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I Desperately Hope I’m Wrong About This
Don’t look now, but America could be plunging into our darkest hours.
Usually quite the pessimist, I’ve found myself flipping to finding optimism in a dark time. But I think that may be because the darkness ahead has become blinding, and for sake of my own sanity, I’m hoping that, somehow, we will avoid calamity.
Consider our position.
We are (still) in the grips of a generational pandemic that, while not all that deadly, is incredibly contagious, and has the ability to overrun hospitals and health care systems.
We have an economy that’s been shocked into stagnation — no one really knows what’s ahead. Consumer spending remains stifled as an effect of this pandemic, the effects of which stretch into their 5th month, in large part due to our nation’s collective non-response.
We have a government that seems willing to help corporations, but funds for small business and individuals come at a trickle. That has already caused many small businesses to fold up their operations. And we’re on the brink of a truly unprecedented housing crisis, with more than 4.7 million people late on their mortgage, with at least another 4 million late on rent , and no hope in sight of getting caught up before foreclosures and evictions start to shell our country’s most vulnerable.
