Re: What do you think of this video?
I only have a couple of quick points to make here. First and foremost, I would argue that, rather than the protests being a result of the political climate, they are more intense than they might otherwise have been because people have been cooped up in their houses for the past few months, feeling helpless, angry, and a myriad of other emotions. So, yeah, people are going to take to the streets the first chance they can, if it helps them come to terms with their own crises and/or redirects their rampant anxieties and exestential woes. Does that mean that they pounced on this particular bandwagon because it was there? Of course not! At least, not anyone who's worth a damn. It does, however, mean that these people are more willing to double down, even when it means risking their health and safety, or the health and safety of loved ones, because fighting for something or someone you believe in can energize you like almost nothing else. Everyone's been itching for an escape, and this, unfortunate as the circumstance is, no doubt scratches that itch for many folks. In that regard, I wish that police wouldn't resort to flooding everything with tear gas, and that people would wear masks, but also, I can't really hate them. If not for the protests, what would these same people be doing? Probably something more destructive. If there does end up being a spike in cases due to the protests, it was inevitable that it was going to happen anyway as soon as strict shelter in place orders were lifted, because humans are innately selfish and common sense has gone the way of the dodo in most circles. To blame the protests alone for any resurgence in cases would be foolish, though the media may try to milk that angle.
I wish that I could be optimistic and say that we're out of the woods in terms of new cases, or a second wave, but, until there's at least some hope for a proven treatment that will reduce the amount of pain and suffering caused by this virus, we basically have to live as cautiously as possible. Not only for the sake of ourselves and our loved ones, but for those who can't, or won't, take the bull by the horns and do what's right. I have more going for me than I've ever experienced. I've been offered a job that I'm going to start in a couple of weeks, I have a loving partner, and I'm feeling better in general about myself and my life than I think I ever have. What scares me is how easily that could all go to shit due to a bunch of microscopic particles. What scares me more is that, had things gone as terribly wrong as they could have for me a few months back, I'd be singing a completely different tune now. I probably wouldn't even be here, or, if I was, I would be in the deepest realms of despair. When I think about that, it's surreal--how I was on top of the world when the virus hit, then was rudely brought back down to earth when it personally affected me, and now, I have a new appreciation for and perspective on my life and how I want to live it due to what we went through.
As for all this stuff about whether saying all lives matter is wrong, I find it incredibly sad that we need to split hairs about that. It really should go without saying that life is life and that it's all valuable. The fact that it needs to be analyzed under a microscope, and that these types of conversations usually only lead to arguments, leaves me shaking my head. Yes, in a perfect world, the blind wouldn't get the short end of the stick, and we would have similar levels of employment to our sighted counterparts. As a side note, someone mentioned earlier in the thread that those with cognitive or other types of physical disabilities continued to receive in-person services despite the lockdown. Well, perhaps they needed such services in order to live? most blind people can at least take care of themselves to an acceptable level without such stringent interventions, whereas someone with a more severe form of autism or a quadroplegic may not be so fortunate. I imagine that those who delivered in-home care to elderly people, some of the most vulnerable to the virus and its symptoms, had to wrestle with this fact, and it's not a position I'd envy. Do you let them deteriorate because you're not doing check-ins, or do you take the risk of transmitting the virus to them? I honestly can't even imagine that.
Anyway, it doesn't help to say, "yeah, but this group has this right and that privilege, and we don't!" because it doesn't matter. I guess most people have a disadvantage in some way, since no one is perfect. If everyone realized that, stopped trying to cover up their flaws by projecting arrogance onto the world in order to hide the fact that they don't measure up to whatever standards society sets for us all, maybe that would be the key to stopping all the hatred, prejudice, and racism, because everyone would realize that what they see as wrongness in others is actually something they may dislike about themselves, or someone signifcant to them. But, again, we're human, we're not meant to objectify ourselves, and perhaps too much of that would be just as unhealthy.
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