I don’t want to hear about this year anymore. I don’t want to hear about how bad the virus has been on all of us. We know how bad it has been. We suffered it and we continue suffering it. It’s not news.
The election was hectic. It was so stressful drawing party lines with friends and family. Who knew that our relationships were so vulnerable? Who knew that there was a secret between us? Bigotry is so much more common than we thought.
Reaching for the truth was so difficult. When I discussed Clinton and Biden and Trump, I was told that I was lying. “Who are you going to believe? Me, or your lying eyes?” Which way led to the truth? Who was the pedophile? How do you know?
The truth is knowable and important.
The virus revealed what an inadequate financial system we have. We came to realize that the stock market is irrelevant to most of the people in the country. We came to see that the billionaires had stacked the deck in their own favor. Every politician in a power position had been bought and paid for, so the minimum wage stayed at it’s debilitating 1990 level. As businesses closed, it was the most vulnerable that paid the price of the pandemic. We suffered it and we continue suffering it.
For all the posturing of the politicians, the Paycheck Protection Program ended up being wildly and inadequately distributed. The wealthy companies borrowed, some embarrassingly returning the loan money. While some companies put the money to good use, others squandered the loan and did not save jobs.
We saw how inadequate our health care system is, designed to make a profit, human beings are forgotten. America rations health care based on ability to pay. If you don’t pay, you don’t get life saving care. How many diabetics lost their lives in the summer of 2020?
What a disappointment.
The food lines got longer and they never went away. As soon as a week ago, thousands of families were waiting in line for food. What does this tell us about our great country?
So where do we go from here? Relentlessly forward into the future is where we go. We must grow our generosity towards each other. We will vote to make sure that we express our commitment to a democratic future. We can and we will find answers to our problems. We can and we will make our country a good place to live.