The Great Change

We are in historic times.

We hear that a lot, but truly, it has never been more true than now.

We are in historic times.

We live during a time where we have watched social, political, and ecological changes on massive scales and we are part of all of it. For good or ill, our voices, our votes, and our actions effect this world in every way.

We are part of this, good, bad, and ugly.

It’s hard to really understand how much of our lives, and how much of this world will change due to Covid-19 and this pandemic. This is the sort of stuff we read about in history books but to live it is horrifying and fascinating, both. In a matter of weeks it went from stories about ‘over there’ to losing friends and family to it on our shores. We still have people caught up in the conspiracy and the lies that people in power put out to make themselves look as if their inability to rise to this challenge is not their fault.

The horror of the situation runs deeper than the health emergency.

Businesses will close for good.

People will lose jobs they will never get back.

Families will enter poverty and not leave it in their lifetimes.

And this is something that is just getting started in the United States.

It’s almost impossible to take all of that in because horror so great doesn’t go down easy.

This is truly a time that demands strong and steady leadership and many of our leaders are failing. On a pandemic like this we need to cling together and put our hands out to one another and help one another through this. We need the walls to come down, not grow higher.

That is happening, to be sure, but it’s person to person and rarely government to government.

The people leading us still cannot and will not reach out to one another.

This is an ugly time where corporations with wealthy owners and boards are shoving their hands in their pockets and shrugging as if to say – sorry, I’m broke too. We are sadly, seeing the value of the American worker and the value of the companies we do business with.

With that though you see companies stepping up to shoulder the burden for at least as long as they are able, knowing that they are part of the problem AND solution and can choose which they want to be.

But this is a costly epidemic and the world is changing, by the day, and will be a different place in one month, three months, six months and beyond.

We are a nation that believed in the American Dream but the dream is dying for small businesses and their employees and few people are answering when asked what of them?

The heartbreak is that there is more need out there than there are answers and aid. We are a nation that has always kicked the can down the road on infrastructure in every way and we’re suddenly seeing how exposed we are. Our health system is fractured, our jobs are not prepared to survive a full system close down, let alone support their employees, we aren’t ready at the federal level with aid, and it goes on and on.

I had mentioned before and I say again this is a time to chronicle your story, your journey, and help preserve this history. Help instruct the future.

That’s what we can do now, instruct and teach so that we can try to avoid this in the future.

What makes me sad is that during this we are retreating to fear, hate, and bigotry as our security blankets and that won’t help us. Just as our acting as if this is all a conspiracy and nothing is wrong.

In an era where have people that refuse to believe the earth is round though, it’s to be expected. We have bad actors that are doing everything they can to undermine society for no other reason than because it amuses them but beyond them there are people who use it for control.

That’s the irony, that there ARE conspiracies working but we rarely see them because of all the misdirection.

Now’s not the time to scream at the moon though.

Now is a time to band together, to do what we need to do to stay safe and healthy mentally and physically.

This is the time to re-think how this nation and society is built and who it serves.

It’s sad that in a few days, months, years people will look back and see how they acted and those they love acted and have to live with that.

We will all live with the blood that will some day be revealed from our prisons, our detention units, and from the men and women who serve this flag and were forgotten at times like this.

We all will have to live with it.

We are in dire times but this calls for calmness, wisdom, patience, and love.

This is a time to re-connect to the people and things that matter to you.

This a time to re-discover yourself.

This is a time to discover love and passion.

This is a time for art and music and the lifting of the whole.

The easiest thing in the world to do is to hate, and by extention to spread that hate.

It makes us feel in control and safe if we can shout down everyone who isn’t us.

We need to learn to move past that, step by step, by step, and to grow or we, as a race, will die.

This is a dangerous time.

An historic time.

What we do changes history.

We din’t ask for this but we have to embrace it and rise to this challenge.

History depends on us.

…c…

(I write books, check out the Haunted Bookstore for more on all that stuff).