That my be true in, say, building an immune system. But if America survives Donald Trump, aka ‘President Goldfinger’, will it make us stronger as a people, as a country? Or will we continue down the road of no return toward a brazen national cluelessness, and ultimately to whatever waits for us behind Door #3?
These are the things that Carl and I talk about over coffee lately. We’re old friends. Old guys, relatively. Older than young. Roommates as freshmen at University, embarrassingly too many years ago. Carl is from the country, I am from the city. But he’s lived in the city and I’ve lived in the country. We are about even with our perspectives. He likes gardening, so he takes the long view. I watch too much television news, so I’m quick to opine.
We sit in a booth at our favorite downtown restaurant, “Where the Locals Eat”, and watch Main Street go by. We discuss science, politics, evolution, and the Universe. We agree that President Goldfinger is nuts and that it’s hard to take him seriously. Or take politics seriously for that matter. Like Carl says, “In the long run, none of this really matters anyway.”
I once asked Carl what he thought our ultimate downfall would be, as a country, and humanity generally. After all, ‘all good things must come to an end’. Would it be nuclear war, a comet hitting the earth, climate change, carnivorous invaders from another world? Carl thought about it long and hard before he answered. I could tell he’d thought about this before. He said it would probably be some sort of infectious pandemic virus or disease. Carl knows things.
We had this conversation several years ago.
As the chilling reality of the Coronavirus sets in, I’m wondering if this is a message from the Universe? Or, dare I say or need to say it, a message from God?
I hate waxing biblical, but these are biblical times. Things are coming to pass. Or maybe I just have too much time on my hands. In practicality, maybe things are just running their natural course, again. Short of an asteroid colliding with the Earth, we are doing a pretty good job of stirring the pot down here by ourselves.
Watching the American president Goldfinger deal with the Coronavirus issue is just like watching the continuing game show of the last three years. But this time it seems more serious.
This is not Trump’s wheelhouse. He’s out of his element of braggadocio and patronizing hype. This science is staring him right in the face and he simply can’t face it. ‘It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature‘, and she’s a woman who drives a hard bargain ...the ultimate deal maker.
Trump has glibly said, uninformed as he is, that this will all disappear in April when the weather gets warmer. He then passed the responsibility buck to Vice President Pence who said he’d pray about it for us. Why do I not feel these guys have my back, America’s back, on this? In the meantime, a potential global pandemic is developing.
In all fairness, a president’s job is to calm the people and avoid widespread panic. But his job is also to inform and protect the people. To actually be prepared and not just say it while looking like a deer in the headlights of science and showing us just how ill-prepared he actually is and how much he does not know or understand. Or care ...
Conversely, the job of the news media is also to inform the public, but their inherent job is to create a viewing tension within the public, an excitement and fear, all in the name of sensationalism which generates ratings and advertising dollars.
We are all caught in the middle. Carl and I drink another cup of coffee.
The 1995 film ‘Outbreak’ is a stark reminder that this could happen, and that politics and science can work against one another if cooler heads do not prevail ...
Will the Coronavirus kill us or make us stronger? Is it a message from God? Who Will be spared? Do you Choose Door #1, Door 2, or Door #3? Or will it all just go away in April like Trump says, when the weather gets warmer?
Stay tuned ...
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
Some past articles and op-eds
