I hope you all appreciate healthcare workers more.
These people are front-line, risking their own lives every day, working long hours with little thanks. They were doing that long before Corona, but now they’re in the spotlight, but that spotlight will eventually fade, but I hope your appreciation doesn’t fade with it. I include ancillary staff in that wish. There are people showing up every day to clean the rooms where the infected are treated, and to cook the meals that they eat, and that sustain the hands-on caregivers as they work with inadequate supplies and personal protective equipment. When you vote, I hope you think of them, and learn about the candidates, and decide who supports them best.
I hope you all appreciate teachers. I hope the next time they ask for a raise, you don’t automatically start the “They get summers off! I don’t get summers off!” chant. I hope you take a moment to consider the importance of what they do, and consider what it’s truly worth. I hope you think about the struggle it has been for some to get those online lessons completed. And I hope you remember how worried you’ve been about the possibility that your child might fall behind without the structure of the classroom and the guidance of the teacher. When you vote, I hope you think about whether or not the person you’re about to vote for considers education a priority.
Minimum Wage
I hope you treat service workers better. People making minimum wage, or just above that, are still working. And they’ll still be working when all the offices close, and the only reason you leave your home is to buy groceries, or gas, or drive through to pick up a burger. They are still working because they have to, because at minimum wage, they have no savings. They have minimal, or no sick days. They have no affordable insurance. Suddenly, all those “burger flippers”, and store clerks and stockroom workers are “essential” and either show up for work or lose their jobs. When you vote, I hope you remember the people who kept you fed, who stocked the precious toilet paper, and I hope you vote for a candidate who thinks they deserve better, because the work they do matters.
I hope you are more aware of the struggles of your older or disabled neighbors. I hope you realize how difficult it can be for them to get around, to get to where they need to be. I hope you think about what it’s like to have to decide between paying for food, or paying for medicine. I hope you remember how much harder this is for those with pre-existing conditions and limited mobility, or those lacking in social skills who are going to have a very difficult time accessing the programs the government is putting into place. When you vote, I hope you vote for the candidate that you trust to keep Social Security and Medicare and other safety net programs intact.
It’s Long Been about Health Care
I hope you all realize that healthcare is quite probably the most important issue we’re facing. I hope you realize that we were woefully unprepared for this, and we can’t agree on anything. When you vote, I hope you do some homework, and I hope you get your news from more than one source, so that you can learn different viewpoints and make up your own mind about the issue, and vote for the candidate who will protect us in the future.
I hope you all realize that this has been a long time coming, that experts have been warning about the danger of such a pandemic occurring, and warning that we weren’t ready. I hope you realize that science is not fiction, and that if we are to be saved, it will we science that saves us. When you vote, I hope you chose a candidate with the intellectual capacity to understand that science is not the enemy, and is not to be scoffed at.
And if this post makes you angry, if this post makes you think I’m against YOUR candidate, then you’ve just admitted that you believe your candidate doesn’t care about healthcare, healthcare workers, education, the average working class American, the elderly, or the disabled. And I hope you don’t wait till this is over to take a good hard look at yourself.
