It has been exactly seven months. Seven repeated months at home. Since March, those of us living in the state of California have found ourselves involved in a very similar daily routine. Wake up at home, stay at home, and then go to sleep at home, day in and day out.
Have I overstated our present situation? I think not, but you may, because many of us have stopped complying with the present stay at home order. That order in California appeared to have been strictly issued on the late afternoon of the 19th of March, to begin the next day, although it has now been modified multiple times. Regardless, a stay at home order remains in effect until further notice, with very specific requirements.
Many of us who are required to go to work, can go. Local shopping and errands are permitted. Masks are also required while out in public, as well as social distancing of at least six feet, from those not in your own household. Although what I just described may sound draconian, since day one, it simply was not, because we are dealing with a global health pandemic caused by a novel virus.
In the great country of the United States of America, truth will always be stranger than fiction, which is why we now find ourselves in a very unique and different situation than the rest of the world. Although we are in the middle of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) global health pandemic, many of us here are now attempting to go back to our normal pre-virus routine, even overcompensating at times. Despite the United States being number one in cases and in deaths, living in the present moment and risking death, or that of a love one, is now the preferred response to a novel virus.
Our country was founded as a democratic republic, but today that means a different thing depending on our own personal and political ideology. In no way, shape, or form are we a true democracy, but even in our republic, power, or the belief thereof, is still derived directly from us, the citizens of the country. As soon as a few citizens began to protest against the stay at home orders in mid-April 2020, the fracture in our already weakened republic reappeared, as if it was a long lost friend.
The protests against the stay at home orders naturally gained all of the media attention, since it was a very quiet time, with most people simply at home. Most of us were impatiently waiting for any positive news or information regarding the novel virus, regardless of candor, since our federal elected leaders gave us little to no information. It was only natural for virus fatigue to sneak into our lives, as soon as our curve began to trend down. Making things worse, when the President of our republic supported those protest, became a public anti-masker, and publicly contradicted our very own scientist and infectious disease experts, the beginning of the end of our republic began.
Fatigue of the novel virus has undeniably set in for many of us. That is a fact, even though by doing so we voluntarily chose to ignore other facts, including the recent spike in new cases of this novel virus, which has already led to the death of over 220,000 of our fellow citizens. This is happening at the very same time when many of us are naturally trying to gain back a sense of normalcy, which was abruptly taken from us in March, with plenty of misinformation coming from the top down since then.
The truth is that here in the United States we never even attempted to stop the spread of this incurable virus. Every state, territory, and citizen was left to fend for themselves, because rugged individualism and survival of the fittest were the only solutions written in the agendas of our current federal elected officials. This month of October we witnessed this firsthand when the President of our republic contracted the novel virus, but his apparent great wealth and power, combined with a downplaying of the novel virus, appeared to have been the perfect prescription for his apparent speedy recovery. If only the rest of us were so lucky.
Today, some of us still remain at home every single day. We do go outside, since no human body can physically and mentally handle being indoors all the time. Some of us stay at home because our work has allowed us to work remotely from home until next year, in compliance with the present orders to stop the spread of the novel virus. Others stay at home because of elderly age or a weaken immune system, which leaves can leave us susceptible to contracting the novel virus. A good amount of us are also staying home because of unemployment or disability, related to the ongoing health pandemic response.
Sadly, in the next few months it will likely get worst for all of us, before it gets better. This is only because we were incapable of doing what the rest of the modern world did and what a majority of experts in our country recommended, put the public health of all citizens first, even if that meant strict federal led lockdowns to stop the spread and eradication of new cases. Many modern countries, including democratic republics, were able to successfully do this on behalf of their citizens, while our federal elected leaders chose to save the financial stock market, undoubtedly for some selfish reasons.
Luckily, we are in a mess of our own making, or at least our federal elected leaders own making. One can only resolve the mess one has made, so there is still hope for us. An election is also imminent for our republic, which hopefully brings a change in our federal elected leader’s pandemic response to this novel virus, so many of us can finally stop living the longest March of our lives.
A March filled with insecurities, anxiety, and a sense of hopelessness, not just because a novel virus spread like wildfire throughout our country, but because of the unknown response of our ill prepared federal elected leaders. We are once again at that point, but it is now seven months later, which means we need to do better to avoid another March in October.
Blessings.
the Gentle Pragmatist 