Since the death of George Floyd, life in America has continued to spiral in ridiculously crazy circles, much like that teacup ride at Walt Disney World. I do not expect anyone to read all this, but I am trying to chronicle what is happening so I can look back at it later. I still cannot believe that we are halfway through 2020. A part of me feels like this year just started, and the other part of me feels like we have lived through three years already.
In the course of one day, I've had two different nurse friends living in two different states post about the overwhelming numbers of people coming in for coronavirus testing, all exhibiting symptoms that they have never witnessed before in their 20+ years of nursing. And in the same day, I've read posts from two other friends who are mocking the media for posting on the virus and making comments about how this is all government mind control and clearly not real.
Sunday we actually went to church for the first time since March. And while I knew the church was doing everything it could to enforce social distancing, I also knew from what little snippets we saw before and after church on livestream that a few people are not taking this seriously. We wore our masks. We got a few eye rolls, and had one person tell us he wasn't going to live in fear. I told him I wasn't afraid either, but I did want to be wise. We've seen firsthand how seriously the medical field is taking this virus, and I know what is at stake for us should one of us get it. The irony is not lost on me that in China students were mortified when I never wore a mask during flu/cold season. They do, by choice. And they considered me extremely reckless and foolish for not wearing one. And now, when there is a new strand of disease around the world, and many people around me are not wearing one, I am choosing to wear a mask. I'd say 60-70% of shoppers in Target wear one; the grocery store depends on what time of day you go, but it is almost always 50% or more. My family in AL says almost no one there wears one, but that could also be why their numbers are climbing ever higher. The number of deaths from Covid in our country now equal the deaths of forty 9-11s.
Statues and monuments have been defaced and vandalised around the country with all the protests. Some of them do need to come down, but I wish they had come down through dialogue and discussion and not by mob rule. There had been talks by the NC Historical Commission in the last 3-4 years about adding more statues and plaques that place a true historical context around the civil war era monuments, but nothing was ever done. I would have loved to see the one statue of the soldier removed from its pedastal and placed alongside statues of a Union soldier, a slave, and a farmer, with a plaque bearing the dates of the war, dates of emancipation, and an estimate of the numbers of deaths and costs from NC in each category, along with the refrain stated in letters over and over throughout those four ghastly years "War is hell." I think people would be startled at the high cost to everyone involved. But they didn't, and they won't. The reality is most people know there are statues and monuments, but I don't think very many people are aware of what they represent, who put them up, or how long they have been there. So if they truly aren't serving as reminders to the costs and sacrifices of so many, why are they up? Historians and protestors alike would be appalled to hear me say that, for different reasons, but times like this make me think about God's command not to have graven images, and I can't help but wonder if we as a people, both sides, have failed to see this as subjective artwork and instead have place more significance onto metal than there should ever be placed.
But the Civil War era is not the only area of history being targeted. Anything and everything pertaining to racism is fair grounds for vandalism and attack. I think the current list is George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant, some Catholic priest I've never heard of, Francis Scott Key, Theodore Roosevelt, replicas of the Vietnam War wall, and the WWII memorial in DC. One of the leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement is also calling for all stained glass windows or statues bearing a White Jesus or White Mary be destroyed, as they are inaccurate presentations of Christianity. While I totally agree with him that it is inaccurate and wrong, I am also aware that almost every culture has drawn the Biblical figures not in their historical, ethnic depiction but in their own likeness, whether it be Asian, Latino, or European. And that doesn't bother me much. Advocating for people to destroy another's religious structures is not cool. At all. It will be interesting to see if people adhere to that or draw the line there.
Meanwhile examples of police brutality continue to come to light. If I were President, I think I'd call together a few police chiefs from cities, a few from small towns, a few reps from NAACP, the heads of several gaming and app groups, a few lawyers, and a few drill sargeants from Camp LaJeune and attempt to have two apps created (one for city policemen and one for small towns) that would essentially be a video game that would take the police through real life scenarios and could teach/enforce what behaviors/comments cause triggers for escalation or violence and what would de-esculate a situation. It might not change anything, but it would be a good starting point for department heads to look at their employees and see who needs further training or dismissal. Speaking of dismissal, so far Raleigh's police chief, who is African-American, is refusing to step down and has the backing of the mayor. I cannot even begin to fathom the hurt she must be facing. There are changes coming about, though most of them are based on a city-wide basis, which is as it should be. Applying band-aids to every department when some need major surgery and others simply need an examination is not a wise practice.
All of this is a true reminder that sin of any kind, when swept under the rug, eventually causes heartache. I pray our nation heals, but also that it finds true repentance first.