by Pa Rock
Baby Boomer
An old friend, someone in my age range, sent around a not-so-funny email this morning which stated that the new nickname for COVID-19 is "Boomer Remover." That bit of "humor" following a few days in which Donald Trump and his know-nothing parrots have been talking up the idea of declaring the national health emergency to be at an end and sending people back to work in order to save the American economy.
In pandering for a return to normal times, Trump lamented that the cure - shutting down businesses in order to keep people at a distance from one another - was perhaps worse than the disease. Sure, more people would die if America went back to work, but they would die so that capitalism and the stock market could survive!
Priorities, people! Priorities!
Senior citizens, those who have been identified as being the most at-risk age group in this raging pandemic, would likely experience rising mortality rates if America returns to work at full force - and they might be expected to raise some self-centered objections. But several Trump sycophants, such as Lt. Governor Dan Patrick of Texas, launched a quick counter-offensive which bluntly questioned the patriotism of old farts who balked at dying for their country's economy. The Texas GOP politician even framed it as a sacrifice that the elderly should make for their grandchildren.
And who among us would wish to harm our beloved grandchildren - never mind that a resurgence in the deadly virus would surely kill some of them as well.
The poor and people of color, people more likely to be without insurance and the means to avoid and fight off the virus, are also at higher risk of dying as the pandemic spreads. Also at high risk would be our caged immigrant population and incarcerated Americans - again, primarily poor people and people of color.
And so the discussion continues. Medical personnel and scientists talk to us about lives, and Republicans speak of dollars.
Many of the Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) have already retired and are drawing social security, a retirement fund that we paid into throughout our working careers, but something that Republican politicians like to portray as living on the dole and socialism. We are, many of them sadly proclaim, a drain on the economy - something that a deadly, out-of-control pandemic just might fix, just as it also might prune the general assistance and welfare rolls, rid the nation of recent immigrants and refugees, and eradicate prison populations.
More deaths would be lamentable, but they just might make America great again.
A social cleansing.
An economic rebirth.
A fascist wet dream!
Baby Boomer
An old friend, someone in my age range, sent around a not-so-funny email this morning which stated that the new nickname for COVID-19 is "Boomer Remover." That bit of "humor" following a few days in which Donald Trump and his know-nothing parrots have been talking up the idea of declaring the national health emergency to be at an end and sending people back to work in order to save the American economy.
In pandering for a return to normal times, Trump lamented that the cure - shutting down businesses in order to keep people at a distance from one another - was perhaps worse than the disease. Sure, more people would die if America went back to work, but they would die so that capitalism and the stock market could survive!
Priorities, people! Priorities!
Senior citizens, those who have been identified as being the most at-risk age group in this raging pandemic, would likely experience rising mortality rates if America returns to work at full force - and they might be expected to raise some self-centered objections. But several Trump sycophants, such as Lt. Governor Dan Patrick of Texas, launched a quick counter-offensive which bluntly questioned the patriotism of old farts who balked at dying for their country's economy. The Texas GOP politician even framed it as a sacrifice that the elderly should make for their grandchildren.
And who among us would wish to harm our beloved grandchildren - never mind that a resurgence in the deadly virus would surely kill some of them as well.
The poor and people of color, people more likely to be without insurance and the means to avoid and fight off the virus, are also at higher risk of dying as the pandemic spreads. Also at high risk would be our caged immigrant population and incarcerated Americans - again, primarily poor people and people of color.
And so the discussion continues. Medical personnel and scientists talk to us about lives, and Republicans speak of dollars.
Many of the Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) have already retired and are drawing social security, a retirement fund that we paid into throughout our working careers, but something that Republican politicians like to portray as living on the dole and socialism. We are, many of them sadly proclaim, a drain on the economy - something that a deadly, out-of-control pandemic just might fix, just as it also might prune the general assistance and welfare rolls, rid the nation of recent immigrants and refugees, and eradicate prison populations.
More deaths would be lamentable, but they just might make America great again.
A social cleansing.
An economic rebirth.
A fascist wet dream!
1 comment:
Our Republican President slow walking the pandemic response + Republican Governors refusing to issue Shut Down Orders and/or Stop Movement Orders = REPUBLICAN DEATH PANELS!
Post a Comment