Summary

The web content reflects on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, drawing a parallel between the loss of life and the casualties of major wars, emphasizing the need for informed dialogue and critical thinking to combat misinformation and navigate the sociocultural and informational challenges of the crisis.

Abstract

The article titled "Memorial Day 2020" somberly marks the loss of 97,472 lives to COVID-19 in the United States by the time of writing, a number that surpasses American military deaths in the Korean and Vietnam Wars combined. It highlights the tragic loss felt by families and the broader society, noting the diverse range of victims, including healthcare workers, the elderly, and children. The piece underscores the importance of questioning the circumstances surrounding the pandemic, the responses of government and societal institutions, and the proliferation of misinformation. It calls for a collective effort to develop information proficiency, engage in respectful dialogue about the nation's direction in scientific, medical, economic, and social matters, and to be vigilant against malicious attempts to undermine American interests. The article draws attention to Finland's successful approach to combating fake news and suggests that the U.S. can learn from such strategies to strengthen its response to the pandemic and the associated informational warfare.

Opinions

The author expresses that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new kind of battlefield within the United States, one that requires a different kind of vigilance and engagement from its citizens.
There is a strong opinion that the loss of life from the pandemic is not just a personal tragedy for the families involved but also a national loss akin to casualties of war.
The article suggests that the pandemic has revealed the importance of critical thinking and media literacy, particularly in the face of misinformation and political manipulation.
The author commends Finland's approach to combating fake news, implying that the U.S. should adopt similar educational strategies to empower its citizens with the skills to discern truth from falsehood.
The piece criticizes the idea of simply 'living and letting live' or maintaining the status quo, advocating instead for active engagement in societal and political discourse to confront the challenges pos

Memorial Day 2020

97,472 Souls

The COVID-19 Pandemic Effects Unwitting Victims of Us All

97,472 souls and counting (as of May 23 6pm EST). More souls that have now died in America than American soldiers have in the previous 2 major wars since World War I — the Korean War and the Vietnam War — and every subsequent other war since then combined.

This time, the casualties are within our own shores: front line nurses, doctors, and municipal workers; the elderly, fathers, mothers, children — all have fallen victim.

Their deaths in itself are an immeasurably painful loss to all of us but especially to their families that will continue to mourn them for the rest of their lives, and no religion can assumably claim mastery over the covetable answers for these specific tragedies of these times which leaves us more despaired and even depressed. While those most affected can be understandably occupied in this aftermath, others of us suddenly have an apparent choice.

Those whoever still remain here and now, we unconsciously have a vacant duty — the kind that normally has been reserved for trained and willing warriors, who are drafted or have volunteered to go off to combat our adversaries on behalf of the civilian public, to now analogously question the circumstances surrounding this crisis, all the players involved (good and bad actors), the management (our governmental leaders), and examine the facts (scientific, political, cultural) in championing this war and preventing similar threats notably from the same origin in the future.

Not all of us (myself included) feel qualified to engage, let alone if drafted unafraid, to carry out too much beyond expending all possible resources in protecting ourselves and our own families alone, but this has become more than merely a physical battle, but a sociocultural and informational one; what we decide to challenge, believe, or assume and whether we just ‘live and let live’ or ‘keep it status quo’.

The simplest enough decision is to espouse information proficiency and have respectful dialogue about our national public interests in scientific, medical, but as well as economic and social directions, and involve our friends.

[Note: Partial movie plot spoiler alert below for anyone who has not watched The Thomas Crown Affair].

A common thematic ploy used in movies of serious and entertaining subjects is the use of distraction. One favorite fun fictional display of this was in The Thomas Crown Affair where the namesake business mogul, Pierce Brosnan’s character, gets away with stealing a Monet in broad daylight while the museum security staff and public visitors are distraught by the falsely pulled fire alarms and the decoy heisters.

With civilian lives at stake, we naturally ought to put politics aside, but in all realistic manner of modern life, this isn’t plausibly possible given the endemic nature of any shred of politics in our sheer existence. Rather, above this, we can refine our own detection skills of misinformation, of real fake news (hmm, an oxymoron?), of harmful information, and ulterior motives, dare I say (?) anti-American activities by truly malicious actors who intentionally undermine American public interests, particularly now under the attention-encompassing attack of a viral pandemic.

We can re-edify ourselves and re-ask some fundamental questions, such as: What parties or longer-game scenarios benefit with every controversial action? Who are the short and long term winners with, say, the premature opening of our country without enough testing kits available or the premature announcement of the use of pharmaceuticals-manufacture before scientific and more comprehensive human trials are conducted; what groups or regimes will precipitate their influence in their principal favor to induce permanent assets, that no longer can be indefeasible, during the chaos of this COVID-19 pandemic?

It’s already been news that Finland is top among 35 European countries for news literacy (with Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, and Estonia following right behind). Finland has taken very seriously to being assailed with fake stories by Russia since 2014. Nothing says it more that they really ‘get it’ and care more than developing a counter-false information program, teaching it to all their children, starting in primary schools, as well as publishing a handbook from their government’s Communications Department to combat future informational assaults of factual news, domestic and foreign, in the aim of preventing the misleading of ‘targets to make self-damaging decisions or act against their own self-interests.’ The country’s civil servants, journalists, teachers, and librarians have been included in being trained and educated as well. Though Finnish and Swedish being the two main languages in his country, the Finnish Prime Minister’s office’s Chief Communications Specialist, Jussi Toivanen, still put out a short clip in English that contains the most basic advice for processing media news that could be heeded by anyone, any country. The threat is not benign. Jon Henley from The Guardian quoted Jussi Toivanen to have said,

‘This [propaganda] affects all of us…It targets the whole of Finnish society. It aims to erode our values and norms, the trust in our institutions that hold society together.’ (Henley).

It is also interesting to note, and compare with, Finland’s response to COVID-19 which as of May 22 (with their approximate 5.5 million population) reported 306 deaths — 0.005% — versus US’s 97,000+ deaths (out of our approximate 330 million population) — 0.03% (5X worse than Finland’s death rate).

How we determine to cooperate, support each other or react when we recognize the weaknesses and the issues that need change socially, politically, culturally, that this pandemic has unwittingly revealed, can illuminate our way out of this crisis and beyond, and it is furthermore our opportunity to undertake collectively on behalf of our fallen citizens.

I can agree that US military wars are intolerable for the general public. It is, accordingly, the deserved debt we owe every Memorial Day to all our veterans and lost soldiers who’ve endured that burden for us and given us the celebrated victories from which we have enjoyed our freedoms in peace and prosperity.

And so, as we commemorate this Memorial Day 2020 in deference to our military souls, we equally can honor the unfortunate civilian ones who have been consumed, swept up in the COVID-19 pandemic, and defy our inclinations: decide to take increasing steps in the bolstering of our intellect and our awareness against domestic and foreign misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information for our impending long fight for our souls.

Here is another story you might like:

Why Could Beirut’s Port Disaster Warrant Distress?

The Figurative Foreshadowing to Catastrophe

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