{"id":3239,"date":"2020-05-11T16:08:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T16:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/?page_id=3239"},"modified":"2022-03-18T13:23:50","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T13:23:50","slug":"05-11","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/05-11\/","title":{"rendered":"05-11"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Monday, May 11<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Cases 1.36m
US Deaths 84,181<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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May 11: The White House orders<\/a> <\/span>staffers to wear masks at work when not at their desks after two aides tested positive for the coronavirus last week. President Trump walks out of his own<\/a> coro<\/a>navirus<\/a> news conference<\/a> <\/span>after clashing with two female reporters. Tesla tells workers to return to its California electric-car factory<\/a><\/span> in defiance of a local shelter-in-place order designed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.*<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFrom the Cutting Room Floor...\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A friend, H\u2014, wrote to me today. A part of her note jumped out at me:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What really scares me is that we\u2019ve become so abstracted from what is real\u2026 What happens when an essentially fabricated and contrived society clashes with something way too real? To me, COVID-19 has revealed that we have become so used to constructing reality we have forgotten how to cope with it. We must<\/em> recognize that the lie might be easier, but it is no longer good enough.”[1]<\/a><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cThe lie,\u201d H\u2014 calls it. That terminology resonates. It makes me think of the post-WWII realizations of Hannah Arendt and George Orwell.<\/span><\/p>\n

They named a Big Lie uttered by propagandists of both the German fascist Reich and the Stalinist Empire. Both the Stalinists and the Nazis circumscribed the rights, even the humanity, of a large minority while at the same time convincing the majority citizens that the oppressed minorities were becoming more <\/i>free. The Big Lie says that their ignorance is strength.[2]<\/a> \u201cIn an ever-changing, incomprehensible world,\u201d Arendt wrote, \u201cthe masses [will] reach the point where they [will], at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything [is] possible and that nothing [is] true.\u201d[3]<\/a> The Lie is the comprehensive worldview that allows whole swaths of societies to witness the oppression of the socio-politically vulnerable in our societies, to benefit at least obliquely from that oppression, to deny that the oppression is happening, and to turn on and attack those who attempt to persuade us that our silence makes us complicit in that oppression. Two years ago, historian Zachary Jacobson argued that a single Big Lie had given way to thousands of little lies from Trump\u2019s mouth peppering our daily lives.[4]<\/a> But I\u2019m not so sure it\u2019s just the president\u2019s Twitter account that defines the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

[read_more id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]<\/p>\n

So, <\/i><\/i><\/a>here\u2019s another number tracking that way too real-ness to rattle us today: 6,000,000 Americans are out of a job. Many are surely losing healthcare, unable to pay the rent, their children going hungry. This is severe, but as Matthew Desmond reminds me in Evicted<\/em>, this situation has been happening to the poor in our major cities long before the pandemic. \u201cNo moral code or ethical principle, no piece of scripture or holy teaching, can be summoned to defend what we have allowed our country to become,\u201d he says.[6]<\/a> The pandemic is steamrolling people who are already most in need of help, the people who have been ignored and marginalized for centuries in this country. That helps to explain why the latest Gallup poll measuring the percentage of American adults who consider themselves to be \u201cthriving\u201d has dropped ten points, representing about 25 million people. This is below 2008 recession levels. Perhaps as telling is the gap between where we are right now in terms of worry and stress, which have risen by twenty points.[7]<\/a> You might think that the obvious precarity of so many families and individuals makes it incumbent upon officials to act in their defense. But that is not what is coming out of the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our impeached president is still tweeting about \u201cPlandemic\u201d and that the \u201ccoronavirus is a hoax.\u201d Now, he has also seeded the idea of \u201cObamagate,\u201d which, as far as I can tell, is a meaningless charge. When asked point-blank what the current president is accusing President Obama of doing, the has no answer.[8]<\/a> In his 126-entry Twitter tirade yesterday, it was clear that he\u2019s hoping the word \u201ccorrupt\u201d sticks to Obama and Biden and not to himself.[9]<\/a> Whatever it takes, really, to construct a scapegoat and distract people from the fact that, with 80,000 Americans dead and the largest economic crisis of our lifetimes looming, there is no coordinated national response from the Oval Office. And we are two full months<\/em> post his national emergency television special.[10]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the White House, either. Observe today\u2019s spectacle of Shelley Luther cutting (illegally?) Texas Senator Ted Cruz\u2019s hair. \u201cIt was ridiculous to see someone sentenced to seven days in jail for cutting hair. That\u2019s not right, that\u2019s not justice and that\u2019s not Texas<\/em>,\u201d Cruz defiantly explained to reporters after Luther took his mullet.[11]<\/a> As right-winged radio guy Tony Katz puts it, there are two Americas<\/em><\/span>\u2014that\u2019s what Luther\u2019s case really revealed. The one just wants its Constitutionally-enshrined freedom. \u201cLiberty still reigns,\u201d he insists on Fox & Friends. The other group, though, it wears \u201cgovernment issued grey garb\u201d and it \u201cawaits further instructions\u2026. Right now, lockdown rules are endangering lives.\u201d[12]<\/a> (There\u2019s the false personal liberty-or-public health dichotomy again.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The most shameful part of this blatant hypocrisy surrounding Shelley Luther is that the whole thing was a PR stunt. What Luther failed to mention in her \u201cbut my children are starving\u201d story before Judge Moy\u00e9 is that she has plenty of money. \u201cWoke Patriots\u201d set up a GoFundMe for Luther before<\/em> she decided to confront the Dallas authorities. It now has half-a-million dollars in it. She even received the $18,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan from the very government that she now is defying.[13]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Two Americas<\/em><\/span> is right. Those promotors of the Lie today might deny that there are especially socio-politically vulnerable groups or individuals in America in 2020; or that the wealthy and powerful do not benefit from the oppression of that vulnerable group; or that those who attempt to persuade us that we are somehow complicit in hurting those who are socio-politically weak have their own ulterior motives\u2014they\u2019re pulling one over on us or profiting from our charity. Or maybe the promotors of the Lie today simply say (usually under their breath) that the vulnerable deserve it<\/em><\/span>, just like the wealthy and powerful deserve<\/em><\/span> what they have.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Two Americas<\/em><\/span>. More of the Ahmaud Arbury materials came to light today and the notion that there are actually two versions of America couldn\u2019t be starker. The two Americas has to do with who possesses the kind of power that allows you to break the law (assuming that shooting a man three times for no offense is a crime) and walk away.[23]<\/a> As The Daily Show<\/em>\u2019s Trevor Noah noted, \u201cIt\u2019s funny how in America if you break the law and look a certain way, you\u2019re a criminal. But if you break the law and look a different<\/em> way, then you\u2019re a freedom-loving American exercising your rights.\u201d Arbury\u2019s mistake, such as it was, was being a Black man running through a white neighborhood in suburban Georgia. He was in the wrong America at the wrong time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elsewhere in America, there is some <\/a>good news. Cases in hard-hit New York City continue to decline. And I am happy for people in France, Italy, Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, China\u2014and basically every country but the USA\u2014who seem to have weathered the worst of it. As someone who studies foreign policy, I cannot help but think that this disaster will do irreparable damage to the international image of the United States as the great, global super-power. Perhaps this virus will be the death-knell of the American Century.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here in the South, we have been under lockdown for three weeks, and yet there\u2019s barely a plateau in the number of cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking at the University of Maryland\u2019s COVID-19 Impact Analysis Platform, which uses mobile phone data to see how well we are performing at staying at a safe distance, dispels the mystery.[26]<\/a> Beginning on April 3rd<\/sup>, when nearly every state was in lockdown, Americans did stay home\u2014though only in New York, New Jersey, and Washington DC was sheltering in place that consistent. What\u2019s more, we seem to possess only a three-week tolerance. By the last week of April, we got bored and started sneaking out like teenagers. And on Friday, May 1, any semblance of collective compliance had disappeared. Why are we starting to open back up when we haven\u2019t met the CDC guidance of having declining cases for two weeks? Is it because our legislatures are dominated by people who are wedded to the Lie?<\/span><\/p>\n

A new strange threat might make us reconsider reopening: Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PMIS). Kids rushed to ICUs in New York and Washington with prolonged fever, rash, trouble breathing, rapid heartrate. Antibody tests show that they were exposed to the virus weeks, even months, earlier. It\u2019s a complete mystery. And even though tests suggest the SARS2 virus, even kids who were otherwise COVID asymptomatic are showing this scary reaction.[27]<\/a> I wonder how much more of these cases will develop as we reopen schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, pandemic notwithstanding, the country\u2019s legal system still has to function. No one wants to spend a day or more in a courtroom right now. The Federal Circuit Court has been holding its arguments over the phone since March.[28]<\/a> Judges are also cancelling arguments outright and making decisions based on briefs. SCOTUS is flushing some things through its system, notably. Meanwhile, civil and criminal bench and jury trials are being postponed again until June. The Eastern District of California Chief Judge Kimberly Mueller says today that she can\u2019t guarantee cases going to trial within three years<\/em> of being filed.[29]<\/a> Now they are talking about virtual jury trials. It is hard to know what that means.<\/span><\/p>\n

It will take years to figure out the impact that the pandemic has had on American law. Right now, as these cases are being decided, I wonder if the experience of the virus is leading to verdicts that are angry and vengeful or mild and tempered. Will memories of life before social distancing somehow affect how juries identify both themselves and those being tried?<\/span><\/p>\n

Studies have shown that in times of crisis American juries become more reflective, more willing to stick it to corporations, more ardent defenders of the common good, and less likely to blame individuals in tough circumstances. After catastrophes, wars, and natural disasters juries often side with defendants. When a fight broke out over a stolen respirator patent during Hurricane Sandy, for instance, the jury returned a verdict for the defendant, against the patent designers.[30]<\/a> The jury is still out on whether or not that trend will continue this year in either of the two Americas.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Notes<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> The full letter can be read below.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> George Orwell, 1984<\/em> (Harper Perennial, 2014).<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism<\/em>, First edition (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1973).<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Zachary Jonathan Jacobson, \u201cPerspective | Many Are Worried about the Return of the \u2018Big Lie.\u2019 They\u2019re Worried about the Wrong Thing.,\u201d Washington Post<\/em>, May 21, 2018, https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/made-by-history\/wp\/2018\/05\/21\/many-are-worried-about-the-return-of-the-big-lie-theyre-worried-about-the-wrong-thing\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

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[6]<\/a> Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City<\/em>, Reprint edition (New York: Broadway Books, 2017).<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Dan Witters and Jim Harter, \u201cWorry and Stress Fuel Record Drop in U.S. Life Satisfaction,\u201d Gallup.com, May 8, 2020, https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/310250\/worry-stress-fuel-record-drop-life-satisfaction.aspx.<\/span><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Aaron Rupar, \u201cTrump\u2019s Latest Twitter Meltdown Featured QAnon and a Lot of \u2018OBAMAGATE,\u2019\u201d Vox, May 11, 2020, https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/5\/11\/21254398\/trump-tweets-mothers-day-obamagate-coronavirus.<\/span><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Anna Nemtsova, \u201cIn Baku, the Trump Tower Dares Not Bear His Name,\u201d The Daily Beast<\/em>, March 16, 2020, sec. world, https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/in-baku-the-trump-tower-dares-not-bear-his-name.<\/span><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Sloane Hughes, \u201cHappy Anniversary To Obama\u2019s Tan Suit, The Worst Thing To Ever Happen Ever,\u201d Funny Or Die, August 28, 2019, https:\/\/www.funnyordie.com\/2019\/8\/28\/20837457\/president-barack-obama-tan-suit-5-year-anniversary.<\/span><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> CBS DFW, \u201cSen. Ted Cruz Gets Haircut At Salon A La Mode After Owner Shelley Luther Released From Jail,\u201d CBSDFW 11 News, May 8, 2020, https:\/\/dfw.cbslocal.com\/2020\/05\/08\/coronavirus-in-texas-senator-cruz-visits-salon-a-la-mode\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Ari Kasle, \u201cKatz on Fox & Friends: Shelley Luther Highlights The Two Americas,\u201d Tonykatz.com, May 7, 2020, http:\/\/www.tonykatz.com\/2020\/05\/07\/katz-on-fox-friends-shelly-luther-highlights-the-two-americas\/. Strangely, given their passion for people trying to have freedom during quarantine, neither Katz nor Cruz mention Castro-Garcia or Mata, who each received fines and up to 180 days<\/em> in jail for doing beautician work out of their own homes. Thankfully, Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said that, because of Governor Greg Abbott\u2019s executive order regarding Luther, the DA will not prosecute Castro-Garcia or Mata either. Sandra Sanchez, \u201cUPDATE: DA Will Not Pursue Charges against \u2018Unlicensed\u2019 Laredo Home Beauticians,\u201d BorderReport<\/em> (blog), May 9, 2020, https:\/\/www.borderreport.com\/health\/coronavirus\/laredo-home-beauticians-not-even-licensed-police-say\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Dan Solomon, \u201cArrested Dallas Hairdresser\u2019s GoFundMe Launched Before She Even Reopened,\u201d Texas Monthly, May 8, 2020, https:\/\/www.texasmonthly.com\/news\/dallas-salon-arrest-gofundme\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

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[23]<\/a> Rick Rojas, Richard Fausset, and Serge F. Kovaleski, \u201cGeorgia Killing Puts Spotlight on a Police Force\u2019s Troubled History,\u201d The New York Times<\/em>, May 8, 2020, sec. U.S., https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/05\/08\/us\/glynn-county-police-ahmaud-arbery.html.<\/span><\/p>\n

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[26]<\/a> Robert Herschbach, \u201cUMD Researchers Develop Platform To Track Social Distancing Compliance,\u201d UMD Right Now: University of Maryland, April 13, 2020, https:\/\/umdrightnow.umd.edu\/news\/umd-researchers-develop-platform-track-social-distancing-compliance.<\/span><\/p>\n

[27]<\/a> Maria Godoy, \u201cMystery Inflammatory Syndrome In Kids And Teens Likely Linked To COVID-19,\u201d NPR.org, May 7, 2020, https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/health-shots\/2020\/05\/07\/851725443\/mystery-inflammatory-syndrome-in-kids-and-teens-likely-linked-to-covid-19; Erika Edwards, \u201cAt Least 85 Kids across U.S. Have Developed Rare, Mysterious COVID-19-Linked Illness,\u201d NBC News, May 7, 2020, https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/least-85-kids-across-u-s-have-developed-rare-mysterious-n1202186.<\/span><\/p>\n

[28]<\/a> Davis, Ryan, \u201cAttys Prep For Phone Hearings As Fed. Circ. Braces For Virus,\u201d Law360, 03\/12\/2020, https:\/\/www.law360.com\/articles\/1252683\/attys-prep-for-phone-hearings-as-fed-circ-braces-for-virus.<\/span><\/p>\n

[29]<\/a> Coe, Aebra. \u201cRemote Courtrooms Here To Stay As Judges Tackle Backlogs,\u201d Law360, 05\/11\/2020, https:\/\/www.law360.com\/articles\/1271812\/remote-courtrooms-here-to-stay-as-judges-tackle-backlogs<\/a>; Davis, Ryan. \u201cVirus Curbs More Hearings, Trials In Fed. Circ. And WDTX,\u201d Law360,\u201d 05\/11\/2020, https:\/\/www.law360.com\/articles\/1272293\/virus-curbs-more-hearings-trials-in-fed-circ-and-wdtx.<\/span><\/p>\n

[30]<\/a> Francis Morrison and John Tanski, \u201c6 Lessons On Jury Advocacy In The Wake Of A Crisis,\u201d Law 360<\/em>, May 11, 2020, https:\/\/www.law360.com\/articles\/1270273\/6-lessons-on-jury-advocacy-in-the-wake-of-a-crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/read_more]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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If you\u2019ll allow me to be dramatic for a moment:\u00a0kind of like the universe itself,\u00a0COVID-19\u00a0spreads\u00a0at an exponential rate\u00a0and is\u00a0apparently\u00a0impossible to understand.\u00a0My feeble\u00a0human\u00a0brain strains to process the\u00a0flood of\u00a0economic, medical, social,\u00a0and political uncertainties.\u00a0The reality I so firmly believed in and defined myself in rapidly unravels and I, the great hero of my own crisis saga, mostly watch Netflix.\u00a0I am worried about so many things that will inevitably change. I am worried I will change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

When all this started, I hopefully and naively promised myself I would be a perfect quarantine companion. I would do all the chores. I would be a pillar of love and support for all my people. I would be steady and optimistic and helpful. All of which is to say, I would respond to the lack of control over my life the way any good\u00a0narcissistic\u00a0control freak would. I was desperate to be the type of person that would respond well in a crisis. I consider myself among the absolute luckiest of all people in the world who are dealing with this. I have a financial safety net, a strong support system, access to food and shelter, and an ability to physically distance myself from the outside world.\u00a0Even so, my ridiculous attempts to fight the pandemic obviously failed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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The painful part started in\u00a0late March.\u00a0My partner, Michael,\u00a0is a doctor. My heart broke every morning he woke up early\u00a0to\u00a0walk the four miles to the hospital so as not to risk transmission on public transportation. I was furious with myself when I felt like cracking because I was safe at home while he worked\u00a0tirelessly. I was safe while millions of Americans risked their health to keep mine\u00a0safe, millions more lost their\u00a0livelihoods, and\u00a0tens of\u00a0thousands more\u00a0died.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

When\u00a0Michael\u00a0was reassigned to work in the COVID unit at Mass General, I returned to Ohio\u00a0to care for my family. I sat\u00a0with my grandmother in my parent\u2019s kitchen as she received news that her friends had passed\u00a0away.\u00a0I\u00a0nervously\u00a0waited for Michael to let me know he was\u00a0okay,\u00a0even as he watched\u00a0his patients\u00a0suffer.\u00a0I logged on to\u00a0zoom to\u00a0attend meetings and classes and funerals.\u00a0\u00a0I watched the purported leader of the free world tell his terrified and desperate constituents to drink bleach.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

I also often thought\u00a0about Sisyphus. An ancient Greek myth describes a uniquely terrible punishment ideated by the gods in which Sisyphus is condemned to an eternity of futile labor. Sound familiar? I\u2019ll refrain from commenting on whether or not COVID-19 is a punishment from the gods, but I feel a certain Sisyphean turmoil in my quarantined life. I was raised to believe that you work for a purpose and for progress. So maybe it\u2019s no wonder that spending an inordinate amount of my waking hours doing the dishes over and over again only to dirty them feels ridiculous.\u00a0And maybe it\u2019s ok we all feel a bit untethered as\u00a0we realize that\u00a0one of the capital \u201cT\u201d Truths of the American cultural narrative can evidently be put on pause.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

I am scared for the lives of people I love. I am scared for the US and global economies. But the thing that really keeps me up at night is Adam Curtis.\u00a0In 2016, Adam Curtis made a documentary called \u201cHyperNormalisation.\u201d It\u2019s the kind of movie that\u00a0changed\u00a0the way\u00a0I\u00a0see this reality but is also so weird and opaque I wouldn\u2019t necessary recommend it. Anyway, the\u00a0basic idea is that,\u00a0mostly\u00a0through technology, an \u201cunreal\u201d world has been created. And this \u201cunreal\u201d world we live in now\u00a0was manufactured to be so\u00a0comforting and coherent that we\u2019ve\u00a0become\u00a0completely blind to its inauthenticity. The movie gets pretty conspiratorial and unwieldy,\u00a0but I can\u2019t\u00a0totally\u00a0disagree with the thesis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

This is the thing that scares me now: we\u2019ve become so abstracted from what is real, we can\u2019t even tell what\u00a0is\u00a0real anymore. So, what happens when an essentially fabricated and contrived society clashes\u00a0with something way too real?\u00a0<\/span>To me, COVID-19 has revealed that\u00a0we have become so used to constructing reality we have forgotten how to cope with it.<\/span>\u00a0Perhaps this also explains why we\u2019ve been so ineffective in our response to climate change, and certainly does not augur well for a future fight against climate change, but that\u2019s a whole other thing. Either way, we *must* recognize that the lie might be easier, but it is no longer good enough.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Hang on,\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0try to get somewhere a little more\u00a0optimistic. Both the Sisyphean ordeal and disillusionment kind of have the same answer.\u00a0Through a cynical lens, the myth\u00a0of Sisyphus\u00a0represents how repetition makes our lives meaningless, and Sisyphus is perhaps most tragic when he is conscious of the meaningless nature of his struggle. But maybe\u00a0the myth isn\u2019t actually about condemnation and ceaseless mundanity. Maybe it\u2019s actually about freedom.\u00a0And maybe it\u2019s the type of freedom that can also relieve us of our unreality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

At first, I tried to fight the reality of the pandemic\u00a0by baking\u00a0cookies and pretending\u00a0things were okay and\u00a0secretly\u00a0curling\u00a0up in a ball to cry in the shower. The way out of purposelessness, though, is through acceptance. I can accept this situation is, well, totally fucked. (sorry, is that allowed?) I can accept that the information that pops up on my phone\u00a0and TV\u00a0is also totally fucked. And these things can\u00a0and actually should\u00a0make\u00a0me\u00a0afraid and furious and despondent. I understand now, though, that the way to\u00a0be free is not to reject or deny these feelings, it\u2019s to feel them as fully and unapologetically as I possibly can.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The way to rebel against the \u201csystem\u201d of unreality and the painful mundanity of quarantined life is not through circumvention but directly through the heart of it. I could act strong and unafraid and jolly, but this only perpetuates\u00a0these\u00a0fundamental\u00a0fictions. I could protest the stay at home order,\u00a0but this only sustains\u00a0a\u00a0shared denial of reality.\u00a0I could seek productive pastimes,\u00a0but this only immortalizes the delusion that productivity is an identity. Instead, I could do something real, even if it is very small. I can love my family and friends and accept their love in return. I can cry and rage and fall apart. I can put myself together again.\u00a0COVID-19 will change the world and will change me in ways I can\u2019t begin to fathom. But I\u00a0will continue to hope that\u00a0even if it doesn\u2019t make me or the world any better, it\u00a0might just\u00a0make it all a bit\u00a0more true.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u2014Hannah Wexner
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe percentage of U.S. adults who evaluate their lives well enough to be considered \"thriving\" has dropped to 46.4%, matching the low point measured in November 2008 during the Great Recession. Today's thriving rate has worsened about three percentage points since the first half of March and nearly 10 points since the spring of 2019.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWitters, Dan, and Jim Harter. \u201cWorry and Stress Fuel Record Drop in U.S. Life Satisfaction.\u201d Gallup.com, May 8, 2020. https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/310250\/worry-stress-fuel-record-drop-life-satisfaction.aspx.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTrump explains inaction by claiming he has a lot going on.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t@atrupar, Twitter, May 6, 2020, https:\/\/twitter.com\/atrupar\/status\/1258030720498438145?s=20\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUnemployment is catastrophically high\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYglesias, Matthew, and Christina Animashaun. \u201cThe Unemployment Rate Soared to 14.7 Percent in April.\u201d Vox, May 8, 2020. https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/5\/8\/21250490\/april-jobs-report-unemployment.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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David Muir of ABC News interviews Donald Trump about “reopening” during a trip to Phoenix on May 5, 2020. https:\/\/youtu.be\/-1kyL1fQhuk<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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