two things
1.
Brian's job, because of Covid, with scheduled breaks and not his own, is to help the elderly log in to their health accounts so they may have video conferences with their doctor. Sometimes these calls last over an hour, because they struggle with computer-related tasks. They do not know how to download apps or change a password. They would much rather dial a number and speak to a doctor, but they are not allowed. And just now, during one of those scheduled breaks, Brian came upstairs to tell me that he worked with two people today who were attempting to access the accounts of their dead spouses. They called the hospital to access the records, and the hospitals led them to the help line, which is Brian. They did not know account names or passwords. Their spouse is dead and all they have is a help line who doesn't know how to help. He had four days of training. And I don't think it was empathy-based. (Not that Brian doesn't have empathy, he has lots, but how does anyone prepare you for this.(
Brian has a job interview on Friday for a programming job. The post office is doing a background check and he could potentially work there. I cannot imagine trying to talk these poor widows through clicking and downloading for this distracting minutiae. A couple of months ago, a teacher at school lost her mother, so she had to change her mother's permanent address to hers just in case of mail trickling in, but the address change triggered those stupid Home Depot coupons you get because you moved and need extension cords and fire extinguishers. It said "congratulations on your new home!"
2.
the email I sent to Hennepin County, which surely will never be opened:
Good afternoon---
I am writing, of course, in response to the brutal murder of George Floyd, and the police officers who are responsible for his death. As a citizen of Minnesota, as a teacher who is working to make this state reach its potential for all of us, as a human being: please bring justice for George Floyd and his family. These officers need to be arrested--all of them--for murder and for being an accomplice to murder.
On my forearm, I have a tattoo of Minnesota. I got it because I have lived all over this state and needed a universal symbol of home. Most of the time, I am proud to be a Minnesotan. The people in my community look out for each other. We vote. We find common ground in the weather and we move on and on from there. But when I work in the classroom, I think about Minnesota's achievement gap, which is one of the highest in the country. I think about how I have been defining community. I think of my role.
I am not doing enough, and I do not know how to do enough, and I need to be better. George Floyd has brought this perspective to all of us. We have landed on this plea: charge these cops with murder. This is murder. This is murder caught on video, and your citizens are asking: How many murders have not been caught on video? How many times have police officers--Chauvin one of them--broken the rules in a power hungry fury? What is happening in the institution of Minnesota where this man wasn't fired years ago, where his fellow officers are able to stand there as George Floyd pleas for his life? In what institution is this when the response of a police officer is not to allow a man to breathe, but to press his knee further and further into a man's neck? I watched a man die. The state watched a man die, the country watched a man die, the world watched a man die. Not because he was black, but because men on the Minneapolis police force are so racist and filled with hate, they are able to silence the world around them. The institution and the state of Minnesota allowed this to happen.
The time to do right was long ago. The people have not been patient, and we are not patient now.
Derek Chauvin is sitting in his house as we speak, ordering food to his door. I hope he is afraid, and I hope you will give him the reason to be afraid by punishing him for his inhumane actions, because this is what the system is meant to do.
Charge these officers. Arrest these officers. Set an example for the young people in this state and in this country. Prove to us that we can have even a little faith in this state and that justice is not an illusion.
Regards,
--
Rochester, Minnesota