Why I am "uniquely American" and need to take a pause, & Dr. Damsker's Covidiocy

First, here is why:

Since returning to Bucks I have been working three jobs: teaching ESL online to students in Brazil, laboring outside with a friend’s landscape company (worked 12 hours Wednesday in that heat) and working at a warehouse in the evenings. Four jobs actually if you consider the media work I do with my (barely) paid column for the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer, podcasting with Raging Chicken Press, and the newsletter with all of the reading and research it involves. I didn’t make much money last year teaching in Guatemala, so this is kind of a necessity while I am back in the area and before I return.

I am completely spent. And never mind I barely have time to relax (or sleep like the lady in the video, lol).

I have a few articles I am currently struggling through about a young Central Bucks student who was harassed at a recent press conference in Doylestown imploring the local school board to actually have a health and safety plan, as well as a local resident’s experience being a solidarity activist with NISGUA, or The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala. I am also hoping, though not overly optimistic, to find time to write an article for NACLA’s next print magazine edition - something I was invited to write.

Ideally I would like to devote most, if not all of my time and energy to journalism - with maybe a little teaching on the side as it is something I enjoy. One thing you could do to help me achieve this is hit this subscribe button and choose a paid subscription plan.

If you can’t afford to, when I do resume the newsletter (and column and more active social media posting) it will stay available for all subscribers, paid or not. But I will most likely be out of commission more or less the next 4-6 weeks. I will though try to amplify local information affecting Bucks County during this time when I can. Just message me.

Information like this, sent to me by someone who wishes to remain anonymous. It is an email exchange acquired through a Right to Know request concerning Bucks County Public Health Director David Damsker, who wrote to one school administrative director: “One easy way of handling this is not to have your parents report any COVID to you ... If a kid is sick normally you don't ask why they are sick."

Cyril Mychalejko @cmychalejko

#PA01 parents should be troubled #BucksCounty Health Director David Damsker is advising schools to direct parents not to report if their children have #COVID19 symptoms. So no reporting, no contact tracing, no quarantining for infected. Masks? Meh. COVID, no big deal, just a flu.

Thanks for reading! I look forward to your feedback and suggestions. And most importantly, keep organizing!