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1/ I was married to a soldier at the peak of the Iraq War. I am married to a doctor during this pandemic. The insidious nature of their valorization has been the same. I have seen, all too closely, the hero-worship that thinly veils the willingness to sacrifice their lives.
2/ When, 15 years ago, strangers would walk up to my then-partner, shake his hand and thank him for his service, admittedly most of my raging bile came from the fact that I did not support the brutal war they were thanking him for waging.
3/ But my rage also came from the emptiness of that gesture: I saw how soldiers were sent to die among fanfare, then abandoned when they returned, shells of their former selves, unable to get the support they desperately needed.
4/ See, the great thing about thanking a hero is that you don't have to care about what happens to them, because heroes are supposed to be strong enough not to need care. This also becomes a convenient means of shaming those heroes when they do seek support.
5/ Today, I feel a similar rage when I see the "troop" analogy used for frontline workers*. We all know how disposable troops are. Every time I have seen that meme with a healthcare worker wearing a superhero costume, I have wanted to scream.
6/ That valorization, coupled with the daily reports I get from my partner about how nurses and residents (overwhelmingly immigrants and people of color, please note) are being thrown to the wolves while the boards of corporate-run hospitals scramble to cover up their failings...
7/ ...all that is enough to make it abundantly clear: we're priming folks for death at the altar of capitalism by calling it a noble sacrifice.
8/ PS: Just to be clear about what a "frontline worker" is: there is absolutely no difference between a doctor, a nurse, a janitor, a grocery worker.
9/ They are all saving lives while risking their own unnecessarily because the corporations that employ them and the government that is supposed to protect them are only concerned with the bottom line.
10/ While healthcare workers are easily (and rightfully) capturing the hearts of folks, other frontline workers are being told that an extra $1 or 2 on top of their abysmally inadequate wages is enough to warrant their continued (silent) service. Stop making that distinction.
