Thursday, June 4, 2020

About Being Prepared

It was about 75 million years ago that an immense asteroid or comet known as the Chicxulub Impactor slammed into the earth in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. The ensuing devastation decimated the earth and wiped out many species including the dinosaurs. Donald Trump has not yet blamed China, the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control, Democratic governors or the Obama administration for that catastrophe but I'm sure it will come. Or maybe he will say it was Fake News and never happened. 

Let's assume that humans were there at that time. How do you anticipate that an asteroid perhaps 50 miles in diameter will slam into the planet? Perhaps astronomers could have given us some warning...maybe days or even weeks. So what? How do you prepare for an event of that magnitude? You don't....game over. The job of any survivors is to salvage what's left, try to stabilize the situation and develop a plan for recovery.

The corona virus story isn't far off from the above. Nobody could have anticipated it. Even had there been a few weeks warning, how do you prepare for something that you don't even know what it is? Pointing fingers doesn't solve anything. Denigrating China, the WHO or CDC doesn't get us closer to controlling the virus. 

Trump can't be blamed for our lack or preparedness. He can be faulted for ignoring the early warnings of medical authorities that this thing was bigger than a bread box. He should be faulted for his dismissing the potential of the virus as we learned more about it. His early comments that "We shut it down", and "We have tremendous control over this virus" were misleading and foolish. He has mishandled the situation from the beginning and continues to do so. In a national emergency, which is what this is, a president must provide leadership. Trump has done nothing but engage in Twitter wars, made threats, fired those who don't agree or glorify him, insulted countless people and has made a joke of himself, the office of the president and the United States.

Now he is doing virtually the same thing with the George Floyd incident. The actor Dwayne Johnson has called for Trump to provide leadership. I strongly disagree. Trump has proven himself to be an ineffective fool, incapable of providing leadership. This country would be better off with Trump completely out of the picture. I am not advocating forcibly removing or impeaching him. I am saying that he should be completely ignored. Let the state governors take full responsibility for the corona virus and protest responses. And if federal resources are needed, let the governors interact directly with the appropriate federal agencies. Let Trump occupy himself by posing with bibles at churches, comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln, touting all of his accomplishments on Twitter, proposing the use of new drugs, and doing his Rodney Dangerfield impersonation on "....why I don't get no respect!" 

Political polls are showing that Biden is leading Trump. I fervently hope that even the most die-hard republicans have realized by now that Trump is a liability to their party and this country. I have voted for a republican candidate every election since 1964. I will not be doing that in November. Instead I will be checking the box next to the name of whoever the democratic candidate is. Well.....unless it's Stacy Abrams. In that case I'll write in Harry Truman.


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