The Criminality of COVID-19 and History

Today we marked a milestone here in the U.S. The total number of Covid-19 cases surpassed one million people and we are close to reaching 60,000 deaths due to this virus. That number of deaths surpasses the number of deaths we had in the Vietnam War. Think about it. Sixty thousand individual lives. Each with a story behind them. Each with families left behind. It's a staggering number and something we need to reflect on.

History has a funny way of unraveling the past. It does it by looking at things that happened, how they happened, who was responsible and how populations responded to particular stages of events taking place. The coronavirus or Covid-19 and our country's response to it will be written about and analyzed from top to bottom. I believe it will be written and lectured about as well as measured against other major human tragedies like World Wars, the Holocaust, various genocides and the rise and fall of Empires. It is monumental in terms of its significance. It will also, I believe, be held up as an example of some of the greatest criminal negligence on the part of government officials.

In the retelling of the Covid-19 disaster, no stone will be left unturned. Intelligence briefings, meeting memos and transcripts will be part of the record. Whistleblowers will come forth eventually and stories will be told in journals, in books by reporters and by participants at various levels. There will be hearings, legal proceedings, elections and more. Worse yet, there will be more deaths to be counted and avenged. It is not a very lovely picture for anyone currently in office or working in a responsible government agency. That also goes for private firms, medical agencies and even journalists and news organizations. Accountability spreads itself out over time and covers every aspect of historical events.

In real time, more things are being discovered about who knew what and when. It is pretty clear that the President's daily intelligence briefings included information on the Coronavirus and were ignored. Personally, I believe there will be criminal inquiries over all of this and like the Nuremberg Trials, many people will be questioned about their actions, inactions, responses and activities. Questions will be asked of Democrats as well as Republicans. Citizens will be challenged to think about their own actions or inactions. When and how did people speak their conscience seeing daily death reports? What did we do about an incompetent administration and the lack of a strategic plan to save lives? How long did we all allow discussions to go on and on about tests vs. testing supplies as people continued to die?

It may take awhile for everyone to figure out the difference between incompetency or mismanagement and criminal activity but it will become more clear with time. I want to be able to show that I said and did something about it. Join me.

Everyone Loves Frontline Workers, But........

My professional and personal experience when I talk about front line workers, has to do with people who provide direct support to people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. We call them Direct Support Professionals because they provide direct support and they are professionals in the way they do it. These are the people who work everyday, helping people living in various community settings to dress, to bathe, to toilet, to prepare and eat meals and to live as independently as possible. Much of my career was spent as an administrator of programs like this, although early on I had my own experience providing direct support in these and other settings. The Covid-19 crises, lock down and isolation orders have been especially difficult for people working and living in these settings.

There has been a lot said about front line workers over the past few weeks and we've all been forced to really think about who these people are - doctors, nurses, janitors, bus drivers, sanitation workers, grocery store stockers, clerks and so many more. Few though think about the people I mentioned above. With the impact of this virus they've continued their work, their mission of supporting people with disabilities and their independence wherever possible. Everyone loves these workers right now, families, administrators, legislators and governors. They are the saints and heroes who come in to work now every day and night as essential workers. Interestingly they were essential before this virus appeared. They're essential everyday. We can all agree on that.

Essential but.....yes there's always a but. The but here is that we don't pay them a decent wage, at least not in most cases. Most of these people work for under $15 per hour. Most are women. Most have families to support. Administrators say they don't get adequate funding to pay a decent wage. Funders including legislators, governors and taxpayers may say they love these folks in one breath but quickly point out that money just goes so far and decisions have to be made based on priorities. Hogwash, baloney, and a double crapola. If we learn anything from what we're all going through with this pandemic, it's that we have to recognize the value of all of the heroes that have been identified. We have to come up with long term solutions to pay these front line workers decent salaries or living wages. We have to stop ignoring their value. There is and will continue to be pressure on every level of government relative to funding and this current crises will make the economics worse, but all of us can help set priorities. Let's not forget the people we said were so great when Covid-19 struck. Banging pots is a nice gesture but a real paycheck is so much better.

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.

Villains, Villains Everywhere!

Fear can be a terrible thing and one of the reasons is because it easily creates villains and false enemies. We've all seen it happen. It happened in World War ll with reactions toward Japanese and German American citizens. I remember the hatred toward the Vietnamese and other Asians during our war with Vietnam. Witness 9/11 and other events that followed that quickly created fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims, again including American citizens. Most recently the pot of fear has been stirred relative to South American and Mexican immigrants. They're viewed or presented as evil, bad, criminal, needy and poor. That's some of what fear does. It feeds stories, rumors and prejudice. It makes people suspicious and less tolerant of each other.

But now we are seeing something else. Something caused by an invisible virus. It had its origin in China so Asians are, in some cases, seen as responsible and feared. They became the villains. Then, it moved to our shores on both coasts. NYC has become an epicenter and new fears have arisen and are sometimes stoked. First, because of our fear of the virus, Upstate New Yorkers began pulling down the welcome signs, shooing away tourists and second home owners from NYC. They became the villains. Then rumblings began about keeping our hospitals safe from Covid 19 victims who may have crossed a county border. They became the villains. The same people who had offered open arms to immigrants were now questioning how open their boarders should be to fellow citizens in trouble. We've all traveled and we've all expected that if we got ill in one section of the country, we would be able to get medical help. We never wanted to be villains.

I heard a local hospital administrator recently asked by a member of the press if they were planning on any of their beds (there are only 12) being used for people from other areas of the state. Her answer was that no, they had no plans for that eventuality. I was surprised by both the question and the answer. Governor Cuomo has asked all hospitals to look at doubling their capacity. That's because he and other officials are projecting a shortfall of hospital beds. It seems there may come a time during this crisis when hospital space (beds) will have to be managed to serve a regional or state need. The last thing we need to do is point fingers at this person or that person and question their home address as part of the admittance procedure. You get help in an emergency where you can. A person living outside my county boarder should not be the new villain.

No doubt about it, this virus is scary and it is spreading fear as quickly as it moves among us. We're all scared, every one of us. We don't know if we can leave our house. We don't know where the virus is or how long it has been wherever we are isolating ourselves. Can we get it from the grocer, from the mail carrier, from the pharmacy? All good questions that medical professionals are trying to answer. Each creates another level of fear.

Because of fear there's talk about quarantining travel from NYS, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Florida doesn't want travelers from NY. Rhode Island doesn't want travelers from NY. We New Yorkers have become the latest villain. It seems to me that closing our interior boarders will be difficult. We're already having trouble getting people to understand how important it is to stay where they are and isolate themselves. But that's what we have to do. Let's spend a little less time trying to find the bad guys and the villains. Let's concentrate on physical distancing and looking out for each other.

The Underbelly of America

Normally when you think about the underbelly of society you visualize people on skid row, the homeless, the poor, drug addicts, alcoholics, criminals of various sorts, sex offenders. You get the picture. Yes, that's where people's minds seem to go in this world of class division. Recently though, I've been seeing things differently.

I've spent a lot of time trying to understand Donald Trump and the attraction he seems to garner from so many people. I've watched his rallies and listened to his rhetoric and rants. I've watched the people listening and conversed with his supporters in coffee shops and at various gatherings but I've always been left not knowing, not understanding. Even now I'm sure I don't totally get it but I have come to a few conclusions.

It strikes me that Donald Trump really is a cult leader and he knows this very well. He knows it and uses it in the manipulation of his followers, the press and his opponents. We all fall for it every time. First and foremost he sees himself as an entertainer. He tells bad jokes, does lousy imitations and goofs off making fun of everyone. He acts like an Elvis impersonator in a suit and without the songs. Many in his audience love it. They laugh, cheer, poke each other and give affirmative nods with a holler thrown in for good measure. It seems to be all in good fun. The second thing he does is to play the victim. He usually does this very well. He's able to point to the press or the democrats or the elites, whomever he can get the most out of in his quest for sympathy from his followers. Nothing, absolutely nothing is his fault. It's always someone else with Obama at the top of the list. It includes everyone though, sometimes even his innermost staff or political allies. And with his victimhood come enemies. The list of these is for him to keep and for his supporters to memorize.

The worst though is yet to come. It really is the underbelly of society and, sad to say, America. Donald Trump says the things that people have wanted to say all their lives. He says the things that people's mothers told them never to say. He says things that nuns and preachers and teachers taught people over the years never to say or do. He blurts out hatred, racism and phobic comments that deep down in people's souls, they have been yearning to get out. He can rant against the poor, people with disabilities, religions and cultures, and there are people who cheer for what's in their hearts. There are people who want desperately to say the same things and they've wanted to for years. Cheering and defending him are the next best thing but the line is very thin.

Imagine where we are. We have people dying due to poor planning and mismanagement of the federal government. We have doctors and nurses and janitors crying for help with equipment and supplies as they care for the sick. We have elders being identified as expendable and Asian American brothers and sisters being spat on. We have Governors and Mayors being told they won't get help unless they show appreciation to Donald Trump. Yes, we have all of these appalling things happening that our mothers and fathers, nuns, preachers and teachers told us never to say or do. This is the real underbelly of America. I have to hope that we're better than this.