10 minute read
OPINION
THE MESA TRIBUNE | DECEMBER 26, 2021
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Big Apple trip poses a question befitting Hamlet
BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ
Tribune Columnist
Early on in your relationship, she confessed a semi-startling fact. While she had visited China as a little girl and walked along the Great Wall, never once had she been to New York City. To her, the metropolis back east seemed like a gleaming trophy to life made large. Broadway, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty. Skyscrapers and a chance to stride up Fifth Avenue in spike heels, like Carrie in “Sex and the City.”
To you, the city was home once, the backdrop for a million childhood memories: a piping hot slice of pizza dripping with cheese, a walk around the Central Park reservoir, the concrete stoop fronting the old red brick apartment in Queens, the Garden for a Knicks game, a knish purchased from a street vendor and painted in brown mustard.
She dreamed aloud. You egged it on, and thus a trip was born. New York at Christmastime and for New Year’s Eve. Plane tickets were purchased, hotel, theater, and dinner reservations were made.
And then Omicron showed up, which is exactly America’s luck in 2021.
The spiking pandemic gives rise to a question, one that feels a little bit like some bad “Hamlet,” given that vacation issues are a decidedly first-world problem to have in the midst of global affliction.
To go or not to go? To get on that jetliner, which departs tonight, or to cancel our plans and instead spend Christmas watching “Miracle on 34th Street,” instead of living it?
Some background: We have both been vaccinated three times, and thus have been maximally protected against the dread virus. We are both in good health. We both understand that New York City will still be there next month, next year, next vacation, or the one after that.
And yet making the trip still feels tempting, especially when you run the numbers in your head. Last week in New York City, the infection rate among all 8 million residents was 193 infections for every 100,000 people. That’s a tenth of a percentage point chance of getting sick – and the infection rate for the vaccinated is half as much.
This year in New York, COVID has claimed one life for every 200,000 vaccinated residents. Put another way, I’d have a better chance of getting a hole in one (12,500 to 1) or being killed by lightning (1 in 138,849, according to the National Safety Council).
Then again, to quote Jim Carrey as Lloyd Christmas from “Dumb and Dumber,” so you’re saying there’s a chance?
Life is a series of calculated risks. Some of us have decided not to get vaccinated. Other people continue to avoid indoor gatherings and to wear masks while they’re outside walking their dogs.
There are those of us who smoke de-
seeLEIBOWITZ page 21
New year poem a commentary on where we are
BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist
’Tis the week before New Year’s, and for better or worse— The words of this column are written in verse. Campaigns are concocted, plans are made for the air, as politicians hope to show how much they know and they care.
The voters are struggling, no names have been mentioned as thanks to inflation, folks can’t pay for attention! Mom was pacing the floor; Dad had joined her there…wishing they could print money right out of thin air!
Then on the TV, they heard such a clatter, they both turned to watch and see what was the matter.
On the screen was a show from the news folks of cable, devoid of facts and heavy on fable.
The interview guest neither wanted to hear was a doctor, adept at marketing fear.
He drove home his message, laying it on thick, spreading the notion the viewers were sick. “First COVID, then Delta, and Omicron, too! I bet there’s a mutation that’s coming for you!!” “Now, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson… Forget “gain of function…” I’ll just redefine it!” “From a bat cave to the lab…no, not a Wuhan market stall… you paid for it…paid for it…paid for it all!”
As the outrage grew louder, the viewers grew mad, so convinced were they that this short doctor was bad… And fiercer and fiercer their outrage grew… at the leftist networks and the small doctor. too! And then, in a twinkling, it all went “Poof!” As Hollywood actors acted out their “proof…” So skillful were they, their scripts turned folks around… And Dr. Fauci was able to scale the rebound! He was dressed all in white, from his toe to his head, But why did this doctor seem to delight in the dread? Therapeutics? He denied folks…and with that he was fine… As if he were saying that “your fate is mine!” Oh, how he loved it! His demeanor so merry… As if he determined which poor souls would be buried. His creepy old mouth was set firm in a smirk… How could anyone deny that this doc was a jerk? He spoke lots of words, but did little work… And yet the Left was enamored with each little quirk. He filled all his pockets as the top-paid bureaucrat, and no one at the WaPo could smell the obvious rat.
He continues his reign into 2022…and he’ll continue to say, “No cure for you!” But the people have noticed, as he was doing thus… And they know they must stop him…it’s him or it’s us! And so, there you have it…it’s ugly but true… We must get a second opinion in 2022! ■
21 We need to change the perception of blindness
BY DAVID STEINMETZ
AFN Guest Writer
Iam one of the fortunate few Americans who are blind to be gainfully employed. National statistics indicate 70% of individuals who are blind or have significant disabilities are unemployed.
I have faced and overcome obstacles, many of which could have led me to become a statistic. Some of these obstacles were self-imposed, but the majority were those stereotypes, misconceptions, and generalizations of the capabilities of people who are blind, by others.
As a young man, I was working my way up in a small manufacturing company. Then, like out of the blue, the darkness fell upon me... I had become legally blind. When informing my employer of my situation, as soon as the words left my mouth, the owner saw me as a liability.
My new degree and past work experience got me in front of a lot of hiring managers, unfortunately I was not able to “seal-the-deal.” I truly believe these employers were making a fear-based decision based on my disability.
A study conducted by National Industries for the Blind (NIB) indicates that 54% of hiring managers believe that there are zero jobs within their organization that a person who is blind could be successful at.
Our perception of the world around us not only comes from our senses, but is also influenced by our expectations. These expectations or “prior beliefs,” are generally derived from family values, cultural norms and our past experiences.
So, when a candidate who is blind walks into an interview and the hiring manager has no past experience with blindness, then the expectation is that this person is not qualified.
As the Public Relations Manager at Arizona Industries for the Blind, I share my story in hopes of, “changing the perception of blindness; one conversation at a time.”
I challenge the business community to give people who are blind or visually impaired the opportunity to prove that with the proper training and technology, a person who is blind can compete and be successful in the workplace.
Arizona Industries for the Blind is a role model in the community – hiring people who are blind based on their abilities, not disabilities. AIB empowers people who are blind to achieve their highest goals and aspirations through meaningful employment.
Alongside the assistive technology, AIB utilizes industry standard applications to manage day to day operations throughout the organization.
People who are blind or visually impaired add diversity and social responsibility to businesses by offering fresh perspectives and ideas on how to accomplish tasks and implement strategies.
And we are loyal: According to a “study of 8,500 persons with disabilities in competitive employment – this group has a nearly 85% job-retention rate after one year as measured by companies like DuPont and Sears who measure retention rates,” the Arizona Department of Economic Security says.
The author is a spokesman for Arizona Industries for the Blind. Reach him at 623 233-2337882 or dsteinmetz@azifb.
com. ■
BY JEFF DIAL
AFN Guest Writer
Earlier this year, Canadian vehicle maker ElectraMeccanica announced it would construct an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing facility in Mesa, with plans to build 20,000 EVs per year. These locally built cars will provide as many as 500 jobs and help move us closer to a net-zero carbon future.
Disappointingly, a tax provision in Congress’s budget reconciliation legislation could prevent our community from realizing the full economic potential this plant and EVs have to offer.
Congress is considering a new electric vehicle tax credit – with the supposed aim of increasing the amount of EVs on the road. Instead of applying to any of the 50plus road-ready EVs sold in the U.S., the new tax credit is applicable to just a handful of union-built vehicles most prominent in the Midwest. Many popular EV models will not enjoy the benefits of this tax credit, despite their potential for expanding the market.
The goal of any proposed EV tax credit should be improving and diversifying and encouraging companies to invest in producing electric vehicles – not benefiting a concentrated group of workers at the expense of jobs here in Mesa and across our state.
Arizona has made a big bet on EVs. This has allowed our state to become a desirable home for manufacturing facilities, like ElectraMeccanica’s plant in the Mesa region, and leading to good-paying, nonunion Arizona jobs. This biased tax credit threatens the EV economy we’ve built in favor of special interest groups.
International automakers with nonunion U.S. manufacturing facilities sell popular EV brands. These companies, as well as auto dealers who sell their EVs, support nearly 700,000 American jobs. In Arizona, there are over 160 dealers that support nearly 14,000 jobs. There is no good argument for why these jobs should be penalized – not when the aim of the tax credit, accelerating EV adoption, will in fact result in the opposite by limiting consumer choice.
Any legislation dealing with EV adoption should be for incentivizing a bigger, more diverse EV market. That will not only break our dependence on foreign energy, but also provide the benefit of protecting Arizona jobs.
It’s not too late. Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema can protect Arizona’s growing EV market by pushing Congress to amend the proposed EV tax credit so that it applies to all qualifying, road-ready EVs. It is the right thing for Arizona.
Jeff Dial is a former Arizona state senator and representative, whose district covered Ahwatukee and parts of the
East Valley. ■
LEIBOWITZ from page 20
spite the threat of lung cancer, others who would never think of wearing a motorcycle helmet because they like to feel like a badass. One of my buddies went skydiving last year. I turned down the invitation, saying I avoid optional danger in all forms, including jumping out of perfectly functional airplanes.
But now here I am, contemplating risking my life for a hot dog with sauerkraut from Gray’s Papaya and the opportunity to show a pretty girl with a huge heart the Tyrannosaurus Rex exhibit at the Museum of Natural History.
What would you do: Throw caution to the wind and live your life? Or give Omi-
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cron a wide berth and avoid New York literally like the plague?
One thing’s for sure. If I go and end up in intensive care or dead, everyone who read this column and thought tsk tsk sure will have one last chance to say “I told you so.” ■
