Salve for the Wounded?
We are a wounded species just now, we humans. There is no doubt plenty of blame to go around, as to who knew (and did) what, and when. There will be a million whys, and why nots.
And the future is very much in doubt, just now, for us all.
My recent survival of Covid19 may have given me some insights here. At least sufficient to ask questions. Apart from a strong immune system, why was I one of the fortunate ones? My healthy (albeit lonely) lifestyle? Maybe being alone is a factor. But who knows, for sure? This strain of the Corona virus seems to be behaving in strange ways, taking us into uncharted territory. We have now surpassed 70,000 fatalities, and 3 million-plus infections--a number that is surely inaccurate, because that leaves out millions who have not been counted (such as yours truly). Many are yet to be found, living and dying alone somewhere like Eleanor Rigby. Or me, for that matter.
But illnesses and fatalities are only the tip of the iceberg. We may be on a Titanic of a different sort, now. While the pandemic is bringing us all together in one way, separatists are rising up in others. In this country the red MAGA hats, often together with swastikas and KKK symbols, and always with guns, are protesting at the gates of local government. They want the nation (meaning themselves) re-opened, immediately. Reopen the bars, first. And especially, sporting events. That goes along with the bars. Then the restaurants, then the shops and malls. Offices, of course. Anywhere people normally congregate.
This has already begun, actually, in the so-called red states. Why is that? Could it be that they, being primarily rural, have simply not yet been exposed and imagine themselves to be exempt from this Chink disease (I've heard that ugly, racist term used recently). But they will be. It's inevitable.
Meatpacking plants have remained open, at grave risk to workers working shoulder to shoulder, and many of whom have perished, or lost their jobs due to illness (theirs). But hey, America needs it's bacon and cheeseburgers, ok? Case closed.
I heard on NPR just this morning that people are cooking more seafood now. Presumably these Corona viruses can't swim. Can they?
And all of this while we are, so the experts inform us, at least a year away from a vaccine. A vaccine for an entity that is proving to be a shape-shifter, and may have developed it's own immunity by then.
This happened recently with the common flu and flu vaccine.
And meanwhile, both in terms of health and well-being, we remain in grave danger. Sorry, but some puns are just too appropriate not to use.
Here's a quick case study (based solely on observation). Not far from my apartment is a parking lot for a department store. For as long as I've lived here there was a Mexican taco truck there, during the extended lunch hour, and often on through dinner time.
It's gone. The last time I saw it, there were zero customers, and the owner had a truly forlorn look to him, even visible from my car as I drove past.
So what has happened--what will happen to this vendor? There must be millions like him out there. And all of those farm workers, making barely sustaining wages, and now ordered to leave the country. Many of them, too, have been sickened and many perished. And many of those will not be counted. Other than by loved ones who miss them.
I'm no economist--I can manage my own financial well-being for the most part--but while government checks were certainly nice, where is that money coming from? No taxes are being paid, to speak of, because there's almost no withholding. So it's basically stock speculation for the 1%, and shit on a shingle for everyone who's not on the A list. Businesses are under huge stress to survive. Especially small ones. But even big ones are in dire straits now, such as the entire airline industry.
Boeing's losses (some of it due to it's problems with their 737s) are upwards of $300 million and rising. The oil industry is flooded in surplus (yet gas prices have not dropped very much, interestingly).
Nobody's buying anything except food, and farmers may have no one to harvest the Spring crops. In fact this is already happening. So what then? A global famine? There may be meat, and seafood, for a while. But those are dependent on fishermen, and those work crowded in tight spaces aboard their boats (or in some cases, ships like those Japanese whalers).
And speaking of Japan, we have a new threat from an angry Mother Nature: giant hornets, dubbed the Murder Hornet. They're an invasive species new to North America, are huge, and a major threat to defenseless bees which they love to kill by decapitation, and without bees what's left of our crops don't get pollinated.
So the beat goes on. The question is, to where?
E.C.
And the future is very much in doubt, just now, for us all.
My recent survival of Covid19 may have given me some insights here. At least sufficient to ask questions. Apart from a strong immune system, why was I one of the fortunate ones? My healthy (albeit lonely) lifestyle? Maybe being alone is a factor. But who knows, for sure? This strain of the Corona virus seems to be behaving in strange ways, taking us into uncharted territory. We have now surpassed 70,000 fatalities, and 3 million-plus infections--a number that is surely inaccurate, because that leaves out millions who have not been counted (such as yours truly). Many are yet to be found, living and dying alone somewhere like Eleanor Rigby. Or me, for that matter.
But illnesses and fatalities are only the tip of the iceberg. We may be on a Titanic of a different sort, now. While the pandemic is bringing us all together in one way, separatists are rising up in others. In this country the red MAGA hats, often together with swastikas and KKK symbols, and always with guns, are protesting at the gates of local government. They want the nation (meaning themselves) re-opened, immediately. Reopen the bars, first. And especially, sporting events. That goes along with the bars. Then the restaurants, then the shops and malls. Offices, of course. Anywhere people normally congregate.
This has already begun, actually, in the so-called red states. Why is that? Could it be that they, being primarily rural, have simply not yet been exposed and imagine themselves to be exempt from this Chink disease (I've heard that ugly, racist term used recently). But they will be. It's inevitable.
I heard on NPR just this morning that people are cooking more seafood now. Presumably these Corona viruses can't swim. Can they?
And all of this while we are, so the experts inform us, at least a year away from a vaccine. A vaccine for an entity that is proving to be a shape-shifter, and may have developed it's own immunity by then.
This happened recently with the common flu and flu vaccine.
And meanwhile, both in terms of health and well-being, we remain in grave danger. Sorry, but some puns are just too appropriate not to use.
Here's a quick case study (based solely on observation). Not far from my apartment is a parking lot for a department store. For as long as I've lived here there was a Mexican taco truck there, during the extended lunch hour, and often on through dinner time.
It's gone. The last time I saw it, there were zero customers, and the owner had a truly forlorn look to him, even visible from my car as I drove past.
So what has happened--what will happen to this vendor? There must be millions like him out there. And all of those farm workers, making barely sustaining wages, and now ordered to leave the country. Many of them, too, have been sickened and many perished. And many of those will not be counted. Other than by loved ones who miss them.
I'm no economist--I can manage my own financial well-being for the most part--but while government checks were certainly nice, where is that money coming from? No taxes are being paid, to speak of, because there's almost no withholding. So it's basically stock speculation for the 1%, and shit on a shingle for everyone who's not on the A list. Businesses are under huge stress to survive. Especially small ones. But even big ones are in dire straits now, such as the entire airline industry.
Boeing's losses (some of it due to it's problems with their 737s) are upwards of $300 million and rising. The oil industry is flooded in surplus (yet gas prices have not dropped very much, interestingly).
Nobody's buying anything except food, and farmers may have no one to harvest the Spring crops. In fact this is already happening. So what then? A global famine? There may be meat, and seafood, for a while. But those are dependent on fishermen, and those work crowded in tight spaces aboard their boats (or in some cases, ships like those Japanese whalers).
And speaking of Japan, we have a new threat from an angry Mother Nature: giant hornets, dubbed the Murder Hornet. They're an invasive species new to North America, are huge, and a major threat to defenseless bees which they love to kill by decapitation, and without bees what's left of our crops don't get pollinated.
So the beat goes on. The question is, to where?
E.C.
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