Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
July 2, 2020
By Bill McCann
After weeks at home eating veggies, I longed for chicken-fried steak. I donned my mask and picked up a call-in order at a local eatery. As I hurried to my car with a sack of chicken-fried calories and mask in place, two young men in T-shirts and jeans, but no masks, passed nearby. One of them called to me, “You didn’t just rob the place, did you?”
I hoped he wasn’t taking a political potshot, so I responded as kindly as I could: “No, I’m just helping to protect others from taking the coronavirus home and killing grandma.” I don’t know whether they got my message. Probably not. It’s unlikely they knew my mask was there to protect them, not me.
They weren’t the only maskless ones. Half the people I saw entering restaurants and businesses weren’t wearing masks that day. Also troubling have been recent social media posts from folks who continue to rant against wearing masks, while denying that a health crisis even exists. Tell that to the health care professionals who have faced a recent surge of virus-infected people requiring hospitalization in several Texas counties, including Harris and Travis. These overworked heroes are continuing to put themselves and their families at risk, while deniers demand freedom to make other people sick.
We shouldn’t be surprised that so many people have ignored the facts about the coronavirus, given the often false messages coming from those elected to lead us. While health care providers are urging everyone to wear masks in public and keep a safe distance, science-challenged President Donald Trump sets a horrible example by going maskless. And once again Trump, ever the pseudo-macho narcissist, has restarted his public rallies of maskless supporters.
In their haste to reopen the economy, Trump and his accomplice Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly downplayed the pandemic, hindering the nation’s response, and risking human lives. Making matters worse, Trump’s administration last week asked the Supreme Court to kill the Affordable Care Act, which would leave many millions of Americans without health care plans during the pandemic.
Numerous states, including Texas, reported record numbers of coronavirus cases this past week. Health experts blamed the surges on the rush to reopen state economies without adequate virus-protection rules in place, including social distancing and masks. It was exactly what those experts predicted would happen. There’s no question that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other GOP governors prematurely reopened their states in deference to Trump and his hardline followers.
Inexplicably, Trump wants to reduce coronavirus testing. Apparently he thinks it will make the virus magically go away. It won’t. But fewer tests would make it harder to track and slow the virus spread. We should do far more testing. As of last week, only about 10% of the population had been tested.
Meanwhile, I’ll keep wearing my mask around people, while Trump keeps robbing this nation of its reputation and spirit by putting himself and his reelection first and America last.
One thought on “Coronavirus surge shows Trump puts America last (commentary)”
Beautifully stated and directly to the point. Remember the three monkeys with hands over their eyes, ears, and mouth representing see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil? The first two are excellent representations of those who vote for Republicans, while the third one is leading a choir of 100 monkeys without masks in a Dallas church. Next, I would like to see a column laying at the governor’s feet responsibility for all the extra COVID-19 deaths since our Trumpite governor opened up Texas before meeting the standards for doing so.