Among My Souvenirs

The year 2020 was like a drunken dinner guest who insults the other diners, spills red wine on the white carpet, breaks a glass or two, and lets no-one relax until he is frog-marched out the front door. Only then can everyone let go a great sigh.

The best on-line comment I read about 2020 was by a person who claimed he would not set his clock back to standard time in November because he didn’t want to give 2020 even an extra hour.

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For me there were three moments of light amid the darkness of 2020:

Arsenal won the FA Cup;

The Rangers won the NHL draft lottery;

Joe Biden was elected president.

All the rest of the year seemed to be reports of death upon COVID death and the disastrous response by Trump and his dumpties.

I have retained one memento of the year. It exemplifies the deceit, the deception, the vainglorious chutzpah of Trump. It is a postal card that I (and, I am sure, you) received sometime last spring.

“SLOW THE SPREAD” is the plea on the address side of the card. And on the reverse side are pointers offered by the professionals at the CDC. For example:

“Listen and follow the directions of your STATE AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES”;

“AVOID SOCIAL GATHERINGS in groups of more than 10 people”;

“AVOID DISCRETIONARY TRAVEL ….”

Nothing remarkable here, you say? Correct. But what makes this mailing emblematic of 2020 is the large-type declaration on the address side:

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S

CORONAVIRUS

GUIDELINES FOR

AMERICA

The man who was screaming hoax in the spring was offering “guidelines”? This was in the same vein as his insistence that his name be on stimulus checks. Not his doing, but his vanity. 

But even worse than the name on the checks business was the fact that all throughout the COVID crisis Trump undermined the efforts of health professionals by scoffing at the very guidelines he supposedly came up with (and at those who proposed them). Listening to local and state authorities? How about rabble-rousing the yahoos to protest state mandates? No gatherings over 10 people? How many rallies did he hold with unmasked acolytes squashed together? How about that White House lawn congregation to introduce his Supreme Court selection? Must one suppose that all those trips to golf courses were necessary—not discretionary—travel?

338,000 (and counting) Americans dead from COVID-19—and the superspreader of bad examples and bad advice (Clorox, anybody?) still has not taken responsibility for the calamitous response to the pandemic.

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Of all the COVID stories that appeared in the media there was one that stood out for me.

The headline:

Head of White House security office has his right foot amputated because of severe COVID-19 and is facing 'staggering medical bills,' his friends say*

The gist of the story:

Crede Bailey, who heads the White House security office, lost part of his lower right leg, including his foot, and a toe of his left foot during a months-long battle with COVID-19.

The article notes:

Dozens of top administration officials and people tied to the White House have contracted COVID-19, and President Donald Trump has consistently downplayed the threat the virus poses.

But here’s some ordinary Joe, not a politico, working for the government, put at risk by the flouting of the advice of professional health experts by the president and his obsequious minions, who created an unsafe working place. 

Nothing about that on a postal card! 

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Go to hell, 2020!

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* https://www.businessinsider.com/head-of-white-house-security-office-coronavirus-amputation-medical-bills-2020-12