who-who-who-whooo?
That’s not owls in the Kings River woods behind our home, but the question everyone is asking – who? Who gets monetary relief, tax breaks or subsidies? Who gets a coronavirus vaccine? Who gets to decide?
Then there’s the other 5-w questions: when? how? where? why? (The what is embedded in the who questions.)
We received our tax-free government checks, $600 each for my wife and her mom and me – three retirees who have no mortgage, no car note, and these days, no expenditures for leisure: no restaurants, concerts, theater, museums, shopping or travel. No parties, just a stay-at-home fambly evading visitors. The “stimulus” checks will pay some bills and buy materials for home improvement. We didn’t need to be thus stimulated; we tighten our belts a little when the invoices arrive.
Both Presidents Trump and Biden support the notion of upping that 600 smackers by $1400, an idea quickly endorsed by many in Congress. But guess what? We don’t need an extra $4200 to run our household. We would probably save it because we are three retirees at risk of catching the deadly virus. Incidentally, our three 30-something children are each self-sufficient. Not so when they were younger, and many college-educated young people who worked fast-food joints are now out of work, out of cash, trying to hustle up a living.
They are only one group of people who actually require those government subsidies – how about single moms or working dads who’ve been laid off? Or low income families where both parents used to work to make ends meet, but now one stays home to pretend to supervise their children’s online schooling and the other’s job is in flux? How about folks who used to rely on Granny for babysitting but Granny died from covid-19?
I think targeted people for financial relief (misnamed stimulus) should include families who have lost someone to covid-19 or related causes, including pneumonia, heart attack, and suicide. My 89-year old mother-in-law says, “It’s no great loss if I died – I lived a long life.” Who am I to argue? But if either my wife or I succumbed, we lose not only our best friend, but the entire way we manage our place – housekeeping and maintenance chores, meals, bookkeeping, gardening, etc. Over the decades we have worked out a division of labor that runs the homestead and still allows for affection, philosophical discussions and creative work, including this weekly column, her fiber arts and woodworking projects, and making music with friends, which has been on hold for nearly a year.
We know a few people who have been vaccinated – friends over 70, our 30-year old daughter the schoolteacher, some folks with other health conditions. We are not old enough, here, although people our age in some other states can get the shot. Some states choose to vaccinate people who live or work in prisons and old folks’ homes, because them people are stuck.
Ironically, many nursing home staff decline the vaccination. I estimate some prison employees would too, though I have not read about that. It is crazy that vaccinations, as with the other pandemic safety protocols, are seen as political choices rather than efforts to protect oneself and the community at large…
In elementary school, I ate the sugar-cube polio vaccine, and some of my generation were the last to suffer polio. I endured chicken pox, mumps, measles, and whooping cough, for which vaccines are now available. In a few years, epidemiologists predict that annual vaccinations for coronavirus will make the infection no more dangerous than flu bugs we see now. But we ain’t there yet.
So I ain’t in the who’s who yet. When? don’t know. How? local drug store. Why? for self-preservation and the common good. What? Continue to stay home, wear the damn mask, keep six feet away from people who don’t live here, and try not to worry about it.
Yesterday morning a deer was grazing in our front yard – emaciated, shedding fur, ears and tail inactive. Probably the always-fatal chronic wasting disease. Covid-19 does not need to be that to us.
Kirk Ashworth