I have every intention of going backwards at some point to catch myself up but I have to say something about the here and now first.

I keep finding myself wide-eyed and incredulous over the insanity of armed thugs storming the state capital because they don't like being told to stay home. All the vitriol and hate, shouting and posturing and so much denial in one place. Here in MI there is a special kind of "freedom fighter" who is happy to enjoy all the benefits of living in the US without all those tedious responsibilities, like taxes and such. So when they are told they can't spend their free quarantine time up in their vacation cabins because the hospitals up there have like 40 beds and no ventilators and the stores support the 400 people who live there not the 1000s that come up in the summer, or because they might bring the virus from infected cities into those rural areas, they stomp their feet and pout and scream "not fair" like children do when they have to stay home instead of going out to play.

So you tell them we are all frustrated and bored. You say this is important because we need to flatten the curve so the medical professionals can keep up with infections, learn about the virus and find ways to fight it and eventually prevent it. You point to experts all over the world and say, they have this, all we have to do is stay home and wait for them. For those who have to go to work and we take care of them by staying home as much as we can and wearing masks when we must go out. We protect each other because we are human and it is what we should do.

Their response:

This is all a big plot by the pharmaceuticals, the government and Bill Gates to use the "vaccine" to put chips in us. There is no virus, it's all a hoax. We are forfeiting our freedoms for safety and there is a meme for that. Listening to experts makes you "sheeple" and checking sources and cross referencing data isn't done or if it is it's done in an echo chamber.

I see perfectly lovely people, family people who love and are loved, who kiss their children and tuck them in at night. They take care of their parents and think the most important thing is family. They are nice to their neighbors and volunteer at their school. So how do you understand them as they babble on about conspiracies and tyranny in the light of a very scientific and verifiable natural disaster?

I think they are afraid. They say they are afraid of tyranny, and the government taking their freedoms etc, etc. but tyranny is something they can fight. They can take a stand against tyranny. They can prepare for the "coming war". They can gather together those they love and they can protect them with guns and passion.

But the virus. You can not see it, touch it, it is barely alive. How do you fight it? Washing your hands? Staying home? Wearing a mask? That doesn't feel like fighting, that feels like fear. It is the fear from which there is no escape. You can not yell it away, nor shoot it, nor demand that it leave you alone.

We are all feeling helpless but in every disaster or traumatic event there are those who will yell at the storm. They will scream and grind their teeth over the unfairness of it all. And then there are the people who know that all that energy is better spent doing what you can.

I make masks. I don't make hundreds of masks, I am not that dedicated, some days I have trouble getting out of bed or off the couch but when I can, I make masks for my family, friends, neighbors and friends of friends. I donated blood. I feed my family. I make sure my son has mental health treatment so he isn't overwhelmed with anxiety over this. I ask about how people are and I thank everyone working to keep our society going. I am afraid but unlike so many of the people screaming at the governor I am resigned. I do what I can but in the end, the virus will do what it can to survive. Not with thought, or malice or with any plan, but in the way that the microscopic world works, viruses, bacteria, an entire world we can't see or detect without instruments until there are millions of individuals.

I get it now. They are afraid and helpless and need a reason to die. Liberty or death. Don't Tread on Me. Not sneaking virus deaths for no reason. They want it to be about something. With a human bad guy they have something they can see, something they can fight.

The don't want to believe in a slip of RNA that takes the human body and tears it apart from the inside.

It is a shame that their fear will most likely expose people to potential death and I get angry at them for that. But they are just scared, so scared that they will make up a less scary boogieman.

They really are children, as such they deserve our compassion. Oh it is hard to give compassion in the face of hate but remember hate almost always comes from fear and fear can make us to terrible things.

In the face of fear, give love. If you can't give love at least understand where they are.

And wash your hands.

I wish you Peace

~alison~