Friendship During Insane Times
The unexpected gift that Covid gave to many of us
Last month, Barbara Deutsch, a member of Sane Francisco Community passed away. I only met Barbara twice but we kept in touch over email. Despite health challenges over the last year, even from her sick bed Barbara was so very engaged in life. In her messages, she would share funny anecdotes and reflections, both personal and political. Her mind was extremely sharp and her tone always cheerful.
Marilyn — a friend I made in 2020, through our covert, totally frowned-upon, in-person Navy Blue Venn Diagram meetings — was the one who introduced me to Barbara and her husband, Barry. I had asked Marilyn in January if we could go together to visit Barbara soon. We were trying to figure out when but unfortunately Barbara passed before we could make it happen. At my request, and with Barry’s permission to share, Marilyn wrote this tribute to Barbara.
Barbara Deutsch — A Beacon of Love and Light
April 6, 1941 to January 30, 2025
A Tribute by Marilyn Langlois
After the cancer death of our beloved Barbara (and no, she wasn’t jabbed!), a mutual friend aptly evoked the word lucidity as emblematic of her being. Her impish humor, clarity of dialectic and tenacious intellect illuminated every space she inhabited. I miss her very much.
Perhaps you, too, experienced a silver lining to the Covid mass hysteria imposed on humanity five years ago. For me the gift of the scamdemic was a chance to deepen my friendship with Barbara and her husband Barry. (It went on to bring me many new friendships as well, including with Neshma of Sane Francisco!)
Previously, Barbara’s and my paths had crossed occasionally over the years through anti-war activism: protesting the Iraq war, counseling soldiers who wanted out of the illegal US war machine via the GI Rights Hotline, demanding an end to the infamous School of the Americas where the US trains Latin American military in repressing their own poor populations.
Barbara was a true peace activist. Not only did she find the wanton killing over resources unjust and immoral, she also had a bold understanding of the nefarious triggers implemented to induce a perhaps otherwise unwilling public to go along with these bloodbaths. She realized soon after that fateful day that the crimes of 9/11 were an inside job, using shock and awe to bamboozle people into accepting a revamping of US military and ushering in the unending War on Terror.
As the fear-mongering over a novel coronavirus escalated and lockdowns turned cities into ghost towns, nearly all of my friends, family and fellow activists succumbed to the psy-op. Left alone, I madly searched for any SANE people among my acquaintances, and knowing how Barbara had seen through the 9/11 deception, I turned to her. Hooray! She and her husband both recognized the Covid machinations and refused to comply with mandated measures.
From that moment in March of 2020, we got together frequently despite the distance between our homes, defiantly sharing hugs in public, discussing what was being done to us and how to resist. Barbara’s insightful perceptions, instincts and analyses, always delivered with a twinkle in her eye, were a welcome breath of fresh air as our camaraderie intensified. We went on to converse about all manner of pressing issues of our day. Her astute observations were invariably spiced with a wealth of historical and literary references that gave resonance to her views.
During these past five years I also learned for the first time of Barbara’s encyclopedic knowledge of and deep love for all manner of plants and creatures in the natural world, especially butterflies, whom she often nurtured from caterpillar to chrysalis to launching their flight to freedom, echoing her own free spirit. A walk with her in the woods, on the beach or through her magnificently wild yet subtly tamed native garden was akin to getting a college degree in botany, entomology and ornithology.
Barbara had a gift for shining the light of her knowledge on all who welcomed it. She would likewise give her full attention and interest to those she spoke with, recalling every detail of past conversations for months and even years. She loved life in all its forms, constantly honing her understanding of the world around her and how we humans might do a better job of being in it.
Barbara, though you’ve returned to the earth, your radiance lives on! ✨
Sane Community Gathering
If you click on this post you can read about Barbara’s sweet contribution to a rainy night Sane Francisco gathering. And also read the impromptu writings of all the other friends who were there that evening:
Write Here, Right Now
Last Friday, a few Saners gathered for dinner in a Middle Eastern restaurant in the Mission. A fun little icebreaker was planned for the diners as they arrived.
Barbara’s song from that night, dedicated to her:
Rest in Power Barbara: you were — and will always remain — an extremely bright star!
It’s coming up to my 5 year anniversary of realizing that something was seriously amiss with the official Covid story, which led to my subsequent learning of several other mass deceptions. March 29th, 2020 was when I woke up, as they say.
I am doing my utmost to complete many other projects right now so I hope I can find time to write about how I came to know we were being lied to on so many levels. At the very least, I want to say that the “silver lining to the Covid mass hysteria” — to quote Marilyn — were also the much deeper friendships I made. Thank you all for yours. What a precious gift to cherish!
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She sounds like a divine feminine from heaven
very loving and heroic writeup on your friend