During a brief conversation with my health care provider, he asked how I was doing - emotionally. I wondered why he asked that and he said he has seen a "huge uptick" of patients coming to him with complaints of exhaustion, anxiety, anger, and depression.
And why not? Just take a look at what we are dealing with on a daily basis.
COVID-19 continues to rage through many states, including mine (AZ) and the numbers of new cases, hospitalizations, ICU bed and ventilator use are hitting record highs. Hospitals in many urban areas are near capacity, but the numbers keep going up. All this time the so-called president of this country and his vice-president have given up the ghost. As far as they are concerned, COVID-19 is a done deal! In fact, DeadlyDon has yanked additional federal money for testing.
DeadlyDon clearly said none of this is his responsibility - hey, why not pass the buck to the governors? Let them handle it! And then some governors (like Arizona's DeadlyDoug) passed the buck to the mayors! Hey, if anything goes wrong, let the mayors take the blame! Health experts tell us to wear face coverings, wash our hands, and be very careful to physically distance ourselves from others. Until effective treatments and a vaccine become a reality, we have to protect others - and ourselves. DeadlyDon isn't going to wear a mask because he wants us all to do what he's doing: pretend the virus no longer exists.
Consider this: while Americans are dying, DeadlyDon is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to dismantle the Affordable Care Act! Yes, indeed ... let's leave millions of people without health insurance in the middle of a pandemic!
And then there's the related economy. Until COVID-19 actually is under control, many people will continue to be cautious about shopping, eating in restaurants, going to gyms and theaters, etc. If nobody is spending money, those businesses will have to furlough more people and maybe even shut down. So much for that "excellent" economy ... right? First, take control of the virus and then we can bring back our economy. DeadlyDon, however, is willing to watch the death numbers go up so he can campaign on an improving economy.
Now let's add recent racial tension and the protest movement calling for racial justice. Night after night, Americans who are tired of racial inequality take to the streets. The injustice has been happening for decades but it took a video of George Floyd losing his life while police made sure he couldn't breathe. Just another black man? Not hardly! We saw this man die on video ... 8 minutes and 46 seconds. And the nation woke up.
How is DeadlyDon reacting? Again ... nothing. Nothing except sending armed troops into Lafayette Square with tear gas used against peaceful protesters. Why? So he could stand in front of a church with a Bible - and look like a total ass. This ass lies every time he speaks and he is a whiz at finding others to blame for his problems.
Speaking of ass, we can add Attorney General William Barr to the mix. He and DeadlyDon are doing their best to destroy the rule of law in this country. We already know they don't think much of the U.S. Constitution. And they had to be forced by a judge to release children still in big cages after being separated from their parents at the border. At this writing, the children have not yet been released so it will be interesting to see how long it will take.
Is it any wonder why we are exhausted? Why we are angry?
We are at war and it's a war on several fronts. The main war in my mind is the November 3rd election. Remove an incompetent, cruel conman from the Oval Office and we can bring reason and compassion back to the presidency. Make no mistake about it: this is a war!
Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist and one of the founders of the Lincoln Project, said in a Zoom meeting that wars are won in two ways:
1) beat your opponent into submission
2) beat your opponent into exhaustion
DeadlyDon will win only if we allow our exhaustion to overcome our need to get rid of him. Therefore, we need to maintain our vigilance, maintain our resolve, and find ways to mitigate our exhaustion - the exhaustion he has caused. You may not have the money to donate to Joe Biden or to the Lincoln Project or to any candidate you support. But maybe you can send postcards or emails? Maybe you can work a phone bank or send text messages? Maybe you can help educate people on social media outlets? It is truly amazing how you can relieve some exhaustion by finding a purpose! We cannot let DeadlyDon beat us into submission or exhaustion.
