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I
got my first COVID vaccination last week. No big deal, an achy arm,
but otherwise, just like a flu shot. The young lady who administered
the shot smiled and said, “After you get your second shot, you
can get back to normal.” I wanted to ask her what was normal,
but the man in line behind me seemed impatient, so I smiled and made
my way out of the store.
I
thought about it all the way home, though. What’s normal? I
don’t think crowding thirty or forty young people into a
classroom is normal. I don’t believe that food lines snaking
for blocks is normal. I don’t think that high Black
unemployment rates are normal. I don’t think the wealth gap is
normal.
I
don’t think that more than 400,000 people dead is normal. The
inability to formally mourn our departed loved ones isn’t
normal. Crazy white people storming the Capitol surely isn’t
normal. And conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Green is so far away
from normal that she is on the insanity spectrum.
In
the ten months since the pandemic hit, we have seen changes in our
communications, our employment, our economy, and more. Many of us,
reasonably, yearn for the “normal” days when we could sit
at a restaurant and have a meal, go to a play or a concert, invite a
bunch of folks over to gather. But we should ask ourselves what was
normal about our normal. In other words, were we so comfortable in
our world that we didn’t look outside our world? We can’t
miss the food lines now, but there were food lines, too, a year ago.
We are focused on disparities now, but those disparities aren’t
new. Does back to normal mean accepting the inequities and
absurdities of life as it was?
Somebody
tweeted that “Rona was a disruption, and she is an
opportunity.” I embrace that sentiment (though I had to do a
double-take at “Rona” and pray that nobody chooses to
name their child Rona after this virus). This virus is an opportunity
for us to scrutinize what we consider normal and how we need to
change it.
Let’s
start with education and the achievement gap. Students who come from
low-income families don’t have the same academic support that
others do. They often don’t have the technology to do virtual
learning or the support to work through their assignments. Too often,
their parents are essential workers - nurses, bus drivers, grocery
store workers. Do we ever take a look at the people who serve us and
notice that they are disproportionately Black and Brown? When we see
them, do we wonder about their facts of life, about their challenges,
or do we know the status quo as “normal”?
Is
it normal for teachers’ unions and mayors to be so far apart?
If we want students back in their classrooms, why can’t we
vaccinate every teacher and school worker? But the conflict between
teachers and elected officials, especially in Chicago, calls for a
national conversation with educators, students, and parents. We’ve
heard from everyone but students in this conversation. What are they
thinking and feeling? Is any of this normal?
We
never saw mask-wearing as standard, and even now, with more than
400,000 dead, some fools refuse to wear them. But here’s the
real deal –vaccine or not, I’ll likely be wearing double
masks until the end of the year, and so should you. People who have
had the vaccine have still tested positive. They still need to wear
masks and wash their hands frequently. But too many have made mask
wearing a political statement. Our non-mask-wearing former president
contracted COVID and got priority treatment and had access to the
drug Regeneron, which is not available to the general public. And he
still won’t wear a mask, emboldening his sycophants.
I
really don’t know what is normal anymore, but I am sure that if
2019 was normal, we must embrace the abnormal. Or, we need to define
the new normal as safe, fair, and equitable. As my anonymous tweeter
said, “Rona” is an opportunity for us to check ourselves
and maybe get it right.
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