Joel Solkoff’s Column Vol. VI, Number 5
DATELINE Thursday, November 19, 2020. Williamsport Pennsylvania, a town of 28,000 people (a treasure trove of architecture) 178 miles southeast over rotten roads to Philadelphia’s Independence Hall where my fathers (mothers did not apply) ratified the Constitution of the United States.Reality here in the county seat of Lycoming County, which last voted Democratic in 1964 may be removed geographically removed from a nation which voted significantly to elect Joe Biden President in 67 or 68 days/ These days physical georgraphically has become increasingly irrelevant in a real world bound by zeros and ones–an off of cimputer code–where I watch my news live from London on Sky News, or from Berlin on DW News or Paris on French 24/ Today’s Covid-19 for architects’ column concerns reality and the reality that reality is not always what you might think.
The United States requires a new capitol city to reflect the realiy of Covid-19
”Computers are not the thing. They are the thing that gets us to the thing.”
— Halt and Catch Fire,
Despite its 18th Century urban plan and its iconic Capitol dome and White House, Washington DC is very much a 20th Century town designed haphardly to reflect the desperate attempts by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to deal with the Great Depression. This is the spot where Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 4, 1933 took the oath of office for the first time, our only President to be elected for four terms. It was FDR who moved the inauguration date from March to January having the prescience to reduce the danger my country is experiencing as transition now 62 long days away from a Biden Presidency. While the incumbent loser is endangering the lives of US America’s pandemic ranging death toll with his incompetence.
Today’s New York Times reported: “
“The United States passed a grim milestone on Wednesday, hitting 250,000 coronavirus-related deaths, with the number expected to keep climbing steeply as infections surge nationwide.
“Experts predict that the country could soon be reporting 2,000 deaths a day or more, matching or exceeding the spring peak, and that 100,000 to 200,000 more Americans could die in the coming months.”
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