During a four-day process to create this cover, the impact of all this is really hit home.
Over a 6-month period, Coronavirus takes the American lives of four Vietnam War American casualties. I kept thinking about things like that as I went through the daily death toll. I was remembering the trauma of 9/11… THIS 9/11 is scattered across America EVERY THREE DAYS for families dealing with this.
I was feeling emotional when I first started putting this piece together, but felt myself starting to grow numb as I was writing the same words, Date… Number of Deaths… Date… Number of Deaths… I saw the numbers rise and fall like waves across the (digital) canvas. After being on autopilot for a few hours, I snapped out of it when I started to focus on what each of these numbers represent.
I started looking up what this would mean if this was some horrific singular event… the entire population of Akron, OH disappears in a flash.
Or suddenly Huntsville AL goes up in smoke.
Or Grand Rapids, MI.
Or Salt Lake City, UT.
Or Amarillo, TX.
Or Glendale, CA.
Or Port St. Lucie, FL.
Or Tempe, AZ.
Or Yonkers, NY… gone in a flash.
The American people would be riveted to the news in a situation like that.
There would be collective outrage. Americans of every political stripe would be outraged….
But this? This drip, drip, drip of death? No. There’s a general malaise in a large part of the population (lead by the Serial-Lying Corrupt Scumbag in Chief).
These are our first responders, teachers, doctors, parents, children and our Federal Government and State governments have failed them all. For all the braying from the Trumpites about Portland, or Kenosha, there are three times as many police officers have died from COVID-related causes than gunfire. Coronavirus attacks across local and state boundaries. It doesn’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. White, Black, Asian, Latino or Native American. This affects all of us.
Just a slow, steady march of death… with little flash or pizazz to rivet the attention of the viewer, so many just keep trudging on, accepting this TRUE, REAL, ACTUAL American carnage.
I really hope this cover and story are a wake up call for those who are numbed to this catastrophe. Science and common sense are the answers to this crisis. Will we finally listen?
We all need to move past relying on this administration (have we relied on them for anything except disgraceful behavior?) and we need to keep the facts and the science in the forefront.
I don’t need to tell readers of this site what to do… you all know. But I’ve got to say it anyway… they’re not going to let me say this on Fox “News” or Breitbart.