No time for being generally thankful this year — counting our blessings and all that — this year we have specific people to thank. First up are the healthcare workers on the front lines. As you are reading this, nurses and doctors are working themselves to physical and emotional exhaustion, trying to care for and comfort patients dying alone, even as more patients are being wheeled in. When doctors and nurses finally get to go home they can’t even greet the family until they have removed their clothes in the garage and jumped into a shower. (Decontamination tips were suggested at Nurse.org last spring when those garages were warmer.) And many people have no garage or basement space in which to perform this exhausting routine and must figure out some other system. All are terrified of infecting their families.
And think of the support staff at the hospitals and nursing homes: the maintenance crew; the laundry; and the social service employees dealing with desperate and grieving families. These workers are overextended and at great risk as well.
And thank you to the emergency medical technicians who man the rescue units, never knowing who or what they will have to deal with on the next call.
Just remember these people tonight as you settle in to watch your tv show. Keep in mind, these groups are now experiencing staffing issues as fellow workers are themselves quarantined, or have died. Not only are these people dealing with grief, but now they have to work longer hours.
Big thanks to the postal workers. They worked tirelessly to ensure the delivery of a record number of mail-in ballots while the odious man in charge was dismantling all the equipment. The new administration must remove DeJoy immediately, and one of Congress’s first initiatives must be the repeal of the 2006 prefunding mandate that keeps the post office teetering on the financial brink.
And thank you to the poll workers! In many parts of the country they had to go about their duties while angry mobs screamed at them, pounding on the doors. Thank you poll workers for your dedication to the democratic process — your professionalism was inspiring. Our job now is to eliminate the electoral college, end all this pointless conflict, and bring true democracy back to our elections. We can truly thank those poll workers by ensuring that this never happens again.
And thank you to the cashiers and staff at the markets and drug stores and all the shops that help the quarantined masses live lives of some normalcy.
And . . . many of these people go home to children struggling with the isolation and a haphazard school routine. This must be unbelievably stressful.
And what are the rest of us being asked to do to help? WEAR A MASK! Just grow up and wear a damn mask.