The fact is, school is the axle on which our Capitalist societies turn. There are a lot of parents out there who need childcare in order to work full-time. When those parents disappear because they’re at home with the kids, things get sticky in a lot of places.
In a society in which people cared about each other, preparing to live with a deadly virus would mean doing what’s necessary to protect each other from it. A society founded in common sense would recognise that individuals can’t prosper if society collapses.
In the wake of an abrupt end to the State of Emergency, prominent figures in this country are comparing the implementation of ‘safe zones’ to South African apartheid even as we record our deadliest day yet with 28 deaths, including the first child to die from this virus.
In this context, I can understand why some might decide to rebel at the level of the final bit of power they have left: personal bodily autonomy.
What I don’t understand is why ✨this✨ is the bodily autonomy hill that has been selected to die on.
It’s one thing to be caught in a terrifying global scenario and understand the need to hold strain until things get better. It’s another thing entirely to sit and watch as other people’s (thoughtless at best, selfish at worst) actions extend everyone’s suffering nearly two years later. Even as the tools to improve everyone’s circumstances are right there.
At this point in the pandemic, isn’t it time to finally pull our heads out of our collective backsides and actually work together on this?
Meet the new normal. Same as the old normal. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? Imagine, if you will, a world that makes sense. Stick with me, now…