It has finally happened. Trump is all in on saving the world from the coronavirus pandemic, not just America, but the whole world. Just so there is no confusion, Trump sees himself as the savior. And the annual resurrection-fest can’t come soon enough for the message to go to all in this land and other lands that he has risen. From where remains an open question. At the least, those beatific smiles directed at the great one by Trump’s merry band of acolytes leave no doubt that they feel they are in the presence of THE ONE, those not so anointed be damned.
April is figuring to be a big month in the
fight to save a large swath of humanity from what is proving to be a real and
present danger. It seems that with the arrival of April, most of the
nations in the world have at least a primal understanding that there is no wall
to shield any nation from the impact of the pandemic. For a variety of
reasons, often unique to a nation or a culture, different nations have fared
differently. There will be plenty of time after Trump saves humanity to figure
out what each nation did best and worst so that an international protocol can
be developed and implemented that will save lives in the future. There might
even be time to fix some blame.
America Called Its Government, But No One Answered
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April will also challenge those of faith to
deliver something more useful than thoughts and prayers. In the US, after
Trump gave up on a grand Easter parade of irresponsibility, virtual
congregations will hymn their way to a better future and the glory of a lord
whose beneficence seems in short supply.
Meanwhile, all around the world, the coronavirus will be challenged by a confluence of religious fervor — Holy Week and Easter, Passover, Ramadan and a whole panoply of Hindu and Buddhist festivals. What a time for organized religion to finally deliver something more uplifting than prayer, more productive than a ceremony and more enduring than pious proclamations.
How about some straight talk about
humanity, conscience, real giving, inequity and inequality, and a big dose of
racial, ethnic and social justice. Something that I like to call
“collective conscience.” For when we get through this pandemic, there will be
lives to live and values to be examined.
There will also be, in America and
elsewhere, homeless and hungry children and adults, more people than ever
living on the edge of economic despair, more need for universal access to
meaningful health care and quality education, and the same crumbling
institutional infrastructure that has proved to be so inadequate in response to
this crisis in so many places.
How
About Everyone Else?
Returning to America and its professed love
affair with “responders,” let’s hope that this time there is some new urgency
to offer something more tangible than love to those who have put themselves at
great risk without asking for anything more than a face mask and a paper
gown. Doctors will get a lot of the attention this time, but they also get
a lot of the pay and benefits when times are good. Nurses and medical
technicians much less so, and how about the workers who clean the
hospitals, remove the bodies and sterilize the equipment? How about
the paramedics, firemen and cops who show up at your door to relieve some of
the suffering?
For sure, a lot of focus should be centered
there, now and after. But it also belongs in every grocery store, pharmacy
and convenience store where the minimum wage and the maximum wage are
frequently the same thing. It belongs in every farm field where those
immigrants who are so easy to forget are keeping us alive for a pittance. Also,
think about all the folks delivering what matters, from truck drivers to local
kids.
So, in between all that praying and
believing, invest some time in finding a connection to a collective
spirit. And, most importantly, if you are lucky enough to get back to a
privileged normal, find a way to find a collective conscience. Then act on
it. If you are a Republican in America, find a new party. If you are a
corporate executive in America, listen first to the needs of your workers and
begin to meet those needs as a priority. If you think you care in America
but don’t care about universal access to meaningful health care or a living
wage and benefits, or hungry children or abused immigrants, then you really
don’t care at all.
Amid all this personal soul searching, I
would be remiss not to mention the excesses of capitalism. While it is too
complex a topic to simply toss into the mix, it is worth remembering that Trump
cared more about the stock market than the ventilator market with little sign
along the way that he and his ilk have changed their priorities. This is
because they are scared that you might notice how laudatory capitalism seems to
be on the way up and how worthless it is on the way down. Capitalists are
quick to grab all they can all the time, even when times are truly frightening.
Then, their clock all of a sudden says it is time to share the pain.
If nothing else, watch for corporate
hoarders, corporate thieves and CEOs firing others left and right while piously
rejecting their own salaries for a few months as they anxiously await their
bonus at the end of their personal rainbow. Think then about how much
better we would be if there were no CEO bonuses and every employee received a
living wage, access to meaningful health care, a decent education for their
children, and a decent place in which to live.
There will be plenty of time to further
this discussion in the weeks ahead. For now, try hard to stay well and do
something good for those who will have to try so much harder to stay well and
survive.
*[A version of this article was cross-posted on the author’s blog, Hard Left Turn.]
The
views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily
reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.
