In John Carpenter’s 1984 sci-fi film Starman, the alien, played by Jeff Bridges says to the scientist, Mark Shermin (played by Charles Martin Smith): “You are a strange species. … You are at your very best when things are worst“.
I used to think that was true. Apparently it is true when we are attacked by international terrorists or when our communities face natural disasters. The national outpouring of support and assistance after 9/11 was unprecedented, at least in my lifetime. We rallied to the aid of the victims, whether it was rushing to blood banks, sending donations, sending supplies or just sending prayers. First responders came from nearly every state to be on hand to relieve the exhausted crews from New York and New Jersey. The field in Pennsylvania and the area surrounding the Pentagon were filled with volunteers, and search crews.
When Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, the scene was much the same, as New Orleans was decimated, and as many lost their homes and their lives up and down the Gulf Coast.
The nation came together…no one asked if a volunteer, or a victim, was Republican or Democrat, Catholic or Jewish, gay or straight, black or white, rich or poor, employed or unemployed, citizen or foreigner…we were just one.
We are no longer that nation. We are letting the greed and narcissism of a few control our very lives as we face this pandemic. The safety of millions has become a political toy, to be played with and manipulated by incompetence and money-driven folly. The current administration and its political base has minimized the situation where the Governor of Arizona, the state that has become the GLOBAL epicenter of the COVID–19 pandemic (on a per capita basis) declared today that his solution was to limit restaurant capacity by 50% and launch “Project Catapult” to increase testing. This is not the answer. But because he is driven by cult-like loyalty to the current president, this was the best he could do. He did not have the courage to mandate masks…after all, this is, apparently, a violation of one’s personal freedom to spread disease or be infected by it.
The Governor of Florida, also a spawn of #45, has declared that, in accordance to his guru, schools will open on time…not taking into consideration at all the safety of not just students and their families, but of staff and teachers.
And the so-called leader of what I have always considered the greatest nation in the world has denied and downplayed the virus and has now withdrawn the country from the World Health Organization. No doubt the WHO has its issues…but NOW?????? His continued isolationist agenda is hurting everyone in this country except the wealthy, all in this phony guise of building our economy. While companies run by billionaires received PPP funding? And now, there is a threat of withholding federal funds from schools that do not open? HOW DARE HE?
And, because of his continued rhetoric of hatred, racism, xenophobia, misogyny and his inarticulate vitriolic speech, and because of his denial of science and medicine, the rift in our nation is clearly visible by the so-called “Karens” and those who belittle others for taking the precaution of wearing masks and keeping their distance. Under what other administration would you see people spitting on children, licking lettuce, wearing masks as chin straps or…frolicking in the Ozarks to the point where people were packed into a lake like sardines. If their fearless, hate-filled leader won’t wear a mask, is willing to “pack the house” and laughs at the Dr. Faucis of the world, why shouldn’t they?
I won’t even begin to delve into how any true “Christian” can support this. I will say than no true “human” should. I am ashamed of us. I am ashamed that we have come to this after years of compassion and humanity in the face of darkness and tragedy. I am ashamed of the GOP for continuing to enable this.
And I am sad to say, we are no longer at our best when things are their worst. We seem to be at our worst now. And I hope and pray that we can find our way out of this darkness and rejoin humanity.
