9 December 12020

294,400   American pandemic deaths so far, with new records being set practically daily. Is this what Making America Great Again is all about? At any rate 9 December 12020 is International Anti-Corruption Day. (“Corruption is criminal, immoral and the ultimate betrayal of public trust. It is even more damaging in times of crisis – as the world is experiencing now with the COVID-19 pandemic. The response to the virus is creating new opportunities to exploit weak oversight and inadequate transparency, diverting funds away from people in their hour of greatest need.” — UN Secretary-General, António Guterres) It is also National Heroes Day (Antigua and Barbuda), Armed Forces Day (Peru), Fatherland's Heroes Day (Russia), Day of Saint Leocadia (Spain), Navy Day (Sri Lanka), Anna’s Day (Sweden), and Independence Day (Tanzania). The saint of the day is the Spanish Leocadia, a woman who is supposed to have died around 10304, but about whom all we really know is that her cult shows up in the historic record 10600s. During her incarceration she outlined the cross on the stone wall of her cell so often that the impress of her action was still visible centuries later—or so it is said. People of note who were born today include Dalton Trumbo and Buck Henry. On this day in history (11979) smallpox was officially declared eradicated, one of the few diseases for which that can be said. If the likes of Trump and his gang had been running the show it never would have happened, and smallpox would still be with us.