Many things have happened this year of the Covid-19 Pandemic 2020. We are nervously waiting as a country, while our citizens vote early, in the most important Presidential race of my lifetime. I wish I was exaggerating, but unfortunately I am not. Our current President, Donald J. Trump was elected in 2016 and won by something we call the Electoral College, which was added to the Constitution in 1804, created by the framers of the Constitution. as the 12th Amendment. This was created as an alternative to Presidents winning by popular vote. The framers created it because they didn't trust the vote of the people and wanted the President elected by "enlightened people". This is the end of your history lesson, by me, the rest you will have to Google. President Trump did not win the popular vote in 2016, in fact, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton won the popular vote, who was running as a Democrat, that year. In my opinion, our country is openly racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Immigrant among other qualities. We have slowly, but surely, undermined the Middle Class, torn apart our unions, created a wealth class and have neglected impoverished communities. These measures have destroyed the world I grew up in, and that my grandparents and parents worked hard for, in order to give me opportunities, they never achieved. I have to admit it felt good to get that out of my system.
The Corona virus is circulating our world and causing sickness and death without our medical scientific world's availability to stop it quickly and we don't understand why. In fact, our current President has done everything in his power to deflect and disagree with the scientific data that could help reduce or slow down the spread of this epidemic. Our President Trump, who loves to make deals, may have already made a deal with pharmaceutical companies for a vaccine, when it is ready, because he probably bets both ways.
The sad part is many people do not believe that Covid exists and refuse to put on the mask, social distance and hand wash frequently as way to, hopefully, keep the virus at bay. You just have to read the Torah to learn about plagues. We have had them before in Prehistoric villages of China, in Athens in 430 BC, the Black Death traveled from Asia to Europe 1346-1353 and then again in the 1500 and 1700's, in Philadelphia there was the Yellow Fever in 1793, the flu pandemic in 1889 and Polio in 1916, the Spanish Flu in 1918, Asian Flu in 1957-1958, the AIDS epidemic in 1981, H1N1 in 2009, again I turn you over to Google for a full description. The point is that this is not new and we have been lured into the luxury of thinking this would never happen in out time.
Normally, I use this blog to share some comforting words or information to stay healthy or relate some biblical moment and make it relevant to today. But on this day, experiencing an election so close in vote count, in the midst of contentious "battle for the soul of America" to quote candidate Joe Biden. And the religious fundamentalism on the rise, perhaps due to fear from a generation in transition as we move from a white dominated world to a diverse and multiethnic world, I admit I am worried. As we wait for final voting results, which may not happen for another week, Joe Biden has the lead and I pray that he becomes President of the United States of America. And if he does there is no guarantee that anarchy won't rule the day. Even this morning there are Anti-Semitic and racist protestors in the streets of the cities where we wait for the voting results, who don't believe a fair counting is occurring, and are ready to cause a riot. Our current President condones this horrible civic behavior which is why he must be voted out.
I write this as a record for my children and grandchildren and their grandchildren to read so they know how I felt during this fretful time in our history. I hope someday soon this will be just a brief, but horrible, moment in what has otherwise been a fun and fruitful life filled with loving family and friends.
Amen.
