With the polio vaccine in the news, I want to tell some of my mom's story:

My mom got polio when she was a kid living in southern California, pre-vaccine. She survived it, but it put her in a wheelchair for a while, then leg braces. She was actually a literal poster child for the Polio vaccine: they used her picture on some March of Dimes posters.

But this was not a thing that just affected her for a while, and then she was better. As a result of having Polio, her right leg is slightly shorter than her left. For her entire life, she's had to have special lifts put into her right shoe. When she drives, she uses her left foot for the brake pedal because she's concerned that her right leg might not be strong enough to stomp on the brake hard if needed. She has always been limited in how long and far she can walk: I remember many times on family vacations where the rest of us would go off to do something and she'd have to sit it out because she knew she just couldn't do that much walking.

Now that she's elderly, a lifetime of this is catching up: her bones, joints, ligaments, tendons are all messed up from having a weak leg and an unbalanced gait. Her mobility is declining much faster than it should be, even for someone of her age. She had to have her ankle fused because of the constant pain it was causing.

Polio didn't ruin her life, but it has stolen it in slices. Times she couldn't keep up with her kids, times she was just too tired to be able to stay on her feet, chronic pain, losing the ability to climb stairs in her own house as she ages.

Vaccination is the greatest public health success humanity has ever produced, and we forget this only at our own peril.

Happy autumn equinox. I came across this artwork years ago and it always evoked that transition point that tips the balance between day and night.

The crows, ravens and other corvids have always been richly entwined into lore and culture.

Birds of immense skill, intellect and wisdom and paired up with elemental beings and gods.

From the immense Brân to the all-seeing Odin.

So, enjoy the tipping point and welcome the welcoming darkness into your lives.

People focus on Hitler and Nazi leaders and the atrocious lethal lies they told to justify the mass murder of Jews.

But they should focus also on the willingness of very many people to believe those lies, to cheer and assist as their Jewish neighbors were rounded up and sent to their deaths.

The problem is never just the Hitlers, the Nazis. The problem is us, many of us — our propensity to stigmatize and hate.

#Trump #Republicans #Hitler #Nazis #immigrants #BloodLibel #PoliticsofHate
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Violent Southport protests reveal organising tactics of the far-right

Online influencers, rather than formal leaders, are mobilising the extreme right on the streets.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cl4y0453nv5o

(c) #BBC #News