Ehlana and Ethan:
Happy 9th Birthday, Caroline Carter!
Caroline had a girls-only party, so after school; her guests headed for her house; and the boys were left to do their own thing – which for Ethan and Aiden was biking the trails at the park and enjoying the nice weather day. We enjoyed the weather during Tai Chi by the river and at school too, but while Caroline’s birthday was a big deal for us; Election Day has been the focus for the adults today – here and around the country and world. Caroline’s party was a lot of fun, and we had a good day at school, but we are going to skip the details; and focus this update on more-important news.
The election results are still coming in as we begin this update, but we’ll take breaks while doing other things; and get to whatever news is available when we’re ready to call it a night. There’s a very good chance that we won’t know who our next president will be before the end of tonight anyway.
Our pandemic news isn’t good; though the continuing rise in new cases hasn’t changed our decision to put our own research on the back-burner at the lab. There were three-point-four million new cases worldwide last week; and that was a big increase from the previous week. Weekly deaths are on the rise too; though that isn’t surprising – and still low compared to the rise in new cases. We’ll know more over the next couple of months, but we’re hoping that there won’t be even-worse surges due to this election or the upcoming holidays. The pandemic problems in Europe have some different causes, but it doesn’t really matter that countries are making different mistakes; since the results are the same.
We just don’t understand why the worst-hit countries continue to refuse to learn from what is working for other countries that are having success with controlling their outbreaks.
Let’s move on to some other issues that we don’t usually cover. Global food issues are showing up in part because of the pandemic; and there are concerns both on the supply side and with people not having enough money to buy food after extended unemployment problems. The farm issues could prove to be the more-dangerous; since shortages can cause ripple effects that take years or even decades to resolve – especially when it comes to loss of livestock or seed shortages for future crops. Those are not local problems on our farms, but there really are serious issues elsewhere around the world; so we’ll keep an eye on that; and do what we can to help whenever possible.
We’ve written about different conflicts around the world; and that continues to concern us; since there seems to be little to no progress on solving any of those conflicts. Food and water shortages could make those problems worse; and we don’t expect that the leaders in our country will make a difference for that in good ways – regardless of who wins the elections for president and the rest of the government jobs up for grabs tonight. We’re young, but it really is time to do something about these endless wars. There is something wrong with having an entire generation of kids grow up with their country at war, and while that’s something we think about here at home; imagine how that feels to the kids that have grown up in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere over the past twenty years as they’ve lived under constant threat – assuming they’ve survived to grow up at all.
Social unrest isn’t the same level of horror as war, but it is serious; and seems to be another growing trend. Some of that is also related to the pandemic, but inequality is a bigger factor. The spark that sets off the protests may vary, but as with the pandemic mistakes; it is the results that matter more than the reasons. We mean that from the perspective of what is happening during those protests or other attacks; since there seems to be little effort being taken by most governments to do anything to actually change those inequalities or injustices. Social unrest will, however, add yet another problem to the mix that could lead to even-more-serious challenges.
This is proving to be a very dismal report, but while the election results tonight might make some people happy – or not; there really aren’t any optimistic stories to be found when it comes to the most-important issues. Since we don’t have any good news; let’s take a break; get back to our studies; and we’ll wrap this up in a while – whether we stay up late for as many of the results as we’ll get for the election or get sick of the news coverage and call it a night sooner instead of later.
***
We’ve worked for a few hours; had a little nap while continuing to wait for any definitive election results; and now we’re going to crash and nap until morning since nothing has been decided – as we’d expected. That news will have to wait for our next report – or until whenever we know who won all of the still-undecided races for president, senate, and congress.
Our mock elections at school didn’t have these issues, but then we’re just a bunch of kids; and couldn’t be bothered with making our voting this complicated! ;^)
That is all for now, though; so we’re out of here and off to dreamland – a place that doesn’t have electoral colleges or any other political roadblocks to happiness and fun!
This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!
