COVID-19 • “Define Rain”

March 28, 2020

Science was trying to avoid the racism mistake this time.  When this novel corona virus was first identified, the naming was intentional: 

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the virus.

The disease it produces is Corona Virus 2019 or COVID-19.  

This was intentional because science knows the history of racism and the violence that follows when diseases are pegged to groups of people.

But science is not the only voice in this discussion. Politicians, a certain breed of politician, have latched onto fear as the easiest way to inspire voters. And even with every advantage in this fight, that siren sung too sweetly to steer away from.

POTUS is leaning on America’s bone-spur of racism to build a political pandemic.  He has tested the waters of racism before finding supporters encouraging him into the deep end.  As the death count explodes, especially amongst his voters, so will his need for a scapegoat; a place for their sadness to fester into hate. We already see the far right looking at Dr. Anthony Fauci as rumblings of “Deep State” start to stir. Fauci knows and alludes to the US having had more time, money and information than most countries first infected. Yet the scale of carnage that the US will be far worse.

That makes the “I’m not responsible at all” administration terrified.  POTUS knows he failed. As deaths move from tens to hundreds to thousands a day, his deep psychiatric disturbances will manifest.

POTUS is needs a target.

Here, we should look very hard at the experiences of the Muslim community, the Christian families in the Border and generally speaking, women.  POTUS has a very clear template for how to expresses his fear to maximize his voters’ terror. POTUS is baiting the hook of division; looking for someone to stick it too. That is his 50-year play book for personal failures.

But Asian(-ish) Americans are POTUS bait for now.

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Don’t take the bait. 

Our social order is going to be tested as we struggle to comprehend COVID-19’s damage. Facebook accounts are already filling with 2 or 3 degrees of separation between the dead and us. Fear is rising and episodic social strains are already starting.

We now have “foreigners” from the distant lands of New York or Florida as violent outlets for our fear on Cape Cod. These are Americans. What happened to us to be so easily separated from each other? Are we really that weak? Have we become so casual to abuse, that we cannot see our collective humanity? Where is the solidarity that is so clear in the first words of the Constitution? This is pathetic. Are we not Americans?

This is the playbook of this administration; to divide us. The abuse of Christian Families on the border, the abuse of Muslims around the world, the abuse of women and girls through his history, all are of POTUS tools of division. We know what happens when we do not resist this hate. If we roll over now, his white supremacy, nationalistic hate, misogyny is going to fill that void.

We are going to have to work together to fight what is obviously coming, even as we are cloistered in our homes.  Americans can reawaken the Good heart of our country, even in the face of his racist leadership.  This time of crisis is perfectly suited to that task if we stay away from anger and the fear it brings.

Fear mastered by compassion is the power of humanity itself; it separates us from our primitive nature. It brings solidarity to acts of communal effort in times of great stress and difficulty. Violence only compounds fear and intensifies chaos; we have plenty of that of now.

We must lead with compassion, but as a unified unrelenting ass-kicking force. Those three factors are key to success: Unified. Unrelenting. Ass-kicking. Working constantly together as an unyielding force of decency. Standing at each others backs when we are attacked on social media or the streets. Resisting the hate by holding each other up or standing in the breech. We are the force America needs now.

The fear of decent Americans, built by the triad of FOX/Breitbart/POTUS, has soiled the Good heart of America. Their old ruse of “family values” now exposed for simple racism. These Americans have been taught to distrust and fear their neighbors. The answer is to find a way to bring them back to reason and thus back to America. That is the difficult nature of compassion.

America was designed explicitly to avoid the magical thinking of kings and limit the power of fools.  It is time for the POTUS -party to re-join the Good heart of America and stop being such intentionally ignorant contrarians.  America is built on science and the reality it tells. If you don’t understand it, trust in the Americans that do. They are as much patriots to this cause as anyone in uniform on a battlefield.

The POTUS party has been a destructive force in our country and we are all sick of it. Get off the Hocus POTUS magic ride.  Get on board with America.

On January 20, 2017, during the inauguration, what was falling from the clouds above Washington DC?

How you answer that defines if America will go forward with magic or science.

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If you would like to read more from me, you can find it at bigwordsmallworld.com.  Thanks.     -jurgen