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OPINION | AMERICA IS TOO FREE TO STOP COVID-19

THE COVID-CONDUNDRUM

By Jilly McWhorterPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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Graphic BY Alexey_Hulsov via Pixabay

This is my second passionate rant about the attitudes of my fellow Americans whilst Covid snakes around us. I still feel the same way, just a little more married to my feelings now. The first few weeks of quarantine weren't so bad on account I had plenty of schoolwork to keep me busy. By the beginning of May, I was ordering pizzas for pick up just stretch my legs and talk to the clerks. They're very nice. As time moved along, my mind started to go twisty.

I started to believe that like a miracle, this virus wasn't going to disappear after all. I started to wonder where I could get that beautiful shade of burnt sienna concealer the president wears. What if, just what if...perhaps it was my dog who took my raincoat. I had been home a lot. I was suffering from the Corona-conundrum.

The Corona-conundrum isn't something I like to dwell on as it makes me a little nauseous. We all face it, though. "I should stay home, become Gollum with a Juul pod, and go broke for the good of the country," said no one ever, especially since March. "No, I want to live a little. But I should try not to. I’ve got to go out sometimes! But I don't want to hurt people...". Then there's the other side of the conundrum too, and it’s just as hairy. No more unemployment. We must go to work and play a fun, slow game of Russian Roulette, or stay at home and eventually win a free flight down to a lower social class.

America - the land of the free. Sometimes, I silently weigh in on what that really means. I say that because right now, parents are being forced to starve or turn their children into adorable, tiny executioners. It's so precious, they have no idea they’re killing it!

All around the country, parents must choose how their children will learn: e-learning or in-school learning. Several issues come out of this scenario, one being that we aren't allowed to NOT have our kids in school. If a parent opted out of in-school learning because they thought it was too dangerous, they must opt into e-learning. A child must not be kept home from school continuously without adhering to a method of education, (homeschooling, e-learning, etc.). A guardian can face legal consequences if a child isn't learning while at home and is also not in school.

Can't afford childcare, to quit your job, or the mental trauma of inadvertently killing someone? If a parent wants to go to work and keep their child home, they may need to hire someone for the daytime which is not an easy expense. If the parent decides they want or need in-school learning, they run into the hard wall of reality: it's too late. There is no way to contain Coronavirus in America.

No matter the decision made, every parent I have spoken to on the matter confided in me the same thing: "after I registered for school, I went home and cried". Somewhere, we missed our chance to possibly get to a safe place but instead, we all turned to the person next us, and flipped them the bird - including everyone's children. These parents are suffering.

Down the hallway to hell, nurses and doctors are living in the world we don’t see, leaving some to deny Covid altogether, because seeing is believing. Patients are dying without again seeing their loved ones who were just parking the car and coming right in. But we aren't coming right in. We do not get to see the inside - just the waiting room. When we can't see something - we do not feel it and we miss the call to change it. These healthcare workers are suffering.

Video-chat has made it possible for healthcare workers and teachers to draft their wills together in an unforgettable social experience, and it's becoming a popular pandemic passed time. Delivery drivers are rejecting cash tips. We’re allowed to opt-out of helping America get better and still bitch about it being sick. The world is upside down.

And teachers. Who's going to teach our children when all the teachers are dead? Or when they're all so mentally exhausted they can't teach? Why would someone want to continue being a teacher after being underappreciated for so long? They've been getting paid ten dollars a day plus hot lunch (that's not bad, I might be over-estimating), and now they're being expected to risk their lives because parents are expected to risk their lives at work? The Corona-conundrum continues.

There aren't any choices, although there are different options. Kids are resilient, but some parents have other good reasons why they cannot choose e-learning. These reasons could include but aren't limited to the need for the school lunch or protection from abuse. There may be two options but there's only one choice, and that's to send their kids to school.

It seems Americans consider "freedom" the antithesis of unity, yet we are still free if we help one another. We have made choices that lead to a much bigger mess than we faced initially, and I for one, am shook. I think this has been such a show that no one knows how to feel or how cautious to be. It's hard to keep a straight face at a funeral when the person speaking the eulogy is wearing a clown nose.

Our mental health is being compromised. We are abusing each other. I think some people will always wear a mask from now on. Some of us are "overly cautious" and open about it. Some of us aren't. Some won't believe it's over. Some won't believe it ever started. Sometimes I wonder if America likes having the virus around. Kind of like a dog. “Here Corona! Come!” That’s where we’re at right now.

Our current circumstances are impossible to overcome without a collective action from everyone in this country. We need to learn from the mistakes of others, Taylor Swift in this case, and realize perhaps we are the problem. We need to learn from our own mistakes, and realize the only place we've made it since we started to "flatten" the curve, is to the cemetery - people are dying to get in.

I read a theory that we could get control of the virus in six to eight weeks if we all would just wear a mask. We need friends and family to step up and be part time guardians and to possibly donate their time. We need people to cover their faces. We need to care about one another. Wash our friggin' hands. Selfishness is spreading and we need to contain that sickness, too.

It's November seventeenth, I'm out of money, jobless, exhausted, a little paranoid, and I haven't even done anything today. I took the option to pull myself out of retail to work from home, which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist. I am blessed to have support. Some don't have support though, and many will be evicted very soon, and some won't be able to eat. An increase in suicides is no coincidence. Some will struggle without much to live for. The government needs to take action.

Parents, teachers, healthcare workers, and all who are working in the public are sacrificing mental, physical, and social health, because America simply cannot run without them. Still, we show them little appreciation. I feel it is 100% in all their personal best interest to just go home. They could sleep for the first time in months, cry in private, turn on the Netflix and just say "whatever, not my problem." After all, they got the idea from us. They could choose themselves, but that would be detrimental to our interest and they are doing us a great service by choosing us.

I would understand if they walked away, though.

I'm glad I live in a country that doesn't shit where it eats.

opinion
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About the Creator

Jilly McWhorter

I write about this and that.

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