Lacking Compassion, Trumper Style

SHE IS A YOUNG ATTRACTIVE NURSE, and she knows what the emergency rooma and the ICU unit are like, on a good day, when they are not easy. Now, she know what they are like on a bad day, on one bad day after another, when they are overloaded, overcrowded, and a normal working staff is a pitifully short staff. In the age of Covid 19, every day is a nightmare for the nursing profession, everywhere you go. Finally, she got a little impatient watching the protesters in her town, day after day, armed with their MAGA caps, their automatic assault rifles, but unadorned by any protective face masks. She got tired of their unrelenting, screaming anger, even though she understood their frustration, their anxiety at having less than enough money, of missing paychecks, of being without work. Because oen thing she knows above all else: it is far too early to let our guard down, far too early to open up the economy, to return to public life in crowded cities, too close together to stop the spread of terrible death and pain. Sure, we all want the virus to go away, we all want the economy and our lives to resume some semblance of normalcy, but for these Trump people, the economy trumps all else, and the virus is merely a nuisance to be endured, no matter how many elderly people die. The compassionate nurse respects the protesters, and understands their point of view, even though they mocked her and taunted her when she tried to talk to them. But they do not understand her point of view, nor do they know intimately, as she does, how horrible the epidemic is. They endure late bill payments and joblessness and unemployment checks, she endures and sees much worse. Nor do they understand at the White House, where everyone was being tested once a week, but now is being tested daily, even as the hot blonde spokes-babe for Trump declares in his name that the very thought of testing every American is "silly". Nobody at the White House wears a mask, nor worries about six feet of distance. Why should they? they get tested, daily. Any female who gets within six miles of the president, let alone six feet, does so at her own risk. I had my first, and I hope only Covid 19 dream last night. I was some sort of health care provider, and was at a banquet in our honor, buffet style, dressed up, sitting at round tables. At the buffet line, I was unable to put food on my plate. It kept sliding off, and no matter what the food was, it didn't look good to me, or there wasn't enough of it, and I couldn't decide which side of the plate to put it on, so I overturned a plate full of food, and spilled it all over the lady in line behind me. My plate was a gooey mess. I knew she was angry, and i was embarrassed, so I explained to her that my sister has the virus, and I am frantic with worry, and not thinking. She forgave me, and told me that I must clam down and stay strong, that I have people to help. I was relieved when I awakened, felt fortunate that it was only a dream, but I felt a little stronger, a little more able to face the world, and, a little for gratful to the heroes who really do endure the unendurable in the service to others.