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We hear a lot these days about the economic impact of the pandemic. Has this been on your mind? If so, tell us what you're thinking.
Homelessness was already a problem in California before the pandemic, but the economic impact of the shutdowns mandated to curb the spread of the virus has pushed many people who were just one paycheck away from disaster out into makeshift tent dwellings on the streets of Berkeley, where I have been living during the pandemic. Over the last 15 months, the number of tent dwellers living on the streets of Berkeley has steadily increased. Mercifully, the City has chosen to leave them alone, and has set up port-a-potties and hand-washing stations near the largest groups of tents. My heart goes out to these people whose economic situation, often due to circumstances beyond their control, has made their lives so difficult. I am outraged at the approach that many other jurisdictions have adopted toward their unhoused residents. My hometown of Santa Cruz, for one, regularly gives tent dwellers a 3-day notice to move (to where?), then confiscates any belongings that haven't been moved, and for the most part, dumps them in the landfill. The eviction moratoriums in some areas have helped many people who would otherwise be on the streets, but our government, at all levels, needs to do a lot more to address the underlying economic inequalities in this country, which have been both exacerbated and highlighted by the pandemic.
July 2, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I wrote earlier that I had cut off some of my conservative friends early in the 45 Regime. One of them was particularly hard to let go of. At the time, it wasn't so much that person themself, as it was their scary, threatening, racist reactionary other friends who I didn't want learning too much about my other loved ones or me. I had indications over the last few years that, now that all their remaining friends were reactionaries, this friend had become more like them. And I can be cold, here, because even if I were completely alone in the world, I would still draw the line somewhat short of hanging out with Nazi and Klan sympathizers. Last weekend I found out this old ex-friend had died recently after a few weeks of battling COVID. That hit me pretty badly. Like, maybe if I had stayed in their orbit, I could have been that lone voice of reason that might have prevented them from taking risks with this pandemic. Because I found footage on social media once I went hunting for it that, no, this person was not being particularly careful. Normally, I can be pretty cold-blooded and say, "This person was an adult who chose the side that sympathizes with genocidists and disregards sound pandemic science. They did it to themselves. Don't waste energy on feeling bad about this." But right now, I just remember the friend I once had. Work is hard, still overtime and probably will remain so for months. In spite of many more tests run last week, my county's percent positive was at nearly 10%. Last week, because nobody in the few places I must go into is wearing a mask, including children who can't possibly have been vaccinated yet, I started wearing a mask at work again, even though I don't have to since I'm vaccinated. (We still have a lot of other pandemic rules in effect.) There's just too much chance that I could wind up an asymptomatic carrier of one of these more-contagious variants, and masking back up settles that anxiety. I double-mask and disinfect if I have to go anywhere besides work, because people are acting like this thing's over, even though it clearly is not.
July 17, 2021