this pandemic repeats a pattern we've already seen a billion times throughout american history -- the government failed to do its job on the front end, and is attempting to makes up for that failure through control and criminalization

we should have had widespread testing, adequate treatment, and been actively tracing contacts from the beginning. instead, our president called it a hoax. healthcare workers couldn't get basic ppe. very sick people couldn't get tested.

so now, as predicted, this thing has exploded, and if 100,000 people die we will be LUCKY. meanwhile, a full month after they should have acted, some governors are only now mandating people stay inside -- and are threatening them with criminal penalties if they don't.

It didn't have to get here. and the point is, it NEVER has to get here. but it always does because our government is simply not willing to spend the monetary, political, or electoral capital necessary to prevent the bad. they are only willing to spend that capital to punish.

if our elected officials acted competently in ADVANCE of a crisis, rather than (at best) in response to it, if people had adequate healthcare and healthcare workers had adequate supplies, if we had sufficient testing and infrastructure, we wouldn't need to involve the cops.

watch what happens. at least a hundred thousand people will die. we will ALSO criminalize thousands. so many people will suffer. because of people who work for us. it's unimaginable.

and yes, I largely mean the president. but as we speak, andrew cuomo is ramming through a budget that will cut medical assistance, scale back critical bail reforms, and further reinforce the structures that made this pandemic more destructive than it had to be.

what this crisis should remind us of is that we are all vulnerable when one of us is vulnerable. the sick can make others sick. the struggling do not always suffer alone. we cannot abandon those around us and expect we will not feel the effects of that abandonment.

we are in this together. for better or for worse. i'm just not sure the people in the conductor's seats are aware of that.

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