After Pulse: Joe Saunders

Posted on by Thor

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.

After Pulse: Equality Florida

Posted on by Thor

Hannah Willard was the Public Policy Director, for Equality Florida. At the one year mark after the Pulse massacre, she released the following statement…

“Yesterday it was our time to march – and now it’s time to turn this March into a Movement. We must ensure the lasting memorial of the Pulse massacre is the real change of uprooting anti-LGBTQ hatred, discrimination, and violence in our culture.
As news broke of the Pulse massacre that claimed the lives of 49 people, mostly LGBTQ and Latinx young people, our shock and disbelief turned to grief and anger. In the hours, days, and weeks that followed people from around the world reached out to ask how they could help. Our answer was clear and has remained consistent: Honor Them With Action.
It’s not enough to mourn those taken from us. It’s not enough to celebrate our collective resilience. We cannot allow the Pulse massacre to be yet another national tragedy. This must be a national turning point that spurs us to new action.
At a moment when some sought to meet fear with fear and hate with hate, we saw a community come together, united in a commitment to challenge bigotry and hatred, not nourish it. A deep resilience emerged from survivors, victims’ loved ones, Orlando residents, elected leaders, LGBTQ people and our allies around the world. People held vigils and fundraisers to directly aid the families of those killed and the survivors and committed to combating hatred of all kinds.
As we think about all the ways in which our world is different one year later, I challenge you to join me in uprooting and challenging hatred of all kinds, and to take action each and every day to make the world different, better, and safer for all of us. We need you to step up and speak out against all forms of violence, be they mass shootings, genocide abroad, everyday gun violence, vandalism at houses of worship, and yes, even hateful words spoken from a pulpit, a pew, or over the dinner table.
The love and support from around the world has buoyed the Orlando LGBTQ community over the last year. Thank you for standing with us to do the work of fully addressing and combating hatred wherever it exists.”

After Pulse: Chevalier Lovett

Posted on by Thor

Chevalier Lovett didn’t go to Pulse often but the club meant the world to him. He would celebrate two events each year at the club, one was his birthday and the other was a celebration of identity. On June 11, the day before the shooting, friends were insisting he go out since he hadn’t yet celebrated his birthday, he decided they should go to Pulse. Everyone was on board. He changed his mind, later that night, and texted everyone that he was going to stay home. He suggested that they should go to City Walk instead.

Chevalier turns off his phone when he goes to bed. He woke up at 8AM to 101 text messages and about 72 voice mails. One message said, “I hope you are safe, turn on your TV.” He doesn’t own a TV, so he checked the news on his phone. People he hadn’t heard from for a while were texting and since his phone was off there was more anxiety to the messages.

He started searching his group texts to see which of his friends might have gone to Pulse. They were all a City Walk when the shooting happened at Pulse. On Sunday, there were so many phone calls and comforting. The names of the 49 victims came out Sunday and he knew five friends who were on the list. He went to the vigil, where multiple news outlets interviewed him. Of the seven or so interviews NPR stood out as the most genuine and heart felt.

in 2004 Hurricane Charlie hit. In a time of disaster that is when you see a community come together. The way the community came together after Pulse eclipsed that. Pulse changed his life. It is everyone’s history.

COVID Lung Damage

Posted on by Thor

Lungs are the main organs affected by a COVID-19 infection. A study published in Radiology showed that there is Persistent Lung Damage after recovering from COVID-19. The study of COVID’s long term effects are being studied as more people suffer from Long COVID. Researchers in Germany evaluated changes in lung structure and function in 54 pediatric COVID-19 survivors and nine healthy controls aged 5 to 17 years using low-field MRI. Twenty-nine patients (54%) had recovered from their infections, 25 (46%) had long COVID, and all but one were unvaccinated at the time of infection. Four COVID-19 patients had asymptomatic acute infections. The study findings show that lung abnormalities persist among children who have experienced COVID-19 illness.

Long COVID can cause lingering health problems and wreak havoc for months. Long COVId can include symptoms like, shortness of breath, fatigue and brain fog. The symptoms can come and go, but have an impact on the person’s everyday functioning, and cannot be explained by another health problem. Long COVID can happen in people who have mild symptoms. COVID can cause damage to the lungs, heart, nervous system, kidneys, liver and other organs.

A bad case of COVID-19 can produce scarring and other permanent problems in the lungs but even mild infections can cause persistent shortness of breath — getting winded easily after even light exertion.

Many people recovering from COVID-19 suffer from long-term symptoms of lung damage, including breathlessness, coughing, fatigue and limited ability to exercise. COVID-19 can lead to inflammation in the lungs due to the infection and the immune system’s reaction to it. The inflammation may improve over time, but in some people it persists. Lung recovery after COVID-19 is possible, but takes time. Experts say it can take months for a person’s lung function to return to pre-COVID-19 levels. Breathing exercises and respiratory therapy can help.

Clean Cabin?

Posted on by Thor

If you traveled early in the pandemic you may have noticed the cabins in airlines were getting meticulously deep cleaned. Now three years into the pandemic, airlines are getting lazy and do not bother as much when they realize that surface contact is not the primary way the virus was spread, it is airborn. “As more was learned about COVID and transmission routes of COVID, it was recognized that deep cleaning was overkill,” said Leonard Marcus, founding co-director of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative (NPLI) and co-director of NPLI’s Aviation Public Health Initiative. Marcus and other “experts” noted that airlines are still prioritizing air filtration and that flying can be “generally” safe, but recommended that passengers continue to take precautions such as wearing a high-quality mask while flying.

Another magnificent advantage to not cleaning up or disinfecting the cabin after passengers disembark is that it saves money. We all know that public health is less important than saving money. It is the passengers responsibility to try and avoid infection when they fly in these cesspools in the sky.

When it comes to COVID, one infected person, on average, will infect over three more people. They have an opportunity to infect even more in the tight enclosed space of a plane cabin.

Cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing are all needed to combat COVID-19.

  • Cleaning uses soap or detergent to wash away dirt, grime, and grease to give a good appearance but does not necessarily kill germs. It merely physically removes them from a surface.
  • Disinfecting uses specialized chemicals to kill germs on surfaces. Although it does not necessarily give a “clean” look, it is highly effective in neutralizing active germs to stop the spread of infection.
  • Sanitizing is simply lowering the number of germs on a surface to a safe level, as prescribed by public health authorities.

If you need to travel, be sure to wear your personal protective equipment (PPE) including a quality KN-95 mask worn properly. and carry hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol for maximum effectiveness; use it liberally and frequently.

Egg

Posted on by Thor

I had an Elite Animation Academy student who wanted to learn how to draw realistic portraits. I picked a reference from the internet and we both sketched the face. I pointed out my basic premise of breaking the face into halves to get the general proportions right. My student got the general outlines in place and then didn’t know what to do next. This is true of many beginning art students, they get a few lines in place and freeze up. I suggested adding value.

For some reason this idea of value as opposed to line is often a bridge too far for students. I scribbled in some darks with the side of my digital pencil, but then advised my student to just paint an egg. We painted the egg one color and then added a highlight and shadows. I then copied the egg and simply slid in under the drawing I had already created. All that was needed then were a few brush strokes to define darks on lips and the nose.

I don’t know if the lesson hit the mark, but it was fun to find new ways to simplify the creative process.

After Pulse: Barry Miller

Posted on by Thor

Barry Miller founded the 49 Fund, an LGBTQ youth scholarship in the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting. Barry believes he was at Pulse on opening night. It was a nice place to go, the white room was really exotic.

After the shooting his phone lit up. Everyone wondered what could be done. Monday was the vigil at the Dr. Phillips Center. The magnitude of what had happened didn’t really sink in until that vigil. He walked home after the vigil and just sat on the steps of his condo and it sunk in. How could this happen, and how could it happen here? Then he realized he needed to do something. The community needed to do something. How could some good come out of this? That is when he thought about the 49 Fund.

Barry came from an education family. His father was the first in his family who earned a college degree. Education was very important. What better way to memorialize those lost lives than to have their memories go on forever than to give college educations through scholarships.

The fund was founded through the Central Florida Foundation which manages about 400 non-profits in Orlando. He also partnered up with the Center to create the 49 Fund. Leadership is important, Infrastructure for that leadership is important.

The goal is to give out 10 scholarships for $4,900 each. One year after the shooting the first scholarships were given out. The ultimate goal is to raise 1 million dollars. With that much money, it becomes an endowment. Just the interest in the investment should raise the $50,000 needed for the scholarships. Most people didn’t thing it could be done.

AP picked up the story about the fund and we were in 600 news outlets around the county. There was a lot of attention. Most contributions were small. Students could give $4.90. A small business could give $4,900. Every dime raised goes into the scholarships. There is no overhead.

Anyone is eligible in the six county metropolitan area. Applications are online. The need needs to be shown and an essay and letters of recommendation need to be included. One of the questions asked of applicants is, ‘How did the Pulse tragedy affect your life?’ Anyone who gets the scholarship needs to commit to taking a role in the leadership of the LGBT community in the future. If something like the Pulse nightclub shooting happens again we need to have leaders in place who are ready. The age range was from 17 years old to 37 years old.

 

 

 

COVID Hairy Tongue

Posted on by Thor

The New York Times reported that There might be some COVID symptoms you have not heard about. Pandemic minimizes love to claim that the virus is no worse than a cold of flu. They are mistaken. COVID can manifest in strange and unexpected ways, such as pins and needles, purple toes and hairy tongue syndrome. These symptoms are less common but very real.

A loss of taste and smell was a confusing symptom from early in the pandemic. Other unexpected symptoms have included, ringing in their ears, sore eyes, rashes, red welts on their faces or lips, hair loss and unusual joint pains. So why do some people develop these rare symptoms? She short answer is that no one really knows. It is thought that the virus may get into the blood stream of some people and then harm other organs other than the lungs. Some think that simple stress of a COVID infection may result in such symptoms as hair loss.

Tongue cells are supposed to replace themselves often. In rare cases older cells linger forming a thick fuzzy growth across the tongues surface. The growth may be accompanied by a burning sensation in the mouth. A tongue scraper is then needed to trim back the growth on the tongue’s surface. The condition, with proper oral hygiene it believed to be temporary.

 

After Pulse: Quilts for Pulse Project

Posted on by Thor

Mary Whitaker is the community outreach coordinator for the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild. She is involved in the sub committee that is involved in the legacy for the Quilts for Pulse Project.

The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild is fairly new, having started in about 2012. It started small but now there are over 100 members. It has become a responsible non-profit. Meetings are once a month with the usual treasurers report and minutes for every meeting.

There are at least two dedicated outreach projects each year. They educate and push themselves through activities and supporting one another to finish projects. Each meeting ends with a show and tell so members can share what they are doing. Sometimes an instructor comes in from out of town.

Mary lives close to Pulse, she was out of town at remote spot when the shooting happened. When they went into town, her phone suddenly started exploding with messages when she got reception. They poured over the news and messages from a distance.

Every quilter in the guild immediately felt they needed to make quilts. It is how they show warmth, comfort and love. It is also a way for each quilter to work through their own thoughts about the situation. The quilters decided on a heart shaped block pattern, each being 2.5 inches in rainbow colors. The goal was to make 102 quits originally, one for each victim’s family, and one quit for each person injured. Blocks stared coming in fast along with finished quilts.

They hadn’t though of how overwhelming the repose would be. They didn’t realize they would end up producing over 1800 quits. A label was sewn onto every single quilt that points it out as being special to the project. Businesses and individuals made donations to the project. Support came in many forms. Thank you notes were sent to everyone. Every single state in the United States helped with the project along with 23 countries.

COVID Disenbarks

Posted on by Thor

A cruise ship with 800 COVID-19 infected passengers docked in Sydney, Australia. The Majestic Princess cruise ship was about half way through the scheduled cruise when the infection spread among the passengers and crew like a wildfire. There were 4,600 passengers and crew passengers and crew on board. Infected guests were isolated in their staterooms being separated from non-infected guests.

The infected passengers were escorted off the ship and “advised” to isolate for five days. What passenger will self isolate when they are on vacation? You can bet the infected are rushing out to every restaurant and crowded venue in Sydney. They will justify their mindless and violent, act saying they are only mildly infectious.

This seems to be the new normal, knowing that you will likely be infected when you book your dream horror cruise. The New South Wales Ministry of Health has recorded 19,800 new cases of Covid-19 and 22 deaths in the past week. In America, the new normal is over 300 deaths due to COVID every day.

At least three other ships within the company’s Princess fleet, the Ruby Princess, Diamond Princess, and Grand Princess – experienced outbreaks earlier in the pandemic. A spokesman for Carnival Cruises said, Fuck the health of the passengers, they are mindless brain eating zombies, give us your god damn money.