Praying Our Country Will Find its Way Back to Civility

What one tweet showed me about the division in our country

My father-in-law passed away last month from double pneumonia, and our family has been dealing with this difficult loss and I took some time off social media and watching the news to focus on our family and healing.

However, last night I was watching the Glenn Beck Radio Show on Blaze TV and he was discussing the Texas salon owner who was sent to jail because she opened her business one week before the COVID-19 lockdown order was lifted.

Her employees came to work voluntarily because they needed to make money to feed their families. All employees and customers work masks for safety and abided by the social distancing parameters. Today the lockdown order was amended and Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered that the salon owner would be released from jail.

After hearing more details last night about this situation, I vented online with the following tweet.

I wasn’t expecting this tweet to get such huge engagement from people.

However, it received 104,491 impressions as of the time I wrote this article, 289 comments, 452, retweets, and 1,467 likes.

I’m not sharing this information to brag about having a tweet go viral.

I’m sharing this to show how tense things are right now in America.

Just reading through the comments gave me even more of a tangible idea of how people are feeling right now due to the coronavirus pandemic — and differing viewpoints about Government overreach.

Many people are fearful of the coronavirus and afraid of our unknown future.

The media hasn’t been helping since they stoke the fires and easily cause more panic. People are starting to trust the Government and news even less.

Approximately 90% of the tweet responses were from those with a conservative viewpoint who think that Federal, State, and local governments have been extremely overreaching in their control of citizens because of COVID-19.

People are frustrated that they have to stay at home and can’t go to work to earn money for their family, buy food, and pay bills. Many people have been laid off from their jobs or furloughed for the unforeseen future.

They are worried that this Government overreach will expand in the future and those in power will take even more control over Americans. People are tired. They are fed up with the Government taking away our freedoms.

Some people think this virus was spread on purpose.

One Trump supporter tweeted that he thought people should obey the Government during times of crisis. That is a differing viewpoint from most of the other Trump supporters who responded to my tweet.

About 10% of the responses were negative, calling me — and other conservatives — out for being ignorant people who only want our freedoms at the cost of the death of others who have contracted COVID-19.

I agree that COVID-19 is serious and people have died.

However, shutting down our economy has made our country go even deeper into debt, caused hardship on families, and has the potential to be the catalyst for increased suicides, abuse, drug use, and depression. As President Trump said, “We can’t allow the cure to be worse than the crisis.”

There were some other tweets that contained more profanity and vulgarity, which I won’t include, but you get the point. The following tweet is an example of someone tweeting an opposing viewpoint from my original tweet.

Seeing things from both sides

I understand the point about protecting the most vulnerable and doing our part to keep people from dying. I get it. My father-in-law’s nursing home was on lockdown to protect the most vulnerable.

I know three people in our circle of friends and family who contracted COVID-19.

One was my husband’s cousin. He is in his mid-forties and suffered for about two weeks, but he got better without having to go to the hospital. My sister’s friend is a nurse and she contracted COVID-19 and pneumonia while working in the local hospital. She is still in the midst of this health crisis. Another was a family friend who thankfully recovered.

However, I also know how this coronavirus pandemic messed with our family’s lives while dealing with my father-in-law’s death in mid-April.

You can read more about it in my article, Dealing with Loss During the Coronavirus Pandemic. Just know that it was extremely difficult not having my husband’s large extended Italian family be with our immediate family at the funeral home. Having to wear masks during the funeral was surreal.

I understand what President Trump, his administration, and Coronavirus task force have been doing to try to slow the spread. I feel that they have all done a great job.

However, I am afraid of how easy it was for everyone to give up their freedoms and abide by stay-at-home directives issued by Governors — and how we’re on a slippery slope when our freedoms are being taken away.

My husband works in pest control and was deemed an essential worker in Pennsylvania. So he had worked throughout this pandemic. However, they only did pest control outside and wore masks and gloves if they had to go inside to do pest control in customers’ homes for emergencies.

We live on a tight budget and I am thankful he still had work. I lost several of my freelance copywriting projects during this time. It has been difficult, but we are getting by.

My heart goes out to people who have lost their jobs and have no idea if they will be called back to work. There are people who haven’t even received their unemployment benefits yet.

This entire situation has caused so much hardship and loss. My heart breaks for the families who have lost loved ones due to COVID-19.

Finding a way back from division

On this National Day of Prayer, May 7th, I pray that we will find a way back from this terrible situation. I am a Christian conservative so my opinions are based on my Biblical beliefs. I understand that not everyone believes the same way.

I hope that somehow we can come back from the deep division in our country and speak to each other with civility again.

From my vantage point, that seems impossible — especially when you spend too much time on social media and watch the news and many people are inundated with liberal indoctrination from the mainstream media.

However, I’m an optimist and believe in the American spirit of freedom and entrepreneurial vision. I hope that vision is still alive today and we can find a way to come back together as Americans — regardless of belief and political affiliation.

We are Americans and I pray our country can find a way back from the division.