In 2020 we saw the theatre of a mock impeachment for a
sitting president, we witnessed a president downplay a virus and berate
scientists who warned that a pandemic was ensuing, and then we watched in
horror as Covid-19 put a stranglehold on NYC. And still our president did
little other than pontificate and bluster and make excuses and hand out false promises.
But we felt relatively safe in rural America. We weren’t New York City. It
wouldn’t touch us. There’s no way the virus would move in on the rest of America
in the same way as it did in New York City where bodies were stored in
refrigerated trucks because the morgues were full. Except it did touch us with its rotting death
fingertip and now almost 350,000 Americans are dead.
In my little rural Georgia county of 12,838, we rank as
the 59th worst county in the nation out of a total of 3,143 counties
to be hit by Covid-19 cases. In the United States 98% of the counties are
faring better at containing Covid-19 than my county is. Every time I walk into
a local store and see people unmasked I have to stop myself from screaming at
them. Three weeks ago I went into a local popular butcher shop and as I got to
the cash register there was a cashier with her mask under her chin. I asked
that she please put her mask on because I was on my way to pick up my mom from
breast cancer surgery. I shouldn’t have felt that I even had to explain that,
but I did anyway. She looked at me as if I had just asked her to show me her
tits. She pulled her mask up over her mouth, not her nose, mind you. Before I even
finished checking out, she had pulled the mask back down under her chin. I got
to my car and phoned the manager and complained, all the while feeling that I
was somehow in the wrong. Of course, nothing will be done to the cashier and I
will have to make a decision if I want to risk exposure by going back into that
place of business, but there are several restaurants and stores in my town that
I’ve had to make that same choice about because they refuse to follow any sort
of Georgia Dept of Health Guidelines. (Private email me and I will let you know
the names of these businesses). My experience at the butcher shop is just one
example why my region of Georgia
has no ICU beds left. And why 2020 sucks donkey balls.
This year has been defined by listening to a president deny
the danger of a new virus as thousands of people kept coming down with Covid
and thousands died, Tiger King binge sessions (WTF was that???), making sure I
have my mask whenever I leave the house, forgoing travel to visit my sons,
making sure my can of Lysol and hand sanitizer is in my car at all times, and not
getting together with friends or family for holidays. On a grander scale I have watched in horror
as the social fabric has been ripped by our president and white supremacist
groups like the Proud Boy, a president who denies the democratic election
process, economic destruction for too many middle class American families (the
super wealthy are doing just fine, thankyouverymuch), and an ugly division
among Americans not seen since the Civil War. History will judge this time and find us
lacking in common sense and compassion. 2020 will be remembered as one long
Purge movie come to life. Through a dark
lens our perplexed ancestors will study us, much the same as I’ve tried to
study how the world could have stood by as Hilter murdered 6 million Jews with
impunity.
I’m holding on to the promise of 2021. I’m holding on for a
president who can effectively run our infrastructure to get the vaccine into
the arms of Americans so we can conquer this virus, for a re-formation of a
National Pandemic Unit so we can be better prepared when another novel virus
happens again (and it will), for a serious evaluation of how many Americans are
merely living paycheck-to-paycheck in the richest nation on earth, a raise in
the minimum wage and increased worker protections, a complete overhaul of our
for-profit health care system into a system where every American will have
access to healthcare, water and air protections so my great-grandchildren will
have a clean planet, climate change action on a national level and a budget
that stands behind the exploration of alternate power sources (sorry, big oil,
your time is up), and lastly for people to reach inside themselves to try and
find that part where compassion resides.
2021, I
will not jinx you by saying that things can’t get worse than 2020, because I
know that they can. I only hope, 2021, that you will be more forgiving of our
human fragilities and defects and that you give us the time and space to try
and set things right.
