Issue 2: Nature as our solace
We talk to an elections expert and a photographer based in Rome, Italy.
An elections expert on…voting in a pandemic
Name: Tiana Epps-Johnson
Hometown: Angels Camp, California
Current Residence: Chicago, Illinois
Living Situation: House with wife, Whitney, two cats and a dog
Age: 33
Occupation: Executive Director, Center for Tech & Civic Life
Tiana and her team at the Chicago-based Center for Tech and Civic Life support election departments around the country. We wanted to get her view on what election experts and administrators are doing to expand vote-by-mail options and ensure that in-person voting is safe for voters and election workers.
A lot of folks are questioning institutional remedies to racial justice issues, including voting. What would you say to them?
I absolutely understand folks engaging in this kind of questioning. Voting in November is not a cure for racial injustice. Voting is one tool — a critical tool — that we as Americans have to exercise power and hold elected leaders accountable to values and policies that further racial justice. I hope that folks don’t leave any of their power on the table.
How are local election officials preparing for what the voting experience will be like in November amid a pandemic?
They have to figure out how to quickly adapt the voting process without any real certainty about what November is going to look like. Election officials have really stepped up and dug in to focus on what is best for voters. They’ve had to get creative about how best to serve them in this new reality. We’re seeing partnerships with libraries to both allow book drop-off boxes to be used as ballot drop boxes. We’re also seeing interesting things like states that are making voter registration easy to do at places like grocery stores -- the establishments that are still open and where voters go on a regular basis. And then we’ve seen states move really quickly to change policy, like North Carolina, which has started to allow online voter registration -- in response to COVID-19 -- for the first time in its history.
Help us understand what it means for election work and voter confidence when President Trump expresses concern, without evidence, that the increased use of mail-in ballots could lead to voter fraud.
When there is this type of politicization of what is fundamentally a democratic right, it really makes the work of election officials that much harder. Not only do they have to adjust the voting process, but they have to spend time and energy responding to things that just aren’t grounded in any kind of facts. Right now, they only have time to be on the frontlines to make sure our democracy functions the way that it should.
You’ve had a lot on your plate. What has brought you some solace and joy during this quarantine?
Two things. One has been just generally slowing down and being able to be at home for now literally months at a time. I cannot remember the last time I strung together eight weeks at home, and it feels really nice to just be in one place. I am typically on the road, somewhere in the U.S., every other week meeting with different election offices.
The other thing is our backyard and our garden. Last year was the first time my wife and I tried our hand at planting a garden from seed. And I understand that that is how food can be produced, but when you actually see and eat something that started as a little seed that you put in the ground and watch it grow, it is a true miracle! Nature is wild! I also planted a rosebush last summer and the first blooms came yesterday. Fifteen roses opened up on the same day. I can see my rosebush from my office, and that’s bringing me a ton of joy. I had this vision of being able to cut flowers to bring inside and it’s actually going to happen, and that feels rad.
What do you want to bring to the other side of this?
One thing that I definitely want to bring to the other side of this is meal planning. I am very good at logistics, it’s one of my talents! I’ve gotten it down so that we’re only going to the grocery store once every three weeks. And I’m learning that this really saves money, it’s less wasteful, and it’s really possible.
A Rome-based photographer on…missing human contact
Name: Rein Skullerud
Hometown: Rome
Current Residence: Still here!
Living Situation: In an apartment on the outskirts of central Rome; lives with wife and two boys, ages 21 and 17
Age: 52
Occupation: Head of Photography for the United Nations World Food Programme
What was it like when COVID-19 hit Italy?
I appreciate what the Italian government has done; it’s really shown a different attitude than what I’ve been exposed to in the last 50+ years of living here. I think they’ve really taken things seriously and done the best they could.
It’s been weird! Who would have ever imagined that governments would have the power to lock down an entire continent let alone an entire planet.
One of the biggest things that has come to my mind has been all of my friends and family that live alone. Because I’ve got two kids, a dog, and a wife. I’ve got life inside my house even if I don’t leave my apartment. Living alone must be so much tougher.
Has it changed the family dynamic at all being cooped up together?
Well, the dialogue has improved. Even the dialogue with my dog has improved! We’re all sort of closed in our own room doing our own work during the day, but it’s good because you can get up, take a break and go talk to one another.
Over the years, there have been moments for me as a father that were like, “Shit! I should have talked about this!” with one of my sons, but I was in the office and I didn’t want to do it over the phone because it’s better to discuss in person. But these moments come up really nicely now at home. I can just get up and go sit on his bed and say, “I want to talk to you about this.”
Have there been any big philosophical conversations where you’ve been like, “Damn, that was awesome!”?
Well, yes. There has been a bit more with my youngest son. When we go on walks with the dog we talk about the visual changes we see in nature [as a result of the lockdown]. For example, my house faces an agriculture school that one of my sons goes to, and there’s a big green space that I can look out on from my building. We’ve had this invasion over the past few years of parrots over there. With months in lockdown, the parrots are gone, and all these other birds have started coming back. Many of these birds -- robins, thrushes -- used to be there when I was a kid, but they had since disappeared in favor of these parrots.
We also noticed that the air immediately became cleaner, there’s less noise pollution, and all of this you could really perceive physically.
What do you miss most right now?
That we’re all healthy but we treat each other like we’re all sick.
The numbers are incredibly low right now. In a city of six million inhabitants we’re mostly healthy. Obviously we still need to be careful, but the human contact is what I miss most. The ability to pat someone on the back, to hug someone.
Everything I’ve been reading about the impact of COVID-19 on countries already facing hunger sounds so stark. COVID has made it ten times worse. Help us understand how this pandemic impacts the work of the World Food Programme, where you have worked for more than 20 years.
WFP has to look for funding for a whole new way of doing its work that will be much more costly in my opinion.
Before, you could head out with a truck to a village to deliver your rice, your oil, your supplies without having to be too careful. Now it’s like a global Ebola project. The way you need to do food distribution is far more complex. The way we are conducting ourselves in the field is very similar to how we proceeded with Ebola: no touching, disinfecting, social distancing, catering for kids out of school. From my point of view, I’m really impressed with my colleagues that are operational and on the logistics side of things.
What do you hope to bring to the other side of this?
We can recognize that there is much more need to operate on the ground rather than in the air. I looked at this really interesting interactive map of the world that showed all of the aircraft in the air at the same time before COVID-19, and you literally couldn’t see the map through all of the flight paths. Then the second iteration of the map displayed the world with aircraft during COVID, and there were very few lines. And that made me realize how much fossil fuel we’re putting in the air. I’d never looked at it like that. I would really like to see the planet with less traffic, less aircraft, less burning of fossil fuels on the other side of this.