My mind will not focus tonight. It keeps going around and around about the madness, the inequity, the arrogance going on around me as a member of the United States community.
I’m furious at the story which broke about Governor DeSantis telling Florida school boards they couldn’t do virtual learning without the permission of their local health department. Then it appears he told the health departments they were not to issue permission to conduct virtual learning. To me that means any child, any teacher, any family member that contracts the virus at school, or indirectly from school, is a murder charge for DeSantis and the health official who was, “Just following orders!”
I’m dumbfounded by Mitch McConnell, with an annual salary of $174,000 and a net worth of over 34 million dollars, and the rest of the very wealthy trumplicans, who are quibbling over extending the extra $600 a week unemployment benefit for those who lost their jobs due to their mentally ill leader’s abject failure in handling the COVID-19 crisis. Especially when the most recent bail-out didn’t help out the American people and small businesses much, but helped their cronies in big business immensely. Trumplicans have great nerve to say those receiving help are don’t want to work when they are receiving those huge salaries and are not doing, nor accomplishing, anything because they aren’t doing their jobs!
I’m aghast at the fact police officers allow their fellow peers to terrorize, harass, and brutalize not only adults of color, but very young children of color. What kind of person stands by and watches silently when young children are made to lie on hot pavement with guns glaring at them? What kind of person stands by and watches silently while another human being murders someone before their very eyes, even while the person being murdered is crying out they can’t breath? What kind of person aims a gun point blank at a toddler sitting on her fathers’ shoulders whom are peacefully protesting?
I’m unsurprised by Jerry Falwell Jr.’s behavior as pride cometh before a fall. He and all the other televangelists have all gotten extremely wealthy while touting God’s word in public, and acting very much the Devil in private.
I’m vastly disappointed in our elected leaders who are continually waiting to make decisions to keep people alive until there are so many deaths and illnesses they can’t ignore it anymore. Who are reluctant to mandate masks everywhere with penalties which mandate the police follow-through upon, cancel extracurricular school activities involving close personal contact, mandate virtual learning in the midst of a pandemic while threatening schools with penalties when they try to do the right thing.
I’m deeply saddened by the arrogance and self-centeredness of my fellow Americans who wrongly believe their civil liberties are being violated by being told to wear a mask for the safety of the public, who harass and attack essential workers when asked to put on a mask, who act like a two-year old by throwing a tantrum when refused service for not wearing a mask, who hold huge parties or events in light of knowing the public health risks of doing so and seemingly not caring.
I’m continually appalled at the large number of people who believe politics has nothing to do with their lives, therefore they care more about the next TikTok video or how many likes they get on Facebook than registering to vote, then voting for the greater good of the country. I’m speechless when people say they don’t pay attention to the news, nor national and world events, because it doesn’t really affect them, even as they are working minimum wage for an employer who keeps them under full-time hours and have no health insurance or other benefits because they think politics doesn’t affect their lives. Or who believe even if they might vote, it doesn’t count because it is just one vote, even as so many races have been so close their one vote might put the person who would help the working class improve their lives over the top to win an election.
I’m constantly wondering what in the world is wrong with people today. Am I the only person who feels like their head is about to explode over the apathy, the greed, the arrogance, and the unethical and criminal behavior going on by the very people and institutions who are supposed to protect us, to do their jobs in keeping one another in check?
Egads people! Wake up and smell the coffee already!
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 