The New Color of Our Country

For a long time people have been describing our country in terms of colors. Yes, we have blue states, red states, purple, pink and green states. These colors have mainly come from political pundits who are trying to codify the evolution of our elections and the influence of particular political parties and philosophies. The partisan politics of the last decade or so, have made these descriptions mainstream and acceptable even though we know deep down that life is much more complicated than this.

Here is the new reality. The color of our country is Covid-19. It is being brushed across cities, counties and state lines without any consideration of politics. People still want to categorize things but this virus will eventually make people realize that our differences aren't really controlled by our politics in this new environment.

I live in a small community in upstate New York. In recent days I've seen and listened to debates about our Governor trying to steal ventilators from rural hospitals to protect his supporters in New York City. There have even been discussions of protecting the equipment here with guns. But I've also seen busloads of healthcare workers and personal protective equipment heading to the same city to help with the crisis there. Facilities pooling resources voluntarily to send to hospitals in NYC. I've seen discussions and requests for face masks for documented workers who toil in grape vineyards deteriorate into shameful and hateful speech about people needing to learn and speak the english language if their going to work here. But then Mennonite women and other volunteers come forward and sew thousands of face masks for everyone, including the farm workers, without question. All of this is a microcosm of our country as a whole. The coronavirus is bringing people together in spite of themselves and, at least for now, good is overcoming evil. You can see it most vividly in the faces, tears and stories of the nurses and doctors who have also become the family surrogates for people who are dying in their care.

We may also see the common people, influence those in power in terms of decision making and actions. Currently our President and his administration flounders and Congress continues to check the color code of the nation and seems to be blind to that new shade of Covid-19. There are still enablers and partisans. There are still non believers who continue to see multiple colors. But I'm a little more confident that people will influence these folks to begin having serious national conversations about how we move forward. The economy is nothing without our people, both workers and consumers, feeling safe. As more of us are impacted by this virus, I am hopeful that our entire country will see the futility of pitting ourselves against one another.