An anarchist in #NewYork reports from the front lines of the #coronavirus as a gig worker delivering food to rich people while friends + family contract the virus. "While “we are all in this together,” we are not all facing the same risks or conditions." https://itsgoingdown.org/all-we-have-is-us-delivery-driver-in-manhattan/

"I was staying with a friend who tested positive for #COVID19 + has since recovered. I house-sat for another friend whose partner has died of the virus. During my final weeks in NYC, I was deemed an “essential worker” because I brought food directly to rich people’s doors."

"It’s hard not to scoff at the cheers of the rich I see in recent videos. My memories of being disrespected, degraded, and underpaid are not dispelled by a moment of flattery from the comfort of Manhattan’s luxury buildings. We deserve more than a little applause."

"I reserve my love and appreciation for those who have always been underpaid and replaceable, who are on the front lines of the pandemic. Now we are essential? Now we are heroes? What were we before? What will we be when this ends?"

"How is it possible that police officers are still getting respect as “emergency workers” when they are running around without masks on, infecting people throughout the city, attacking children on the subway? How can anyone set them alongside nurses and grocery store workers?"

"We need a solidarity that has nothing to do with politicians and plutocrats. Let us look on those beside us with love and a mutual commitment to protect our humanity, just as we regard those above us as our enemies."

"My mother is working in a grocery store at nearly 70 years of age, while my father, who is in a hospital with a compromised immune system, has tested positive for coronavirus."

"If concerns about the market had not been prioritized over concerns about life, I am certain my father would have been spared this virus, as he was isolated since the beginning of March in a nursing facility. My mother cannot distance. My father couldn’t distance."

"Many can afford to sidestep these risks. They are not facing the same pandemic. They don’t deserve my solidarity.

We are not all in this together—but most of us are.

Return to normalcy? Never again."