These seemed separate moments, yet I came to see all three as connected. The opioid epidemic was about the destruction of community and the agony we create as we seek to avoid pain. COVID-19 instructed us on the importance of community, now that we had suddenly lost it, and how essential were those who nursed us and picked our lettuce. BLM showed that a sense of community was not possible without recognizing pain long ignored. BLM’s point was also to reveal privilege. Part of our privilege was to relegate to police the jobs that we preferred to forget or not pay for—like dealing with the
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