We have adopted the language of “war” on the coronavirus so we can dub essential workers as “heroes” for their “sacrifice.”

Here’s why it is a convenient lie.

It carries an implicit message that those “on the front lines” signed up for this, and they are bravely offering their lives and services to save us all.

Many of us who rely on essential workers get to perform a disingenuous lip service that pretends we have always treated food service workers and other low-wage workers as essential to our way of life.

The only way the American government’s response to coronavirus resembles a war is in the political expedience of poor, working class, and Black communities.

No one “signed up for” the delayed social distancing orders and inaction despite evidence from around the world that COVID-19 demanded decisive measures.

Yes, many medical professionals are fueled by compassion and a desire to heal the sick. But no one feels like a “hero” being compelled to work without PPE, hazard pay, sick leave, nationalized health insurance or workplace testing while unemployment rates skyrocket.

There are no self-actualized heroes without national rent or mortgage moratoriums.

We deal essential workers an impossible choice undergirded by economic compulsion.

Hero is a word we falsely sing to ourselves when people are *being sacrificed* as opposed to voluntarily sacrificing for a cause.

Governmental mismanagement is not a cause anyone should be dying for. But essential workers are. And many of them are already among the most marginalized, disproportionately abandoned people in this country.

It is a cruel trick to refuse policies that will keep low-wage workers alive and then praise them for dying first during a pandemic.

If there is a “front line,” this country put them there. So we don’t get to feel good for pointing out the “sacrifice” of people who were always expendable for our comfort.

Essential workers deserve more than us calling them our heroes; they deserve to be delivered from man-made horror.