August has always been a favorite month. As kids, it was the last hurrah before starting school and it was warm so swimming and playing outside were the best. As we know, this year is a bit different for all of us. Who would have thought six months ago that we would still be in the height of the COVID crisis? The pandemic has moved from an acute disaster of a presumed short duration to a chronic fiasco. Our homes, if we are lucky enough to still have them, have become our sanctuaries. As we can see, our friends and neighbors are fortifying and updating their abodes. Restaurants are installing UV lights in their AC/Heat systems to kill bacteria and bring customers back. Robots are in development to sterilize hospital rooms and take temperatures of those entering buildings. If humans were ever concerned about robots taking over their jobs, this would be the time to worry.
As Americans, we are looking at issues, such as loss of wages and jobs, and educators being confronted with the decision of whether to continue their teaching careers or leave their professions and students after years of dedication. What a choice to have to make! This is not right and is a cataclysmic dilemma. Many Americans had no plans for this type of disaster including that of Trumpism. Even cities and towns that have seen hurricanes, tornadoes, flu outbreaks, and polio had never anticipated this level of misfortune. As with any chronic condition that is persistent, reccurring, and difficult to eradicate, we are seeing issues with sleep and one in three Americans are experiencing some level of depression. Michele Obama spoke honestly about this last week admitting her difficulty and stated, “Spiritually, these are not fulfilling times.” She went on to say that “This is not just because of the quarantine but because of racial strife and just seeing the Administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting.”
As we continue to evolve in this new world of Trumpism, Covid and domestic wars, we do understand that, to survive Covid, it is time to cultivate a new life design not like one back in the day because back in the day is not returning anytime soon. That being said and understood, we can all choose to move ahead. Maybe it is a good time to look to the youth who are now facing something that they will be talking about for years to come. You might say that they are using Covid as a platform to form new ways of thinking and acting. Although, this is not necessarily easy, it presents in a good way a challenge to our attitudes and way of thinking about our survival.
As some of us mourn the death of movie theaters, full shelves at the grocery store, free samples at the deli counter, and all the other things that suddenly went away due to Covid, we welcome a new attitude of survival. The words we recently heard from a 16-year-old Virginia girl keep resonating through our minds. Although she dislikes the solitude and the loneliness of the quarantine, she believes that, “After this, everything will be sweeter.”
With 82 days left until the election and Covid on the rise, this is our moment to listen, face the truth, accept it, and work towards making things sweeter afterwards, if not for ourselves, but for those who will follow. This is our moment and an opportunity to make a difference. So, we suggest that you put on a happy face, smile at a baby through your Vote Today or Good Trouble mask, and know that the world will be a better place for them and all of us if we work to figure out how to keep going during this pandemic and rare political time. We recalled that, when living in DC, there were huge Victory Gardens down the street surrounded by houses and condos. It was wonderful to watch neighbors as they tended to and protected their gardens with such dedication and care. Victory Gardens were first developed in designated city spaces during WWI and WWII. The government at the time encouraged people to plant vegetables and fruit to supplement war rations and to lift their overall morale. Many joined in at the time to support the effort and it made quite a difference in the quality of life in those areas. Many of the gardens are still enjoyed today and remain productive.
We began to wonder what our equivalent is of the wartime Victory Gardens in today’s Covid and social justice activist world. Victory Gardens of today could be more virtual for they need not be actual gardens. We asked ourselves what our plans are for assuring that things will “be sweeter” and what does our “Victory Garden” look like. Our current Victory Garden is filled with virtual volunteering, Democratic and social justice organizing, and Zoom calls and trainings. On the lighter side, we have home movie nights and we welcome our outside time. We still try to practice kindness if even from afar. We did plant a small garden, although, if we had to live off it, we would not survive.
We still find that repetition of each day, the up and down days, the loss, the search for a daily sense of purpose can all accompany these thought provoking times. This pandemic has been a shock to our psyche. One used to say, do you remember how things were back in the day? Now back in the day was only six months ago. We now have ongoing wars on so many fronts. If the war on Covid, race, gender and social justice were not enough, add to it the many foolhardy deniers and the result is a perfect storm.For some deniers, they selfishly gather for revivals or biker rallies only to return home to infect countless others and create Covid hot spots. The reality host, Trump, has his followers clap and hoot as he touts his new hoax of the grizzly horrors of mail-in ballots and praises his attempt to single handedly bring down the postal service. Which of his followers will be the first to complain when they do not receive their heart medication, Viagra, or their precious NRA magazine? And on top of that, the news just keeps getting worse as Trump says that, if he is reelected, he will end the payroll tax. His rich donors persist in glorifying his paltry remarks as they stand in his golf courses unmasked and looking stupid. As they chuckle and he cackles, do they even understand that the payroll tax funds Social Security and partly funds Medicare? Do they know or care that he cannot even pronounce Yosemite? And that a third grader could. I bet not!! The good news is that “Yo Semite” T-shirts sold by the National Museum of American Jewish History has brought in close to $30,000 in sales. Get one today! Keep it up, Trump, because we know that no matter what you do there are always going to be about 25% of Americans who will laugh and applaud your stupid, ignorant comments and executive order signings with your big black Sharpie.
As Trump continues to read like a first grader or worse, how dare anyone question the qualifications of Joe Biden’s VP choice, Kamala Harris? How dare they! Trying too hard is not a disqualifier nor is having loads of experience. What qualifications did Trump have other than being a daddy funded, failed land developer, TV host and a grifter?!
We are endlessly inspired by those honest and hardworking people that are committed to cleaning up this current political mess. As Covid and Trumpism keeps knocking at our door, we need not answer. We do need to move past it and join in reconstructing this country. Our readers live in the city, the country, houses, condos, north and south. Collectively, we can all work together from afar and, whatever it takes, let’s do it. It could be as simple as stating loudly that you are a Democrat or that you support the Democratic Party. We are not afraid to state this anymore but are afraid of the thought of losing our democracy. The continuation of the Trump era would be a disaster and we cannot imagine today who would ever support such an Administration and its policies right out of the Nazi playbook.
It is time for each of us to find our reason for helping to end Trumpism. We heard the other day a saying that is worth remembering as you consider what you can do. “You are either at the table or on the menu.” Find your reason and get busy for democracy is tired of being on the menu! And, as you consider what your personal Victory Garden may look like, remember that the deranged, dictator-loving President cannot change how you feel about your own existence. Although he has altered a lot, he cannot change your acts of activism, caring, and kindness. He cannot control how you think and feel, only you can do that. We are ready to listen to our elders, learn from the kids, and proceed to implement a plan to come out the other side of this – the “sweeter” side – a more enlightened and grateful people. Let us all plan on meeting there. Now, let’s get to work!
This blog is dedicated to you, our reader, who seeks to learn and care endlessly for this planet. Be kind and be grateful for a sweeter world is yet to come. This is your moment. Hang in there!
82 days to go – Go Joe & Kamala!
