COVID-19 and George Floyd: Is This The New Normal, Or Just The Same Old One?

In only a few weeks, more than 102,000 people in the United States have died due to COVID-19, also known as coronavirus.  It is a grim milestone made worse by White House indifference, disagreement over how to handle treatment, and state-mandated stay-at-home orders being eased under political pressure to open up a locked-down economy that's thrown millions out of work.

This rush to get back to what is considered normal got sidetracked on Memorial Day in a Minneapolis neighborhood.  An African-American man named George Floyd was arrested by police for allegedly trying to pay for groceries with a counterfeit $20 bill.  He was also unarmed. Instead of simply taking Floyd into custody, arresting officer Derek Chauvin (who is white) was seen on video taking a knee to the back of Floyd's neck.  He was heard complaining that he couldn't breathe.  After nine minutes of this, Floyd died.  Chauvin and the three other officers with him were all fired.  On May 29, Chauvin was arrested and charged with third degree murder and manslaughter.

Viruses may have changed the way we live, but not how African-Americans have been treated through the centuries by those who have felt threatened by their presence.  In the past few weeks alone:

• Ahmoud Arbery was shot and killed as he was jogging through a Georgia neighborhood in February.  It took until May to charge two white men with his murder. 
• Christian Cooper, who was bird-watching in New York's Central Park, confronted a white woman named Amy Cooper about letting her dog run loose.  She responded by calling 911 on him.  She has since apologized, but not before losing her job and her dog due to the negative publicity surrounding this.

Meanwhile, back in Minneapolis, the death of Floyd sent shock waves throughout Minnesota and the world.  This isn't the first time the Twin Cities have gotten up in arms about tragic incidents between unarmed citizens and cops who should have known better.  Remember what happened to Jamar Clark, Philandro Castile and Justine Ruszczyk?  And all the others who got similar treatment, but without the benefit of cameras rolling?

This time, in addition to the peaceful protests of Black Lives Matter and others, they were joined on the streets and highways of Minneapolis and St. Paul by those who saw an opportunity to plunder and destroy all they saw.  Big box stores were looted.  Neighborhood businesses, many of them minority-owned, were in flames.  Dozens of other stores and public transportation suspended their operations. It all culminated with demonstrators setting fire to the Minneapolis police department's Third Precinct building, a symbol of cops who have gone rogue.

Contrast that to state capitals (Lansing, MI and St. Paul, MN come to mind) being overrun by flag-waving, gun-toting, overwhelmingly white (and maskless) individuals heeding President Donald Trump's call to "liberate" their states from stay-at-home restrictions.  With police presence friendly and at a minimum, they demanded the right to get haircuts and having beers with friends inside their favorite watering hole.

Health experts tell us that the number of COVID-19 patients will likely spike because of all this protesting. Despite pleas from local officials to mask up and stay six feet apart, it's unlikely anyone cares about social distancing right now.

Of course, President Trump felt the need to weigh in on Twitter like he does on just about every other issue.  Taking a break from threatening social media for checking up on him and accusing MSNBC talk show host Joe Scarborough of murder, he called the protestors "thugs" (which is now considered a racial slur) and implied that looters could be shot.

After a slow start, state and local leaders are starting to wake up to the situation and called for peace.  Before the Chauvin arrest was announced, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called out the National Guard to patrol the streets, then apologized to CNN for having arrested an African-American reporter and his crew as they were on TV covering the disturbance.

The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and surrounding areas have imposed curfews lasting from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and possibly beyond.

This is 2020.  Everyone's lives are in danger because of a virus that has become more unpredictable and deadly as time goes along.  There is another virus that has been going around for centuries, and that's racism.  No matter how many strides African Americans and other nonwhite citizens have made, the dominant culture has continued to treat them like second-class citizens or worse.  There are no vaccines for either of them.  We have to do what we can with what we've got to survive.

"We're All In This Together". Really?

In these challenging (difficult, unprecedented, uncertain, trying, etc.) times, we decided it's time for some random thoughts on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  Remember, this can't last forever, right?

• First, the numbers as of May 1.  Around the world, there have been 3.2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus, 234 thousand are dead, and more than one million have recovered.  In the United States, there have been more than one million confirmed cases, 64 thousand have died, and 134 thousand have recovered.
• Despite predictions from people who should know these things that the virus could last for another year or two, state and federal leaders are making plans to reopen their economies in an attempt to get back to some form of "normalcy".  Millions of jobs have been lost due to the "stay at home" mandates, forcing most to work from home, and there's no guarantee of returning to their place of employment once they're allowed to. Some people are rebelling against these closures, whether or not they've been egged on by President Donald Trump as a way to gain political advantage in an election year, or jamming public places when they're not supposed to.
• Speaking of Trump, the GOP seems to be worried that the antics of the President during this crisis might cost them the Senate and the White House come November. Whether it's turning your daily press briefings into an unwatchable version of your traveling road show, not taking coronavirus seriously in the weeks leading up to the pandemic, defunding the World Health Organization because you think they're covering up for China, or suggesting that drinking bleach and disinfectants might kill the virus (which does nothing but provide employment for poison control hotlines), the Republicans have a right to be concerned.  But it's been four years, and there's not much they can do about it now.
• Now that Bernie Sanders is out of the picture, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden can bask in the warmth of belated endorsements from party heavyweights like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, his former boss Barack Obama and Sanders himself while sitting in exile watching Trump stumble.  But there is the small problem of refuting claims from former staff assistant Tara Reade that she was sexually assaulted when Biden was a U.S. Senator back in 1993.  It won't affect his nomination, but this does leave the voters making a choice between two men who need to social distance themselves from the nearest female they don't personally know.
• Voters are growing more leery of standing in line at their polling places, waiting for their chance to pull the lever.  Especially if the person in front of or behind them shouldn't be there if they're sick.  That's why there's a move to make voting by mail more accessible to everybody in time for this fall's elections. It's a great idea for Democrats.  Not so much for Republicans, who are more interested in restricting the vote to keep their kind in.  There has to be a better way to vote, right?
• In Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz' "stay at home" mandate (which has been extended to May 18) has been mostly successful in keeping the COVID-19 spread and the death rate down compared to other states--it has been mostly confined to senior living facilities.  But cases are bound to spike once testing ramps up as the Governor is under political pressure to open the state's economy.
• The Class of 2020 is becoming a lost generation with schools closed for the duration, except for learning online at home under the watchful eye of parents.  That means no graduation, no proms, no more hanging out with friends, etc. What, pray tell, are you going to say to your future kids and grandkids (should you have any) about this time in your lives?
• As for the rest of us, we should all get used to (A) washing our hands a lot, (B) staying the hell away from each other, and (C) wearing masks in public, if you don't mind looking like a bank robber or a gang member.  Think of the doctors, nurses, so-called "first responders", grocery store attendants, delivery people, pizza drivers and others who bust their butts on the front lines while you sit at home binge-watching Netflix.  It's like the days after 9/11 when soldiers and firefighters were getting all the applause while Muslims, through no fault of their own, were being villified for the actions of a few.

Because we're all in this together.  Right?