Exactly which "vulnerable" are we talking about?
Maybe it’s never really been about protecting the vulnerable. We’ve been told from the first day we’ve had restrictions imposed on us that it’s to “protect the vulnerable”. Exactly which vulnerable are we talking about? The hard-working people who no longer have a job to go to and are reduced to relying on the magnanimous hand-outs from various levels of government? People who take pride in doing a good job and getting paid fairly to do it so they can provide for themselves, their families and give others a helping hand when it’s needed?
Maybe it’s the single mom or dad working 2 jobs to provide for their kids, who no longer have a job to go back to because the business they worked for will be one of the 35% of small businesses that won’t open back up? We did this all to “protect” them? Hmmm, somehow the logic is lost.
Oh, I know, it’s the children who are grateful to go to school each day to escape violence, drug and alcohol abuse and lack of enough food in their homes – who now have to stay at home all day, every day. Or is it the millions of working people in India who are facing starvation in a locked-down country where their police physically abuse them if they don’t stay home – all because just over 100 people died from a virus? Not them either I guess. Then who are the vulnerable we’re supposed to be protecting through this?
Now I’ve got it! The seniors in care homes. Except now they can’t see their families, they are potentially spending their last days alone. (health care professionals know the effects of being alone when we’re sick – it’s not good). I watched two of my grandparents, who I loved dearly, come out of care homes. FYI – they didn’t come out standing up, they came out on a gurney with a sheet over their heads. I mourned them and still do. But none of us will come out of life standing up. We care about the older people in our society now? Really? What about visiting them regularly instead of running to 4 different events every evening as we did before this shut-down?
Maybe it’s the 130 million people around the world who had enough to eat last year, but now because of our actions, will be facing starvation this year? No, not them either? https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-chief-warns-hunger-pandemic-covid-19-spreads-statement-un-security-council
Maybe it’s “John”, an 80+ year old man I met yesterday. I really did meet him, I just changed his name. I was having coffee with a good friend in a coffee shop parking lot – yes 6’ apart – and at the end of our conversation, up walks John. He is barely 5’2” tall and might weigh 95lbs. He walks every day he tells us – winter or summer, it doesn’t matter. His doctor tells him to keep walking, because it’s good for him and I believe it, he is alert, energetic, and has a wonderfully dry sense of humor.
My friend asks him if he’s afraid of the virus – now you need to understand the context: we were laughing at how wearing a mask in a car when you’re by yourself is like wearing a condom to bed when you’re sleeping alone – so the question was a bit facetious. Here’s what he told us (his words not mine): “Why in the hell would I be afraid?”. He then went on to tell us how when at a grocery store a clerk asked him where his mask was?
“What mask?”
“You should be wearing a mask.”
“Why?”
“To keep you safe.”
“I don’t need a mask.”
John then finished his story by telling us what he wanted to say to her, but restrained himself: “Why don’t you mind your own ***damned business and leave me to mine” Again, his words not mine. Please don’t misunderstand, John is not a crusty old man, he is a person who worked hard his whole life as a heavy duty mechanic and as a truck driver, he raised a family, he has friends, he enjoys life but he understands risk and that people get hurt and die. He wants to live his life without someone else trying to control him. So, if John doesn’t want us to protect him, then who are we “protecting”?
I have heard and read claims that business owners who want business and society to open up only care about the money and not about people. Alright then, let’s take a look at this too. “Government money” which is actually our kids’ and grandkids’ money they’re spending, only lasts so long and goes only so far. What then? What about when there aren’t as many jobs to go back to? What about when wages are lower because there are less people spending money, less people going to restaurants (because they don’t have jobs anymore), less people traveling, less people buying prescriptions because they don’t have the money, less people with enough healthy food to eat, people not being able to afford to keep the electricity on and gas in their vehicle at the same time? Fewer teachers, nurses, doctors, police, or firefighters because there’s fewer people working and paying taxes to cover public wages? What then?
The businesses I work with, the owners and managers who I’ve heard comment, and even my elected Federal official (who I’ve actually talked with about all this), see the incredible dangers in what we’ve just created these last two months. Is it about the money? Yes. Why? Because that’s how each and every one of us pays our bills, puts food on the table and provides for those we love. That’s why! It’s pretty simple actually. Try paying for your groceries with your extra mask or pair of latex gloves today, see how well that works. Money matters. Work matters. The vulnerable people around us, and across the world, matter. They might just not be the people we envision as we stay home convincing ourselves we’re saving lives, while we might be costing more than we save.
“But Todd, are you saying you’re willing to put my son, my daughter, my significant other at risk?” Great question. Now I’ve got one for you: Are you willing to tell 50 million other parents that they should put their children at risk of starvation so we can “eliminate” all risk for you and yours? These are hard questions, and we dare not settle for simplistic answers, too much is at stake. Too many people are at stake. Real people, real families.
Me? My experience during this time? Trying to replace 40% of gross revenue(income) for the year that I lost within the first 24 hours of the shut-down. But the reality is, that’s life, there are risks – to our health, our finances, our very life. That’s a part of being alive. Maybe that’s what really makes us alive: living when we understand some of the risks and pushing forward anyway. Living in fear isn’t really living, it’s just existing – barely. So then, live! Really live – risks and all!