Yesterday Marshall saw the title of my blog post, and he asked if it really had been 92 days since we started self-isolating. I was able to answer his question with confidence, because I had deliberately written a numbered post for every day just so I’d know what day we were on. I had also double-checked my work several times, to be sure I hadn’t skipped any days or made any mistakes on the numbers. So yes, I told him, it really has been over three months, as hard as it may be for any of us to wrap our heads around that reality.
I wish I could say those 92 days had bought us a brighter future. I mean, look at what New Zealand has done! They’re running around footloose and COVID-free now. Smaller country, different situation, I know. We’re a much bigger and more divided country. Even so, we might have been able to eke out a win.
We were doomed from the get-go, though, because we lacked an intelligent and unified strategy and the leadership required to implement it. We needed a federal government that listened to experts and knew what to do, brought all the states onboard, and supported the people trying to get the job done. Instead, the stupidity and cupidity in the White House and Senate, the patchwork approach of governors struggling in a leadership void, the anti-intellectualism that makes so many Americans distrust science, and the right-wing nutjobs who push the anti-intellectualism and actively work in other ways to divide the country–all of these things were ingredients in a recipe for disaster. How could we be anywhere but where we are today? Failure was already baked into the system.
So, we are 92 days into the disaster, and who knows how many more before we’re done. If I sound a little angry about it, that’s because I am angry about it. We deserve so much better, all of us. If things don’t change soon, I really do not know how I will manage to cope.