Oh, the papers are filled with glowing expectations and hopes for the future. They see the roadblocks being set up by the last frenetic efforts of a demented man to ruin it for all, but still, that small seed of hope begins to flower. Is this correct, a truly sensible and aware look and evaluation, or are we looking through artificially rose colored glasses? Or is what we have here a desperate attempt to see the good, so tired, weary, are we all, brimming over with bad news, with fighting, bitterness and discord?
Heart rending pictures of lines of people waiting for food to celebrate a day of thanksgiving. Lines of people and cars waiting for testing. Lines and multitudes of people cramming the ERs, the ICUs, the COVID wards. Funeral homes, morgues and hospitals once again overrun with bodies, refrigerator trucks once more in gruesome demand.
More than 185,000 new cases yesterday. More than 2,200 new deaths yesterday and it would be more were the victims now heading deeply into younger age brackets. Death toll over 261,000 and the ceiling? Nowhere in sight as we now get challenges to the vaccine of AstroZeneca and the glow begins to dim. Those left? Grieving, aching, ill, hopeless, homeless and hungry. The aged are wondering why and how it is that they are ending their lives in such conditions - here, in America. The parents are wondering how they will feed their kids, cloth and house them, get them medical care and educate them, giving them hope for a better future. And the younger generation, looking for employment, looking for a safe way to begin an adult life, marriage, a career- well, the looking is hard, and the prospects anemic.
The question - here we go, but where are we going? Today, a day of thought and evaluation, a solemn day that should be filled with the laughter and tears of family reunions, of kids playing with cousins, of the old dads trying to recreate their days of athleticism, well, where is it? We have huddled travelers in airports, trying to avoid contact and shared air, worried about catching the virus, yet almost desperate to reach friends and family in an attempt to ground themselves in a frightening time, a time when the world is upside down, when the sureties of life become the vagaries of life, and lessons learned, life experiences, are almost useless in so many ways and situations.
Looking forward, we are being warned that the horrific is going to go postal, shall we say? We are to "look forward' to a Christmas surge. We are looking at more sick, more deaths, doubts on the rise about the efficacy of the vaccines, a synergy of flu and COVID, weaker people, drained by the cold, by the hunger, by the worries, by the hopelessness and the seeming non ending of this portion of life. The weariness is deep, all pervading.
Even as Biden looks and works toward fulfilling his promises, to bind the nation together, that man who claims to be better than Lincoln, abrades those wounds, still trying, insanely, to "turn the election around" because , he says, "We won, by a lot." This man and his crew of creeps and madmen are inciting treason, urging people to overthrow this government, to trash democracy, to spit on the Constitution, and all for their victory - which would have been a disaster beyond all redemption for us, for the country. We must continue to be watchful and aware. We must or else, well, let us not go there!
Let us be thankful that we are still free. Let us be thankful that there are still those who can contribute to feed the hungry, to serve in the kitchens and pantries, to help. Let us be thankful for our health, for the dedicated people who serve on the front line, who man the stores and delivery services. Let us be thankful that we now have a sane man to assume charge, take the reins and try with all his might, to fight the good fight, to turn around the evil and neglect, the ugliness of the past five years. Let us pledge to work with the man, to do our share in undoing the harm that has been inflicted on our country and its people, the madness of the last crazed efforts to complete the steps to the ruination of this country.
As bad as it is, as it has been, and as bad as it still will get before getting better, let us be thankful that we are, at least, at this point, at a point where hope begins and weariness and despair will give way to energy, ideas, and progress. We hope. We pray. We give thanks.
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