Experts Only

By announcing that he was suspending his participation in daily news briefings regarding the Covid-19 crisis because it was a waste of time, President Trump has finally given us something about which we all might agree. Henceforth, let's hope that medical professionals will be the only ones providing the vital and accurate information so very much needed to combat and eventually defeat this terrible disease.

Liberty, Sacifice, and Perspective

To those among us who have been declaring their right as free non-immune citizens to take the risk of returning to normal activity...yes, you have the right to take a personal risk that does not entail the endangerment of other people. You do not, however, have the right to reengage with society in midst of the largest pandemic in the last 100 years when such a decision is likely to lead to the infection of yourself and countless others who will have preceded you and who will follow in your wake. To put it another way, you may choose to proclaim your personal right to cast yourself from a cliff and risk the dire consequences of such a decision; at the same time, you do not have the right to tether yourself to hundreds of others who will be cast into the abyss following your lead.

In a time when thousands of medical professionals, hospital workers, transit employees, and first responders are putting their lives on the line 24/7 in the service of their fellow human beings, it is an act of quintessential selfishness to complain about the inconvenience of not enjoying the comforts of normal daily life. We are all being asked to make a variety of sacrifices in a collective effort to turn back the tide of this terrible disease. So when the next person cries out that his personal liberty has been threatened by the situation at hand, please direct their attention to the thousands who lie dying attached to respirators and to the heroic efforts of the medical personnel working tirelessly to save these precious lives; or to the other souls who will die alone at home or on the street for lack of access to medical care. Perhaps only then will it become clear that sacrifice, in all its manifestations, is precisely what is required of us all in the fight against the tyranny of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ironies Abound

It is a cruel and tragic irony that citizens residing in the twelve remaining states on limited or no lockdown orders will be those put most at risk by officials following the example of the Trump Administration in delaying a proper and conscientious response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The very same people who comprise the base of DJT's support are now in line to suffer an inordinate and unnecessary loss of life as a result of the lack of leadership on a federal level in failing to issue a stay at home mandate to the nation and, in so doing, needlessly further endanger the lives millions of likely Trump-supporting Americans.
It is equally ironic that these same citizens, many of whom use the term 'snowflake' to describe other fellow Americans with whom they might disagree, are treated to a daily exhibition of whining from a leader who melts under the pressure of having to answer perfectly legitimate questions from representatives of a free press whose job on behalf of the American people it is to ask sometimes difficult and probing questions of those occupying positions of power in their government.

Hell Awaits

In an act of willful facilitation, DJT has decided to distribute the national stockpile of personal protective equipment to the private sector instead of issuing these vital and crucially needed items directly to the states and into the hands of the heroic medical care workers battling 24/7 on the front lines of the pandemic as it spreads across the country. As a result, private companies and the brokers that service them are reaping profits of as much as ten times the original price of individual pieces of equipment from a captive and desperate market of health service providers across the nation. The practice of price-gouging at a time of national emergency it not only a disgrace but it lays bare the rapacious nature of a 'free market' mentality, which places profit over the need to respond to this crisis with compassion, alacrity, humanity, and a sense of the common good as the principal driving forces behind our actions at this critical time.
To the advocates and apologists of the active attempt to extract material gain from the ever-escalating human tragedy unfolding before us on a daily basis, my friend Mr. Dylan has a few words for you: '...and to you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears; bury the rag deep in your face for now is the time for your tears'! I spoke with him earlier today and he asked me also to inform the the Masters of Greed operating in the cesspool of exploitation aka the current 'marketplace' that 'I see through your eyes and I see through your brain, like I see through the water that runs down my drain'!
Shame on these later day money changers who, through their self-serving actions, desecrate the graves of each victim of this terrible pandemic and further impede the noble efforts of thousands of healthcare professionals throughout the land.