Mondays with Mike: A confederacy of dunces
October 5, 2020 • 18 Comments • Posted in Mike Knezovich, Mondays with Mike, politics
Certification from the City of Chicago that I was no longer radioactive after a week in the hospital and three nights at Hotel Covid.
Back in April, while I was still hospitalized for COVID, Chicago Tribune columnist Heidi Stevens wrote a piece about Beth’s plight, and my own. Back then it took three tries for me to get a test, and I only got the result the day I checked into the emergency room.
I just reread it, and here’s the money shot:
Knezovich said it’s frustrating to watch the news from his hospital bed and hear President Donald Trump deny that the United States lacks sufficient tests.
“Setting aside partisanship,” he said, “That’s really insulting. It’s insulting to be lying here and hearing that. It’s insulting to me, but also to all the people working here so hard and having to figure out who to give tests to and who not to, because they don’t have enough of them.”
Since then, some things have improved. Testing is more available, we know more about the spread, and masks work. Vaccines are in the works.
But man, some things haven’t gotten any better. As in leadership at the top. As in there is none. That Rose Garden debacle is a fresh insult. Leadership isn’t barking at people. It’s leading by example. What lousy examples we have in the White House. And I mean literally, after that Rose Garden event for the SCOTUS nominee, they went INSIDE. Check out the pictures. (BTW, giving a lifetime appointment to a person who apparently can’t make even simple judgments correctly seems like a very bad idea.)
But no. And so we have a rogue’s gallery of infected high mucketty mucks, including the President of Notre Dame, Fr. John Jenkins.
We all have heart-wrenching stories. Not being able to visit our parents. Our children. Friends hospitalized without the benefit of outside visits. People dying with no funeral or memorial service.
But these selfish, self-important ass wipes had to have a party. And many of them flew from other states to attend.
I mean.
Heidi Stevens put it better than I can in a social media post she made today:
I see the photos and videos from that Rose Garden ceremony and think about the dozens of people I’ve interviewed since March who’ve canceled their weddings, forgone funerals, said final goodbyes to loved ones over FaceTime, missed out on graduations and otherwise sacrificed joy, comfort or ritual to help slow the spread of this virus and I’m just filled with sorrow and rage.
Argh.