“No one has to go out if they don’t want to.”

“No one has to go out if they don’t want to.”

Ahhh…the face of Lily-White Privilege raises its well-fed head from a cornucopia of overflowing pantries and boxed wines to lecture to the rest of us about what we can and cannot do. What Privilege neglects to mention is that a fair number of folks cannot just stay home (full disclosure: I’m one of the lucky ones who gets to work from home without interruption of pay) because their boss at McDonalds/Ruth Chris/Nail’s r’ Us/Bodies Beautiful Gym are going to tell them that if they want to get paid, they have to come to work. Now maybe some gun-toting, MAGA-hat wearing hillbilly is tired of missing Family Night at the Bowl-a-rama; but they neglect the single mom or dad who has work at the Bowl-a-rama, or the restaurant, or the gym. The single parent has kids at home, and kids like to eat. The schools aren’t opening, so that means daycare—except the daycare nearby opts not to open. Well, maybe Nanna or Pop-pop can help out. I mean, Nanna has RA, and Pop-pop is diabetic, but they aren’t going to let their grandkids starve because their child has to work.

Sam, our single parent with a compromised immune disorder, goes to work (because their boss requires it); only to be exposed to half a dozen folks who believe the Rona is just a media extravaganza designed to make Trump look bad (despite that fact that even the news section of Fox News is starting to concede maybe there is something to this COVID-19-thing). Three of the folks think they have a cough, and two are asymptomatic. Sam is infected and brings it home to the kids and grandparents. Except Sam won’t know for 14 days. And Sam’s working as many hours as the boss schedules (because Sam likes to eat). You guys can do the math from here, right?

Sam doesn’t get health insurance through work and cannot get it through the state because that’s socialism, and maybe Sam should have made better choices (that’s Privilege talking again).  So here we are. Sam has infected at least one family member; and, conservatively, 1.9 customers. Because they’re asymptomatic (someone remind our governor what that means) they go on to continue the infection. Sam’s mother gets the virus and slowly dies while water fills her lungs.

Is this unexpected?  No, even Kemp said in his press conference the numbers in Georgia will go up because of his decision, but like Lord Farquaad from SHREK, that’s a sacrifice Kemp is willing to make.

So, Mister or Ms. Privilege, you are correct in that you and I don’t have to go out of the house if we don’t want to. But Sam, and thousands of others in Georgia, are not so privileged. Give a thought to them.