Because I have a very, very full life and politics makes up only a tiny part of it, I haven't bothered to say anything about the ridiculous times we've been living in lately.
I've learned a few lessons in this pandemic and the main one is this: You can't talk people out of their fears.
Logic told me back in March that if Covid 19 couldn't kill an 85 year old diabetic with high blood pressure and no blood in her veins that it probably wasn't as lethal as the seasonal flu. Logic further told me that if niether her 92 year old husband or the kids who spent hours with her just before and after her symptoms presented, didn't catch the virus then it couldn't be as contagious as we were being told, or we all had it asymptomatically. Logic also dictated that if most of us had it without getting sick, it probably wasn't something we needed to order our lives around. Logic and experience (I've spoken to a doctor I trust about how viruses work) tells me that once I (and over a dozen family members) tested positive for the antibodies that we are all immune.
So fear of this stupid virus has had no hold on me. Not since the beginning.
But it doesn't matter to those who are afraid. They don their silly masks like good little comrades and cower in their homes believing those measures will have a positive impact on their lives and society.
I believe that when the numbers are finally in, the death toll in the US for 2020 will not be statistically higher than usual. Yes, over 200,000 Americans have died with covid but most of them were very old (over 80) and very sick ( over two co-morbidities, like heart or lung disease or cancer) with a small chance of surviving the year even if covid had never reached our shores. The actual number of people whom Covid had killed in the US by early September was between 9-10,000. That's 10,000 tragedies but no worse than the 60 to 80, 000 tragedies every year from the flu. That's nothing to close society over. Nothing to slap a mask over your face for. If this thing is as contagious as we're being told, the chances are very good that you've already had it.
If this virus is so dangerous, why didn't it kill my mom when she had no blood in her veins and virtually no immune system?
But these practical, logical questions have no effect on the frightened. Not like seeing public spaces packed with people in masks; now there's an impressive, scary visual!
We were told that 73,000 Minnesotans would die if we didn't halt the economy and hide in our homes. We were told that 50,000 would die no matter what.
The actual death toll is less than 10% of the numbers used to scare us into compliance.
We were told that masks would not prevent us from catching it but would keep us from spreading it to others.
If masks only prevent us from spreading it why are those of us who have the antibodies compelled to wear them?
There I go again, being all logical when most people wouldn't know logic if it hit them in the face like a snow ball.
Fear is an irrational emotion and we live in a time in which folks let their emotions rule their lives. This is a very dangerous state for society.
The only thing my neighbors are more afraid of than covid is Republican white supremacy. I live in Minneapolis. My city has been governed exclusively by Democrats my entire life and I am a grandmother, so that gives you some idea of how long the Dems have been in charge. I can't remember the last time a Republican candidate was even an option in a city election. So, given the lack of Republicans, you'd think the last thing in the world my city would have to worry about is institutional racism, right? WRONG.
Last spring, when George Floyd died in police custody, the knee-jerk assumption was that MPD was ruled by racism and Floyd was killed deliberately and this has been going on so long that the only answer left to the people was to riot and burn an entire neighborhood to the ground. And while the rioters did all this, our city and state governments (Democrats) stood by and did nothing.
Because they agreed with the rioters that the city is racist? Or because they were afraid?
I don't know what the reasoning was behind the government doing nothing to protect the homes, businesses and livelihoods of an entire neighborhood under attack and I don't really care what they were thinking.
The first order of government at any level is to prevent the mob from burning down their enemies.
THIS IS THE REASON WE HAVE GOVERNMENT.
Common sense tells me that a government that doesn't protect a neighborhood when the mob comes to burn it down is a waste of time, space and tax dollars. Worse than useless.
And the citizens of Minneapolis will probably re-elect this entire slate of useless politicians because they fear Republicans more than they fear the mob.
This is illogical to the point of insanity.
Why do they fear Republicans?
"Because the Republican party is racist."
"Because the Democratic party is about anti-racism and helping minorities."
IS IT?
Minneapolis burned because of 'systemic racism' in a system that has had no Republican influence in decades.
Democratic elected officials did nothing to protect a Black neighborhood from being destroyed.
The Republican party was formed to combat slavery but I've been informed by a recent college graduate that "it's not the party it used to be". She should tell that to Lacy Johnson, the Republican candidate for Congress in Minneapolis.
She should tell that to Kendall Qualls.
Or John James.
Or Burgess Owens.
Or Carla Spalding.
Or Byron Donalds.
Or Winsome Sears.
Or Elbert Guillory.
Or Jennifer Carnahan.
People in Minneapolis believe all this nonsense because the Democratic party tells them it's so. They have no evidence to back up these claims. They don't need any. Fear is enough. Fear fills the space in their brains where commons sense should be.
The worst thing about fear is that it warps your thinking in a truly dangerous direction.
In the movie JoJo Rabbit, the lead character is a young nazi who sees the error of his ways by befriending the Jew his mom hid in the wall. He realizes that she has no tail and is not the monster his political party claims she is.
That's not how frightened people think.
Frightened people don't think " wait a minute, this Republican has been my friend for 20 years; he's not a racist. Maybe 'Racism' and 'Republican' aren't synonymous. What else has my party been lying about?"
Frightened people think "OMG, my best friend for all these years is a racist and I never realized it! I must shun him now."
The Soviets, the Nazis, the Chicoms...pretty much every totalitarian government encouraged children to turn in their parents for crimes against the state. In Bosnia in the 90s and Rwanda in the 90s, people who had been neighbors for generations turned on and slaughtered each other. How do these things happen? I'm sure there are thousands of ways to describe and explain all of it but it all boils down to one thing.
Fear.
We dehumanize each other so that we can pretend to keep our own humanity as we destroy the ones we fear. Politicians know this. Politicians use this. They always have.
Be not afraid!
That is the advice given over 300 times in the Bible. It's good advice, whether you're talking health, politics or home decorating.