Monday open thread: A few thoughts on our Plague Year

One thing I will never do on this here blog is blow smoke up y'all's asses. I pride myself on being truthful and upfront. All I have is my credibility; when I lose that, I may as well close up shop.

However. We will get through this.

We will get through not only the viral plague which is ravaging our world, but the plague of a lack of humanity and empathy.

I know it's hard to see the end of this road, but it's there, and it's not ending in a dark wood.

Humanity is in a dark place right now. We have forgotten the lessons learned by our parents and grandparents. We have, momentarily, forgotten the lessons of Auschwitz and the Killing Fields. We are human, and we think history never applies to us. Too many of us go by that famous fascist's words: History is bunk.

But humans also remember the beauty, and the power of love. Humans cling to each other when all seems lost, and struggle to find the light.

I see that in the healthcare workers who, underpaid and underequipped, don what they have and go to the front lines, again and again, at risk to their lives, to save the lives of others.

I see that in grocery clerks who don't complain, who don't stay home, but scan your groceries, getting you what you need so that you can stay home and hunker down.

I see that in the truck drives who risk illness to get needed goods to stores.

I see that in the gig workers who deliver your food, so that you don't have to go out of your house.

Humans are amazing creatures. Never more so than when all seems to be in a grayness, a darkness through which cannot peer.

It is the hope for justice which keeps me going. The hope that those in our country who were willing to sacrifice us for pecuniary gains will see their comeuppance.

This is different than lying us into a war. This is different than condemning one city to drown. Those were awful. But this is of a different order of magnitude. There will be justice after this, and it will be furious.

People have died because those who claim power hid the truth, obfuscated for what they perceived as political necessity. They downplayed the gravity of the situation, because to be honest would mean to reveal their utter incapacity to deal with the storm about to hit.

There are no "both sides" to this. You are on the side of the angels, or the side of the demons. And you can lie to yourself and say you were just trying to get a "better" angel; but none existed, and all you did was to empower the devil.

We will get through this, because we must. I must for the angel which fronts this piece. I want her to have a world better than the one I came into and grew up in. I want her to never face the evil we've faced. I want her to, yes, live in as close to a utopia as fallible humanity can achieve.

We will get through this because we are human beings. And what no dictator, what no autocrat, what no despot can ever comprehend is that we will fight and die for a better world where they are not in power, where their sway is as dust. Not for ourselves, but for those who come after us. We will sacrifice all we have for them, because in them we will continue to live.

We will get through this because we will live to dance on the graves of the evil. We will piss on the mausoleums of the comfortable. We will take their ashes and burn them again,until their memories are erased.

We will get through this because, in the end, I was taught that good will win over evil. Any other thought and we may as well give up.

We will get through this.