Welcome to the March edition of our reading list series! For this round, I’ve focused mostly on non-fiction (with one alt-history exception). I’ve included everything from Roman history to contemporary politics. Enjoy!
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The COVID-19 pandemic dates to late 2019. But it became a huge problem in the U.S. almost exactly one year ago. And then the world developed a vaccine (actually several) in record-breaking time. As for myself, I got my first dose of the Moderna vaccine a few days ago.
Side effects? They haven’t been too bad for me. My arm hurt for a couple of days, and I felt tired. Slightly less than a day after the vaccine, I started feeling really run down, nauseous, and a bit dizzy. I recovered the next day.
Overall, I’m just feeling…optimistic. Yes, I could still get COVID-19. Yes, that’s a concern. And yes, the world still has many cases (though far less than a couple months ago). Nevertheless, I can see the end of the pandemic. Maybe I’ll start seeing more people in person soon. Maybe I’ll even enjoy some baseball in person this summer.
It seems like something worth celebrating.
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So, there’s an anniversary coming up, and it’s one none of us are happy about. Which one? It’s been almost one year since COVID-19 became the issue in the U.S. and much of the world. I chose March 11 for this post for symbolic reasons: it’s the one-year mark since the last time I went to a movie theater.
I saw 1917 on March 11, 2020, in case anyone’s interested.
We’d all like to get past COVID-19. I’m sure almost all of us want to meet in-person more regularly. Some have handled these feelings better than others. Some – e.g., Kim Reynolds in Iowa – have tried to force it before it’s time. But everyone shares in the dissatisfaction with the COVID-19 world.
In the last year, we moved from a ‘normal’ world (for better or worse) to a scary one to a manageable one (if you have a mask) to a strange adjustment to a ‘new normal.’ Along the way, we saw lots of new terms and oddities, e.g., ‘essential worker.’ As the vaccines make their rounds (I’m getting my first shot tomorrow!), let’s reflect a bit on this.
As everyone in the corporate world knows – or should know – Human Resources (HR) departments at many places have serious problems. ‘Woke HR’ figures in as merely one among many. But it’s a new one, and maybe that’s enough. Large organizations probably need HR or something like it. And when done well, HR can do wonderful work. But actual HR in many places protects companies from external and internal criticism. And – like middle managers – it prevents communication between rank-and-file workers and executives. That’s the opposite of what a good HR department does.
However, even in a broader narrative of problems, Woke HR stands out as particularly annoying.
After winning the Nevada caucuses – his third win in a row – it looked like Bernie Sanders was well on his way to securing the 2020 Democratic nomination. He built a winning coalition. He did really well in the early states among voters of color – especially Latinx voters. And he polled really well in the Super Tuesday states.
In short, everything looked great for Bernie.
But it didn’t happen for him, as everyone knows. After a big win in South Carolina, Joe Biden nudged Sanders out of the lead on Super Tuesday and defeated him handily in the later states.
What happened, and what lessons should the electoral left learn?
