Fight the real fight
The potential deaths of tens of thousands of people, if not more, from a horrific virus should not be a political matter in our nation. Yet it is.
Vice President Mike Pence, himself a medical wonder for managing to live for 60 years without a spine, had the chance on the Sunday morning chat shows to stand up for what’s right regarding politics being attached to the coronavirus, or COVID-19, epidemic, which probably will be a pandemic by the time this column is published.
Pence, though, did what he always does. He brown-nosed the president. When asked about irresponsible statements about COVID-19 from both sides, including Donald Trump supporters, Pence said did his usual presidential rear-kissing. Those inflammatory statements included this one from Donald Trump Jr., a moron with a megaphone:
“For them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning is a new level of sickness.”
Yes, Little Donny insisted Democrats would sacrifice the lives of millions of Americans to get the White House back from his papa/provider.
Pence could have said both sides, foremost Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, are horribly wrong for politicizing a virus that often is deadly and is spreading quickly in our country. He could have said, in a nice way, that Don Jr. says a lot of idiotic things and we should just ignore him. He could have said all on both sides who are making COVID-19 a political issue need to stop, and now.
Instead Pence, ever sanctimonious and ever servile to the president, said the people on his side were merely punching back after first being hit with broadsides from Democrats. And while there is some truth to that, such a rationalization doesn’t even work in junior high. When two kids get caught fighting in the school courtyard and one says the other started it, the vice principal says he doesn’t care, you both were fighting and you both are suspended.
Both sides need to quit the ridiculous fighting and work together, because we are at war against a virus that is both baffling and thus far uncontrollable. It is spreading the world over and leaving bodies in its wake.
When our country has been at war in the past, we’ve pulled together and put party and politics aside. It appears that many people running our nation now, on both sides, are incapable of being nonpartisan. People will die as a result.
I’m particularly obsessed with this with because people with compromised health conditions are more likely to get terribly sick or die from COVID-19. I am an asthma sufferer and have been my entire life. My symptoms vary with the seasons, the winds and such, but my asthma is always there. However, when I get any kind of respiratory illness, which is what this virus is, my respiratory system struggles to function.
This thing easily could kill me and many others with pre-existing respiratory or heart issues. It could easily kill, and already has, those who have other chronic health conditions. It could, and already has, killed many of the elderly.
Those on both sides who can’t, or won’t, put the partisan bickering aside have to be ignored or pushed to the sidelines, so the good fight can be fought and we can overcome this vicious, murderous enemy.
We have to do that because we are in the fight of our lives … literally.
Bret Kofford teaches writing at San Diego State University-Imperial Valley. His opinions don’t necessarily reflect those of SDSU or its employees. Kofford can be reached at Kofford@roadrunner.com