April 30, 2020
Exhausted by isolation, we vainly scour the media for glimmers of good news, whipsawed by stories that alternately induce hope and despair. The hospitalization and death rate in New York State has continued to decline and Governor Cuomo has announced a tentative plan for beginning to re-open the state, starting with the North Country (Source: “Cuomo Details Plans For Reopening New York, Says NYC Needs ‘Summer Activities’ Open For Residents,” by Lisette Voytko, Forbes.com, 4/26/20). Conversely, New Jersey’s Governor Murphy cannot predict when the stay-at-home order might be lifted.
The “President” publicly muses that bleach and disinfectants could be injected or ingested as a possible cure for coronavirus and not only is he not dragged from the podium in a straight jacket, but poison control centers in New York, Maryland and Michigan reported a spike in calls to their poison control centers the next day, from people following Trump’s advice.
As news emerges of the dangerous proliferation of Covid-19 infections in meat processing plants in Iowa, South Dakota and Colorado, Trump signs an executive order forcing plants to stay open, (Source: “Trump orders meat plants to stay open in pandemic,” by Taylor Telford, Kimberly Kindy and Jacob Bogage, The Washington Post, 4/29/20). Meanwhile, the joint OSHA and CDC guidelines on how to keep the workers in those meat processing plants safe remain voluntary.
From Martha’s Vineyard to Michigan, spoiled and entitled protestors demand an end to the stay-at-home orders, regardless of what the science or the body count says. They protest, not because they want to work, but because they want to force the low wage workers who are disproportionately Black and Latinx, to do so. This is hardly a surprise. Once the disproportionate toll of this virus became clear, it was only a matter of time before a stunning percentage of people decided that beauty parlors and bowling were more important than Black lives. Power-mad White supremacists are practically smacking their lips at the opportunity this pandemic presents to ram through truly heinous policies.
McConnell is pushing states to declare bankruptcy, not merely because he is cartoonishly villainous, but because he understands that the bankruptcy process will put Democratically led states under the thumb of one of the hundreds of conservative judges they have installed on the federal bench in the last four years, (Source: “Why Mitch McConnell Wants States To Go Bankrupt,” by David Frum, TheAtlantic.com, 4/25/20). Trump is a sociopath devoid of empathy, but he is also relishing the opportunity to use the power of the purse to get states to sacrifice their undocumented residents to protect the jobs of firefighters and teachers, (Source: “Trump wants to use coronavirus aid as leverage to force blue states to change sanctuary city policies,” by Katelyn Burns, Vox.com, 4/28/20).
In face of so many daunting challenges, it would be understandable if we all remained curled in a fetal position in our homes, allowing true evil to run amok. Our last best chance to end our long, national nightmare is in November and we already know that Republicans will use every tool at their disposal to depress turnout and sow confusion. Only a mix of postage-paid vote by mail, curbside voting, and in person early voting, will protect public health and maximize turnout. It is our job to lobby our state legislators to adopt these policies and to call our Congresspeople to push for the funds necessary to implement them. Remember, Trump and his henchmen want us cowed and silent. Don’t give them what they want.