A Short Note on the Pandemic #7

March 19, 2020 Off By Michael

Photo by Claire Mueller on Unsplash

Yesterday, March 18, 2020, the President assembled his rapid response pandemic team for another press conference. He slurred his words, grew weary of trying to read his prepared remarks, then called on the Vice-President to tell the American people the contents of his speech.

Furthermore, on the leadership front, the President made excuses for the difficulty of the pandemic. One wonders how he ran his businesses. All the problems in the world come with a degree of difficulty. The reason we pay the leadership big bucks is for them to solve complex problems. When leadership whine about the complexities confronting them, it does not give confidence to the people led. Thus, unnecessary worry and concern experienced by Americans today.

Meanwhile, Congress passed legislation requiring paid sick leave for employers with 500 or fewer employees. The President promptly signed the bill into law. Things happen when the President gets out of the way and allow the experts to tackle a problem that is too complexed for him.

Additionally, the President and other Republican politicos have resorted to blaming the virus on the Chinese. Members inside the administration reportedly refer to the pandemic as the “Kong Flu.” The President calls it the “Chinese virus.”

What purpose does it serve to point fingers at China or anyone else, when we are just at the beginning of what experts say will be a problematic eighteen-month period?

None. Period.

The only reason one would point fingers at a time when Americans are scared out of their wits that some unseen organism will invade their lungs is to give one’s base of supporters somebody to hate, other than the leader, for their fear and misery.

It would be too much like the right thing to inspire Americans to overcome their fear of the coming calamity like one President did in the 1940s when he uttered: “You have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Harold Michael Harvey is the author of Freaknik Lawyer: A Memoir on the Craft of Resistance. He is a Past President of the Gate City Bar Association. He is the recipient of Gate City’s R. E. Thomas Civil Rights Award, which he received for his pro bono representation of Black college students arrested during Freaknik celebrations in the mid to late 1990s. An avid public speaker, contact him at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com.