Gratitude
Amidst Daily Challenges of
Living with
the Coronavirus Pandemic
in the
Greater New York City Area – Part V – Conclusion
Consumers will demand greater
cleanliness in all eating venues. Restaurants with dirty restrooms will not
last. Bars and clubs with sticky and smelly floors will not remain open. Any
eating places that fail health department inspections will soon close. Moreover,
if a restaurant receives a grade lower than a “B,” it will soon be out of
business. Coronavirus has unimaginably and irreversibly educated the public on
infectious diseases. A corollary benefit to the market driven insistence upon
cleanliness and sterilization of food places will be expansion of small private
cleaning businesses specializing in restaurants, bars, clubs, catering halls
and types of food venues.
If marginalized people organize
themselves to combat racial, cultural, and ethnic pigeonholes in athletics,
entertainment, mass media and Hollywood, they can accomplish the same in
banking and the automobile industries. Predatory lending, usurious interest
rates, discrimination in extending and categorizing credit and redlining as it
relates to mortgages and rental rates financially cripple communities of color.
Despite the Federal Reserve Bank lowering rates in this crisis to stabilize
markets, banks have not passed along these savings to average consumers. Common
people need debt relief. Marginalized communities cannot build wealth without
any liquid or expendable income. How can they get ahead if housing costs (rent
or mortgage) consume sixty percent of their monthly net pay? When you add
utilities, automobile expenses (car note, gasoline, maintenance, and insurance)
and groceries, what is left? Rising healthcare costs erode their gross
salaries. Still, rather than complaining about these economic injustices, poor
and disenfranchised people, individually and collectively, can direct their spending,
saving and business to compel the banking class to end these oppressive
practices.
The coronavirus clarifies the necessity
of electing persons who possess the education, knowledge, personality,
experience, and competence to govern. Leadership abilities and skills must be a
requirement regardless party affiliation or ideological positions. Whether
left, center or right, a person must possess the wherewithal to resolve the
aftermaths of natural disasters, prevent a burgeoning pandemic, halt an economic
crisis, stabilize markets, punish players in financial scandals, bolster
economies, allocate tax dollars as investments rather than handouts, expand
rights of all citizens, specifically marginalized persons, encourage better
social relations and portray confidence when the public is justly
frightened. The incompetence of the
Trump Administration and several governors compounds the threat of the
coronavirus. Undoubtedly, their failures resulted in preventable infections and
deaths. One of the Southern governors incredulously stated at a press
conference that he had learned of the potential of social distancing to curtail
the spread of the virus within the last twenty-four hours. He made this
profoundly ignorant comment after a quarter of a million infections and nearly
ten thousand deaths. The states of New York, California, Washington, and
Illinois had already declared stay-at-home orders. Additionally, New York City
had become the international epicenter of the pandemic. Given the myriad issues
that I address above, marginalized, vulnerable and disenfranchised citizens
must use the political process to advocate for themselves. They must demand
genuine public servants who understand the privilege of holding office requires
care and compassion for all citizens. Regrettably, until the United States
Supreme Court reverses its 21 January 2010 decision, Citizens United v.
Federal Election Commission (558 US 310), the disproportionate power and
influence of the monied class will determine outcomes in American politics.
Average people have their votes and the small yet significant contributions in
the millions with which to combat the burgeoning American oligarchy.
I conclude with a recitation of my
gratitude for the countless and anonymous health professionals, first
responders, grocery store employees, pharmacy store workers, food delivery
people, postal workers and their nuclear and extended families who assume
tremendous risk each day enrich our lives during this pandemic. Also, I think of the local, state, and
federal government employees who labor in the shadows and burn the midnight oil
to allow millions of American households to maintain a semblance of
equilibrium. A pandemic exposes the absolute best in some people. For the
thousands of our fellow citizens who teach us what duty, sacrifice and
patriotism really mean, I am wholeheartedly grateful. Equally, I appreciate the
opportunities that this regrettable crisis affords us to create a more just and
equal society. We have three decades to prepare our nation for major shifts in
world population and subsequent changes in the international economy, trade,
competition, and geopolitical dynamics. Resolving systemic inequalities of
healthcare, education, housing, hunger, employment, technology, transportation,
criminal justice, and other human and infrastructure needs is the surest way to
prepare future leaders and workers. The electorate should insist upon strategic
and smart planning from political and governmental leaders. Candidates for the
United States House of Representatives and Senate should reveal their plans for
bipartisan collaboration to achieve American preparedness for mid-century
demographical, market and diplomatic challenges. Continual systematic
indifference to large swarths of citizens will undermine the country’s ability
to thrive.
Living in the valley of the shadow of
death as a nation offers us a unique chance to demolish historical racial and
ethnic myths, invest in educating and equipping people, correct past
injustices, recalibrate upon democratic ideals and principles, direct markets
toward fundamental fairness and legislate to expand personal freedom and
opportunity. I am thankful that our market driven responses to the pandemic
will induce some of these changes. I expect we will enjoy a better life which
values people instead of financial and material prosperity. If we harness the
positive attitudes that I observe in the grocery store and on long walks every
two days, we will experience growing relationships with potential to normalize human
dignity for all persons. Whereas I truly hoped that this pandemic would not
have landed on our shores, it offers a contradiction which is an opportunity to
heal myriad ills that plagued our society long before we learned of
coronavirus. In this deep darkest, I am grateful for the possibility of
holistic healing in our society.
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