Happy April my fellow fools. What a cruel month indeed. Lilacs will be welcome, for their sweet fragrance and reassurance that hope springs eternal.
After our self-quarantine upon return from NYC (we both had colds) we are thankfully not exhibiting any signs of discomfort. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Pitt county over the past two weeks has gone from 6 to 10 to 26 today. We are under a "Stay at Home" order issued by the Governor Roy Cooper and even Lowe's is closed. Fortunately we stocked up on things so I can work in the garden.
All of the debate over the past two weeks has resulted in a coming to terms with our present situation. It has been comforting to watch President Trump go from a crisis denier to a champion for affirmative action.Yet attacks on the messengers never seem to quit. Politicization of this issue while the event is taking place will, literally, kill people. I, for one, am saddened by the vigilante rhetoric issued by purely jaded and cynical people.
The epicenter of an unprecedented public health crisis rages with over a thousand people dead, and yet haters want to make this about theft, political posturing, and elections. There will be plenty of time for recriminations when this is all over. I say if you can't be part of the solution, don't be part of the problem.
March came in like a Bull but went
out like a Bear. Dire predictions by the Wall Street Journal about an economic
collapse rivaling 2008 are enough to drive some folks to drink.
(Rethinking the Coronavirus Shutdown:
No society can safeguard public
health for long at the cost of its economic health, March 19, 2020.)
Wake up. This is not a drill. I
understand if you are not a doctor or a nurse and have no expertise in those
areas and can’t really speak with authority about the subject. Still there’s a
lot to talk about. But instead of refocusing our wandering attention on the
system failures which have brought us to this brink, do I detect some notion
that we can just go back to work and partying the way we
did in the “good old days”?
It’s amazing how the Capitalist has
no qualms with poverty except when it pertains to him. The WSJ makes a point
that about the Chinese recovery underway and how its government has an enormous
stake in getting its economy back on track by “absorbing the losses.”
Is the Wall Street Journal implying
that Communism is more successful than Capitalism when dealing with such a
widespread humanitarian crisis?
I shudder to think it.
No one wants to acknowledge the
Elephant in the room. The one that wants a smaller federal government less
involved in the lives of citizens. And how that has, and is, failing all of us
at this moment in time. We have been exposed for the frauds and hucksters that
we are. Because the “government” no matter the size, is always US!
Our Health Care System, long debated
these many years with pitifully little done to improve access and
infrastructure to serve the public, has been exposed as woefully deficient in
even protecting their own work force, let alone the general population, from a
pandemic.
After 9/11 this country, by order of
a Republican President and a good man, began National Preparedness in an
aggressive manner. As years have gone by I’ve seen that preparedness wan. Time
has a way of dulling the mind to clear and present danger which seems only the
stuff of novelists and science fiction fantasy writers until the stock market
crashes.
Now we have your attention. And the
best you can do is say the Communists are doing it better than we are. Not what
I have come to expect from the WSJ which has become my go-to source of
information since the New York Times is failing.
We have done this to ourselves by
refusing to put partisan politics aside and come together in a crisis. And I am
not talking about the pandemic. The pandemic has exposed us. It is not the
cause. We have had almost 20 years since 9/11 to become a better, stronger nation. To prove that
Capitalism and Democracy still works. And we have squandered many of those years for the
misplaced value that monetary riches equal happiness. That power is the ultimate
pinnacle of success.
The first value we put forth in the
Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal with certain unalienable rights. The first of which listed is LIFE!
And today are we now advocating for
abandonment of the sick to their ultimate fate for the sake...the sake of what
exactly? The economy? WTAF (A standing for Actual)?
Do I detect an underlying hidden
agenda conspiracy to save the population by just letting a part of it succumb
to a lowly virus? Survival of the fittest? Who decides who lives and who dies?
And what gives them the authority? And who will profit? Is that really the issue? A two trillion dollar bailout by the
government is a political stunt that will mollify some, help a few, and is a
band aid on an amputation. Yet we say we can't fund a permanently functioning heath care system for all.
A lot of folks have been saying for a long time how
corrupt our government is. It has too much power. And that power makes them
mad. Mad as in crazy. Crazy as in insane.
It is insane to put forth the
prospect that human life is too expensive for Capitalism to manage. We have a serious
failure of leadership in our country. Lacks of imagination, initiative, and
strength of will have made us weak. Greed for not just money, but power, is the
addictive drug of our government. Too often, the emphasis is put on power with
none put on the RESPONSIBILITY that goes with it!
Just as the debate over a
presidential “indiscretion” blinded this nations ambition prior to 9/11, the
power struggle over the past few years took center stage in a nation sick and
tired of power struggles. And still nothing done to improve health care or
preparedness for emergencies.
We can’t just shake our heads and
sigh this time. Our lack of vision and resolve... and a microscopic organism
has forced this country to stop. And while we are at it, take a good long look
at itself. Think before you speak.
The people of the United States of America will persevere.This is not a game where winners wear laurel and the vanquished are trampled under foot.
We will come out of this better and stronger. Because
that’s what we, the people, do. The market will recover. Let’s do
it with dignity. And when we can all shake hands again, and pat one another on the back, forget about who gets the credit. We all will have done our part.
