Living in the world with, and after, COVID-19, Part 1
There are a great many things I’d like to see happen in the dawning of the world’s reopening, especially in this country where large industries and corporations profit off the greed and recklessness of Americans. Have a seat, because this ride gets bumpy.
Let’s start with our food.
One of the biggest changes needs to be the removal of unnatural additives, like polypropylene, or propylene glycol, and all sugars that aren’t cane or refined. No Yellow Lake #5, no RBST, none of these things that the body cannot break down, thereby bringing about maladies that are contributing to an already bloated healthcare system that is neither fair nor equitable for everyone. If an ingredient is artificially created to simulate flavor, then it should NOT be in food. If one needs a chemistry degree in order to understand an ingredient, it should not be in food.
Hold on… does Flint even have clean, usable water yet? It’s been over 6 years!
Can you imagine the possibilities? We aren’t being poisoned slowly for profit or due to dastardly efforts to control the population, or the creation of professions and drugs that may not need to exist because of those nefarious purposes? Having the ability to eat to live, not live to eat, and be SAFE while doing it? What a wonderful day that would be!
The second thing, and I’m not sure why this is even needed to be asked… please release those interned children to their parents. For Fate’s sake, knowing that they could neither survive on their own NOR be placed into a woefully underfunded, understaffed, and unsafe child welfare system, why separate them from their families at all? The country’s history with centuries of enslavement and the internment camps during WWII should have been reasons why this was a terrible idea, from which there will be no recovery. Ever. Such a thing should not occur in the 21st century, not anywhere in the world, and especially not here. Please realize that the survivors of this will not look favorably upon this country, especially since they are natural-born CITIZENS, with all rights due them, yet they are forced to endure this madness as if they committed a crime simply by existing.
The third thing is, laws that exist and will exist need to be beneficial and fair to us all, meaning no one should be given excessive terms for minor crimes, and major crimes should be punished equally. The language needs to be plain, with no loopholes and ambiguous wording made to deliberately confuse and mislead. I don’t want money to be a factor in the issuing of appropriate justice, because not being punished now could very well lead to continued behaviors, and at worst, escalation. As children, we were usually punished on the spot. The same should happen to people who are distinctly aware of right and wrong, and the law. While on the subject, we need to be rid of for-profit prisons and bail. Both are disgusting and are largely, if not solely, predatory toward minority communities. Many people sit in jail for excessive amounts of time for minor offenses due to their inability to make bail unfairly set too high intentionally.
The fourth thing is, can we take the issue of abortion out of the hands and mouths of men? It’s inherently ridiculous for people who don’t bear the responsibility of incubation to have ANY say in the argument. For Fate’s sake, just because you can expend your genetic material into any non life-sustaining place you see fit DOES NOT give you the right to say what a woman can do with what SHE has to sow within herself. Especially if that seed is not yours to begin with!
Lastly, this idea of race as a social experiment must cease. I’m not going to get all kumbaya in my ideology, but if we keep looking at the minor things that make us different from one another, we will soon forget the thing we have in common: our humanity. Racial superiority as an ideal is inherently stupid, especially when, but not limited to, comparing beings of the same race. So stop exploiting, fetishizing, and demeaning (well, all three things are demeaning) others because of both fear and long-held prejudices that were taught, and not a birthright. For one thing, there will come a time, like now, where the ones who are asking to matter will not be, and no longer are, civil, or asking.
It’s really a shame that a viral strain had to put the world on notice. I’m forever grateful that it did, and I hope the time spent indoors gave people the proper perspective (though with a small few, we’ve seen that to not be the case). I plan to put action to my words and go about creating change in small but lastingly effective ways that benefit us all. I hope that the Earth got a chance to heal somewhat, and we won’t double down on its destruction because of time lost to quarantine.
I realize that there are many issues that I didn’t highlight. In the interest of “striking while the fire is hot”, I wanted to touch on, in ascending order, things that were foremost on my mind.
Good luck to us in our efforts to make this world, this country, a better place to thrive in.
Liz K
Classy With An E 