Letter to the Editor: Are we really all in this together?

To the Editor:

“We’re all in this together.”

Are we? Are we really all in this together? I wonder if the way we think about deer and chronic wasting disease is the same way we’ve come to think about the coronavirus?

The human animals are about to “open” up again. As early as today in some states we are going to gather together, despite professional recommendations. And, not unlike the deer, as a result of our desire to be together we put each other at serious risk.

Very little attention is being paid to the fact that our most vulnerable people will likely pay the ultimate price in a war that they cannot win. They are the statistics for Veterans Services, the Homeless, Nursing Homes, the Department of Human Services, etc. They are the numbers that aren’t added in. They are the bodies inside unmarked boxes on the battlefield. And, they are as silent in death as what they heard in life.

Sick deer eat up scarce resources and spread disease. They need to be culled from the herd, right? What about fragile, sick, dependent people who are a significant burden to economically obsessed societies? How convenient, a pandemic! Think of the savings in Medicare and Social Security benefits. Now Congress won’t have to vote on frequently purposed cuts in benefits and risk looking like the arrogant, self-centered, money-hungry poachers they are.

We are all in this together? I think not. I think it’s more like “open” season.

The alter ego says, “What do you really think, Catfish?”

Ann A. Gallagher
aka “Catfish Annie”
Waukon