Those of you on the fence, it’s time for some straight talk. Our communites, our towns, our states, and our country are desperate for life-giving honesty and courage. It’s becoming clear that we can’t look for it from many of our elected leaders, so instead we turn our eyes and ears to our fellow neighbors and citizens.
Some, like myself, will wake up tomorrow fortunate enough to still have a full-time job, accompanying health insurance, and other class privileges those represent. Have you been afforded such luxuries in this present dark hour just so you can watch Tiger King on repeat, catch some rays in your suburban backyard, and finally reorganize your garage? Idiomatic as it may be, fiddling while Rome burns seems increasingly prevalent today.
Others will wake tomorrow with heavy hearts, knowing that personal financial ruin is mere days away. They will not be thinking of the next Netflix show they can binge, but rather how they will pay next month’s rent and provide essentials for their dear children. They will look fondly back on those initial days when the worst problem facing them was trying to find a few rolls of toilet paper.
Sure, we can raise funds and donate food to provide for those harder hit by this pandemic, and that is good. By all means, continue that work. But why just bail water over one side of the boat when we can do something about the men actively drilling holes in the hull? How about we do something about them, and plug some of those nasty little holes?
Those men with the drills, they work for us. They may have forgotten that small detail, but November is coming. Feel free to remind them what it means to be a public servant. To my knowledge, they all have ways to be contacted.
And those holes which are so quickly sinking this ship we are ALL inside… They may look overwhelming, but we have to start somewhere. Fill one hole at a time. Find small businesses that are now breaking free of the arbitrary rules and visit them this week, even if it means a longer drive than the local Big Box store. Spend your money with them, tip as you can, leave them with a kind word of encouragement, and maybe they can yet save that which they spent their life creating.
We have wasted a lot of time trusting those who betrayed our trust. The hour is late, but not so dire that it is hopeless.
End Covidiocracy! 