<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">American Pandemic<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">we’ve chronicled the most deaths this year, families </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">distant, never close enough to hold the hands of loved</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">ones passing from this world, alone and confused, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">taken needlessly. “it didn’t have to be this way” they say,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the daily numbers mount, the hapless art of humanizing</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a life cut short but an empty gesture crafted by the grieving,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">this was a grandfather’s knee that might have been a rocking</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">chair for a story hungry wide-eyed child, this might have been </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a twinkle-eyed aunt who could intervene in a troubled moment,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">this was a father, a single mother, a soccer coach, a neighbor, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a nurse who’d save others, a future scientist who’d discover</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a gene that would save others, this was the lone source of love</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">for a brother, a teenager, a sibling, a parent, and the too</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">many we have lost in this cruel flash in time that someday</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">will be remembered in the halls of shame for how we so</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">callously ignored what was so obvious, so meaningless,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">so unnecessary, so stuffed with denial and dripping with</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">screaming body fluids and shattered organs. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Yes . . . this is called gun violence.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Bruce Silverman</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Calibri; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><span style="font-style: normal; font-size: 12px;" class=""> “When we change the ‘I’ for the ‘We,’ even Illness becomes Wellness.” - Malcolm X</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 18px;"><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 18px;"><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 18px;" class=""><br class=""></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;">
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