Double Barrel
Every day when I sit down to write I am always want to write about something other than the Coronavirus and the nonsense in Washington. I opt to write about how I feel, how I occupy my time, what Betty is up to, and bigger things underway in the universe. But today, ostensibly the first working day of 2021, I am dragged back to reality, so let’s see what is on the plate. We have had a successful election with an overwhelming result which shows Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won both the popular vote (by over 7 million votes) and the Electoral College (with 306 votes). We have had 60 legal challenges entirely dismissed in full bipartisan judicial adjudication. And we are now prepared for Wednesday’s acceptance of the certification of all the state electoral results. As for the Coronavirus, we have two going on five effective vaccines released and approved and millions of doses produced and ready for inoculation We have passed through our third surge in infections and have had the better part of a year to prepare our medical system with adequate PPE, facilities and staffing to both treat critical infections and deliver brisk vaccinations. But wait. None of that seems to matter for either problem. Solutions do not seem to deliver solutions for these two massive chinks in our armor as Americans. We are exposed and remain looking down the double barrel of the most deadly threats that have ever faced us as Americans. That’s right, more threatening than either World War, more threatening than the mid-Nineteenth Century war between the states. Worse than the massive “Spanish” Flu pandemic of 1918.
I am generally not an alarmist, but that is starting to change. I am reminded of one of my favorite New Yorker cartoons where a TV announcer says, “This morning the markets traded off heavily on news that a meteor is heading towards us that will destroy the Earth. However, the markets recovered this afternoon on news that the Fed has cut interest rates.” That used to be so very funny to me because it both shows the market’s inexorable ability to ignore bad news and make the most of good news. It does not strike me as so funny anymore. I now find it a sad commentary that our immediate and petty wants tend to overwhelm our willingness to face the facts that devastatingly face us. The double barrel that is pointed directly at our nose and that we seem to want to ignore due to crisis fatigue. I had thought that the Climate Change issue that seems to point a Howitzer at our nose was relatively easy to ignore on the thought that you can dodge a point-blank Howitzer blast by pretending that it is a long way off and the Earth has a tendency to survive many cyclical swings. That was bad enough denial. It is far far harder to justify the denial we are undergoing right now about COVID and about the constant and escalating affront on our democracy by Donald Trump and those completely irresponsible Republicans that are positioning themselves desperately to mimic his act. They are scrambling to tap into the worst and lesser instincts of America that want to promote white supremacy and reactionary policies to preserve power and wealth at the expense of all the rest of America and Americans. It is all frightening.
I cannot decide which barrel of the shotgun scares me worse. Either one can obliterate not just me and those I love, but a wide swath of our citizenry. Like all scatter guns, these double barrels are designed to be indiscriminate in their impact. They require little accuracy or precision in their aim to inflict serious damage. The COVID barrel has already killed 350,000 and looks to ratchet up those body counts. Some of the payload in that barrel is the direct and purposeful result of the machinations of the other barrel. That barrel is more pernicious in some ways because, like the Climate Change Howitzer, its impact is both immediate and long term. The erosion of our societal fabric is evident and while what which doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, you have to first get past that whole killing part of the equation and people are falling like bowling pins both at the hands of overtly racist policing policies and untreatable and triage-inevitable respiratory distress. These barrels are undermining our last lines of defense, our health care system and our public security systems. It doesn’t get more serious than that. This is simply not an overreaction. My grandchildren now stand to live in a world where they will be wearing masks for the rest of their lives, be unable to enjoy all the social gathering events we all grew up loving and living in a country whose global impact and reputation is forever lessened. And that is the BEST CASE scenario they face.
Today’s news headlines in California are that Los Angeles County has been so severely impacted in terms of the COVID surge that its medical system is on the verge of collapse. Collapse. This is the country’s second biggest city and its situation is WORSE than the situation faced by the other gateway city of the country, New York back in April. That city is a mere two hours north of us here on this little hilltop. This has caused us once again to reconsider our travel plans to go up to Los Angeles for an overnight during which we would visit (driveway hello) Kim’s nephew Josh and family, Kim’s sister Sharon and Woo (patio socially distant lunch) and our friends Gary & Oswaldo (probably for an outdoor park breakfast burrito).
While calling to cancel with G&O, it occurred to us that they needed an escape from L.A. as much as Snake Pliskin needed it. So, we offered them our guest wing for the duration of the current epidemiological emergency that is making L.A. such a dangerous hot zone. It took them ten minutes to decide to take us up on the offer. These are not normal times. People should not need to huddle together in fear of the unknown. We huddled with Frank and Loretta during the election and now we will huddle with Gary and Oswaldo during the latest pandemic surge. We must all protect one another both family and friends, but more as well. We must stand up for one another during this double barrel crisis. We must have new leadership. We must spend more of our incredible wealth on health care and specifically on preventive medicine and crisis preparation. We must stop the idiocy and fear-induced idolatry going on specifically in the Republican melee they call a party. That makes me want to say that all parties are bad at this time, the kind you chug beer at and the kind you drop balloons on. The double barrel of reality is popping all the balloons right now and we all need to stand by each other to get through this trying time.