I haven't written publicly for a while because...well...I have had absolutely nothing to add to the discourse. This is what happens when every day becomes like every other day. A lack of even the most basic human interaction, outside of one's nearest and dearest, results in homogeny of thought and experience, leading to a total lack of creativity. I was keeping a personal journal for a while but I discovered that every day mimicked the previous ones, so I stopped. Yes, I have been playing music and yes, I have been baking far too much. (The sourdough experiments could only happen with a ton of time on my hands.) I have exercised every day because it is important for both my mental health as well as my physical, but when the boredom sets in, it can be excruciating. There will be many lessons learned from this time in quarantine, some positive and some not so, but this morning, while on the treadmill, I was giving some hard thought to the many societal things and ideas that I NEVER want to hear about again. So...without further explanation...
Things I never want to hear about ever again in the aftermath of CoVid-19
1. Science is subjective. AW.....hell no! Science is OBJECTIVE. You don't get to decide you don't like something scientific simply because it doesn't fit your personal narrative. This virus exists. It doesn't stop existing because you don't want it to. Magical thinking and positive affirmations won't make it go away, scientific research and medical developments will. Science doesn't offer choices, it offers absolutes. Which leads me to...
2. Vaccinations aren't necessary for disease control. FUCK, YES THEY ARE! Vaccinations, while not perfect nor always one-hundred percent effective, have successfully eradicated or controlled many of the world's pandemics of the last two-hundred years. Polio, influenza, measles, mumps, smallpox, and chickenpox have all be held in check by, yup you guessed it, VACCINATIONS. For those morons out there who are still saying that they won't accept a CoVid vaccine for themselves or their children when it becomes available (Baruch Ha-Shem), I know of a leper colony to which we can ship you all. The only people who can actually refuse vaccinations are those who are immuno-compromised. Everyone else? Seriously. Stay the fuck out of my life if you don't vaccinate. I want nothing to do with you.
3. Smaller government is the best government. Yeah...no it isn't. This is exactly the right moment for governments to intervene and to help. This is why governments exist, to serve the citizens. Not just the taxpayers, the citizens. From the very wealthy to the homeless, all citizens deserve the protection of their governments during this pandemic. While they haven't gotten it all right and there will be plenty of time to dissect and criticize the responses by the various levels, I think most Canadians are very grateful right now for the coordinated response by all of our government leaders. Watching the extremely right-wing Premier of Ontario praise the work of the left-of-centre Prime Minister has been jarring and comforting all at the same time. Add the mayor into that equation and it is obvious that good government is necessary for the health and well-being of a functioning society. I never again want to hear this quote from Grover Norquist, "I'm not in favour of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Which leads me to...
4. A businessperson is a better leader than any other. UM...NOPE! I'm not saying that there isn't a businessperson who couldn't be a good political leader, but I have yet to encounter that person in the real world. Business people tend to view everything in terms of a black and red monetary bottom line and while that is a big part of a functioning government, it isn't the ONLY thing. Government leaders who have succeeded during this nightmare are those who have demonstrated levels of empathy, sympathy, and kindness. They haven't talked of sacrificing lives for the sake of monetary gain, even while they acknowledge the horrific economic crisis facing us all. They haven't beancounted acceptable levels of death. They haven't called the sick and dying "warriors" in service to the economic health of their countries. The best leaders, even those whose instincts run counter to empathy and are in political peril by the economic catastrophe, have been those who have shown care and balance towards their citizens on both the physical and economic scale.
5. The arts are superfluous to the education of our children. Seriously? What the actual FUCK? I am in constant amazement and awe of the tremendous creativity and beauty being provided right now by the world's artists. Live, online, and free-of-charge concerts are given by major recording artists every day. Museums and art galleries have opened their online doors to virtual tours. Cooking, knitting, sewing, painting, lectures, singing, and music lessons can all be found online. And every single person I know has either partaken or shared in at least some of these offerings. The scientists will bring us back to physical health but it is the artists who will lead us back to mental health.
6. Minimum wage is plenty enough to live on. It never was and it still isn't. This argument has been laid bare by the grocery chains that have given their employees "hazard pay" to keep working, even when it endangered their own health. "Pandemic pay" is already being rolled back in some American jurisdictions, even as grocery chains will be one of the few sectors to report record profits. Nurses, hospital cleaners, garbage collectors, teachers, transit operators, grocery clerks, and delivery people aren't interested in being called heroes. Most are simply doing their jobs. It is time for us to acknowledge them and pay them a living wage.
7. Child care is too expensive to be universal. It's too costly NOT to be. Ask any parent right now who is trying to juggle child care with work while at home. Ask any parent who is trying to engage their kids with a modicum of schoolwork, all while engaging in their own Zoom meetings. A functioning and healthy economy, whatever that looks like in a post-pandemic world, is going to need a universal childcare plan.
8. Fake News. There actually is a level of fake news, but it isn't coming from where many people think it is. Fake news is media that is exploited by any leader who is trying to serve his/her own interests. When these leaders shout fake news at the mainstream media for reporting what is real and honest, that is the real imposter. News operations that do not effectively question, research, probe, and demand answers from our elected leaders are not doing their jobs but rather are acting as propaganda arms for them. Governments that are trying to hide and underreport the numbers from this pandemic and media organizations that are enabling them are truly abhorrent. Fake news is a fallacy that has been twisted so badly that many people are beyond their own capabilities in discerning it when it arrives. The gaslighting is real and has been abetted by bad news actors. CNN is not fake news. The National Post is not fake news. The Toronto Star is not fake news.
9. Death Tolls. Holy Crap. I am simply exhausted by the numbers. I can't listen anymore. They are being reported on like dots on a graph. Statistics in an equation. Every single one of those numbers is a person. A PERSON. People with families, friends, jobs, interests, and histories. PEOPLE. Older people, younger people, people of colour, women, men, artists, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, bankers, drivers, athletes....PEOPLE. The numbers matter because we need to get a grip on how pervasive this scrouge is but my God...the people.
I will leave number ten open on this list for you all to fill in. Something that you never want to hear about again in the post-CoVid world. That world is going to look very different than what we are used to. There will be changes and there will be needed accommodations. It isn't going to be easy and it isn't going to be quick. I will be working from a starting premise that we are all going through it together and we are all facing our own realities. Everybody's experience is different and everybody has different needs. That said, it will help if we can agree on a series of basic facts like those above. How we get to that new reality will require a massive effort on the part of each and every single one of us. I'm counting on you.
