Bases are loaded. Your kids, grandkids, friends, and neighbors cheer. Do you homer, walk, or hit into a triple play?
We’re all on the same baseball field. The pandemic is everywhere. Italians sing to each another from their balconies, parents home teach their kids, and celebrities perform a “living room concert.”
Most of us care – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Think about the neighbor who quietly goes shopping for a high risk couple; the health care worker who leaves her family to help strangers in the hospital; the construction volunteer who works alongside the Army Corps of Engineers to build desperately-needed hospitals.
Millions of emails, texts, posts, and phone calls flow between us to connect, soothe, and join virtual hands.
We’re all in this together. That’s a team no one can beat.
But we need honesty. Truth. Transparency.
We don’t need a President (or anyone) who wants to transform a pandemic into a political contest, like accusing dedicated public health workers of stealing much needed supplies. Let’s toss bad players off the lineup, like Senator Rand Paul, who knowingly exposed others while waiting for his test results (they were positive) and Mitch McConnell who fights against helping workers while giving taxpayer money to big corporate interests. Expel pundits who rant that everyone over 50 should die for the sake of the economy.
Look at it this way. Corona virus might be novel but it’s not new. H1N1, SARS, MERS, and EBOLA came first. What’s new is how it’s handled, its contagion, its global assault, and a White House who spreads misinformation, candy-coated truths, and shatters our trust.
And climate change.
Scientists have known for a long time that climate change has altered the balance of the planet. Species have gone extinct, storms, floods, and droughts have intensified, and human health is endangered.
Climate change increases the risk of viral and bacterial outbreaks – exactly what we see today. Air pollution, animals dying, the rise of respiratory illness . . . the list is long. Thawing permafrost releases frozen critters into a world that doesn’t have million-year- old antibodies; loss of habitat pushes wildlife dangerously closer to humans; animals migrate to places they don’t belong.
Viruses leap from bats to humans.
The Home Team has the power to fight it. Right now – from your computers, your shelters-at-home, and your votes. We can’t let the bad guys win when there are so many more of us who care.
The corona pandemic will pass. We need to embrace the lessons learned today – choose lifestyles and leaders that protect us and the planet. We need to disinfect the White House so no leader can deny our reality. We need to fight climate change before there’s another pandemic.
It’s time to celebrate ourselves and our power to make things right.
Truth, solidarity, and hope. That’s a big win for the Home Team.
