Us Became Them

Not so long ago, COVID-19 was seen as a crisis facing the world.

Today in America, it is not a problem.

We marched over the dead to hundred-thousand and will continue to ignore the hundreds of thousands that will come in the weeks and months ahead.

The virus is only a problem for the marginalized, the ignored, the takers.

Them.

Why is that?

America sees everything through Race.

The cancer of slavery on this nation burned out the eyes, ears, hearts, and minds of white America.

Left and right.

Rich and poor.

Like an open infected wound, it has burned through the long night since 1864.

The smell of racism lingers in the air like fresh-popped corn.

America cannot do anything without first asking will it benefit the minorities.

Minorities in white America is only Black Americans.

All others need not apply.

The racial animus, the hatred, the focus of who caused economic poverty in white racist America is on blacks.

This virus has become a convenient scapegoat for our racist leadership at the local and federal governments and law enforcement.

An easy excuse to do nothing to help and protect.

When COVID was a plague that could be caught by anyone, it was something to take action upon.

But, as soon as the media reported that Black America was incredibly hard hit with the loss of life, racist America realized they had a blue light special.

COVID provided a way to decrease those on welfare.

COVID provided a way to eliminate those pension checks.

COVID provided a solution to decrease those sucking federal dollars through Social Security.

The bonus was it was hitting black and brown communities the hardest.

Or so white racist America believe…

Prejudice feeds upon stories that support it.

You, as an individual, may like donuts.

If you hear of a study that says donuts are good for you, even if it’s not true, you’ll smile and be confirmed in your prejudice.

Humanity has told stories to each other, especially when drunk, that support their world view.

Humanity tends to dismiss those stories that do not fit into the world order that they believe is true.

The virus has a story it will tell.

COVID 19 is not the flu, it is not a cold.

It is a virus that will burn its way through the population of the earth until everyone has been infected.

In three months, only 5% of the American population has been exposed to the virus.

In three months, we went from zero dead to over 101,000.

If the past is prologue, then by the time the remaining 95% of America is infected, 1.5 million lives will have been lost.

That is the foreword of the COVID 19 story.

What of the story of those who lived during this time of COVID?

There will be black faces, brown faces, white faces, Asian faces.

All those faces that no longer can tell their story.

Their hopes.

Their dreams.

The reason why they were born cut short because of the careless nature of humanity.

This carelessness of the value of just one human life.

Humanity has never been able to learn on its own.

Humanity has always had to fall and hit bottom before it can turn and lift itself up.

The story of America is a racial one.

Can a people of many nations, many creeds, many races live together?

Trust one another?

Care for one another?

This virus will remind us that love asks more of us each and every day.

We are all brothers and sisters in a good fight today.

We may lose a battle, but justice is on our side, we will not lose the war.

Peace

DFrey

A Time Not Seen

The day you were born.

Your first steps.

The moment when you saw the sky.

A time not seen.

The war of Independence.

The war between the states.

The war for human rights.

A time not seen.

Before smartphones.

Before telephone poles.

Before telegraph wire.

A time not seen.

The edge of the universe.

The edge of our solar system.

The edge of despair in the human heart.

A time not seen.

Like a toddler new to the world, America is about to take a step of fate.

It would appear reason and ignorance are evenly balanced.

The cliff is the virus.

Science and its companion medicine shout out warnings to step back.

This country has seen death before.

But not at the hands of so merciless a God as this virus.

It laughs at a few hundred thousand.

The grim skull of the virus will not be full until it takes millions of lives from coast to coast.

Too many want to step off the cliff to see what happens.

If only those who want to tempt fate were the ones to lose their lives.

You cannot stop a fool from shooting their own foot off.

However, the determination of those who want to ignore reality are committing a kind of social suicide.

They don’t want to go alone.

Their hatred of government, of laws, restrictions, of minorities, and women spur them over the cliff like lemmings.

The jaws of the virus feed at the bucket of the prejudiced.

What makes America the worse at handling this global crisis?

Racism.

Both ethnic and economic.

A time is rapidly approaching that has not been seen.

Unless and until there is an effective vaccine, the virus will mount bodies to the sky.

This country has not seen a million people perish in one crisis.

Other nations have.

Other nations came out on the other side.

Different.

Matured.

They came to understand the value of one human life.

We, as a nation, have not learned that lesson.

This nation is falling and does not recognize its descent.

Let us change the trajectory.

Let us challenge the fear.

Let us make this a time not seen.

A time where compassion is our guide.

A time where hope is the arm that comforts us.

A time where love asks each of us to do more each and every day.

Let us, please, see that too many have died.

Do something now.

Peace

DFrey

Fear

Where does fear come from?

Children are afraid of the dark.

What lurks out in the space unseen, unknown, unfelt, unplanned for?

But is fear a thing?

Is it something that can be touched?

Is it a monster under the bed?

Is it an entity that roams and attacks us without warning?

Or is it something inside of us?

Is it something we tell ourselves?

Specifically, is fear about us and not about fear itself?

There are, of course, many things to fear.

Spiders.

Paper cuts.

Snakes.

Auto accidents.

Plane flight.

Job loss.

Illness.

Death.

These are all things that, in their specific ways, can stop our plans.

But is that what fear is really?

Is fear a reaction to a force that has changed our schedule?

The COVID virus.

This virus has changed the plans of everyone on the planet.

It is going about what viruses do it is spreading and multiplying.

Our deaths are not its purpose.

Killing off its host is not suitable for any host in the long run because it doesn't allow it to succeed.

It wants cooperation so it can live.

Fear.

Our plans changed.

Those that deny the science are living in fear of the truth.

Their non-cooperation with social distancing and wearing a mask is couched behind a veil of personal freedom.

Our brothers and sisters are afraid of the virus and believe spitting in the face of reason will allow them to dodge the grim reaper.

Their fear allows them to take no responsibility for the despair, the death they will cause.

Ultimately fear is a scapegoat that creates a narrative of denial of personal responsibility to the community and self.

The Devil made me do it.

The virus needs no help to kill.

But who needs our help are those who live in fear.

America is going to live through a time that it has never seen before. Simple algebra can demonstrate real fear.

As the statistics demonstrate, only 5% of the US population has been exposed to the virus, with 85K deaths.

What happens when short of no vaccine and 100% of the population is exposed, how many people will have perished?

North of 1.5 million Americans.

That's the number the CDC has been gagged from telling.

That's the human tragedy that's being kept from the airwaves.

That is a real fear.

Yet fear can stimulate courage.

Fear can grow purpose.

Fear can challenge a people and a person to do what is right.

Without fear, we wouldn't know what love is.

Love will see all of us through this time.

Love will brush aside the terror of night to reveal the truth of the day.

See those that are living in fear and give them hope by your example.

Wear your mask with pride that you are saving other's lives, not just your own.

It is only through looking out for each other that we together will get to our joy.

Darkness is the nature of the universe; each of us is a light in that eternal night, which is why we each have an obligation to tend that light called hope.

The moon silent went on a stroll between the stars, and when it looked down on the earth there, it saw even more stars all the same above and below.

Peace.

DFrey

Angels

I have seen them on the earth.

As an orderly for five years.

As the son of an RN Elaine Frey.

As my wife, Denny cares for her patients in the ICU.

I have seen angels on the earth.

I have seen nurses wipe the bloody wounds clean.

Watched as they laughed about a daytime TV show.

Heard them cry after the patient's family has left the bedside of their loved one who had passed.

I watched as they prepared a meal after a long day at work.

Listened to them tell a doctor to pay attention to their patient who is in need.

I felt the care when I was sick, told to take my medicine, and force fluids.

Brotherhood, as they helped me prepare the body of those that have passed to take to the morgue.

A team, while the nurses hung IV meds, wrote quick nurses notes, bagged the patient, as I did the CPR.

Sitting down after a long night to have a donut, but they're all gone.

Saw them wheel a female patient in a wheelchair up to OBGYN; it's their first baby.

Was there as they filled out the chart.

Was there as they took the call from the attending physician.

Helped hold the patient as they cleaned and washed the patients who had soiled themselves.

Was there when it was their first day on the job.

There when they retired.

The hands of a nurse are a contradiction.

They are strong able to turn 300-pound patients.

They are rough, cracked from years of constant washing.

They are also filled with an unbounded understanding of the true meaning of love.

Love never asks for less.

Love asks all of us to do more than expected.

The crisis of a generation is upon us all.

We are all grateful that we are not alone in this world to face it.

There are angels there to catch us should we stumble.

Angels who bring the light of hope.

Thank you.

Peace

DFrey