The Decline and Fall...

I mean, I hope it's not, in many ways. But when basic civility goes out the window, and everydamnthing has become political, well... yeah, these are my random thoughts about this week (and it's only Monday).

Here's the thing about masks. If you can't - actually can't, as opposed to won't because you think it violates your rights or is the mark of the beast or whatever excuse you've made up so you don't have to think about anyone but yourself - wear a mask, that's fine. But if that's the case, you should probably be staying home as much as possible, anyway, in order to keep yourself and others safe.

Yes, yes, exceptions for kids five and under and - again - the people who actually can't. If you're one of these, I'm not talking to you. Don't make it about you. It's an asshole move.

Then there's, you know, the little matter of random protestors being picked up by people in riot gear, without ID, in unmarked vans, and taken to other locations. In any other era, we would call this kidnapping, but in the good ol' US of A in 2020 it's apparently "law enforcement."

I don't even know how to unpack all that mess.

Teachers being guilt-tripped into going to work in their Petri dishes of workplaces "for the kids' sake" without thinking about how that impacts anyone: the teachers, the rest of the school staff, the other students, those students' families, the teachers' families, etc., ad nauseum. You know what? This whole thing sucks large for everybody, but throwing school staff under the bus isn't how we fix that. If we were a fucking civilized country, we would have a) universal health care, and b) a stimulus package for everyone on at least a monthly basis so we didn't have to go to work.

Failing that, which we have done and will probably continue to do, here's the note I wrote to our superintendent of schools this weekend:

I'm sure you won't have a chance to read this before the opening-school stuff is all said and done, but I thought you might like to see it in any case. You see, a friend online asked me what would my ideal school year look like at this point, given the covid circumstances, and this was my reply: 

Ideally? For my household?
I go to work (I drive a special services van for my school district) fully PPE'd, for one student per trip, cleaning the van and my hands between trips.
My eldest (senior in HS) has online classes except for Choir, Theater, and ASL, held outside or in the huge gym, six feet apart, and with face shields.
My youngest (7th grade 2E SpEd) has online classes for a couple hours two days a week at the school learning center with full PPE.
But that's us and only us. It gets me paid and gets the kids the support they need, with an acceptable risk for my family (as I am the only one at medium to high risk; I'm over fifty and have asthma). I'm lucky because although I am a single (widowed) parent, my kids are old enough to stay home without me here.
Our school superintendent is a competent, sensible person, with a science background, who listens to actual experts. I'll follow her lead, but that up there is my wish list.  

On that note, yes, I'm concerned about my kids falling behind, not least because Abby is a senior this year, and Lizzy is special ed and struggles with distance learning, at least with how they did it during the crisis schooling we had this spring. This is even though the goals they expect children to reach in American schools are both wildly arbitrary and too one-size-fits-all. But some of the other parents I know online are threatening to sue the district and the state and apparently everyone else because their kids are not getting butts-in-chairs minutes. Especially SpEd parents.

These people don't get it: THIS. IS. STILL AN. EMERGENCY. I know you want things "back to normal," but they're just not. And not likely to be any time soon.

Oh, speaking of people needing to grow up and learn to deal, please, please don't vote for a third party or write in a candidate or otherwise protest-vote. Not for president, anyway. I'm not happy with Joe Biden as a choice either, but I'm also an adult who sees the bigger picture. Vote as progressive as you like down-ticket (I plan to), but please, please don't log that protest vote for Prez. You want more bread and circuses? Because that's how you get more bread and circuses.