When the new year came, my first thought was that 2020 sounded like a cool year. For anyone who has been on this earth for decades, 2020 probably always seemed to be a long, long way off. The future.
With the economy doing so well as recently as January and February, and the stock market on an 11-year rally, who would have thought that 2020 could be anything but a stellar year?
What a difference a day makes.
A virus originating in Wuhan, China seemed like a faraway concern. Even as the numbers of infected people grew in China, it was still faraway and yet another news story. Then it crossed the ocean and infections were reported in the U.S. After researching SAR-CoV2, and understanding its transmission rate and potential as a deadly pathogen, I realized early on that this was going to be bad for Americans and others.
The spread of the virus exploded and the consequences in places like New York, New Jersey, Wayne County and other areas was racking up hospitalizations, serious illness and lives lost. It seemed as if we could just get through this pandemic, carefully practice mitigation steps (stay at home, maintain social distance, don’t gather in numbers, wash hands with soap frequently), we might be okay.
After many states relaxed restrictions, the numbers of infections, the actual infection rates, and the hospitalizations began to climb again. Following the safety protocols was more important than ever to ascertain that there would not be a really terrible second wave. Then, someone filmed a police officer with his knee on an African-American man’s head in Minneapolis.
Any sense of mitigation, of keeping the virus contained, and the future crisis, were forgotten or ignored by millions of Americans. At the very time when people needed to continue to shelter-in-place, maintain social distance and avoid close contact, millions forgot about the virus.
What is nearly as bad, millions of small businesses, who were suffering and near collapse, were just seeing some light of day, when things changed for the worse. Tens of thousands of criminals, destroyed those small businesses, vandalized, looted and stole everything they could carry, and put many thousands of small-business owners out of business. Just when the economy might have a chance at recovery, the worst thing happened; mass looting, mass destruction and the guaranteed continuation of the pandemic.
The video that was released was disturbing to be sure. Nobody wants to watch another human in their last minutes of life stating they could not breathe. There was swift justice and the police officer responsible was arrested and charged. But, that was not enough. Millions took to the streets in what became a larger-than-life narrative. Night after night after night, there was violence and looting and destruction. Whatever last breath the country might have had, the tens of thousands of criminals snuffed it out.
Ironically, a white man in Dallas named Tony Timpa was killed the very same way in 2016. There were no national protests, no speeches or TV funerals. He had no criminal past, yet his life wasn’t worth nationwide marches. The awful last minutes of Timpa’s life were also captured on video.
Now, what are we left with for 2020? Because of the nationwide marches, without social distancing and with millions not wearing masks, the coronavirus pandemic will come back in a terrifying form; bigger, worse, deadlier and this time, overwhelming hospitals across the country. Most of the protesters will not be the ones who die though; it will be their parents or grandparents, uncles and aunts, older people in their communities and innocent people who tried to stay home and stay safe.
By late June, the numbers of deaths and hospitalizations will skyrocket.
The man who died on video, has become a national spiritual symbol for millions. Yes, he did have a criminal record, yes he served time for armed robbery and a home invasion and drug charges, and he was being arrested when he died for passing a counterfeit bill and he was found to have drugs in his system. But, his funeral was nationally televised on every single channel. He has received more adoration than even people who have devoted their lives to helping others; more adoration than Mother Theresa.
By the fall, we will be in full-blown pandemic mode, watching our economy crumble. We will still be listening to speeches about injustice, police brutality, and the defunding of police departments. Why have any blue line at all. Let’s make America like the purge and allow a free-for-all for criminals to kill anybody not yet killed by COVID-19. Many of the millions of criminals who wreaked havoc on our country have grown up playing Grand Theft Auto. They have killed officers over and over virtually, carried out thousands of crimes, beat hookers and shot innocent bystanders. Now, in 2020, they can move that game-play to real life. Many already have.
When six Dallas police officers were assassinated in 2016, there was no national marches, and just 10 days later, when three more officers were killed and three others wounded in Baton Rouge, there was no national outrage. When four Lakewood police officers were sitting in a coffee shop in 2009 in Washington state doing some pre-shift paperwork on a Sunday morning, and a man came into the shop and shot each in the head, killing all four, there were no national marches or speeches. Nine children were left without a parent. When officers in Kentucky and Newport News, Virginia were killed this past January, only to begin a string of shootings of police officers, nobody took notice. All the killings were carried out by one group.
Some lives really don’t matter. At least not to those who are protesting today. Just like during the days of the “knock-out” game, when so many innocent people were seriously hurt, received brain injuries and many killed, there were no people in the streets protesting.
Twenty-twenty-one can’t come soon enough. Many will never see it. The country will be battered and hanging by a thread. Much of the chaos has been by design to throw the results of an election in November, just months away. If that election goes in favor of the looters, then we will remember 2020 as the pivotal year that America lost its economy, its laws, its thin-blue-line and its soul.
