Most of us experienced the ravages of disease in our own lifetimes. For me, the polio epidemic, and then later HIV, were the most frightening because they were so puzzling. Many of us felt we would never gain control of our world again. A pandemic is the place we never want to reach. 

“We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918” is a film that describes what living through that deadly epidemic was like and its effects on the world.  The "Bells" in the title refers to church bells that chimed when victims died. The sound was a terrifying reminder for the living. 

Each time I watch my heart swells as I listen to the interviews. The 1918 influenza was a mystery to doctors of the time. It hit young people the hardest. No one knew where it came from. As many as 100 million people died in two years. Why so deadly? 

Drs. Anthony Fauci and Johan Hultin are among the experts interviewed in the film. Dr. Hultin was so intent on finding out what made the 1918 virus lethal that he traveled to Alaska in the 1950s and again in the 1990s, to retrieve preserved tissue from flu victims buried in the tundra.

Dr. Hultin made discovering what made this virus so deadly the focus of his life's work. His 1951 expedition to Alaska where he gained permission from Native elders, resulted in virus tissues, but Hultin was unable to replicate the virus back in the lab. 

In 1997, at 72 years old, retired and living in San Francisco, Hultin happened upon an article in the journal Science that drew his mind back to the 1918 flu once more. Molecular pathologist, Jeffery Taubenberger and his colleagues had managed to isolate virus specimens from two young 1918 flu victims. But, the sample size was small. He needed more. Dr. Hultin wrote Taubenberger immediately. 

Hultin found himself back at the same Alaska village he traveled to many years before. Again with Native elder permission, he retrieved preserved virus samples that in time led to its origin as well as a vaccine to prevent an outbreak from occurring again.

I highly recommend "We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918." It offers insight into the situation in which we now find ourselves.

Learn more about Hultin's expeditions and Taubenberger's research in this fascinating article from the Anchorage Daily News, "How an Alaska village grave led to a Spanish flu breakthrough."

Also, available for streaming is the PBS American Experience episode "Influenza 1918." 

The lessons learned from the deadly 1918 influenza outbreak and the preserved samples have given scientists tools and insight into the fight against COVID-19.  

"It is absolutely certain another pandemic will come, but we don’t know what form it will be. The question is, How can we be forewarned?" — Johan Hultin, February 2002 

As a non-scientist, I only have stories to tell. The virologists are some of the real heroes here. And so far on the road of existence, we have been able to cope with scourges in the end. Even now, we see light in the distance because of the tireless efforts of the Biden administration. 

My great-great-grandmother, Nancy Kendall and her husband, Andrew had eight children. Only six of those children survived to adulthood. We have all read accounts of what it was like in earlier centuries for parents going through the child bearing years. Life spans were short, and losing a child to illness or a mishap was commonplace.

According to my grandfather, Nancy Kendall was a devoted and loving grandmother to all of her grandchildren. Her act of sharing a few stories about her involvement in The Underground Railroad was, for my grandfather as an eight-year-old boy, a precious gift he always cherished.

As a mother, I think of Nancy’s life - bearing and caring for a large family of children of her own, while at the same time doing what she could to help fugitive slaves. But Nancy, as a free woman, had something enslaved persons did not - freedom. She had a home. She knew she might lose a child. But, she also knew she would never have a child ripped from her arms and sold away from her. 

One of the worst tragedies a slave could experience was that of family separation. Many never saw their loved ones again. ​

Losing a child tears at the heart of every parent like no other pain. As with any parent, the fear of losing their children was greater for the enslaved than the physical pain of being whipped or beaten.

In recent times, parents and children experienced child separation at the southern border of our country. Approximately 5,500 families were ripped apart.  Hundreds of families have not been reunited. 

We do not have audio recordings of enslaved families being torn apart. We can, however, hear the haunting voices of children separated from their parents at the border. The language may be different, but the cries are the same.

 
​Next time:  More on the Tragedy of Family Separation​

What were Abraham Lincoln's motives for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation? Critics suggest Lincoln's act was a military necessity aimed at ending the war rather than a call for justice. 

A San Francisco Unified School district recently voted to rename Abraham Lincoln High School because of Lincoln's detrimental policy decisions regarding Native and African Americans.  

Author Jonathan W. White, associate professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University and author or editor of 8 books, decided to examine the history. Using actual letters, correspondence and historical events, White attempts to answer the  "Did Black lives matter to Abraham Lincoln?" question.

Here's an excerpt:

"Lincoln also met hundreds of African Americans in Washington during the war years. Some came to the White House at his invitation; others walked through the White House gates uninvited and unannounced. Regardless of how they arrived at his doorstep, the president welcomed these visitors with open arms and an outstretched hand. As Frederick Douglass was proud to say after his first White House meeting in August 1863, Lincoln welcomed him “just as you have seen one gentleman receive another.”

Click here to read the article in its entirety: Black Lives Certainly Mattered to Abraham Lincoln.

Coming Soon: Families: Separation and loss - then and now.

Let me say that again ─ President Biden.
 
It feels so good.  
 
A day or two before Inauguration day, I was so worried about then President-elect Joe Biden's safety I actually wondered if I should email Rachel Maddow. I wanted to ask Ms. Maddow to call Dr. Biden and urge her to encourage her husband to have an indoor ceremony. Roosevelt did that once. Of course, I didn't. I was that worried, though.
 
Having recently read the book and talked about "Lincoln on the Verge" detailing Lincoln's 13-day trip to D.C. from Illinois, I couldn't help but think about the similarities. People wanted to kill Lincoln. The trip was a nightmare for those responsible for his safety. He kept getting out off the train to talk to the people. But, he made it.

​I remember watching President Obama and his family on the customary "walk down the street" to the White House after his inauguration. "Get back in the car," I urged. And, here we were again. Eighty-one million of us voted for Joseph Biden. He is our president. As he, Dr. Biden and members of their family "walked down the street," I silently wished them back in the car.

High Expectations

We all have high expectations of the Biden presidency. We're relieved, yes, but we also expect a lot from his administration. As Jesus said in the film, "Jesus Christ Superstar," ─ "I'm just one man," ─ so Joseph R. Biden is just one man.  (I just had to throw a film reference in here. Cut me a little slack.)
 
President Biden knows better than anyone what needs to be done. He surrounded himself with a superb group of gifted people to help him move the country forward. He is the most qualified man on the face of the earth to step into this presidency. Hands down.
 
Still, he is just one man. We need to remind ourselves of the importance of teamwork, and temper a tendency to expect the President to be a knight in shining armor on a white horse coming to our rescue. We have to work with Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris to repair the damage of the last four years and "build back better." President Biden needs our help. We can't let him down.