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Where the fabric is torn
We see that maybe healthcare coverage for all could benefit all of society. Even globally, if you leave one group of people to fend for themselves, pandemics could re-roar repeatedly.
We see that some of the poorest people do the hardest jobs, and that those jobs are essential.
We see that those with the most power often have the least knowledge. Misinformation this time, is proving lethal.
We see that cruelty to animals, (bats, pangolins, birds, and cattle) give rise to zoonotic virus, and we have seen such illnesses get repeatedly worse as we encroach upon what’s left of nature.
We see that people of color, and women, are more vulnerable, both due to poverty, lack of infrastructure, and the nature of their demanding, caregiving, and service, jobs.
We see that underlying health issues, such as Diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, and obesity make one even more vulnerable to COVID-19, and, they are in fact related to how much real nutrition and agriculture address hunger and social injustice.
We see that some world leaders are concerned about the economy, meaning rather deceptively, the return of the stock market. Most people do not have much invested in stocks, and the ten percent that hold most of the wealth do seem more concerned about that wealth than healthcare, or jobs.
We see that although pollution kills an estimated seven million people globally, each year, the new “clean air” is expected to be temporary, because — you know — the economy matters. Never mind that investing in clean energy, infrastructure, and agriculture has immeasurable returns.
We see that many in old, nineteenth century industries of fossil fuels, want bailout, subsidy, and government intervention to protect their addictive products.
COVID-19, and the pandemics yet to come may prove their demise. It’s should have been the clamor of the millions of climate protestors out there — Thanks, Greta — but if it’s a virus so tiny we didn’t see it, that may be the last gasp of our filthy, fossil fuel habits, and so be it.
While we are stuck in our place
We see so many things, even as we are not seeing our friends and neighbors anymore.
Mending the holes in our social fabric that we were so often in denial about is not impossible. Enough people care that many are talking about these very things.
No nation is perfect, but those places with competence, leadership, and inspiration are making a global impression that we most definitely need for people everywhere to notice.
We are in the same boat?
No one of these things happen separately. It is not accurate to say that “we are all in the same boat,” except in one regard: What we do to spaceship Earth — our only boat — does in fact matter to every living organism on the planet.
They say that COVID-19, an illness caused by the Corona virus, is not an organism. Maybe not. But that it can be born, and grow, and spread, through us, makes it real. And that it can alter our behavior and our being, is obvious.
The question is how much are we going to alter the system that made such a nasty “non-organism” run rampant in the first place.
Our only boat, Earth, needs to be heard loud and clear. Our protection of one another, not our competition with one another, is vitally important. Our understanding that all of these things are related is essential. Our robust creativity and innovation to make rapid changes will make the surviving world a better one.
Our technology, if not too twisted into surveillance and authoritarianism, will display our real love of our fellow human beings.
That love is not restricted to humans, either, when we keep our worlds from burning down, or burning out in a hot zone hell, we help everyone. When we protect ourselves from flooding storms or flooding panic, we support a biosphere that supports us.
Can we do this? Check to see who you may have laid blame upon today, and then check to see if you still love more than you hate.
If it is the latter choice, we’ll have a needle to administer vaccines and antibodies. But, the true mending will only come if we needle our leaders enough to mend the social fabric that is so seriously torn.
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Previously published on Medium.
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