Acceptance
It’s amazing the things we’ve come to accept. I read the paper in the morning and, by the time I get to the op-ed page, I wonder how it came to be that such events as mass shootings are now commonplace and rarely deserve front-page coverage. People are killed in churches, bars, gas stations, nightclubs and while waiting for buses. The only bright spot is that March 2020, it turns out, was the first March since 2002 without a school shooting. But then again, most schools are closed.
We are accepting the Covid-19 deaths. By this time, most of us know someone who has been affected, rendered ill and hospitalized. The present administration tells us the deaths are the sacrifice we must pay for living in America. We have, by and large, come to accept the ineptitude of the federal government’s response to the pandemic. Where other nations have marshaled the forces needed to cope, we have accepted the dithering, the lies, the misstatements.
We allow misfits to buy weapons that can mow down dozens in a heartbeat.
We have accepted that these armed misfits have blocked hospital entrances and state capitols to shout their rights to infect us by not taking precautionary measures, such as wearing masks. They demand the re-opening of businesses, when scientific voices across the country warn that this will lead to a second and third wave of illness. We have been told these are very good people whose demands are rational and constitutionally protected.
We allow racist murders, but then again, racism and white on black murder have always gone hand-in-hand here.
We let people whose jobs have vanished lose their homes, their health coverage, their families.
We watch politicians and rapacious financial enterprises profit from the current debacle without displaying a hint of shame or remorse.
Most of us may laugh at the suggestion of ingesting bleach, but some of us have done so because we were told by the highest authority that it might provide a cure.
We’ve been led to believe that receiving a check for $1200 is a demonstration of the government’s grandeur and generosity when what it actually is, is a piddling, even insulting, gesture. Meanwhile, our neighbor to the north has put into effect a financial plan that will truly serve its citizens.
With millions upon millions unemployed, we have done nothing to freeze rents and mortgages. We have been told that states and communities must create their own plans, while the feds dump billions into mismanaged big businesses.
We have watched inept people be put in charge of our lives and our futures.
This disrespect for the nation’s citizenry is nothing but egregious, and I wonder—what will we be told to accept next?
We are accepting the Covid-19 deaths. By this time, most of us know someone who has been affected, rendered ill and hospitalized. The present administration tells us the deaths are the sacrifice we must pay for living in America. We have, by and large, come to accept the ineptitude of the federal government’s response to the pandemic. Where other nations have marshaled the forces needed to cope, we have accepted the dithering, the lies, the misstatements.
We allow misfits to buy weapons that can mow down dozens in a heartbeat.
We have accepted that these armed misfits have blocked hospital entrances and state capitols to shout their rights to infect us by not taking precautionary measures, such as wearing masks. They demand the re-opening of businesses, when scientific voices across the country warn that this will lead to a second and third wave of illness. We have been told these are very good people whose demands are rational and constitutionally protected.
We allow racist murders, but then again, racism and white on black murder have always gone hand-in-hand here.
We let people whose jobs have vanished lose their homes, their health coverage, their families.
We watch politicians and rapacious financial enterprises profit from the current debacle without displaying a hint of shame or remorse.
Most of us may laugh at the suggestion of ingesting bleach, but some of us have done so because we were told by the highest authority that it might provide a cure.
We’ve been led to believe that receiving a check for $1200 is a demonstration of the government’s grandeur and generosity when what it actually is, is a piddling, even insulting, gesture. Meanwhile, our neighbor to the north has put into effect a financial plan that will truly serve its citizens.
With millions upon millions unemployed, we have done nothing to freeze rents and mortgages. We have been told that states and communities must create their own plans, while the feds dump billions into mismanaged big businesses.
We have watched inept people be put in charge of our lives and our futures.
This disrespect for the nation’s citizenry is nothing but egregious, and I wonder—what will we be told to accept next?
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