Over the last couple of weeks we have had a lot of time to contemplate as we watch America at one of its lowest points. Over 100,000 deaths have been attributed to Covid-19; how many actually were caused by the coronavirus may never accurately be known. We have seen our unemployment rate spike to over 13%, thanks to various local, state and federal shutdowns, and the evidence that those shutdowns were medically necessary is growing scanter by the day. The shutdowns themselves, self-inflicted wounds on our lifestyle, morale and economy – to say nothing of their effect on our public health -- have wreaked devastation, made worse by the sometimes irrational decisions of governors, mostly Democrats but some Republicans as well. Those chief executives have issued contradictory and puzzling edicts, and most of those poor decisions have been augmented by a special venom toward those people and business owners who saw little need for shutdown. And yet, in May, the US economy ADDED 2.5 million jobs, as the restrictions were lifted, proving the adage about giving a man a fish versus, in this case, letting him fish for himself, is as true as ever.
We could go on, but just as even the “Blue States” were beginning to ease up on the restrictions, an unanticipated complication was tossed into the mix when a Minneapolis police officer unjustly took the life of George Floyd, a man suspected of passing counterfeit money. The arrest violated all sorts of accepted protocols, but that is not surprising, considering that the officer already had seventeen complaints of misconduct or abuse yet remained on the job. We presume the complaints must have been unjustified, for why else would he have been retained in a city with a progressive mayor, a progressive police chief, a progressive city council (comprised of Democrats and Greens), in a state with a progressive governor and a progressive legislature. Of course, it was all Donald Trump’s fault, we were told.