This is not an opinion page to pressure anyone into taking my views. I hope you see it as an opportunity to think and possibly rethink what you’ve seen, heard, or believe.
Like most everyone else, I was bound to have an opinion at some point. Covid-19. Wearing masks, not wearing masks. Washing hands, not washing hands…etc., etc., etc. Anger on both sides of the wide spectrum of real fear to scoffing at the media’s dire death counts. Unless you, or someone you love, have an underlying medical condition that you know you could die from if you contract it, or you know someone who has suffered from and possibly continues to suffer severely from the effects of covid-19, or you’ve lost a loved one to covid-19 or covid-related complications, you can’t necessarily understand the fear, the concern, or the anger over what some believe and how we think we should react to what we hear – and what we know. Trained emergency and hospital personnel who have been dealing hands-on with covid victims for the past year could give us the up-front scoop of the reality of death or near-death counts. They could also tell us about the deaths that were potentially caused by covid-19, but that could have been caused by the flu or pneumonia, because the people already had underlying conditions. The fear is real, since covid is a highly contagious virus that can cause death in someone with underlying issues – or in anyone that’s perfectly healthy. Does it matter what the ultimate death came from? Imagine yourself standing near a guillotine and the guy in black (executioner) is grinning evilly at you. Will you avoid him at all costs? Will you be shaking in fear, acting nonchalant but keeping your distance, or would you take a couple beers up to him and chat for a while – with the hope that he doesn’t grab you and do his “thing”? We all respond differently to fear based on who we are, what we’ve gone through, and what our present circumstances and abilities are. Try not to judge others because they feel differently about a situation than you do. Arguing over it only escalates the tension, stress, and a potential falling out.
The media, which tells us every possible left to right opinion and really can’t be trusted anymore, hasn’t helped in the least. Who knows what they say is true? So much of the media is untrustworthy these days. Once upon a time, we had two or three television channels with properly researched news being reported – they got in big trouble if they didn’t get it right. Now we have mass amounts of often poorly researched, attention-seeking “news” coming from scads of sources, from nobodies and anybodies who want their opinions heard or just want to make their bit of a splash in the world. Some sources are radical and some are purposely geared to insight anger and hatred. Many people are stressed or anxious from steaming in anger or fearful over things that may or may not be entirely true. How did news reporting travel so far from facts and truth to opinion and story-selling tales? And then there’s our social media. Same basic problem: some of the information we see on Facebook and its counterparts is highly debatable or false, opinionated, and/or disparaging, not to mention purely hate-driving. Plenty of news reporting is done with enough facts to get readers to believe in it – and keep them reading their source – but are twisted to another’s beliefs to the extent that it is a warped truth. Do we choose the channels and sources of who we agree with the most, or do we look for sources that we know are telling facts instead of opinion? Who can we believe anymore? We should be careful to remember that what we’re seeing on our media sources (T.V., Facebook, radio, etc.) is not necessarily all truth. Not anymore. And that’s just the media issue. (And we should be careful, too, to make sure we know true facts as much as possible before we speak out on an issue, or we may help spread the hate that is rapidly overtaking the USA. [Of course, I’m likely to do it at some point in my blog journey, so apologies ahead!])
Then there are the jobs versus lives issues surrounding covid-19. How can we count lives as less important than jobs? And yet, scads of men committed suicide during the depression, because they couldn’t get a job anywhere, and so they couldn’t support their families. They lost everything and had no self-worth and could not live knowing this. Not being able to support your family was equated with not being a viable person (man) in those days. Have there been suicide counts for those whose businesses have failed during covid? Will we see more in the aftermath of covid-19? Can we compare it to the potential loss of people we would have seen if we had not closed so much down? (Please, please, know that you can rebuild, restart, no matter what you’re experiencing – this too shall pass and you are stronger than you know. Get whatever help you can.) What about domestic abuse? Should mental health needs be taken into account? On the flip side, (to buy our favor, I'm sure) will we see the (further) financial fall of our government for paying out stimulus checks more than was necessary to people who didn’t need it, instead of having people file for help when they did need it – as they would have had to do in more normal circumstances? You see, again, it’s the wide spectrum of perspective. Medically challenged and/or fearful versus loss of livelihood, homes, families, battered wives, children or even husbands, possibly even loss of lives. The decision to close down, or not, is not as simple or easy as it may seem. And, yes, some will say pandemics are nature’s way of bringing down the population. Technically, they could be correct, no matter how coldhearted it might sound. Nature does its thing and mankind keeps battling it. Like we ought to, when we’re striving to save people’s lives.
I don’t think any disease should become a war with our family, friends, neighbors, or even strangers over who believes what or how we should be acting toward it, and that’s as far as I’ll get into my own beliefs. I want people to think for themselves; but I will say that as far as the covid-19 guidelines or strictures go, I find the best policy is to make your own choices, but not at the cost of another’s safety or even sense of safety. If someone else is wearing a mask, they could be doing what they feel is right, or they could be afraid, but they might have a medical condition that puts them at risk if they contract covid-19. With this in mind, it seems best to put our mask on. If you saw someone drowning, and you were able to save them, you very likely would. If it turned out they were joking around and didn’t need saving, you at least would know you’d done your part. At the same time, since this virus has been so politicized and mediacized (I don’t think that’s a word, but it sounds appropriate), we should consider not judging how other people take the conflicting news reports and precautions.
Whether we like the laws or not, we should strive to live by them. They are set up to protect us (whether politically charged or not). But mostly we ought to live to help others, to be kind, to love people, including to potentially save lives, to the best of our ability. Wearing a mask may seem stupid to some of us, but when we wear it anyway to make someone else feel less fearful, we are being a hero. Forget the capes and weapons – and masks – of the TV and comic book heroes. Sometimes the simplest gestures make us real life heroes. Be a hero today. And tomorrow. And the next day. Keep that hero's mask handy, just in case, hold a door open for someone carrying something, say a kind word, maybe even save a life. That’s a real-life hero. Going out of your way to put someone before yourself. Let’s be heroes.
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