Life of Wry

We surpassed the 500,000 mark today in Covid-19 deaths in the United States. I remember a year ago when Dr. Fauci was projecting a range that I think fell well short of half a million, maybe 250-400,000? Whatever it was, it was breathtaking (literally.. I just gasped) and I felt scared.

A year later…

All the knowledgable folks say these deaths were preventable. We’d have lost a lot of people, but nothing like this. We lead the world by orders of magnitude. We are among the richest, most resource-rich countries on the planet, and yet we lost more Americans per capita than any other nation.

There is a single reason. There is one person you can point to and say, under his leadership (intentional lack thereof), people died who absolutely should not have.

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We are now so much better off than we were a month ago. We can all breathe again. We have a human being in the White House who actually cares about the welfare of our nation and the people in it. Who sees his role as compassionate protector, fierce defender, moral leader. He spoke to the nation tonight — a moving address — while standing in front of the “People’s House.” Five hundred candles arrayed on the steps, each representing a thousand lives. Wow.

Since the start of this tragedy, I’ve kept a record on scraps of paper. I’ve been writing down the number of cases reported daily and the deaths. The scraps are bound together with a paper clip. I feel like it keeps me in touch with the reality of the deaths. While I don’t have anyone close to me who had died of Covid, I know people who know people, and I just don’t want to be inured to the losses. Because it is truly horrific and just so so sad.