Empathy Matters Part 2 - Science Doesn't Lie But Doug Ford Does

 

I woke up this morning and my tension headache had gotten worse.  For the last two weeks, the muscles at the base of my skull have been sounding the alarm and no amount of heating pad or peppermint oil has been cutting it.  

In the lead up to what will now be known as “The Profound Moral Failure of Doug Ford” I’ve been having anticipatory terror for the lack of governance that is unfolding in Ontario as our case counts surge in the third wave over a year into the COVID 19 pandemic. 

For several weeks we’ve been told by scientists and doctors that we are careening towards a disaster.  Around 2 weeks ago I saw the funny tweet above.

I repeated it to Adam and we laughed thinking it was a joke about how bad things were getting and no one listening but I learned in a CBC report this morning that this was a direct quote from February 11th and the journalist was TVO reporter John Michael McGrath and the response was from Adalsteiin Brown from our science advisory table.  

It got less funny.

The government has known that we are on this trajectory for over 2 months.  It maybe didn’t seem possible that things could get so bad but we are definitely here now.  In the last 2 weeks, several people I know have been exposed or fallen sick, the virus getting closer and closer to hitting home for real and the ICU's are filling up as expected.

The spread of airborne viruses and the rate at which humans spread them is well studied.  In this pandemic we have scientists and epidemiologists working overtime trying to give us precious information to work with and they have given us timely, clear, concise modelling that predicted exactly what is occurring now and what will occur in the next few months.

Science doesn’t lie but people do.  

Doug Ford has been lying to himself and the rest of us that he can balance politics against this deadly virus.  Denying at every turn that we need paid sick days, a real lockdown to stop the spread and an actual plan instead of a blame game tagging in the feds every time he gets put on the spot about his lack of action, his nonsensical opening of patios and indoor dining a few weeks ago, his lack of easily accessible paid sick days, his posturing that he “will not hesitate” to protect us.

Don't get me wrong, I fully agree that we need vaccines but even with a decent supply we are still 100 days away from that making any difference at all to our case counts even if it all goes as planned and the vaccine naysayers finally step up and do their part and IF the vaccines work on the variants, specifically, the B.1.351 South African one which up until now looks precarious at best.  Vaccines will not save us from what is coming next here.

I sat there yesterday with the hopes that somehow real action would take place to stop us from witnessing what it looks like when hospitals collapse.  Remember Italy?  

We needed him to say:

• Paid sick days effective immediately

• Non-essential manufacturing and warehouses closed

• All construction except hospital infrastructure closed

• More supports for essential manufacturing and warehouses with actual penalties for employers not following strict COVID protocols and vaccines sent directly to plants with more than 50 people

Instead, we got yelling about the federal government not sending vaccines and bragging about all the ICU beds being added with no mention of how on earth they will be staffed and with no acknowledgment that doctors and nurses are already at a breaking point after a year of being ignored and forgotten by this government.  Not to mention zero acknowledgment that there are entire families arriving at hospitals now needing high-level care mostly related to low-income warehouse and manufacturing jobs.  

Instead, we got gaslit making it seem like letting kids play at the parks, meeting our family and friends outside and our personal interactions are the root of this problem.  Don’t get me wrong I’m all for social distancing and limiting contacts.  We haven’t seen our family inside since before this whole thing started but our weekend walks with the grammas have been a big part of keeping ourselves and our kids going.

Instead, we got added police power. There is a whole other blog post in me about adding police powers to stop and question people right now.  For now, I’ll say that in a time of deep social unrest and distrust of police with calls to defund them and take away their power it’s absurd to give the police more power and the impact on the racialized and marginalized communities is going to be unforgivable.  

As you all know, I am not a scientist, a politician or a journalist so you know that I’m going to talk about feelings now.  I feel completely fed up.  I feel let down, disheartened, angry and scared.  I am terrified of the death and suffering that is already occurring and that will unfold over the coming weeks as our government protects big business and police power.  I feel unhinged about how we as a society have abandoned low-income workers, health care workers, racialized communities, and our elderly. 

Do you know that saying?

“If you’re not angry then you’re not paying attention”?  

That holds entirely true now.  I could also add “If you’re not angry, you have no empathy”. Empathy is the ability to understand and share in the feelings of others and it’s integral to our having lives filled with meaning.  To all the empaths out there right now I’m holding you close because this has been so hard to endure.  

So I guess what I’m getting at here is that I am fucking enraged because I’ve been paying attention and I have empathy.  Watching the suffering that has been left unchecked when it was well within the power of this government to prevent it is just heartbreaking.  I will never forgive them.  For what’s already transpired and for what’s to come, it’s completely unforgivable.  

I love words but I love action more so today if you have taken the time to read this will you send an email to Doug Ford with me?  His email address is premier@ontario.ca and if you email him his office has to record it, unlike tweets and Instagram responses that don’t get recorded in the public record. 

Tell him we need more action NOW.  Paid sick days. Close the non-essentials. Support the essential workers. Support the hospitals.

Tell him we won’t fucking stand for this. 

And by all means when it comes time to vote him out, do it with all your heart.