Laboring Under a Delusion?

 Labor Day--culturally, the end of summer... and what a summer it has been!

Four months ago, on Memorial Day, we thought we were on the verge of putting the pandemic behind us--the vaccines had been approved, vaccination rates were on the rise, hospitalizations were in decline. And then we hit the wall of vaccine hesitators, deniers, and flat-out liars. And now, we're back to seeing numbers like the ones we saw last March and, what's worse, the same people who put us in this position are the ones who refuse the mitigation steps that will improve the situation--egged on by politicians and media mavens who see all this as a step to power.

As if the health crisis were not enough, we have had repeated natural disasters--fires, storms, and floods, including in areas ill-prepared for them because such events rarely if ever occur in those locations. I have lived in the Northeast my entire life, and I have never before found myself under a tornado warning--let alone three in the same night. Yet, many of the same people and politicians who try to convince us that the pandemic isn't really that bad are arguing that there is no climate change going on.

There was a time when even the most right-wing conservatives accepted what science was telling them...where have those people gone?