Want pandemic good news? We’re putting ‘we’ first again

What good could have possibly come out of a horrendous year of physical, emotional and economic suffering — and the loss of more than half a million American lives?

What good? “We” are back.

No one, privileged by the planet’s largest bullhorn, is broadcasting daily, indeed hourly, how great “He” is and what “losers” (and otherwise small in stature) are those who voice a contrary view.

In our American tradition of aspiration and overcoming, “I” is again understood as meaningless without the context of community.

“We the people” are back.

We have learned that none of us can confront perils like a pandemic without each other — all of us steadily working in our various spheres.

If we take a deep breath, we can recognize that the wants and desires of our neighbors – health for our families, opportunity for our children, prosperity for our country – are values we share that outweigh our differences, especially when we aren’t being goaded to revile others for their opinions.

Yes, we are bruised: the cavalier attitude at the top that opened the floodgates to COVID-19, the attacks on governors who asked for more support, who didn’t kowtow (“the woman in Michigan”). And the lies. The barrage we were subjected to almost tore us apart.

Almost. The seams are sorely straining. But an overwhelming majority of us – up to 75% in some polls – approve of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to extend the resources of our incredibly wealthy nation to those among us who need it, who have suffered and endured the most.

Of course, the checks going out to millions of Americans are boosting our generosity factor. But we’ve also proven that we really do value the essential workers at unglamorous jobs who stocked shelves, kept us fed, bused us around, delivered our necessities, maintained our city and household infrastructures, and cleaned up our messes.

In just one example, we have given low-paid workers in Mississippi – generally, women – access to the child care they need not only to report to work but also to better jobs that would lift them out of poverty. A report from that state shows that funds going to the state’s child care programs could serve 80% of the children of those workers, up from less than 30% before the Rescue Plan.

The bipartisan popularity of the American Rescue Plan shows that no amount of term-slinging – “socialism,” “radicalism,” “government takeover” – can dampen the relief that ordinary people feel at receiving help to get their lives back in order, to pay their rent or mortgage, to keep food on the table.

In this time of great need, most of us don’t perceive the government as alien. We know the government is us. We are the wealthiest nation on earth. If our government can’t help us, who can?

All of us were served by the Herculean efforts and sacrifices of our neighbors: the doctors and nurses who cared for our loved ones and the brilliant scientists and technicians who formulated and manufactured vaccines at record speed. They’re still on the job.

What’s more, what’s being called “the hyperacceleration of the life sciences” that produced the vaccines gives hope that research into diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s can also more rapidly translate into medical treatment and cures.

Vaccination rates and the polls show that most of us are following the directives of science. We don’t believe that they are an attack on our liberty, on our constitutional rights.

Of course, there are still those among us who believe the pandemic is a hoax or a Communist plot. Some politicians play a role in this, but more and more they come off as irresponsible if not unhinged.

The pandemic has reminded most of us that we are a global community. We’ve seen that danger to Europeans or Asians or Africans can virally become a danger to Americans. Most of us believe that.

We recognize the flaws in international alliances (as well as our own limitations), but this is no time to withdraw from worldwide organizations that monitor for the next health threat to all of us or to pull out of longstanding relationships with our allies.

We’re back. God willing, learned a lesson.

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