Miserable? Exhausted? Yeah, Coronavirus and Coronavirus Denial Have That Effect

Some drive-by tweeter pops in to my retweet on North Dakota drilling permits on how we don’t need Bakken oil (or, by 2035, any oil) to say, “Being this miserable and negative all day every day has got to be exhausting.”

Oil isn’t my topic here. But my tweet responder, in adopting the tactic I see all too frequently of turning a difficult policy discussion to drive-by cheap shots at the speaker, is multiply (adverb) wrong:

1. I’m not miserable.
2. I’m not negative all day every day. I just say many facts that people don’t want to hear.
3. I’m not exhausted.
4. I never get tired of telling the truth. Telling the truth is hard work, but ultimately it takes less effort than denying the truth.

What does wear me out, just a little, is seeing the local media peddle marketing and wishful thinking that threaten to waste all the real sacrifices sensible South Dakotans are making every day to contain coronavirus in the absence of any real intervention from our elected leaders.

Consider this profits-over-people bushwah that KELO-TV advertises unchecked on behalf of the Huron Chamber and Visitors Bureau and the State Fair:

It’s a much-needed event for the community if you ask Laurie Shelton.

She’s the president of the Huron Chamber and Visitors Bureau.

“We are always so thrilled to be able to host it because it makes millions of dollars of impact to our community,” Shelton said.

The fair boost will be especially helpful this year after COVID-19 took a toll on some businesses….

But the fair won’t just help the local economy, Besch says it will offer families some normalcy.

“The fair is an opportunity for people to come together and celebrate friends and family,” [State Fair Manager Peggy] Besch said [Kelli Volk, “What You Can Expect at the SD State Fair,” KELO-TV, 2020.08.12].

So Shelton thinks the way to address economic losses caused by the coronavirus recession is to promote an event that increases the risk of coronavirus.

As for opportunities to come together and celebrate friends and family, well, this year I’ve sacrificed multiple opportunities to do exactly that, specifically to reduce the spread of coronavirus. We skipped my best friend’s wedding dinner to avoid being indoors in a crowded space. We’ve limited family gatherings. I’ve declined to attend a number of social events that would fun and potentially politically productive, all because America’s Job #1 right now, as it has been since the virus broke out, is to contain the pandemic and save lives. Pretending otherwise, pretending that we can come out and celebrate as if everything were normal, undoes those the sacrifices that millions of Americans are making to do what too many public (and mostly Republican) officials are refusing to: take the coronaivrus seriously, listen to science, and put normal activities on hold, despite the potential personal cost.

Getting coronavirus is really miserable and exhausting. I’d like fewer people to suffer that misery and exhaustion. Making sacrifices to prevent that misery and exhaustion, only to see some knuckleheads waste those sacrifices with their selfishness, will exacerbate our national misery, exhaustion, and defeat.

Now I’m going to ride my bike back to work. (See? Still don’t need Bakken oil.)