perspective

Well today the county I am in went backwards in re-opening phases because our positive rate of infection was too high.  So now restaurants and bars can no longer have indoor service for the next two weeks.  If things get better by then, we re-open, if not, another two weeks.

Once again, a lot of this comes down to masks.  If people would just wear them and distance these things wouldn’t keep going up.  But they don’t and this is what happens.  It’s maddening for those of us doing the right things.

That said, I’ve also seen a ton of people lamenting the fact that their kids have to learn remotely, or people are stir crazy sitting at home.  I get it, but damn, people don’t have any perspective on this.

My youngest is full time e-learning at a local community college right now.  She is 16.  I think back to when I was 16 and I compare what it would have been like then, to now.

Back then, you had to pay for long-distance phone calls.  My school encompassed a large rural area so most of my friends and girlfriends were all long-distance calls which were expensive.

No one had cell phones.  You had to use land lines.   So, you didn’t know where your kid was, you had no way to contact anyone if you had an accident, and guess what?  Texting didn’t exist.  Hell, email didn’t exist for almost anyone either.

The town I was in had a bar that had some household supplies, but to get groceries we would have to drive 30 minutes to the next largest town.  You couldn’t just order stuff online and have it shipped to you.  Now, I’m getting Amazon packages nearly every day.

There was no online.  No internet at least.  Not even AOL dialup at that point.

Only books I had were ones I had already bought.  Same for music.   Now I can pull up an app and pretty much listen to every bit of music ever created.  Or fire up the Kindle and buy a book to read.

How about TV?  We had three stations.  ABC, NBC, CBS.   That was it.  Fox wasn’t even really a thing then.   And if you wanted to record something, it was with a VCR.  If you had one.  Now I have access to so many streaming services that I’ll never run out of things to watch.

There are also video games with live chat, so you can put on a headset, hang out with your friends and play games. You can even play games with your friends on your phone!

I don’t know what the schools would have done back then.  You really shouldn’t be in person, especially for a district where kids sometimes had to have a packed hour bus ride just to GET to school.  I was one of those.  Although at 16 I had a car, so I would have driven.

I guess what I’m trying to get at is that for a pandemic to happen, there is no better time for US than now.  We have supercomputers in our pockets, internet access, streaming services, food and grocery delivery, video conferencing to see friends, the ability to call and talk to anyone.  There are so many things we have right now to make staying at home comfortable.  If everyone would just do that as much as possible, things would get back to normal.

No, instead people protest to get a haircut or have brunch.  Others have no qualms throwing their kids into danger, others flat out refuse to wear a mask.  It’s selfish.  Something hasn’t happened to them or someone they know, so it doesn’t matter.   And people defending it in the name of “freedom” are the worst of the worst.

Remember a couple posts ago when I talked about anti-masking gaming buddies?   Well he continued shit on my Facebook posts, so I deleted it and gave him an ultimatum.  We could be friends and game and not talk politics, or we were done.  I got blocked shortly after.

I actually feel really good about it, because I don’t want to be friends with people who are that selfish and only care about themselves.

That brings me to the next point.   Not everyone is as lucky as I am.  I have a job and am still working and making money.  There are many in poverty that don’t have all the luxuries above, and they are dealing with this like we would have had to when I was 16.   I feel for them, because it is so much worse for them than it is for the Karens complaining on Facebook.

Internet should be a regulated utility.  Low-income people should all have access.  We should have funded schools to do everything remotely, including buying necessary equipment for all students.  Food assistance should be available for those that need it. 

And damn it, not one of those fucking senators could live on $600 a week guaranteed, so them complaining about giving that to the unemployed while simultaneously giving money to private jet companies, golf courses and wineries should infuriate everyone.

Oh, and don’t get me started on the Catholic Church getting money.  No one really knows the full total because the administration has hidden some of that data, but they got between 1.4 and 3.5 BILLION dollars.  I’m an atheist, but grew up Catholic.  I have nothing against people who worship and that’s fine, but there is no way that money should have gone to them for one simple reason, they don’t pay taxes.

Those billions are OUR tax dollars.  If you paid in, it’s fine that you get something out.  But if you’ve never paid a dime, and we give you BILLIONS?  It’s absolute bullshit.

Now, perhaps the church was going to use that money to help the poor right?  Like Jesus?  Nope, a lot of it went to parishes to help them after they paid off people WHO WERE RAPED BY PRIESTS.   Don’t sugarcoat it any other way, what priests did to young kids was rape.  No two ways about it.  And now those parishes who helped protect those priests get a fucking payday. It’s disgusting and our lawmakers should be ashamed.

But they aren’t.  The stock market is fine, so fuck it.  The masses can suffer.  And since the masses appear to be pretty stupid and selfish, the suffering will continue.