Zoom in. Zoom out. These are familiar instructions on our laptops, computers and cameras. But the word Zoom has taken on a new meaning. It’s the remedy for isolation, for social and religious gatherings, for working with staff, for checking on family members. Where would we be without Zoom?
At a Zoomed Rotary meeting last Thursday, we had members taking time from the group trying to figure out how to mute and unmute and interrupting the speaker saying “I can’t hear you.” You could see their spouses (usually women) trying to help. It’s not always easy to get everyone connected, but we’re learning.
We used to think technology was ruining our lives, destroying jobs and keeping us away from the true joys of life. Now we look to the internet, to Facebook, Messenger, Amazon and food delivery services to sustain us during these harsh but necessary times of staying in place.
***
Will we be able to return to normal? Or has this captivity permanently changed the way we live? Will we be uncomfortable in large gatherings, sitting next to someone in an auditorium or classroom, commuting on a crowded train or bus, especially if someone nearby coughs or sneezes? Will we be so used to ordering food, clothes, medicine online that stores, restaurants and drug stores will suffer? Will school children from preschool to graduates be able to make up for the lost year of regular instruction? Especially for the young who need extra help can they regain the skills which they probably have forgotten? Now that we are thinking about some return to normal life, we know some of our old ways will be abandoned.
***
We have been able to recover after past disasters, recessions, depressions, world wars. Why should this time be any different? Depending on your politics, you may have a different answer. Because of Roosevelt’s aggressive actions to combat the Depression and lead us to victory in the World War II, we emerged as the strongest leader in the world. Today, because of faulty leadership at the top, the country delayed for too long mobilization against the virus. Just think if we had moved quickly to manufacture the equipment we would eventually need and did not have — masks, protective uniforms, swabs for tests and other medical necessities we could have provided many jobs which have been lost.
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And if we had been aggressive in providing testing devices in advance of the pandemic instead of trying to play catch up during it, we would have saved thousands of lives. If we had a system of taking unused farm food and making it available to those in need, farmers wouldn’t have to dump milk and pull up vegetables. Instead of a unifying force, the executive continues to divide, even using virus briefings to blame others, attack political rivals and public servants doing their job. We have wasted valuable time and lives — we have more cases and more deaths than any other country. But this is the United States, the richest country in the world with some of the smartest scientists and doctors, and we will find a way to win this war, hopefully sooner rather than later. Especially if we are careful and don’t open the doors too soon.
***
We in California, especially in the Bay Area, are thankful for the swift action of health and government officials in keeping us safe. Thank you Gov. Newsom! Thank you Dr. Scott Morrow, our county’s health officer.
***
Here’s what Bill Gates has to say: “When you go out and see the empty streets, the empty stadiums, the empty train platforms, don’t say to yourself, “My God, it looks like the end of the world.” What you’re seeing is love in action. What you’re seeing, in that negative space, is how much we do care for each other, for our grandparents, for our immuno-compromised brothers and sisters, for people we will never meet. People will lose jobs over this. Some will lose their businesses. And some will lose their lives. All the more reason to take a moment, when you’re out on your walk, on your way to the store, or just watching the news, to look into the emptiness and marvel at all that love. Let it fill you and sustain you. It isn’t the end of the world. It’s the most remarkable act of global solidarity we may ever witness. It is the reason the world will go on.”
Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs every Monday. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.
Sue is correct about the faulty leadership at the top. Especially since Pelosi was telling people to visit Chinatown, almost a month after our great President Trump banned flights from China. Pelosi was fiddling while America burned by putting together her 1400 pages House bill stuffed with pork instead of passing the Senate version of the CARES bill. Pelosi eating ice cream from her $20,000 freezer while America suffers instead of approving more money for the Paycheck Protection Program. It's difficult to understand why Sue parrots Democrat talking points, but this is Sue, so it's definitely not unexpected. She, like the Democrat party do not care about small business owners and would prefer spreading lies.
ZOOM is dangerous. The company perhaps knew it had major security deficiencies in late 2019 that made it unsafe for certain people (eg school children). A nationwide crisis ensued. ZOOM executives and their employees proffered the tool as useful for schools nationwide. Approx. 90,000 schools in the US required their students to use it in Feb. 2019. ZOOM's user base in March grew 20-fold. The senior most executives sold stock. Within ~two weeks, the FBI received complaints about pornography being shown to people on ZOOM. User accounts have been made available illegally on Tor (I suggest you do not download Tor). Shareholder lawsuits have ensued against Zoom. Why is ZOOM so popular? When people including children (via the 'edict chain' State Boards of Education to Counties to Principals to Teachers to Parents to Students) used ZOOM before security holes were made known, massive volumes of data were illegitimately dumped into a stealth and possible nefarious China server farm. Meaning, childrens' photos, names, schools, GPS coordinates, content on consumers' computers etc. Why so much interest in Zoom ... why not Cisco WebEx, Google Hangouts, Microsoft, etc.? Why weren't the children told to use one of these software applications? It is one thing for Zoom junior employees to sell stock during a national crisis, but for the CEO, CFO and other executive to make millions only because of a national crisis / demand spike all the while security issues to consumers (especially children!) were known, is greed. Greed and risk is not a good combination for children in school systems.
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(2) comments
Sue is correct about the faulty leadership at the top. Especially since Pelosi was telling people to visit Chinatown, almost a month after our great President Trump banned flights from China. Pelosi was fiddling while America burned by putting together her 1400 pages House bill stuffed with pork instead of passing the Senate version of the CARES bill. Pelosi eating ice cream from her $20,000 freezer while America suffers instead of approving more money for the Paycheck Protection Program. It's difficult to understand why Sue parrots Democrat talking points, but this is Sue, so it's definitely not unexpected. She, like the Democrat party do not care about small business owners and would prefer spreading lies.
ZOOM is dangerous. The company perhaps knew it had major security deficiencies in late 2019 that made it unsafe for certain people (eg school children). A nationwide crisis ensued. ZOOM executives and their employees proffered the tool as useful for schools nationwide. Approx. 90,000 schools in the US required their students to use it in Feb. 2019. ZOOM's user base in March grew 20-fold. The senior most executives sold stock. Within ~two weeks, the FBI received complaints about pornography being shown to people on ZOOM. User accounts have been made available illegally on Tor (I suggest you do not download Tor). Shareholder lawsuits have ensued against Zoom. Why is ZOOM so popular? When people including children (via the 'edict chain' State Boards of Education to Counties to Principals to Teachers to Parents to Students) used ZOOM before security holes were made known, massive volumes of data were illegitimately dumped into a stealth and possible nefarious China server farm. Meaning, childrens' photos, names, schools, GPS coordinates, content on consumers' computers etc. Why so much interest in Zoom ... why not Cisco WebEx, Google Hangouts, Microsoft, etc.? Why weren't the children told to use one of these software applications? It is one thing for Zoom junior employees to sell stock during a national crisis, but for the CEO, CFO and other executive to make millions only because of a national crisis / demand spike all the while security issues to consumers (especially children!) were known, is greed. Greed and risk is not a good combination for children in school systems.
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