I consider myself a caring person who does not like to see suffering in others. That includes human suffering but also extends to other sentient beings and creatures that may or may not experience pain as we understand it. I cringe to see animals who have become roadkill victims, and I capture crickets and spiders in my home to put them outside rather than killing them. I even brake for rattlesnakes, or at least take measures to relocate ones I’ve found on my property instead of clubbing them to death with a shovel.
The toll of Covid-19 deaths in the world and in this country disturbs me greatly and shows no signs of becoming ‘normalized.’ That includes the suffering of the multitudes who may not die but experience lasting effects of this insidious virus.
But I have to wonder if I am alone or in a small, callous minority in declining to wish Donald Trump well in his battle with the coronavirus. I can’t even watch the news and listen to every anchor, moderator and pundit piously lecture us that Trump’s illness goes beyond politics and obviously necessitates an expression of prayers, good wishes and compassion for the president and his family.
Do you mean the same family that attended the Cleveland debate and removed their masks, against the rules and the exhortations of medical staff at the Case University venue, endangering others needlessly to score political points? Do you mean the same president who certainly knew his close adviser and confidante Hope Hicks had tested positive and still traveled to his Bedminster resort on Thursday, where he mingled closely with aides, staffers, Secret Service—and donors who had paid thousands to attend so they could wind up being exposed to a virus Trump has known for months is deadly and extremely contagious?
Are we talking about that same president who has discouraged use of masks and social distancing, mocked those who wear masks, intentionally played down the virus, restricted federal efforts at a national policy to provide PPE and adequate testing and manipulated the CDC to misinform the American public, prompting numerous epidemiologists and other experts to estimate he is responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths from Covid-19?
The same president who is getting extraordinary, cutting-edge treatment at taxpayer expense from the same American public whose health care he is scheming to take away with a years-long effort to kill the Affordable Care Act, including by railroading through the Senate an inappropriate and outrageous Supreme Court nomination that has now become physically dangerous to members of the Senate, staffers and journalists if the process adheres to the schedule Mitch McConnell and he have concocted to accomplish the confirmation before Election Day in one of the most dirty hypocritical tricks in American history (McConnell re: Merrick Garland, “The people should have a voice.”)?