Notes #48

No Cake for You!

Did you hear the one about the "cake artist" who refused to make a wedding cake for a couple? The couple sued! In a fit of anger the "artist/baker" refused to make wedding cakes for anyone.

The baker argued in a US court room that he was being punished for following the dictates of his religion. He said he would sell any of his baking products to anybody, any nationality, colour, gay or straight, but not wedding cakes. He is a fervent Christian and weddings are a religious event, so no wedding cakes to gay people.

This man appears to know the law. He knows that the law prohibits discrimination on basis of sex, religion and gender so he has to sell to everyone. However, sexual orientation is not so clearly spelled out in the law in some areas of the United States, and so he can discriminate against gay people and get away with it.

My point in sharing this story is not to show how people use their religion to cover up their bigoted beliefs and attitudes, but to ask the question: do we really want to live in a society where any business/shop we walk into can have the right to refuse service because they have a different set of values than our own? In other words, would they have the right to ask us personal values-laden questions before providing service?

I thought we were past this kind of ridiculous scenario!

I should know better when we are bombarded daily with stories of people partying on beaches, no masks--"government is violating my rights", "I refuse the vaccine" (even if it will kill others), Q-Anon beliefs and on...

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Pfizer Vaccine

I just received the Pfizer vaccine a few days ago, (I feel fine, thanks), and found this information about the CEO of Pfizer who worked on the creation of this vaccine very interesting--hope you will as well.

Sixty thousand Jews were in Thessaloniki, Greece on the eve of the outbreak of World War II.  They were a living and vibrant Jewish community. Most of the porters in the port of Thessaloniki were Jews. The port of Thessaloniki was even closed on Saturday. Great rabbis lived there too. It was on this glorious community that the Nazi terror brutally arose.

Hitler took Greece by storm to secure his southern wing before launching Operation Barbarossa and the offensive against Russia.
Out of 60,000 Thessaloniki Jews, about 50,000 were exterminated in Birkenau in a very short time.... Few survived. Among the survivors were the members of the Bourla family.

After the war, in 1961 a son was born to the Bourla family; and they named him Israel - Abraham. (Albert). Albert grew up and studied veterinary medicine. He received his doctorate in reproductive biotechnology from the Aristotle University of Salonika Veterinary School.

At the age of 34 he moved to the United States. He married a Jewish woman named Miriam and had two children. In the United States, Bourla was integrated into the medical industry. He progressed very quickly and joined the Pfizer Company where he became 'Head of Global Vaccines'. From there, the road is short for his appointment as CEO of Pfizer in 2019. Throughout the year, Bourla led the company's efforts to find a vaccine for corona in super efforts.

The vaccine that will save the lives of millions of people around the world was led and pushed by a Jew, the son of Holocaust survivors.  From Thessaloniki, his vaccine will also reach Germany, where 1000s have died from COVID; and the vaccine will  help save many more lives there.

And THIS is why Israel is becoming the first country to receive the vaccine: In memory of Albert's grandparents.

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Readers' Response (to "Notes" #47)
So-o-o true, Dan - the whole "after the affair" situation - I've seen it many times working with clients and some are willing to work THROUGH it and others are not; and the WORK-THROUGH CREW are certainly more successful in re-building their relationships than  the DROP-OUTS who think the next relationship will be better than  the last one. Sometimes it works and OFTEN it's a repeat drama until they're willing to join the WORK-THROUGH CREW. Keep on with the good work and the NOTES, to encourage the rest of us as we keep on keeping on.
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Interesting topics all. 2 points:

1.    The ideas about ending special status for status Indians is, regrettably, not discussed in polite society, and

2.    I really was not ready for the punch line of that joke!