
It’s starting to not feel okay. It never felt right, but I understood it. There were just too many unknowns. Too many what ifs. Too many warranted fears.
This virus is absolutely still an enemy. And we as a country have an answer for enemies. We have the most powerful military in the world to protect us from the evil in our world.
But what about evil in the form of a virus? How much is the government supposed to protect us from getting sick? How much are they supposed to have a say in where we’re allowed to spend our money?
I didn’t make it up, but I swear it has become almost a motto of mine. I read it one day somewhere and it just made so much sense I use it with almost everything political these days. The saying/motto goes like this: “You’re not going to tell me that what I’m seeing with my own eyes and hearing with my own ears isn’t real.”
I’ve referred to that MANY times over the past three years when somebody tells me something about Trump that I know is just not remotely true. It’s maddening, but when it happens, I just repeat in my head, “You’re not going to tell me that what I see with my own eyes and hear with my own ears isn’t real.”
I’ve made no secret that I don’t like the man or his special brand of autocracy, but I could also care less if you do. You’re allowed. I’m allowed to be critical. This is a fabulous country we live in that gives us both that right. Just don’t try to tell me something that’s different than what I’m seeing with my own eyes or hearing with my own ears. I’m perfectly capable of comprehending with both.
But as much as I think he owns a lot of blame for what we’re facing in this country with the pandemic – and the blatant narcissism in his downplaying of the virus was and still is one of the worst examples of leadership in our history – there is a growing part of me that understands the rebellion against our governor. (And if you think it’s just Cooper, you are being purposefully ignorant to the fact that there are 50 of these things and they’ve ALL had some form of lockdown and they are ALL in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t position.)
But all of that rebellion magnified in me yesterday when he announced he was keeping us at Phase 2. It felt a little justified.
The reason it began to feel justified is exactly the same reason that the earlier quote resonates with me so much. What I’m seeing with my own eyes and hearing with my own ears makes me feel like we’ve reached a level of criminal unfairness. I don’t believe the government should be in the business of legislating the destruction of specific types of businesses, nor do I think they should be allowed to tell us we can’t spend our money there.
And why is that? Because I can see and hear. And I see Food Lion and Lowes Home Improvement making record amounts of money, a good deal of it off of money the government printed off of make believe paper. I see the often subjective term “essential” being bandied about so often that it has lost any meaning greater than that of a strong opinion.
I mean, to an alcoholic, a bar might be essential, by god. Trust me. I know.
So why are we legislating bars to fail? Or gyms? Or movie theaters? Because we think people will be irresponsible in how they use them? Ha!! Sorry, governor, but that ship has sailed. Do you honestly think there are more than a handful of people who haven’t already made up their minds about this virus? Every person I know has already decided if they are going to play it safe or say to hell with it.
Honestly, the exact same saying that has become my motto can be used by all parties right now. And it most certainly is. Those people that are rebelling against the governor’s order? What are they seeing? They’re seeing people protest, many without masks, none of them blamed for any increase in positive tests. They’re seeing beaches full of people and our leaders not wearing masks. They’re driving through Lowes Home Improvement and struggling to find a parking place on a Tuesday morning. Clearly they are struggling to see that people are staying inside wrapped in antiviral cellophane because it’s such a scary virus, right?
Now let me break in here and say that I am completely torn on what to do about schools. A big, big part of me says we are obligated to let people choose. I mean, there are just as many teachers that want to go back as there are parents that want their kids to go back. But I also know – because I’m a teacher and I’m allowed a bigger voice on the subject than people who haven’t been in a classroom in twenty years – that going back full time (or even part time) will be exactly the same with or without a mask, with or without social distancing, with or without taking temperatures on the way into school.
All the jokes you have seen about how kindergarteners will pass around their masks and go home with somebody else’s? Yeah, that’s going to happen. And you know some kid is going to fart in somebody else’s mask. Or take somebody else’s mask in the bathroom and pee on it and then come back out saying, “Here, friend, I cleaned your mask for you!!”
In high school, where I teach, we can’t get kids to put phones away or take earphones out or wake up or even write their name sometimes. Do you honestly think they’re going to listen to us telling them to wear a mask and stay six feet away in the hallways? Ha!! NOT A CHANCE!! If we go back, you might as well just leave the masks and thermometers at home. It’ll turn that way in about 45 minutes on day one anyway.
In other words, I don’t know what the heck to do with schools, but I do know we need to quit killing businesses. And the reason for that is that I don’t see that as the government’s job. If they feel it IS their job, then they need to be prepared to make them financially whole for every month and every dollar that they lose. And they need to make the employees whole, too. Gyms and bars and movie theaters are just as worthy of a government bailout right now as the hotel or airline industry is. Small businesses don’t have the capital to lose a month of business, much less six months.
I’m almost 43 years old. I have a heart condition AND asthma. I know what to do to protect myself. I know what to do to protect my family. If that ability and wherewithal to do exactly that applies to me, then it applies to every grownup in North Carolina. And that means it is my choice whether or not I go get something at Food Lion or Lowes or go out to eat. It also means that I should have the choice to go to the movies and sit forty seats away from the nearest human. And all around me I see other grownups that should have the same choices.
Most of us have already made that choice. We know exactly how we plan to live our lives until a vaccine or viable treatment is found. But we’ve taken away all but one choice for bars and gyms and other businesses who remain closed. Their only choice is to sit back and slowly realize how unfair it is that corporations around them are racking up on all that stimulus money while they’re going broke. I’ve already heard of a lot of them just closing up shop and calling it a day, and I don’t blame them. And the fact that they did nothing to deserve it but own a “non-essential” business just makes me both sad and mad.
It begs a very specific question for me that until now I had not asked. If the government doesn’t feel we are responsible enough to make the decision to go to a bar or gym on our own, what choice in the future might they have the green light to take away simply because they deem it to be unsafe?
Our right to question the government? Our right to protest? Our right to vote? I could see how some politicians might deem those to be unsafe. Especially right now. And sure, that’s extreme, but I never thought I’d see the day that our government got to decide that giant corporations got to rack up the stimulus billions while hard-working entrepreneurs got royally screwed sideways and doused in jalapeno rubbing alcohol just to make it burn.
That’s what I see. It might not apply across the board and there might be varying levels of agreement, but that’s what I see. And you’re not going to tell me that what I see with my own eyes and hear with my own ears isn’t real. Not ever.
Well said He sees all the schools that have started back and kids as well as teachers have gotten Covid He is a waste of my tax paying dollars Lee for Senate
As usual, you’ve put into easy to understand words an issue that aggravates many of us. What I’d like to see everywhere is all businesses opening but those obviously prone to stimulating cases (i.e. college bars) having regulations enforced in a meaningful way. As high school teacher, you know human prefrontal cortexes are not structurally complete until around age 25. Decisions made by these people often need guidance by more grounded & experienced minds. Masks & distancing, moving activities outdoors & providing quick, cheap tests could clear the way for opening up iffy businesses. This is, of course, assuming that the reasonable rules, once delineated are scrupulously followed or significant consequences swiftly ensue.
True. TRUTH Truthful. Truthfully. Truest