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| Image from the Economist |
As f the unprecedented pandemic of COVID-19 wasn’t enough to give me that feeling. Even the way it evolved from the beginning till now is beyond real. Starting with news out of a small town in China about a virus that has been readily spreading in that city and most people not paying any attention to a disease in a far away country. A few short weeks after that public health officials basically closed down the country in an effort to control the spread of disease that quickly spread world wide – with the US having the largest number of cases.
No one at first thought it would show up here. Certainly not in any serious number. Most of the Jewish community probably felt the way I did. This is some sort of flu that will npt affect our lives and eventually pass. Untuil it did affect our lives. One Orthodox Jewish fellow got the virus and unknowingly infected a whole bunch of people around him in his community. He was hospitalized and I believe was on a ventilator for a while. (I have heard he has fully recovered. But surely it was not without a struggle.)
That was pretty frightening news. But that was New York. This is Chicago. It is unlikely to spread here. Until it did just days after the news of the fellow in New York. Someone in a Shul that I Daven in had been affected. That scared the wits out of me The rapid spread of a highly contagious disease that was now proven to be a lot more deadly than a typical flu. and I immediately decided to stay home and not Daven with a Minyan.
At first most people still continued to daven in shuls and schools remained open. But that didn’t last either. City and state officials closed them all down. Aas they did all non essential businesses. All of this happening a a few short weeks. Since then the dail reports of new cases and deaths from COVID-19 and the images of masses of people on ventilators with reports of ICU units overpowering to the point makeshift remote locations for new patients,shortages of supplies and an overflow of people dying of the diseases that funeral homes could not handle was a daily affair. Every day seemed worse than the day before. Makeshift morgues were being erected. Trucks with refrigeration capabilited were used tostore the corpses.
Prominent people started dying unexpectedly in record numbers. With no one at their bedsides and no one attending their funerals.
And even now as the spread of the disease started slow down in New York and Illinois, the numbers are spiking in about 20 states including California and Florida.
The economy has suffered an blow unprecedented since the Great Depression. Flying high just a few short moths ago, closing down all non esenstil businesses has increased unemployment to record levels and the ‘bread lines’ (in the form of cars waiting in long lines for groceries they can no longer afford because of loss of income). Some businesses will never recover.
Students are staying hom. Online instruction is now the norm. Entertainment (movies, theater) is gone. Sporting events – gone! Fundraising banquets for schools – gone. Which means that in some cases teacher may not get paid. Summer camps – gone.
On that last item, the Agudah camps has taken the unprecedented step of suing the governor of New York on constitutional grounds for forcing their camps to stay closed for safety reasons. With a not so subtle threat of defeating him at the polls for doing that. In fact they have just issued a public service announcement calling for Orthodox Jews to vote in the upcoming New York primary. Of course they did not endorse any candidate. But suing the governor is not exactly an endorsement for his re-election. Nor was the call by many Agudah type Orthodox Jews in calling for revenge at the polls by voting against him - doing so as private citizens. It does not take rocket science to figure out what the Agudah’s call to ‘do our civic duty’ really means.
As if all this weren’t enough - out of the blue a black man was choked to death by the knee of a Minnesota cop. It was recorded by a bystander on a smart phone which has been played over and over again the media. That has given rise to the greatest legitimate protest movement since the Viet Nam War. Which bgans with rage looting and violence – and the destruction of property of the very people these protest are desgied to help. All while the pandemic was still killing people.
These protests will surely change the way things are done now. Some for the better. Some not.
Not that this will change the racist attitudes of a lot of people. But it will change how racism is dealt with in a positive way. It will not do so without some serious collateral damage to law enforcement. Among them less effective and very likely increasing the incidence of crime.
Meanwhile as these protests continue, statues of Columbus, Washington, and Jefferson have been damaged by some of the proesters objecting the glorification of our founding fathers because they were slave-owners.
And that doesn’t even beign to address one of the most radical changes America has ever seen. Which began on 2016. By electing a man as President that may very well be the antithesis of what a President should be. The word ‘incompetent’ doesn’t even being to describe him. A man so narcissistic that a more appropriate motto would for him would have been ‘Making Trump Great’. Because that is really what his presidency is about. Which involves some pretty questionable tactics (to put it mildly). Even as I appreciate some of the foreign and domestic polices he has implemented. Which seem to have been secondary to his primary goal of self aggrandizement.
What can we look forward to? Until a safe and effective vaacine is available, mor of the same with respect to the virus. Public safety is up I the air as the police are surely being hamered in their duty to serve and protect us. While the police are waiting to find out if they will have a job when this ios all over. What will become of Amercan history if our founding fathers are successfully vilified?
What about the next leader of the free world, Joe Biden? I am not optimistic about a President whois a proven lair with liitle conviction other than what will get him votes. A man that will surely place his finger in the liberal wind to see what polices to implement.
I am not optimistic about someone who chooses a running mate based more on gender than on qualification. He may choose a VP more qualified the he is himself. Which is not too hard to do. But limiting his search to one gender eliminates form consideration half the population. From which there may very well be a more qualified candidate. Or not. But we will never kow because no man will be considered no matter how qualified he is.
And then there is his promise to restore aid to the Palestinian authority. Who will then be able to resume paying the families of terrorists killed in action by Israel. Biden has promised to reopen the PA embassy n Washington and promised to restore US objectons to any settlement activity. He will very likely continue the policy of the previous Presdient - allowing the UN to issue more condemnations of Israel.
Biden has also promised to restore the nuclear deal with the terrorist regime of Iran implemented by that same President. Giving them the ablty to expedite their export of terror in the region - and continue to crush any dissent from their people on the domeatic side he has promised to restore confiscatiory taxes on major corporations. And that will surely slow down an already devastated economy.
To say that we are in a big mess may very well be the understatement of the century. I am very pessimistic. I sincerely hope I’m wrong about all of this. But I doubt it.