How the Government’s Inability to Connect With American Citizens Turned Us Against Each Other
During her November 5th press conference, Republican Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds came out with her guns blazing. “The election results validate our state’s approach to the pandemic,” she announced.
While she was rising above God’s good glory, I was doing my best not to vomit. In one sentence, she drove an even wider political divide between constituents and slammed the door on the 759,061 Iowans who voted blue as if they don’t even exist or at the very least, don’t matter.
This poor woman’s story gets worse. A mere 11 days later, she ate her words when Iowa’s healthcare system finally buckled. We went from — Republican COVID-19 approves this message to — too bad if you have a heart attack or stroke, people, there’s nothing left for you — in under two weeks.
Who put this woman in charge of speaking to people? Is there an award for saying the wrong thing at all times? If so, toss all of our elected officials’ name’s in a hat because Reynolds is on a long list of those who have no clue how to communicate with us.
This was one of the biggest mistakes the government made when the pandemic first arrived in the United States. They failed to put someone in front of us who can address us on a human level.
- They assigned Vice President Mike Pence to head the White House COVID-19 Task Force. Arguably one of the most anticlimactic speakers in political history, who has zero medical, emergency management or crisis stabilization experience.
- The rest of the Task Force crew are number nerds who point at their graphs as if they all took the same course on how not to make sense to the average person.
- We saw hope in Dr. Anthony Fauci, but once we pushed him into the social media celebrity spotlight, he lost all credibility.
- Surgeon General Jerome Adams, an appointed official, did his very best to meet us eye to eye. Until the national media deemed him a racist.
- Need I say more about President Donald J. Trump who suggested that we inject Clorox or Lysol as a cure for COVID-19 because, wait. What did he just say? Did he just suggest that we shoot up disinfectants? What!?
From day one, the American people were told our risk is low. Then, when the virus exploded in the U.S. shortly after, officials announced the president’s “30 Days to Slow the Spread” plan comprised of guidance he never set the example for the American people to follow.
At no point where we addressed with, “Hey, I’m sorry it ripped your lives out from underneath you. Man, I know it sucks.” Is a simple acknowledgement of what we’re going through truly that tough?
Human beings need acknowledgement for our successes and suffering. It’s where we find the strength, energy and desire to forge on. We need diplomacy and compassion. It’s what we seek through the personal relationships in our lives. Connection is what brings us together.
We needed someone to stand before us and say, “In someway, it will grossly affect each of you.” Instead, we’re expected to be soldiers but without the appropriate critical incident debriefing. Now, it’s too late.
We are at war. It’s us against the Novel Coronavirus. Isn’t that enough trauma to endure? Not here in America. Instead, a severe lack of interpersonal communication skills thrust the American people at odds with one another, and those odds along with various types of human behavior fuels COVID-19, perpetuating a vicious cycle.
Now it’s every man for himself, survival mode, pandemic fatigue and absolute civil unrest. They triggered the American people into flight or fight and we ran with it, clarifying that we have no intentions of wrangling in our rampaged emotions.
We’ve turned a deadly virus into political warfare. We’re stabbing each other in the streets over the results of the 2020 Presidential Election.
We laugh at each other when family members die alone on a ventilator. We claim it’s a hoax. We refer to the press as fear mongers for telling us the truth because the truth has no place in America anymore. We don’t want to hear it. We’re too busy ramming our know-it-all opinions down throats.
American history shows us that the voices of past presidents were ones to rally behind. In a time of crisis, the voice of our leader was a beacon of hope and our brightest light shining as party lines faded into the darkness.
In present day America, if we’re asked to wear a mask, social distance and wash our hands, we pitch a fit. How dare you ask simple tasks of us for the goodwill of humanity. Rumor has it there’s a constitution protecting us from having to do any of this. And, of course, freedom, freedom and more freedom.
There is faith to have in the incoming Biden Administration, but there’s also the reality that President Trump is a scant symptom of a definitive problem.
It’s up to us to change our leaders’ rhetoric. Actions speak louder than words, and so does the will of the people. Imagine the impact it would have made if someone could have just talked to us with the same level of severity this current world crisis calls for.
We live in a time of a dangerous disconnect, and a civil war inside of a global pandemic.
