Pandemic Panic Day 2

This morning Mitch and I are actively social distancing (it's much like any other weekend, to tell the truth) and we are waiting for a press conference from the Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz, who on Friday "strongly recommended" social distancing, but also said all the schools would remain open. I'm sure you can all remember what school is like when the bell goes off between classes.  Organized chaos like an ant hill or a bee hive and definitely NOT six feet of space between every single person. Even in a calm and quiet class the kids are sitting elbow to elbow at tables or in desks.

I am watching the press conference right now. The gist of the speech from Tim Walz is that one of the primary reasons public school exists is to provide daycare for students so parents can work. I don't agree, but hey, let's go with that. If the primary purpose of public school is daycare service so parents can work, then why don't our taxes also pay for daycare? Why are parents paying up to 20% of their pay for daycare and counting the days until their kids can go to school when the daycare will be free?How about we start righting this wrong by covering daycare costs for healthcare workers even when there is not a pandemic. And we could also cover costs for teachers as well, and policemen, and firemen, and anyone else we depend on in a crisis. Let's just take care of those people all the time like we are in a crisis, then it won't be so jarring when we do have a crisis.

The government leaders are taking turns at the podium congratulating each other and themselves for coming up with such good ideas as allowing flex scheduling without penalty to workers, letting people work from home without penalty, staying home with sick kids without fear of being fired or going broke, etc. etc. But you know what? All of this was possible all the time! Who knew! I read an article in Slate that explains this much better than I can. Here it is.

If enough of us start saying, "No, I'm not going to do that" when confronted with stupid rules, and penalties, and price hikes, and fees maybe we can change things. I hope one thing that comes out of this pandemic is that people realize that much of this stupid society is based on arbitrary rules that punish people who care about other people, and people who have a conscience. Our "leaders" are masters of the bait and switch and experts at getting people to vote against their own best interests, and instead in the interest of the leaders and their cronies. I watched the re-run of SNL last night and this skit with Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Warren and it says it all.

But what do I know, I'm just a bleeding heart liberal snowflake who loves the deep state.