Such are the times we live in. Yes, you are correct if you state that we have lived through other times such as this. The Spanish Flu at the end of WWI. The polio epidemic that continued to sweep the nation. Really bad flu years. But this is different. Quite different.
The governments of those times actually tried their best to correct the situations, without bluffing, without name calling, without preposterous statements, without personalizing it. They simply rolled up their sleeves and got to work and success was both met and evasive, but no one blamed the political opposition. No one heard any politician claim that, for example, FDR had adult onset polio due to machinations by the Republican Party. The flu epidemic was not described as setting the "world aflutter". And even as these responses were not perfect, and had to work with the science capabilities of the times, there was a national unity. Yes, people were frightened, but there was no panic, no shelves being stripped bare in the stores.
Trump is responding or not responding to this health emergency in typical fashion. He thinks he can boss it away, rule it out, attack it verbally with his usual ignorant language. This will not work, but look at how he admires the responses of dictators round the world. Look. Worry. This, to me, is the hair raising part, the truly scary part of this whole thing. And in the meanwhile, the states and cities are left to handle this mess on their own, and the defensive and offensive tactics are worrisomely uneven across the nation.
People look towards their leaders for leadership. Duh!! But we are seriously lacking in this area. Look at that idiot Goetz, from Florida, much to my shame and despair. He comes to the House in a gas mask, unobtainable by the masses, not needed actually, and whines how the House floor isa petri dish and the people in the most danger are the members of Congress! Unbelievable!! This is the selfishness, the lack of public service ideals and values that we now have and that is more hair raising than the virus. The virus will eventually be beaten back, another will take its place, such are the conditons of the world as we crowd animals and humans together.
However, the political changes, the dictatorship actions and expressions - be afraid. Worry. That is what will not go away if that man retains office. The lies, the obfuscations, the manipulations of data and of people, the ignorance of basic leadership and understanding of what steps to take in a crisis. The use of a crisis to advance personal gains. The personalizing of the crisis, of the virus, into an attack on him and just look at the attitudes of Xi, of Kim, of Erdogan and understand how close we are to having our own homegrown dictator, right here in our own River City Nation!
There is no intellectual capacity for this man to understand what the hell is going on. He is getting scolded and tutored by his own party members - to little, too late, for what did they expect they would have now , now that they have given it all away to him, ceded their own powers to check the harm he does and will continue to do. What they forgot about were the consequences to us all as they blindly, defiantly, refused to publicly chastise him and shed him from our government. Now - we, the people, suffer.
This hatefilled thread continues to run through government today and will do so for many decades to follow as the benches are filling up with backwards thinking, biased , incompetent, unqualified judges, other than their blind following of extreme views and old hateful memes. LGBTQ are in trouble and that trouble will drip down towards the rest of the nation. If a religious entity can legally be allowed to discriminate, claiming religious objections, well think about it. What if my religion teaches that slavery is okayed by the Lord? What if my religion states that women are to be chattels, locked in houses and excluded from public life? That women have no sayso regarding their own bodies? What if my religion states that children should go into the working world at age 10? How far does this go? Afraid yet? If not, open your eyes and think. Deep thoughts.
America is under attack and not necessarily from the virus alone. That is an organism with no thoughts or instincts other than survival. It is transmitted without its okay. But the mess around it, well, look towards the humans who are supposed to be handling it. Look at their other behavior, words and characteristics. Bad juju here!
Bad indeed.
So what now? Should people over 60 go home and stay there along with pregnant women as was suggested in a stricken city? Shall we set a law regarding age and exposure? The whole thing is rife with tension, fear of the unknown and fear of the known. Lord knows I have no clue as to handle this, but I, for sure, did not put myself up as one who can handle these national crises and international troubles, but Trump did and we stupidly bought into it. The wrongs and the mistakes are clear. At least in Virginia Trump served a useful purpose as the voters there, from top to bottom economically, just about had enough of him and voted with their fingers and their feet as they stood waiting to vote and filled in their choices. A beam of light. Let us hope there are many more and let us hope further that we all stay safe, healthy, free of this virus, and may our scientists be left alone to find a vaccine and treatment for it. That is what we need, as people, as a nation, and as a world.
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