Week of 06/29/2020

America, This Is *Not* Great
– by David Matthews 2

So here we are (as of this posting) approaching the Fourth of July.

Once again we will be full of ourselves, and a gang of fascists will beat their chests and raise their fists, and an orange-skinned narcissist and his Q-tip Veep will proclaim how “great” America is.

We’re so “great”...

We’re so “great” that we lead the world in COVID-19 cases and deaths.  Not in cures.  Not in lives saved.  No, it is for additional cases and deaths.  In fact, we’re so “great” that other nations are talking about barring us from going there!

We’re so “great” that we have stopped going after terrorists and power-mad despots around the world and instead are targeting our own citizens.  In fact, we’re so “great” that we’re creating terrorist groups out of thin air just so we can target our own citizens.

We’re so “great” that Russia is paying the Taliban a bounty to kill American soldiers.  Now that’s “greatness”, huh?  We’re so “great” that the gang that housed and trained the 9/11 terrorists had to be financially encouraged to go after our soldiers again!  And not only do our orange-skinned narcissist and his Q-tip Veep know it, they are silent about it and continue to broker deals with Russia.

We’re so “great” that we can demand the reopening of the businesses that were shut down because of the global pandemic, even with the cases spiking higher than ever before because the stupid masses refuse to wear masks or practice social distancing.  In fact those same “great” people will manufacture fake exemption cards and scream that they have a “breathing problem”.  Wow, how “great” their lungs are to throw screaming tantrums and initiate fistfights even with a breathing problem!

Speaking of... we’re so “great” that a member of Congress threw a literal temper tantrum in the House of Representatives.  How “great” we must be to accommodate for the infantile self-entitled like that!

We’re so “great” that we can screw over the hard-working Americans who are struggling to make ends meet so the super-rich can keep making profit, even during a global pandemic!  Granted, that’s nothing new for America, but to have the balls to do that in the midst of a global pandemic that we are leading in new cases and in new deaths and still talk up the idea of a super-recovery... that is just next-level “greatness”!

In case you haven’t caught on yet... let’s get brutally honest here...

We are not great.

America is not great!

Let that sink in.

I’m not saying this out of spite or malice.  I am saying this because I really do love America and I am tired of the pretenses and the jingoism.  I’m tired of the chest-beating lies we are telling ourselves and each other.  We need to accept reality and not hide behind symbols.

America is not great.  Accept it.  You know it to be true.

In fact, right now, we are the worst.

Yes, we have done great things in the past.  Wonderful things.  Things we should be proud of.  And every so often we do one or two great things, like return to space in a private spacecraft instead of bumming a ride off rockets from other nations.

But then we do some really horrible things.  Like use chemical weapons on peaceful protesters just so a certain orange-skinned narcissist can walk to a nearby church for a photo-op.  Like dealing with protests over police abuses with even more heinous police abuses.  Like seeing big companies lay people off by the thousands and then giving their CEOs huge stinking bonuses.

That. Is. Not. Greatness!

We have an orange-skinned narcissist who is screaming voter fraud five months before a single vote can be cast, simply because some fantasy polls show him losing.  The same orange-skinned narcissist that claims that he “made” America “great” and that he wants to “keep” America “great”.

This is not great.  This is the antic of a fascistic man-child con-artist playing up to a gang of equally fascistic self-centered self-important self-righteous jackasses (to describe them mildly) who collectively wrap themselves up in the American flag and then use it as an adult diaper and call that “greatness”.

Greatness doesn’t come from pretentiousness.  It doesn’t come from self-serving abuses, greed, and malice.  No amount of flag-posting and flag-waiving and screeching the national anthem and playing YouTube clips of “America F-Yeah” make any of us “great”.

Greatness comes from doing great things, not by proclamation and certainly not for adulation.  It’s not about doing good things just to score some PR points or get a bump in some fantasy poll.  It’s about doing good things because it’s the right thing to do, period.  It’s not about putting up some gaudy building just so you can stick your name on it in big letters.  It’s about putting up a building because it would enhance the skyline or because it would provide a function that helps others.

Think for a minute about all the good things that get reported at the end of the nightly news.  The people who do good things with little or no fanfare prior to that report.  The ones that run their own food pantry and do minor chores for their neighbors.  The people who do thankless work to help others, often at their own expense.  That is greatness!

We have a lot that needs to be done.  We have to get off our self-righteous self-serving attitudes and swallow our arrogance even if it gags us.  We need to shut up and mask up and get those COVID cases back down before talking about the economy.  We need to stop the police in order to stop the protests instead of trying it the other way around and failing miserably.  “Double-down” needs to be knocked down and knocked off.  We need to slap down the hubris and actually be humble.

You want greatness?  You want America to be great instead of “great” in pretense?  Then stop proclaiming it and start doing the good things that make a person, a people, and a nation great.  It is that simple.

Week of 06/22/2020

Safety Is Not Fear
– by David Matthews 2

As a second-generation workplace “safety guy”, I have heard pretty much every possible excuse as to why people do not take the proper precautions when it comes to workplace safety.  I’ve also seen what has happened when people don’t do things safely.

My late father spent a good portion of his time as a safety engineer and as a safety director in various businesses telling people that they need to tie up their hair, take off their rings and chains and necklaces, and put on protective gloves, safety goggles, and other protective gear when needed.  At one workplace where he had just started as the safety and security director, the ambulance was there almost every day and the production lines were shut down frequently because of workplace accidents.  So my father took the full-color investigative photos of all of the accidents, complete with bloody tools, torn scalps, bloody jewelry wrapped around drill bits, and used them as posters to tell people to do the right thing.  The union reps screamed bloody murder over it, and so did the employees and management, but it worked.  The workers started wearing the personal protective gear and they tied up their hair and they took off their necklaces and rings.  Workplace accidents dropped dramatically.  Those grizzly posters did more than a hundred safety lectures ever could.

But you know what?  Nobody ever claimed during that time that not doing it was a matter of “freedom”.  Nobody back then ever said that they weren’t “afraid” when they risked literal life and limb for a paycheck.

That is what disgusts me when it comes to the COVIDiots over 2020’s global pandemic.  Both them and their propagandist media like Fox News and OANN have been peddling the idea that wearing a mask and practicing social distancing is about pandering to fear.  They are spreading a lie that not wearing a mask is a matter of “freedom” and supposedly not “giving in to fear”.

Tell me something... do you also drive around in your car and not wear a seatbelt?  If so, and the cop pulls you over, do you tell the cop that it’s a “freedom” issue and that you’re not “afraid” to get in an accident?  I’d love to see that cop’s reaction when you try to use that line.  Or, better yet, I’d love to hear the reaction from the traffic court judge who hears your case if you use that as your defense.

“Your honor, as I told the officer when he pulled me over, I am exercising my gawd-given freedom to not live in fear of an accident.  My gawd is greater than any bad driver and I know that he will protect me!”

Sounds stupid, doesn’t it?  Admit it.  It does!

Just as stupid and as asinine as thinking that wearing a mask is giving in to “fear” and that not wearing one and not practicing social distancing is a “freedom” issue.

Here’s the truth that the red-hats cannot discount: the coronavirus global pandemic has not stopped as of this column’s post.  It did not go away just because governors and mayors started opening up businesses and telling people to go back to work or else lose their unemployment benefits.  It is sheer delusion and pious arrogance to think that a virus would adhere to some economist’s timetable.  COVID-19 is still here; it is still spreading, and people are still getting infected, still getting sick, still going to the hospital for very expensive treatment, and still dying.

So if we have to go to work, if we still have to go out and get groceries and try to conduct any kind of business while still in the midst of this pandemic, then it is essential that we do it safely.  That is not pandering to “fear” any more than putting on a seatbelt in your car or wearing safety glasses when needed.

And, you know what?  If this virus only affected you and you couldn’t spread it to other people, then I would certainly tell those COVIDiots that they would be “free” to die if they so choose.  Just like they would be “free” to drink bleach or stick their tongues in active light sockets, or to stay at home and drink themselves to death.  Be as “free” as you wish as long as it is just you.

Where I have a problem with these putrid delusional ignorant jackasses is that their “freedom” to get the virus and possibly get sick and die also risks other people that they come in proximity with.  That means children.  That means relatives.  That means friends.  And it also risks people that I know, including my friends and my relatives... and myself.

You can believe all you want that “your god” is somehow “stronger” than the virus that it created just like Egypt’s Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus believed that his gods were greater than the Tenth Plague.  But that delusion doesn’t protect other people any more than it would protect you.  And we have seen way too many people already with that delusion that ended up in the hospital.  You wouldn’t happen to have about a million dollars laying around just in case you’re wrong, would you?  I wouldn’t count on your insurance company picking up the tab, especially if you’re one of those idiots that showed up at a rally or signed a waiver.

Let’s get brutally honest here... dealing with this pandemic is not about “freedom” or “fear”.  It is about safety.  Your safety, yes, but also the safety of those you come in contact with.  It’s no different than when you put your seatbelt on before you start driving, or when you put your hair in a hairnet and wash your hands if you work in a restaurant before you cook food.  You wear work gloves before you cut wood, right?  No different than putting on a mask before going out in public.

Here’s a little history lesson for you: Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant who came to America in 1884.  She was known for two things: cooking for wealthy families, and for getting those wealthy people sick and dying from eating her food.  Mary was an asymptomatic carrier of specific strain of Salmonella poisoning and she transmitted the disease to others through the food that she prepared with her bare unwashed hands.  The strain of Salmonella she carried and transmitted is known as Typhoid Fever.  And, yes, Mary Mallon became known as Typhoid Mary.

Guess what?  Even then, she was complaining about her lack of freedom and not being able to make a living as a cook.  But as a consequence of her actions, people started taking food safety seriously.  You wash your hands before cooking food, right?  That started because of Typhoid Mary.

How many of you want to be the next Typhoid Mary?  How many of you want to be the person who kills their family members for your supposed “freedom” and for not being “afraid”?

Dealing with this pandemic is not about “freedom” or of being “afraid”.  It is about safety.  Yours, mine, and everyone else in between.  So shut up, mask up, wash your hands, and keep your distance already so we all can get through this sooner rather than later.