First of all, by no means is this article saying you can’t be upset about the lockdown. It’s saying be smart and understand that there is a real situation happening right now, and it’s not good for anyone.
According to the CDC, the United States has reached over 1.1 million cases with over 67,000 deaths as of May 4, 2020. From that same source, it states that California has almost 55,000 cases and over 2,000 deaths.
Now that we have general information as to how bad the United States is, I want to address some recent events that have sparked up due to the lockdown: protests and racism.
Many of you are aware that Huntington Beach has people filling the streets in what they call “protests”. There are people in Michigan storming the capitol building in what, again, they call “protests”. We have all seen the videos, and it’s not that hard to decipher that these “protests” are angry mobs and riots, though many of them do call these “protests” peaceful.
I’m not sure if anyone is aware of how dangerous this actually is. Assault-style weapons are brought to several of these protests. No one is wearing a mask. Everyone is comparing the lockdown to slavery or calling their state a “slave state”. Californians are even comparing Governor Newsom to Hitler.
Let me break down the hypocrisy, racism, and invalid excuses these people have made up to stop the lockdown.
We’ll start with the minor detail, which is still very important: no one is wearing a mask. Big groups of people in close proximity of each other along with no protective gear is what causes an increase in cases.
For example, Georgia recently reopened the state completely. Since the reopening of the state, there has been an increase of cases by 40% according to Forbes. According to CNN, within 24-hours of the state opening, nearly 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported.
Another example of why these protests are a danger to society hits close to home: Orange County. CNN reports that Orange County has a 22% increase of cases since the protests broke out. Why? Huntington Beach had hundreds of protestors that were not wearing a mask and were in close proximity of people who potentially had it already or were in the process of getting COVID-19.
Their excuses? State governments are tyrannical, our states are like “slave states”, they are being subjugated to slavery, and they need haircuts.
According to Merriam Webster, a slave state is either a state in the United States where slavery was legal before the Civil War, or it’s considered “a nation subjected to totalitarian rule”. Meaning, unless you are a person being forced into labor with very little to no pay where you are abused, killed, and separated from your family for the profit of others, you are not in a slave state nor are you a slave. For the second definition: unless you are not allowed any sort of freedom at all, you are not a slave state. Everyone has their freedoms still with some restrictions to prevent people from dying. You are not in a slave state and you are not a slave, and yes, it also means this is not a tyranny.
There are several definitions of a tyranny in Merriam Webster, so I will use the ones that could potentially be the reasons people use this word to back up their argument. “Oppressive power exerted by the government” or “an oppressive, harsh, or unjust act”. Oppression is an “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power”, and what the government is doing is not oppression. It is the protection of the people to ensure their safety and their health.
Like I said, you can still go out; you just can’t be in large groups and can’t do luxury activities. No oppressive power is being forced over you. If it was oppression and a tyranny, we would be in a totalitarian state as mentioned above. Not to mention, the person who claimed “’total’ authority” was President Trump in a press conference, and he claimed that his power is absolute, despite constitutional restrictions, as seen here in an article of the press conference.
Finally, if you want a haircut, here is a simple at-home tutorial for men, and here is a simple at-home tutorial for women. YouTube offers several other videos if you would like more tutorials.
Moving on to the more important issues, I know we have all seen the videos of angry protesters, but many don’t know about the assault towards police officers. Yes, police officers. The ones that these same protesters created a racist movement called “Blue Lives Matter” in retaliation of “Black Lives Matter”. They are assaulting the same police officers that they “fight for”.
What’s even worse about this situation is that the police officers aren’t retaliating for the most part. Why is that worse? Because if those people were people of color, based on previous events, they would be shot with rubber bullets- or even real bullets- they would be sprayed with tear gas, or they would be arrested.
Yes, I am still pulling the racism card. It’s shining a light on these people and their hypocrisy and their white privilege, and if you don’t believe it, watch that video again and compare it to this article about Native Americans being shot with rubber bullets for peacefully protesting against the North Dakota pipeline or this article about a young black kid named Treyvon Martin shot and killed for coming home from a convenient store.
Yet these “protesters” are barely being held accountable for spitting in police officers’ faces while mobbing and rioting and carrying assault-style weapons as a threat. Hypocrisy and racism are shining bright, and the lockdown is to be thanked for that.
The racist remarks towards Asian people that were made by the president are the same people who have made those same remarks, saying that it’s the “Chinese Virus” and that Asians aren’t wanted in America. I don’t have to explain why that’s racist, but I will point out that our own government received the first notice of the virus on January 3, 2020 and did nothing to prevent a future catastrophe as reported in the Washington Post. It wasn’t Asians that caused the spread; if anything, it was the government.
People are getting sick and dying. There are people who are risking their lives for you. Police officers, firefighters, paramedics, nurses, doctors, grocery clerks, and even those immigrants who harvest our food are all on the front lines for us.
My sister is a nurse, and my brother-in-law is an essential worker. My grandmother and I are both high-risk people. I can’t hug my family without fear that I might get sick, and I’ve only been out to the store twice since quarantine started to get more groceries, and my family is just one example of millions of others.
Please stay home for the safety of others, for the safety of your family, and for the safety of yourself. This isn’t about individuality anymore. It’s about all of us, and if we can’t work together to prevent the virus from spreading further, the lockdown won’t end, and more people will die.
If you need help figuring out what to do, here are some other Her Campus articles on things to start doing when you’ve run out of ideas.
1. What To Do When You’re Under Quarantine
3. Productive Ideas For When You’re Bored
4. Creative Outlets For Your Creative Needs
Please stay home, and please stay safe.