I write a lot about the recognition of the anniversary of events. I’ve encouraged our recognition of particular mass shootings at schools. We don’t do this because we celebrate such heinous crimes, but because we never want to see it occur again and we take time to pray for those who loved those beautiful people and children.
It is now time for another reflection. Earlier this month marked the fourth year of the COVID pandemic beginning. Over one million people died directly from the illness. The statistics show that, on average, seven people mourned each of those deaths. Think of that…more than eight million people lost a loved one.
Those who did not have a family member or a beloved friend die of COVID were fortunate, but there were many other people scared and mourning for those who perished. These folks were vicariously mourning people they did not know.
I would guess there are still people fearful of that disease. My daughter had a positive test result for COVID just a few weeks ago. It still scares me. Fortunately, she recovered rather quickly.
I read a newspaper article that recognized the four-year anniversary of the beginning of COVID. The article pointed out necessary difficult things we did as a country to control and eliminate the pandemic. But the article also noted the things that went poorly and should be fixed prior to the next pandemic. So many of these necessary actions are outside my understanding, like “the greater readiness and cooperation among public health agencies.”
But one issue the article pointed out was the “political acrimony in our country, especially by our lawmakers.” I completely agree with this point of view. I wonder how many of the 1.2 million would not have died if we joined forces regarding the right moves to make?
I would agree with the article that we should have a more thorough review of what went well and what could be improved. The pandemic should not have been a political issue. We all have the right to differ with one another, but the safety of lives should be the first consideration. As we move forward in the election year, a nice question for our candidates might be, “how will your seat in Congress or the White House help us deal with future viral outbreaks?”
I do not know enough about the issues but we surely could have people we can trust . Let’s try to find them and then develop the right way to handle any horrendous issue such as four years ago. Most likely, this would trigger a position for all of us to be At Peace when we are faced with it.
At Peace 