Day 75 An Offensive Defense; and, How Vulnerability Fuels Generosity

Notice the shadowy flag in the picture. Opinion columnist Charles M. Blow is not known for mincing words. “Trump put politics, his own political fortunes, over the lives of the American people, and the result has been catastrophic.” Nothing new here, right?

The Outbreak aggregator went with this. “While the country neared six digits of death, the president who repeatedly criticized his predecessor for golfing during a crisis spent the weekend on the links for the first time since March. When he was not zipping around on a cart, he was on social media embracing fringe conspiracy theories, amplifying messages from a racist and sexist Twitter account and lobbing playground insults at perceived enemies, including his own former attorney general.” Again, just a yawn. Predictability is just so ... predictable.

Columbia University researchers put forth a distinctly different model of the disease trajectory this week the theme of which is that had the U.S. acted just two weeks earlier, the death toll would be more than two-thirds less than it is. Mr. Blow again, “But Trump had spent the previous week downplaying the severity of the virus and blaming growing coverage of it and alarm over it on the media.”

On the media. On testing itself. On China. On Obama. Or the governors. Or immigrants. Or the epidemiologists. Or the inspectors general. Or the airlines. Or any other of his flavor-of-the-moment pet scapegoats. Meh.

We already know that the Slippery-Slope-in-Chief has no desire, let alone ability, to take responsibility of any kind, but the thing that has me focused this morning is his use of the primary, and really, only tactic of an abuser. Instead of defending his position, he takes what would be defensive, and turns it into offense—accusing others of doing exactly what he himself is doing. His timing is exquisite.

Joe Biden has an egregious slip of the tongue on Friday. He apologizes. The Republican incumbent accuses him of being a racist on social media all weekend.

The Republican Incumbent has been all snuggly with the President of China, Xi. Until recently. Same incumbent accuses Joe Biden of being ‘soft’ on China.

An American is horrifyingly beheaded in the Middle East; Mr. Obama goes golfing. The then-not-even-a-candidate Trump tweets his horror at the fact that Obama needs a break. [Mind you, this is after Mr. Obama has spoken directly to the deceased’s family.]

One hundred thousand Americans are dead due to the devastating irresponsibility of the Terrified Leader of the Free World. The Republican incumbent goes golfing after begrudgingly agreeing to order flags flown at half-staff over this holiday weekend only because of the constant public nattering of his critics, and still had made not one comment about the ratcheting death toll of The Trump Pandemic which sits squarely at his feet.

He accuses people of doing what he himself is doing. And the hell of it is that his timing is almost always perfect.

So here’s what I’m worried about. And, as you know, I do not worry as a general rule. I’m worried that it’s May. Or, really, that’s it’s only May. And the election is in November which feels like a looooooongggggg way away. Six months, to be exact.

I’m worried that, as Gore Vidal so strikingly noted, We live in “The United States of Amnesia.”

Donald Trump lives large and out loud a natural tendency of the human psyche that is downright dangerous and can, if used wrongly, be damaging beyond cruel and unusual. That is, he behaves as though if he doesn’t acknowledge it [whatever the it is], it simply isn’t so. It’s selective attention.

Here’s the psych definition: “Selective attention is the process of focusing on a particular object in the environment for a certain period of time. Attention is a limited resource, so selective attention allows us to tune out unimportant details and focus on what matters.” Ideally, that’s so.

But the deaths of 100,000 people are not unimportant details. Neither is the fact that there is no vaccine to this deadly virus. Neither is the fact that the government has thoroughly bungled its financial response to the pandemic. Mr. Blow weighs in, “No amount of playing to people’s impatience about reopening and optimistic desires that the worst is behind us ....” The list is endless.

Now, here’s the flip side of selective attention.

There have been remarkable articles about what the virus is doing to the prison populations. People have been released early because of them.

Attention has begun to be drawn consistently to the disproportionate numbers of persons of color who are dying from Covid-19. People are starting to call for a serious examination of race-based healthcare inadequacies.

Light has been focused on standards of nursing home care and veteran care that have been in the shadows for years. A redress of care standards and practices has already begun.

So selective attention, like almost all abilities, has its upsides and its downsides at the same time. What has happened in our country, though, is that the Ignorer-in-Chief has weaponized it. It isn’t so, if I say it isn’t so. Um, no. Just no. So sorry. No. Not now. Not ever. No.

This is one of the many reasons National Treasure Streisand is right. We need other people, and their awareness, to inform our own. I cannot possibly know everything there is to know about the coronavirus. I rely on my partner and my friends to help me focus on what’s important. They do that by sharing their awareness with me of what’s going on. It’s called conversation.

Brad Heckman posted his sketchquote of playwright activist Eve Ensler this morning because it’s her birthday. The prolific, inspiring author of The Vagina Monologues, one of the world’s most visible campaigns against gender-based violence, said, “hecksign When we give in the world what we want the most, we heal the broken part inside each of us.” Happy Birthday, #EveEnsler.

This is a spiritual principle taught in every single religion I’ve ever encountered. In Christian parlance, it’s called The Golden Rule which begins “Do unto others ....”

The Editorial Board of The New York Times wrote a lovely thank you piece to Americans today, this holiday we know as Memorial Day. It was subtitled “Our nation is rising, however imperfectly, to meet the challenge posed by the coronavirus pandemic. That needs to be said more often.” Thank you, everyone. Yes, I mean everyone.

I recently encountered some young people who didn’t know what Memorial Day was for. It’s to mark the ultimate sacrifice to peace—those who have served our country in conflict and given their lives for our continued freedom. That made me sad. We need to shine the light on what needs remembering, and keep the brightness on it till things change.

The Times’ editors remind us that, “... focusing only on failure obscures much of the good work that the vast majority of Americans have done, and are doing, to look after one another. If we are going to get through this global crisis, we need to hear more than just what we’re doing wrong, or should be doing better.” Despite the fact that bad news sells more newspapers and causes more click-throughs. We might want to look at that!

“We need to hear, if only now and then, what we are doing right. And as individuals working to help the larger community, we have been doing a lot right.” Go look in the mirror, Beloved. Are you doing the best you can? Good. Thank you. Thank yourself.

We must remember that it is only a small percentage of admittedly loud Americans who object to the strictures that we must keep in place to ensure the safety of as many of us as is possible.

“That’s where a little encouragement from our leaders would come in handy. It could sound something like this:

“You’re doing great, my fellow Americans. What you have been asked to do is not easy, but you’re doing it. And you’ve already made a big difference. People are alive today who might otherwise not be, thanks to the sacrifices you have made and are continuing to make. ... Thanks to you, cities and towns around the country are starting the slow process of safely reopening for business. The road to normalcy will be long and difficult, and it is one we’ll travel together.

“Of course, there are millions of people who never had the luxury to stay home or socially distance: the front-line workers—from doctors and nurses to grocery-store employees and mail carriers—who have kept everyone else cared for and fed throughout this pandemic. They deserve the nation’s enduring gratitude.” Thank you! A big, big, big Thank You!!! “They also deserve higher pay, better working conditions, stronger safety measures and, in many cases, all of the above.”

This is where the Golden Rule actually comes in handy. Know the second part? “...as you would have them do unto you.” You have an imagination, Beloved, so that you can use it.

That imagination ought to be able to put you in the position of the undocumented worker. If that were you, how would you want to be treated?

That same imagination ought to be able to put you in the position of the frontline healthcare worker. If that were you, how would you want to be treated?

That same imagination ought to be able to put you in the position of the voter in November. If that were you, how would you want to be treated?

And how would you want to do unto those who have treated The Trump Pandemic the shadowy way they have thus far?

The Editorial Board concludes: “The most patriotic thing that Americans can do right now is not to carry military-style rifles to a protest that shuts down their state legislature, or to spread baseless conspiracy theories online, or to pick fights in a supermarket over reasonable public health measures. The best way to serve the nation is to do the things that we know work, and to help each other out when we fall short. That’s how we protect the most vulnerable among us, restore our economy and reinvigorate the promises at the heart of the American ideal.”

See? Simple. It’s to do unto others in the bright light of attention as you would have them do unto you in the bright light of attention. It’s to imagine a new future, a fairer world, a better world, a world that works for everyone. Let’s place our selective attention, Beloved, quite deliberately on what a world that works for everyone might look like, feel like, be like. What it might need.

If we were all honest with ourselves, I think we’d agree that we’d like everyone to do unto each one of us with a spirit of generosity. We need to remember this Memorial Day, where we are, what has happened, what will continue to happen. We need to remember that our shared vulnerability is underneath every choice we make for this future world that will be ours when there is a new #globalvaccine and a generous world that works for everyone.

And even if we are The United States of Amnesia, God help us all, we need at the very least to remember until November, come out from under the deplorable shadow into the bright light of the truth, and vote accordingly.

Dr. Susan Corso is a metaphysician and medical intuitive with a private counseling practice for more than 35 years. She has written too many books to list here. Her website is www.susancorso.com

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