What a year 2020 has been ... and there are still two months to go.
Australia, Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington were beset by devastating wildfires. The United states was hit by back-to-back hurricanes. The coronavirus pandemic has taken the lives of more than 1 million people worldwide, more than 230,000 of them in America, and left countless others with lingering health problems. It also caused massive unemployment and business collapse. Europe is now shutting down for the second time due to a resurgence of the virus. America, which never really shut down, needs to do the same.
In the US, the run-up to the election has showed the ugly side of many Americans, who believe that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are rights to be enjoyed only by those who support the current occupant of the White House.
As much as I have hated the past 4 years, and as much pain, suffering and death we have seen, I don't want a return to the 'normal' of the past 4 years, which has been, really, anything but normal. It is not normal to have a president* who delights in sowing division among the country's citizens, who loves creating chaos and inciting violence. Calling for the arrest of political opponents and calling them insulting names is anything but normal. Blocking access to polling places -- voter intimidation and suppression by supporters of one political party -- is not normal. Refusing to give federal aid to cities and states run by Democrats is not normal. Telling more than 25,000 lies in the past 4 years is not normal. Attacking the news media for telling the truth and for not praising his every word and action is not normal. Questioning whether protests should be allowed (they are, according to that pesky document known as the US Constitution) is not normal. Allowing a deadly virus to spread throughout the country while dismissing physicians and public health experts is not normal. Refusing to lead by example is not normal. Advocating the ingestion or injection of disinfectants to kill the virus is not normal.
Being totally lacking in compassion toward those who have lost friends and family to the pandemic -- never once offering words of sympathy -- is not normal. Failing to recognize and respond to the pain and anger of Black Americans who continue to be victims of police oppression, who continue to die, unarmed, simply for being Black, is not normal. And add to that the higher rates of death from Covid-19 among Black and other minority populations.
It isn't normal to send heavily armed, unidentified storm troopers into Democratic-run cities such as Portland and Seattle to turn up the heat and create problems that are blamed on peaceful protesters. It isn't normal to pepper spray peaceful protesters on the grounds of a church so the president*, who never attends church and whose actions and words are anything but Christian, can have a photo op with a Bible, a book he clearly has never read (many people think he is unable to read) and whose teachings he clearly abhors unless politically expedient.
It isn't normal to award the Medal of Freedom -- the nation's highest civilian honor -- to a hate-spewing racist and misogynist. It isn't normal to have no culture -- no concerts, no artwork, no poetry -- in the White House. It isn't normal to have a president* who is so vindictive that he has worked ceaselessly to undo the accomplishments of his predecessor, the first Black president in our nation's history. It isn't normal to promote conspiracy theories and to praise White supremacists. It isn't normal to hold large rallies during a pandemic, creating super-spreader events that ultimately sicken thousands of people. Refusing to pass a package of much-needed aid to citizens and small businesses during the pandemic, as the US Senate has done -- is not normal. Pledging to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a hallmark of the Obama era, to remove health insurance from millions of people is not normal. Pledging to kill Social Security and Medicare, into which tens of millions of workers have paid for decades and upon which millions of the country's elderly depend, is not normal.
It isn't normal to weaken or eliminate protections for endangered species, clean air and clean water. It isn't normal for the president to create a country devoid of joy, of happiness, of fun. The current president* always looks as if he just sucked on a lemon. His very appearance, his ever-present scowl, is not normal in someone who is supposed to comfort and reassure the nation during times of crisis. The same goes for the first lady, who complained bitterly and profanely about how much she hates decorating the White House for Christmas. She is almost never seen smiling.
It isn't normal to have senior advisors to the president who are either close family members or avowed White supremacists. It isn't normal for those in key cabinet positions to hold their positions because of their contributions to the president's campaign fund rather than for their qualifications.
So no, I do not want things to return to 'normal.' I want our country, when it finally emerges from the pandemic, to become a better America. I want a better 'normal.' This can be, once again, a great country. There is much work to be done. Racial and gender equality must be confronted head on. People must once again trust science and public health officials. We must again together as a united country, putting country above politics.
The question is, 'Can we and will we do what it takes to create a new, better normal?"
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