50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Friends Meeting House

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In 1657 a “company of traveling ministers of the Society of Friends from England, first landed at New Amsterdam,” according to the February 1872 issue of The American Historical Record.  Their arrival did not sit well with Governor “Peg Leg” Peter Stuyvesant who passed an ordinance imposing a fine of 50 pounds on any person harboring a Quaker.  In 1892 The Sun’s Guide to New York added that Stuyvesant “used to banish their co-religions from New York after having them beaten and dragged at the tails of carts.”

By 1681 Quakers were openly worshiping and in 1734 they were granted the same civil rights as other British subjects. The Militia Act of 1755 exempted the pacifist group from serving in the military.

In an ironic twist that would have infuriated the governor, in 1860 the “Hicksite” Friends began construction of a three-story brick meeting house at 15 Rutherford Place and East 15th Street,  formerly part of Stuyvesant’s farm.   The building was completed in 1864, it was erected by congregation member Charles T. Bunting, a builder, and he is presumed to have been the architect as well.  The Greek Revival style was out of date by now, but the simple lines and unadorned lintels and sills spoke to the simplicity of the lifestyle of the Society.  A seminary building was erected next door..  It faces Stuyvesant Square, a four-acre section of the former farm which Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, the governor’s great-great-grandson, sold to the city for $5 in 1836 for use as a park.

Don’t Tease the Tiger

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Dr. Gregory Poland, head of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group made a clear analogy of where we stand todaaaaaay with the pandemic, he said, Americans are teasing the tiger by letting their guard down. BA.2 is 50 to 60% more transmissible that Omicron, which was which was 50% more transmissible than Delta, which was 50% more transmissible than Alpha. Despite this Americans are going about life feeling COVID-19 is behind them because they are tired of it. The virus doesn’t care about how tired people are, it is not done with us.

Those who reject vaccines and masks will likely face a horrible future. 1 out of every 328 Americans has died from COVID. Somehow Americans have normalized this. By pretending the pandemic is over people are not only teasing the tiger they are taunting it.

America is experiencing about 30,000 new COVID infections a day, about 18,000 in the hospitals across the US, and about 800 deaths a day. Americans seem to have normalized this level of death and infection. Everyone is out having spring parties and mass gatherings.

The story has played out many times before with a series of markers that hint that a new variant may cause a new surge in cases. That is where we are right now. We are in a quiet valley and are likely to experience another surge in the weeks ahead with BA.2. Only 65% of Americans have gotten 2 doses of vaccine, of those, less than half have gotten a booster. With BA.2 rising in America the advice remains the same, continue to wear an N95 mask indoors, and wear it over your mouth AND nose. Get fully immunized and boosted. A second booster is being made available for people over 50 years old and I plan to get that ASAP. BA.2 is coming.

Putin’s Plague

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Putin has unleashed a plague on his own people, Europe and the world. Conflict and infectious disease are intimately entwined.

March 11, 2022 marked two years since the global spread of COVID-19 was characterized as a pandemic.

Detection and control of emerging infectious diseases in conflict situations are major challenges due to multiple risk factors known to enhance emergence and transmission of infectious diseases. These include inadequate surveillance and response systems, destroyed infrastructure, collapsed health systems and disruption of disease control programs, and infection control practices even more inadequate than those in resource-poor settings, as well as insecurity and poor coordination among humanitarian agencies.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization (WHO) Director- General, reported that so far, WHO has delivered 81 metric tonnes of supplies, and WHO is establishing a pipeline of supplies for health facilities throughout Ukraine, especially in the most affected areas. On March 8, 2022, the World Health Organization delivered five metric tons of medical supplies to Kyiv to support surgical care for 150 trauma patients, and other supplies to manage a range of health conditions for 45,000 people for a month. So far, WHO has verified 18 attacks on health facilities, health workers and ambulances, including ten deaths and 16 injuries. These attacks deprive whole communities of health care.

More than two million people have left Ukraine and WHO is supporting neighboring countries to provide health care for refugees, most of whom are women and children. Some of the main health challenges we see are hypothermia and frostbite, respiratory diseases, lack of treatment for cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and mental health issues. WHO personnel have been deployed to neighboring countries to provide mental health and psycho social support. I thank all my WHO colleagues, and all our partners in Ukraine and its neighbors and all over the world, who continue to work to protect and promote health, even in the most difficult situations.

The only real solution to this situation is peace. WHO continues to call on the Russian Federation to commit to a peaceful resolution to this crisis and to allow safe, unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance for those in need.  Putin’s Plague of war however continues unabated. The Pandemic has not ended.

 

25 Million People Shanghaied

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25 million people are being locked down in Shanghai in an attempt by China to maintain a zero COVID policy. The Huangpu River runs through the center of the city splitting it in half. Restrictions are happening on one side of the river and then the other side of the river. Earlier this week those living in Shanghai’s eastern half were told to stay home, with the western half due to enter a lockdown on April 1, 2022. This has been labeled the Yin Yang approach to locking down COVID.

The two-phase lockdown is China’s biggest coronavirus closure since the city of Wuhan — believed to be the origin of the pandemic — was shuttered two years ago. The effort to control the outbreak back then was undermined by politicians downplaying and denying the severity of the outbreak. Flights poured out of China as everyone traveled to celebrate the new year.

There are long lines outside supermarkets as residents empty store shelves. The BA.2 Omicron outbreak in Shanghai is pushing China’s zero COVID policy to it’s limits. The city has reported around 20,000 Covid-19 infections since March 1, 2022, registering more cases in four weeks than in the previous two years of the pandemic.

The BA.2 ‘Stealth’ variant of COVID is 30 times more infectious than the initial Omicron variant, making it as infectious as measles. BA.2 now represents nearly 86% of all sequenced cases, according to the World Health Organization. With this variant so infectious, basically everyone who hasn’t previously been infected or been vaccinated, will test positive.

Mass testing inn Shanghai is being dome of everyone being locked down. Those diagnosed with COVID have been sent to live in warehouses and exhibition halls converted into mass quarantine centers, even if they are asymptomatic, and some have complained about the basic living conditions, with there being no showers. The vaccines being used by China have been rated less effective that the MRNA Vaccines being used by Western countries.

Of course China invited the world’s athletes into the country for the Winter Olympics in February of this year but they felt they could control the virus from spreading.  Like most politicians, talking heads, and everyday dolts, they underestimated the virus.

Bitch Slap

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President Joe Biden, while visiting Poland on March 26, 2022, said the Russian leader Putin ‘cannot remain in power.’ The White House press staff seem to be trying to soften the blow, by  clarifying that Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia. However, Biden’s unscripted comment is one that finally rings true. It is certainly a magnificent change from the former American president who licks Putin’s boots to this day.

On March 28, 2022 Biden said he was “not walking anything back” after his weekend remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin put the White House on defense. Biden said “I was expressing moral outrage, and I make no apologies for it.”

When pressed on whether his comments would effect diplomacy with Russia, Biden pushed the blame on Putin, noting that the Russian leader’s “escalatory efforts” are what “complicates things.” The president brushed off assumptions that his comments could be taken by Putin as an escalatory step.

“I don’t care what [Putin] thinks,” Biden said. “This is a guy who goes to the beat of his own drummer. And the idea that he is going to do something outrageous because I called him for what he was and what he’s doing, I think, is just not rational.”

Catholic priest Dwight Longenecker put it quite simply, “First we overlook evil. Then we permit evil, then we legalize evil, then we promote evil, then we celebrate evil, then we persecute those who still call it evil.”

Tip toeing to avoid upsetting a maniacal autocrat and setting up some sanctions is not enough. Lets face it, some take pleasure in the idea that a bully on the world stage should be bitch slapped.

COVID Memorial

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Wars Ranked by American Combat Deaths…

  • World War II 291,557
  • American Civil War 214, 938
  • World War I 53,402
  • Vietnam War 47, 434
  • Korean War 33, 686
  • American Revolutionary War 8,000
  • Iraq War 4,424
  • War of 1812 2,260
  • War in Afghanistan 1833
  • Mexican-American War 1,733

That is a total of 659,267 American combat deaths.

Over 953,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and that number  continues to climb. The nation is mindlessly hurling itself towards over 1 million deaths. The true toll is likely far higher since many deaths due to COVID-19 were not counted. The American death rate has surpassed that of any other large, wealthy nation, especially during the recent Omicron surge. No one can accurately predict what the new BA.2 variant of Omicron will bring but it is not likely to be sunshine and daises.

Why were so many politicians focused on re-openings in January and February of 2022, the fourth and fifth deadliest months of the pandemic? Why did the CDC issue new guidelines that allowed most Americans to dispense with indoor masking when at least 1,000 people had been dying of COVID every day for almost six straight months? Quite simply people can not comprehend what they can not see. The virus is too small to be seen, and people die in isolation in hospitals with the burials happening quietly out of public view.

About 9 million Americans are grieving the loss of loved ones. An estimated 149,000 children have lost a parent or caregiver. Healing can only come when the tragedy has ended. The pandemic rages on with no end in sight. Americans have become numb and and seem to have learned to accept the inevitability of the virus death toll as it continues. Now the United States government has cut off funding for testing and treatment for COVID. Once the rich have their shots the funding stops. That leaves the country very vulnerable as BA.2 begins its inevitable march through the American population in the coming weeks.

Richard Keller wrote, “Like gun violence, overdose, extreme heat death, heart disease, and smoking, [COVID] becomes increasingly associated with behavioral choice and individual responsibility, and therefore increasingly invisible.” We don’t honor deaths that we ascribe to individual failings.”

As America nears 1 Million deaths due to COVID, there’s an effort led by a group called Marked By COVID to establish an enduring memorial to the pandemic. They are lobbying for a national COVID memorial day on the first Monday of March each year, as well as trying to build physical memorials in cities all over the country. Kristin Urquiza, the group’s co-founder, said “We will be able to teach our children, our grandchildren and future generations about this moment in time, about our pain, about what happens in a public health crisis, about what is lost and who is lost.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, said the president supports memorializing lives lost to COVID, but right now the focus remains on fighting the pandemic and securing funding from Congress to be prepared for whatever comes next.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: First Presbyterian Church

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First Presbyterian Church known as “Old First”, located at 48 Fifth Avenue between West 11th and 12th Streets in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. It was built in 1844–1846, and designed by Joseph C. Wells in the Gothic Revival style. based the sanctuary after the Church of St. Saviour in Bath, England, but for the tower used Magdalen Tower, Oxford, as a model.

The First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York was founded in 1716, and held its first services in 1719 at its sanctuary at 10 Wall Street between Broadway and Nassau Street. This building was rebuilt twice, in 1748 and 1810, and was subsequently taken down and put up again in Jersey City, New Jersey.

First Presbyterian’s original pastor was James Anderson, who had been preaching in New York to the small-but-growing Scots population, whose influence increased with the appointment of a number of Scotsmen to be Governors of the New York colony.

During the American Revolution, the church became known as the “Church of Patriots” due to many from its congregation being involved in the effort against Great Britain. Their dissatisfaction partly arose partly because the King had consistently refused to issue the Church a charter in 1766 and afterwards, claiming a duty to uphold the exclusive rights of the Church of England, represented in New York by Trinity Church. When the British invaded the city, the church was captured, along with other churches associated with the Patriot movement, and used as barracks for British troops, stables for their horses, warehouses and prisons.

The congregation relocated to its present site in 1846 with the encouragement of James Lenox, one of the richest men in the city, and an elder of the congregation. in 1893, the church installed stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Francis Lathrop, D. Maitland Armstrong and Charles Lamb. These were restored in 1988.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: New Dorp Moravian Church

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New Dorp Moravian Church, 1256 Todt Hill Road Staten Island New York, was founded in 1762 and this structure was built in 1885. New Dorp is the second oldest church on Staten Island, second only to Saint Andrews Episcopal Church in Richmondtown.

The first church building in a Dutch Colonial style was erected in 1763 and still stands at the rear of the present church, which was built in 1837. Local architect Jasper Cropsey, who later became well-known as a Hudson River School painter, designed the new church. The 1837 building was modified. In the 1950s the bell tower was replaced with the present steeple.

In the 1730s, Moravian settlers in New York and Pennsylvania commissioned a new sailing ship to be built by John Van Deventer at his shipyard at Van Deventer Point, located near today’s Verrazano Bridge. The “Irene” made 14 round trips to Europe, bringing mostly Moravian missionaries and church members to New York. Nicholas Garrison, a Staten Islander, was the first captain of the Irene; Cornelius Jacobsen, also a Staten Islander, served as captain on its last voyage in 1758. One of the oldest Protestant denominations, the Moravian Church has served Christ since 1457. Known then as the “Unity of the Brethren” early Moravians came from the area of what is now the Czech Republic known as Moravia – hence came the name Moravian.

On the grounds of the church is the largest and most beautifully landscaped cemetery on Staten Island. Covering 113 acres, the cemetery has graves dating from 1740 and is the burial place of many famous Staten Islanders, especially the Vanderbilts. The Vanderbilt Mausoleum and family graveyard are a private cemetery, not open to the public. The mausoleum, designed in 1886 by Richard Morris Hunt, architect of several Vanderbilt residences, is a copy of a Romanesque church in Arles, France. It is placed into the hillside and only its stone facade and dome are visible. The extensive grounds around the mausoleum were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park in NYC .

Sandbagging Culture

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Sandbags are being used to try and protect statues and cultural landmarks in cities all around Ukraine from Russian bombs.

Civilians in Odessa have been packing sandbags since shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 using them as barriers to protect monuments and landmarks in the proudly historic city. Reports from earlier this month described people bursting into song while building barricades across the city, crooning Bobby McFerrin‘s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” along with the national anthem and other patriotic songs.

Residents are particularly proud of their city. Odessa, with its historic buildings and wide boulevards, was a favorite holiday destination for people across the Soviet Union. It is also where a 1905 uprising, supported by mutineer Russian sailors, was violently crushed by Tsarists forces – scenes which director Sergei Eisenstein famously set on Odessa’s giant stairway in his 1925 film Battleship Potemkin.

Odessa has so far escaped shelling but its one million people are nervously waiting to see if their historic city will be next to suffer the heavy Russian bombardment after Kyiv and Mariupol to the north and east. Some welders made steel spikes called “hedgehogs” along with razor wire to stop military vehicles.

Ukraine had begged NATO for a no fly zone but the response has been a consistent, Fuck no, Russia has nukes, we don’t want to risk upsetting Putin.

Ukraine has lost its ability to vaccinate it’s population against COVID due to the invasion. 35% of the population had been vaccinated with 2 doses prior to the start of the war. Only 2% of the population had received a booster dose. At least 9 health care facilities have been bombed. Those that remain open are overwhelmed with trauma patients. With supply shortages, any patients with COVID are unlikely to get proper treatment. Living conditions in bomb shelters and refugee camps are a breading ground for the spread of the virus. It is also very possible that countries who are taking in refugees will see a spike in cases. Infectious disease and war amount to a perfect storm for death and destruction.

David and Goliath

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The biblical story of David and Goliath denotes an underdog situation, in which a smaller,  opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary. That is certainly the case with Ukraine as they battle the nuclear giant of Russia. I was looking at Soviet era war posters and wanted to do a painting inspired by their losses.

Ukraine is now reporting victories in their counter offensive against the invading Russians around the capitol city of Kiev. Vitali Klitschko, mayor of the capital city, said on March 23, 2022 that Ukrainian forces had taken back most of Irpin, a northwestern suburb of Kiev. Klitschko also said a battle was ongoing for the village of Liutizh, 20 miles to the north, and confirmed the retaking of Makariv, west of Kyiv, on March 22, 2022.

Ukraine claims to have killed 6 Russian Generals, they destroyed a Russian naval ship, numbers of Russian dead range from 7.000 to 15,000 according to a NATO official. A Ukrainian man whose house was destroyed also lost his daughter in the blast. He said, “I blame Putin, If I had him in my hands, I’d butcher him like a goat,”

The southern port city of Mariupol however has has become the most heavily bombed and damaged city in Ukraine’s war with Russia, having suffered the brunt of sustained Russian attacks. Capturing this city would create a land bridge from Russia to Crimea. If Mariupol is capture then Russia would control 80% of Ukraine’s coastline cutting off trade by sea. The city is under siege. Over 90% of the city is leveled. They want to starve and bomb the city into submission. Ukraine has vowed to defend the city down to the last soldier. 200,000 civilians are stuck in the cross fire. Mass graves are being dug on the roadsides. As NATO and America tip toe, World War III has begun.