A Millennial’s Look at a Global Pandemic

Part 2
by Jordan Rock

It’s astonishing to compare the United States of the early 2000’s to now. Do you remember 911? There hadn’t been a foreign terrorist attack on American soil in the public consciousness, and until then, we were riding the new millennium hype train; coasting on the wave of the information age as it really got up to speed.

 I was a little kid, so all these terms about home computers and stock in Google and all of that was a little over my head, but I could tell how excited all the adults were. And then one day I was brought home from school, and my parents slowly and carefully explained to me what was happening on the news.

I hadn’t heard the term “World Trade Center” until that day, and from then on, I would always associate it with tragedy. Do you remember? 3000 dead. Volunteers working around the clock, rescue teams tearing through the rubble trying to find anyone who was still alive. Suddenly America became cold.

Looking back, it seems like the bodies hadn’t even all been buried by the time we were hearing about the Patriot Act, about the war overseas, about the tightening of airport security.  The entire nation wept for those lost in the attack. America was attacked in a way that somehow justified shooting people overseas.  The nation stood in silence and solidarity, and then it stood in fear.

We knew America would never be the same.

At the time of writing this article, the number of Americans that have died due to Covid-19 has hit 86,541. Remarkably it has only been three months since the first recorded case of infection.

I think it’s fair to call this a tragedy for the American people.

So why is it that there seems to be a dedicated contingent of the American populace that wants to downplay the severity of this crisis? Why are people gathering to protest being told by the government to stay indoors during a pandemic? Why is our leadership funneling $8 trillion dollars into private corporations, while providing a one-time $1200 dollar check to the common folk of this country. Why are so many essential workers risking their lives without being paid extra?

Why does our president keep insistingthat this virus isn’t a big deal, that it’s under control while literally tens of  thousands of American citizens die?

Here’s the way I see it. When the twin towers fell, George W. Bush was able to make a reasonable case to the American citizens; we’ve been attacked by an outside force, and it is required for us to counterattack. So, we’re going to violate your privacy via the Patriot Act, and we’re going to go fight overseas, and the justification is that we’re attacking the enemies that attacked America.  America stood in solidarity.

Now, we face an enemy that threatens the entire world. One that cannot be fought with  policy changes or bullets. An enemy that has to be fought with cooperation between big swathes of the world’s populace, and the hard work of doctors the world over. This is a struggle that can only be won by working together.

And the first step is sitting still and sitting quiet.

But our government only begrudgingly gives us some scraps to feed ourselves with while telling us we need to go out and risk our lives to keep the economy going. We’re given these lines about how the virus is our enemy, yes, but only in vague terms that belie a real message. You can’t weaponize American xenophobia against a virus. The only way to beat a virus is to stop people from being infected.

How long will it be until America realizes that?