Here we are, almost halfway through 2021 and a little less than halfway through projections I made almost six years ago now.
I still have a hard time grasping a lot of it. Still trying to figure out what my place in everything really is. So I sit here, bouncing back and forth between working on fantasy stories, fan fiction for the games I play, and trying to formulate comprehensible arguments for the various policies and movements I'd like to see make headway in my life time.
I only pick and peck at the news right now, trying to keep my head out of it and focused on the long term.
You see, everyone was debating about the "second wave" of the Pandemic. Thinking that it was the bump in cases as holidays passed and the regular flu seasons came and went. But the truth is, that the pandemic responses may not have entirely curbed the covid issues but they did also put dents in other illness curves that usually rise heavily through the winter months. I still haven't looked over the compiled data from the past few months but I've got a shiny quarter that says flu cases and other similar issues, though not completely mitigated were suppressed to an extent.
The support networks put in place to combat food shortages and things during the pandemic carrying over to shelter and food supplies for the winter months off setting some of the spikes in deaths that happen from neglect and homelessness during the colder months in the U.S.
The only reason I make this assumption without seeing the data is because our hospitals were not overrun during the winter and early spring.
But the second wave has hit.
Everyone looks at the small scale, the local cases, the statewide cases, and sometimes the national cases as the litmus for how things are going.
But no.
The Second wave is striking India.
I don't recall at this moment, a couple of short hours before sunrise local, which countries I anticipated the full force of the second wave to hit but India did fall into it.
There is a part of me that hopes that the rest of the international community was able to get their shit together in time to be able to help.
Or if the vaccine distributions are just barely enough to cover the needs of last summer.
My heart goes out to the Indian People and the hardships they are going through right now. Listening helplessly as I am to the news I'm allowing myself right now and trying to formulate distribution strategies that might help alleviate...any of it.
But, it's May, and it's time for me to be getting back to work. Digging in to where the local and national responses are and what their projections are looking like.
I always cautioned A year and half best case, three years on the outside for a disease like this to run it's course. It's time like this that I hate being right. A part of me really hoped that the world had everything under control by the end of winter. But that cold, analyzing, logic that does the hard maths knew better.
So this weekend I let myself transition back into research mode. Day by day picking up a bit more of the materials and research necessary to help formulate strategies and take into account where we are after a year and a half of something that feels eerily close to the new normal.
From what little I've let myself see over the past month it seems the new administration is following my strategies, in broad strokes at least, focusing on generating the funding for economic recovery and infrastructure refurbishment.
I commend them for pushing for it. I really do.
Hell, the conservative side of me winces every time I hear the price tags but that was also in the projections.
The plan is to rebuild infrastructure systems that went too long without being proper maintained. And rebuilding is almost more expensive than building fresh. Largely because of the labor costs, the training costs, the time commitments.
But if we do it right then it will be worth every penny and the pay off incalculable until some century later when historians are looking back and talking about the hard sell that had to be made to shift a nation.
That's funny part.
Many old school, small government types fear that the changes will be bringing big government into the world. When the whole goal is simply to facilitate the building of the infrastructure needed to maintain the freedoms everyone strives for.
Mobility.
Safety.
The ability to pursue ones goals and compete in a competitive marketplace.
There's a lot of fear about "The Rise of Socialisms" or the "Marxist Movement"
Truth is, checks and balances are built into a truly Democratic society.
Hell, even though the "Founding Fathers" of the U.S. were still operating under colonialist ideals and expansionist visions the ideas were solid.
It's just our job, now, to apply them to everyone. Rather than just the select few that many of the systems were initially designed for.
First we all have to survive this Pandemic.
A harsh reminder from Mother Nature that political borders and fences mean little when it comes to illness, hunger, and common decency to one another.
2021 might be a harder year than 2020 was. And 2022 does not promise to be a cake walk.
But something started, really started last year and transitions are hard, facing truth and real justice will and is testing the resolve and integrity of everyone involved. But from what I've seen The American people, that Native People, the people of the whole damned world have risen to the occasion.
And even though we still have a long hill to climb, and a lot of old hardships to settle, just look at how far we've come. Talk to some of the older generations, and ask them "did you ever think you'd see some of this in your life time?" Really ask them. And don't be too surprised when the only response you get is watery eyes.
Don't give up hope, it's been a rough ride and it's not going to get easier any time soon.
We still have a lot of big issues to address.
Immigration,
making sure the justice system continues to reform it's self,
And right now...
making sure India survives this Pandemic along with the rest of us.
But it will get better.
It has gotten better.
Maybe just a little, but a little is better than not at all.
And hopefully, by the end of the Decade....
MOON BASE!!
I chuckle as I type that, because a silly as it sounds that one little bit of hope keeps me going through all the everything else.
Stay Safe
