Arizona, are you tired of it yet?

Lessons learned from COVID-19:

• EVERYONE is an infectious disease expert. (They are also Constitutional Scholars.)
• EVERYONE either despises or loves POTUS and those same people either blame POTUS or believe he’s the savior.
• EVERYONE either wants the country open or closed.
• NOBODY trusts ANYTHING Government says. (I say believe 50% of what you hear & read, and 1/2 of what you believe is bullshit.)
• High School Seniors in the state received an unexpected participation trophy for their Senior year.
• School districts were vastly unprepared for online education. Hell… I don’t know if even online High Schools were totally prepared for this.
• Masks, masks and more masks.
• Toilet paper and common cleaning materials became a treasured commodity. Which made many wonder; “Did most Americans not wipe, wash or clean their homes prior to this?”
• And we’re all one cough away from certain death.

POTUS is not completely to blame. Admittedly he has not done everything perfect nor will he. But hey, does anyone actually believe those Asshats on Capitol Hill can really do any better? They’re so hellbent on staying in office they don’t give two shits about the people who elected them in the first place. If they did, they wouldn’t take days to argue about a bill that’s supposed to benefit their electorate. We have states that are so diametrically opposed with their numbers of infected/sick/dead, no one can follow the statistics. And I believe we will never be privy to the actual numbers or facts as to how this pandemic is being handled.

Social media has become the great equalizer. On these platforms the collective brashness and bravery of society is displayed “full tilt.” That is of course, you don’t offend the ‘community standards’ on any of the platforms and your opinions/comments are summarily banned. I find it so disheartening to see how visceral people can be when their lives are changed. How deep in hate and anger they can be when someone has a contrary opinion. I cannot say I have never succumbed to that ignorance before, because I have. I can say I have and am learning from doing so, as to veer away from letting bias and emotion take over. Especially when contrary opinions must be met with reason and lucidity and calm.

I grow tired and frustrated with this constant downfall of our collective humanity. I have lived a greater part of my professional life witness to the horrific depths of human behavior, or be it, misbehavior. And because of those experiences, I can say my empathy and ability to look past immediate the first impression is a bit more fine-tuned than most people. But that still doesn’t make my opinion better. It just makes it different. I would hope people would find their own way to express opposite opinions without causing hate. Hurting someone’s feelings is normal, hate is not.

People… give it all a rest and take care of yourselves. Stay healthy. Take care of yourself and your family.