Day #37--the stakes

If my father-in-law ever stuck a dollar token into a slot machine, I'd be shocked. Same with lotteries--I don't know that he could even have recognized the machines. But he was not shy about admitting that he was, to be sure, a gambler his whole life long. He was a farmer. 

We all gamble. We bet on organizations or friends who need financial help. We bet on financial services. We buy insurance. We gamble all the time.

And we do so in the sweepstakes going on all around us right now. Some put their trust and money on constructing rigid lines of caution. Some believe this "novel coronavirus" will continue to kill many hundreds or thousands of people if we don't "shelter in place." If our businesses stay closed, our streets empty, our schools shut down, some believe more of us will not go to agonizing death. If we minimize contact with each other, we can beat this thing. If we drop defenses, we do so at not only our peril, but the peril of others.

Some believe we shut down the economy, the country itself, to save lives. 

Other gamblers put their money elsewhere. They're falling into bankruptcy, they say, as are we all. They fear food lines and mobs of unemployed. They don't want to lose their jobs when their employers can't get back on their feet. They want their kids in school, and they want to be at work. They want to hunt and fish and go to ball games. Since last weekend, they gather at state capitols for protests, wave signs and flags and listen to speakers who are sure the solution is worse than the problem.

If we don't go back to work, if our society doesn't turn its wheels once again, function as it should, we're going to suffer a worse fate than we are presently. That's where they put their money.

We're all gamblers. Both sides want, above all, to return to productivity and good health. Both sides want this damned virus to vanish. But we put our money and our faith in different courses of action.

In the middle of the mess is a President who can't make up his mind. Far and away, the protesters wear MAGA hats and quote FOX news. There are more than a few confederate flags, but mostly they tote American flags, lugging their guns over their shoulders. They're protesting guidelines that even the Presidential Task Force calls "Presidential." They claim some Democratic governors have gone stark, raving mad. They're passionate about religious freedom. They want to worship, and even though they don't care for "social distancing," something their President advises. But they love him and he loves them.

The gamblers on the other side dislike him, even hate him. They can't stand seeing his fat, orange face on TV every day. They can't handle his endless falsification. He is, to them, the king of lies. They'd vote for a three-toed sloth before the carnival barker with his mysterious flying do, a man who cares about nothing but himself

It's not all politics, but politics are huge.

This morning, 45,373 Americans have died from COVID-19. In New York the misery is torrential. Bodies are being buried in mass graves. In Iowa, 83 have died. In Sioux County, none. It seems clear to those who watch such things that the COVID-19 virus is a discriminating killer, taking victims from the weak, the elderly, and marginalized. Many of the dead are people of color. 

Hitler would consider COVID-19 a blessing.

Right from the start, I've been hoping, even believing that, as a nation, we could come together and lick this thing, and we have.

But day by day, the old sinkhole is widening. Even tragedy can't bring us together. We live in two worlds that exist in treacherous opposition. Can we survive?

It's a gamble.