Coronavirus19 Diary - Moments

There are moments that happen now that restrictions have been lifted some. There is a tiny park across the street from us. Cordoned off for months as it was technically part of the closed down lakefront, it is once again accessible. I sit on a bench in the hot morning sun and gaze out on the lake. The sun sparkles on the small crests of the ripples which move across the water. Lake Michigan changes color. This day it is a light blue, two shades darker than the pale blue sky above. In the distance, on a horizon streaked with clouds so thin they are almost opaque, three sailboats glide by.

Although the beaches are closed there is a spot on the grass overlooking the lake, about a 25 minute walk from our apartment, where people gather, with appropriate social distancing. It feels good to be among people, even though we need to stay a standard 6 feet away from each other.

But today it is hot and humid. It will perhaps be the hottest day so far this year. So I opt for the tiny park, close to home, where I can quickly seek respite when the baking Midwest sun becomes too much to bear.

Coronavirus19 Diary - Anger

It is the anger which disturbs me most. A world wide pandemic, an opportunity for U.S. citizens to band together, to show support and compassion for others even though isolated from one another. A chance for our increasingly online society to use social media to truly connect at a time when we needed to be physically distant.

But there was no calm, reasoned voice. There was no leader to unify us. States were left on their own to attempt to control a virus that does not respect borders. Locked down states fumed at those with more lenient guidelines. Maskers tempers flare when confronted with those that chose not to wear them. Anti maskers deride those wearing them, calling them sheep....or worse. Armed rebels storm state capitols demanding their perceived rights to return to a pre pandemic time, ignoring reality, and by doing so delaying a future return to more normalcy.

Although it has been ascertained that the mass protests, most peaceful, did not contribute to a surge in cases, there to the message was sheathed in anger. End systemic racism and defund the police were shouts heard through out the gatherings. What was missing were detailed, concrete, workable, fair and just proposals to address these, as well as a myriad of other issues which our country needs to confront. Some took advantage of the anger, fueling the violence we witnessed that first weekend. They deface and topple statues and monuments not seeming to understand that you cannot erase history. But, if you care to study, you can learn from it.

There seems to be a lack of interest in history among many of the young people of today. As advances in technology move at an ever faster pace what happened 15 minutes ago becomes irrelevant. The young are justly angry. Saddled with life long student debt, falling financially behind the generation before them they witness the destruction of the society, economy and ecosystem they are inheriting. Yet, in Chicago, the small surge we have seen in  recent days coincides with the reopening of bars. A third of the new cases are identified as young people in a nightlife heavy neighborhood. Fun first, solutions later, if we get around to them.

We are all justifiably angry. Spending weeks confined to our homes and apartments, many of us unable to work, this period was, for many reasons, an opportunity squandered. Instead of embracing and comforting one another we continued to squabble, fight and argue, spurred on by the division sowed in the last few years.

Maybe in the back of my mind, that tiny bit that has not surrendered to cynicism, where the remains of my naivete dwell, the place where you can still find that thing some refer to as idealism, I had hoped for seismic change, perhaps I will have to settle for an incremental one. 










Maybe, in the back of my mind, that tiny bit where my naivete

Coronavirus19 Diary - Hope Springs Eternal (I Hope)

At least in my home state we're coming round the bend. Deaths and infection rates are falling. Unfortunately, due to an  inadequate federal response from the beginning, this slow but steady recovery is not being experienced nationwide. As cases and positivity rates rise we have been banned from much international travel. Our country is viewed, by many, as third world. Run by a mad man, many citizens, once holding on to a semblance of middle class status, sliding into poverty. We have become deeply divided by income and ideology, and, we are equipped with enough weapons to make these divisions deadly. It is almost as if the pandemic has taken the U.S. and shook it out like a rug, racism , hatred and anger falling out from the pile and forming a disheartening medley of debris on the ground. We the people becoming me the people. Division being sowed by the highest levels of our government. During these times, when we should have been united, with compassion for one another, I watch as many attempt to scramble to the top, stepping and crawling over those beneath them. The common decency of wearing a mask  to protect the health of others becoming a political act.

Yet, for all this, the future is not entirely without hope. Science, medicine and time have controlled disease in the past. There is a world wide effort by science and medicine to control, or even defeat this one. And we the people still have the power of the vote, which is now as important as any time in our nation's history. We the people need to step up to the responsibility of this precious and valuable right. We the people need to use it's power to recreate a nation of compassion and equality, making America great again.