President Bill Bolster rang us in at 7:30 and shared a reminder of the past week, or “That Was the Week That Was.”
David Stankas was requested to recite the Pledge of Allegiance
Mike Merrill Gave us some presidential inspirational messaging.
- From former president Lyndon Banes Johnson, “I am a free man a U.S. senator, and a Democrat.” President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said in 1962, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
Songstress Heather Cullen brought back Woodie Guthrie reminding us that This Land is Your Land.
Guests and Visiting Rotarians:
- No visiting Rotarians and our guest speaker was not available… yet.
Announcements:
We were reminded that Tom Hassur and Daniel Myers continue to share the title of Rotarian of the Month. Both have been deeply involved in working with our local youth.
According to Pres Bill, Covid is being kicked down the road, but there are rules that are in place for our upcoming live/hybrid meeting at Charlie’s Restaurant. We need to be sure to follow the State mandated rules that Charlie’s needs to follow. We can finally get together around the table and hang in small groups of three to discuss the rules.
Have you completed your Windsor Rotary Club annual survey? Maureen Merrill spent some time creating the final draft and made sure it was passed along with hopes that everyone will participate. The info we provide will be used by the incoming board to develop future plans.
Carol Martin introduced us to the Brooks Scholar Garden, and since Pres Bill was there, he gave the report. They are looking at a new drip irrigation system and will be awaiting the next phase, watching the plants grow. Former Windsor Rotary Exchange Student’s mom, Sue McQuiddy was the lead for the school’s project.
We are adopting a road on May 29th, 10-Noon is the cleanup and the crew will be invited to attend a barbecue at Pres Bill’s home once the work is done.
Diane Brabetz is willing to give you a shot if you haven’t been vaccinated yet.
Check out what’s going on down the road for our club:
We took a side tour of break-out rooms to talk about “Live/Hybrid” meetings and discussed the fundraiser event. There was a slight hiccup that could have been the lead conversation for the pitfalls of the hybrid meeting. All was good in the end and suggestions were shared for a blended reality for the future.
Program:
JB Leep introduced us to our speaker Alexis Wichowski, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Innovation in the City of New York. Her talk is about the unchecked rise of tech giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and on and on, and how it affects our country.
According to Alexis, we are all hearing about the tech industry, but we rarely get a look behind the scenes, which is what she is doing through her book, The Information Trade. She shared that in 2007 we saw the introduction of the iPhone, which gave us the ability to transform the way we communicate and opened the doors to our current world of information technology. That introduction in 2007 was a game-changer for our online future.
Go forward 10 years and the drama of tech started focusing on Cyberspace as a new battlefield. Microsoft chief suggested that his company would become the first responder for the security of Cyberspace. This was a non-governmental decision by a private sector company.
The 2017 hurricane in Puerto Rico started a plea through bi tech to ask for help from Elon Musk, Tesla giant, to aid Puerto Rico with supplies of solar panels and infrastructure help, while Microsoft used balloons to give internet connectivity. The private sector was taking over the responsibilities typically associated with the government.
Tech companies since 2019 have grown in economic strength to compete with governments with billion-dollar revenues matching and overreaching government GDPs.
Why should we care that technology has ingrained its footprint into the daily lives of people all around the world? The power of tech is growing and fewer options are available for fair competition and free access across the world. Due to the size of tech, they become an imagined country in the eyes of the people of the world.
The fix for the problems associated with big tech is not going to be easy, but we need to be committed to seek out those fixes and reevaluate the disparity of power associated with so few. Recognizing that the people that run the tech companies have major power to change the population, yet they are not serving the people as representatives voted into office.
Alexis closed with a challenge to explore the impact tech has on our lives and to pursue change to benefit the whole of humanity. She shared a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt:
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works.”
Alexis’s recent book entitled: “The Information Trade: How Big Tech Conquers Countries, Challenges Our Rights, and Transforms Our World,” is available on Amazonsmile.com
Pres Bill shared that one man built the Ark, but it took a whole lot of people to build the Titanic.
COVID UPDATE
Total Cases:
- 30,071 (last week 30,002)
Recovered:
- 29,490 (last week 29,490)
Active Cases:
- 297
New Cases:
- Fri 19
- Sat 4
- Sun 11
- Mon 4
This is a total of 4 days of 38 (last week for 4 days was 51) – we are seeing fewer cases, fewer people getting tested, more travel, more people out and about, and a general feeling that this is over. We hope that this becomes the case and new surges do not occur. However, there have been 60 new cases of COVID in our county in fully vaccinated individuals so on the part of the County it is hoped that people will continue to be careful and vigilant. It does prove that the vaccines work to keep people from getting really ill or dying but also proves that variants exist and despite being fully vaccinated we are able to still get COVID.
Deaths:
- 314 (last week 312)
Here in Sonoma County, we have seen over 58% of our deaths in whites, 30% in Hispanics, and 2% in African Americans and American Indians. 53% of deaths occurred in SNF’s and the remaining from the community spread.
Hospitalized:
- 5 confirmed and 1 suspected (last week 11 confirmed and 4 suspected)
We have tested a Total of 692,238 and 29,490 (last week 681,016 in our county with 29,490 people recovered)
The largest number of cases is in those unemployed or not working 26% (probably more non-social distancing and large groups exposed by those who are working), healthcare makes up 10.6% and Service and sales have dropped to 15.6% with home care (my industry) at 1.8%.
We continue to see the last percentages of our community hesitant to get vaccinated. It is reported that there are probably 15% who will not get vaccinated and another 12-15% that are in a “wait and see” mode or so hesitant / on the fence. Medical professionals are now being quoted that we may not ever be able to get to herd immunity and with new variants of the virus being reported that we may always have COVID but be able to prevent deaths and lessen illness, not rid us of it. There are still “conspiracy theories” going around and people who still believe this pandemic is not real and made-up media information for other reasons. We continue to see “breakthrough” in some people fully vaccinated which is concerning. People totally vaccinated but testing positive. Testing is a way of staying ahead of new infections from nonsick individuals or from those of us vaccinated but recently exposed.
We need to continue to identify those people who for reasons of age, medical conditions, isolation, etc need help to obtain an appointment and get their vaccinations. We also need to continue to educate those who we can get to listen to the reasons for vaccination. We all need to get this message out and try and decrease the spread of variants and help to make people understand how important getting a vaccine is to the wellbeing, health, and staying alive of our community.
Vaccines were begun…. As of May 16th, 512,488 residents in Sonoma County have received the vaccine (last week 485,274). Fully vaccinated individuals now at 57% and adults with at least one vaccine dose are now at 15% (last week was 53% and adults with at least one vaccine dose 16. Our current issue continues to be getting those that are vaccine-hesitant convinced to obtain a vaccine plus our vaccination sites are seeing people not returning for their 2nd dose. J and J have now been re-released for use. Seeing residents seek J and J out for vaccinations will be interesting as people will weigh risk vs. reward. The CDC has now approved Pfizer vaccine safe for children 12-15 years of age, so are now able to offer vaccinations to age 12 and up.
The CDC announced new guidance allowing masks to be removed and although many have cheered it has set up mask confusion for Sonoma County. The CDC makes decisions on a Federal level that are guidelines; it is then up to States and Counties to take that advice and develop their own regulations. Governor Newsom has decided to keep our mask mandates and other regulations on groups, etc in place until June 15th. I realize it is cautious but given the new cases being seen in fully vaccinated, maybe it is not so bad to be cautious……………..????
Please help us to educate others on the need to get vaccinated. We especially need to look at how we reach the culturally and diverse groups who are still afraid of the vaccine. These unvaccinated parts of our population continue to be difficult to get, require real outreach and education on why it is important for our community. The concern right now is a large number of appointments available for a vaccine that are going unclaimed and trying to be creative at these vaccination sites to not waste vaccine once a vial is opened. As a Rotarian and fellow community member, help us get our remaining population vaccinated.
Thanks
Di
