I’m going to share something I wrote and posted on my Facebook page last night in the Notes section. It was in reaction to seeing friends attacking Christian author Tim Fall for his wife being of Chinese descent, seeing other friends either bragging, or falling apart over things like toilet paper and guns being hoarded. Seeing friends who work in medical fields falling apart over the workload and lack of all protective gear while jeering Trump fans attack them.

The worst of last night was seeing the very beginning of those I know in my daily life posting charts, memes and rants about how all of us who are old, or have underlying conditions are completely to blame for our ill health. One lady I know posted that anyone with heart disease should not be eligible for any treatment for COVID 19 because they caused it with their bad diet. That we all just need to die already so that the U.S.A. can open up for Easter.

I get why I’m seeing this bad behavior. People are under stress, and instead of acknowledging that and taking steps to deal with the stress they are taking their stress out on those they have decided are to blame in some way. Classic projection, enabled even more by the maniac childish senior citizen we have as president, Donald Trump. I can no longer listen to him during press conferences because of the constant lies that spill from that pie hole in his strange face.

Open thread. Just my thoughts on this after a day trying to be seen for a new MRSA infection during the epidemic. My stupid immune system is a rusting ’74 Pinto up on blocks now.

Can We Just Simply Be Kind Now?

This has been a terrible trial in our modern times, this Coronavirus threatening all of us. We are all at risk, there are people dying in all age brackets, fitness levels and health levels now. Many will live, but sadly not everyone will.

One of the few things I’ve found of value in this time is gratitude, the simple joy of seeing my neighbors, my friends, and strangers coming together to love and support each other. I’ve got neighbors that before this I would have driven past that I now greet and am greeted by waving, enormous smiles and even a few blown kisses. The guys I know down at the grocery store that I no longer can hug, or shake hands with, but I can greet them with a huge smile, ask them how they are in this time. There’s a real sense of community, that life is precious and sweet. I value that, and I pray it long outlasts the virus outbreak.

It’s so easy to lose sight of that, our dependence and interconnectedness with each other and all of creation.

At same time I am seeing unity in some I am also seeing some of the worst blaming and judgmentalism. I am seeing people upset that they cannot horde weapons and ammo (definitely not my first thought in a pandemic!) I am seeing dear friends fighting over racism, one very upset over others saying ugly things about his wife’s ancestry, and others demanding the right to say racist things about her cultural background. I’ve seen people blaming entire races of folks simply for where their grandparents came from. Angry words, bitter, nasty accusations.

In the last few days I’ve seen eugenics like talk creep into the language of others. The same eugenics ideas practiced by dictators which has led to the deaths of many. I’ve seen people claiming that anyone with heart disease that dies from COVID 19 brought this on themselves, that anyone not young or healthy should not receive medical treatment at all.

This type of talk simply makes me weep in despair, thinking about my late father, and the genetic heart disease he fought against his entire life. The young woman I know who was unknowingly exposed to hepatitis in her teens and ended up with liver damage. The others in my family also born with the same sort of severe asthma I was born with.

Sometimes life isn’t fair, and you cannot help the genetic hand you are dealt at birth. Sometimes these illnesses come on no matter how healthy you try to live. Does anyone remember the early death of the man who promoted running back in the 1970s? Jim Fixx had a heart attack and died in his 50s during a run, a guy who worked out and did so many things right still died of heart disease.

It’s way too early in the history of our fight with Coronavirus to start posting charts, or making claims of how this race caused it, or if this person is or isn’t to blame for their ill health. The time will come when we can look back and see what happened. what did and didn’t work. Now it is just hurtful and divisive to go right to blaming.

I understand that many people are nervous or upset, but being cruel to others is just not the way to deal with these feelings.

We are better served simply by loving each other, and putting aside issues of blaming and shaming others. Life is literally too short to waste so much of it on things that do not matter in the long run. No one will remember how fit you were, or that you had the most ammo. But they will remember how you made them feel in this trying time.