Juneteenth is here. the holiday no one knew about until President Trump made it famous. Also, no one knew it was part of the U.S., but Venezuela continues to hold down the Deep South. It sure would have been cool to invade it.
The Prez himself is on to other issues, like why doesn't the Supreme Court like him or what he'll say in his speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday, where 19,000 attendees have to sign a waiver to attend, less they get Covid-19 and die as a result.
Tens of thousand of others are expected to show up outside the venue where the President will be holding his rally, and very few are likely to be wearing masks. Experts worry this will trigger a new public health crisis in the middle of the country.
This is the stuff you can't make up. so Hollywood is currently casting Alec Baldwin in the lead role for, as Ron Burgundy famously said, "When in Rome..."
So this is what it comes down to, a leaderless country lurching toward an election where many may be afraid to go outside to vote, so of course Trump is battling to restrict vote by mail. That makes sense.
When the man at the top lacks empathy, or concern for the ill, or compassion for the grieving, that indicates this has become truly a country without God.
Religion is not among my favorite topics to write about, but it is clear there are still many devout citizens in this nation. Moslems go to mosque on Friday, Jews go to synagogue on Saturday, Christians go to church on Sunday.
Besides Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, there are many other religions brought here by immigrants to the greatest melting pot on the planet.
So what difference can the devout make?
Three months after Hurricane Katrina wrecked the Gulf Coast in 2005, I traveled there to cover the damage and the nascent recovery efforts. During two trips to the Biloxi area I documented that the big charities everyone (including me) had given money to were nowhere to be found.
The Red Cross and United Way had shown up at first, doled out some relief supplies and food, harvested great publicity, and then moved on. FEMA was there but it was a mess.
So who filled the gap? Tiny nonprofit groups of volunteers and church folk. Individual churches not from the area sent down volunteers to repair houses, comfort the victims and mourn the dead.
The article I wrote about what was happening in the areas hardest hit by the monster storm was published in Salon, and it had direct consequences.
A new organization, GreatNonprofits, was created to address the issues my article had surfaced -- how can you tell whether your donations make a difference?
That group is still out there helping us do God's work.
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It's painful to contemplate that this may be an enduring reality -- staying away from one another whenever possible, wearing face coverings, not going to public places except when necessary, reducing the range of activities available to us to the bare minimum.
The next stage depends on whether the virus spikes again soon or if it waits until the fall. If it waits, there will probably be a more "normal" summer this year for millions of people, perhaps the last of its kind. If the virus doesn't wait, there will not be.
But either way, Covid-19 will be back in force and this time the shelter-in-place restrictions will be mandatory.
Even in the best-case scenario, whereby a vaccine gets miraculously developed by early next year, that will only help us avoid Corona-V, not the other pandemics health experts warn are in our future.
Imagine wave after wave of new viruses knocking us down as we try to get up again after this one.
It's a bleak vision, and not one I care to contemplate, but it would be responsible to look the other way. Perhaps our kids will never go back to school. Perhaps there will never be sports again. Perhaps all religious gatherings will have to cease except for zoom calls.
Perhaps this is permanent.
Think about that, and if that isn't enough to get a person to pray, then may God help us all.
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