There’s a story on the KY Health News site, which we will probably cross-post later, about a meeting in Somerset involving Republican legislators and candidates. They were there to talk about all the ways they are going to “rein in” Governor Beshear when they meet in January.
That’s fairly standard political talk; we’ve heard it before. But what caused me to be frustrated when I read the story was not the political stuff; instead, what bothered me were these other details:
- Almost no one wearing masks.
- No social distancing.
- And a comment by one person that “people around here just don’t take this virus thing too seriously.”
Really, truly, I just don’t understand that. How can you see pictures of a line of refrigerated trucks lined up in Italy to deal with all the dead bodies, and not take COVID-19 seriously? How can you look at the death toll in the United States, currently at three times the number of service people who died in the Vietnam War, and not take this seriously?
This is what we are dealing with in this country – two entirely separate realities. It’s no wonder we can’t agree on things; we don’t even agree about the facts.
I don’t have an answer, really. I’m going to try to keep our work true to the tagline of “objective news,” but I’m under no illusion that it will make a difference in this society-wide problem.
Maybe, if we can get Trump out of office, we can begin to rebuild a shared reality. Let us hope so.
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