“Be safe” is a useless cliche if we have no information.

Several COVID-19 positives in Dickinson and Marinette counties so far and one death, yet the Dickinson-Iron District Health Department and Marinette County Public Health gave few details on these cases.

Co-workers and the public needed to know where they worked, if applicable, and other public places, medical facilities, churches, clubs, organizations they frequented in the last three weeks or so. Likely too late now to help us, but in future cases?

Nobody’s asking for name or more personal information about the Dickinson County case. Same for the Marinette County cases, except whether they are from Niagara, Aurora or Florence in Wisconsin, for example? If they were in nursing homes or rehab settings, I assume residents and their families are at least told?

Our deepest sympathies to the families involved, but in the Gogebic County case, they quickly published information regarding locations of concern. One man in Marquette County even did television interviews.

So help us be safe — please share what information you can, quickly.

Beating swords into… snowplows?

The March-April issue of The Catholic Worker casts a different light on a Marinette County business than media had highlighted. It read:

“Writing in the New York Times in May 2019, Nicholas Kristof asked if the U.S. was headed for war in Iran. His answer: ‘Actually, we’re already mired in one. It’s the unconscionable war in Yemen, where we are complicit in the deaths of almost a quarter-million Yemenis so far, many of them children who starved to death … Every 12 minutes, another child in Yemen dies. Yemen is a complicated place with many actors, but here’s the bottom line: Because of our enmity toward Iran and our bond with Saudi Arabia, we are helping to starve and bomb Yemeni children.’

“We recently learned that Lockheed Martin has a multibillion dollar contract with a shipyard in Marinette, Wis., to build four Littoral combat ships that will be sold to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi military uses these ships to block ports in Yemen. By continuing to supply Saudi Arabia and other countries making war against Yemen with weaponry, the U.S. gives a green light to starving and bombing children on the brink of famine.”

The Bible calls for beating swords into plowshares. The Israelites never heard of snowplows. I think building snowplows would be more than acceptable.