One Nation Indivisible?

 

In a few short weeks we will gather in various communities and remember the anniversary of September 11, 2001. I remember holding candles in silent vigils to say “we will not forget” and “united we stand” as we honored those whose lives were lost on that day. We did not look to see if those who died were from red states or blue states; we grieved American lives lost whether or not they were citizens, young or old, gay or straight, red, white, black, brown or yellow – they were ours.

But now we seem to have a President who wishes to divide Americans into groups that are ‘his people’ and the rest of us. When the pandemic was devastating cities on the east and west coasts, he knew those were not his voters. Our country has had issues of regional stressors now and then but it is difficult to remember a time when a President only wanted to be President for states he won in the previous election. Recently he claimed that states such as Florida and Arizona can run mail-in elections properly since they have Republican Governors but states such as Nevada – with a Democratic governor – cannot be expected to run a valid election.  He tried to allocate supplies during the early days of the pandemic to Governors who did not criticize him. The inability of the government to properly provide resources such as ventilators, testing kits, and personal protective equipment to meet critical state needs will go down as one of the greatest failures ever of our Federal government. The muzzling of real scientists is not far behind. State governors and health departments had to try to fend for themselves to provide for their residents, often competing against neighboring states and the Federal government, to obtain necessary supplies as the President set out to further divide this nation.

In 1858, President Lincoln famously said in a speech before he was elected,” that a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”  He then struggled to maintain the union, which still separated due to the Civil War. But since the end of that war, we have been one country for better or worse. In 2004, at the Democratic Convention, Barack Obama gave a rousing speech where he promoted a United States of America as he said: “The pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states-red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states." He was trying to identify the reasons we have to work together and noted more commonalities than differences.

But this pandemic has demonstrated just how divided this country is.  Despite the severity of COVID-19, once it was declared a pandemic, the states were never given clear guidance on how best to shut down and how long the quarantines should last.  Consequently, almost as soon as the shutdowns started, the clamor to re-open began.  The President sent mixed messages as he praised armed men who stormed the state house in Michigan, demanding the right to open businesses and to not wear masks. And after just a few weeks, the President spoke about opening churches in time for Easter, even as public health experts demurred. He supported rallies by demonstrators across the country who protested unmasked and in close formations. So consequently, we as a country, never really went into a prolonged and regulated shut-down as was seen in Italy, Germany and many countries in the Far East. While major cities such as New York, Washington DC and San Francisco became virtual ghost towns, areas in other states did not require masks, even as they slowed some commerce and may have restricted some religious gatherings. As the virus swept through meat packing plants and mayors of some small towns wanted to impose quarantines and mask guidelines, they were over ruled by their Governors and the President who demanded that meat packers stay open to avoid a national meat shortage.  Many workers in these plants were immigrants who did not have a good understanding of the pandemic and lived in multi-family homes, so they could not easily isolate.

So now, as states across the South defied mask orders and opened bars, retail and beaches, the virus is claiming more lives and tallying more positive cases. The Mayor of Atlanta wanted to impose a mandatory mask order but the city was sued by the Georgia governor who has long resisted closures and masks and has now opened schools. The state of Texas long resisted any restrictions, but after a sudden uptick in cases, has encouraged masks and even made them mandatory in some counties after much push back.  Currently some 15 states have no mandatory mask requirements, according to the AARP guidelines.  Each has a Republican governor, so we are definitely back to the red state - blue state issue. This is why we cannot stop this pandemic. Even today, over 200,000 motorcyclists are meeting at their annual gathering in Sturgis, South Dakota, an event encouraged by the city for the income it produces; the hospital is readying its’ COVID unit as they gather. Health experts warned against this annual rally as cyclists come from across the country to attend and will return to, their home states afterwards. News photos of the event, showed few masks being worn. This group seems to have no collective sense of community responsibility. Annual events across the country have been rescheduled, postponed or cancelled; why not this event as well? This is a place where rugged individualism, which Americans so prize, is working to our detriment.

It is apparent that residents of this country cannot come together to save our shared lives. Few are willing to endure the sacrifices it would take to reduce the spread of the virus.  The rest of the world looks at us in amazement as this most scientifically advanced country cannot get itself organized enough to lock down 334 million people for a couple of months, so we shall keep on seeing waves of virus outbreaks crisscross this country until we get serious. The New York Times today had a forceful editorial about this outbreak and concluded that we have a strong case of national apathy and confusing instructions.  The editorial quotes Thomas Frieden, a former CDC Director, who stated that we have a glut of data and a dearth of information. It further indicated that only about 50% of the country engaged in a true lockdown, whereas in Europe the compliance was about 90%. Scientific experts have indicated that if we unite as a country and forget the nonsense that “mask wearing or not” are political statements, engage in a true nationwide lockdown for 6 – 8 weeks, and endure some more sacrifices together, we could stop this viral spread. But we need leadership from all 50 states and associated territories to believe that we are all in this together, it cannot just be a phrase on TV ads. It is obvious that we are not going to receive adequate information from the Federal government.

COVID-19 Statistics as of August 9^th:

Total U.S. cases: 4,974,959. Total U.S. deaths:161,284.

(Although the news tonight reported that we had surpassed 5 million.)

Total numbers of new cases last 24 hours: 54,590. Total number of new deaths: 1,064.

(Almost one new death each minute,)

Maryland: Total cases: 94,581 Total deaths 3,577.  New cases 775.  New deaths: 12.

To conclude:

This week marked the anniversary of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The effect of the bomb in Hiroshima killed some 80,000 people outright and injured more than 35,000.  Another 40,000 would die within a year of after-effects from the radiation and injuries; 40,000 more died in Nagasaki.  Others would live their lives with scars and late effects of radiation. These were not military targets but cities of civilians. Japan surrendered a few days later.  Justification was given to say that these bombs saved the lives of Americans from what could have been a prolonged mainland assault on Japan and to show the Soviet Union, the might of the United States arsenal. In retrospect, many today question those purposes.

“Til next week. Peace.