Social sewer Social media can be a great conduit for reconnecting old friends and keeping new ones in contact. But it can also be a cesspool of gossip, cruelty and depravity. Facebook admits as much. It is settling for $52 million a lawsuit brought by current and former contract workers who claimed they were mentally damaged by having to screen some of the more objectionable material posted to that social network. The lead plaintiff, for example, developed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after just nine months on the job, in which she had to watch photos and images of rape, murder, and suicide to see what content to remove. Although such damage to a person’s psyche is obvious, more insidious is what social media can do to people’s sense of self-worth, making them feel that they don’t measure up to others or that most of their relationships are unsatisfactory and superficial. User, beware. Tim Kalich Editor and Publisher Greenwood Commonwealth How will another $3 trillion be paid? Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives have no problem detailing how they want to spend $3 trillion in additional relief from the COVID-19 pandemic. What they struggle with is explaining how the country will pay for it — so much so, that they don’t even seem to bother trying. Still, it needs to be emphasized that almost all of this money would be borrowed, as was the $3 trillion Congress has already allocated to help out individuals, businesses and states during this crisis. It’s easy when talking about government spending to get lost in the zeroes. But $6 trillion would represent a trillion dollars more than the federal government spends in an entire year on everything it does — national defense, transportation, social programs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, everything. It’s considered outrageous when Washington runs up a trillion-dollar deficit in a year. This is the equivalent of six years of outrageous deficits. At some point, a lot of this borrowing will have to be paid back in either higher taxes or reduced benefits, as it’s doubtful the hoped-for economic rebound will cover it all. So what taxes do the borrowers want to raise or benefits cut, a few years down the road, in order to soften the present economic calamity that federal, state and local governments willfully engineered? Let’s hear some plan about that, too. Tim Kalich Editor and Publisher Greenwood Commonwealth Repaying a gift from 1847 There have been plenty of heartwarming stories about the kindness of ordinary people in the face of the coronavirus and subsequent economic shutdown. Few of these stories transcend centuries, but here’s one that does. The Washington Post’s website this week reported that 24,000 residents of Ireland have donated $820,000 to an online fundraiser set up by American Indian volunteers, who sought food and other supplies for families on the Hopi and Navajo reservations in three Western states as the tribes struggled with the virus. The motivation for the gifts is the fascinating part of the story. It turns out that in 1847, members of the Choctaw tribe, who had been forcibly relocated to what is now Oklahoma, heard of families in Ireland struggling to survive the infamous Potato Famine. The Choctaws, who learned firsthand about suffering when forced by the American government to move in 1831, collected $170 and sent it to a group in New York that was raising money to help the Irish. A Choctaw historian believes the sad story — 1 million people died in the Potato Famine and another 2 million emigrated, many to the United States — resonated with her ancestors, who had survived the Trail of Tears just 16 years before. This was a relatively small gift — with inflation, it would amount to about $5,000 today — but it’s a tremendously impressive one when you consider that the tribe was still struggling to adapt to its new home and didn’t have much to spare. An Arkansas publication noted the irony of people in the New World “bestowing alms upon the people of the Old World.” Somehow, neither benefactor nor recipient forgot the gesture. In 2017, the Oklahoma Choctaw chief went to Midleton, Ireland for the dedication of a 20-foot-tall “Kindred Spirits” sculpture that commemorates the gift. The sculpture may have prompted today’s generosity. Like the Choctaw members 173 years ago, the Irishmen who are helping the Hopi and Navajo have never met anyone from either tribe and probably never will. But a donor explained his motivation perfectly when he wrote on the fundraiser website, “I am a grateful Irishman. Thank you to the Choctaw nation for their humanity in Ireland’s darkest days.” It turns out that the descendants of Oklahoma Choctaw tribe that made the original gift doesn’t need financial assistance to cope with the virus. The tribe has built up an endowment that it has used to help ailing members. The two Western tribes are less fortunate. A Navajo member who started the fundraising appeal said the gifts from Ireland are a testament to the country’s kindheartedness and generosity. A total of $3.6 million has been donated. The supplies have helped 4,300 households, focusing on those who are raising grandchildren, have underlying health conditions or who have tested positive for the virus. The money is great, but repaying an act of charity from 1847 is what makes this virus story a truly special one. Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
