I had an email this morning from my pen pal (since 1943) in Manchester, England. He and his wife have been reading and hearing about Florida and COVID-19, and they wanted to make sure we were bearing up.
Florida and Palm Beach County have been on a tear since I last reported. We have
now reached 476 deaths in our county of 1.5 million, compared to still seven deaths in
Taiwan (pop. 23.8 million). Our relatively small county left Taiwan in the dust in number of cases, too, our 11,178 vs their 446.
That is what great leadership will get you.
So far, our distinguished Trumpian governor has said there's nothing to worry about because most of the cases were in nursing homes. Well, nursing homes and prisons. Oh, well, and farm workers. Farm workers, but they will go north soon... Over the weekend,he came up with a new one: Most of the cases are people under 34, and their chances of recovery are very, very good. Let the good times roll.
That his how Trumpian governors think.
Our County Commission voted 7-0 today to make wearing masks mandatory indoors and outdoors where social distancing is not possible.
A central Florida legislator, Republican of course, already wrote to the governor to demand that he overrule such laws. (Miami has one, too.) His reasoning: "Floridians should not be arrested, jailed and fined at thewhim of local government officials who desperately seek to 'virtue signal'."
Democracy can get you killed.
Democracy! And you voted for them? Or some of you did.
ReplyDeleteYou do have the sense that the idea that this is a democracy with duly-elected officials who are in charge of debating, negotiating and making decisions has slipped from the sturm und drang. I hope the defunding police proponents will not be taken aback when someone in office asks: okay... give us the details.
"Defunding" is a buzzword. They should say what they really mean. Of course that would take more than one word. Something like, not expecting cops to be jacks of all trades. Hiring enough mental health professionals and community mediators to deal with problems that shouldn't fall under the purview of the criminal justice system.
DeleteOf course to some people defunding means "we don't need no stinkin' cops". Until they do.