posted 4:14 PM MST, Thu November 12, 2020 by Andrew
While it may be easy to get burnt out from all of the coverage around COVID, it's still important to remember that this is a disease that affects real people. Some of those affected are close to home, please take a moment to read the experiences of our very own Gabriella Rivera;
240,000 dead Americans. 1.28 million dead worldwide.
2 of those were my wonderful grandmothers.
I get it. This is awful. It seems never-ending. The restrictions seem oppressive. So many things we all love are banned right now. I get it.
I love going out to eat with friends and family. I love gathering and celebrating. I love interacting with coworkers. I can’t stand being cooped up in my house all day staring at a computer screen.
I loved my grandmothers more.
I love traveling. I’ve had to cancel several major trips and missed out on some great opportunities because of travel restrictions.
I loved my grandmothers more.
I LOVE sports. They sustained me as a kid and they’ve retained a central role in my adult life. Rugby and its community have been one of the most important discoveries in my life.
I loved my grandmothers more.
I love concerts. I love the balloon fiesta and the state fair. I love in-person classes and face-to-face collaboration. I miss a million things about “normal” life.
I love my grandmothers more, and they are both gone now because of Covid. They didn’t have the choice to stay home-they caught it from nurses and caregivers who had no choice but to take public transit and get essentials from the store. The waitstaff at restaurants who serve you when you choose to eat inside don’t have a choice. The clerks at the grocery store don’t have a choice. Healthcare works are drowning, and they don’t have a choice. This isn’t about fear or control, it’s about compassion.
I am exhausted with all of the restrictions. I am deeply concerned for our small businesses and kids growing up in this world. I am furious that billionaires have become trillionaires because of generous bailouts while our ineffectual federal government plays checkers.
This should have been under control. Our government failed to do so. Every other country enjoyed a few months of almost-normalcy before getting hit by this second wave. We never recovered from the first.
We can have genuine policy discussions about this. How to keep kids from taking their own lives, how to keep our small businesses from going under. But I am so, so tired of all the posts acting like people aren’t dying from this. They are, and it’s not your right to cause more death.