Breonna Taylor Protest Highlights Need for More Love and Less Hate

 Last night was heated to say the least. It may be the last night of violence but that is very unlikely considering the heightened emotions. We are moving into a new phase in this national discussion. When people fire back it creates a whole new risk level for everyone involved as safety measures are put in place. Police will get more edgy and protesters are likely adjust to the change of mood. There must be safe ground police and protesters see eye-to-eye. We need a functioning police mechanism that is capable of protecting the public while at the same time have the highest moral/ethical values. Discussions often start with what you can agree with and once that happens we can then move onto other discussions on controversial issues. 

For example, a main point might be short statement, "We will likely still have policing of some type in the foreseeable future." and "We want our police to engage in universal justice where race, religion, and other discriminatory forms are not part of the process."  We could also say something about the national dialogue, "Americans are defined by core shared values and when you are an American you have equal rights in all aspects of our society."  Perhaps we can go further and say, "We want everyone to economically engage in the  future of our society and further push our capitalistic values through removing barriers to success". 

I'm not saying these are right and that people would agree as they are just examples. However, you can kind of get my point.  If we can agree on the big picture we can keep moving down the reasoning line by discovering where we do and where we don't meet. For example, once we agree law enforcement must be moral and ethical then we have to define that for guidance to departments. As another example, if we agree we need some type of policing then we can talk about training, feedback loops, internal investigations, etc...

The sky and ground were in movement last night. Blocked streets, sirens, crowds, helicopters and stun grenades. Yikes!

Bergman's Veteran Suicide Prevention Initiative Heads to President's Desk

 Our veterans served to support our most basic fundamental way of life and beliefs about freedom and economy. They are put on the front line and engage in actions that most of us couldn't possible understand. While these sacrifices may sometimes be necessary we do have a responsibility to help them when they get back home. Our freedoms do require a level of care and concern over those who help us keep them. 

This was taken from the press release below......

Washington - Today, the House unanimously passed S.785, a critical Veterans mental health package featuring Representative Jack Bergman’s bipartisan IMPROVE Act. This provision authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to take a new, effective approach in fighting the Veterans suicide crisis by making grants to - and coordinating with - community organizations that provide lifesaving services to local Veterans. Over the course of the 116^th Congress, Rep. Bergman has garnered wide support from his colleagues, Veterans, and VSO's for this key legislation, which now heads to President Trump's desk to be signed into law.

S. 785 - the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act - takes aggressive and unprecedented action to connect more Veterans and their families with support services and mental health resources, in their own communities.

According to the 2019 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, nearly 11 of the 17 Veterans who die by suicide each day had not sought care within the VA. Importantly, S. 785 and the IMPROVE Act provision will help the VA connect with these previously unreached Veterans – who are often living in rural and remote areas.

Rep. Bergman, a member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and a PREVENTS National Ambassador stated, "Even one suicide is too many. Despite billions of dollars spent within the VA, the statistics on Veterans suicide haven't budged. For this reason, we need to implement new approaches that focus on individual Veterans and reach even more of them than before. I'm grateful for the persistent effort of my colleagues who have helped make passing this legislation a possibility. Ranking Member Dr. Phil Roe, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, Senators Tester, Boozman and Moran, Secretary Robert Wilkie, and so many others have worked tirelessly with me to ensure our Veterans who've sacrificed so much for our country have access to the care and services they need and deserve."

“Preventing veteran suicide requires a community-wide effort and a commitment to providing veterans who are struggling with the support, care, and treatment that works best for them,” said Ranking Member Roe. “I thank my good friend, General Bergman, for introducing the bipartisan Improve Well-Being for Veterans Act over a year ago which not only did just that, but also jumpstarted the conversation about what Congress could do to find veterans who are at-risk of suicide and help save their lives. I was proud to see General Bergman’s bill included in S. 785, as amended, the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act, which passed the House today and is now en route to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law. I have no doubt the grant program this bill will create – which is proudly named after my constituent, the late Staff Sergeant Parker G. Fox – will have a meaningful impact on thousands of veterans’ lives for many years to come.”

“As a veteran and Chair of the Servicewomen and Women Veterans Congressional Caucus, I am passionate about protecting those who have served our country,” said Rep. Houlahan. “There is a crisis amongst our veteran population – thousands are dying by suicide every year. Within this vulnerable population, it’s important to note that our women veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide as non-veteran women. In these partisan times, I’m grateful to work alongside fellow veteran, Representative Jack Bergman, and my colleagues in the Senate – Senators Tester and Boozman – to tackle this crisis head-on in our bipartisan Improve Well-Being for Veterans Act. I’m also grateful to Chairman Takano for his leadership on this issue and bringing this critical legislation to the House Floor. As a Congress and as a country, we have a duty to stand up for those who’ve put their lives on the line for this country. I look forward to the president signing S.785 into law, which includes our legislation, and the support it will provide our veterans.”

“This is a monumental day: passage of my landmark bill honoring a Montana hero sends a very important message to veterans—and all Americans—that Congress can come together during politically turbulent times to do the right thing and support those who have sacrificed on our behalf,” said Ranking Member Tester. “One life lost to suicide is one too many, and I thank the Hannon family for partnering with me to honor their son, father, and brother, along with Chairman Moran, leaders on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and countless Veterans Service Organizations, advocates, and veterans in our steadfast effort to connect more veterans with the life-saving mental health care they need and earned. I urge the President to swiftly sign the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act into law, to better treat service-connected mental health conditions and help heal the invisible wounds of war.”

Senator Boozman stated, “This new approach will allow us to reach more veterans and support organizations that have a track record of success in suicide prevention. Delivering additional resources to community-based groups providing support and services to at-risk veterans will allow them to expand their outreach, identify more veterans in need and provide great access to mental health care. I’ve been proud to join Senator Warner in leading Senate efforts to devise a strategy that empowers veteran community organizations to work with the VA in the fight against veteran suicide, and so greatly appreciate the hard work of  Representatives Houlahan and Bergman, who championed this effort in the House. I’m glad this will soon become law.” 

“After working with veterans service organizations, mental health patient advocacy groups, organizations that serve veterans across the country, hundreds of veterans and their families, Ranking Member Tester and I introduced the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act to improve mental health care and suicide prevention programs for veterans across the country, especially those in hard-to-reach areas,” said SVAC Chairman Moran. “Every day we lose 20 veterans to suicide and this pandemic has further worsened mental health conditions and resulted in more veterans being isolated from friends and family. I applaud Chairman Takano and Ranking Member Roe for prioritizing this important legislation that will bring life-saving care, service and support to veterans. Passing this legislation through Congress was our top priority this Congress, and I look forward to the president quickly signing the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act into law.”

S. 785 also includes new policy to increase the number of mental health professionals in VA facilities, bolster telehealth programs for rural and remote Veterans, and promote innovative treatment options.

Remember, help is always available at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, by calling 1-800-273-8255 (press 1 if you are a Service member or Veteran) or by chatting online at www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/

President Trump Press Release September 23rd, 2020

 A briefing on current events from the White House. 

Live Stream Downtown Protests Breonna Taylor September 23rd 2020

The SUN  is providing a live stream of the main section of the protests. It looks like a good place to watch from our homes. Right now it appears to be relatively quit and hopefully it stays peaceful (fingers crossed). We have to get through this as a nation....we can learn a lot by getting people together. Since a few hours it has gotten louder and more people are coming out. 

  

Queen City Shipwreck- Hunt-Trying to Take Better Notes

When looking for shipwrecks, or any other types of research, we must do our research. Sometimes that information can come from historical documents and historical societies while other times you may need to contact other entities that may have the initial documents (i.e. ports and companies).  One thing I learned on our first shipwreck search dive is to document experiences better and continually look for deeper sources of information. 

Shipwreck hunting and discovery is an important part of science but often lacks fully developed methods because it relies heavily on intuition (Harpster, 2013). I guess that is part of my responsibility. While I'm not a great diver I do have skills in formalizing some of these process. Since this exploration is partially fun I'm not going "overkill" the work with detail but hope to semi-formalize some of the processes and start keeping a little documentation. 

That reminds me that I should get a separate notebook for just logs. Yikes!

I'm making videos tho show some of things were doing but I should start keeping regular logs to ensure I'm capturing the information correctly. Such a project isn't going to be based solely on our notes as it is in other fields of study. The output is what counts. One would still need enough notes to show what they did. 

If we receive funding through sponsorship or purchasing of advertisement space on some videos we are producing we will need to keep better notes on expenditures in case anyone asks. We are not dealing with a lot of money here. More like a pittance to augment our expenditures but we should keep itemization records.  

Also, if something goes wrong the notes might help us reveal what we did. This post helped me think about how I should better document in log form my current notes before my memory of the day fades. Documenting the experiences is an important part of being professional and may be a defining difference between valid and invalid research. 

There has been a little interest of our study from two historical societies that provided information and from an enthusiast who sent me a data sheet. You can get some great information about the site HERE. 

It provides a lot of interesting information on the site. Researchers love to see these types of boring data sheets because they are rich. However, you can't trust what is on the site without going to the source. The whole point of "research" is to dig deeper. We should seek to go back to the source. 

So I might start this way.....

1. Browse and search various sources for any general information on the topic. Look for credible sources because a lot of stuff on the internet is reposted and rehashed and isn't necessarily accurate or reflective of the original data. 

2. When you find some credible sources/sites seek to find out their data source. Books, documents, historical societies, etc... are good places to investigate. For example, if 'Pringle" is the builder we might go back and see if that company exists, where they have records, and if another company bought them out. 

Just looking at this site I would want to know more about its final cargo and location. 

Harpster, Matthew. (2013). Shipwreck Identity, Methodology, and Nautical Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 20. 10.1007/s10816-012-9131-x.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257578062_Shipwreck_Identity_Methodology_and_Nautical_Archaeology/citation/download

 

Coronovirus Task Force Live (September 23rd 2020) New Research Leads to New Lines of Development?

 Watch live the Coronovirus Task Force. One thing that could come out of discovering a vaccine for the COVID virus is that we would have developed a method of researching how to minimize impact on other viruses. Would something similar also impact the Flu or other viral diseases. If new discoveries come out of this we may have additional lines of medical development. That is how discoveries work. If they are significant they can change and create new lines of development. What is most impressive is the amount of effort going into finding a discovery. Likewise, as Dr. Fauci says that we don't know everything about this virus and its long term impact. A lot more follow up research will be needed even after the immediate crisis subsides. 

Louisville In Lock Down Before Breonna Taylor Decision

 Hopes and prayers that things will stay peaceful and we can start the dialogue needed move past the pain and into something more constructive. When we share our experiences and we listen to each side we can slowly start making the changes and adjustments that are needed to push our country to adapt and become stronger. We are on a path of becoming and that path can be sped by working together to move forward together. No other side but "our" side counts in this conflict. As a nation "we" will succeed and fall together. If we can grow and change through these events we will improve our national capacity and if we fail to grow and change we will "all" be weaker.