Alan S. Austin
Arizona Playwright • Writer • Poet
  

THE REAL NEWS (4/20)

We have virtually no testing capacity in this State. Arizonans who appear to barely know how to add and for whom the mathematical idea of progression is a distant conundrum from High School years, encouraged by the President and some of the news media, want the economy back on line and for people to go back to work. They do not care about the old or the sick or the vulnerable. They know nothing about science.... it's just the flu. Numbers? Like this President, they are devoid of compassion until, of course, it happens to them. What difference do a few more deaths of other peoples' loved ones matter? What does the pain and suffering of New Yorkers matter? They watch Fox News. They tell it how it is. It's frightening. After 100 years of being free from major pandemics and with the democratic freedoms won from the blood and sacrifices of Americans in WW2, they are happy to throw caution to the wind. Please, take these people, safely honking in their cars, to the gravesides, introduce them to the families, take them into the hospitals, show them the corpses, make them listen to the healthcare workers trying to save lives. Perhaps then, they might feel some shame and go home.