Editor’s note: This commentary is by state Rep. Mike Mrowicki, a Democrat who represents Windham-4 (Putney, Dummerston and Westminster) in the Vermont House of Representatives.
Can the “stay home” action for Covid-19 be simply a reminder that the life we save may not just be our own, but someone else’s parent or child? Hard as it is to stay put at home, framing it in those terms reminds me that our actions are for a greater good.
Even with the constant of staying home, though, life is now filled with uncertainty. So, is it too soon then, to dare to look ahead? Why not?
What then, are the takeaways, as we move forward?
First, for me, is that Bill Gates should be listened to about infectious diseases. In his 2015 TED Talk,“The next outbreak? We’re not ready” (now viewed by 27 million), he sounded the alarm about being prepared for an outbreak like we’re seeing now. He references the 2014 Ebola virus, when President Barack Obama marshaled world resources to address and contain that virus — (that killed 90% of those infected) before it spread round the world.
Obama then built on what his predecessor, President George W. Bush, started and enhanced — the pandemic response team, the same response team that the current administration either “Cut, downsized or streamlined,” according to your news source.
Coupled with President Donald Trump’s downplaying the danger by predicting the coronavirus would disappear by April — to calling it a hoax — serious action at the top started too late. Too late to have the kind of outcomes we saw with Ebola, or in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea with Covid-19.
Second takeaway: Don’t count on this president when the chips are down. This is his first crisis and we need steady leadership, and to be able to believe what our leader says. Unfortunately, we get neither. The best one can say about the administration right now is, “Thank you, Dr. Fauci.”
Despite that lack of steady, dependable leadership at the top, states are valiantly working to keep up with medical needs — and scores of medical providers are working like heroes.
So now, we’re at war with a virus. And then, it looks Iike we’re headed for a recession.
Will this president step up and transform into a bold leader who seeks to help all the people, and not focus on corporations and millionaires, the way his tax plan did?
Or, will he be another Hoover, whose lack of government experience froze him in the headlights of the coming Depression?
Third takeaway: We need good government. For those who claim the free market will solve all economic woes, corporate America is looking to government for help in this crisis, too. So, yes, “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help” will be a reality for our future. And it should start with that phrase being written on every check the government gives to individuals and corporations.
Moving forward, we’d do well to grow capacity for services.
First responders across the state are struggling at a time we really need them. Similarly, just about every hospital in Vermont is struggling to stay afloat.
And, then there’s medical care, child care, elder care, care for the disabled. It’s also water main breaks of ancient systems and potholes in the roads and bridges falling deeper into disrepair. Same with equipment, like the antiquated state computer systems that can’t cope with what they’re being asked to do now. We can’t keep expecting more with less.
All this will all take more funding in a time of flagging revenues — and, at a time when most of us are already paying our fair share in tax. Since the Trump tax giveaways, though, there’s a cohort of corporations and millionaires that pay little or no tax. It’s time they paid their share into this mix. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said in a 1927 opinion, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” And, that’s our choice now.
Some have said, this crisis is a “dry run” for what climate will wreak in the coming years.
Even if we’re fortunate to turn that around, the ongoing threat of pandemics like this will be there, as has been predicted.
No more denial on either count. We either make the investments needed to address 21st century perils or we keep playing catch-up — or lockdown — when the next crisis arises.
Looking around right now, though there’s plenty that’s amazing. We’ve come together and sacrificed in an unprecedented way to shutter own our culture for the greater good.
And, that spirit of working together, of shared sacrifice for a greater good, is the way we move ahead.
