing early in the morning. It was off season for the Magic so there was no reason for all the calls. On those early hours there was a lack of information combined with speculation. Was it a terrorist attack or a mass shooting? There were so many questions. As the news spread beyond Orlando there were notes and calls from family and others from around the country to check and be sure everyone was safe.

There was a vast amount of helicopter activity. As the morning wore on and information came out, the mayor held a press briefing and the significance of what had occurred became a reality. Besides shock, there was anger and concern. He stayed glued to the news coverage.

He reached out to Mayor Dyer to see how the Magic could help. Out of those conversations the request was born for him to chair the One Orlando Fund. On June 17, 2016 the fund to help the victims was announced. There were more questions than details but there was forward momentum to help.

The Magic made a significant donation to the one Orlando Fund. That is the one area where they could assist the most. He had to learn how these victims relief funds had been dealt with in other tragedies. Getting the counsel of Ken Feinberg who had experience in handling this before was one of the best decisions the Mayor made to get the One Orlando Fund on track.

There was representation from the largest downers as well as from the LGBT community and Hispanic community. Who would best be served by the funds? Would the funds be for the victims who were in the Pulse Nightclub or the business down the street that got shut down for weeks? Every board member had a voice. There was much debate. The board decided to disperse the funds only to the victims in several different categories based on injuries or death and the victim’s families of those who were killed.

The approval process had to be vetted. Proof had to be provided through the FBI and the local authorities that the victims were at the Pulse nightclub that night. These types of tragedies also bring out the worst in people. There have been fraudulent activities in victim compensation funds in other cities. the burden of proof had to be there.

Funds were distributed according to a tiered system based on the amount of impact that each applicant had from the tragedy. Families received the largest individual shares. Those in the hospital the longest were the next tier. Time in the hospital would be a proxy for how much would be dispersed.

People needed help. The first disbursement was within 30 days. After that disbursement, funds kept coming in. A second wave of checks went to victims. This tragedy brought our community together in a way that it had never com together before.

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like COVID!

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I heard the song,”It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like COVID” and I can’t get it out of my head. Right after the crowds gathered for Thanksgiving, I watched as the hospitalization numbers ticked upwards. Seems like everyone is partying mask less like it is 1999. Everyone seems to be over COVID but COVID continues to spread. It doesn’t matter how many times you have been vaccinated, the virus keeps finding ways to elude the immune system. Repeated infections are resulting in increased risks of fatal outcomes. Rather than boosting immunity repeated infections are destroying the immune response to COVID and other viruses like flu and RSV. Blood clots, heart failures and a huge rise in cases among children should have people concerned but the Who’s in Whoville keep going about their life blissfully unaware, while pressing together in tight crowds for comfort.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Medical Association warn that the surge in RSV, flu and COVID is threatening the upcoming holiday season. Thanksgiving has jump-started a new surge of COVID all across America. For weeks, RSV has been sending lots of babies and young children to emergency rooms and intensive care units. On top of that, Flu hospitalizations doubled in just one week and are at the highest they’ve been this time of year in a decade. When everyone masked up the last several hears and flu literally disappeared. No that all masking and distancing has been abandoned the viruses hare having a field day.

Nearly 9 million flu cases, 70,000 flu hospitalizations and 4,500 flu deaths have already been reported so far this year, including 14 deaths among children. And now COVID looks like it’s surging, too. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says COVID hospitalizations jumped 15 to 20% in just a week, raising fears that deaths could start rising, too.

The simple mitigation measure to keep you and your family safe have never changed, though some have chosen to make your health a political issue. Social distance. Wash your hands a lot. Wear a good fitting KN95 mask, especially around family and friends. Open windows as much as you can, and stay home if you’re sick. And get both a flu shot and one of the new COVID boosters. Most of all, think for yourself, since there is so much misinformation on social media.

 

 

Annie Jane Farmer-Corr

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Annie Jane Farmer was born in New York City, Manhattan, New York on December 3, 1874. She is my Great-Great Grandmother. I am researching her life now and the best source I have for her birth date is her baptism at Manor Chapel, 348 West 26th Street, New York City. I didn’t sketch this church as part of my 50 oldest churches of NYC, but when I get back to the city I will certainly sketch it since the Chapel is still standing today.

She married my Great-Great Grandfather Joseph Patrick Corr about 1897 according to a 1900 census. I am hoping to find the actual marriage license. They lived in a series of apartments in New York city on 5th Avenue and 8th Avenue before they moved to New Jersey with four children including my Grandfather Francis Henry Corr.

Annie lived in Dumont, New Jersey for the next 54 years. A daughter was born in New Jersey for a total of 5 children.

Annie Jane died February 14, 1964, just 3 years after I was born, so I have no memory of her. Her obituary said she had 4 grandchildren, one of which would be my mother Elvira Mildred Corr-Thorspecken. Annie had 11 great grandchildren, I would rank in that number.

After Pulse: Nichole Elinoff

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Nichole Elinoff is the sexual minority coordinator at the Florida Department of Health, working in HIV prevention within the GLBT community. At the time of the Pulse Nightclub massacre she served at the GLBT Center as director of clinical services.

The entire state of Florida does not have sex education. Each county handles the subject differently. Central Florida, is 6th in the country for HIV infections. Florida as a whole is number 1 in the country for new HIV cases. All of the top 10 highest HIV infection rates are from counties in the the south. Miami Dade, Florida is Number 1 and Baton Rouge, Louisiana is number 2.

Nichole was in South Florida when the Pulse Nightclub shooting happened. Sunday morning June 16, 2016 at 8am she got a call from the board president of the Center. Since she was asleep, she didn’t immediately pick up. She kept getting calls and texts. The first text she read was “are you OK?” Someone else knew she was in South Florida and said she was safe. On Facebook she saw the black Pulse logo and the rainbow.  She couldn’t believe what she was reading. She called the Center and made arrangements to get back to Orlando.

She drove back to Orlando that day in record time. She went to the Center for the press conference. Her husband brought donuts. The Center was packed with board members, community members. She hugged everyone. The mental health counseling effort was already being coordinated. The HIV testing program had to be shut down that week since there was so much going on.

A dear friend was the lead HIV test counselor that she worked with at the center. She was trying to call him constantly throughout that day. The week before he had been at Latin night at Pulse. She couldn’t reach him.  He finally called back while she was at the Center and she broke down and cried. He wasn’t at Pulse on the night of the massacre.

Monday morning she helped coordinate the media response. She updated the Facebook pages. She looked at the Go Fund Me that the Center created and helped maintain that site. She coordinated her staff of volunteers to bring water to the blood donation sites. Lines of people were standing in the sun and they needed water.

When the Orlando United Assistance Center opened at Camping World Stadium,  she set up a table with two other staff members. They interacted with the families of victims and survivors. They found out what their needs were and they passed out gift cards. She brought gift cards and supplies to her team.

Testing returned to the Center after that first week. It was a challenging couple of months after Pulse. One of her staff decided he needed to go into victim advocacy. He was hired at the Orlando Assistance Center. After he left she needed to do his job as lead tester, as well as her own until she could find someone to fill his position. She organized some training with the Red Cross for her volunteer staff to talk about dealing with grief, and how to look for trauma.

People they were testing mentioned that they were taking more chances like sex without condoms, more drinking and more substance use because they may have lost friends or someone they knew. They were trying to cope. After a tragedy people tend to take more chances. They want to feel safe and unprotected sex can become a problem.

There was no HIV support group for Spanish speakers so she wrote a grant to help get one started.

Phantasmagoria presents: A Christmas Carol & The Canterville Ghost

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If you are looking to kick off the Holiday season with a taste for the macabre, then join Phantasmagoria as they present  “Ghost Stories” this Christmas season. They will bring to life and the bitter sweet taste of death to not one but TWO whimsical classics. The well-loved A Christmas Carol, A Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens, followed by Oscar Wilde’s rollicking The Canterville Ghost.

I sat in on a dress rehearsal for the show at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The set felt like an abandoned attic with carousel horses flanking the stage. Projections on a large screen behind the set changed the settings with ease. I fell in love with the faint flickering candle light that illuminated the various corners of the stage.  That meant I needed to keep the scene dark so the candles could shine.

A Christmas Carol is a well loved and very familiar classic. Phantasmagoria added its dark and vaudevillian steampunk styled flair to the story. John DiDonna as Scrooge lived in the old man’s skin. I have seen him perform this roll many times over the years. Daniel Cooksley as Marley, draped in chains did an amazing job filling the stage with his his twisted and agonized self. Of the three ghosts, the ghost of Christmas future was magnificently designed. Much larger that life, the dark draped figure gestured with gnarly black branches for hands.

The Canterville Ghost offered a much lighter tale full of light hearted dance. It was the yin to Dickens dark and foreboding Yang. There are two more performances December 3–4, 2022 at the Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater, in the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 8 p.m. and 2 p.m. Tickets are about $35.

Town Square

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Under Musk‘s ownership, Twitter stopped taking action against tweets breaching its Covid rules, as of Wednesday, 23 Nov 2022. Twitter had previously suspended more than 11,000 accounts for Covid misinformation as of September 2022.

The former president who promoted and supported an attack on the Capitol to stop the certification of the presidential election was also invited back. His account was permanently suspended after the insurrection. Apparently 62,000 suspended accounts have been re-instated. Twitter also reinstated the personal account of US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, banned in January 2022. Now that accounts that spread misinformation have been given amnesty, it is unclear if they will return, or new ones will be emboldened to share incorrect information, that could influence the decisions people make about their health.

I have used Twitter extensively throughout the pandemic to learn about the latest research and trends as the virus spread. I have been seeing these Twitter feeds report that they are loosing thousands of followers after Musk took control of the company. Republican politicians on the other hand are gaining thousands of followers. Notably Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Representative Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif.; and Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., lost about 100,000 Twitter followers since Musk bought Twitter, while Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, gained more than 300,000. Exactly what is causing these trends is not yet known.

Musk fired thousands of employees which will clearly result in far less moderation of hate speech and the resulting violence. He was forced to pause the initial launch of an $8 per month Twitter Blue service after users abused the system by purchasing blue check marks to impersonate brands and famous people. Drug company Eli Lilly, who manufactures Insulin, had to apologized for a misleading tweet in which someone pretending to be the company wrote, “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.”  After that debacle, the drug company suspended advertising on Twitter worth millions of dollars. Musk banned some impersonators before he shut the service down, raising questions about his definition of free speech.

Experts have argued that there has been an exponential increase in hate speech, harassment and misinformation on the platform since the billionaire purchased the social media site. Barbara F. Walter, has written about the potential for social media to fuel a decentralized civil war. She studied civil wars and insurrections in foreign countries for the CIA and realized that eh United States is backsliding towards armed conflict as well thanks in part to social media promoting extremism. Extremism generates more clicks.

 

 

 

Foxconn

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Protests erupted at Foxconn the huge iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhenvgzhou China.Police in hazmat suits clubbed the factory workers protesting.

Last month, the factory was locked down due to rising COVID cases. Some workers scaled the fences to break out and go home. Former workers estimate that thousands have fled the factory campus. The company then recruited new workers with the promise of generous bonuses.

Rumors circulated that new recruits were being asked to share dormitories with workers who were Covid-positive. When new workers arrived they were told they would not get the bonuses promised until they had worked at the much lower pay for several weeks. One protestor via a live stream said, “They changed the contract so that we could not get the subsidy as they had promised. They quarantine us but don’t provide food.”

Foxconn has established closed loop operations at the plant, keeping it isolated from the wider city of Zhengzhou. Workers are not supposed to leave. The Zhengzhou plant employs more than 200,000 people. It is not known how many are infected with COVID. “It’s now evident that closed-loop production in Foxconn only helps in preventing COVID from spreading to the city, but does nothing (if not make it even worse) for the workers in the factory,” Aiden Chau of China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based advocacy group, said in an email.

Foxconn has apologized for a “technical error” in its payment systems, a day after its iPhone factory in China was rocked by angry protests. The iPhone factory apologized for the violence against employees. One new employee was paid 8,000 yuan ($1,120) and was set to receive another 2,000 yuan ($280).

China has recorded its highest number of daily Covid cases since the pandemic began,

 

After Pulse: Joe Saunders

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Joe Saunders is a former State Representative and a senior political director at Equality Florida and formerly staff at the Human Rights Campaign. He is an Orlando LGBT activist. Pulse opened while Joe was a student at UCF. The club anchored it’s outreach around college students. His roommate became a bartender at Pulse. His first apartment was just a few blocks from Pulse.

Joe was in North Carolina doing political response work. He had worked crazy hours like 15 hours a day. At 2AM his phone lit up with a text chat thread from a group of friends in Orlando. He was till working at 2AM. People were saying something is happening at Pulse. One friend was in an apartment within view of the club.  He kept hearing bangs which could be multiple gun shots.

The text thread search began, who was out and where they safe. After waking the next morning by 10AM he had to return home to Orlando. After a quick plane flight be got to the gay and lesbian center for a press conference held there. The Center is not a huge space. A huge bouncer was a the door directing people. The windows had fogged up. You had to carve your way through all the reporters and cameras that were packed into the room. The space was full to capacity. Equality Florida announced at the press conference that they wanted to do a vigil at Lake Eola.

Plans began for the vigil began right away. The city of Orlando was concerned about security. Could a copycat shooter show up at the vigil? The city ultimately decided the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts would be a safer option and easier for police to defend. Police snipers were on the roof of the Methodist Church and City hall just in case anything went down. Joe was the MC for the vigil. The vigil became one of the most important visual moments of the Orlando community response to Pulse and it came together in 6 hours.