The Obit Writer

Also: To Overcome Vaccine Skepticism, We Need A Multicultural Approach ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  [View in Browser]( | [Donate [WBUR]]( [WBUR](  [WBUR]( February 7, 2021 Dear Cog reader, Glenn Rifkin has a long, meandering career as an author and a business journalist. But most recently, he's found meaning writing obituaries for The New York Times. Before last year, he mostly wrote about famous people and luminaries in their fields. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the Times launched a series featuring ordinary people, young and old. These people might not have been household names, but they mattered deeply to their friends, families and colleagues. More than anything, these tributes cut through the statistics and bring each life lost into stark relief. "I want what I write to be a marker that illuminates, not just an ending, but a beginning – and a journey that mattered," [Rifkin writes](. Death is all around us now, and this is a beautiful piece. One of our readers commented: "What a gift to this broken world: a writer who truly cares.” Also this week: - [Josiane Martinez]( writes about the need for culturally competent, multilingual campaigns to overcome substantial vaccine skepticism in Massachusetts. [- Janna Malamud Smith]( writes about an encounter years ago, that set her thinking about “whiteness” as a “fantasy category of social power.” - [Dr. Alexa B. Kimball]( relays a day-in-the-life of giving the vaccine to her hospital colleagues. - [Mara Buchbinder]( immersing herself in stories about death has helped her wrestle with her own mortality. Until next week, — Cloe Axelson and Frannie Carr Toth Editors, Cognoscenti newsletters@wbur.org Must Reads url[I Write Obituaries For The New York Times. Memorializing People In A Pandemic Feels Like A Different Assignment]( In 100 years, these small COVID narratives will be historical documents testifying to the magnitude of this tragedy, writes Glenn Rifkin. [Read more](.   #%23%23[Twitter](  #%23%23[Facebook](    [To Overcome COVID Vaccine Skepticism In Mass., We Need A Multicultural Approach]( In Massachusetts, only 11% of Black residents and 32% of Latinos say they will take a COVID vaccine as soon as it is available to them, writes Josiane Martinez. To boost vaccination rates, we need a culturally competent, multilingual plan that addresses health disparities and mistrust in government. [Read more](. ['The Bitter Comes With The Sweet': Without Death, There Is No Life]( Mara Buchbinder, a medical anthropologist, writes about death and our lack of control over its inevitability. She's been thinking about her own mortality recently, after reading Natalie Babbitt’s "Tuck Everlasting,” with her 7-year-old son. [Read more](.  Support the news ['When Did You Become White?': The Question All 'White' Americans Must Answer]( The wonder of it all is how smooth and durable the lies about our racist past have been, how self-serving and profitable for “white” people, and how well we have kept them in place, writes Janna Malamud Smith. [Read more](. ['I Can Dare To Hope': What It Felt Like To Spend A Day Vaccinating My Hospital Colleagues]( We can't hug but we bump elbows, writes Dr. Alexa B. Kimball, and that is my final gesture for the day to protect the people who have given so much during the pandemic. [Read more](. [Biden Calls For An All-Electric Federal Fleet. GM Is Going Electric. And Your SUV Is Still A Big Problem]( An Obama-era rule assigned more lenient standards to SUVs and light trucks, writes Philip Warburg, and automakers took advantage, increasing the size of vehicles to qualify for less stringent controls. Sales of those kinds of vehicles have increased dramatically. [Read more](. Bookmarks "In early September, as the school year inched closer, a group of mothers in New Jersey decided they would gather in a park, at a safe social distance, and scream their lungs out. For months, as the pandemic disrupted work and home life, these moms, like so many parents, had been stretched thin — acting as caregivers, teachers and earners at once. They were breaking. As are mothers all over the United States." (The New York Times, "[The Primal Scream: American Mothers Are In Crisis]( "... [I]n communities of color, we did our own advocacy because if we hadn’t done our own advocacy, we wouldn’t have even gotten a [vaccination] location.” (The Boston Globe, "[Local Groups In Chelsea Team Up To Launch A Hard-Earned Vaccination Site]( "Selena Quintanilla was known as the queen of Tejano music until her death in 1995, when she was killed at age 23 by the president of her fan club. The podcast is about Selena and her music — but in many ways it's also the about the program's host, Maria Garcia, who spent her young life on both sides of America's southern border." (NPR, "[The Podcast 'Anything For Selena' Tells A Story Larger Than The Artist's Life]( “ Being an obituary writer means confronting death while celebrating a life ... I had to fight back tears as I wrote this heartbreaking obituary. — Glenn Rifkin, "[I Write Obituaries For The New York Times. Memorializing People In A Pandemic Feels Like A Different Assignment]( ICYMI [I Didn’t Know My Mother, Not Really, Until The Pandemic]( When Doris Iarovici's mother moved to Boston, she didn't anticipate the sheer pleasure of her mother’s company as they navigated a changed world, and the ways they are still themselves and also different.      If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📨 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news [WBUR]( [WBUR]  [WBUR]( [95289b97-66e8-43d4-a174-3bc3520a79a9.png]( [Instagram](  [Twitter]( [Facebook]( Want to change how you receive these emails? [Stop getting this newsletter by updating your preferences.]( I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. [Unsubscribe from all newsletters.]( Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2021 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved. You signed up for this newsletter at wbur.org. Our mailing address is: WBUR-FM 890 Commonwealth AveBoston, MA 02215-1205 [Add us to your address book](