Editor’s note: Welcome to The Pandemic is Personal, a weekly series focusing on on how the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV‑2) is affecting the everyday lives of people throughout the Pacific Northwest. We hope to enlighten you and reflect on what you and others are addressing as this pandemic runs its course.
If you have a story to tell, please feel free to contact us.
This week, NPI Advisory Councilmember Rituja Indapure describes what her spring was like during the worst pandemic in modern times.
March 14th, 2020
It’s midnight, and I’m at the Mumbai International Airport.
The line at the luggage check-in counter is long.
No one is wearing masks. I have a couple in my backpack. My neighbor in Pune went to the market and brought me a couple of cloth masks before I left.
I plan to wear one inside the airplane, but don’t see the need to wear it in public. I’m hyper-vigilant of someone coughing or sneezing.
I have twenty-one hours of flight time until I reach home in Seattle!
With the luggage checked in, I head to the security checkpoint which is packed with people. There are separate lines for men and women.
I see women in shorts, in hijabs, in jeans, in sarees.
It seems like people from all over the world are represented in that line.
With infection and death rates skyrocketing in Italy and Spain, the United States has announced that it’s shutting down transatlantic flights.
American citizens who have been traveling abroad for work, tourism, education or to meet family are rushing back. In this line too, mask wearing is spotty, but the policee officer who inspects us does have a mask on.
On to the boarding area, and I find a spot away from crowds. I put on my cloth mask now as I sit alone contemplating my cleaning procedure once I sit in the airplane.
Eventually it’s 3:30 am, and we are boarding the flight.
It’s a packed flight. I’ve done research on window versus aisle seats. I have chosen the recommended window seat. None of the airline’s staff are wearing face masks or gloves. I’m scared for their health.
It’s just past 6 AM when we land at Dubai International Airport. It’s a long way to my next gate. So many people here. I start walking towards my gate, but the way is roped off. I can get in only through a checkpoint.
All passengers traveling to the United States are screened for temperature and other symptoms of a viral infection. I’m traveling alone, but feel really bad for parents traveling with young children. Long flights with young kids is hard!
My flight from Dubai to Seattle is fourteen hours long. I couldn’t secure a window seat, let alone a seat in a row just by myself. I’m worried, but put on my cloth mask and board the plane. I sit in my assigned aisle seat next to a gentleman who works as a truck driver and lives in Kent.
His family lives in Kenya, but work is in Seattle. He coughs.
He is not wearing a mask.
We are in the air and the seat-belt sign is off.
I ask the airline staff if there are any open seats. He says, “Why don’t you look around?” I walk around and am delighted when I see an empty row! It’s right next to the restroom, but who cares… I can sit alone!
From the aircraft, as we cross the Cascades, I can see it’s a gorgeous day.
We land in Seattle just after 1:30 PM local time.
Multiple international flights have arrived at Sea-Tac around the same time. There is a long line of people waiting to get through immigration.
No one is wearing masks, and we aren’t being asked to keep space between us, either. I download the Mobile Passport App, insert the needed information and jump ahead of the line. I wait for my luggage to arrive, pick it up and proceed to Customs. None of the custom officers are wearing a mask.
I clear U.S. Customs and hop onto Sound Transit’s Link light rail system. In less than five minutes, I’m out of the airport and on my way home!
April 14th, 2020
It’s been a month since we’ve all started working from home. We are taking it day by day. I’m used to seeing everyone in person each day, so I miss not seeing them. For each interaction, I now have to set up a meeting.
My calendar is getting full.
Slowly we’ve started setting up our office space at home.
For some, it’s meant buying a new office chair.
Many of us have taken our work monitors and keyboards home.
Until now, we were familiar only with Google Chat, but slowly we all are becoming experts at other applications for “live” meetings. Zoom, Teams, Webex…
Recently a teammate had a birthday, and we had a “virtual” surprise birthday party for him! We got hold of his wife, who snuck out and got a birthday cake.
I scheduled a “check-in” meeting with him and invited all the other team members. Once he logged in, we sang and his wife celebrated with the cake!
In the four weeks since we’ve started working from home, I’ve seen a few kids who want to “participate” in the meetings.
I understand their curiosity and the novelty of seeing their parents working from home, so I had a meeting with just the kids! It was fantastic — some sang poems, some just wanted to see who was on the other side of the screen!
I do worry about how kids will react once the parents start going back to work. Will they become too attached to their parents and not want to go back to school?
May 14th, 2020
The Sammamish Y Advisory Board continues to have its monthly meetings. They continue to provide babysitting and other services for essential workers, but are closed as a gym. COVID-19 has impacted this non-profit on multiple fronts.
However, even with the reduced staff, they continue to engage with the community by calling and checking in on seniors and providing meals.
I continue to be engaged in conversations about how to support the community in their mental well-being needs.
With the stay at home order in place as a result of COVID-19, the rate of domestic violence and sexual abuse is on the rise.
For young people who live in homes where they feel threatened, they are unable to report or talk to someone they can trust.
This really weighs on my mind. However, it was encouraging to hear at the KCSARC (King County Sexual Assault Resource Center) Honorary Board meeting that counseling sessions are taking place via HIPAA‑compliant video calls.
API Chaya, which provides culturally-relevant violence prevention efforts and multilingual survivor services, has its twenty-fifth anniversary coming up!
It’s a difficult time to do fundraising. The stock market is down, people are feeling frazzled. I hope to rally my friends and encourage them to do their best.
I filed to be a precinct committee officer in my state legislative district. Helping elect progressive candidates is something I want to continue to do.
Since I’m on the Eastside Democrats Fundraising Committee, we’ve been brainstorming ideas on whether to change the date of the fundraising dinner (we had a fabulous event at the Snoqualmie Casino last year), or move it to an online event.
For the third month in a row, the Sammamish Municipal Planning Commission meeting has been cancelled due to COVID-19.
(Almost!) June 14th, 2020
Early in the morning, I dropped off our son at work.
In late February, he started working at a local QFC store and since he is an “essential worker,” he has continued to work.
He has stayed healthy and it’s been interesting to see the progression of not being required to wear masks to now sporting a rainbow colored mask!
All his classes at Running Start at Bellevue College are online, but in talking to him and his peers, they really don’t like online classes.
He misses going to the gym, playing volleyball with his friends and hanging out with his jazz and band mates at school.
My daughter is finishing off her finals for her junior year of college!
She was looking forward to a study abroad program in Ghana this summer, and is disappointed that it got cancelled.
Online classes are not the same as in person, and labs are impossible online!
She is healthy and careful with socializing, but also joined in the marches supporting Black Lives Matter last week.
Over the weekend she’s attending a teach-in on how to create a more equitable society! I can’t wait to have her home in the summer!
Our dog now looks presentable.
She hasn’t been groomed since March, but she got a nice haircut last week.
My husband and I are still taking turns cooking.
Wednesdays are “fend for yourself” days. We get super-creative and create concoctions from whatever is available at home. Fridays and weekends, we order from our favorite local restaurants. We all now wear masks when we go out.
Mom and Dad in India are doing okay. It’s been hard on them with Dad’s diabetes and him not being able to exercise regularly.
At times, getting fresh fruits and vegetables was also a problem. Mom has learned to order online and is expecting her fresh fruit and vegetable basket on Sunday.
I can’t believe it’s been three months since we’ve all been working from home, staying home and not socializing.
International travel is not yet at full capacity.
Many flights are not available for non-essential travel. My work colleagues are getting into a rhythm of working from home.
Many appreciate not having to sit in traffic and drive long distances to work.
Some are getting lonely and would love a chance to be around people. We’ve put tremendous energy into our fundraising efforts, and people have been both compelled to support causes for a better community and generous as a result.
I’ve gained an appreciation for simple things like taking a walk in the neighborhood or writing a note. I’m grateful for heartfelt conversations with friends with whom I’ve not connected in years. I’m thankful for my friends who’ve shown resolve and conviction in standing up for what’s right and for their values.
I’m in gratitude for the community that uplifts me, holds me accountable and inspires me to be a better person every single day.
Sunday, June 14th, 2020
For the first time ever, the Washington State Democratic Party held its convention virtually
Yesterday, delegates from across Washington state met (virtually) for the 2020 Washington State Democratic Convention. The delegates were primarily meeting to decide on the party’s platform going into November’s general election.
After greetings from party officials and tribal leaders, acknowledgements of the victims of police violence, and praise for the emergency workers responding to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, the convention got down to business.
Conducting a Zoom meeting with almost 2,000 participants is a herculean task, and that is perhaps why no one sought to take on the unenviable role of Permanent Chair of the convention before the deadline.
The lack of interest guaranteed that Chair Tina Podlodowski would get the job, which she carried out with impressive courtesy, grace, and professionalism.
After Podlodowski had gaveled in the meeting (or rather, thudded her coffee cup down in lieu of a gavel), the delegates began considering several amendments to the party’s governing documents, which consist of a charter and bylaws.
These proposals, a package of housekeeping measures to ensure the party could continue to operate during times of emergency or make do without precinct caucuses (which have traditionally been held in past presidential cycles), were devoid of controversy. After approving all but one of them, the delegates turned to the main matter of the meeting: amendments to the party’s platform.
Nine proposed amendments to add planks to the party platform were considered by the assembly. For each amendment, delegates presented five-minute arguments both for and against adopting the planks.
The nine amendments heard were all backed by a minority of members of the Platform Committee and presented as minority reports (whereas the unmodified platform as a whole was presented as the majority report).
The first minority report called for language to be added that would call for independent investigations of police killings – the idea being that outside investigators are more objective than the local prosecutors who have to rely on the police they are investigating in other aspects of their work.
The second minority report called for the party to support the elimination of the “personal belief” exemption for vaccinations. The exemption was already eliminated for the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine by the 2019 Legislature, but the exemption remains in place for other vaccinations.
The third minority report called for Democrats to get serious about the issue of student loans: it called for language supporting the cancellation of student debt and putting caps on the interest rates of student loans.
This amendment was brilliantly presented by Jessica Ines, who effortlessly dismantled the tired argument that student debt forgiveness is “welfare for the rich,” and called on delegates to imagine the massive economic stimulus that would result from millions of Americans being liberated from their debt burden.
Four minority reports focused on the environmental plank of the platform, and all dealt with nuclear power. In order, these amendments:
These amendments to the platform were studiously opposed by Steve Verhey, who utilized videos, graphs and even memes to illustrate his points.
Another minority report proposed adding language to the Labor and Economic Justice plank of the platform, advocating for a thirty-two-hour working week.
Both speakers made compelling arguments for the economic consequences of the policy – oddly, both used France (which has a thirty-five-hour working week) as an example to highlight their side of the argument.
The final minority report was intended to tackle environmental racism. The amendment would add language to the platform opposing the restriction of low-income housing to areas that suffer from pollution (such as areas nearby highways or industrial areas). The arguments on both sides were nuanced, and the issue is one that Democrats should continue to examine thoroughly.
All nine amendments to the platform were approved by the delegates, who then went on to overwhelmingly approve the platform with its amendments.
While delegates voted on each amendment (the voting usually took between twenty and thirty minutes), the convention heard from Democratic candidates and officeholders. Former Vice President Joe Biden promised the convention that he would restore “real leadership” to the White House, but reminded Washington Democrats of the necessity of holding onto the House and winning the Senate.
Many of the speakers remarked extensively on the twin crises currently facing America: the anti-racist protests in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told listeners that “civil rights is indeed the unfinished business of America,” and commented on how badly the Trump Administration is dealing with the pandemic: “Donald Trump and Herbert Hoover are in a pitched battle to see who can have the worst jobs record!”
Many state level officeholders addressed the convention, including Governor Jay Inslee, every Democratic member of the state’s congressional delegation except for Denny Heck (who is a candidate for Lieutenant Governor), both of Washington’s U.S. senators, and NPI’s own Gael Tarleton, who is running to replace Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman.
Tarleton promised to “defend every vote and every voter,” reminding delegates of the violence the Trump Administration has meted out to peaceful protesters.
After the platform was voted on, Chair Podlodowski gaveled/coffee-cupped out the convention general session, bringing the state party’s 2020 caucus and convention cycle to an end. (There didn’t end up being any caucuses due to the pandemic; delegate selection was conducted using an online voting system… the results of which can be audited because the ballots cast were not secret.)
Washington Democrats are now free to focus on the 2020 Democratic National Convention, which will take place in about two months, as well as the monumentally important general election in November.
# Written by Ruairi Vaughan :: 2:00 PM
Categories: Elections, Party Politics
Tags: Washington State Democratic Convention
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