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I am a retired English teacher and department head, the mother of three grand mother of four, and have been married to the same man for 52 years. I subscribe to Dr. PM Forni's concept of Civility. I was born in South Philadelphia and grew up in the 'burbs. I love soft pretzels and cheesesteaks, the Phillies, the Eagles, and San Diego. I love being Mom, Aunt Kathy, Nona Kathy, and Teacher. I spend a lot of time in my gardens in the spring and summer, and in the winter I plan what I'm going to plant. I also am an avid reader and photographer.

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Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Side Effects

When I first heard murmurings of a possible virus  last January, I thought of the  initial reports of the then unnamed HIV, of a virus from mosquitoes, of ebolla, and thought like those just mentioned this would be an illness affecting only a particular segment of the population possibly not even in this country...  And, of course, within two months I realized how naive I had been.

But even after the first reports of illnesses I felt pretty confident that most might escape unscathed, AND, I thought -- we have the CDC and a government with safeguards in place.  Little did I know how much COVID  would change everything and I'm just not referring to having to wear masks, stand in line to shop at Trader Joe's, follow the arrows in the grocery store, or wait in the car for the dentist to call us into the office. 

Who knew that a pandemic plan would be completely discarded, that the Center For Disease Control would be castrated, and made a political puppet, that people in these 'United' states were not.  Nor did I expect  how selfish some people are, how oppositional they become when asked to do the simplest of tasks, or how myopic they are; that it is always all about them.  But I know now.

Our lives have changed, and forever.  Soon, we will be able to function without masks.  We will be able to gather, to hug, to dance, to celebrate.  But what will scar us forever, I fear, is the knowledge of ignorance around us.

2 comments:

Linda Reeder said...

Oh yes! The willful, selfish ignorance that we are now all too aware of.

gracejones said...

I found across the decades of my career that there was an unending battle over the priorities of the country, represented by what was done in the federal budget, how resources would be utilized and distributed. There was never a lack of fighting over the issues and priorities. Who the victors were in elections made huge differences in the lives of all people whether they realized it or not. But as you know, Trump is a different kind of animal. A sick man, rocket fueled with power, misleading his cult like followers. He is outside the boundaries of the normal battle. My hope is that in the long run we really learn from the massive mistake of his election and just go back to the normal battles and wars fought in Washington over where the country should be going and how resources should be collected and used.