covid diary: day 80

barn swallow wants to make a nest on the front porch

This Washington Post headline pretty much says it all: "Gripped by Disease, Unemployment, and Outrage at the Police, America Plunges into Crisis."

We watched last night as protests erupted in cities all over the country. The killing of George Floyd was the event that started them, but these protests are about much more than one incident. They're about years, decades, centuries of systemic racism in this country. They're about ingrained attitudes white people carry that allow them to dehumanize and disconnect from the humanity of people of color. We're all born into this racist system, and right now its effects have been laid bare in a way that simply cannot fail to get the attention of any white person with a shred of decency. Black people are suffering and dying disproportionately from COVID-19. They're suffering disproportionately from the effects of mass unemployment coupled with draconian cuts to the nation's safety net programs. They've lived for generations with the ripple effects from slavery, from segregation, from redlining, even from bias in standardized testing for students. It's always been there; it's just impossible to ignore in this moment.

The response to these protests has been really instructive. We've seen police arresting reporters (of color) for reporting on the protests in Milwaukee, police shooting pepper bullets at (women) reporters doing their jobs in Louisville, a white man tackling a (woman) reporter in Phoenix while she was in the middle of reporting on the protests. Police are tear gassing the crowds, firing rubber bullets and pepper bullets and indiscriminately spraying mace as they drive by.

We've also seen lawyers all across the country, in Minneapolis, Houston, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, offering to represent protesters pro bono if they get arrested. We've seen the Indian owners of the Gandhi Mahal restaurant in Minneapolis, which was next door to the third precinct police department and got damaged in the same fire that took out the police building, issue a statement that says, in part, "Let my building burn, justice needs to be served, put those officers in jail. ... Gandhi Mahal may have felt the flames last night, but our fiery drive to help protect and stand with our community will never die! Peace be with everyone." We've seen people from all over the world donate to bail funds and use whatever platforms they have to stand in solidarity with the protesters.

We've seen the president incite violence and try to blame this too on Democrats. And we've seen Joe Biden step up and express his deepest, truest empathy with the grief and despair being felt all over the nation. Listen, we all know that Joe Biden was never my choice for the Democratic nomination, but if there's one thing he's really, really great at, it's empathy. Joe Biden has experienced tremendous personal losses, and that enables him to connect with people who are hurting at a level that Trump could never even understand, let alone aspire to.

And just as a side note: My picks never end up being what actually happens, but if I could pick his running mate, it would be Rep. Val Demings (D-FL). So I'm going to lay down my marker, and we'll see what ends up happening. (Mike thinks Biden will choose Elizabeth Warren, who would also be excellent, as she is at everything she does, so I'll just lay down his marker now too.)

Much closer to home, cases of COVID-19 have nearly doubled in our county in the span of a single week since we entered phase whatever of the ridiculous Back on Track Indiana plan and everything started reopening. The increase has prompted our county health department to issue a warning to people to protect themselves. And Elkhart County, where my brother lives, was named by the NYT as one of the top 10 emerging hotspots in the country.

These are very scary times, friends.

Nationwide cases: 1,747,087. Deaths: 102,836.