By Alan Resnick After 46 sessions I have my final physical therapy appointment on Friday. Depending on how one looks at things, I’m either graduating after more than three months because my rehabilitation is nearly complete, or I’m being kicked out because I’m bumping up against the maximum number of sessions that insurance will cover. This last appointment is both a cause for celebration and a source of dread. I do know that I’m on the road to recovery from arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and labrum in my right shoulder. The swelling in my shoulder, the stiffness, the pain, the clicking noises, and the lack of mobility all are just about gone. And my flexibility, range of motion, and strength are all increasing. They should be! I’ve been exercising three times a day for 16 weeks. I’ve bent down at the waist and circled my arm in a sweeping circular clockwise motion approximately 18,350 times, or enough to mix every can of primer, paint, and stain in every Home Depot in the tri-county area. I’ve done about 12,250 wall push-ups (not that I’ve been counting). And I have pedaled on a hand bicycle approximately 217 miles, or far enough for a round trip visit from my home in suburban Detroit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. It may take up to another couple of months until the shoulder is back to normal, so, I will continue my home exercise regimen. That’s the good news. My apprehension about my upcoming final session is twofold. First, as I entered this week’s appointments into my calendar, I realized that my PT visits have provided me an anchor for knowing which day of the week it is. I‘ve found over the last year that, when there is nothing on my calendar, days tend to blur into each other. For the last four months, I’ve known that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, are PT days. I’m going to be losing that source of structure after this week. But what really left me shaken was when I reviewed my calendar since I started physical therapy back in December. These are all the face-to-face appointments listed on my calendar over this time period: 46 physical therapy appointments, an annual physical, two dentist appointments, a follow-up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon, two walks with friends, and two 45-minutes visits to my office. This is supposed to be the calendar of somebody’s father or grandfather, not mine. Clearly, my PT sessions have also been my dominant source human interaction outside of my wife, and I will be losing this social network. That’s not to imply that I have been completely housebound since early December. I’ve had no problem going grocery shopping or picking up carry out meals throughout the pandemic. But the obligatory generic greeting provided by a store employee doesn’t really qualify as social interaction to me, nor does the transactional conversation with a cashier or clerk. Similarly, I did not list the assorted Zoom educational sessions on my calendar or the FaceTime coffee or dinner dates with family or friends. While I can see people’s faces on my tablet, it just simply isn’t the same as them being physically present. I’m realizing that I’m going to miss so many of the little interpersonal experiences that happen during my appointments beyond the physical therapy. I’m going to miss having my temperature taken and answering health screening questions before being let into the PT exercise room. I know the questions so well that I can point out when one has been overlooked. I’m going to miss having Caroline, the office administrator, tell me to: “Drive home safely.” I only live about two miles from the facility, but the kind words are very much appreciated nonetheless. I’m going to miss interacting with each physical therapy assistant when they hook me up to the electrical stimulation machine. Each has their own distinct personality and way of doing things. Sio is pleasant, quiet, and efficient. He doesn’t disclose much about himself unless he is specifically asked. Since he is studying to be a physical therapist, I’ll ask him about how classes are going and what’s been most challenging about remote learning. This gets him talking and will typically prompt him to inquire about my progress or background. Sio goes through the arm of my tee shirt to attach each of the four electrode pads. Gwendoline is the most senior of the three assistants, having been with the firm for almost 17 years. She is also the most difficult to decipher. If Gwendoline simply says: “Good morning” after I greet her when she enters my room, I’ve learned it’s just best to be quiet and let her get me hooked up to the e-stim machine. But if she starts talking about the weather or her car problems, it’s a signal to engage in conversation. Gwendoline is also the only therapist who lifts up my tee shirt from the back to station some of the electrode pads. Mick is the most outgoing and boisterous of the assistants. He is also a student; he attends two different community colleges, one to complete a program and the second to start a new program. Mick asks a lot of questions and provides a lot of information about himself, his girlfriend, his love of tennis, and his favorite foods. He consistently asks about my weekend plans if he’s working with me on Fridays, and my plans invariably are less ambitious than his. And, if he’s working the following Monday, Mick will ask about my weekend and share his with me. Mick is the least adept at affixing the electrode pads. He attaches two by going up through the arm hole in my tee shirt, and the other two by stretching the neck of my shirt to reach down my back. He also hasn’t mastered how to remove the pads from the backing sheet on which they are attached without them dropping to the floor, so I function as his assistant by holding onto the sheet as he removes each electrode. We then repeat the process as he removes each pad. Sanjay is both the owner of the facility and my physical therapist. This if the fourth time I’ve worked with him, and I trust him implicitly. Sanjay listens to my frustrations and provides ongoing emotional support and positive feedback. He bounces up and down on his toes while he manipulates my arm as his form of exercise. And I look forward to our conversations during each session, whether they are about the pandemic, politics, photography, our daughters, or our mutual friends. So, I’m looking forward to Friday with very mixed emotions. Ouch, I think I just tweaked something in my back. Alan Resnick is an industrial psychologist with over 40 years of professional experience. He and his wife are sheltering at home in Farmington Hills, Michigan. He is passing the time by cooking, exercising, catching up on friends’ recommendations of must-see TV and writing.

Rashid Khalidi: The Hundred Years' War on Palestine Join the Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs on Wednesday, March 24th, for a live conversation between Jeffrey Sachs and Rashid Khalidi, author of this month's featured book The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017. REGISTER NOW Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists—The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process. Please note that you do NOT have to have read the book to join the live session. However, we encourage you to join the Book Club on edX to access a book excerpt, supporting resources, and a forum where you can discussThe Hundred Years' War on Palestine with Book Club members from around the world. The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs videos are recorded and available for later viewing at the SDG Academy Library. The audio is now available as Apple Podcast.

By Andy Borowitz March 22, 2021 MIAMI BEACH (The Borowitz Report)—In an exuberant endorsement of a 2024 Republican Presidential hopeful, the coronavirus thanked Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, for “making me feel so welcome at spring break.” “It’s been a tough couple of months for me, since Biden came in and started boosting vaccinations and mask-wearing,” the virus said. “I really needed this vacation.” The coronavirus’s praise of DeSantis as “a fantastic host” stood in sharp contrast to its harsh criticism of the Miami Beach mayor, Dan Gelber, whom the pathogen called “a total buzzkill.” “Dan Gelber has not made me feel welcome at all, which I find divisive and hurtful,” it said. The coronavirus also predicted that it would not be alone in supporting DeSantis’s expected White House bid. “Every variant I talk to is excited about it,” the virus indicated. Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.

By Naomi Serviss When the pandemic cratered 2020 and forced isolation was prescribed, I nearly lost my way. I am by nature a gregarious entertainment journalist, attuned to conducting Broadway interviews and sharing first-person insight. Covid-19 crashed our collective normal and my personal roadmap. Gone were my great expectations of live, world-class productions, followed by backstage chats and off-the-record asides. Virtual performers now valiantly strive to approximate in-person experiences. It's not the same. We’re all suffering. Still we persevere. Until we can’t. Having chalked up six earthly decades, my infrastructure is starting to disappoint. After hip replacement surgery, two foot surgeries further condensed my world. Gone was my stoic independence, replaced by reliance on the love of family and the kindness of friends. My husband Lew, a New York Times editor, works at home, virtually producing the paper with fellow editors. Roberta, a beloved friend who lives a block away on the Upper West Side, brings me cinnamon raisin bagels and sugarless fruit scones. Nancy, a South Carolinian, intuits my dark moods and sends chocolate babka from Zabar’s. Our son Ben sends jokey gifts like a mini spinning carousel and bendable cartoon figures. He surprised us with photos of himself proposing to his soulmate Katherine. Daughter Emmy sends over-sized cards, stickers and videos of her silky cats, Theo and Pippin. Still, recovery is painfully slow and my mood sometimes darkens. Frustrated and at times spiraling into depression, I seek solace from the burgeoning pile of bedside books. A Burt Lancaster biography. Carrie Fisher’s last memoir. An online BBC movie group fills unstructured time. Watching indie films challenges remaining brain cells. Photo albums are getting organized. Lew assumes all caregiving, from shopping to laundry. His Virgo-optimism buoys me up when deadly daily news heightens my anxiety. He maintains the seltzer stockpile. Memories of ambulance sirens darken my dreams, transforming them into ashen nightmares. Accustomed Central Park walks are verboten. Aerobic workouts are sacrificed for my mending bones. Our family's last gathering was Thanksgiving 2019. Fortunately, Emmy and Ben are healthy, by turns angry, despondent yet relieved their Baby Boomer parents are maintaining. Meditation habits ingrained after years of Sunday communal gatherings have shattered. Treasured memories of desert spa retreats bubble up. I'm painting again. Frenzied construction paper collages are propped on bookshelves. I squeeze tubes of red and orange paint on rice paper in abstract shapes. My emotional temperature inches towards normal. A faint memory of casitas carved from ancient red rocks is percolating. Sedona, Arizona. Mii amo Spa. Decades ago, a brief respite there re-ignited my flickering life force. Senses heightened by the stars and surprise snowfall brought cleansing tears. Mii amo is Native American for "Journey." Whispered, it's a love poem. Spa team members guide guests along their body, mind and spirit journeys. Myriad treatments and tranquil healing spaces await discovery. A perfect sanctuary, Mii amo shielded me from Manhattan deadlines and endless indignities of city life. We cautiously baby step away from pandemic panic towards normalish life. Soon we will be hugging loved ones and toasting moments great and small. I will walk with a steady gait, my heart healing and full. Naomi Serviss is a New York-based award-winning journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Highroads (AAA magazine), in-flight publications, spa and travel magazines and websites, including BroadwayWorld.com

FRED PLOTKIN is one of America’s foremost experts on opera and has distinguished himself in many fields as a writer, speaker, consultant and as a compelling teacher. He is an expert on everything Italian, the person other so-called Italy experts turn to for definitive information.  Fred discovered the concept of "The Renaissance Man" as a small child and has devoted himself to pursuing that ideal as the central role of his life. In a “Public Lives” profile in The New York Times on August 30, 2002, Plotkin was described as "one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy." In the same publication, on May 11, 2006, it was written that "Fred is a New Yorker, but has the soul of an Italian."

By Bonnie Fishman Have you ever had a recurring dream, year after year after year? Well, mine are usually about Bonnie’s Kitchen & Catering, my Bloomfield Hills, Mich. business, which I owned from 2005 to 2009. A few constant themes run through these dreams: forgetting I have a catering job, being unprepared and late, running out of food…none of which was ever true until last week. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about with the pandemic and all! At the beginning of this month, things were abuzz at the Fishman Family Compound in northern California. The compound was about to burst with more Fishmans: on March 13, a cousin of ours from Israel and another from Detroit were coming to stay for a dozen days. We three sisters, being quintessential hosts and starved of entertaining others due to the pandemic, had a powwow on March 5 in anticipation of their arrival. We had to have a plan as to who was hosting which meal and what was being served. My sister, Nancy, took the helm, writing up a calendar and distributing it to each of us so we were clear on the dates and times. Fast forward to Sunday, March 14, the morning of the brunch I was hosting in honor of my cousins. But when I had an early morning chat with my sister Marcia, I receive an unexpected shock. I discover that the family dinner I thought I was also scheduled to host later in the week was actually the next day! I didn’t have all my supplies for the meal because I thought I had more time to shop. So I had to borrow mushrooms and peppers from my two sisters. For shame! Borrow from someone else’s pantry? A travesty! I still had four hours before my cousins would arrive at 11:30 am—or so I thought. I leisurely drank my coffee and watched the news before starting my brunch prep. On the menu: vegetable frittata, tuna salad, bagels, lox, sliced veggies, fresh fruit salad, and from scratch, blueberry muffins. Feeling like time was on my side, I even prepped my leg of lamb for dinner the next night, trimming the fat, a quick butterfly, and marinating. I was already at my station. Why not chop and sauté my vegetables for that dinner as well? No big deal. But then, to my surprise, I heard tapping on the window. I looked up, and I saw my guests’ faces pressed against the glass of my barn doors. Why are they here an hour early? I am still in my pj’s, sink full of dishes, table unset. I am folding blueberries into the muffins, and the frittata isn’t yet in the oven! Frantically, I waved off my hungry relatives and told them to come back at 11:30 a.m as planned. They held up a phone showing the time. It WAS 11:30 a.m.! The change to daylight saving time the night before had really messed with me. I was a wreck! Yes, even professional chefs make mistakes, right? Despite my frazzled state, I was able to put out a delicious meal on my time schedule. We all had a good laugh and a lovely time. When I had my catering business, we never got the event date wrong, we were never late, and we never ran out of supplies, because we had The Prepared Pantry! But this particular morning, my nightmares came true! Reminder: check your calendar so you have your supplies on hand and do your prep ahead of time. And for G-d’s sake, make sure you know what time it is! Today’s recipe is a really good one for cooking from your fridge pantry. My frittata, which is really baked eggs, is like pasta or soup-- pretty much anything you have hanging around will be fine in the casserole. You can add breakfast meat that has to be cooked (chopped bacon, ground chorizo or other sausage, chicken sausage) in with the vegetables. The variations go on from there. Feel free to cut the recipe in half, double it, you can’t go wrong. Also, if you want to prep a day ahead, you can chop and sauté the veggies. I encourage you to assemble and bake the morning of your brunch. If you have leftovers, you can cut them into portions, store them in a covered dish, and microwave. It makes for a quick breakfast or lunch. The frittata will keep for several days. I would love to hear about your “riffs” on this casserole! Feel free to leave comments below and we can all enjoy your creativity. Vegetable Frittata (Baked Eggs) Yield: 8-10 3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil 1 1/2 c. diced onion 1 1/2 c. diced red or yellow bell pepper 2 c. (4 oz.) sliced mushrooms 3 c. packed shredded spinach or Swiss chard 1 1/2 c. shredded sharp cheddar or other cheese 10 lg. eggs 1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese 1 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper Generously spray a 2 to 2 1/2 quart shallow casserole with pan release. Preheat oven to 350°. In a large skillet over moderate heat, sauté the onions and peppers for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes more. Stir in the spinach or chard and cook until the greens are wilted but still bright green, about 2-3 minutes. Season with the salt and black pepper. Cool to room temperature. Stir in the shredded cheese. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until well blended. Pour the eggs onto the vegetables, making sure the eggs are incorporated. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake for about 25 minutes. The eggs should be set and slightly browned. Serve hot or at room temperature. Bonnie Fishman attended the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London. Later, she owned and operated Bonnie’s Patisserie in Southfield, Mich. and Bonnie’s Kitchen and Catering in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. She has taught cooking for over 35 years and created hundreds of recipes. She is now living in Northern California.

By Michael McQuillan My male generation’s toolkit did not include tears. “You grit your teeth to do the best you can with what you’ve got,” Dad said when he and Mom fought. She left home with friends, her return uncertain. His stance left me at age ten despondent. I fancied myself stone to shield my younger sister from further conflict, wary lest it breach our shut bedroom door. “I stand on a dime apart from the past without feelings, the future in fog,” I told a therapist at thirty. “Those emotions lie dormant within you but will emerge from our work, as raw as they were in your childhood,” she warned. The tidal wave that proved her correct depressed me in a clinical sense. I cried abruptly without knowing why, though athletic felt physically spent, paced myself through each hour, free writing my thoughts to assure my own safety. Medicine, therapy and my wife’s steadfast support were safe havens that launched my relative adult security. Now I am coping with death. Pancreatic cancer killed my brother-in-law two weeks ago. He could converse on meaningful things – the ebb and flow of relationships, how our bodies change as we age, the chaotic state of politics, what we hope to have learned from our short time on earth to pass on. That he never set out to impress was impressive. So were his courage and dignity during the diagnosis’ four-year death sentence. Death rose on the horizon, loomed over clouds, burst through denial. Hand thrust to heart at the night’s news as pain’s balm. When I feel bad, I write. I scrawled across legal pages afterwards all morning. I sought to get right what to say at the funeral, papers piled at my feet for no line had the depth he deserved. Not until sunset did the thought dawn on me that the rational mind had purged clutter to reveal the heart’s content. What I was meant to say was plain: like Jacob (Yaakov), the namesake of my conversion to Judaism who in the Bible had wrestled an angel, I was to argue with God. I would, without notes. The aspirational God I believe in, I said in my eulogy, manifest in risen sun, ocean waves, an infant’s birth, is meant to spiritually shape our earthly acts, to lift, not to tear down. That God took my brother-in-law, younger than I, too soon. I should have gone first. He had more to give. My life’s work is undone but his sharing had much more ahead for his family, faith, community. Laws should benefit people, not punish out of hand, he believed, a frayed concept that as an attorney he sought to restore. He took to heart our Jewish ethic of tikkun olam, healing the world, as his synagogue’s social action chair. He spoke with moral authority since he listened and reflected sincerely. “Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention,” Simone Weil, the French philosopher and author of the 1930s and ‘40s, wrote. My brother-in-law would have had her regard. He and his wife had their adult sons at home at the end. The extended family’s whimsical uncle caring for cousins, the guitarist who graced Sabbath worship, found joy at Guitar Camp with Jefferson Airplane alumni and accompanied his wife’s winning fiddle contest showings, is gone. His absence – our loss – clouds sunshine. My tear ducts fill. I cannot cry. Dad’s words haunt my anguish. I trust Eitan Katz’ evocative Jewish melodies on YouTube to scale my psychic wall but defense is ironclad. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel cites Hasidic teachings that mourning has ascending stages from tears through silence to song. I am not – like my brother-in-law -- a musician, I say in concluding my eulogy, but I declare I can chant a niggun, a sacred wordless song that has meant much to my family. I invite the congregation virtually and in person to add voices to mine as a chorus to cradle my brother-in-law with love at mourning’s highest stage as he journeys on toward eternity. My toolkit expanded with need as I found myself able to sing though I still could not cry. May my brother-in-law’s soul be at peace. Michael McQuillan, former U.S. Senate aide, Peace Corps volunteer and history teacher, chaired the N.Y.P.D. Training Advisory Council’s Race Subcommittee and writes for The Write Launch, History News Network, Harlem World Magazine and his blog (https://mcquillan-unity-forum.squarespace.com)

By Jessie Seigel / Washington, D.C. I have spent four decades in Washington, D.C. watching conservative Republicans manipulate the public and, where they could get away with it, whittle away, bit by bit, the regulation of industrial and financial entities. This has included labor and environmental protections, as well as government programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and welfare. And too many Democrats have allowed themselves to be pushed to the right rather than stand against that reactionary force. It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Administration that brought us Social Security, welfare, and unemployment insurance for the elderly, the destitute, and those who have lost their jobs. Roosevelt legalized collective bargaining and initiated the minimum wage. At a time when our nation was in the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt’s New Deal provided people with work through the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Projects Administration (WPA). He saved the banking system and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to protect depositors’ savings. Roosevelt’s liberal descendants brought us Medicare and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. All of these protections that enhanced our lives for many years have been, to one degree or another, either gutted or diluted to the quality of dishwater. And I have been waiting four decades for the public to wise up—and for a modern-day FDR who would lead the fight to reestablish what has been lost. I had not expected Joe Biden, the moderate liberal, to be that successor to Roosevelt. But life is full of wonderful surprises—and President Joe Biden is one of them. Like Roosevelt in his first 100 days, Biden is off and running. He began with setting a goal of 100 million COVID -19 vaccinations in 100 days, and is well ahead of schedule. The Congress has just passed, and Biden has just signed, the American Rescue Plan, his $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. That plan provides funding of coronavirus testing and tracing; increases the size of the public health workforce, and funds vaccine distribution. Greatly heralded are the plan’s $1,400 stimulus checks, which will help alleviate the economic stress that COVID’s restrictions on life and work have caused. But Biden’s legislation does far more than that. It is a comprehensive beginning on retrieving the Rooseveltian vision. The plan is expected to cut overall poverty by one third and child poverty by one half through the extension of unemployment benefits, extension of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP, and an increased child tax credit. In true Roosevelt fashion, Biden’s child tax credit is innovative, recognizing that children should not be deprived of essential needs because their parents are out of work or don’t earn enough to qualify for a tax benefit. Under Biden’s plan, parents will receive $300 monthly cash payments, allowing them to deal with day-to-day costs for essentials like food, without requiring they be employed or earn enough money to file a tax return. Though this relief currently is temporary, progressives in the Congress hope to make it permanent. The legislation also bails out collapsing pension plans, thus securing for hundreds of thousands of retirees their pensions for the next few decades. It provides for emergency rental assistance, and relief for the homeless, as well as mortgage and homeownership assistance. It contains funds for infrastructure, and financial support for schools, colleges and child-care providers. As expansive as The American Rescue Plan is, it has only been the beginning of Biden’s “Building Back Better.” Not even two months into Biden’s administration, the House of Representatives has passed seven additional important progressive bills: The Equality Act (H.R.5), prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; The Protecting the Right to Organize Act (H.R. 842), overriding state right-to-work laws, setting tougher penalties for employer interference with union organizing, and giving contractors and temporary workers the right to collectively bargain; The For the People Act (HR1), expanding voting registration, early voting, and voting by mail; limiting gerrymandering; and changing campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of money in politics; The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (HR4), restoring federal oversight the Supreme Court tossed out in 2013 in Shelby v. Holder. The John Lewis Act provides a new formula to decide what states have shown a pattern of discrimination, requires officials to publicly announce all voting changes at least 180 days before an election; and expands government authority to send federal observers to any jurisdiction where there may be a substantial risk of discrimination; The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021(HR8), requiring background checks on all gun sales and transfers; The Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021 (HR 1446), extending the amount of time for background checks from three days to 20 days. These bills must overcome a likely filibuster in the Senate, but they are, nevertheless, a rip-roaring start to a new Roosevelt-style progressive agenda. Biden and Roosevelt had very different roots—Roosevelt, a scion of America’s patrician upper class; Biden, middle class to the core—but they share some important similarities of circumstance. Both men weathered personal adversities that appear to have given them a compassion for others’ troubles. Roosevelt moved forward despite polio that had left him unable to walk. Biden overcame a stutter, two aneurisms, and numerous family tragedies. Roosevelt had the warmth that comes with great charm; Biden has a warmth that emanates from his sincerity. Both men came into office at times of extreme crisis. Roosevelt’s was the economic collapse creating the Great Depression. Biden’s has been a pandemic killing more than 400,000 Americans before he even entered office, and the national economic crisis resulting from that pandemic. Roosevelt was accused of being a socialist for attempting to do what was necessary to save the country. Biden has likewise had that accusation thrown at him. But as reported by The New Yorker in July, 2020, Biden’s view is: “I’m kind of in a position that FDR was…What in fact FDR did was not ideological, it was completely practical.” Both men even suffered a coup attempt soon after they became president. As we all know, the attempted coup against Biden took place on January 6, when the Capitol attackers tried to prevent counting of presidential electoral votes. The planned coup against Roosevelt by business and Wall Street interests faltered before it could be put into action because the man they chose to lead it—Major General Smedley Butler—exposed the plot instead. As difficult as the country’s situation was in Roosevelt’s day, Biden faces a far more difficult political environment than Roosevelt did. FDR faced an uncooperative Supreme Court, but in his 1932 election he carried solid Democratic majorities to both the Senate and the House. Though Biden has a majority in the House, he not only must deal with the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority, he must walk a 50-50 tightrope in the Senate, persuading conservative Democrats to vote with their party, and depending on his Vice President to break ties. Biden’s Senate must also find some way to overcome Republican abuse of the filibuster rule, and his Congress overall must find some way to deal with the disruptions by those in Congress who use their positions to continue support of the insurrectionists. Dr. Martin Luther King famously said “…the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” I have tremendous respect for Dr. King, and appreciate the tenacious idealism of his words. But I do not see that arc as bending towards justice. I see it as an eternal tug of war between greed and need—a thick, rough rope sometimes pulled towards justice, sometimes yanked in the other direction. With Biden and the Democratic House and Senate, we have the tightest grip on that rope that we have had since FDR’s day, but Mitch McConnell and his ilk are pulling strongly the other way. To bring all that Biden and the Democrats are setting in motion to fruition, we must reform the filibuster, and we must get more Democrats into the Senate. We had better grip that rope even more tightly and keep pulling hard. Jessie Seigel is a fiction writer, an associate editor at the Potomac Review, a reviewer for The Washington Independent Review of Books, and a dabbler in political cartoons at Daily Kos. She has twice received an Artist’s Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for her work. But, Seigel also had a long career as a government attorney, in which she honed her analytic skills. Of this double career, Seigel would say, “I guess my right and left brains are well balanced.” More on and from Seigel can be found at The Adventurous Writer, https://www.jessieseigel.com.

By Andy Borowitz March 16, 2021 WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In an effort to overcome the nagging problem of vaccine hesitancy among Republicans, former President Barack Obama is appearing in a new video urging them not to take the coronavirus vaccine. In the public-service announcement, Obama looks directly into the camera and says, “I’m speaking today to Republicans across the country. I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but now I’m reaching out to ask you for a special favor: to not take the vaccine. It would mean a lot to me and make me very happy.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since the Obama spot started airing, on Monday, requests for vaccines from members of the G.O.P. have skyrocketed, with Republicans reportedly lining up around the block at some vaccination sites. “It turns out that the former President was the perfect messenger,” Harland Dorrinson, a C.D.C. spokesperson, said. “At the C.D.C., we are all saying, ‘Thanks, Obama.’ ” Speaking to reporters, Obama said that he was “pleased” that his targeted message to Republicans appeared to be having the desired impact. “Looks like I’ve still got it,” he said. Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.

Opinion by Jeffrey D. Sachs | CNN.com March 16, 2021 Editor's Note: Jeffrey Sachs is a professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and president of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. His most recent book is "The Ages of Globalization" (Columbia University Press, 2020). The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author; view more opinion on CNN (CNN) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put her finger on the key economic issues facing the United States when she recently called for a "big, bold and transformational" infrastructure package to follow the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 rescue bill. She wisely highlighted transportation, energy, water, education, and broadband internet as some of the nation's "critical needs." Most Americans, however, have little idea how far this country has fallen behind on meeting these needs. Yet, without modern infrastructure, the US cannot create decent jobs, social justice or climate safety. After decades of delay, now is the time for President Joe Biden to go big. Starting with former President Ronald Reagan, Republicans turned their back on federal infrastructure. Federal spending on "physical resources," including energy, transportation, housing, environment and community development, averaged around 2% of GDP during the late 1970s but fell to around 1% of GDP by the 1990s, and has been below 1% of GDP since 2013. A modest infrastructure package was passed in 2015 under former President Barack Obama (cut in size by Republican resistance), but no infrastructure package was passed during former President Donald Trump's term. There may be several reasons for Republican opposition to federal infrastructure programs, but one of them may be the party's "southern strategy," designed to curry favor with White segregationist voters in the south. Following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, federal infrastructure aimed to serve all Americans, not just White Americans. These included new mandates under the civil rights banner, which Republicans began to attack as "coercive federalism," their pejorative term for regulations enforcing federal, nondiscriminatory legislation. As a result of decades of underfunding, much of American infrastructure is now outdated, and the United States is falling behind other industrialized countries. Consider 5G connectivity, for example. As The Wall Street Journal recently noted: "China has more 5G subscribers than the U.S., not just in total but per capita. It has more 5G smartphones for sale, and at lower prices, and it has more-widespread 5G coverage. Connections in China are, on average, faster than in the U.S., too." Yet 5G will be critical for many digital technologies in the US, including our transition to clean energy. Or consider new fast rail, with trains that operate in excess of 150 miles per hour. Since 2008, China has gone from zero miles of fast rail to 22,000 miles. The US still has zero trains operating at these speeds. The US High-Speed Rail Association has proposed to the Biden administration a number of high-speed corridors to include in the new infrastructure strategy, which would greatly facilitate passenger travel while slashing carbon dioxide emissions. Pelosi also made the right move in including education in the list of core investments alongside physical infrastructure needed to create a high-skill economy with good jobs. American 15-year-olds are not keeping up with their East Asian counterparts in science and math. Consider the Organization for Economic and Co-operation Development's 2018 test results of the Programme for International Student Assessment. On math, US students' average score of 478, on a scale standardized to an average of around 500 for the OECD countries. Meanwhile, students in four Chinese provinces (Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang) averaged 591; Singapore, 569; Hong Kong, 551; Taiwan, 531; Japan, 527; and South Korea, 526. There are also many European countries outpacing the US, including Estonia, Finland, Ireland and Poland. The science scores are similar, with East Asian far outpacing the US. The extent of America's water crisis is similar. The Guardian recently described the water crisis as follows: "Imagine a country where ... over two million people are denied access to running water and basic indoor plumbing; Where another 30 million live in areas where they lack access to safe drinking water; Where 110 million people are exposed to toxic chemicals in their drinking water; And where 15 million people have had their supply cut off because of the country's huge water affordability crisis. Welcome to the United States of America." Biden has promised a science-based strategy to restore water safety, for example, by regulating the use of chemical pollutants known to be health hazards. Polling data shows that Americans give their overwhelming support to new infrastructure. In a 2016 Gallup poll, 75% of Americans supported increased infrastructure spending. Those percentages remained relatively stable through the Trump administration. A Gallup survey analyst recently summarized public opinion as such, "Doing something about infrastructure should be a no-brainer. This is one of relatively few policy areas for which there is strong public support from all Americans, regardless of political identity." Yet important political work still lies ahead. The Biden administration should do three things to advance its infrastructure initiative. First, it should lay out a comprehensive program addressing the major infrastructure needs. Pelosi's list of priorities -- transportation, energy, water, education and broadband -- would meet that goal. The administration must also show plans for a true "green and digital" modernization of the US infrastructure, one that will create jobs, raise productivity, protect the environment and ensure nondiscriminatory access to infrastructure services. My colleagues and I recently described just such a strategy for the energy sector, showing that the US has the wind and solar resources and the advanced technologies to achieve energy decarbonization by 2050 at an annual cost below 1% of GDP, while also creating more than 1 million new jobs. Second, the Biden administration and Congress should create a national infrastructure bank to help finance the major infrastructure programs. Some of the new investments will have to go directly into the federal budget, but others will be carried out by state and local governments, or by regulated utilities (for example, in the transition to renewable energy and safe water systems). A national infrastructure bank would allow the federal government to provide safe, low-cost, long-term financing to nonfederal projects, and to blend government and private financing in complex, large-scale infrastructure projects. Europe has the European Investment Bank for this purpose; China turns to the China Development Bank. And there are also several "green banks" at the state level, to fund green (low-carbon) infrastructure, for example in Connecticut and California. Third, the Biden administration should encourage cities and states to come forward with strong local and regional plans to upscale technologies, shift to green energy and launch new public-private infrastructure projects tailored to local strengths and needs. Mayors of eight cities in the American industrial heartland of the Midwest and Appalachia (Pittsburgh, PA; Youngstown, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati; Huntington, W.Va; Morgantown, W.Va; and Louisville, KY) have recently launched a "Marshall Plan for Middle America," to put the industrial states to work creating the new green and digital economy. The plan is politically astute, ecologically sound and economically focused. The mayors know that their region has two great strengths for the future US economy: a great industrial tradition and outstanding universities at the cutting-edge of technology. Consider Pittsburgh, for example, where Mayor Bill Peduto is skillfully promoting Pittsburgh as an innovation hub that combines the digital prowess and entrepreneurial know-how of Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh with the traditional strengths of Pittsburgh's industry. What is true in upper Appalachia is true all over America. Texas is discovering the benefits of wind and solar projects. The plains states are investing heavily in wind power. Detroit is lining up to produce the new electric vehicles, and Ohio is scaling up to supply the batteries they'll need. Universities and businesses are teaming up to push forward on new technologies. While many Republicans in Congress, still stuck in the past, are likely to oppose Biden's infrastructure bill, Americans around the country are clearly ready, willing and able to get started on building the new American economy. https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/16/opinions/infrastructure-president-biden-goals-sachs/index.html

Confessions of a Veteran Educator Part I: An Apple (Computer) for the Teacher I have been teaching remotely for a year now, and I give it a resounding thumbs down. I cannot wait to get back into the real classroom. A pre-Covid-19 teaching day in the life of Ms. Brewer (me) at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle was lively, energetic, people-filled, and active. There were highs and lows, with some days full of mathematical revelation and others diverted by a classroom management challenge. But it was almost always satisfying and fulfilling to teach young people, collaborate with colleagues, and be part of a community working to educate every child. In my math class, a typical period included class discussion, students up at the front to visually share their thinking, work time while I walked around to support groups and individuals, and some off-topic interactions that developed personal connections so that students wanted to learn with me and each other. A post-Covid teaching day is so different! The same amount of lesson planning goes into it, but it lacks most of the good stuff. The liveliness, energy, people, and activity are missing. To illustrate, let me share a typical day in my remote teaching life: At 9 a.m., I log on for Mentorship. My co-mentor teacher and I check in with our group of 18 students, who are sophomores now and who meet weekly throughout their four years of high school. The virtual version of Mentorship is 15 minutes each morning of connections and school business as needed. Attendance varies, but the students seem to appreciate having the consistency of the group and while most of them don’t turn on their cameras, they do occasionally unmute themselves to speak aloud. At 9:20 a.m., I take a deep breath and enter the Microsoft Teams meeting for my first period of the day. I turn on my camera and mic and smile and say good morning to whomever is there. They either don’t respond or they write “Good morning” or “GM” in the chat. Other students drift into the virtual classroom, and one of them, Amir, unmutes to say a verbal “hello” and “how are you?” He always does this, and his seemingly brave act of connection amid the silence makes me very happy. [Student names have been changed for privacy.] I continue to welcome people and make small talk about hoping they are doing well and that they will get out into the sunshine later today. Did I mention I am talking to a screen of blank boxes? Yes, I am. In one of my three classes this morning, one solitary student, Jalen, will have his camera on throughout the class because he has realized this helps him feel connected and engaged. He is acknowledged by every one of his teachers as the only student who does this consistently. A few other students—Riley, Lila, and Amara—will turn on their cameras for a few seconds before signing off at the end of class, and I will thank them enthusiastically for letting me see their faces. Otherwise, I am teaching a sea of boxes, some with initials and some with pictures of themselves, anime characters, or other images. At 9:25 a.m., It’s time to start the class officially . I share my screen, and the first slide has our daily agenda along with a funny math cartoon or a Ms. Brewer bitmoji (a personalized animated version of me that I created using an app) in a new pose. Our first activity is a cheesy word problem that pokes fun at Ms. Brewer’s exponential decrease of Instagram followers. This warm-up connects us to what we did the prior class and uses the skills practiced in the homework. Even though we only have live virtual class twice per week and they have had three days to complete the short homework assignment, fewer than half of students have done it, so I don’t know how many of them are successfully completing the warm-up. That said, a few students type their answers to the warm-up in the chat, and I continue to enthusiastically talk to the silent screen as I show how to do the problem and praise the participation that I see. I then ask students to share one thing that they learned, liked, or had a question about from a video about credit cards and other exponent-related financial math they watched during a prior class. I made the video, a combination of silly but informative skits between me and my son, and interviews with a local ice cream shop owner and the principal of our school. As we wait for students to share their thoughts, I thank each person as they post in the chat. I encourage everyone to write something; it’s open-ended, and I just want students’ ideas and feedback about the video. After a minute or two, only nine out of 24 students have shared in the chat—37.5%, I point out. Their comments are great, though. Mariana says she liked the skits with my son; Mimi writes that she appreciated the interview with our principal; and Jacob liked learning about how my other interviewee, Molly Moon, financed and developed her first ice cream store and has grown her business into a locally recognized enterprise with multiple shops. But what about the rest of the class, the ones who didn’t give me any feedback? Here are the possibilities: They logged into class for attendance and then they went to do something else; they are there but playing video games or watching YouTube or sleeping and didn’t hear the question; or they didn’t watch the video despite being given time to do so. I continue teaching for the remainder of our 50 minutes, and at the end of class I wish students a good day and remind them that I am available during asynchronous support time in the afternoon. They can come ask questions, talk about life, get help catching up, or anything else. In the afternoon, as I work at my computer, one or two students might take advantage of that support time, and I’m happy to help. It’s also okay if it’s quiet, because I can use that time to plan or reach out to individual students and families. At 10:15 a.m., after first period, I take a moment to walk across the house and back, and then I do the same lesson two more times before lunch, tweaking a few things here and there. After saying goodbye to the third class of the morning two hours later, I exhale deeply and take a walk outside to breathe fresh air and go over the morning’s events in my head. I dialogue with myself about whether it’s fair to judge students for their apathy or families for not being willing or able to influence their children to care and to choose to learn. As I walk, I smile remembering positive interactions that happened. But my smile fades as I recall the awkward silence when I waited for Emma to respond to a question and never got a sign of life. She is a 9th grader, so like most of my students, she was new to our school in the fall and doesn’t really know the other students in the class. I have gotten to talk to her a few times during support time, and she has even turned on her camera for me. She seems really kind, and she has told me she was a strong student in middle school and wants to do well in school this year but it’s been hard because she feels isolated and disconnected. She is depressed and anxious sometimes. Because of all that, she doesn’t always wake up in time for her morning classes, or if she is awake, she might log in from her bed and then roll over and go back to sleep. Other times, she tunes in for class and may type something in the chat but hasn’t ever said more than hello aloud. She has done about half of her math assignments, which isn’t helping her with that goal of earning high grades. I resolve to call or email home to check in on her. How does her mom, who she lives with, think Emma is doing? How can I support her to do some of the assignments she hasn’t completed? Does her mom know that she isn’t consistently engaging in our live classes? I care about Emma and her learning, and I’d like to help her in any way I can. When I call that afternoon, her mother appreciates that I took the time to call and says that she’ll talk to Emma. She is trying to support her, but this time has been hard for her too, because she works during the day and can’t always check on how her daughter is doing. It’s challenging to maintain a constructive parent-child relationship with a teenager when the parent is struggling too and when the teen wishes she had a little time away from family to be with friends. On my walk, I remind myself that above all I am worried about my students. I know that this is really hard for them and they are not trying to be rude or apathetic or self-sabotaging. At a time in their lives when they are supposed to be differentiating themselves from their families and developing lifelong relationships with peers at school, engaging in clubs and extracurriculars and passions with like-minded young people and growing their minds with math and history and more, they are stuck at home in front of a screen. In fact, I truly laud the students who do make that daily choice to participate and learn and benefit from the teaching that is happening. It’s hard for me to maintain my enthusiasm because a teacher’s job is to engage students, and I feel like I’m failing. However, I’ve also decided that I can’t entirely own this failure. The system has not been set up to support us. My school district, Seattle Public Schools, citing legitimate equity reasons --uneven internet bandwidth for all students, anxiety and other conditions, different living situations, and more-- doesn’t require students to turn on their cameras or microphones during class. While I understand this decision, I wish the district had said that camera use was an expectation while not a requirement. Then most students would turn on their cameras and exceptions would be granted without penalty to those who couldn’t. This approach has been taken in other schools and districts and has worked. Our district has also set grading guidelines that make it very hard to give a student a non-passing grade this year. With an excuse to be invisible on-screen and to do minimal work in order to pass, many students choose simply to meet that incredibly low bar. Students tell me that if their peers were to turn on their cameras, they would as well, but it is a cycle where no one turns on their camera because others aren’t, and so on. Chicken or the egg? A group of students on the ski bus (an activity not run by the district but with high schoolers from our school, and the one place I have gotten to see students in person this year) readily admitted to me recently that they just aren’t focusing on their classes because there is no incentive. No level of effort by a teacher moves the needle, they said. With this as a backdrop, teachers keep working hard, but we know our efforts aren’t supporting all students, and that’s defeating. Unfortunately, it is the current reality in many schools and districts. Part II: A Failing Grade for the System So, yeah, teaching isn’t fun this year. That would be okay if it were just me struggling while students were doing well. Educators can handle a year of this. The problem is that remote teaching is not working for most students. Students openly tell us they are struggling to find motivation, even if they have been high achievers in the past. Not being at school in person with their teachers and peers is hurting students’ mental health and their academic progress. Some parents and guardians are at a loss for how to help them, and many have had to put their own lives and livelihoods on hold at great expense in order to care for their children. One of my students, Mingyu, is an example of a student who came into the year with a positive attitude, found silver linings, and made the most of remote learning, but who over time has lost some of that rosy outlook. She still participates in class, and because she communicates her needs with her family and teachers, I know she will make it through this, but she is having a tough time right now. Mingyu has several siblings and feels like she never has space for herself, but she also wants to meet her teachers and peers. She is able to take walks around her neighborhood and see a friend from her prior school, but otherwise she isn’t getting the social connections she needs, and she worries about her parents who are stressed out due to pandemic life. Mingyu has been one of my most participatory students and often turns on her camera during class, even when others don’t. Lately, she hasn’t been on camera as much because of her depression, but she likes connecting visually when she is feeling up for it, and she knows I appreciate seeing her. She alerts me when she is having a particularly quiet day so that I know she is there but just isn’t speaking up. She is the only student who does this, and it shows caring for herself and for me. She has an extraordinary level of empathy compared to her peers. Mingyu has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan), meaning that she receives accommodations for learning differences. Mingyu works hard and seeks help when needed. I know her better than I know most of my students precisely because she reaches out often. She typically uses Remind, a texting app used by teachers, to text me about math or about how she is feeling, so we communicate in real time. A few days ago, she texted, “My mental capacity is so low and I’m just not ok. I need help with school but idk what to say to all of my teachers.” I coached her and reassured her that her teachers care about her and will be flexible and understanding. We made a plan about how to communicate with her teachers, and it helped her feel better. A few days later, on March 14th, she texted “Happy Pi Day!” Mingyu has told me that she has had some issues with bullying at prior schools, so remote learning was actually sort of nice for her in the beginning, but now she feels that same exhausted stress that is getting to a lot of us, and she just wants to go back. I feel for Mingyu and her peers because they don’t have the same coping mechanisms as many adults do. This past year has been very hard for many adults, as we know, and I worry that the impact on teenagers is similar or even higher in some cases. Young people are resilient, but right now they need in-person social, emotional, and academic support. I should add that there are certainly exceptions to the discouraging picture I’m painting. Some students enter the virtual classroom with a high level of innate motivation and are doing fine. Some students and families have even decided they will not go back to in-person school because the online version of it is working so well for them. I’m glad this experience has been illuminating in that way. However, the data and anecdotal experiences of educators indicate that most students do not have the self-control or the desire to fully focus in virtual classrooms for several hours per day, nor do they have the emotional tools to cope with the continued challenge of a lack of in-person interaction with teachers and peers. For them, let’s follow the lead of schools around the country that have opened safely, and let’s get back into the physical classroom. Part III: Sounding The Old School Bell If we had had a larger vision as a nation or within individual schools, this could have been a successful, albeit aberrant, year. We could have had students work on long-term interdisciplinary projects based on their personal interests, where teachers coached holistically and also guided students to seek instruction from different teachers based on their subjects of expertise. Or we could have done a lot more outdoor education and taken advantage of opportunities to get kids outside into nature. I think, though, that the pandemic has been so discombobulating that all people have been able to do is cope with each new development as it came. Many large districts didn’t have the flexibility or vision to figure out how to really make this work. After a year, I believe that nothing besides in-person school will bring many of our students back into a place where they are excited about learning, motivated to engage, and able to increase their prospects for the future. But although the CDC has said that schools can safely function without the entire staff being vaccinated, many educators have not felt comfortable going back to the classroom until vaccinations are an option. Reasons for the hesitancy? Worry about poor ventilation in some old school buildings, an inability to have safe social distancing in classrooms, lack of a plan by schools or districts for adequate PPE and sanitation, and other safety concerns. Some people have argued that teachers are essential and therefore should have been teaching in-person all along. I agree that teaching is essential, both for academic and social-emotional learning and because school is where children go while their families work. One difference between teachers being in classrooms and other essential workers continuing their in-person jobs, however, is that teachers are fully responsible for the children in their classes. Many schools have been unable to outline how we can keep students and teachers safe and distanced, especially in large schools with crowded classrooms. In February, I wrote two personal letters to Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, giving sound arguments why he should prioritize childcare workers and other educators in the vaccine queue along with other essential workers. He never responded to me nor did he budge on his timeline that put many other people ahead of educators. But on February 16 , President Biden instructed states to prioritize educators, and Inslee acquiesced immediately. I’ve gotten my first shot! I personally would have gone back to the classroom without a vaccine and with adequate protection, but since the vaccine has been a stumbling block for many, it is excellent news that teachers are now prioritized, and more and more each day are getting their first dose of the vaccine. In addition, federal funding is coming to schools to help implement safety precautions for the whole community, especially since few students can get vaccinated yet. By vaccinating childcare workers and educators who are already working in-person with young people, we are acknowledging the essentialness of those who teach and care for children. By vaccinating teachers who aren’t yet back in the classroom, we are getting closer to returning to school. Happily, it now appears that in the next several weeks, my district and schools around the country will figure out how to open middle and high schools along with elementary schools. The latter are opening more quickly due to the different set-up of classes and ages of children. Some governors, including mine, have mandated reopening because of the current mental health crisis among children. I expect it will be a somewhat bumpy return with all the logistics involved, and with some families choosing to remain completely remote, but I believe opening schools will benefit our entire community, most of all our kids who are struggling and their families who love them and also need them out of the house. I love teaching, and take student learning very personally. I give a lot of time and energy to my students, both inside and outside of the classroom, because it’s my job and because I know my work makes a difference for my class as a whole and for individual students. In normal years, the energy I put out at school is matched by energy I receive back from students. I am hopeful that soon I will get back to doing the challenging and joyful academic and interpersonal work in person. Thumbs up to that! Shira Brewer has been a teacher for 12 years in Seattle, Wash. and in Johannesburg, South Africa.

By Victoria Rolfe Well, here we are again. A third stimulus check is coming our way, and millions of us are wondering how we should use it. Of course, there are any number of things you can do, and a lot of what you do may ultimately depend on your personality. Are you a spender or a saver? The great irony here is that the very people who might need to save that money (because they have a history of spending) are the ones who may choose to spend it, whereas the natural savers (who are already in good financial stead due to that character trait) are likely to save this money too. So let’s have a run down here on what you should be doing with the money depending upon your individual financial circumstances at the current time: First, are you current with all your bills? Are you able to shelter and feed yourself and your family? If this is a struggle for you, then it will have to go to your most dire needs, and that’s that. My heart goes out to you during this trying time and I hope as this crisis gets better, your situation will improve accordingly. If you are okay with that, then do you have any debts? As long as you do not need this money to survive, and do not anticipate needing it to cover bills, then paying down your debts should be your next priority. Do you have an emergency fund? If you do not have this cushion, then this is the optimal time to start one. Ideally you should aim to have at least three to six months’ living expenses put aside in a separate bank account for times, well, such as the one we have just gone through (whether it be global or more personal in nature). Are there some big financial goals in your future? Will you be needing a new car? Planning a wedding? Saving to buy a house? If you are on financially secure footing with all of the above, then this is the perfect time to add to your savings for whatever your goals are. If any of these goals are slated for at least five years down the road, then it would be fine to invest all or part of that money into a low-cost, relatively safe mutual fund, such as an index fund. And, lastly there is that longest term goal of all, retirement. There is nothing wrong, especially if you are feeling a little behind on your retirement saving schedule, with adding this money to your retirement account. Alternatively, you may want to use the money to pay off a chunk of your mortgage to help you get to those retirement years in a totally debt-free state. I know, I didn’t give any “spending” options in this list, but hey, I’m a budget coach. We teach people how to save their money. So, I guess if you are on nice solid financial ground on all fronts and you want to take this money and spend it on something, then what can I say? But whatever you do, please put the money to good use. If you really don’t need it at all, perhaps you could donate it to those who really do. This prioritization schedule can be applied to all windfall money that comes into your life at any time for whatever reason. It is very easy to go down the list, see where you are with your finances and know exactly what to do with it. I hope this helps! As always, wishing you all a very bright financial future! Victoria Rolfe is a family budget coach who has had a lifetime of experience in the art and joy of frugal living and its resulting financial freedom. She spent many years as a stay-at-home mom and home economist and rose successfully to the challenge of raising a family of four kids on a modest income without incurring debt. She did crazy things like paying for all their cars with cash, paying off their mortgage in ten years, buying their next house for cash, and sending all her kids to college with no student loans, while building a comfortable retirement nest egg for their own bright future. She is now passionate about helping others to enter this beautiful world of peaceful and simple frugality and to achieve their own financial goals with the knowledge and personal finance skills that she has acquired. She writes a monthly blog, teaches via a series of light-hearted group presentations that she created, and sees clients in one-on-one personal meetings. Visit her website and blog at brightfuture2budget4.weebly.com, or email her at brightfuture2budget4@gmail.com.