Why It’s So Easy for Some People To Ignore the Pandemic.

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Abstract

ed to your age, your race, your socioeconomic background, your health and how you earn a living.I have recently read about all these dinner parties, all these charming little gatherings and I’m disgusted. We are one country, as much as the current administration has tried to make us believe otherwise. What we do affects each other. So what if you’re bored. So what if you miss your friends and your travel.Compromise or selflessness are not built into the American curriculum. What I see, is a country that does not see one another. I see older couples in masks walking around holding hands avoiding people. I see solitary older people, also in masks, darting around the sidewalks to avoid passing people. I see younger adults jogging past people without moving over, maskless. I see 20 somethings clustered in groups maskless, laughing and talking in each other's faces. I see people in fancy houses holding large backyard parties with guests talking too close. I see groups of teenagers everywhere, some with masks, some without. At the park, I see parents with younger kids, 50% masked, talking closely to each other as their kids play on the equipment. I see elementary-aged kids, clustered together on benches sharing cellphone TikTok videos. And this is just the mile radius that I inhabit. I’m not even talking about the rest of the state I live in. And people believe in masks here.Unfortunately, in this agist, racist, classist culture, we discard people by not acknowledging that we are all connected. We a

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re the human race. We are here because of the old people. We are America because of immigrants. We are rich because other people are poor. We are at home because other people are outside fighting this battle.This isolationist culture, where we compartmentalize people’s value in order to elevate our own value, isn’t working during a pandemic. We have always been so happy about our individualism, mocking cultures that seem like carbon copies of each other. But where’s that individualism getting us now? Would it be so threatening to acknowledge our connection to one another? Or would that make us see we are not taking very good care of each other? Is it easier to only think of the people who are sitting at our table? Is it easier to ignore the rest of the tables of people in this metaphorical high school cafeteria?Someone said to me the other day, “This isn’t really affecting us.” The ‘us’ word felt loaded. I thought “Oh, he means people who are being very careful.” But two minutes later he told me his daughter invited friends into the house.My black friends know several people with COVID. My white friends do not. The older people in my life are terrified of getting sick. The younger people are not.There is an expression that says, “A mother is only as happy as her saddest child.” I think we should think of our country as this mother and be guided by her heart. And like that mother, we should not look away from the child who is having the most difficult time.</article></body>

How individualism is killing us

How we take care of each other in this country feels like how teenagers treat one another in a high school cafeteria. Except it’s a socio-economically diverse, integrated high school cafeteria where the ages span from youth to old age.

It is easy to ignore COVID if you’re young and healthy, even as more stories come out about young and healthy people getting sick and dying too. It is easy to ignore if you don’t have underlying health conditions. It’s easy to ignore if you work from home. It is easy to ignore if you can afford to pay someone else to shop for you. It is easy to ignore if you can afford wipes to wipe down all your groceries. It is easy to ignore if you don’t share an entryway with people that you’re not related to. It is easy to ignore if you’re young. It is easy to ignore if you’re white.

COVID is not attacking everyone in the same way. How this pandemic affects you is directly connected to your age, your race, your socioeconomic background, your health and how you earn a living.

I have recently read about all these dinner parties, all these charming little gatherings and I’m disgusted. We are one country, as much as the current administration has tried to make us believe otherwise. What we do affects each other. So what if you’re bored. So what if you miss your friends and your travel.

Compromise or selflessness are not built into the American curriculum. What I see, is a country that does not see one another. I see older couples in masks walking around holding hands avoiding people. I see solitary older people, also in masks, darting around the sidewalks to avoid passing people. I see younger adults jogging past people without moving over, maskless. I see 20 somethings clustered in groups maskless, laughing and talking in each other's faces. I see people in fancy houses holding large backyard parties with guests talking too close. I see groups of teenagers everywhere, some with masks, some without. At the park, I see parents with younger kids, 50% masked, talking closely to each other as their kids play on the equipment. I see elementary-aged kids, clustered together on benches sharing cellphone TikTok videos. And this is just the mile radius that I inhabit. I’m not even talking about the rest of the state I live in. And people believe in masks here.

Unfortunately, in this agist, racist, classist culture, we discard people by not acknowledging that we are all connected. We are the human race. We are here because of the old people. We are America because of immigrants. We are rich because other people are poor. We are at home because other people are outside fighting this battle.

This isolationist culture, where we compartmentalize people’s value in order to elevate our own value, isn’t working during a pandemic. We have always been so happy about our individualism, mocking cultures that seem like carbon copies of each other. But where’s that individualism getting us now? Would it be so threatening to acknowledge our connection to one another? Or would that make us see we are not taking very good care of each other? Is it easier to only think of the people who are sitting at our table? Is it easier to ignore the rest of the tables of people in this metaphorical high school cafeteria?

Someone said to me the other day, “This isn’t really affecting us.” The ‘us’ word felt loaded. I thought “Oh, he means people who are being very careful.” But two minutes later he told me his daughter invited friends into the house.

My black friends know several people with COVID. My white friends do not. The older people in my life are terrified of getting sick. The younger people are not.

There is an expression that says, “A mother is only as happy as her saddest child.” I think we should think of our country as this mother and be guided by her heart. And like that mother, we should not look away from the child who is having the most difficult time.