csmonitor--2020-04-22--Coronavirus response puts EU solidarity to the test

European leaders on both sides of the divide recognize this as a make or break moment for Europe .
But Francesco Nicoli , an economics professor at the University of Ghent in Belgium , believes countries will eventually come together , as they did a few years after the eurocrisis .
“ Politics [ moves ] much faster nowadays .
This time it might take up to one year.
” But it is unclear who will pay that bill , whether it will be carried only by the countries most in need , or if the pain will be spread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financially fit Germany , Austria , and the Netherlands .
That uncertainty , combined with feelings in the struggling south that the north hasn ’ t done enough to help them fight the virus , is reopening fissures from the 2008 eurocrisis .
The coronavirus crisis revived familiar fault lines within the European Union .
The public health crisis has hit southern countries earlier and harder , with Italy , Spain , and France all struggling to deal with mounting infections by shutting down their economies .
The bloc ’ s economic recovery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its GDP , or $ 1.7 trillion , according to estimates .
The coronavirus crisis hit Spain so fast and hard that within days every ward at the Hospital HM Torrelodones near Madrid was taken over by COVID-19 patients .
Single rooms were doubled up until the beds ran out .
The quantity and quality of protective gear available to medical staff diminished as days gave way to nights and the cases – and death toll – mounted .
Help never came from neighboring countries .
“ There is no teamwork , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an auxiliary nurse at the hospital .
“ Each country took decisions on their own and in their own timing.
” The coronavirus crisis revived familiar fault lines within the eurozone , with the public health crisis hitting southern countries earlier and harder .
An economic recovery will cost an estimated 10 % of the European Union ’ s GDP , or $ 1.7 trillion , estimates the EU ’ s industry chief Thierry Beton .
But it is unclear who will pay that bill , whether it will be carried only by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as Italy and Spain , or if the pain will be spread across the EU to include the more financially fit Germany , Austria , and the Netherlands .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .
Margaritis Schinas , the EU ’ s “ European Way of Life ” commissioner , sees this as no surprise .
Given the unprecedented nature and intensity of the crisis , member states initially tried to organize as best they could – although not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they have entered what he characterizes as a “ convergence phase ” : gravitating toward common solutions as the EU responds to the public health crisis while also figuring out how to mitigate its economic impact .
“ There is no doubt that our way of life has been greatly affected , but the values that underpin our way of life remain always intact , ” he said during an online event organized by the Center for European Analysis .
“ Member states found out very clearly that they have more in common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the market , but also the interdependence of our economies , the values , the principles , the mobility that shapes our societies in Europe.
” The economic devastation is intense in Italy , Spain , and France , where death tolls have been high and economic shutdowns persist .
Small businesses have been hit particularly hard , says Heloise de Castelnau , a Paris intellectual property and business lawyer .
She is working overtime to help her clients apply for government aid so they can pay landlords , workers , and suppliers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she says , “ and it ’ s about postponing taxes and extending loans but someday we will have to pay the bills .
Right now it ’ s an emergency plan.
” COVID-19 relief programs offered in France have been uneven .
For example , self-employed individuals can access new forms of aid , but the amount is based on sales , which makes it hard for startups or businesses with little to no sales to qualify .
Refugee entrepreneurs face additional hurdles ; they don ’ t have the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loan guarantee programs , says FAIRE , a Paris-based endowment fund for refugees .
For now , most French are looking to their own government for rescue .
“ The EU feels really far away , ” she says .
“ Maybe in May , we ’ ll have more perspective on things.
” In Italy , the public health system suffers from under-investment , with a spending cut of €37 billion ( $ 40 billion ) over the past decade , according to the Gimbe Foundation .
Now the pandemic has overwhelmed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people .
It will need reform .
“ We are at risk of paying the bill of decades of cost-cutting , ” says Quirino Piacevoli , who headed up the intensive care unit at a major hospital in Rome for 20 years .
The preferred solution divides cleanly along northern and southern European lines , much as it did following the global financial crisis of 2008 .
Then , lifelines were offered to hard-hit countries across the eurozone , but lending came with conditions largely set by wealthy countries such as Germany and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ felt the conditions intervened deeply in their internal affairs , says Anke Hassel , a public policy professor at Berlin ’ s Hertie School .
For example , Greece was required to cut its minimum wage and make drastic spending cuts to get its economic house in order .
“ It felt deeply unfair , and the experience of that time left very bad feelings , in particular , among southern European countries – Italy , Spain , Greece , and to some extent Portugal , ” says Dr. Hassel .
Here we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , facing a similar situation .
“ Southern European countries are hit harder , and they don ’ t have the money to pay for fiscal stimuli or for their businesses to survive the crisis .
They ’ re really facing much more hardship.
” Italy and Spain demand “ coronabonds , ” which would spread the borrowing risk across the European Union .
France ’ s Emmanuel Macron also supports joint debt , saying the future of the European project is at stake .
However , leaders of Germany , the Netherlands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no .
Germany , the EU ’ s economic powerhouse , has so far weathered COVID-19 with relatively low death tolls , and is slowly starting to reopen its economy .
It ’ s carried budget surpluses and has kept its economy afloat with massive spending packages .
Instead , what eurozone finance ministers have so far agreed upon is a €500 billion package of emergency relief measures .
“ The Eurogroup last week did not close many doors , ” says Francesco Nicoli , assistant professor in economics and international governance at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ It forged a short-term agreement but the real crux , the real problem is if and what to do with this recovery fund.
” Still ahead are important decisions about how to structure – and who will pay for – the very expensive economic reconstruction efforts required after the coronavirus subsides .
European leaders on both sides of the divide recognize this as a make or break moment for Europe .
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the crisis the “ biggest test ” the EU has faced since its foundation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all the way back to World War II for a greater trial .
Dr. Nicoli argues that any agreement which leaves hard-hit countries with the impression that they have been shortchanged risks empowering euroskeptic parties .
In Italy , the right-wing League already boasts mass appeal , and Italians across the political spectrum are quick to express feelings of abandonment .
They ’ re troubled that help was quicker to come from countries such as China and Cuba than from within the EU .
“ The European Union has not proven to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ferreri , a pediatric nurse at the intensive care unit and neonatal pathology at the Gaslini Hospital in Genoa , Italy .
“ If there are countries in difficulty , they do not allow each other to sink but they support each other .
These difficulties did not stem from a political error , but from a health emergency.
” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently apologized to Italy .
She said it is “ true that too many were not there on time when Italy needed a helping hand at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is right that Europe as a whole offers a heartfelt apology.
” It will take time Mr. Schinas , the EU commissioner , says the pandemic exposed an asymmetry between what people expect from the EU and the bloc ’ s actual competencies .
How schools and hospitals are organized in a time of crisis is the prerogative of each state , however , many still turned to the EU for guidance on how to react to the pandemic .
Because Italy faced the worst of the crisis first , it provided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which helped them dampen the pandemic ’ s impact , notes Dr. Nicoli .
It may take a while , but he believes countries will eventually come together , as they did through the creation of the European Stability Mechanism a few years after the 2008 financial crisis or in the wake of the 2015 migration crisis .
“ It is a different type of crisis , ” he says .
“ Politics [ moves ] much faster nowadays .
This time it might take up to one year.
” Dr. Hassel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , says that it ’ s very difficult for “ both sides ” of the EU argument to accept each other ’ s model .
But “ it would be really sad if Italy ends up thinking it ’ s all Germany ’ s fault.
” Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .

European nations responded to the coronavirus largely on their own. But many next steps will require coming together, and that will be a test of how unified Europe can be.
European leaders on both sides of the divide recognize this as a make or break moment for Europe. But Francesco Nicoli, an economics professor at the University of Ghent in Belgium, believes countries will eventually come together, as they did a few years after the eurocrisis. “Politics [moves] much faster nowadays. This time it might take up to one year.”
But it is unclear who will pay that bill, whether it will be carried only by the countries most in need, or if the pain will be spread across the EU to include the more financially fit Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. That uncertainty, combined with feelings in the struggling south that the north hasn’t done enough to help them fight the virus, is reopening fissures from the 2008 eurocrisis.
The coronavirus crisis revived familiar fault lines within the European Union. The public health crisis has hit southern countries earlier and harder, with Italy, Spain, and France all struggling to deal with mounting infections by shutting down their economies. The bloc’s economic recovery will cost an estimated 10% of its GDP, or $1.7 trillion, according to estimates.
The coronavirus crisis hit Spain so fast and hard that within days every ward at the Hospital HM Torrelodones near Madrid was taken over by COVID-19 patients. Single rooms were doubled up until the beds ran out. The quantity and quality of protective gear available to medical staff diminished as days gave way to nights and the cases – and death toll – mounted. Help never came from neighboring countries.
“There is no teamwork,” says Adriana Vinasco, who works as an auxiliary nurse at the hospital. “Each country took decisions on their own and in their own timing.”
The coronavirus crisis revived familiar fault lines within the eurozone, with the public health crisis hitting southern countries earlier and harder. An economic recovery will cost an estimated 10% of the European Union’s GDP, or $1.7 trillion, estimates the EU’s industry chief Thierry Beton. But it is unclear who will pay that bill, whether it will be carried only by the countries most in need, such as Italy and Spain, or if the pain will be spread across the EU to include the more financially fit Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands.
Why We Wrote This European nations responded to the coronavirus largely on their own. But many next steps will require coming together, and that will be a test of how unified Europe can be.
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.
Margaritis Schinas, the EU’s “European Way of Life” commissioner, sees this as no surprise. Given the unprecedented nature and intensity of the crisis, member states initially tried to organize as best they could – although not always in a coordinated way. Now they have entered what he characterizes as a “convergence phase”: gravitating toward common solutions as the EU responds to the public health crisis while also figuring out how to mitigate its economic impact.
“There is no doubt that our way of life has been greatly affected, but the values that underpin our way of life remain always intact,” he said during an online event organized by the Center for European Analysis. “Member states found out very clearly that they have more in common than they would think – not only the market, but also the interdependence of our economies, the values, the principles, the mobility that shapes our societies in Europe.”
Hard-hit economies and health systems
The economic devastation is intense in Italy, Spain, and France, where death tolls have been high and economic shutdowns persist. Small businesses have been hit particularly hard, says Heloise de Castelnau, a Paris intellectual property and business lawyer. She is working overtime to help her clients apply for government aid so they can pay landlords, workers, and suppliers. “But the system is complicated,” she says, “and it’s about postponing taxes and extending loans but someday we will have to pay the bills. Right now it’s an emergency plan.”
Courtesy of Adriana Vinasco View caption Hide caption Auxiliary nurse Adriana Vinasco (left) and her colleagues pose with a bouquet of flowers at Hospital HM Torrelodones where they are treating COVID-19 patients. Ms. Vinasco laments that European countries have not coordinated to fight the virus.
COVID-19 relief programs offered in France have been uneven. For example, self-employed individuals can access new forms of aid, but the amount is based on sales, which makes it hard for startups or businesses with little to no sales to qualify. Refugee entrepreneurs face additional hurdles; they don’t have the in-country credit history required to qualify for loan guarantee programs, says FAIRE, a Paris-based endowment fund for refugees.
For now, most French are looking to their own government for rescue. “The EU feels really far away,” she says. “Maybe in May, we’ll have more perspective on things.”
In Italy, the public health system suffers from under-investment, with a spending cut of €37 billion ($40 billion) over the past decade, according to the Gimbe Foundation. Now the pandemic has overwhelmed hospital systems and killed more than 25,000 people. It will need reform. “We are at risk of paying the bill of decades of cost-cutting,” says Quirino Piacevoli, who headed up the intensive care unit at a major hospital in Rome for 20 years.
What’s the ideal outcome?
The preferred solution divides cleanly along northern and southern European lines, much as it did following the global financial crisis of 2008. Then, lifelines were offered to hard-hit countries across the eurozone, but lending came with conditions largely set by wealthy countries such as Germany and the Netherlands.
People in the south felt the conditions intervened deeply in their internal affairs, says Anke Hassel, a public policy professor at Berlin’s Hertie School. For example, Greece was required to cut its minimum wage and make drastic spending cuts to get its economic house in order.
“It felt deeply unfair, and the experience of that time left very bad feelings, in particular, among southern European countries – Italy, Spain, Greece, and to some extent Portugal,” says Dr. Hassel.
Here we are 10 years later, she says, facing a similar situation. “Southern European countries are hit harder, and they don’t have the money to pay for fiscal stimuli or for their businesses to survive the crisis. They’re really facing much more hardship.”
Italy and Spain demand “coronabonds,” which would spread the borrowing risk across the European Union. France’s Emmanuel Macron also supports joint debt, saying the future of the European project is at stake.
Charles Platiau/Reuters View caption Hide caption Medical staff from Georges Pompidou European hospital wave to neighbors and residents applauding from their balconies in support of health care workers amid the coronavirus outbreak in Paris on April 21, 2020.
However, leaders of Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria are inclined to say no. Germany, the EU’s economic powerhouse, has so far weathered COVID-19 with relatively low death tolls, and is slowly starting to reopen its economy. It’s carried budget surpluses and has kept its economy afloat with massive spending packages.
Instead, what eurozone finance ministers have so far agreed upon is a €500 billion package of emergency relief measures. “The Eurogroup last week did not close many doors,” says Francesco Nicoli, assistant professor in economics and international governance at the University of Ghent in Belgium. “It forged a short-term agreement but the real crux, the real problem is if and what to do with this recovery fund.”
Still ahead are important decisions about how to structure – and who will pay for – the very expensive economic reconstruction efforts required after the coronavirus subsides.
A make or break moment
European leaders on both sides of the divide recognize this as a make or break moment for Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the crisis the “biggest test” the EU has faced since its foundation, while Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte goes all the way back to World War II for a greater trial.
Dr. Nicoli argues that any agreement which leaves hard-hit countries with the impression that they have been shortchanged risks empowering euroskeptic parties. In Italy, the right-wing League already boasts mass appeal, and Italians across the political spectrum are quick to express feelings of abandonment. They’re troubled that help was quicker to come from countries such as China and Cuba than from within the EU.
“The European Union has not proven to be a real union,” says Vanessa Ferreri, a pediatric nurse at the intensive care unit and neonatal pathology at the Gaslini Hospital in Genoa, Italy. “If there are countries in difficulty, they do not allow each other to sink but they support each other. These difficulties did not stem from a political error, but from a health emergency.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently apologized to Italy. She said it is “true that too many were not there on time when Italy needed a helping hand at the very beginning. For that, it is right that Europe as a whole offers a heartfelt apology.”
It will take time
Mr. Schinas, the EU commissioner, says the pandemic exposed an asymmetry between what people expect from the EU and the bloc’s actual competencies. How schools and hospitals are organized in a time of crisis is the prerogative of each state, however, many still turned to the EU for guidance on how to react to the pandemic.
Because Italy faced the worst of the crisis first, it provided valuable lessons for countries in the north, which helped them dampen the pandemic’s impact, notes Dr. Nicoli.
It may take a while, but he believes countries will eventually come together, as they did through the creation of the European Stability Mechanism a few years after the 2008 financial crisis or in the wake of the 2015 migration crisis. “It is a different type of crisis,” he says. “Politics [moves] much faster nowadays. This time it might take up to one year.”
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Dr. Hassel, the public policy professor in Berlin, says that it’s very difficult for “both sides” of the EU argument to accept each other’s model. But “it would be really sad if Italy ends up thinking it’s all Germany’s fault.”
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.


csmonitor--2020-04-20--'Senseless' shooting in Canada kills 16 people

A 51-year-old man dressed as a policeman went on a shooting rampage across the northern part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia Sunday , killing 16 people , including a policewoman , in the deadliest such attack in the country in 30 years .
Officials said the suspected shooter was also dead .
The man was identified as Gabriel Wortman and authorities said he disguised himself as a police officer in uniform at one point and mocked up a car to make it seem like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser .
He was arrested by the RCMP in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Scotia , northwest of downtown Halifax .
Police later announced that he had died .
“ In excess of 10 people have been killed , ” RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said .
“ We believe it to be one person who is responsible for all the killings and that he alone moved across the northern part of the province and committed what appears to be several homicides.
” RCMP spokesman Daniel Brien later confirmed that 16 people had been killed in addition to the suspect .
Brian Sauvé , president of National @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officer was among those killed in a shooting and another was injured .
The dead officer was identified as Const .
Heidi Stevenson , a mother of two and a 23-year-old veteran of the force .
Police have not provided a motive for the attack .
He said many of the victims did not know the shooter .
“ That fact that this individual had a uniform and a police car at his disposal certainly speaks to it not being a random act , ” Chief Superintendent Leather said .
He said they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do with the coronavirus pandemic .
“ We have not yet determined whether there is any link to the COVID-19 crisis , ” he said .
He said at point there was an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and police .
The incident started in the small , rural town of Portapique , with police advising residents to lock their homes and stay in their basements .
Police found many dead inside and outside the home of the first scene .
Several structures were on fire in the area as well .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ senseless acts of violence in our province ’ s history , ” said Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil .
He said it was an additional “ heavy burden ” amid efforts to contain the new coronavirus .
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada .
Canada overhauled its gun-control laws after the country ’ s worst mass shooting in 1989 , when gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreal ’ s Ecole Polytechnique college .
It is now illegal to possess an unregistered handgun or any kind of rapid-fire weapon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personal risk assessment , two references , spousal notification , and criminal record checks .
Police stated earlier Sunday the suspect in Sunday ’ s shootings was driving a car that looked like a police vehicle and wearing a police uniform , but later said he was “ believed to be driving a small , silver Chevrolet SUV.
” They said he is not an RCMP employee or officer .
Cpl .
Lisa Croteau , a spokeswoman with the provincial force , said police received a call about “ a person with firearms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the investigation “ evolved into an active shooting investigation.
” “ My heart goes out to everyone affected in what is a terrible situation , ” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said .
Christine Mills , a resident of the town , said it had been a frightening night for the small town , with armed officers patrolling the streets .
In the morning , helicopters flew overhead searching for the suspect .
“ I feel better now to know he ’ s in custody , ” Ms. Mills said .
“ It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know if somebody has lost their mind and is going to beat in your front door.
” Tom Taggart , a lawmaker who represents the Portapique area in the Municipality of Colchester , said the quiet community has been shaken .
“ This is just an absolutely wonderful , peaceful quiet community and the idea that this could happen in our community is unbelievable , ” Mr. Taggart said by phone from his home in Bass River , near the lockdown area .
A Gabriel Wortman is listed as a denturist in Dartmouth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nova Scotia website .
A suspect photo issued by the RCMP matches video footage of a man being interviewed about dentures by CTV Atlantic in 2014 .
Ms. Mills also said that Mr. Wortman was known locally as a denturist who divided his time between a residence in Halifax and a residence in Portapique .
Mr. Taggart said he didn ’ t know Mr. Wortman well , but spoke to him a few times when he telephoned about municipal issues .
He described knowing Mr. Wortman ’ s “ lovely big home ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mr. Wortman owned a few other properties and was believed to divide his time between Portapique and his business in Dartmouth .
This story was reported by The Associated Press .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage .
It ’ s free .

A 51-year-old man dressed as a policeman went on a shooting rampage across the northern part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia Sunday, killing 16 people, including a policewoman, in the deadliest such attack in the country in 30 years. Officials said the suspected shooter was also dead.
The man was identified as Gabriel Wortman and authorities said he disguised himself as a police officer in uniform at one point and mocked up a car to make it seem like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser.
He was arrested by the RCMP in a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia, northwest of downtown Halifax. Police later announced that he had died.
“In excess of 10 people have been killed,” RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said. “We believe it to be one person who is responsible for all the killings and that he alone moved across the northern part of the province and committed what appears to be several homicides.”
RCMP spokesman Daniel Brien later confirmed that 16 people had been killed in addition to the suspect.
Brian Sauvé, president of National Police Federation union, said a police officer was among those killed in a shooting and another was injured.
The dead officer was identified as Const. Heidi Stevenson, a mother of two and a 23-year-old veteran of the force.
Police have not provided a motive for the attack. He said many of the victims did not know the shooter.
“That fact that this individual had a uniform and a police car at his disposal certainly speaks to it not being a random act,” Chief Superintendent Leather said.
He said they would investigate whether it had anything to do with the coronavirus pandemic. “We have not yet determined whether there is any link to the COVID-19 crisis,” he said.
He said at point there was an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and police.
The incident started in the small, rural town of Portapique, with police advising residents to lock their homes and stay in their basements.
Police found many dead inside and outside the home of the first scene.
Several structures were on fire in the area as well.
“This is one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province’s history,” said Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil. He said it was an additional “heavy burden” amid efforts to contain the new coronavirus.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada. Canada overhauled its gun-control laws after the country’s worst mass shooting in 1989, when gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique college. It is now illegal to possess an unregistered handgun or any kind of rapid-fire weapon. Canada also requires training, a personal risk assessment, two references, spousal notification, and criminal record checks.
Police stated earlier Sunday the suspect in Sunday’s shootings was driving a car that looked like a police vehicle and wearing a police uniform, but later said he was “believed to be driving a small, silver Chevrolet SUV.” They said he is not an RCMP employee or officer.
Cpl. Lisa Croteau, a spokeswoman with the provincial force, said police received a call about “a person with firearms” at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday and the investigation “evolved into an active shooting investigation.”
“My heart goes out to everyone affected in what is a terrible situation,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
Christine Mills, a resident of the town, said it had been a frightening night for the small town, with armed officers patrolling the streets. In the morning, helicopters flew overhead searching for the suspect.
“I feel better now to know he’s in custody,” Ms. Mills said. “It’s nerve-wracking because you don’t know if somebody has lost their mind and is going to beat in your front door.”
Tom Taggart, a lawmaker who represents the Portapique area in the Municipality of Colchester, said the quiet community has been shaken.
“This is just an absolutely wonderful, peaceful quiet community and the idea that this could happen in our community is unbelievable,” Mr. Taggart said by phone from his home in Bass River, near the lockdown area.
A Gabriel Wortman is listed as a denturist in Dartmouth, according to the Denturist Society of Nova Scotia website. A suspect photo issued by the RCMP matches video footage of a man being interviewed about dentures by CTV Atlantic in 2014.
Ms. Mills also said that Mr. Wortman was known locally as a denturist who divided his time between a residence in Halifax and a residence in Portapique.
Mr. Taggart said he didn’t know Mr. Wortman well, but spoke to him a few times when he telephoned about municipal issues.
He described knowing Mr. Wortman’s “lovely big home” on Portapique Beach Road. He said Mr. Wortman owned a few other properties and was believed to divide his time between Portapique and his business in Dartmouth.
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This story was reported by The Associated Press.
Editor’s note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. It’s free.


csmonitor--2020-04-02--An army of health care workers answer calls for help in New York

The work is exhausting and dangerous , the situation bleak .
But an army of health care workers heeded New York 's call for help reinforcing hospitals overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic .
So far , at least 82,000 people have volunteered for the state 's reserve force of medical workers – a group that includes recent retirees returning to work , health care professionals who can take a break from their regular jobs , and people between gigs , according to health officials .
Few have made it into the field yet as hospitals and state regulators vet enlistees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But Gov .
Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that 's about to change .
By Thursday , hospitals expect to hire about 1,500 volunteers to rescue a medical workforce that needs relief , particularly in New York City .
Health care workers who have hit the ground already , many brought in by staffing agencies , discovered a hospital system in danger of being overwhelmed .
`` I have never seen so many human beings in an ER at one time in my entire life , '' said Liz Schaffer , a nurse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had her first shift on Tuesday at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan .
`` Shoulder to shoulder .
It is a sight I never thought I would see . ''
Similar recruiting efforts are underway in other states preparing for waves of patients , including California , Washington , Pennsylvania , Illinois , Louisiana , Massachusetts , Oregon , Virginia , New Jersey , North Dakota , and Washington D.C. And recruitment is happening at the federal level , too , where the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs have reached out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Harvard University , and New York are give out diplomas to graduating doctors and nurses early to help meet the need now .
The death toll from the virus climbed to nearly 2,000 Wednesday across New York state , with most of the fatalities coming in New York City in just the past week .
Several of the dead include health care workers .
Many other medical workers have become seriously ill .
Protective masks , gowns , and gloves remain rationed at some hospitals due to anticipated shortages .
Despite those risks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fight .
`` Whatever it is that they need , I 'm willing to do , '' said Jerry Kops , a licensed nurse on Long Island who was on tour as a musician in the Blue Man Group before its North American tour was interrupted by the coronavirus shutdown a few weeks ago .
`` I keep thinking about my old co-workers and friends that are still in nursing .
And to me , it 's like if they have to be there , I should be there , too , '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being at a testing site , cool .
If it means being relief staff for RNs that are overworked right now in hospitals , cool . ''
Hospital volunteers in New York will be paid .
But that is not always the case in other parts of the country that are seeking medical volunteers .
In Washington state , for instance , volunteer retirees who staff free clinics are not routinely paid for their work .
But those who volunteer at hospitals will be paid .
Adding to the corps of state recruits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ staffing agencies .
Nurses are being offered up to $ 100 per hour plus food and lodging to fill over 5,000 openings in hospital intensive care units and emergency rooms , said Michael Fazio , whose company , Prime Staffing , has recruited over 250 workers to New York hospitals in recent weeks .
`` It shocks me more and more the calls I 'm getting .
West Coast nurses are calling me , wanting to help , '' Mr. Fazio said .
`` They 're leaving their families , wanting to help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of COVID-19 .
Their driving force is saying : ' I 'm coming to help fight this , help New York City . '
'' One of those nurses , Katherine Ramos , of Cape Coral , Florida , described her work at New York Presbyterian Hospital as exhausting .
`` It 's hard when you lose patients .
It 's hard when you have to tell the family members : ' I 'm sorry , but we did everything that we could , ' '' she said .
`` It 's even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the time to mourn , the time to talk about this . ''
She has been staying in an apartment with her husband and two children – carefully removing her shoes and clothing outside on a deck after each shift to reduce the likelihood of bringing the virus home .
But she plans on moving soon to a hotel so if she catches the virus , she wo n't infect her family .
`` I want to be able to protect my family more , '' she said .
New York officials say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of additional medical workers to deploy quickly ahead of an expected surge in patients in the next three weeks .
Temporary hospitals are hastily being constructed in convention centers , athletic complexes , college campuses , and other locations , but workers will be needed to make them functional .
In Pennsylvania , Dr. John Gallagher volunteered to work at hospitals near his home at the Ohio border a few months after retiring at age 65 .
He said the danger of contracting the coronavirus himself and spreading it to loved ones left @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , '' he added , `` it 's one of those things .
If it 's needed , than we 've got to play our part .
We ca n't leave people hanging out there . ''
Laura Benson , 60 , a semi-retired nurse in Westchester County north of New York City , said she 's also ready for front-line hospital work , and was itching to get in action sooner .
`` I found it a little frustrating that I was n't hearing back , '' she said .
Westchester County @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a childcare center for healthcare workers in nearby White Plains , but she 's ready for more .
`` There 's no reason I could n't put in a full shift somewhere .
And it may come to that .
I would absolutely be willing to do that .
But this is the need that they have right now , '' she said .
This story was reported by The Associated press .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

The work is exhausting and dangerous, the situation bleak. But an army of health care workers heeded New York's call for help reinforcing hospitals overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.
So far, at least 82,000 people have volunteered for the state's reserve force of medical workers – a group that includes recent retirees returning to work, health care professionals who can take a break from their regular jobs, and people between gigs, according to health officials.
Few have made it into the field yet as hospitals and state regulators vet enlistees and decide how to deploy them. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that's about to change. By Thursday, hospitals expect to hire about 1,500 volunteers to rescue a medical workforce that needs relief, particularly in New York City.
Health care workers who have hit the ground already, many brought in by staffing agencies, discovered a hospital system in danger of being overwhelmed.
"I have never seen so many human beings in an ER at one time in my entire life," said Liz Schaffer, a nurse from St. Paul, Minnesota, who had her first shift on Tuesday at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. "Shoulder to shoulder. It is a sight I never thought I would see."
Similar recruiting efforts are underway in other states preparing for waves of patients, including California, Washington, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, Virginia, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Washington D.C. And recruitment is happening at the federal level, too, where the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs have reached out.
Medical schools in Massachusetts, including Harvard University, and New York are give out diplomas to graduating doctors and nurses early to help meet the need now.
The death toll from the virus climbed to nearly 2,000 Wednesday across New York state, with most of the fatalities coming in New York City in just the past week.
Several of the dead include health care workers. Many other medical workers have become seriously ill. Protective masks, gowns, and gloves remain rationed at some hospitals due to anticipated shortages.
Despite those risks, many have volunteered to join the fight.
"Whatever it is that they need, I'm willing to do," said Jerry Kops, a licensed nurse on Long Island who was on tour as a musician in the Blue Man Group before its North American tour was interrupted by the coronavirus shutdown a few weeks ago.
"I keep thinking about my old co-workers and friends that are still in nursing. And to me, it's like if they have to be there, I should be there, too," he said. "If it means being at a testing site, cool. If it means being relief staff for RNs that are overworked right now in hospitals, cool."
Hospital volunteers in New York will be paid. But that is not always the case in other parts of the country that are seeking medical volunteers. In Washington state, for instance, volunteer retirees who staff free clinics are not routinely paid for their work. But those who volunteer at hospitals will be paid.
Adding to the corps of state recruits are more workers being brought in by staffing agencies.
Nurses are being offered up to $100 per hour plus food and lodging to fill over 5,000 openings in hospital intensive care units and emergency rooms, said Michael Fazio, whose company, Prime Staffing, has recruited over 250 workers to New York hospitals in recent weeks.
"It shocks me more and more the calls I'm getting. West Coast nurses are calling me, wanting to help," Mr. Fazio said. "They're leaving their families, wanting to help. They don't have the fear of COVID-19. Their driving force is saying: 'I'm coming to help fight this, help New York City.'"
One of those nurses, Katherine Ramos, of Cape Coral, Florida, described her work at New York Presbyterian Hospital as exhausting.
"It's hard when you lose patients. It's hard when you have to tell the family members: 'I'm sorry, but we did everything that we could,'" she said. "It's even harder when we really don't have the time to mourn, the time to talk about this."
She has been staying in an apartment with her husband and two children – carefully removing her shoes and clothing outside on a deck after each shift to reduce the likelihood of bringing the virus home. But she plans on moving soon to a hotel so if she catches the virus, she won't infect her family.
"I want to be able to protect my family more," she said.
New York officials say the state will need tens of thousands of additional medical workers to deploy quickly ahead of an expected surge in patients in the next three weeks.
Temporary hospitals are hastily being constructed in convention centers, athletic complexes, college campuses, and other locations, but workers will be needed to make them functional.
In Pennsylvania, Dr. John Gallagher volunteered to work at hospitals near his home at the Ohio border a few months after retiring at age 65. He said the danger of contracting the coronavirus himself and spreading it to loved ones left him "terrified."
"But," he added, "it's one of those things. If it's needed, than we've got to play our part. We can't leave people hanging out there."
Laura Benson, 60, a semi-retired nurse in Westchester County north of New York City, said she's also ready for front-line hospital work, and was itching to get in action sooner.
"I found it a little frustrating that I wasn't hearing back," she said.
Westchester County summoned her last week to screen people at a childcare center for healthcare workers in nearby White Plains, but she's ready for more.
"There's no reason I couldn't put in a full shift somewhere. And it may come to that. I would absolutely be willing to do that. But this is the need that they have right now," she said.
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empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
This story was reported by The Associated press.
Editor’s note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. It’s free.


csmonitor--2020-06-03--Peace, not troops, marked Tuesday's George Floyd protests

Protests were largely peaceful and the nation 's streets were calmer than they have been in days since the killing of George Floyd set off sometimes violent demonstrations against police brutality and injustice against African Americans .
An earlier curfew and efforts by protesters to contain the violence prevented more widespread damage to businesses in New York City overnight .
As of Wednesday morning , arrests grew to more than 9,000 nationwide since the unrest began in response to Mr. Floyd 's death May 25 in Minneapolis .
There was a marked quiet compared with the unrest of the past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shootings in some cities .
Many cities intensified their curfews , with authorities in Washington also ordering people off streets before sundown .
A block away from the White House , thousands of demonstrators massed following a crackdown a day earlier when officers on foot and horseback aggressively drove peaceful protesters away from Lafayette Park , clearing the way for President Donald Trump to do a photo op at nearby St. John ’ s Church .
Tuesday 's protesters faced law enforcement personnel who stood behind a black chain-link fence put up overnight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Last night pushed me way over the edge , ” said Jessica DeMaio of Washington , who attended a Floyd protest Tuesday for the first time .
“ Being here is better than being at home feeling helpless.
” Pastors at the church prayed with demonstrators and handed out water bottles .
The crowd remained in place after the city ’ s 7 p.m. curfew passed , defying warnings that the response from law enforcement could be even more forceful .
But the people were peaceful , even polite .
At one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protester climbed a light post and took down a street sign .
A chant went up : “ Peaceful protest !
” Pope Francis called for national reconciliation and peace , saying he has “ witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest ’ ’ in the United States in recent days .
`` My friends , we can not tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life , ’ ’ the pope said during his weekly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of bishops due to coronavirus restrictions on gatherings .
Mr. Trump , meanwhile , amplified his hard-line calls from Monday , when he threatened to send in the military to restore order if governors didn ’ t do it .
“ NYC , CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD , ” he tweeted .
“ The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart .
Act fast !
” Thousands of people remained in the streets of New York City Tuesday night , undeterred by an 8 p.m. curfew , though most streets were clear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pocked with battered storefronts after Monday ’ s protests .
Protests also passed across the U.S. , including in Los Angeles , Miami , St. Paul , Minnesota , Columbia , South Carolina , and Houston , where the police chief talked to peaceful demonstrators , vowing reforms .
“ God as my witness , change is coming , ” Art Acevedo said .
“ And we ’ re going to do it the right way.
” More than 20,000 National Guard members have been called up in 29 states to deal with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ City , where Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he does not want the Guard , despite an offer from Gov .
Andrew Cuomo .
On Tuesday , Mr. Cuomo called what happened in the city Monday night “ a disgrace.
” “ The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job , ” Mr. Cuomo said at a briefing in Albany .
He said his fellow Democrat underestimated the problem , and the nation ’ s largest police force was not deployed in sufficient numbers , though the city had said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tuesday marked the eighth straight night of protests that began after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Mr. Floyd 's neck while the handcuffed black man called out that he could n't breathe .
The officer , Derek Chauvin , has been fired and charged with murder .
The mother of George Floyd ’ s 6-year-old daughter , Gianna , said she wants the world to know that her little girl lost a good father .
“ I want everybody to know that this is what those officers took , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ news conference , her daughter at her side .
“ I want justice for him because he was good .
No matter what anybody thinks , he was good.
” Some protesters framed the burgeoning movement as a necessity after seemingly incessant killings by police .
“ It feels like it ’ s just been an endless cascade of hashtags of black people dying , and it feels like nothing ’ s really being done by our political leaders to actually enact real change , ” said Christine Ohenzuwa who attended a peaceful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ St. Paul .
“ There ’ s always going to be a breaking point .
I think right now , we ’ re seeing the breaking point around the country.
” “ I live in this state .
It ’ s really painful to see what ’ s going on , but it ’ s also really important to understand that it ’ s connected to a system of racial violence , ” she said .
Meanwhile , governors and mayors , Republicans and Democrats alike , rejected Mr. Trump 's threat to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying troops would be unnecessary and others questioning whether the government has such authority and warning that such a step would be dangerous .
Such use of the military would mark a stunning federal intervention rarely seen in modern American history .
A senior White House official , speaking on condition of anonymity , said the president is not rushing to deploy the military and that his goal was to pressure governors to deploy more National Guard members .
Nine states and the District of Columbia held presidential primaries on Tuesday , testing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elections while balancing a pandemic and sweeping social unrest .
Joe Biden won hundreds more delegates , nearly enough to formally secure the Democratic presidential nomination .
Also Tuesday , Minnesota opened an investigation into whether the Minneapolis Police Department has a pattern of discrimination against minorities .
This story was reported by The Associated Press .
Sullivan reported from Minneapolis .
AP journalists across the U.S. contributed to this report .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage @ @ @ @ @ @

Protests were largely peaceful and the nation's streets were calmer than they have been in days since the killing of George Floyd set off sometimes violent demonstrations against police brutality and injustice against African Americans.
An earlier curfew and efforts by protesters to contain the violence prevented more widespread damage to businesses in New York City overnight. As of Wednesday morning, arrests grew to more than 9,000 nationwide since the unrest began in response to Mr. Floyd's death May 25 in Minneapolis.
There was a marked quiet compared with the unrest of the past few nights, which included fires and shootings in some cities. Many cities intensified their curfews, with authorities in Washington also ordering people off streets before sundown.
A block away from the White House, thousands of demonstrators massed following a crackdown a day earlier when officers on foot and horseback aggressively drove peaceful protesters away from Lafayette Park, clearing the way for President Donald Trump to do a photo op at nearby St. John’s Church. Tuesday's protesters faced law enforcement personnel who stood behind a black chain-link fence put up overnight to block access to the park.
“Last night pushed me way over the edge,” said Jessica DeMaio of Washington, who attended a Floyd protest Tuesday for the first time. “Being here is better than being at home feeling helpless.”
Pastors at the church prayed with demonstrators and handed out water bottles. The crowd remained in place after the city’s 7 p.m. curfew passed, defying warnings that the response from law enforcement could be even more forceful. But the people were peaceful, even polite. At one point, the crowd booed when a protester climbed a light post and took down a street sign. A chant went up: “Peaceful protest!”
Pope Francis called for national reconciliation and peace, saying he has “witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest’’ in the United States in recent days.
"My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life,’’ the pope said during his weekly Wednesday audience, held in the presence of bishops due to coronavirus restrictions on gatherings.
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, amplified his hard-line calls from Monday, when he threatened to send in the military to restore order if governors didn’t do it.
“NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD,” he tweeted. “The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast!”
Thousands of people remained in the streets of New York City Tuesday night, undeterred by an 8 p.m. curfew, though most streets were clear by early Wednesday. Midtown Manhattan was pocked with battered storefronts after Monday’s protests.
Protests also passed across the U.S., including in Los Angeles, Miami, St. Paul, Minnesota, Columbia, South Carolina, and Houston, where the police chief talked to peaceful demonstrators, vowing reforms.
“God as my witness, change is coming,” Art Acevedo said. “And we’re going to do it the right way.”
More than 20,000 National Guard members have been called up in 29 states to deal with the violence. Not in New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he does not want the Guard, despite an offer from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
On Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo called what happened in the city Monday night “a disgrace.”
“The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job,” Mr. Cuomo said at a briefing in Albany.
He said his fellow Democrat underestimated the problem, and the nation’s largest police force was not deployed in sufficient numbers, though the city had said it doubled the usual police presence.
Tuesday marked the eighth straight night of protests that began after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Mr. Floyd's neck while the handcuffed black man called out that he couldn't breathe. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been fired and charged with murder.
The mother of George Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter, Gianna, said she wants the world to know that her little girl lost a good father.
“I want everybody to know that this is what those officers took,” Roxie Washington said during a Minneapolis news conference, her daughter at her side. “I want justice for him because he was good. No matter what anybody thinks, he was good.”
Some protesters framed the burgeoning movement as a necessity after seemingly incessant killings by police.
“It feels like it’s just been an endless cascade of hashtags of black people dying, and it feels like nothing’s really being done by our political leaders to actually enact real change,” said Christine Ohenzuwa who attended a peaceful protest at the Minnesota state Capitol in St. Paul. “There’s always going to be a breaking point. I think right now, we’re seeing the breaking point around the country.”
“I live in this state. It’s really painful to see what’s going on, but it’s also really important to understand that it’s connected to a system of racial violence,” she said.
Meanwhile, governors and mayors, Republicans and Democrats alike, rejected Mr. Trump's threat to send in the military, with some saying troops would be unnecessary and others questioning whether the government has such authority and warning that such a step would be dangerous.
Such use of the military would mark a stunning federal intervention rarely seen in modern American history.
A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the president is not rushing to deploy the military and that his goal was to pressure governors to deploy more National Guard members.
Nine states and the District of Columbia held presidential primaries on Tuesday, testing the nation’s ability to run elections while balancing a pandemic and sweeping social unrest. Joe Biden won hundreds more delegates, nearly enough to formally secure the Democratic presidential nomination.
Also Tuesday, Minnesota opened an investigation into whether the Minneapolis Police Department has a pattern of discrimination against minorities.
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
This story was reported by The Associated Press. Sullivan reported from Minneapolis. AP journalists across the U.S. contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. It’s free.


csmonitor--2020-06-03--They have a degree, but what about a job? Recent grads get creative.

“ The crisis has not changed my attitude towards going to medical school and becoming an emergency room doctor , ” he says .
“ If anything , it has made me more certain that it will be a challenging and rewarding career path.
” Experts and graduates themselves say they need to stay proactive despite the hardships .
Some are delaying entry into the workforce , opting for grad school instead .
For others , like Mr. Greenberg , the situation is helping bring clarity to what to pursue .
The class of 2020 is joining the workforce at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Although a once-positive job outlook has turned decidedly adverse , new grads are striving for – and many are finding – internships or job options , or other next steps amid the pandemic .
“ We get plenty of interesting calls here so I didn ’ t see any reason to start over somewhere else and we ’ re perpetually understaffed , ” explains Mr. Greenberg , who graduated this year .
When the pandemic hit , Samuel Greenberg , then a senior at Dartmouth College , did not move back to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took a job as an emergency medical technician in a nearby town .
He plans to continue working for the same EMT service during the coming year .
As college graduates look for jobs this summer , they may find themselves turning to Wade Fletcher .
Mr. Fletcher , a rising sophomore at Indiana University , started CovIntern , a platform through which companies post remote internship opportunities .
The website is now used by more than 100,000 users in over 100 countries , and its creator makes sure that each posting is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are a lot of opportunities masquerading as internships , ” Mr. Fletcher explains .
“ I ’ m not going to post any opportunity on here that ’ s not something I would do myself.
” Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .
As the interest in this website attests , even internships have become a hot commodity , as the class of 2020 in particular joins the workforce at a time of Great Depression-level unemployment rates .
Although a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , new grads are striving for – and many are finding – internships or job options , or other next steps amid the pandemic .
A key for graduates , experts say , is to remain proactive despite the hardships .
“ I would encourage grads to continue to network , take online coursework if possible , and continue to build and augment their resumes so when the market does turn around , they are right there and ready to get that dream opportunity , ” says AnnElizabeth Konkel , an economist at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the class of 2020 have been doing just that , even while joining the fight against the coronavirus .
When the pandemic hit , Samuel Greenberg – who graduated this year from Dartmouth College in Hanover , New Hampshire , with a degree in biological sciences – did not move back to New York City .
Instead , he took a job as an emergency medical technician ( EMT ) in Claremont , a nearby town .
During the peak of the pandemic , Mr. Greenberg transported many patients with the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ equipment .
As intense as he says that was , he plans to continue working for the same EMT service during the coming year .
“ We get plenty of interesting calls here so I didn ’ t see any reason to start over somewhere else and we ’ re perpetually understaffed , ” he explains .
By most accounts , the class of 2020 was graduating into one of the best and most inclusive economic times in American history .
In the United States , the unemployment rate had fallen to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And minority groups were making some of the biggest economic strides .
That was before COVID-19 shocked the world .
Now , graduates face a new reality .
“ It ’ s a really tough time to enter the labor market and get that first 9-to-5 opportunity , ” says Ms. Konkel from Indeed .
In March , McKenna Bates , then a senior at George Mason University in Fairfax , Virginia , moved back in with family in southern Virginia to finish college remotely when the coronavirus hit .
In the process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ near her college campus .
And though Ms. Bates , who has a degree in government and international politics , has been applying to jobs since moving back home , the search has so far been unsuccessful .
“ I ’ ve been looking since January and was turned down from one job around February .
As for the rest of the jobs I ’ ve applied to , I ’ ve either not heard back at all or was told that everything , including hiring , is frozen until normal life resumes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ message .
Ms. Bates is now turning to her professional network to gauge which companies are hiring .
And if she is not able to find a job , she says she would take a temporary job until the labor market stabilizes .
For some graduates , the current economy has meant delaying entry into the job market and pursuing grad school .
Katie Coscia , a 2020 graduate of Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville , Georgia , who majored in cell biology , had to make what she says was one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – where to pursue a Ph.D. in biology – without a chance to visit campuses and talk to professors and students in person .
“ Having to try to figure out what the next 5 to 7 years of my life are going to be like based on incredibly incomplete data has been one of the most stressful things I ’ ve ever experienced , ” she says .
In the end , she accepted a place in the Ph.D. program at the University of Delaware .
And though much is still unknown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is relieved to know what she will be doing come fall .
“ I know that ‘ normal ’ is going to have a different meaning for a while , but seeing myself registered for some of my first classes as a graduate student reminds me that there is something great waiting for me down the road , even if there ’ s times where it doesn ’ t feel like it , ” she says .
Despite the disruptions in post-graduation plans for many , some have not been as severely affected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who just earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca , New York , says that although he might have to rethink his plan to return to Cornell this fall to pursue his master ’ s in engineering , his summer internship at SpaceX is moving forward as planned .
He recently began working at the company ’ s Los Angeles office , which he says has implemented safety measures such as foot handles on bathroom doors and coronavirus testing for employees .
Emotionally , however , Mr. Richman is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the class of 2020 are undergoing .
“ I have multiple friends whose internships have been cancelled , and people have been posting all over the internet with their stories .
It seems to be completely random which companies are cancelling internships , and it varies case by case .
Because of this , I feel almost a sort of ‘ survivor ’ s guilt.
’ I didn ’ t do anything better or worse than others , I just got really lucky that my company decided to keep the internship program this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Economic Research , college graduates entering the workforce during recessions are disproportionately affected .
They start at smaller companies that pay less , and suffer earnings losses that do not recover for about a decade .
Recessions also magnify the disparities within a graduating class , with those who are set to earn less in wages experiencing stronger and longer-term losses in earnings .
Even so , for some , like Mr. Greenberg the EMT , the situation is helping bring clarity to what to pursue .
“ The crisis has not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ school and becoming an emergency room doctor , ” he says .
“ If anything , it has made me more certain that it will be a challenging and rewarding career path.
” Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .

“The crisis has not changed my attitude towards going to medical school and becoming an emergency room doctor,” he says. “If anything, it has made me more certain that it will be a challenging and rewarding career path.”
Experts and graduates themselves say they need to stay proactive despite the hardships. Some are delaying entry into the workforce, opting for grad school instead. For others, like Mr. Greenberg, the situation is helping bring clarity to what to pursue.
The class of 2020 is joining the workforce at a time of Great Depression-level unemployment rates. Although a once-positive job outlook has turned decidedly adverse, new grads are striving for – and many are finding – internships or job options, or other next steps amid the pandemic.
Job hunts always require resourcefulness and perseverance, but this year’s college graduates need an abundance of both. How is the latest group to enter the workforce adapting to an uncertain environment?
“We get plenty of interesting calls here so I didn’t see any reason to start over somewhere else and we’re perpetually understaffed,” explains Mr. Greenberg, who graduated this year.
When the pandemic hit, Samuel Greenberg, then a senior at Dartmouth College, did not move back to New York City. Instead, he took a job as an emergency medical technician in a nearby town. He plans to continue working for the same EMT service during the coming year.
As college graduates look for jobs this summer, they may find themselves turning to Wade Fletcher.
Mr. Fletcher, a rising sophomore at Indiana University, started CovIntern, a platform through which companies post remote internship opportunities. The website is now used by more than 100,000 users in over 100 countries, and its creator makes sure that each posting is legitimate and pays fairly.
“There are a lot of opportunities masquerading as internships,” Mr. Fletcher explains. “I’m not going to post any opportunity on here that’s not something I would do myself.”
Why We Wrote This Job hunts always require resourcefulness and perseverance, but this year’s college graduates need an abundance of both. How is the latest group to enter the workforce adapting to an uncertain environment?
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.
As the interest in this website attests, even internships have become a hot commodity, as the class of 2020 in particular joins the workforce at a time of Great Depression-level unemployment rates. Although a once-positive job outlook has turned decidedly adverse, new grads are striving for – and many are finding – internships or job options, or other next steps amid the pandemic. A key for graduates, experts say, is to remain proactive despite the hardships.
“I would encourage grads to continue to network, take online coursework if possible, and continue to build and augment their resumes so when the market does turn around, they are right there and ready to get that dream opportunity,” says AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab.
Some members of the class of 2020 have been doing just that, even while joining the fight against the coronavirus. When the pandemic hit, Samuel Greenberg – who graduated this year from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, with a degree in biological sciences – did not move back to New York City. Instead, he took a job as an emergency medical technician (EMT) in Claremont, a nearby town.
During the peak of the pandemic, Mr. Greenberg transported many patients with the coronavirus, often with limited access to protective equipment. As intense as he says that was, he plans to continue working for the same EMT service during the coming year.
“We get plenty of interesting calls here so I didn’t see any reason to start over somewhere else and we’re perpetually understaffed,” he explains.
By most accounts, the class of 2020 was graduating into one of the best and most inclusive economic times in American history. In the United States, the unemployment rate had fallen to a 50-year low, at 3.5%. And minority groups were making some of the biggest economic strides.
That was before COVID-19 shocked the world. Now, graduates face a new reality. “It’s a really tough time to enter the labor market and get that first 9-to-5 opportunity,” says Ms. Konkel from Indeed.
In March, McKenna Bates, then a senior at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, moved back in with family in southern Virginia to finish college remotely when the coronavirus hit. In the process, she lost her part-time teaching job near her college campus. And though Ms. Bates, who has a degree in government and international politics, has been applying to jobs since moving back home, the search has so far been unsuccessful.
“I’ve been looking since January and was turned down from one job around February. As for the rest of the jobs I’ve applied to, I’ve either not heard back at all or was told that everything, including hiring, is frozen until normal life resumes,” Ms. Bates said via text message.
Ms. Bates is now turning to her professional network to gauge which companies are hiring. And if she is not able to find a job, she says she would take a temporary job until the labor market stabilizes.
For some graduates, the current economy has meant delaying entry into the job market and pursuing grad school. Katie Coscia, a 2020 graduate of Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia, who majored in cell biology, had to make what she says was one of the most important decisions of her career – where to pursue a Ph.D. in biology – without a chance to visit campuses and talk to professors and students in person.
“Having to try to figure out what the next 5 to 7 years of my life are going to be like based on incredibly incomplete data has been one of the most stressful things I’ve ever experienced,” she says.
In the end, she accepted a place in the Ph.D. program at the University of Delaware. And though much is still unknown for many students like her, she is relieved to know what she will be doing come fall.
“I know that ‘normal’ is going to have a different meaning for a while, but seeing myself registered for some of my first classes as a graduate student reminds me that there is something great waiting for me down the road, even if there’s times where it doesn’t feel like it,” she says.
Despite the disruptions in post-graduation plans for many, some have not been as severely affected by the pandemic. Josh Richman, who just earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, says that although he might have to rethink his plan to return to Cornell this fall to pursue his master’s in engineering, his summer internship at SpaceX is moving forward as planned. He recently began working at the company’s Los Angeles office, which he says has implemented safety measures such as foot handles on bathroom doors and coronavirus testing for employees.
Emotionally, however, Mr. Richman is still experiencing the shock waves many in the class of 2020 are undergoing.
“I have multiple friends whose internships have been cancelled, and people have been posting all over the internet with their stories. It seems to be completely random which companies are cancelling internships, and it varies case by case. Because of this, I feel almost a sort of ‘survivor’s guilt.’ I didn’t do anything better or worse than others, I just got really lucky that my company decided to keep the internship program this summer.”
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, college graduates entering the workforce during recessions are disproportionately affected. They start at smaller companies that pay less, and suffer earnings losses that do not recover for about a decade. Recessions also magnify the disparities within a graduating class, with those who are set to earn less in wages experiencing stronger and longer-term losses in earnings.
Even so, for some, like Mr. Greenberg the EMT, the situation is helping bring clarity to what to pursue.
“The crisis has not changed my attitude towards going to medical school and becoming an emergency room doctor,” he says. “If anything, it has made me more certain that it will be a challenging and rewarding career path.”
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.


csmonitor--2020-06-09--Daily for June 9, 2020

Daily for June 9, 2020

Have we been here before ?
The civil unrest seen across the United States since a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd may be rivaled only by the chaotic summers of the late 1960s , when racial tensions , the civil rights movement , and the Vietnam War fueled widespread protests and rioting .
Houston – and the Third Ward , the historically black neighborhood where Mr. Floyd grew up – experienced that late ’ 60s unrest , including a violent encounter in 1967 on the campus of Texas Southern University ( TSU ) , a historically black college in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arrest almost 500 students and shoot up a dormitory .
Race riots broke out in cities around the country in those months – a period now known as the “ long , hot summer of 1967.
” In a report analyzing the cause of the unrest , the Kerner Commission concluded that white Americans were largely to blame for maintaining systemic inequality between black and white Americans .
President Lyndon Johnson didn ’ t act on those conclusions , and a year later protests again erupted across the country – again , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rev .
Martin Luther King Jr. “ Because before it was only one community , [ authorities could ] ignore it , ” says Ronald Goodwin , a history professor at Prairie View A & M University , of earlier protests by the black community .
“ Now you can ’ t ignore it.
” Houston , which hosted a memorial service for Mr. Floyd Monday , has seen daily protests demanding justice for his death .
Yet the civil unrest of this moment is different , locals and experts say , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but a broader disillusionment with American institutions that could be an even tougher problem to tackle than what the country faced 50 years ago .
“ While we should be focused on police brutality in black communities , what this has brought out is a broad discontent in society .
And that ’ s something we need to be concerned about and take seriously , ” says Marcus Casey , an economist at the University of Illinois , Chicago , and the Brookings Institution .
Adding to the urgency of today ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years police have killed about 1,000 Americans every year .
That number has not changed despite promises of reform after the massive riots and protests resulting from high-profile deaths of African Americans including Michael Brown , Eric Garner , Sandra Bland , Philando Castile , and Freddie Gray .
In the Third Ward , Brother Deloyd T. Parker Jr. , who runs a local community center and knew Mr. Floyd , has been protesting police brutality for decades .
But this time , he acknowledges , is different .
“ I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he says , “ but I ’ m hurt every time .
There ’ s a George every day.
” “ What happened to George was the straw that broke the camel ’ s back .
What that uncovered and unveiled is a lot of injustices that have taken place all over the country , and all over the world , ” he adds .
“ He ’ s pretty much a symbol now.
” When 60,000 people demonstrated here last week , one thing stood out to many Houstonians in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people around them .
“ You see Asians , you see whites , you see Latinos , you see Indians , Native Americans .
Everybody is here , ” said Ephesian Fields , a black woman , during the protest .
“ Things may change , ” she added , but “ at the end of the day , all we need is hope .
All we have is hope .
And the protests show hope.
” The need for the protests was bluntly apparent to many protesters .
“ Anybody with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we get treated [ expletive ] , ” said Eduardo Reyes , sporting a Mexican flag bandana around his neck .
His girlfriend , Kazaree Barnett , was wearing an S.U.C .
pullover , the name of the rap group Mr. Floyd belonged to .
Through tears she said the objective was to march in peace .
“ It could be my dad , it could my brother , it could be a loved one , or it could be me , ” she added .
“ At the end of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We just want to be safe.
” That diversity is perhaps not surprising for Houston , a majority-minority city .
But the nationwide protests over Mr. Floyd ’ s killing have been diverse in another way : geography .
In Texas , major cities have seen protests , but so have small towns with small black populations .
Demonstrators have gathered in downtown New York City , Chicago , and Los Angeles , but also in those cities ’ suburbs .
Protesters have turned out in majority-white cities like Salt Lake City , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The cellphone video that captured Mr. Floyd ’ s last moments – Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes while he begged for breath – is visceral and horrifying , even compared to other videos of police killings .
( Mr. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder ; the three other officers who participated in detaining Mr. Floyd face charges of aiding and abetting his killing . )
And to be sure , racism , police brutality , and the Black Lives Matter movement are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in this moment of heightened disillusionment there are a host of other issues driving people onto the streets .
The financial and psychological shock of the COVID-19 pandemic is certainly a factor , whether it be for Gen Zers entering the job market or Millennials still recovering from the Great Recession .
( The pandemic has hit Houston ’ s large oil and gas industry especially hard . )
But more than half the country also disapproves of President Donald Trump ’ s performance .
Half of Americans believe that Supreme Court justices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political views when they make rulings , and have “ very little ” confidence in Congress .
Even more Americans are increasingly concerned that issues like the threat of white nationalism and climate change aren ’ t getting enough attention .
“ There ’ s a growing pessimism about the institutions in the United States , the elites , ” says Professor Casey .
“ That ’ s what ’ s driving broader participation.
” People of all races “ feel this growing inequality in society , the idea that institutions aren ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ file , ” he adds .
“ They see those things as linked to the police brutality.
” For decades , police brutality has rarely not been top of mind in the Third Ward .
In 1967 , protests broke out in Houston after a child drowned in the Holmes Road dump , a landfill in a black community .
As protests continued and tensions climbed , Houston police raided the TSU campus on the early morning of May 17 , firing around 3,000 rounds into Lanier Dormitory and arresting 488 students .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and they were all exonerated .
While much of the late ’ 60s unrest was racially diverse – the civil rights movement in particular – the riots of the “ long , hot summer ” were characterized by events like that at TSU : unrest sparked by local grievances in black communities over issues like police brutality and poor living conditions .
This moment is different , and in many ways the Third Ward is different too .
When Mr. Floyd was growing up there , Mr. Parker says , the neighborhood – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had just begun to change .
“ It was blacker , ” he adds .
“ You wouldn ’ t see many people of European extraction walking their dogs down the street.
” Mr. Floyd spent time at S.H.A.P.E .
Community Center , which Mr. Parker co-founded in 1969 .
He attended Jack Yates High School – named after one of the area ’ s early Baptist pastors – and , having shot up to 6 feet 6 inches tall , stood out in football and basketball , helping the school get to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dropping out of college , he returned to the Third Ward and helped establish the city ’ s renowned hip-hop scene .
After getting into trouble with the law and spending four years in prison , he returned to the Third Ward with a new dedication to improving his community .
He would often stop by the S.H.A.P.E .
Center and talk to kids .
“ He ’ d always come with a positive attitude , a positive disposition , ” Mr. Parker recalls .
“ He wasn ’ t content with who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ better.
” “ He was on the move to doing that , ” he adds , “ but he was robbed of doing that.
” Last week , as the march was finishing a few miles away , the finishing touches were being put on a mural tucked onto a side street in one of the Third Ward ’ s most neglected housing projects .
It ’ s become a landmark for those who want to pay their respects to Mr. Floyd , and a beacon for people who live there .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Leonard McGowen , a resident of the Cuney Homes projects and a close friend of Mr. Floyd .
Mr. Floyd left Houston for Minneapolis around 2014 , seeking a fresh start .
The Third Ward , meanwhile , had been rapidly gentrifying .
With black residents moving to suburbs and whites and Latinos moving in , the neighborhood ’ s black population dropped from 79 % in 2000 to 67 % in 2015 .
The worry is that it could follow the same path as the Fourth Ward , a historic neighborhood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ward is oldest black community in Houston .
It ’ s not there no more .
It ’ s nothing but town homes , ” says John “ Bunchy ” Crear , a former Black Panther Party member who has lived in the Third Ward for decades .
For some black Houstonians marching in protests , they feel just as threatened by gentrification as they do the police – and by the pandemic , which has disproportionately harmed African Americans .
One thing that hasn ’ t changed since the ’ 60s : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white families .
The average white household in 2016 had the same median wealth as 11.5 black households combined .
“ They ’ re pushing us blacks out so they can gentrify Third Ward and pretty much erase our history , ” Ms. Fields said during last week ’ s protest .
“ That ’ s just one more way of them trying to enslave us and not let us have anything.
” Not everyone in the Third Ward believes this change is wholly negative .
Many admit that it is , to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ used to be mostly Jewish , until after World War II – and community groups have been working to prevent “ unchecked ” gentrification in favor of something more equitable .
“ We can ’ t stop people moving in , that ’ s a lost battle , but we want to make sure we ’ re as much in control of this community as we need to be , ” says Mr. Parker .
“ Change is imminent , we know that .
But let that change be positive change.
” More @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bred solidarity in the George Floyd protests , says Professor Casey .
With more diversity in schools and neighborhoods , and with social media , African American worldviews are more broadly understood than in the 1960s .
“ There ’ s more overlapping spheres .
So something that affected a black man in Minnesota might matter to a white person in Arizona , ” he says .
“ Along with seeing the institutional issues , it feels much more personal across the country.
” Looking at protests over Mr. Floyd ’ s death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s even bigger than that .
“ This is a global movement , ” he says .
And how would Mr. Floyd feel if he could see this now ?
“ He ’ d be excited that black people and people of conscience , and people who love freedom are standing up , ” says Mr. Parker .
“ I can see him smiling right now .
”

‘He woke the world up.’ Houston’s Third Ward remembers George Floyd. Collapse
Have we been here before?
The civil unrest seen across the United States since a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd may be rivaled only by the chaotic summers of the late 1960s, when racial tensions, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War fueled widespread protests and rioting.
Houston – and the Third Ward, the historically black neighborhood where Mr. Floyd grew up – experienced that late ’60s unrest, including a violent encounter in 1967 on the campus of Texas Southern University (TSU), a historically black college in the Third Ward, that saw police arrest almost 500 students and shoot up a dormitory.
Race riots broke out in cities around the country in those months – a period now known as the “long, hot summer of 1967.” In a report analyzing the cause of the unrest, the Kerner Commission concluded that white Americans were largely to blame for maintaining systemic inequality between black and white Americans.
President Lyndon Johnson didn’t act on those conclusions, and a year later protests again erupted across the country – again, including Houston – after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Because before it was only one community, [authorities could] ignore it,” says Ronald Goodwin, a history professor at Prairie View A&M University, of earlier protests by the black community. “Now you can’t ignore it.”
Houston, which hosted a memorial service for Mr. Floyd Monday, has seen daily protests demanding justice for his death. Yet the civil unrest of this moment is different, locals and experts say, in ways that represent not just social progress, but a broader disillusionment with American institutions that could be an even tougher problem to tackle than what the country faced 50 years ago.
“While we should be focused on police brutality in black communities, what this has brought out is a broad discontent in society. And that’s something we need to be concerned about and take seriously,” says Marcus Casey, an economist at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the Brookings Institution.
Adding to the urgency of today’s response, over the past five years police have killed about 1,000 Americans every year. That number has not changed despite promises of reform after the massive riots and protests resulting from high-profile deaths of African Americans including Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, and Freddie Gray.
In the Third Ward, Brother Deloyd T. Parker Jr., who runs a local community center and knew Mr. Floyd, has been protesting police brutality for decades. But this time, he acknowledges, is different.
“I’m very hurt about what happened to George,” he says, “but I’m hurt every time. There’s a George every day.”
“What happened to George was the straw that broke the camel’s back. What that uncovered and unveiled is a lot of injustices that have taken place all over the country, and all over the world,” he adds. “He’s pretty much a symbol now.”
“Everybody is here”
When 60,000 people demonstrated here last week, one thing stood out to many Houstonians in the crowd: the diversity of the people around them.
“You see Asians, you see whites, you see Latinos, you see Indians, Native Americans. Everybody is here,” said Ephesian Fields, a black woman, during the protest.
“Things may change,” she added, but “at the end of the day, all we need is hope. All we have is hope. And the protests show hope.”
The need for the protests was bluntly apparent to many protesters.
“Anybody with the skin color that ain’t white, we get treated [expletive],” said Eduardo Reyes, sporting a Mexican flag bandana around his neck.
His girlfriend, Kazaree Barnett, was wearing an S.U.C. pullover, the name of the rap group Mr. Floyd belonged to. Through tears she said the objective was to march in peace.
“It could be my dad, it could my brother, it could be a loved one, or it could be me,” she added. “At the end of the day none of us are safe. We just want to be safe.”
Camilo Smith View caption Hide caption Kazaree Barnett protests the death of George Floyd in Houston, where he grew up. “It could be my dad, it could my brother, it could be a loved one, or it could be me,” she said of Mr. Floyd’s death. “We just want to be safe.”
That diversity is perhaps not surprising for Houston, a majority-minority city. But the nationwide protests over Mr. Floyd’s killing have been diverse in another way: geography.
In Texas, major cities have seen protests, but so have small towns with small black populations. Demonstrators have gathered in downtown New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but also in those cities’ suburbs. Protesters have turned out in majority-white cities like Salt Lake City, Utah, and Des Moines, Iowa.
The cellphone video that captured Mr. Floyd’s last moments – Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes while he begged for breath – is visceral and horrifying, even compared to other videos of police killings. (Mr. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder; the three other officers who participated in detaining Mr. Floyd face charges of aiding and abetting his killing.)
And to be sure, racism, police brutality, and the Black Lives Matter movement are the banner issues for protesters. But in this moment of heightened disillusionment there are a host of other issues driving people onto the streets.
The financial and psychological shock of the COVID-19 pandemic is certainly a factor, whether it be for Gen Zers entering the job market or Millennials still recovering from the Great Recession. (The pandemic has hit Houston’s large oil and gas industry especially hard.)
But more than half the country also disapproves of President Donald Trump’s performance. Half of Americans believe that Supreme Court justices don’t set aside personal or political views when they make rulings, and have “very little” confidence in Congress. Even more Americans are increasingly concerned that issues like the threat of white nationalism and climate change aren’t getting enough attention.
“There’s a growing pessimism about the institutions in the United States, the elites,” says Professor Casey. “That’s what’s driving broader participation.”
People of all races “feel this growing inequality in society, the idea that institutions aren’t very responsive to the rank and file,” he adds. “They see those things as linked to the police brutality.”
The Tre
For decades, police brutality has rarely not been top of mind in the Third Ward.
In 1967, protests broke out in Houston after a child drowned in the Holmes Road dump, a landfill in a black community. As protests continued and tensions climbed, Houston police raided the TSU campus on the early morning of May 17, firing around 3,000 rounds into Lanier Dormitory and arresting 488 students. Only five students were eventually charged, and they were all exonerated.
While much of the late ’60s unrest was racially diverse – the civil rights movement in particular – the riots of the “long, hot summer” were characterized by events like that at TSU: unrest sparked by local grievances in black communities over issues like police brutality and poor living conditions.
This moment is different, and in many ways the Third Ward is different too. When Mr. Floyd was growing up there, Mr. Parker says, the neighborhood – known as “the Tre” – had just begun to change.
“It was blacker,” he adds. “You wouldn’t see many people of European extraction walking their dogs down the street.”
Mr. Floyd spent time at S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, which Mr. Parker co-founded in 1969. He attended Jack Yates High School – named after one of the area’s early Baptist pastors – and, having shot up to 6 feet 6 inches tall, stood out in football and basketball, helping the school get to the state championship in 1992.
After dropping out of college, he returned to the Third Ward and helped establish the city’s renowned hip-hop scene. After getting into trouble with the law and spending four years in prison, he returned to the Third Ward with a new dedication to improving his community. He would often stop by the S.H.A.P.E. Center and talk to kids.
“He’d always come with a positive attitude, a positive disposition,” Mr. Parker recalls. “He wasn’t content with who he was, he wanted to be better.”
“He was on the move to doing that,” he adds, “but he was robbed of doing that.”
Henry Gass/The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption Tony, who only wanted his first name used, rides his horse Casey at a protest in Houston over the death of George Floyd, whom Tony knew in high school. Houston, where Mr. Floyd was from, has held protests daily since Mr. Floyd's death on Memorial Day.
Diversity and solidarity?
Last week, as the march was finishing a few miles away, the finishing touches were being put on a mural tucked onto a side street in one of the Third Ward’s most neglected housing projects. It’s become a landmark for those who want to pay their respects to Mr. Floyd, and a beacon for people who live there.
“He woke the world up,” said Leonard McGowen, a resident of the Cuney Homes projects and a close friend of Mr. Floyd.
Mr. Floyd left Houston for Minneapolis around 2014, seeking a fresh start. The Third Ward, meanwhile, had been rapidly gentrifying. With black residents moving to suburbs and whites and Latinos moving in, the neighborhood’s black population dropped from 79% in 2000 to 67% in 2015. The worry is that it could follow the same path as the Fourth Ward, a historic neighborhood created by freed slaves.
“Fourth Ward is oldest black community in Houston. It’s not there no more. It’s nothing but town homes,” says John “Bunchy” Crear, a former Black Panther Party member who has lived in the Third Ward for decades.
For some black Houstonians marching in protests, they feel just as threatened by gentrification as they do the police – and by the pandemic, which has disproportionately harmed African Americans. One thing that hasn’t changed since the ’60s: the wealth gap between black families and white families. The average white household in 2016 had the same median wealth as 11.5 black households combined.
“They’re pushing us blacks out so they can gentrify Third Ward and pretty much erase our history,” Ms. Fields said during last week’s protest. “That’s just one more way of them trying to enslave us and not let us have anything.”
Not everyone in the Third Ward believes this change is wholly negative. Many admit that it is, to a degree, inevitable – the neighborhood used to be mostly Jewish, until after World War II – and community groups have been working to prevent “unchecked” gentrification in favor of something more equitable.
“We can’t stop people moving in, that’s a lost battle, but we want to make sure we’re as much in control of this community as we need to be,” says Mr. Parker. “Change is imminent, we know that. But let that change be positive change.”
More integration in American society seems to have bred solidarity in the George Floyd protests, says Professor Casey. With more diversity in schools and neighborhoods, and with social media, African American worldviews are more broadly understood than in the 1960s.
“There’s more overlapping spheres. So something that affected a black man in Minnesota might matter to a white person in Arizona,” he says. “Along with seeing the institutional issues, it feels much more personal across the country.”
Looking at protests over Mr. Floyd’s death around the world, Mr. Parker thinks it’s even bigger than that.
“This is a global movement,” he says.
And how would Mr. Floyd feel if he could see this now?
“He’d be excited that black people and people of conscience, and people who love freedom are standing up,” says Mr. Parker. “I can see him smiling right now.”