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Being a mom and being an elected official in the age of coronavirus: Such a conundrum
By adamg on Sat, 05/16/2020 - 10:51am
WHDH reports (scroll down the page a bit) that police in Malden had to break up a big birthday party - in the parking lot of a local bowling alley - that City Council President Jadeane Sica-Bernbaum threw for her daughter on turning 21. The station quotes her as saying she really does get this pandemic stuff, you know, like not having gatherings of more than ten people, but dammit, she's a mother, too.
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Comments
She hired a freaking DJ!
She hired a freaking DJ! Congrats on being a bad mother and city councilor by potentially spreading a deadly virus.
The virus hasn’t changed
The virus hasn’t changed things that much for the people that are use to being alone.
But remember, it was only
But remember, it was only supposed to be for 30 minutes and it was mostly family.
Do those 50 people...
... share a household? I don’t think so.
Everyone who attended the
Everyone who attended the party should have to give their names, addresses, emails and get tested. Its the only way to insure they dont spread the disease.
It's called Tracking.
All the small businesses currently closed in Malden - and the residents of Malden - deserve to know that their elected officials are held to the same standards they are being forced to be held to. Apologies (if that's even what that was) arent good enough.
Sika-Bernbaum cheated and got caught.
That’s why she’s apologizing.
She hoping playing the mom card will get her some sympathy.
Why she thought possibly exposing her child and a lot of people she knows to the virus and why they showed up is a mystery to me.
That is indeed the mystery.
That is indeed the mystery. Who's accepting that invitation?
Except Sica-the-mom didn't apologize
« “Jadeane Sica, the mother, is going to keep trying to be the best mother she can be and do so respecting the role we all play in beating down this awful virus. Jadeane Sica the city councilor apologizes,” Sica-Bernbaum told her friends, family, and constituents. »
I'm quite irritated that she was not fined.
Yup , referred to herself in the third person, twice.
No red flags there. This spot was right on a very busy main road. Don’t know how she thought this would fly.
The Great Influenza by John Barry
On a friend's recommendation, I read this book last winter.
It was fascinating and frightening.
I'm not sure how to post pictures here but there's a chart showing the waves of the 1918 Pandemic in different areas of the globe.
You know how on most roller coasters they'll have a couple of small or mild drops before you get to the "big one"?
We're still in the midst of one of those early peaks and valleys.
Prepare accordingly and if possible buy an extra can or two of non-perishables every time you shop.
This winter could be horrific.
This is a claim that annoys me
The first outbreak in 1918 was the one no one talked about, since it was on the front (which is also why it ended up being called "Spanish Influenza," because Spain, being a neutral in the war, was the first one to up and admit it was happening.)
The second peak was in the fall of 1918, which was the only one people really talk about, since it was the worst one reported in real time.
The remaining peaks were much lower than the first 2.
This is not to argue that governments or people should be doing or not doing anything, since we are talking two different illnesses.
Well ...
The first outbreak was in Kansas, got shipped overseas, then came back here as the second wave (starting right here in Boston, at what we now know as the World Trade Center in the Seaport, but which was called Commonwealth Pier back then). The reason it got associated with Spain was, yes, because Spain was neutral, which meant its newspapers were the only ones that could report on it without government censorship, because then, as now, nobody wanted their enemies to know about contagion.
That parking lot is probably big enough
to hold 50 people 6 feet apart. The question is, were the people there observing that separation?
Still a large gathering
I doubt they observed those rules, but even if they did they were arriving from different areas and we still aren't sure if six feet is quite enough.
That, and this wasn't necessary. We are waiting until the fall to celebrate the graduates in our family. Like grownups that we are, we can wait. So many people are failing this high stakes marshmallow test.
Come on
Some people can hurl more than six feet.
Geometry
Let's arrange 49 of the 50 in a 7 x 7 grid. 6 feet between them, and each gets a square foot (if you are midway between two people that are standing 12 feet apart, you are less than 6 feet from each of them, because you take up some space). That's a 43 x 43 foot grid. I'm sure that would fit in the parking lot; you could probably even increase the distance a little. Then let the DJ spin up, and everbody dances alone! What fun! It's like a Coronavirus Line Dance (actually it's a square, not a line, but the term "square dance" is already taken.)
It might be fun, but I think it would get old after a few minutes.
She doesn't get it
Superspreader events have gutted some entire communities. Large gatherings will be the last to be restored.
As a mother of a new college grad I would never fucking dream of holding a virus sharing blowout like this dimwit just did. As a mother, I care about my kids, my relatives, and my community.
What a freaking narcissistic moron.
Difference
The Biogen conference was indoors, this was a small outdoor gathering.
"Small"
You must have been there to know that it was a small gathering, since the story didn't say how many people there were. In fact, what the story says is that it was "a large 21st birthday party." Large, not small.
50 people according to the article
The full kinda-sorta-apology can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/ElectJadeaneSicaCouncillorWard8/
As always, Dirty Den represent!
Now just imagine....
How different would this story have been if the person responsible wasn't a city official or if she wasn't white?
Bad mom
Jadeane Sica-Bernbaum has a warped idea of what it means to be a good mother. Good mom's set good examples for their kids. They enforce rules. And they differentiate the needs of a 5 y.o. from those of a 21 y.o.
A 21 y.o. is old enough to understand the rules, the reasons for them, and to consider the health of others as well as herself. A good mom would have taught her daughter to prioritize the safety of others and herself over having fun.
Completely normal 21st
Completely normal 21st birthday party.
How many 21 year olds would even want to tell their parents about how they celebrated their birthday at that year?
Now isn't normal
If a 21 y.o. is too immature to celebrate their 21st birthday safely, that's on them. But anyone old enough to be the parent of a 21 y.o. should be responsible enough to not enable endangering public health. Well before my kid was 21, they knew I wouldn't do things like that and considered protecting people's safety highest priority.
My kid won't be able to celebrate defending their dissertation. Their friends haven't either. None of them are running out to hold parties, other than virtually, even though this means they won't see each other in person before dispersing. Are they sad? Of course. Do they think it's worth getting sick or getting other people sick to alleviate the sadness. Hell no!
Her political career is over.
Hopefully she'll have the sense to resign now.
In a democracy
the voters have an absolute right to elect and re-elect jackasses.
And they often do,
but only when the jackasses don't have the sense to resign.
In Malden?
That's a pretty old school, parochial place politics-wise I believe. She'll be fine because she played the family card.
How is being a mother, but
How is being a mother, but not acting like a mother by being protective of your child and keeping her safe, playing the family card?
Well, so much for the theory
Well, so much for the theory that people are afraid to attend large public gatherings.
Ah, a Masshole extraordinaire
Ah, a Masshole extraordinaire.
So Distressing
It is so distressing that people don’t understand what we are facing and the sacrifices ahead. We can’t even get the community to give up large gatherings (go drive by local playgrounds this weekend) and that’s the tip of the iceberg to what’s coming.
We are all in this together means we all are going to be sacrificing meaningful portions of our wealth and income (need a far reaching wealth and income tax increase on anyone middle class and above. We are sacrificing many of the institutions that made the community enjoyable (restaurants, museums, zoos, etc) we are sacrificing services and education (schools likely stripped down to the basics). We need to have a robust and honest debate about what privacy we are willing to sacrifice to attack this cities. That’s the scale of we need to rise up to do in an effort to flatten the curve save our healthcare system and the lives of others.
This is almost certainly a multi-year fight and we are probably a generation away from getting society back to where we were pre virus.
People not understanding and not being willing to sacrifice graduation parties for the next few years makes me very afraid for what is coming when reality of what we are facing hits home.