The Second Wave

When do we lift restrictions?

According to Trump, almost immediately. He has a plan. Again. How has that plan worked out so far?

So, here’s reality. One case of the new coronavirus sometime in mid to late December in China has turned into 2,250,000 cases world-wide in four months (as of the time of this writing). The spread of this virus is largely unprecedented and widely misunderstood. That is, even doctors and scientists are adjusting how they deal with the virus on a daily basis as it seems to keep shifting under our feet.

The virus has mutated several times since leaving China. Who knows what it will do next.

So, when we get to a certain level (flattening the curve), we have it under control, right? The short answer is no. To this point, only one country seems to have the virus under control. Greenland. They have had 11 cases and all of them have recovered with no new cases for over a week. The virus can take up to 14 days to show itself and all the while the carrier is contagious. If Greenland passes the 14 day mark without another new case, they can go about their daily lives... and not let a single soul near their shores.

The idea that the States can start to open up if they have “a few” cases is backward thinking. That’s what got them into this mess in the first place. Remember when D.T. said, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

Three months later there are 677,570 cases of fine and 34,617 deaths in the United States. Yup. That’s fine alright.

There are no back doors we can slip out of. There are no magic elixirs or potions or notions that cure the disease. That day will come about a year from now if we get it right. If we don’t, it could be two years. And, we aren’t going to vaccinate everyone in a week... or a month. It will take several months to get enough people vaccinated to curb the flow.

One case turned into 2,250,000 and rising. 150,000 dead people and rising.

As long as there is one new case in a district, there may be more.

I get the idea that the economy is crashing. It’s crashed before. And it will again. And it’s always come back. When this is over, people will start buying things again. They will pay their utility bills and their rent. They will get their car repaired and buy new toys for little Jimmy and Jenny. They will get renovations done and get their hair cut and buy new clothing. They will return to jobs and complain about leaving home every morning. The recovery will be slow and it will happen.

But those same people can’t bring their grandparents back from the dead. Or their aunt or uncle or parents or spouses. Or that really smart kid who happened to have asthma or diabetes or cancer and didn’t make it because her parents had to go back to work before it was over and brought home something she couldn’t handle.

The ultimate number to reduce restrictions isn’t “a few new cases”. A few new cases means there are more new cases to come and no-one knows where they are. It's very difficult to stop an invisible, moving target.  

The number is zero. Zero cases for a minimum of 14 days. Zero cases in a district where not one single solitary person is coming across their border. Zero cases is the only acceptable number... period. Otherwise, we are repeating 1919 and inviting the second wave.

Until we get that through our heads, this is going to be a long, long ride.

And The Survey Says...

My phone buzzed some disjointed digitized percussive instrument tone and, like a good little lemming shuffling through my daily anthropoidal activities, I glanced at it.

Text message: “Hi, it’s Sarah from the Conservative Party. Can the Conservative Party count on your support in the next federal election? Reply: Yes/ No.”

My reply: “Do not contact me again!”

Technically not a “no” and certainly giving my two shiny coppers worth. I was never particularly proficient at following directions. In Ed-speak what I was really saying was, “Dear Sarah. Get out before the Kool-Aid is served and the YouTube videos are published! And get a boyfriend/ life/ drinking buddy/ firing synapse or something.”

I doubt Sarah actually exists. It’s most likely Andrew Sheer in text drag writing the message. We all know how he feels about the LBGTQ community. Methinks thou dost... blah, blah, blah.

Personally, I’m growing weary of the “giving my opinion” thing. For instance, I went to the bank and used the teller service because my bank card blew up in flaming glory after several years of abusive shopping and I needed some funds on hand to buy a Snickers bar/ oil painting/ camping gear (or some reasonable facsimile thereof). The next thing I know, I’m getting an email from my bank to conduct a survey about the service.

Why?

If I were unhappy with the service, I would have pulled all my many tens of dollars from the establishment in question and taken it somewhere else where a ten-aire is welcome without opinion asking emails. Since I have not pulled my twenty-one fourteen from your bank, odds are pretty good I was happy with the service. If you really need to know my opinion, check the videotape of me standing at said counter. If I was smiling, grimacing or smacking around the teller, I’m pretty sure you’ll get the point.

I don’t need to fill in a survey for every little thing I do. I know Big Brother is tailing me around wherever I go. I know the world is watching, nasty little imp that I am. I don’t require an email confirmation of followedness to understand there is no place to hide. Nor do I need to spend 10 to 15 minutes of my valuable time letting you know if the two or three minutes I spent in your establishment was mind-blowing beyond any experience since my conception. You should know you’re doing your job by whether your business is shrinking, growing or stuck up to it's arse in mud going nowhere.

Stop with the incessant “how are we doing” crap. It’s annoying.

Here’s a thought. If you want more business, do your job. If you’re doing your job, I’ll be back. If you’re not, I won’t. The best way to get customer loyalty isn’t to hand out points or ask for our opinion. The best way to create customer loyalty is to treat them well and fairly when they walk through the door.

Further, if you treat your employees properly (good pay, proper days off, not embarassing them in front of customers or other employees, etc.), then they'll likely treat me, the customer, properly. Lo and behold, I'll likely return.

That goes for the politicians too (Conservative Party of Canada).

Left of Left

There's an Alt-Left!? Why didn't anyone send me an invitation? Seriously... I am so put out. Hrumph!

His Nibs, The Donald, in an incurious turn of events, went off script... again... or still... or something. He literally put the notes smarter people gave him into his pocket. “I seen him do it, Bobbi-Jo. This'll be good fer shur. Thet King Donald fella gonna give it to 'em now. He dudn't tek no shee-it from nobody.”

That's when the term “Alt-Left” slipped from DT's ill-wind-aided flapping maw. (Which is the only thing flapping more than his hair these days.)

I've spent the past couple of days attempting to figure out what the Alt-Left might be. The Alt-Right isn't so hard to pick out. Generally speaking they have; guns, flags of long ago defeated nations, more guns, knives, swastika tattoos and four wheel drive trucks with gun and deer racks. They roam in packs with Walmart tiki torches and have a decided lack of hair or a scruffy beard to their knees. However, in order to define an Alt-Left person as referred to by his sanctitude, the make-believe king of America, we might have to take a closer look at the ideology of the Alt-Right. They should be polar opposites, no? After all, the universe is balanced with polar opposites; north vs south, up vs down, light vs dark, good vs evil, the Trump administration vs people who know what the fuck is going on.

Before we get to the comparisons, I have to state that "Alt-Left" and "alternative facts" have a familiar ring to them. I have to wonder if Kellyanne Conway was whispering in Trump's ear when he coined the Alt-Left thing. Probably not since her favourite position seems to be hanging out in the Oval Office on the sofa playing solitaire on her cell phone while men in suits do the important stuff... like banning the rest of the world from visiting Disney Land and trying to figure out if Ding-Dongs are Communist or not.

Back to the point.

The Alt-Right is self described as isolationist, protectionist, antisemitic and white supremacist while overlapping with Neo-Nazism, Islamophobia, anti-feminism and homophobia. That sounds an awful lot like the campaign promises of a certain orange haired, White House dwelling garden gnome. And, that is a lot of antis! Are they for anything? Well, quite bluntly, it seems they are for themselves and pretty much no-one else.

• If the Alt-Right is isolationist, that would make the Alt-Left inclusive.
• If the Alt-Right is protectionist, that would make the Alt-Left receptive.
• If the Alt-Right is antisemitic (racist), that would make the Alt-Left tolerant.
• If the Alt-Right promotes White supremacy, that would mean the Alt-Left promotes equality.
• If the Alt-Right is anti-feminist, that would make the Alt-Left egalitarians.
• If the Alt-Right is belligerent, combative and militaristic, that would make the Alt-Left flower power peace-nicks.

Something is wrong with the reasoning of Dopus the Potus when he proclaimed the Alt-Left was just as to blame for the combative nature of the confrontations in Charlottesville. It would seem, by simple logic and inspection, that the Alt-Left referred to simply wouldn't be at a march at all. They would, it seems, be huge proponents of live and let live. Stated plainly, if the Alt-Right marches through the streets with guns and clubs and plastic “made in China” dollar store torches all the while chanting hate slurs, the Alt-Left would be home around a campfire hugging their fellow humans and singing Kumbaya.

There is an Alt-Left.

And most of us are hanging with our friends, reading good books, snuggling with our sweeties and getting on with our lives...

Like humans.

It's Good to be Trumped

I was about eight or nine years old and curious about the world in many ways that should have been left to their own devices.

When I was young, we lived on a street that backed onto a forest. I've been back to that neighbourhood since then and it's completely different. The forest is gone and is now occupied by a row of houses intended to differentiate themselves from one another only by the siding or brick colour. Other than that, it's a collection of postage stamps sold as a piece of real estate to families with a neighbour on one side who uses tweezers to cut his lawn while the one on the other side chugs onto what used to be his lawn with his mud ridden monster truck, two four wheelers and a plethora of kids bikes and toys.

Anyway, there used to be a nice forest there.

I was out in that forest one day with a friend and happened across a hornets nest. I was watching the tiny black and yellow busy-doers wander in and out of their paper nest when my friend thought it might be cool to toss a rock at it. This is the children's version of one friend saying to the other, “Oh yeah? Hold my beer and watch this!” Generally speaking, those words are followed by a visit from a panel truck with red lights, a screaming warning signal and the words “Emergency Vehicle” plastered everywhere around it's gleaming white hide. Next stop, the Emergency Ward and the detox centre... not necessarily in that order. Unless you're a kid... then it's the Emergency Ward and a stern talking to with a smack on the ass.

I threw a rock.

I'm ashamed on two levels. Firstly, I was behaving badly by disrupting the lives of creatures for my own enjoyment. My only defence is I was eight or nine and dumb as a clump of cat litter. Secondly, I wasn't very good at throwing things then and couldn't purposely hit a stand of maple trees with a fist full of pebbles.

My friend, who was much more accurate than I, hit the nest.

For a moment, the hornets were confused. Then... they organized. I started running. The hornets saw the movement and decided defending their territory was the best course of action. As it turned out, I wasn't much of a thrower but I was really fucking good at running. I got a few stings while my friend, who wasn't such a good runner, took the brunt of the assault.

Yeah... I haven't bothered with hornets much since. I have chosen to live with them rather than piss them off.

I've been looking at this whole thing since the election. Disturbing as it is, there are some who are applauding the actions taken since inauguration day. Others are appalled at the lack of humanity. Those would be the hornets. The hornets have finally become enraged enough at the establishment that they elected someone who was willing to tear down the shroud of the inner workings of the government regardless of consequence.

To purposely mix metaphors, the pendulum has swung as far to the right as it possibly can and has clunked on the side of the aged wooden cabinet of the grandfather clock with an unceremonious thud.

This is not a bad thing. That sound you hear is the bone crunching machinery coming to a grinding halt.

What we have been doing up until now has not worked. Not for everyone. While ninety-nine percent of us toil because we have to, the other one percent bandy about the planet in their yachts and jets while eating exotic foods like dolphin and dog and chocolate covered ants. Eight people have the same financial resources of 3.8 billion others. Firstly, does it seem right that anyone should be wasting those resources like the one percent? Their carbon footprint is larger than some small towns in any G20 country.

This carbon footprint extends to those we place into power in our illustrious institutions as well; presidents of country and corporation, mayors of major cities, business leaders, envoys to other countries, music and acting stars, TV personalities, sports stars, etc. They all have a larger footprint than most small corporations.

It has to end.

What Donald Trump is doing is necessary. Short of launching a ballistic missile assault on Denmark for not setting a good pyramidal example to its citizenry, the current system of haves and have-nots has to be abolished. And, unfortunately, the only way to prove to the masses that the old system will never, ever, ever work for them is to blow the fucker out of the water.

This pyramidal, top-down experiment has run its course. It doesn't work simply because of greed.

What Donald Trump has done during his first week in office is not palatable to most of us. He is crude, ignorant of international policy, intolerant of others points of view, protectionist, narcissistic, homophobic and illiterate. He's exactly what is needed to tear apart what is, surely, a one sided scheme. Our job, as socially responsible humans, is to work on what is going to replace what he is tearing apart.

For decades (centuries? Millennia?) we have had a hierarchy which pandered to the few while making empty promises to the masses. (Trickle down economics, my ass.) So? What are we going to do about it? Some ideas would be a good start. And those ideas need to start now so, when The Donald is booted unceremoniously to the curb, the pendulum can swing back toward the middle where it belongs.

Donald Trump is no more than a kid throwing a rock at a hornets nest. The hornets (us regular folk) need to sting back and set our boundaries. And, while that is happening, we need to reorganize and not go back to what we had.

It's time to build a new nest.

It's time to do things differently, equitably and for the protection of the Eco-system of the third rock from the sun... our only home.

It's time to break down the system that clearly doesn't work and build a new one.

While we're hating on Donald Trump, we need to secretly be thanking him for tearing the system down. For exposing the inner workings of a corrupt system.

Now we need ideas.

Mind Your Elders

Family gatherings, whatever the reason, tend to reveal a lot about who you are, where you've been and where you may be going.

(Where you are going is always a choice.)

I looked around a crowded room at my family and friends recently and was struck by how we had all aged. My father, now in his eighties, is still a pretty healthy guy. Many of the people I remember as much younger than who they are now. The reason for the recent coming together was a sombre one; my Mom's funeral. It occurred to me during the long drive home that these people, these elders, would be me in not so many years. The passing of my Mom made me realize I was becoming one of the older folks in my “tribe” but was I becoming an Elder or simply becoming an older version of who I was in my teens or twenties?

Am I still twenty-five in my head or have I drunk at the well of life enough to impart some form of functional experiential wisdom?

In our culture, we lament aging; aching joints, failing eyesight and hearing and stepping slower than we once did. We fear the aging process past thirty to the point of making humorous birthday cards and, to modernize it, memes, that joke about getting older. We spend thousands of dollars trying to look like some reasonable facsimile of a Vogue cover. We look at aging as if it were some cruel punishment for over-exuberance in our teens, twenties and thirties. Indeed, I know many people who still are behaving as if they still live in their teens and twenties despite bodies which are much older. We fight the aging process tooth and nail as if getting older were some crime and our slowing, aching, wrinkling, sagging body and underachieving metabolism were the prison.

We are viewing it wrong.

Aging is part of the process, not only in body but in mind, emotional stability and humility. It is an honour to age. It is an honour to become humble and quieter in spirit. It is an honour to choose wisdom over physical prowess. As we grow older, we need to become grounded in ourselves so we can ground others. Rather than rile the masses or pit one side against the other, being an Elder is the reasonable voice in conflict.

Anything else is a combative adolescent in wrinkled skin.

How does one become an Elder?

What is the difference between an older and an Elder?

Becoming an Elder is not simply a function of age or of experience. It seems becoming an Elder is more a function of one's disposition. In fact, if one looks at the presumed function of an Elder from historical times, they were learned people with life experience and not only knew right from wrong, but had the common sense to make decisions that were best for an entire group rather than a select few. Those who would have been deemed to be Elders during tribal times would not have had personal agendas knowing their time of personal gain decision making had passed. Those Elders were stable, centred, grounded while carrying wisdom and balance into their resolution of issues.

It seems to me elders are about continuation. That is, passing on a stable legacy for all.

But then, that was a tribal elder as opposed to a country's elder, right? It's more difficult to find one single person to run a community as large as a country without them having a personal agenda. After all, it's the societal structure we (the global we) have designed and have come to know. Decisions are made with regard to profit or loss. That is, whether it costs more than an alternative rather than whether the alternative is better for the global community as a whole.

We see it in North Dakota at the moment where a money making entity pits itself against the well being of citizens where money may well be the deciding factor. Too often, the money wins.

I don't believe that is what an elder does. I believe an elder makes decisions that are sometimes difficult (financially or otherwise) yet result in what is best for the whole of society and the future continuation of that society. By making decisions based on cost or convenience and not long term functionality and healthy citizens, we are often discounting new ideas for the comfort of old, outdated, less costly systems.

And then there is an election.

I won't go into what I believe is right or wrong with the presidential decision. My opinion matters not. I am, however, compelled to ask some rather pointed questions.

Does the new leader make decisions based on the needs of society's future or based on the cheaper, more immediate financially lucrative path?

Does he have a history of basing his decisions on people rather than money?

Does he have a track record which is inclusive rather than exclusive?

Is he an Elder or simply an Older?

Has he any bias toward a group of people?

While we may surmise what a future with this leader will be like, we really don't know for certain what it will be. At the same time, we have only the history of this man to judge from. He may, in fact, be brilliant for the United States. While that fact may or may not be true, I have a peculiar feeling he is not going to have a far reaching positive affect on the world.

That makes him not leader of the free world.

That makes him not inclusive.

That makes him an Older, but not an Elder.

That makes him an little boy in big boy pants.

For myself, I know, as time passes, I am becoming an Older. Evidence of that was punctuated at the funeral. My wondering is whether I am becoming an Elder.

As with this recent decision by the people of the United States, only time will tell.

Be well.