Beginning of the End

Today can be seen as the first day of the rest of our lives. The Pfizer vaccine to conquer Covid started going into the arms of health care workers across the country, and the Electoral College started voting today to finally and officially designate Joe Biden as the next president. Despite Donald Trump delusions that the election was “rigged” and “stolen” and he really won. He has denied reality since Election Day just as he denied  the seriousness of the virus from the beginning. The consequences of that incompetence and the failure to act led to three hundred thousand deaths, millions of infections, overwhelmed hospitals, millions of people losing their jobs, thousands of businesses closing forever, and changing everyone’s life. We’ll never know how many lives would have been saved and needless suffering avoided if we weren’t held hostage by someone so damaged, he was incapable of caring about anyone other than himself.

The year was dominated by the virus, the election and the demands for social justice. All three divided us even more. The virus became a political issue. Science, facts and truth were denied. Wearing a mask to protect our family and fellow citizens was seen as an infringement of our individual liberty. When there was no national leadership, the vacuum was filled with distrust and fear. The foundation of American democracy, free and fair elections, were attacked by Trump for months leading up the election. His fear of failure drove him to display a childlike behavior. If I don’t win, the game wasn’t fair. It has been followed by dozens of embarrassing lawsuits alleging fraud with no proof. His answer to demands for police to stop killing unarmed black men was to say we needed the military in our streets and to stand in front of a church holding a bible.

The country has been through years that changed us before:

1787-We created a constitution and a country

1861-The Civl War left scars we feel to this day.

1918-The end of World War I and the flu pandemic

1929-The Great Depression

1941-The start of World War II

1968-Vietnam and cultural and political upheaval

2001-Attacked at home.

The country survived the scars of history. We learned many lessons and failed to learn others. The country was strong enough to trust in the future. This is a day we should be looking to a new and better future. But we can not forget this terrible year. With the arrival of the vaccine, we should be able to control the virus after all the pain its caused. The fight for social justice has been going on since the end of the Civil War. Great progress has been made, but a police officer kneeling on an unarmed black man’s neck as be begged for air, tells us we still have a long way to go. The social division brewing for many years and inflamed by Trump will take longer to heal. He managed to convince and frighten millions of Americans, including the leaders of the Republican Party, who supported the outlandish behavior out of fear of losing their jobs. History will not be kind to them.

Our country has been through hell. There will be lasting damage we will have to work hard to correct. There have not been many good days this year. Maybe today we can see the beginning of the end of a year of darkness and the light of hope for the future.