Today, a Trump-supporting family in my neighborhood decided to have a big birthday party for their daughter. About 50 people — parents and children — are congregated on their small front lawn. They are packed in there like sardines, not observing the six-foot distance guideline to reduce the risk of transmission of Covid-19. Even worse, none of them are wearing a face mask.
It seems to me like this family is basically having a political rally disguised as a birthday party on their lawn. They were already known to their neighbors as conservatives, and today they want the whole neighborhood to know where their political allegiance lies — with the maskless, lawless, science-denying, public-health-jeopardizing president in the White House.
I wonder how many people will ultimately become infected and die of the coronavirus just because of this one reckless gathering? If even one person in that crowd is an asymptomatic carrier of the virus, it could spread to dozens of people today alone, and then those people will go to work, go shopping, etc., and perhaps hundreds or even thousands will become infected — all because one family wanted to make a political statement.
I suspect this kind of thing is happening all across America this Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day is supposed to be a day to remember those who died for our country. Unfortunately, many people may needlessly die because Trump-loving Americans refuse to take even the most basic precautions to protect the health of the public.
Is there any sacrifice that Americans today can be united to make for their fellow citizens? It seems the answer is no — not even something as basic as putting on a mask at public gatherings during the worst pandemic since the Spanish Flu. Everything is political. Nothing unites us — not even matters of life and death.
Are we even a nation anymore?
I’ll let that rhetorical question linger in the air for a while, along with the virus of political division and hatred that is killing our body politic.