Category: government

new complications for COVID vaccines in the US

(COVID Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash)

Last week, after reading a newsletter from Your Local Epidemiologist founded by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, I got a COVID vaccination. I will be going to my annual poetry residency with the Boiler House Poets Collective at The Studios at MASS MoCA in early October and wanted my immunity to be as strong as possible while I’m there.

The newsletter had warned that there might be label changes coming from the US Food and Drug Administration that would impact the availability of COVID vaccines and that it might be advisable to get the vaccine soon, especially for people younger than 65.

I’m glad I took action.

Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration changed the guidelines, making it more difficult for people under 65 to qualify for COVID vaccines without consulting their doctor. In response, CVS and Walgreens, whose pharmacies are a major source for vaccinations to the public, suspended giving any COVID vaccines to anyone in sixteen states, including mine, unless you have a prescription from a health provider. Part of the confusion is that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has yet to issue its guidance and just suffered the loss of its top leadership through firing and resignations, grounded in the fact that they were being pressured to put forward recommendations not backed by scientific research.

That’s what happens when you have a Health and Human Services Secretary like Robert Kennedy, Jr., who does not have a background in medicine and disrespects rigorous scientific inquiry.

The fact is that COVID-19 vaccines have been rigorously tested and are safe and effective, cutting down on infection rates and keeping most people from becoming seriously ill and needing hospitalization. Serious side effects are very rare, so the benefits of receiving the vaccine outweigh the risks.

Tragically, vaccines have been politicized in the US, which has cost lives. The death rate from COVID-19 for Republicans is higher than for the population as a whole because of this.

I urge everyone with questions to talk to a trusted medical professional about the research and science behind vaccines. Don’t fall for the misinformation coming from Kennedy and the people he has put in place at the CDC and FDA who disregard valid scientific findings.

You can also look for recommendations from medical associations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Don’t let misinformation keep you from taking the best care possible of your and your family’s health.

One-Liner Wednesday: Update on Roger Wang

Update from this post about Roger Wang, local business owner and community volunteer who was taken into ICE custody on the way to get his green card: Roger has been detained at a New York State ICE detention facility for over two months; he has a local immigration lawyer assisting him, whom you can help fund through this link.

This sobering update brought to you as part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday series. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/08/27/one-liner-wednesday-its-official/

DC militarization

Vote for Democracy #44

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

Donald Trump decided to declare a crime emergency in Washington, DC and to surge the National Guard into our capital to deal with it.

This is an excuse, not an emergency.

Crime is at its lowest level in thirty years in Washington, DC. There are some higher-crime neighborhoods in the city and problems with youth crime and truancy, so the police could use some extra resources, but the new forces are seldom sent to those areas. Instead, they are largely deployed near national monuments and transit centers, more a show of force than actual crime-fighting.

DT’s rhetoric immediately pivoted from crime to making DC more “clean” and “beautiful” by removing people who are homeless. For the record, people who are homeless are much more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators. In DC, they are most likely to be older, low-income adults; to be able to afford to live in the city, one needs about $90,000 in income, which is unattainable for many older folks.

Trump is also using this as cover for bringing in personnel from other federal agencies, including ICE. There have been arrests of suspected undocumented people by masked agents without identifying badges, as we have seen in many areas of the country. There are also government and military personnel being assigned duties for which they lack training. For example, FBI agents are being put out on patrol when their expertise is in investigation; for those of you outside the US, the FBI is the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

While DT is claiming that people feel safer and are going out more to eat more often, restaurant and bar owners are complaining that their business is down by 25% or more compared to this time last year. Many people in Washington, joined by others around the country, are protesting the militarization of the city. The presence of troops on the streets feels intimidating to them, making them less likely to go out.

Several Republican governors have mobilized their own National Guard troops to send to Washington. This doesn’t make sense because these troops would not have proper training for the situation. Deployment also takes the troops away from their regular jobs and families and hinders their availability to deal with emergencies or disasters in their home states.

Trump is threatening similar tactics in other cities where the mayors and governors are Democrats, such as New York. However, he is not threatening cities like Nashville, Tennessee, which has a higher rate of violent crime and murders than Washington. Tennessee has a Republican governor and local elections in Nashville are officially non-partisan, although the current mayor is affiliated with the Democratic party.

Because Washington, DC is not part of a state and is the federal capital, the president has somewhat more leeway legally to call in troops. It would be more difficult to use this tactic in other cities, although Los Angeles shows that Trump can manufacture an “emergency” even when there isn’t one. The fear is that Trump will militarize cities where the electorate is heavily Democratic in order to suppress the vote in the midterm elections next year. This falls in line with Trump’s requests for Republican-led states like Texas to redistrict to try to increase the number of Republican-leaning districts in their states to keep from losing their Congressional majorities in the face of the unpopularity of their policies and actions. It also goes along with Trump’s vilification of vote-by-mail, which he perceives as favoring Democrats.

I don’t know if the lawsuits, protests, and possible legislative intervention will be enough to get the military off the streets of American cities or not. It seems that these deployments violate the Posse Comitatus Act. There is a really good explainer about Posse Comitatus here which elucidates what it says and ways it is sometimes circumvented.

If you are in the United States and worried about this issue, you can contact your Congressional representatives and let them know. Trump is only supposed to have a military presence in DC for 30 days unless Congress grants an extension, so you can urge them to vote no and encourage their colleagues to join them. You can join a local protest in solidarity with Washington residents. It also helps to be aware of the scope of Trump’s ignoring or twisting of facts and the law to suit his purposes.

Facts still exist. Make sure you are following the facts and not lies.

One-Liner Wednesday: for justice and peace for Ukraine

Image by Satheesh Sankaran from Pixabay

As we continue to hope and work toward justice and peace for Ukraine, I’m sharing a recording of John Rutter’s “A Ukrainian Prayer” recorded in April ’22 by the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednsdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/08/20/one-liner-wednesday-you-know-youre-tired-when/

One-Liner Wednesday: in memorial

On this 80th anniversary of the first use of a nuclear weapon, I’m praying for a total, permanent, global ban.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Bonus: Click the link below for news about Linda’s latest book! https://lindaghill.com/2025/08/06/one-liner-wednesday-would-you-look-at-that-2/

fears for US immigrants

Vote for Democracy #43

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

There are so many horrors happening every day in the United States under the Trump regime that it’s difficult to write posts because I feel like I’m not able to do justice to the topic when there are so many illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, and/or unconscionable actions and statements perpetrated in an ongoing basis.

Today, though, I decided to lift up the threats to immigrants and refugees beginning with a local story. Roger Wang, the owner of a local Chinese restaurant who fled political persecution in China, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as he arrived for his green card hearing. For those who may not be familiar, a green card is a document that means an immigrant can live and work permanently in the US. Roger had been in the legal process for twelve years and had fulfilled all the requirements that ICE set out to earn his green card, but he was arrested anyway. There is a fundraiser for legal costs and to try to offset the losses to his business. As I write this, I haven’t heard any updates about where Roger is and when or whether he might be able to be released.

Stories like Roger’s are being repeated around the country. Immigrants are being detained by ICE, even when they do have legal status. The Trump administration has shamefully rescinded the legal status of many refugees, including those who served alongside the US in Afghanistan, and who face danger if they return to their home countries. Government agents, sometimes without identifying insignia and with their faces covered, have snatched people from their workplaces, cars, or even the streets and detained them. Sometimes, people with citizenship are detained, too. Appallingly, agents have injured people they are taking into custody They also have taken parents away, leaving their young children behind; sometimes, they take the children into custody, too, and have deported them with their parent, even if the children are United States citizens. Trump tried to take away birthright citizenship from children if both of their parents are undocumented, but this order is on hold while the courts hear arguments about it, although the 14th Amendment, Section 1 is very clear that being born in the United States confers citizenship.

It’s become more difficult to travel into the United States, even for people who are citizens or have permanent status. This month, Wilmer Chavarria, the school superintendent in Winooski, Vermont and a naturalized citizen originally from Central America, was questioned for five hours at the Houston airport as he returned from visiting family in Nicaragua. This risk causes a chilling effect on international travel for both US citizens and for tourists from other countries, especially those who aren’t White, as people of color are disproportionately subjected to being hassled by government border agents. Some countries are warning against travel to the US and tourism is down significantly. This is especially true for Canadians, due to Trump’s threats to their sovereignty and damage to their economy. This is particularly sad because Canada has been such a good neighbor for so long; my spouse B has Canadian ancestry with one of his great-grandfathers immigrating to the US in the late-19th century.

The majority of Americans are upset about the cruelty and disregard for US and international law that the Trump administration is exhibiting. They have sent people to detention camps and dangerous foreign countries and prisons without hearings or formal charges. They have disrespected judges and skirted/defied court orders when cases are brought. Many people, including lawyers, local/state government officials, faith leaders, charitable organizations, schools, and local community members are doing all they can to speak up for the rights of our immigrant neighbors, but it’s difficult when unidentified federal officials snatch people without notice and take them to undisclosed locations, sometimes even deporting them to their country of origin or an unrelated country before their families or lawyers can speak to them.

It’s part of the authoritarian nightmare we are living.

We will keep speaking out and doing what we can, despite the grim reality.

I don’t know how long it will take but we have to get our democracy back on track and always, always, always respect human rights.

One-Liner Wednesday: good trouble

“Rosa Parks inspired me to find a way to get in the way, to get in trouble… good trouble, necessary trouble.”
~~~ Representative John Lewis (1940-2020)

Tomorrow, on the fifth anniversary of John Lewis’s death, people are coming together to cause “good trouble” on behalf of freedom, love, and community. For more information and to find an event, please visit https://goodtroubleliveson.org/.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/07/16/one-liner-wednesday-did-i-mispronounce-it/

July 4th

Vote for Democracy #42

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

Today is July 4th, observed in the United States as Independence Day, commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The Declaration of Independence is a fundamental document for the United States and a copy of it currently hangs in the president’s Oval Office.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump does not seem to know what it says.

In an interview with Terry Moran two months ago, he answered a question about what the Declaration of Independence means to him by saying, “Well it means exactly what it says, it’s a declaration, it’s a declaration of unity and love and respect and it means a lot and it’s something very special to our country.”

While Trump is correct that the Declaration of Independence means a lot and is very special, he totally mischaracterizes its meaning and purpose.

The Continental Congress was declaring their freedom from Great Britain and its king, whose tyrannical actions they enumerate.

It is horrifying that the current president and administration are perpetrating tyrannical actions now, some of which reflect those in the Declaration and some additional ones.

It makes this 249th anniversary a somber one but also a challenge to all of us to speak up for our founding principles and the rule of law, for a government that “promote(s) the general welfare” as spelled out in the Preamble to our Constitution. This struggle needs to be carried out in justice and non-violence and progress may be slow, but, I hope, that our 250th anniversary next year will see us making progress toward realizing our democratic ideals rather than retreating further toward autocracy.

The Declaration declares that all are equal and endowed “with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

May our 250th Independence Day be with a government that recognizes the civil and human rights of all people so that we can truly celebrate our democracy on July 4th, 2026.

One-Liner Wednesday: Congressional accountability

To any member of the US Congress voting to cut health and food assistance to their constituents in order to give huge, permanent tax cuts and subsidies to the very wealthy, including fossil fuel companies: You can expect that your voters will choose a candidate in the next election who will represent their interests, not those of millionaires and billionaires who only care about their own riches and not the common good or the planet.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/07/02/one-liner-wednesday-take-me-out/

My Bolt and presidents

I was getting something out of my Chevy Bolt EV in a parking lot of a small store/gas station yesterday when someone said, “Biden’s not president anymore.”

When I straightened up the only person who was there was a driver making a delivery about to enter the store, so, apparently, this comment was directed at me.

Here’s what I could have said, had this person actually wanted to have a conversation with me:

“Oh, are you asking about my car? Actually, we bought our Bolt in 2017, a couple of months into Trump’s first term. Our Chevy Bolt is a great, American-made car, which is much cheaper to power and maintain than a gasoline-powered one. It’s also fun to drive and has as much torque as a Camaro. You should test-drive an EV next time you are in the market.”

I’m hoping to still have my Bolt after Trump leaves office – and I hope that his successor will support electric vehicles more like Biden than Trump.