It’s a better world in 2032

To the youth of 2032:

You were too young in 2020 to remember the pandemic that sent people around the world into isolation.

In B.C. we spent two months self quarantined at home, going out only for groceries or for a walk in the neighbourhood, keeping two metres distance when outside the home.

Unemployment was rampant, oil prices tanked, planes were grounded, most non-essential businesses closed, and systemic flaws were revealed worldwide.

School-aged children were home schooled or on unplanned vacation. But children and adults were learning. Look around you, and you’ll see what we learned.

See the solar panels on roofs, wind turbines on that hill, rooftop gardens on apartment buildings, chicken coops by backyard greenhouses? Cities are oriented toward green energy and locally grown food now, but that wasn’t the case then.

I’ll bet you can’t recall helping older siblings make signs to thank the medical staff we called “frontline heroes.” When shifts changed at hospitals, citizens would applaud, play instruments and bang pots to cheer medical workers.

We discovered previously overlooked heroes, too: truck drivers, farmers, sanitation workers, cleaners, grocery stockers and cashiers. We’d taken them for granted and underpaid them, until we discovered how essential such jobs are.

Now everyone receives a livable income, even those who were formerly unhoused, unemployed, or living on the street.

Did you know the work and school weeks used to be five days long? During the pandemic, many employ- ees worked from home.

When school started, to facilitate smaller class sizes with necessary physical distancing, students didn’t attend on the usual five-day-a-week schedule.

After the pandemic, decision makers saw benefits in shorter weeks and work-from-home options.

In the old days, some world leaders had public tantrums and went on bully binges. But citizens elected new leaders who understood that unless nations worked together, we might not have a future as a species.

You’re enjoying the benefits of a world-consciousness shift from “us vs. them” to “we’re all in this together.”

My generation helped create the environmental and social problems that plagued the world as much as the pandemic did, back in 2020.

In a paradoxical way, changes forced on us because of COVID-19 were a wake-up call for us to create a more environmentally friendly, equitable and sustainable future.

I’m glad you don’t remember the old days.

Pam Kemp, Kelowna