It didn’t take long in America after the initial shock of the pandemic wore off for a segment of the U.S. population to begin protesting perceived infringements on their liberties and the “huge sacrifices” they were being required to make. While watching news footage of enraged protesters waving American flags and carrying semi automatic weapons at various cities across the U.S., and reading opinion pieces in WHT that reflected these same sentiments, I felt both disheartened and angry.
Let me say up front that I am acutely aware of the economic suffering this pandemic has inflicted on our country. Millions of Americans are now trying to figure out how they are going to put food on the table for their children and scrape up enough money to cover the rent or mortgage. This economic crisis and the pain it is causing is very real and needs to be a huge part of the equation as we figure out how to reopen our country.
Having said that, I feel incredible frustration from the politicizing of this pandemic and the apparent indifference among certain Americans regarding the actual physical suffering this virus has caused here in the U.S. and across the globe. When I see those protesters waving their flags on TV or Letters to the Editor pieces stating, “this is not America, this is a dictatorship,” or “our flag still stands for freedom, and they can’t take that away,” it simply tells me one thing: There is a segment of our population that truly believes that wearing a mask, social distancing, or laying low in one’s home and binging Netflix for a couple months is simply too great a sacrifice to make to save human lives.
The 95,000 Americans and counting that have experienced a terrifying, painful, and lonely death? Oh well, that’s someone else’s problem. The doctors and nurses that are dying by putting themselves in harm’s way to save what lives they can, minimize the suffering of patients, and offer a little comfort in one’s final moments on behalf of family members? Doesn’t matter. Give me my freedom they shout! You can’t force me to wear a mask! No liberal is going to tell me what to do! Simply painful.
Maybe the ultimate question in all of this is, what is a life worth? And does a humans’ worth work on a sliding scale with a stranger’s life not being so important but a family members’ life is nonnegotiable? A letter writer to WHT feels that “a small business owner losing their business is just as devastating as the loss of a family member to COVID.” I suppose that is one opinion. I couldn’t disagree more. I would not trade a family member for all the riches and success in the world. I have lost jobs in the past. I have lost family members. The pain, heartbreak, and anxiety of these two experiences is simply not comparable.
At the end of the day, while I am inspired by the many stories of bravery and sacrifice during this pandemic, and while I feel sadness at the economic struggles so many Americans are facing, I simply feel anger for the segment of our population that seem to have a total inability for genuine compassion or empathy. An apparent lack of these human traits, and lack of Christian values I would assert, within part of the U.S. population is causing great damage to our country, in my humble opinion. I believe this virus has ultimately laid bare the fact that we have even bigger problems in America than the virus itself.
Eric Garrett is a resident of Kailua-Kona
