I Fear for the Direction Our Country Is Heading!
This is why I removed some of my photos in my articles. https://medium.com/illumination/people-are-being-sued-for-using-creative-commons-images-adc5c8ba1491
Another day of Lockdown Zero. I read two articles from yahoo news that deepened my concerns about where our country is headed in terms of cultural changes and cultural emergencies.
I am assuming that this Virus will be with us until the late spring of next year. If so, this means that some sort of lockdown will last until then. If they find the vaccine to be only 50% effective in prevention, everyone will still be afraid to venture forth into the public spaces.
In Japan, I read, many people have worn a mask every time they leave the house and for over 20 *years*!
First article: in New York, as the schools might not open this fall, not only will the kids stay home, there will not be any daycare open for the 2 to 5-year-olds. The wife then cannot go to work as she either cannot afford a babysitter or they are afraid of the virus coming into the house via that babysitter.
The second article, written by a high-level chief, sobers me too. He says that he thinks that by early next year, very few independent restaurants will be open!
There will be only large corporate chains and franchises open, the mom and pop cafes will not anymore exist.
These articles, to me, are Pointers to a future that I dislike. I describe this future, though, as a “worst-case” event. Probably the reality will be softer than what I will here describe.
Families will live together. The kids will stay home along with one or two elderly relatives, taken out of a nursing home as if there no one can ever visit them again! There might be one, or even two, dementia relatives who will need 24/7 care and no companion nurse, thank you, as they are dangerous as they might test positive!
Perhaps the front lawns of America will be torn up to make a vegetable garden. Wives, or at least one of the Significant other, will stay home and care for the kids, tend the garden, help care for the elderly relatives, she, or he, cannot work outside of the home. Thus back to past days where the labor is divided. He goes out to earn the bacon and then she cooks it for all of them!
[no more woman’s lib!]
Let's go out for a meal treat! How about a quarter pounder at the big Arches? Yes, the air will smell of disinfectant and the atmosphere seems to be “hospital 101”, but you *are* eating out!
By early October, people are getting really tired of this. Tired of the virus, tired of lockdown, and tired of no jobs with the rents being due.
A somewhat similar state of affairs happened in the 1930s in Germany. The middle class was so devastated by that inflation that they got behind Hitler as he would make it right so they now could actually LIVE!
I see it possible, thus, that suddenly many people will see Trump as the only way out of this state of affairs. Despite his warts, warts as big as a rock, he could actually win the election by a huge landslide! This could even coincide with Biden having some “medical condition”, in October or so, further shaking people’s urge to vote for Trump instead of for Biden.
We all could enter the new year with a second term trump! It is that second term that two-term presidents Get Things Done, the way they see fit!
Is this future of Trump winning, possible? I hope not. I do not look forward to another 12 months of “zero”! Here in my 5-star rated senior campus, there has not been a single activity now since march. People spent big bucks to move here and to enjoy the many concerts, special meals, lectures from the University, and other perks. Florida State has designated the Oaks campus as their unofficial retirement home for professors and alumni. Not now are there any activities!
There are no visitors at all to the entire campus.
The Tallahassee dentists do not do cleaning any more. One can only go to a doctor if it is an emergency! Often the meals here are second rate, even as the staff tries hard, as the supplies coming in are “iffy”!
How about a zero Halloween, a sit down no-turkey Thanksgiving with just your immediate family? Christmas is where you give the kids a bag of candy, bought at the corner convenience store! New years is just *a* day. Let's not talk about the other non-holidays like Easter or memorial day 2021.
I *could* see how many will vote for Trump out of desperation! Not healthy to have three or four people cooped up in a house for 12 months, or longer!
We will see……
