New York City in a Time of Protest

            Living in New York City, people expect you to be a complete expert on everything happening in this city.  Well, considering it’s the center of the pandemic, and also, is a very visible part of the massive protests going on for racial equality in policing, people are sending me emails, texts, and phone calls worrying if we are ‘safe’ and asking what’s happening.  Here are my observations as to what is happening in Brooklyn.  To put things in context, I live within a mile of the Barclay Center, a focal point of some of the largest protests in Brooklyn.    

            On top of lock down with people in close living quarters, and the stress of rising unemployment as a result of the pandemic, here come the protests over systemic racial injustice in policing procedures.  Most New Yorkers are torn as to the protests.  There's widespread support.  Drake and I can feel an air of excitement and commitment on the streets.  At the same time, people are fearful about the virus resurging, and I think there will be a resurgence because, while some people are wearing masks during the protests, the six foot social distancing which is to pair with the masks isn't being observed.  The protesters are mostly young (20 - 30), and many of them feel invincible.  Others are the workers who have been exposing themselves daily during this entire pandemic crisis.  And, others feel the cause is too important to stay home and be silent.  Finally, most New Yorkers live a large portion of their lives in public:  the parks, the neighborhood gardens, the bars, and the restaurants.  You know how people are - they will only sacrifice so much for so long.  And, they are just tired of being pent up since their places for going out are all closed.  The protests are giving people a place to be 'out'.  

I am afraid the infection rate among the black and minority populations is going to increase even more as a result of the protests.  They live proportionately in more crowded housing, spend more time on public transit, have lesser health care, and have ‘essential’ jobs which have put them out in public or on factory floors when everyone else was sheltering in place.  As a result, the African-American and Latino communities are suffering a greater infection/death rate.  If you want the numbers, and these are facts, not opinions, check out this website

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/30/865413079/what-do-coronavirus-racial-disparities-look-like-state-by-state

Case in point that’s close to home:  Sarah and Jay went to a protest (on the fringes) staying more than six feet away from people.  The protest was in front of a church at the end of their block this past week.  They were carrying the 4’x6’ foot sign they have hanging in front of their apartment which says, END WHITE SILENCE.  They took Cedric in his stroller.  This is an example of what I'm talking about.  I had to laugh when Sarah said, "I've never been to the start of a protest before" since it brought back memories for me.  They did immediately leave as the crowd swelled, so maybe, maybe they limited their virus exposure, BUT they do feel strongly about this issue.  I respect that.  Protest is a decision of the conscience.   

I remember the protests against the Vietnam war at ultra-conservative Oklahoma University in which I participated.   It was at these protests where I first encountered the buzz swirling around an energized group of people focused together for a cause.  I also marched in a Black Power protest when I was 20.  I took Black History in the United States as a semester long 3 hour course.  I was the only white person in the room, so I actually met black people for the first time in my life.  I grew up in a segregated town.  The revelations from the history class as well as my new acquaintances invitation led me to join the Black Power protest – this was a young peoples’ protest against voter suppression, as well as job and housing discrimination.  

I wish I was out protesting today, but with the rate of viral infections in my age group that would be tantamount to suicide.  Having worked with many black colleagues as well as my final teaching job being at the 'black high school' - yes, Fort Worth was like Tulsa, with racial groups segregated by location, I can tell you I've been talking and thinking about the inequality of policing  for more than 20 years.  I heard women (other teachers) talking about how to try and protect their sons from being arrested, beaten and even killed by the police for simply driving a car in the wrong neighborhood .  They talked about teaching strategies to their children when seeing a policeman.  And, it wasn't 'the police are our friends'.  These were educated, middle class people of color - not poor, indigent, drug using low lives.  I heard my students, particularly the boys, talk about their own fears or strut around (as only a 15 year old boy with new muscles can) as to what they would do if confronted by 'cops'.  Too many stories.  Too many pinched faces of worried women for me to discount the reality of systemic police violence against blacks.

Once again, we are confronting the great American problem:  Race.  We surely do love our pecking orders, and for 300 years, the color of your skin has been one of the pecking order yardsticks in this country.  Hard to overcome that.  Some commentators are seeing these protests as the tip of a sea change in the United States.  They could represent a handing off of power to the next generation – the Millennials, whose numbers are greater than the Baby Boomers.  The Millennials have lived through the financial crisis, are living through the global warming crisis, and the corona virus pandemic.  They perceive of the Boomers and the Silent Generation as ineffectual, and unable to even address either global warming or income inequality.  It's possible these protests are quickly morphing into becoming the new generation flexing their will.  The ballot box in November will tell the tale all across America.

In New York City the vast majority of the protests have been peaceful, and are becoming more and more multi-racial.   In the afternoon (around 5:30) you can see young people (anybody under 35 to my 70 year old eyes!) heading to a protest, wearing a mask, carrying a sign, oh, and a water bottle.  The conservative media are framing the protests as if they were justifications for unlawful looting.  That’s so far from the reality.   Prior to dark - overwhelmingly peaceful in NY.  After curfew (basically at dark) which the Mayor established to draw a line between lawful gatherings and unlawful behavior, police have been much less tolerant toward protesters, and they have exhibited zero tolerance for any type of violence.    

The problem in New York is the same as in other police departments around the country.  There's a legally sanctioned lack of accountability and transparency to the public on the part of the police when misconduct is involved.  (In New York the statute that protects habitually delinquent policemen from accountability is called 50-a.  You can google it.)  When everyone starts at a level of distrust, it's very easy for any given situation to get out of hand.  That said, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan District Attorneys do not plan to prosecute protesters for breaking the curfew.  If you loot or threaten violence, you will be prosecuted.  In total in 10 days of protests in all of New York City where thousands of people have been out on the streets every evening, there have only been 2000 arrests across the five boroughs - the majority of which fall into the non-violent/non-looter category.    The majority of the police as well as the majority of the protesters have been peaceful.  To suggest otherwise is simply not factual.  I live in a neighborhood that is not white.  I don't feel unsafe.

The true dilemma is where to go from here.  How do you translate the passion for true change into reality?  On Monday, New York City starts re-opening.  On June 23rd there's a statewide primary election.  Hopefully, the passion on the streets will continue onto a path to the ballot box.

Typing Revolution

Most of you know that I write a hefty number of letters each and every week.  These letters have evolved over the years.  In a thumbnail sketch, I write (1) old people; (2) sick people; (3) young people; (4) relatives; and (5) just because letters.  I average six letters a week.  I usually try to write using a different letter font each week just for the fun of it.  This week I chose the Courier font, and it took me back almost 50 years.  

When I got out of college (May, 1971), the first question asked of any woman was, "How fast can you type?"  Didn't matter if you had a degree or not.  Women were secretaries.  Men may have started in the mail room, but women started in the typing pool.  

My first real job was at a one man law office, and I got the job because I could type.  The typewriter of choice was the IBM Selectric II.   It cost $620 - equivalency today $3,150 

IBM premiered the first Selectric machine in 1965.  It had 2800 parts, and it took seven years to develop.  It became the best selling typewriter in history capturing 75% of the American typewriter market at its peak.  There were two instantly apparent differences from a regular electric typewriter:  First, there were no keys.  Instead there was the golf ball.  Courier font was the 'default' ball.

Second, if you look closely at the typewriter picture, you can see a little "x" hanging off the end of the space bar - that's the correcting feature.  You could use it to backspace over a typing error and retype.

These were both amazing improvements in the typing world.  Most typewriters using typing keys had a realistic speed of about 50 words per minute while an IBM Selectric could easily be typed at 90 words per minute.  The very first woman I worked with at my tiny law office had been a legal secretary for 40 years, and she could type at a blinding rate of speed on a Selectric.  My all time high was about 70 words per minute on a good day, and I availed myself 100 times more of the correcting feature on the Selectric than the real legal secretary.  Hand in hand with the Selectric typewriter came the small office Xerox machine.  

Prior to both of these machines, in a typical office, everything which needed to be typed was sent to the Typing Pool, and the Typing Pool Supervisor parceled out the work to the typists.  In a law office, everything was typed in triplicate - one original and two carbons.  You loaded one page of stationery, a piece of erasable carbon paper, another piece of stationery, a second piece of erasable carbon paper and a third piece of stationery.  For every typing error, you had to carefully white out your error on the topmost piece of stationery,  erase the error on the other two pieces of stationery, realign the paper and carbon sheets, backspace and type over your error.  Fun times!  You can see why a legal secretary who could type fast and make very few errors was in great demand.  I was not that person.  

With the advent of the IBM Selectric II,  you had one piece of stationery - period.  You could back up and the incorrect letters would magically lift off the page.  Then, you just retyped.  Instead of carbons, you made Xerox copies.  Affordable copy machines were just coming into small offices at the time.  Xeroxing was one of the first of the new electronic words, and it didn't matter what the brand of copy machine your office had - you still Xeroxed.  One of my first 'assignments' beyond typing and answering the phone was to evaluate a half a dozen copy machines  in order for the boss (our one lawyer) to pick one for our office to buy.  

The IBM Selectric II  which premiered in 1973 had an 8000 character memory function making this groundbreaking piece of equipment the first desk top machine with a memory function.  Prior to the IBM Personal Computer which included 'Word', a word processing application which had a cut and paste function, everything was 'typed' on a typewriter.  Keyboarding was a function of key punch operators who used keyboards to type onto paper punch cards - a machine hooked up to a keyboard which literally punched holes into the cards.  These cards with holes were the programs fed into huge room sized computers.

Drake as an early Data Processing Manager in the 1970's, had three groups of people reporting to him:  (1) the people who managed and maintained the hardware - the actual computer in an air conditioned room, sealed to keep dust out, and on a raised floor to let air circulate.  (2)  the programmers who wrote computer programs for office functions and (3) the typing pool and the key punch operator pool.  As he put it,  group (3) was a manager's nightmare.  The typing pool fought with the engineers (his company was a small engineering company) over how long it would take to turn around work, and the key punch operators fought among themselves.  He was thrilled when under a re-organization the third group was whisked out from under him.

This must seem like a 'when I was a kid I had to walk five miles in the snow to school' type memory.  However, I was in my early 20's and starting my working career.  The idea that any manager/engineer/accountant would 'type' anything was unthinkable.  Even into the 1990's, there were specialized people inside companies whose jobs were to manipulate the new desk top electronic machines to produce a finished project proposal with charts, graphs, color, and other embedded bells and whistles.

My dinky little one man law firm was an early adopter of technology.  We had keyboards interfaced with magnetic card readers (initially) which morphed into the 6" floppy disks, which morphed into the 4" floppy disks.  Permanent storage was on a hardware disk about 20" in diameter which had to be manually removed and replaced with another hardware disk to get a 'back up' of our work product.  I don't even remember how much memory these cumbersome disks contained.  

This primitive system cost $50,000 in the late 1970's.  Our lawyer was a figure of ridicule for spending that kind of money.  (That would be about a $250,000 expenditure in today's money.)  It wasn't long before we had the last laugh.  Within a couple of years, lawyers would routinely arrive at our door asking for a 'tour', or a 'presentation', etc. of our equipment.  That quickly became another one of my jobs. 

Document production went from typewriters with stationery and carbon paper (prior to 1973) to IBM Selectric Typewriters routinely paired with Xerox machines, (circa 1975) to desktop computers, (1980s) to handheld computers (2007) That all happened in a timeline of about 35 years.  Furthermore, the rate of change is continuing to accelerate as we move deeper into the Electronic Revolution.  The virus which has upended our lives is pushing the business envelope and due to our smart machines, which allow us to interface on multiple levels, the necessity of the physical work place in 2020 is being questioned in the same way as the necessity of carbon paper in the 1980's.