The Slow Grind

The character of a nation is best judged in how well it responds to a crisis. Not since 9-11 has our country been put to that test until Covid. After eighteen months of lock-downs, bankrupted businesses, school closings, violent demonstrations, rising crime, family disintegration, increased adolescent suicide; I believe we have slammed into a wall that can be characterized as the “slow grind.”

We’re almost to the return of normalcy, but not quite. Like anything else, most people can endure a period of pain as long as they know at some point the pain will stop. In this instance, we have no clear date certain and we can’t be sure there will actually be a “stop.”

Last week I had a bit of “lightness of being.” We invited new neighbors over for dinner and we had a rousing good time, sharing stories and laughing over a bit of wine. It felt so good to just forget about Covid for a few hours. That was short lived until my next trip to the grocery store where everyone was masked and employing distancing. A cruel reminder that we are not there yet. My daughter was going to visit me on my birthday but decided against it since a friend of hers had tested positive for Covid. Even though she is vaxxed, she was worried she could carry it to me (also vaxxed) even if she had no symptoms.

The last couple of weeks I’ve had multiple conversations regarding religious exemptions to the forced vaccine mandates. At one point I turned to the usual sources I’ve relied on for civil rights action and defense (ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church & State) and have been sorely disappointed. Friends have asked how do they prove their need for religious exemption?

I’ve told them they don’t have to prove it, they say it or check that box and the conversation is over. Period.

I’ve heard some in the current federal government say things like “sincere religious belief.” The word sincere does not appear in the First Amendment. “Sincere” is a religious test and our Constitution guarantees religious liberty without any qualifiers. Living in this country guarantees that no law shall be passed “respecting the establishment of religion” or “prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” End of story. A “religious exemption” falls into the latter part of that guarantee.

At its base, one could theoretically worship a red solo cup, claim a religious exemption and they cannot be forced to provide evidence that red solo cups have any intrinsic spiritual value.

In the midst of this slow grind, we’re watching nurses, teachers, military members and others being laid off or discharged because they don’t want to get the vaccine. Businesses with over one hundred employees must demand their employees get vaccinated (or provide weekly negative tests) or face hefty fines as high as $14,000 per incident (per employee that has not been vaccinated or taken the weekly Covid test). This was tucked into the Occupations Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

It certainly is a work-around for government enforced vaccines, something I’m sure some creative D.C. attorney is very proud of. It forces employers into the untenable position of being the “vax police.” In the same way waitresses, bartenders, ticket takers and bouncers have been federally deputized. And the timing can’t be any worse as it seems nobody can fill the jobs they have available now because people have decided they don’t want to go back to work.

Circling back to my original thesis, the character of a nation is best judged by how well it responds to a crisis. If, in the midst of that two-weeks-to-slow-the-spread-crisis; a nation begins punishing a large sector of the population by taking away its civil liberties, we end up with a nation that is truly in crisis. What could possibly be next? Censoring people on social media for mischaracterizing or spread false information regarding Covid?

I mean who are we? Australia?

But more shocking is not what any government is doing, it’s how swiftly people are willing to throw their civil liberties in the toilet.

So the slow grind. Mine isn’t necessarily still feeling locked down, but a growing tension in my gut about where we’re headed. There are some bright spots here and there, i.e. Florida, Wyoming, even Black Lives Matter and kids at college football games. There is push-back on the low burner about to bring the water to boil.

I say, we as a nation, dedicate at least two weeks to slow the totalitarian instincts of our leaders and some of its people. That would be a good start. A little Rage Against the Machine never hurt anybody.