Pandemic, Week 28 (Please Vote)

This week a Canadian woman sent ricin to the President. The grand jury for the investigation into Breonna Taylor's death failed to indict any officers for her death and only charged one officer with wanton endangerment for firing shots into a neighbor's home. Protests erupted around the country in response to the verdict and two officers were shot in Louisville, KY. Ruth Bader Ginsburg laid in state at both the Supreme Court and the Capital -- the first woman to ever do so. During the viewing, the President was greeted with boos and chants of, "Vote him out!" Meanwhile, republicans announced that they had enough votes to confirm whatever justice the President nominated despite having not yet made his pick (he's subsequently announced it's Amy Coney Barrett). Mike Bloomberg raised $16 million to pay court fines and fees to allow 32,000 Black or Hispanic voters in Florida to vote, and republicans have now initiated an investigation to determine if this violates election law. The President twice refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power were he to lose the election. The Emmy Ceremony went virtual.

The world hit 33 million COVID-19 cases and 997,000 total deaths this week. The U.S. has reported 7.3 million cases and 209,000 deaths. The CDC removed guidance from its website that stated aerosol transmission might be the most common manner of transmission of COVID-19. A fourth large-scale vaccine trial has begun in the U.S.

Yet it was a pretty quiet week for us. On Sunday we biked to the Supreme Court so we could all pay our respects to RBG and then had a Zimmerman Zoom call where we sort of hung up on Grandpa and Grandma Z. Grandpas Fawcett and Don road-tripped to Iowa before Grandpa Don continued on to Salt Lake City to see Jen, Ahzer and the kids. Nora immortalized Piggy. There were multiple back-to-school nights and some additional class changes (Nora's now moving up to seventh grade math). Owen had climbing; Nora had DCYOP. Family game night involved "Among Us" where everyone except Allen ended up an imposter. Out instacart order omitted half of our shopping list but gave us an unsolicited 8 lbs of sugar.

But most importantly, we had a long and serious discussion with the kids about Breonna Taylor, police violence, the justice system, and everything that's been happening of late (and historically). It was illuminating to see how much they know and think about these issues, and also a bit heart-wrenching to know just how much time they're forced to think about these issues. So we talked a lot, hugged, and then we worked on postcards to encourage voter registrations.

Because that's how 2020 rolls.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)