Things That Should Make You Say “Duh!”

As Biden prepares to make his decision for a female Vice President, sexism is rearing it’s ugly head. It’s a really stupid idea. Pitting Black women against White women, pitting women against each other, pitting lesbians against straight women, are all just political games still played by men (and possibly conservative women, I suppose) who don’t really believe in any woman in power.

Let’s just start with the premises that 1) Women are capable leaders. 2) Any woman being considered for the office are more worthy than the man they will replace 3) The person Biden should select needs, most importantly, to love people and love democracy and have the intellect to know how to do those things well.

A Black woman is just as competent as a White woman as an Asian woman as a Hispanic woman . It’s not the color of their skin that matters, it’s their intellect and ability to be just, and their ability to think on their feet that matters.

“Inexperienced”, people will say. Nobody else has ever done the job before in the setting they will face. In other words, no one else has experience in that particular job either.

PART 2

We have a problem, Houston… and Miami, and Los Angeles, and so on, and so on. The virus is not under control. Until the virus is under control, the economy will not be under control. Until the virus is under control, travel to other countries won’t happen. Until the virus is under control it won’t be safe to go to church. Until the virus is under control, “normal “ connection with others will not be safe. Until the virus is under control, no, children should not be in school.

If you want any of the above things to happen, not wearing a mask isn’t going to get you there. If you want any of the above things to happen, not having PPE won’t get us there. If you want any of the above things to happen, not having testing available is not going to get us there. Neither is not having reagents. Neither is not having quick turnaround tests. Neither is speeding up a vaccine for political reasons. Neither is having an unsafe vaccine.

In short, we are f…..ed until we get the virus under control. Like it or not, believe it or not, we are just all kinds of f….ed until this virus is under control.

Amazingly to some people in Congress, people will still need to eat until the virus is under control. They will still need to have a place to live until the virus is under control. They will still need medical care. They will still income. And so what if we pay them to stay home? If going to work is going to kill them or cause long-term harm to them or their families, why would you want them to go work? Also, if companies don’t want to keep their employees safe, they are responsible for causing their employees illnesses until the virus is over.

Regarding the virus, it’s a “pay me now or pay me later” situation. Either deal with it and prevent deaths or not deal with it and cause deaths.

PART 3

Houston, we have a solution… I’s fairly simple in economic terms, moral terms, and political ones as well. Respect each other. Care for each other. Consider yourself responsible for people around you. Put people before profits. If you have more money than any human should, start spending it on more people than yourself.

And regarding these things, I mean all people. I don’t mean “people that look like you” or people that think like you” or “people you know personally”. I especially don’t mean “people of your social class”. Yes, care about all people. Respect all people. If we did that, we’d still have the virus, but it wouldn’t be out of control. If the virus were under control, and we considered everyone to be valuable, parts 1 and 2 wouldn’t even be issues.

Resisting with Peace,

John