What a year we have had already and it’s not even halfway over! Three events that are unbelievable have come to visit us and alter so much of our lives. We started the year with political division, an issue that has gone on for some time now. Since this is an election year, it will probably be more offensive as the year goes on.
Then there was COVID-19, a viral infection no one knew about, that no one knows exactly how to contain it, much less cure it. It is scary to say the least. Thousands have died, others stayed in hospitals for weeks, while the rest of us took our temperature on our foreheads this time, when we got up each morning or when we walked into our office. That is, if anyone had a job to go to. As I have researched various aspects of the Great Depression and New Deal, I never thought I would see such horrific times. I have stayed at home since before Easter, I have a big yard with a garden, and flower beds to tend. So, I get out every day. I go to the grocery store on Sunday mornings at 7:00 when there are fewer customers. I had a physical exam online. I attend church online. But I am lucky. I have a commitment to write a biography of Morris Sheppard for the New Deal Symposium. I have work to do, thank goodness. I feel for those who don’t, who have no paychecks, whose children are confined with them. It’s ot fair.
Then last weekend, the whole country experienced something that is inconceivable. The incident happened in Minneapolis, where a black man was killed by a white policeman. Since that time, cities and suburbs have been haunted by fear of riots and protests. Is there no end to the violence?
Author S. C. Gwynne wrote in Empire of the Summer Moon, that there is history based on hard, documented fact; history that is colored with rumor, speculation, or falsehood; and history that exists in what might be termed the hinterlands of imagination. Without a doubt we are suffering through the second form of history. I went back to my files and found papers I researched and presented about Lynching about ten years ago. But this isn’t really lynching. It’s more of an epidemic of violence, among our neighbors, among strangers, and among families, even.
Much of the violence is based on racism – whites against blacks. Control over those who are not like us, Caucasians who speak English, follow most manners, and consider ourselves elitists. Yet, my husband and I have been watching documentaries of World War II. The same racism attitudes were felt by Japanese, Chinese, and to a certain degree Germans and Russians. Why? What causes all this violence, hatred, and meanness? We also still feel that way about Hispanics and Native Americans.
Isn’t time we put aside our weapons, our differences, and try to understand each other? Doing so would make 2020 a much better year to remember.