REMNANTS OF CRISTOBAL

Over the last few days Hurricane Cristobal swept straight north across the Gulf of Mexico and the central U.S. We were brushed by it but no significant effects. It made for nice reflections, though. This downtown office building is maybe 40 years old, all curtail wall, no windows you can open. It may storm outside but the occupants are quite isolated from the elements.   

MAYBE YES, MAYBE NO

After all we have been through in recent weeks and months, all we can say is that we will find out when we get there. Whether our political and social upheaval means anything will not be known until November 4 and maybe not for a long time after that. 

And the virus - people are tired of confinement and rules. The people I've seen at demonstrations here and in the media have thrown distancing to the winds. Most - but only most - people are still wearing masks. I want to scream at those who don't that they are threatening my life. The director general of the World Health Organization said the other day that “the biggest threat now is complacency.”

I had never heard of this company on the western edge of downtown so I looked it up. It's a worldwide marketing agency that specializes in just branding.   

EVEN HERE IN WEBSTER GROVES

I live in what is sometimes called a leafy suburb, Webster Groves. Just two miles outside the city limits of St. Louis proper, it is green, comfortable and convenient, a mix of working class to upper middle class but leaning toward the prosperous. And old, by local standards, meaning that it was established in the late 19th Century. 

There have been rallies and marches throughout the metro area in the last week. (Remember that Ferguson is also a suburb of STL.) One was organized in a Webster park by young people who grew up here and went through the school system. Most of them were black but there was also a young Jewish man, the son of immigrants, who described himself as "one of about 2 1/2 Jews in Webster High."  Over and over, they told horrifying stories that most white people don't know, repeatedly asking what we are going to do. Therein lies individual responsibility.         

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE

A statue of justice in front of one of the downtown courthouses. That's not just shadow - it is dirty and wet. How will we, as a nation, clean it?         

WHERE TO NOW?

An iconic logo that comes from the baseball team, seen in a rainy plaza downtown. STL is our abbreviation for our town. It's the airport code. Here, the bright color seems to be vanishing in the mist. Now where for us? No one knows. In the short term, I worry that the packed crowds from all the demonstrations - social distancing be damned - may lead to a surge in Covid-19 cases. In the medium term, I worry about the would-be dictator and his henchmen.