Dear America, Don't Forget About 'Rona

Picture this: it's Father's Day in Tulsa Oklahoma, the day after the Trump rally, and your dad wants you and your siblings to go to brunch with him. You can imagine the mental preparation we had to do for this. The three of us haven't been to a restaurant since the beginning of March. Our dad on the other hand, love him to pieces, is not the most proactive person when it comes to prevention. He has hand sanitizer on him all the time and uses it fairly regularly, but only wears a mask when the establishment requires it. He's been going out and traveling and just living as if nothing is happening. My siblings and I have taken things much more seriously; rarely leave the house, constantly using sanitizer and washing our hands, always have a mask on in any public area. It's second nature now.

Now, we walked into brunch on Sunday and my brother, sister, and I were the only people in this restaurant wearing face masks. Yes, including the servers. We sat in a little corner booth at the front of the restaurant with a table between us and the next family, tucked away enough to feel out of the way and semi-out of harm's way. Once we ordered, people started filing in to get tables. Including a group wearing MAGA hats, so my assumption is they were at the rally the night before. Not a single one wearing a mask or having any courtesy for those around them, packing in elbow to elbow asking for a patio table. Here's the thing guys; a patio table doesn't help your cause after being packed together for 5 minutes waiting for said table without anything covering your face. It's science! And they're pretty simple guidelines if you ask me.

I know it's not mandatory to wear face coverings in Tulsa, or most places in the country right now, but just because you don't have to doesn't mean you shouldn't. Just because you can go out and resume a quasi-normal life, doesn't mean you should. Especially in places where the numbers have been spiking, like Tulsa. We have had worse numbers now than when the city was half-ass shut down. Right now, I believe, government officials are doing all they can to salvage the economy; whether people get sick or not is a low level concern at this point. That means we have to be more accountable for what we do in public. We have to hold each other more accountable for what we do in public.

The United States has the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world with 2,275,645 with 27,645 new cases. We've created an environment where that's somehow okay. It's somehow okay that 119,923 Americans have dies from COVID-19. There were only 2,977 victims in the September 11th attacks. There were only 2,403 casualties at Pearl Harbor. 168 people died in the Oklahoma City bombing. These events are tragic and deserve recognition. Never forget. But, what about the people dying right now? What about the people who have died alone and their loved ones who didn't get the chance to say a proper goodbye. As much as we can joke about it and make memes about it to make ourselves feel better, this needs to be taken seriously. If our government officials won't, we have to. I don't feel I need to express how utterly disappointed I am in the Tulsa mayor right now for not only allowing a large indoor gathering in the middle of a pandemic while numbers are rising, but also the inability to acknowledge that COVID-19 is still an imminent threat. That seems to be a common theme these days. Listen to science, listen to your gut, protect yourself and one another; someone has to.