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Posts by Paul Costello1

What is long covid? Current understanding about risks, symptoms and recovery.

March 3, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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The condition known as long covid continues to frustrate its sufferers, baffle scientists and alarm people who are concerned about being infected by the coronavirus. The term, a widely used catchall phrase for persistent symptoms that can range from mild to debilitating and last for weeks, months or longer, is technically known as Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, or PASC. But scientists say much remains unknown about long covid, which is also referred to colloquially as “long-haul covid,” “long-term covid,” “post-covid conditions” and “post-covid syndrome,” among other names.

“This is a condition that we don’t even have an agreed-upon name for yet, and we don’t have any understanding really of what’s going on down at a chemical level,” said Greg Vanichkachorn, medical director of Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Activity Rehabilitation Program. “So, until we have that kind of understanding, it’s really important that we not make quick decisions about what long covid can or can’t be.”

The National Institutes of Health has launched a research initiative to study the potential consequences of being infected with the coronavirus, including long covid, with the goal of identifying causes as well as means of prevention and treatment. It is building a nationwide study population to conduct that research.

In the meantime, experts said, long covid shouldn’t be dismissed or taken lightly. “This is real, definable, and causes significant patient suffering,” said Bruce Levy, chief of the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “The majority of people who got acutely infected felt totally normal before they had their infection, and now they don’t feel normal. That’s jarring.”

Long covid is destroying careers, leaving economic distress in its wake

The Washington Post spoke with experts who are researching and treatinglong covid, and compiled answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about the condition. Please keep in mind that, because covid and its potential long-term effects are continuing to be studied and understood, many of these answers are not definitive, and information will probably change.

WHAT TO KNOW

What is long covid?

“It kind of depends on who you ask right now,” Vanichkachorn said, “and that’s a reflection of how much, or how little, we know about this condition.”

Generally, he said, long covid is “a state where a person experiences symptoms greater than what we would normally expect for the normal recovery from covid.”

But some experts consider symptoms that linger for four weeks or longer to be long covid, while others say symptoms should persist for at least 12 weeks before a patient is diagnosed with the condition.

Even prominent public health agencies have somewhat different definitions. For example, one definition from the World Health Organization states:“Post COVID-19 condition occurs individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARS CoV-2 infection, usually 3 months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms and that last for at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.”

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines the condition as:Post-COVID conditions are a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems people can experience four or more weeks after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Even people who did not have COVID-19 symptoms in the days or weeks after they were infected can have post-COVID conditions. These conditions can present as different types and combinations of health problems for different lengths of time.

The CDC lists more than a dozen symptoms potentially associated with long covid, noting that they can be new or ongoing, and can occur in anyone who was infected with the coronavirus, regardless of severity. The WHO notes that symptoms typically have an effect on everyday functioning and they may fluctuate or relapse over time.

“The most hallmark feature is profound fatigue,” Vanichkachorn said. Patients have reported feeling exhausted for hours or days after doing simple tasks, such as taking a dog for a walk around the block.

Other common symptoms include “brain fog,” or difficulties with cognition and memory, pulmonary issues such as shortness of breath or lingering cough, heart-related problems and gastrointestinal complaints.

In other words, long covid can affect “almost every single body system,” said Daniel Karel, a primary care provider and clinical instructor in medicine in the general internal medicine division at George Washington University.

Long covid’s severity can also vary widely, experts said. Some people can function day-to-day, despite “not feeling themselves,” Levy said. But on the other end of the spectrum, “you can have just a completely debilitating picture that has just a horrendous impact on the patient’s life,” Karel said.

Five months post-covid, Nicole Murphy’s heart rate is still doing strange things

How is long-haul covid diagnosed?

“Long covid” is a clinical diagnosis, Karel said, “meaning there is no test, there is no lab, there is no imaging to diagnose it.” Instead, he said, “we put the whole picture together.”

First, doctors determine whether someone was infected with the coronavirus. Ideally, there is a positive coronavirus test or other evidence of an infection, such as the presence of antibodies in the blood of someone who wasn’t vaccinated or a near-certain exposure (i.e., everyone in your household tested positive, and you also developed symptoms during that time).

A cluster of telltale symptoms that can’t be explained by other causes also help to support a diagnosis, experts said.0:00 / 6:34SettingsFor these three long haulers, debilitating symptoms and fatigue has kept them from returning to work — and in return, struggling to navigate their new normal. (Drea Cornejo, Joy Yi, Colin Archdeacon/The Washington Post)

How many people get long covid?

It’s been difficult to pin down what percentage of people who contract the coronavirus go on to develop long-term symptoms of covid-19, experts said, partly because the condition is still fairly new. Existing research figures and estimates from experts range from single-digit percentages to upward of 30, 40 or 50 percent.

But with tens of millions of people in the United States alone who have been infected, even a small percentage is significant, Levy said.

“In the U.S., there’s been basically about 80 million people that have been infected,” he said. “If there’s even 1 percent, just 1 percent of that, you’ve got 800,000 people that are at risk of being affected, and that’s probably an underestimate, frankly.”

“The most important takeaway that we can definitely say is that it’s not rare,” Vanichkachorn said. Heath-care providers “are seeing this in general primary care clinics, in hospitals, internal medicine; it’s something that we all just need to be prepared for.”

Are there risk factors?

Surviving a more serious acute covid-19 infection, having certain comorbidities and being older have been associated with potentially developing long covid and experiencing severe symptomsfrom it. But experts said that doesn’t mean other people aren’t at risk, too.

“Plenty of young people with no other medical problems can come down with very, very serious and life-altering symptoms,” Karel said. “You don’t have to be sick. You could be young, you could be healthy and unfortunately really suffer.”

A peer-reviewed paper published in January identified four potential risk factors: having Type 2 diabetes; how much viral RNA was produced by the initial coronavirus infection; the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (one of the most common human viruses in the world and the cause of the disease mononucleosis) in the blood; and having specific autoantibodies, antibodies that mistakenly attack tissues or organs in the body as they often do in people with autoimmune conditions.

Additionally, some evidence suggests that women may be more predisposed to long covid than men, Vanichkachorn said. This also tends to be true for autoimmune conditions as well as other chronic disorders such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), “which seem to be very similar conditions,” he said.

Could long covid unlock clues to chronic fatigue and other poorly understood conditions?

Research is being conducted on whether vaccination status potentially plays a role, with some data suggesting that being vaccinated could help lower the riskof developing long covid. But although those findings are “intriguing,” Levy said, more studies need to be done.

What about long covid in children?

Although it’s less common, children and adolescents can develop long covid, said Alexandra Yonts, director of the Pediatric Post-COVID Program at Children’s National, adding that she has seen long covid symptoms “completely sideline” young people.

Long covid in children is also generally defined as persistent symptoms lasting at least four weeks after the initial infection, but Yonts said the definition may change. “The population we really are concerned about may be those that have symptoms like 12 weeks or more after their initial infection,” she said.

As with adults, fatigue “is the number one presenting symptom” of long covid in children and adolescents, along with brain fog, Yonts said. However, headaches and abdominal complaints are more common, and young people may also be less likely than adults to have post-covid lung damage, despite reporting shortness of breath, she said.

At this point, experts are not aware of “any clear risk factors,” including preexisting conditions or the severity of the initial infection, Yonts said. “Kids with mild illness or no illness are the ones that can develop this as well, which makes it even scarier.”

What is the treatment for long covid?

Post-covid recovery programs and clinics have popped up nationwide during the pandemic, many of which are taking a multidisciplinary approach and providing patients with individualized care. But at this time, Karel said, “there’s no magic pill. There’s no magic cure.”

In addition to treating specific symptoms and conditions when possible, experts said rehabilitation through low-paced gradual increases in activity is key to recovery. Yonts said the typical therapy for children or adolescents suffering from fatigue and brain fog is “very much in line with what is done after concussions.”

It’s critical, experts said, to remember that recovery will probably take time and involve setbacks. “With covid, one of the hallmarks of the fatigue symptom is what we call post-exertional malaise, meaning that, if you exert yourself too much, you can feel like garbage,” Karel said. “You can feel very sick for the next day or two, sometimes longer.”

What should you do if you think you have long covid?

First, if you contract the coronavirus and develop covid-19 symptoms, avoid pushing through the illness, said Susan Cheng, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging at Cedars-Sinai, who is studying long covid.

“Please rest and let your immune system recover as effectively and efficiently as it can,” Cheng said. “I am hoping that by taking that approach, individuals are less likely to develop the aftereffects.”

But if you do suspect you have long covid, don’t delay seeking help. Vanichkachorn said it may be beneficial to talk with a primary care provider if you notice lingering symptoms as early as three weeks after the initial infection. “The earlier that you can get care, the better it most likely will be for you.”

“One of the things that many patients try to do because they’re so eager to get back to life after covid is just try to grit their teeth to get right back to it,” he added. “It’s not something that you can grit your teeth and get through.”

Sayings from the Director

March 3, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Storywise.com, founded by Project CHANGE director

1-Never underestimate the transformative power of individual relationships. (1999 Cathy Hurst Belfast quoting the USA Ambassador to UK)

2-You are either part of the problem or part of the solution- You cannot be neutral and every excuse is a choice. (2000-07 Belfast Orientation Weekend)

3-The listening contract means People will listen to you to the extent that they feel you have listened to them.( Presidential Plot 2008)

4. Don’t act into the story your opponent is acting out of. (The secret of Non Violence- Presidential Plot)  

5. We need to find the story that changes the story.

6. Don’t come critical, come curious.
 if you can’t come curious, be curious about why so critical.  
If you can’t be curious about being critical,
 be critical about why you are so critical.
If you can’t be critical about why you are so critical, 
best not come at all- stay home. ( inspired by Peter Maurin-Easy Essays)  For nsl teams

7. Stories turn walls into windows
(Wall of Stories)

8. If you come with expectations, best be disappointed early so you can replace it with anticipation (work placements) Stories work best when they are full of surprises. ( Team nsl 2010)

9. It’s not what you say that matters, it’s what gets heard

10 Our job is to listen in such a way that we can invite people to tell us the stories that they most need to tell. And to tell our stories in ways that invite the most engaged listeners.

11.Our job is to tell the stories that compel our listeners to get beyond their defenses and be open to change. Real stories of witness do not provoke argument but engagement.

12 Calm your biology, claim your biography, commit your soul (Mary Fowler)

13 The distance between a reaction and a response is about 10 seconds in real time-  but in history, it can take up to 100 years. ( inspired by Victor Frankl) 

14 A reaction to a reaction makes for a reactionary world-
A response to a response makes for a responsible world.

15 What we give meaning to, we give power to.

16 Things will be OK in the end- if they are not OK now, it’s because it is not the end. (John Lennon possibly?)

17 The story of power boils down to the power of a story

18 Don’t talk about us without us (NSL mantra)

19 NARRATIVE ETHICS
Everyone has a story
Everyone has a right to tell it, in their own time and in their own way.
Everyone has that right over anyone else’s right to tell it for them.
We have got to stop stealing other people’s stories.

20 Be a voice not an echo- Tell the story that only you can tell, before you repeat the scripts others have written for you

What If...? (TV series) - Wikipedia

21 Transforming Conflicts requires we turn a generation obsessed with “If Only” to becoming a generation ready to relentlessly ask “What if?”

22 Leadership needs to shift from looking back in fear crying “Never Again” to looking forward in hope to dream about “Never Before.”

23 The start of any revolution is when people decide to grab back their own story (Barbara Meyerhof-Michael White definitional ceremony)

24 Meaning shifts through time, so do not ask Why or What or Who, ask “Where,” where have we shifted- we need a new geography of meaning (practice of narrative maps)

25 THE ANALYSIS- Those who want change don’t have power and those who have power don’t want change

26 Old story leaders see the present as the past just repeating itself over and over. New story leaders see the present as the future rehearsing, getting ready for a maiden performance

27 Let your attention always serve your intention. Beware that stories have the power to hijack your attention to betray your intentions.

28 It is easier to act into a new way of thinking than it is to think into a new way of acting (praxis, habit)

29 It is not the stories we tell that matter in the end- but the stories we create that others will tell

30 You have a right to speak but you do not have a right to be heard- you have to earn that.

31 A story with inspiration but no invitation is like hearing about the amazing party and not being invited. (JFK Ask not”)

32 You can either understand or you can judge but you can’t do both. If you judge, then you will struggle to see beyond your own “righteousness.” If you strive to understand, you will find that there was nothing to judge in the first place.

Wise men don't judge – they seek to understand. - Wei Wu Wei - Quotespedia.org

 33 Certainty comes easiest to those who understand everything or those who understand nothing (the Knowledge illusion)

34 Stories take us there. They can travel such that no wall can shut them out and no checkpoint can lock them in. Stories don’t need a passport or a visa.

35 You will hear bold assertions “The facts of the matter,” the reality is,” “it is obvious that…” but refuse to allow another’s opinion to define your reality.  Every utterance is situated in its time and place. We must challenge the false certainty that feeds the egos of war.

36 Appreciation is the soul force of peace –  those who take and take and take soon bankrupt the economy of grace

37 “You are all terrorists” he screamed- Was it a threat, an insult, or the cry of pain of someone who realizes that the world he has been defending is falling apart and that his story no longer adds up. Rage is is not a tactic-but the last attempt to salvage a fallen world. (about NSL memeber)

38 The act of war begins in the imagination. So too the acts of peace (James Hillman)

39 “The greatest weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”  (Steve Biko)

40 “There is nothing we can do” is exactly what the powerful want the oppressed to believe. “We can’t do everything but we can do something” is where all revolutions begin and where the powerful know their days are numbered. (Projects for Change)

41 In the end, it is not the results but the memories- did this experience help fund the well of meaning from which you create and give enduring value to your life. In the endless flow of time, will you tell it as “Once upon a time?”

Phrases to Defuse Difficult Workplace Situations

42 Under stress, remember the three S’s are Soft, Slow, and Simple- conflict feeds on hard, fast, and complicated. (Ron Redmond)

43 Energy is a condition of position- and position shapes the horizon of possibility.
Beginnings We Create,
Middles are complicated so we correct, clarify and recommit,
Endings we Complete

44 Post It Diplomacy- write a note that Recognizes to Appreciate to Invite and to Apologize – a different kind of RAP sheet.

45 Stories are never innocent and the most dangerous are those that pretend they are.

46 The four Windows of Change-
Change challenges the old story of the old story,
to offer a new story of the old story,
to become the new story of the new story,
that even if it is made at the end to sound like the same old story,
no matter- change has changed things such that we no longer notice the change- that is the most profound kind of change

47 Stories run on the engine of human desire and are fueled by memory and dream.

48 We refuse to accept that the conflict has  to be the defining story of our young people’s identity project.

49 The three shifts, from problem to possibility, from victim to agent, from excuses to responsibility.

50 We refuse to live inside a problem saturated story ( Michael White)

51. What matters is not the story you listen to, but the story you listen through.

52. We must turn our anger into rage and then, connecting our anger to our core, turn our rage into courage. (Cou-rage)

53. The world is always in flux such that either you are doing change, or change is doing you.

54. God hears all the stories and that is why the great religions all define God as a God of mercy above anything else. To judge simply  means you don’t have all the stories.

 55.Tell a story once, you are telling it
Tell a story twice, the story is telling you
Tell a story thrice, the story is you.
Tell it twice more, the story is us.

56. If you want to be serious about change- you have to be serious about power.
If you want to be serious about power, you have to get serious about organizing. ( Alinsky)  CPO 

57. Those who have power don’t want change.
Those who want change don’t have power.

58. If there is a future worth living into, there is a present worth learning in, and a past worth learning from. 

59. The story that captures your keenest interest might not be a story that is acting in your best interests.

60 I refuse your invitation to be complicit in your acts of self-diminishment

61. A story without an audience is a bird without wings and a fish without water. You are the audience so realize your power to feed or starve a story.

62. I want to evolve the audience, oops, I mean involve the audience.  Actually, no, I want to evolve them too(Kit Turen)

63. Despair means that we have reached those furtherest limits of life where our knowledge and our experience no longer feed our hope. That does not mean the end, but rather the start of a quest to build our hope not based on what we know or feel but on what lies beyond, in what we have yet to know.  ( meeting with Seth and Kelly)

64. A normal reaction to a normal situation is normal as is an abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal, but a normal reaction to an abnormal situation is not normal, and an abnormal rection to a normal situation is also abnormal.

65. “We must connect our rage to our heart, to the core of our conscience to so we access more than just our fury, that we see what it is lighting it up, and what in our heart of hearts we know is wrong, what needs to stop, what is intolerable, and when we have done that, connect rage to heart, to what in French we call “Cors” we create Cor and Rage, or COURAGE.” paul costello 2018

66. “The Future can only happen when the present lets go of its past. The Past can only b​e itself when the present let​s go of ​its future. The Present can only ​appear when the future beats back the past and it​s claim to colonize the space of possibility.” ​ P Andrew Costello with F Scott Fitzgerald

67- If you want to talk about change, you have to talk about power and if you want to talk about power, you have to talk about organizing, and if you want to talk about organizing, you have to eventually stop talking about it and doing it. Praxis, says Marx.

68. You can only act into the future, but people keep trying to act into the past and confuse the domains of change. Agency is about space to act into, and the only space wide enough is tomorrow. Keep ever widening tomorrow.

69. Start with Where because who you are is where you are. Don’t start with Why, and even if you do, you are at the start which is where. It is the where of the why that makes the why matter. A why 30 years ago might not matter much now, but there is a why pressing in on you now, where you are showing up.

70. Act and the world has to react. Without action, the world can stay the same as it ever was and doesn’t much care ( inspired by Tommy Shortall omi)

71. “It’s all a matter of growth” ( T.Shortall omi at SMS)

72.”The past was once the future that has come and gone.
The present is the future that came and is going.
The future is the future that still lies ahead and is as yet, still to come. No matter how you look at it, they are all futures.
There is no ghost in the machine.
Or if there is, it’s the ghost of tomorrow wanting a say in today,
Feeling so aggrieved that it wasn’t heard enough in yesterday.”

” P- Costello from the future

73. The Middle is going to be Complicated- expect that. Don’t complicate it more than you have to, but it’s meant to be complicated to keep it interesting.
But don’t complicate the beginning, when you are supposed to create,
And don’t complicate the ending, when you are supposed to complete.
Complicate means you have to clarify before you recommit. It’s all good. But don’t stay there. It’s meant to be on the way, not get in the way.

74. I can understand what past you are acting out of, but what matters more is What future are you acting into?

75. The question to ask is not “What are the facts?” but “What is the future?”

76. Memory seems to be about the past, but no, it is how we give the past a future. And how we give the future a past.

77. They tell us we need to live for Now, but Now last a second, and it cannot sustain itself. What we need to be building in the present is a history of the future that we most want to live into. That is the kind of Now worth paying attention to.





If you want to change the world

March 3, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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 “IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD, YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THE STORY”
 

Change The Story Home Page - Change The Story VT

What story?” You ask.
The story that says, “You are wasting your time trying to change anything.”
The story that says,” Who are you to presume you can do anything that makes a difference to anyone? Lose that messiah complex.”
The story that says” We tried it all before, and it didn’t work then and so obviously it won’t work now.”
The story that says “Why bother? Just live your own life and make the best of it. No one else gives a dam, so, why should you?”
The story that says, “We have always had this story of how we do things, and to mess with that is to insult those who came before you.”
The story that says, “Try it but if you fail, you risk being labeled a loser. Don’t take crazy risks. Be prudent.”
The story that says ” You have to wait till you are ready, and you are not ready.”
The story that says, “You have to wait till you have enough funds, and you have no funds: you are broke!
The story that says “You have to wait till you  get the right people, and so far, all you have are amateurs.”
The story that says, “You need to get your Harvard degree in change management and your Oxford MBA. Till then, leave it to the experts.”
The story that says” The best minds, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Generals, Popes, Diplomats, Rabbis, Mullahs, and Senators have all tried to bring peace to Israel and Palestine, and you think your little program can possibly do what this pantheon of potentates have failed to do?” …. If you want to change the world, you have to change the story…We know because it’s been done before:
Selma,
Seneca Falls,
Stonewall,
Gandhi,
MLK and JFK and LBJ
Jesus,
Moses,
Abraham,
The Prophet
Buddha
Steve Jobs,
FDR
the Beatles,
Obama,
You (write your name here) ……….
Come join the Project CHANGE Team because we need more New Story people.

What they told us 7 years ago “It can’t be done!”
is the very thing 7 years from now, they will be accusing us,
“Why didn’t you do it sooner.”

(Paul Costello)

The Cost of War

March 1, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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On Tax Day, Consider the Hidden Costs of War - Institute for Policy Studies

War seems endemic to civilization, and in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Ukraine and other places around the world people are fighting right now for some of the same basic reasons they have for millennia. Access to resources often determines the victors in any struggle, but both sides must face deprivations during any prolonged conflict and those hardships tend to be what most observers remember most vividly. Most of humanity’s greatest minds have witnessed war from one vantage or another and few have ever had any accolades to laud on the subject but many have had something to say. Here are a few thoughts from some great thinkers, most who witnessed war in the modern era.

1. “Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.” ~Abraham Flexner, American educator

2. “When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die.”~Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher from his play Le diable et le bon dieu

3. “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered this message as part of a speech on peace during his presidency

4. “No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic.” ~A. J. P. Taylor, British historian and broadcaster

5. “The 1st panacea of a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the 2nd is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; a permanent ruin.” ~Ernest Hemingway, American writer and world traveler

6. “There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.” ~Sun Tzu, from The Art of War

7. “The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.” ~John F. Kennedy said this in a speech during a West Point graduation

8. “How is it possible to have a civil war?” ~George Carlin, American comedian

9. “Even the most piddling life is of momentous consequence to its owner.” ~James Wolcott, current American journalist and writer

10. “Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.” ~Martin Luther King Jr. said this when speaking of the horrors of the Vietnam War

– Tyson Watkins

Silver Spring Library To Be Renamed After Tuskegee Airman Brig. Gen. Charles E. McGee

March 1, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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On Monday, Feb. 28, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich will be joined by Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando, Montgomery County Public Libraries Director Anita Vassallo, Montgomery County Department of General Services Director David Dise, the Montgomery County Commission on Veterans Affairs, family members of Brig. Gen. Charles E.  McGee, and others in a ceremony to sign a bill that will enable the County to rename the Silver Spring Library to the “Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library.”

Brig. Gen. McGee, who passed away early this year at the age of 102, served as a fighter pilot and member of the 332nd Fighter Squadron, famously known as the “Tuskegee Airmen,” an all-Black unit in World War II, followed by combat missions in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He fought against racism and for equality his entire career and paved the way for many African American service members. A Montgomery County resident for many years, Brig. Gen. McGee prioritized learning and engaging with young people and served as a role model to Montgomery County residents and Americans. Brig. Gen. McGee passed away peacefully at his home in Bethesda on Jan. 16.

Parking is available, across the street, in the public parking lot at 921 Wayne Ave.

Montgomery County Public Libraries

Montgomery renames Montrose Parkway to honor formerly enslaved abolitionist

February 28, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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By Katherine Shaver  February 25, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EST Washington Post

Montrose Parkway in Montgomery County will be renamed Josiah Henson Parkway to honor the 19th-century Methodist preacher who became an abolitionist after escaping enslavement on a plantation in present-day North Bethesda.

The change, approved by the Montgomery planning board Thursday, is scheduled to take effect March 4 with a ceremony to replace the street signs, said Montgomery planning director Gwen Wright.

The road runs through the northern part of the formerplantation where Henson was enslaved until he escaped to Canada in 1830. The county’s Josiah Henson Museum and Park stands on Old Georgetown Road, just south of the parkway.

Henson’s 1849 autobiography inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s popular 1852 novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” credited with building support for the anti-slavery movement before the Civil War. In addition to being an abolitionist, planners said, Henson led 118 people out of enslavement to Canada as part of the Underground Railroad.

Researchers believe they’ve found the Charles County birthplace of Josiah Henson

Wright had the authority to make the name change but said she sought the planning board’s approval because of the “very special circumstances” of Henson’s ties to the county. The board approved her request unanimously.

“He was an absolutely remarkable human being and is someone who is locally, regionally, nationally and internationally important as a historic figure,” Wright told the board. “We are very, very lucky to have that part of Montgomery’s history to share with the world.”

She noted that the name change will apply only to Montrose Parkway, not the parallel Montrose Road. Of the two properties with addresses on the parkway, she said, one owner endorsed the change. The other is a vacant parcel owned by WSSC Water.

Planning board members said they readily agreed with the idea of honoring Henson.

“He just had such an incredible life, and I think it’s important to celebrate that,” said planning commissioner Partap Verma, the board’s vice chair.

Montgomery council member Hans Riemer (D-At Large) had requested the name change in January.

“It is important that we provide the Rev. Josiah Henson with the public recognition he justifiably deserves,” Riemer said in a statement, “and this new street name is a great step forward.”

Montgomery buys home that inspired novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

With the clock ticking down toward takeoff, the airline looked for one volunteer

February 28, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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By John Kelly Columnist Yesterday at 12:00 p.m. EST Washington Post

As I waited to board a flight to Wilmington, N.C., last week, my biggest worry was whether I’d have to fight anyone for the last overhead storage space, given my cellar-dwelling position in boarding group eight.

Then an announcement came over the intercom: The 5 p.m. flight was overbooked by a single seat. They needed someone to take a later flight – well, two flights: Instead of a quick direct flight arriving at 6:26 p.m., the volunteer would take a 7 p.m. flight to LaGuardia, transfer, then fly back south, arriving in Wilmington at 10:59 p.m.

Good luck with that, I said to myself. Even with the $200 in airline credit they were offering, why would anyone give up his seat? Still, I was curious how they would select the unlucky passenger. A lottery? A spelling bee? A boxing match? I took a seat near the gate to watch how things would play out.

About 20 minutes before boarding was due to begin, the gate attendant clicked his microphone and made another announcement. “We’re still looking for a volunteer to take a later flight to Wilmington. You will get in at 11 p.m. and we can offer you a $500 travel credit.”

The ante had been upped.

I could hear a couple behind me weighing it. They sounded like practiced hands, reminiscing about wonderful trips they’d managed to assemble from the scraps of inconvenience. If you had all the time in the world — and didn’t mind roaming the terminal for a place to spend your complimentary $12 meal voucher — why not volunteer? Two hundred dollars here, $500 there and soon you had yourself a vacation, or at least the airfare to one.

But not this time. They wanted to arrive in Wilmington together.

A few more minutes passed uncomfortably. There was a second airline employee at the gate now and the two co-workers conversed in hushed tones. Was it time for the battle royal at last?

One of the gate agents walked from behind the desk and approached a man I’d noticed sitting by himself in one of those airport wheelchairs. The man was elderly and wore an embroidered ball cap that marked him as a veteran. I couldn’t see what was written on it. “Vietnam,” probably. Or maybe “Korea.” A few people had thanked him for his service, though exactly where that service was, I couldn’t be sure.

The gate agent leaned down to the old man and nervously explained that the flight to Wilmington was overbooked by one seat. If no one volunteered to stay behind, the man would be bumped. But he shouldn’t worry. He’d be put on a flight to LaGuardia and then on one to Wilmington. He’d get in at 10:59 p.m.

“I bought my ticket three weeks ago,” the man protested.

And then the gate agent explained the pitiless calculus of the oversold flight: The man had been the last to check in. Last to check in, first to get booted off.

Boarding was about to begin. The gate agent made another announcement: The flight credit for the volunteer was now $700.

Even before the enticement had been sweetened, I’d made my decision. I walked to the elderly man. I could see now that his hat said “Iwo Jima.”

“Looks like you’re on the bubble,” I said.

“I bought my damn ticket three weeks ago,” he said.

“Do you live here or in Wilmington?” I asked.

Wilmington, he said. He’d been at the Hilton Crystal City for a reunion of veterans of Iwo Jima, the bitter battle that began in February 1945 and ended five weeks later at the cost of 27,000 U.S. casualties, including 7,000 Americans killed.

What’s the youngest he could have been today? 95? And they were going to bump this guy?

I explained that I was going to visit a veteran myself: my father, who flew jets in the Vietnam War. I said I hoped that if my dad was in the same situation, someone would give up their seat for him. I thanked the man for his service and walked to the gate.

“I’ll give up my seat,” I said.

The gate agents looked like they wanted to hug me. I really couldn’t blame them for the situation. I blamed the airline for relying on some algorithm that predicts no-shows — imperfectly, as it turns out.

While one agent typed up my volunteer papers and printed out my $700 credit, the other went over to the World War II vet and told him he could board.

“I can wheel you to the plane,” he said.

With the help of a cane, the vet levered himself out of the wheelchair and stood up.

“I can walk,” he said.

Never volunteer?

A poem for Ukraine

February 24, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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“It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there.” William Carlos Williams


LYUBA YAKIMCHUK

Dekulakization. How Stalin liquidated the Ukrainian peasant class (Part 5) | Euromaidan Press

Died of Old Age

granddad and granny passed away
they died on the same day
at the same hour
at the same moment —
people said, they died of old age

their hen met its end
and so did their goat and their dog
(their cat was out)
and people said, they died of old age

their cottage fell apart
their shed turned into ruins
and the cellar got covered with dirt
people said, everything collapsed from old age

their children came to bury the granddad and granny
Olha was pregnant
Serhiy was drunk
and Sonya was only three
they all perished, too
and people said, they died of old age

the cold wind plucked yellow leaves and buried beneath them
the granddad, the granny, Olha, Serhiy and Sonya
who all died of old age

Translated from the Ukrainian by Anatoly Kudryavitsky

Photo Essay: Preserving Ukrainian culture with the Baba Yelka project

February 24, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Photo Essay: Preserving Ukrainian culture with the Baba Yelka project

By Peace Corps Response JUNE 19, 2019

The Baba Yelka Project tells a story of Ukrainian culture little known to the public.

Michael Andrews, a Peace Corps Response Volunteer in Ukraine, is using his photography expertise to connect with and help preserve Ukrainian village culture and traditions. Michael began his Peace Corps Response service as an organizational capacity building specialist for 100% LIFE Kropyvnytskyi, an HIV-service nongovernmental organization, and has expanded his service to encompass a secondary project as a photographer in the Baba Yelka cultural expedition. He has taken on an important role in Ukraine that has enabled him to immerse himself in the culture of a region not well represented there.

A man stands with his camera around his neck in front of a mirror. To the right is a bright blue door, to the left is a plant

“Like most Americans, I knew nothing about Ukraine before I came here,” Michael said. “Learning Ukraine’s history, traditions and culture, and experiencing first hand their challenges as an emerging democracy – sharing myself with them – has had a profound impact on my life.”

A young Ukrainian man stands speaking to two other men. He is dressed in a blazer.

Peace Corps Response plays an important role in building bridges between people and local organizations. The Baba Yelka Project is sponsored by the Nova Gazeta, a regional Ukrainian newspaper based in Kropyvnytskyi.

Four older Ukrainian women sit on a bench, wearing scarves on their heads and dressed in traditional clothing.

Baba Yelka is named for a woman named Elka, who lived in the Maloviskivskyi district of the Kirovograd region of Ukraine. “She knew hundreds of folk songs, treated people with herbs, raised ten children, and experienced the Holodomor.” She is the inspiration for this cultural preservation project, one that resonates with the team; many of the team members see their own grandmothers as their very own “Baba Elkas.” It is in memory of them that Michael and the Baba Yelka team work to ensure these cultural traditions are not lost.

Baba Yelka was conceived in 2018 by Inna Tilnova, editor of Nova Gazeta, Svіtlana Bulanova, a performer of traditional Ukrainian songs, and Viktoria Semenenko, a journalist and public relations professional. Photographer and video expert, Alexander Mayorov, helped launch the project. Michael became intrigued with their work soon after arriving in Ukraine and asked to join them. After deliberation, they said yes. That was ten months and thousands of photographs ago.

Two Ukrainian women dressed in traditional clothing sit on chairs in a green field. There is a camera crew behind them.

The team of five Ukrainians and one American, Michael, has visited 30 villages now with the goal of documenting and preserving authentic Ukrainian culture. During their visits, grandmothers in the villages share their stories, songs, traditional clothing and handiwork.

A man stands in the center of a stage playing an accordion and singing. Men and women in traditional clothing sing behind him

“One of the cultural markers of the true Ukrainian identity is the folk song, which Baba Yelka reveals and preserves,” said Inna Tilnova, one of Baba Yelka’s founders. “For some people, the Ukrainian folk song is something forgotten and not relevant. But for others, it is the whole universe, a way of identification and self-expression. We travel in search of authentic folk songs that have survived to record and share them. These are our greatest treasures, our sources, our depth.”

A group of Ukrainians sit around a table filled with food. They are in a colorful room.

The team didn’t just interview Ukrainian villagers; they became a part of their culture, sharing meals and stories with one another. “I am overwhelmed by the generosity, hospitality and resilience of the people of Ukraine,” Michael said. “I have been welcomed with open arms since the day I arrived in country, by my host families, at 100% LIFE Kropyvnytskyi (the organization that has enabled me to make an impact as a Response Volunteer), and by my Ukrainian friends on the Baba Yelka team.”

A brochure with a gray textured background is covered in colorful photos of Ukrainian women

This brochure, created by the team, is used to promote this exhibition of authentic Ukrainian culture. Michael says it also serves as one of the only pieces of written material for the general public about folk culture in an oblast that is least represented and obscured by history.

A woman sits amid an ornately decorated room, telling a story. Michael is reflected in a mirror taking her photo.

“In spite of incredible hardships endured by Ukrainian people, particularly village grandmothers, they still have songs in their hearts and sparks of happiness in their eyes.” – PCR Volunteer Michael

An older Ukrainian woman stands in traditional attire amid a green field and blooming tree.

These gallery-style photo presentations of village visits paint a larger picture. “Promoting understanding about these unique traditions both inside Ukraine and with the world is an important part of the country’s emerging freedom and independence,” Michael said. “We want other communities to work to preserve and transfer the wisdom and knowledge of the ‘old-timers’ in the same fashion as the Baba Yelka expeditions.”

A group of people walk on a snowy road, their backs to the camera. There are trees and buildings in the background.

On serving as a Response Volunteer, Michael says, “I think it is important this story not be about me as much as it is about the important role Peace Corps Response fills in building bridges, what we accomplish together with our Ukrainian hosts. I hear this sentiment echoed by my Peace Corps Ukraine Volunteer peers; we feel we have two families – those we love back home and those we love here.”

Peace Corps Response sends experienced professionals on short-term, high-impact assignments in collaboration with local host country organizations around the world. View all PCR openings here.

About Michael Andrews: Michael is a Peace Corps Response Volunteer serving in Ukraine as an Organizational Capacity Building Specialist for HIV-service NGOs. He was expected to complete his service in July 2019 but is planning on extending his time at his current post by at least a year because he is committed to reaching PEPFAR’s goals in combating the Ukrainian HIV/AIDS epidemic.
__________________________________________________________________________________

The great Russian dissident poet on Russian ambitions and the revival of Stalin.

The Power of Self-Care: A Bridge to Communal Care

February 22, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Shelly Tygielski  NonProfit Quarterly

February 21, 2022 S

“OUR STORIES OUR VISIONS SERIES #6” BY AMIR KHADAR/WWW.AMIRKHADAR.COM

Click here to download this article as it appears in the magazine, with accompanying artwork.

Editors’ note: This article is from the Winter 2021 issue of the Nonprofit Quarterly, “We Thrive: Health for Justice, Justice for Health.”

In recent years, a growing uneasiness and an undercurrent of anxiety have emerged in the United States. Psychologists, therapists, social workers, and doctors across the medical spectrum agree that we are in the middle of a genuine national mental health crisis. A time like this can serve as an impetus for reclaiming self-care as a movement, which could have a profound and lasting impact on this country and the world. As the late beloved activist and writer Audre Lorde said, self-care is not “self-indulgent” but rather an act of “self-preservation.”1

Self-care reaches beyond the individual. In Sanskrit, the term for self-actualization and individuation is samadhi, which means enlightenment or union with the divine. This word recognizes that we are more than just our individual selves: we are a sum of all the parts that surround us. Every life is of value, and we are all connected; when we recognize this, we can embark on the healing work that addresses the traumas of our culture.

Today, we are seeing calls for change and transformation of our world. We are seeing people rise up in their power to assert that their lives are important, valuable, and worth fighting for. We are also showing solidarity by giving our friends and loved ones messages of strength and support as they dismantle systems that are oppressive and archaic. By starting with the inner work, we address many of our root issues and work our way through them. If we all simultaneously commit to healing ourselves and healing our trauma, our own healing becomes a contribution to the health and wellness of our communities, our descendants, and the world.

Take a moment to imagine the power of a self-care movement—a wave of kind care connecting communities, healing our bodies and minds, sustaining our energy and momentum, and helping us all live healthier, happier, and more balanced lives.

Self-Care as a Movement

As a movement, self-care has a rich and radical history.2 It was born at the intersection of the women’s liberation movement and the civil rights era—a time when courageous individuals and communities fighting relentless prejudice and discrimination created the first formalized communities of care, which allowed them to stand strong together in the face of seemingly impossible challenges and unspeakable treatment. In fact, a core piece of what civil rights activists were and continue to be fighting for can be seen as the basic human right to self-care—for when the government turns its back on its people, self-care literally becomes a matter of life and death. Often denied medical treatment at hospitals and healthcare centers in the past, and facing any number of dangers stemming from unequal and unjust treatment in the present, part of what people of color are fighting for is the freedom, time, money, and resources to care for themselves. In this exhausting battle, often the only support they find is with one another and within themselves. Thus, civil rights leaders made healthcare a priority. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman.”3

What has been true for the civil rights movement has also been true for the women’s liberation movement. Women across the board have viewed controlling their own health as a corrective to the failures of a white, patriarchal medical system to properly tend to their needs. Self-care, as described by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, an associate professor of history at the New School, in New York City, became “a claiming [of] autonomy over the body as a political act against institutional, technocratic, very racist, and sexist medicine.”4

In this age of the industrial wellness complex—an era of bath bombs, drop-in meditation studios, and self-help quick-tips lists—capitalism ignores that for populations most in need, self-care is neither frivolous nor easy. As a movement, self-care and communal care make the declaration that we don’t just deserve to be alive, we have the right to live our best lives. Genuine self-care and communal care are long and hard paths. They require diving beneath the surface problems, which are just the symptoms of the deeper, more enduring traumas that all of us carry. What we need, and what this movement seeks, is—to use a concept coined by Ghanaian playwright and journalist Esther Armah—emotional justice.5 Emotional justice can provide us with a steady undercurrent, like a river flowing beneath the exterior crust of the Earth, as we embark on dismantling and rebuilding social systems that don’t work for us. Emotional justice depends upon our commitment to doing the inner work; it cannot exist without it.

This type of work can show up in different forms, like healing from an offense that was never recognized by the offender or by society, or having the courage to speak up for ourselves and write our own stories. Individual inner work is not enough to support a movement. In social and political movements, commitment to community care, which means our own and others’ emotional justice, is a fundamental building block. What defines any movement— including the self-care movement—is people coming together with a shared purpose to create change that benefits everyone. Movements need people with skin in the game and the energy and desire to move the needle and drive change.

Standards of Self-Care

I define self-care as the practice of taking an active role in protecting one’s own well-being, pursuing joy, and having the ability, tools, and/or resources to respond to periods of stress so that they don’t result in imbalance and lead to a health crisis. Ultimately, every person should have access to the caregivers, transportation, treatment, and funds needed to properly address their health. Building a self-care movement—one that can support every other movement in turn—requires incorporating it into our communities and workplaces so that communities of care become part of our culture.

The slow adoption of self-care in our culture is in large part due to a lack of definition. Standards for self-care have never been clearly established. Creating a well-defined vision for self-care grounded in clear principles and standards is a good first step to take, because defining the standards and providing a clear road map for people to follow helps to legitimize the cause. It allows people to create plans, measure progress, and make changes based on realistic and achievable goals rooted in sustainability, which in this hyperproductive capitalist culture is rarely if ever prioritized.

In terms of movement work, exhausted leadership is poor leadership. The reward for productivity should not be the assignment of more work—whether for leaders, paid employees, or volunteers. Exhaustion leads to shorter attention spans, increased emotional volatility, and poor decision making. If movement leaders burn out, that will be replicated by others in our sphere of influence—coworkers, staff, volunteers, children, and so on.

Social transformation work begins with the self. Imagine advocacy work as a series of peaks and valleys. The peaks are where advocacy work happens, and the valleys are where we rest, celebrate, and reflect, gathering our strength to climb the mountain ahead. If we conduct our lives this way and model this workflow in our organizations, we can build resilience, make sure that we keep people engaged, and ensure that none of us falls victim to burnout.

The modern self-care movement can embody practices that avoid burnout rather than merely being a response to it. The movement must demand that individuals put their health and wellness first without feelings of guilt for doing so. If we all collectively share our plans for self-care, we declare boldly that our needs, our state of mind, our body, and our overall health matter. This gives others permission to invest in themselves and take the courageous step to acknowledge that they have needs, that their needs are important, and that those needs deserve to be met.

There are key reflective questions we can ask ourselves and those on our teams and in our communities at every turn and with every incremental step forward that can improve our actions and build momentum to climb the next peak. For example:

  • How does the quality of my leadership diminish due to lack of my own self-care?
  • Which habits negatively impact my self-care, and what new behaviors can I substitute for them?
  • Do I have a self-care plan in place to ensure I follow up on new behaviors, and have I shared this plan with others who will hold me accountable?
  • How will I track my progress along the way?
  • How can I best support others in their self-care endeavors?

Such questions will help us to integrate self-care with community care and social movements, paving the path forward to achieve balance among all three and to cease having to choose one over the other.

When we work on the self, we do not need to abandon the world. When we begin the process of care with ourselves, we begin the journey of working to heal our community and the world. It is my hope that we each show up, fractured or whole but always beautiful, with our unique talents and skills to create the world we envision. No action is too small, no voice too quiet, and no person too insignificant to make a change. May we realize that our investment in the inner work awakens awareness to something else, something radical and liberating: a possibility. We matter, our voices matter, our lives are precious, and we have many gifts to offer. When our inner work is deeply embodied in the collective life of those working for social transformation, this creates resilience within the group, so that when natural bumps or boulders in the journey arise we don’t give up. Instead, we stay the course, adjust course, or shore up our reserves and capacity. We celebrate and introduce play, creativity, and lightness into our efforts. We remember the purpose, meaning, and inspiration behind what we’re doing, and it supports us in moving forward.

My eldest uncle, a very pious man, would often share with me wisdom from the Old Testament and the Talmud (also known as the Oral Torah). One of the verses that he shared when I was barely thirteen has been a guidepost for my work: “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”6

Movements are not goals. There are no finish lines. Movements embody incremental gains that require consistent forward motion born out of actionable intentions. Creating sustainable movements requires widening our perspective of self-care—shifting it from a purely individual pursuit to one that embraces the entire community and uses the entire toolbox of best practices and resources. While self-care and communal care are movements in themselves, they also provide the primary infrastructure that supports every other movement, whether for equity, justice, peace, or freedom. In order to sustain forward movement—even if it’s millimeter by painful millimeter at a time—the pillar of societal care must be championed.

NOTES

  1. Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light: Essays (Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books, 1988),
  3. Martin Luther King Jr., speech at the second convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, Chicago, March 25, 1966, quoted in John Dittmer, The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009).
  4. Aisha Harris, “A History of Self-Care: From its radical roots to its yuppie-driven middle age to its election- inspired resurgence,” Slate, April 5, 2017, slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2017/04/the_history_of 5.
  5. The Armah Institute of Emotional Justice, theaiej.com/about-aeij.
  6. Originally attributed in the Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) 2:16 to Rabbi Tarfon, and then repeated in the