A Missed Opportunity

How we’ve Missed the Boat during the Pandemic

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

In the future when researchers and historians delve into the oceans of media videos, articles, op-eds, tweets and Facebook, LinkedIn, Tik-Tok and Instagram posts from 2020–2021 to figure out how this generation fared during this pandemic, they will surely be appalled at how we managed this pandemic. Our grandchildren, those already born and the ones yet to arrive, will question our sanity and our humanity, and I am almost certain, they won’t accept our excuses of what we’ve done.

What follows is what I think we should’ve learned this past year and half, but haven’t. We will learn it someday, but not today. The Covid-19 Pandemic was a year to behold (a year and a half+, actually). It effectively and surgically precisely cascaded into each of our lives causing loss, pain, sacrifice and amazement. For most of us it’s been a year in limbo. This period has helped some progress, in the development of character and financially. Others decided to stay the same, while at the same time many got behind, and too many, far too many, sacrificed the most, and are no longer here.

Succinct List for the Future

These are things we all know the pandemic has brought up to the forefront and “in our faces” no matter if you acknowledge or accept it now, or not. It’s a list for us to review and for the future inquirers to have a starting point if they decide to examine these years.

1. #BlackLivesMatter. That’s it. No ifs, ands or buts. Worldwide. Period.
2. We needed to have learned to be kinder and care for each other. Still 1.5 year in, and it’s so hard for some. Society as a whole seems today to be more aggressive towards its own self.
3. You’d think the pandemic would teach us to do what is best for everyone, to understand we’re all in this together, where we’d locally, statewide and nationally bring forward solutions to the fray and, in unison, find a way to confront this reality. However, in many countries, as well as in ours, many decided to fish in troubled waters to the detriment of many, and the benefit of a few. But BENEFIT? They don’t know it yet, but no benefit in that.
4. The U.S. has lost 611k (at the time of this witting) of its sons and daughters during this public health crisis, many of whom did not need to perish.
5. The economy is fragile, unpredictable and human. It is fragile because it is based on the labor of the workforce, which also makes it human. It is unpredictable because we realize we don’t have a plan. We didn’t have a plan for a worldwide lockdown and we don’t have a plan for the resurgence and recovery after the lockdown. Now back to human. It is human because the economy will rise again because it’s about us.
6. Women still are not equal in the eyes of society. They are not paid equally for similar work, to this day the U.S. Congress has amended the Constitution guaranteeing equal rights for women.
7. We still have the mentality of a slave society, don’t you think? Currently millions merely survive, many are homeless, many are hungry. Wages should give people the opportunity of progress, not mere survival like one was a slave. This is, don’t get me wrong, the land of immeasurable opportunities. It’s time we started acting like it. A country which preaches to the rest it’s the best in the world should actually have policies espousing and supporting that premise. People should not be living in tents in parks in the largest cities in our country. People should not be going to food banks because they can’t afford food. I could go on.
8. Healthcare should be universal and available to all. Right now it’s not even affordable.
9. Education is abhorrently being maneuvered during this crisis. Groups are taking advantage of the fragility of our institutions trying to manipulate our educational systems.
10. We the people are created equal. Equal. Equal. Equal.
11. We could be examples of discipline but we choose to be rowdy and belligerent. Many confuse freedom with debauchery and perversion.

Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Nelson Mandela

There’s more, much more, but I am exhausted. This pandemic continues in a zig-zag motion with a population in denial. We have not been taught to sacrifice for one another for the benefit of the greater good, and that has consequences. Only time will tell what awaits on the other side concerning our overall health, economy, progress and survival.

In hopes it won’t last another year and a half in our future, or more, and we can kick this pandemic goodbye.