COVID Day 54: Reparations

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I sometimes wonder how it was that the radicals Lenin and Trotsky were able to overthrow the Russian government and install one of the most repressive regimes in history. With equal fascination I’ve never understood how Hitler and Mussolini were able to subdue entire nations with dictatorial fascism. No one has ever adequately explained to me how Mao Zedong gained control of a quarter of the world’s population before murdering 50 million people?

Now added to my list of unresolved quandary is how fifty state governors gained authoritarian control over the greatest nation in world history without firing a single shot. If you’ve spent your life proudly believing it could never happen because we’re too strong and too independent, then I invite you to more closely examine the unraveling of your deception.

My unresolved questions don’t end there, something that’s bothered me from the start of this COVID crisis is what laws were passed to enforce lockdowns? How were the lists of “essential” businesses established? Why is it okay for me to go to Walmart to buy shoes, but not Bob’s Boot Barn who had to shut down? Why can I peruse through Lowes garden section but my local nursery was closed? I wager a quick look at donor lists would confirm that every business in every state deemed essential made campaign contributions.

Why can’t Bob assume the same risk in being open as a Walmart worker? Why don’t consumers have the right to decide if it’s safer to go to Bob’s Boot Barn because he only has twenty customers per day infecting his store, rather than being funneled into Walmart where thousands are infecting the store each day? Is it fair that just because large corporations own most governors that Bob is run out of business and I’m forced to shop in highly infected environments?

But as profound as those questions are, they are secondary to the quintessential question you and I must somehow resolve; namely, what post-COVID America do we choose to restart and how do we organize to achieve it? In addition, how do we rescue the country from increasing absurdity? If you think it’s hyperbole, consider this

• In New Mexico the governor has sent armed guards into Gallop to ensure Native Americans remain on their reservations so as to not infect the general population.
• In Texas, a woman was imprisoned for opening her hair salon so she could earn enough money to feed her children.
• In Illinois, the governor bared citizen travel while his wife jetted off to their lavish Florida horse ranch.
• In California, the benevolent governor graciously permits you to toss a mini-football but prohibits you from throwing a regulation football. He does however, compassionately allow to play outdoor ping pong; but only by yourself; not sure if indoor ping pong is permissible.
• In New York, the panic stricken governor did the unthinkable, he forced nursing homes to treat COVID infected people, horrifically exposing the most vulnerable demographic to the virus. Then in a “Mad King George” moment wondered why people in nursing homes were dying.

Reparations: With the COVID crisis coming to an end, it’s time to start talking about reparations. The guilty need to be punished and the profiteers forced to pay reparations. I believe the demands that independent patriotic-minded Americans should insist on include

1. Governors should be brought before a jury of small business owners and wager earners in their state who were impacted by over-reach measures for impeachment and removal proceedings.
2. All government employees and advisers who were complicit in unnecessary over-reach should be imprisoned for a period no less than the lockdown period in their state.
3. All furloughed state and federal workers who received paychecks during lockdown should be ordered to put the money they received into a fund to help displaced workers.
4. All politicians who drew a salary during lockdown should be ordered to return their salary.
5. All police officers and judges involved in summarily arresting, imprisoning, and fining citizens who violated lockdown orders should be summarily arrested, imprisoned, and fined.
6. All independent business with less than fifty employees who were forced into shutdown should be allowed to sue their state government for lost income.
7. All workers who were forced into layoff should be allowed to sue their state government for lost income.
8. All investors and politicians who profited from the stock market collapse should be forced to surrender their profits and investigations into potential illegal activities should be undertaken.
9. All large corporations who profited from the COVID crisis should be compelled to relinquish their profits to small business who were forced into shutdown.
10. Any state who sent healthcare workers to New York should be allowed to sue New York for compensation. Note: this is in response to the disgustingly disgraceful edict New York issued that out of state health care volunteers have to pay New York state income tax.

If you’re still not ready to organize, I seriously question your patriotism.