As If by Jamie Kirkpatrick

As if a global pandemic of epic proportion were not enough; as if Covid-19 hadn’t already killed more than 370,000 people worldwide and that 105,000 of those deaths did not occur right here in the United States; (By my reckoning, that’s more than 28% of the world’s deaths, despite being only 4% of the world’s population.) As if there were not new infections, new hospitalizations, and new deaths every day; as if our first responders and frontline heroes were not already overworked and underpaid; as if this disease did not target people of color and low-income populations with deadly accuracy; as if an effective and affordable vaccine were not still months and months away; as if cases of child and spousal abuse were not already at dangerous levels before quarantining was imposed and fear and frustration mounted…

As if the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus were not enough to cause more than 40 million people to lose their jobs and the unemployment rate to soar to 20%; as if small business owners were not in danger of losing their livelihood and what they have worked so hard to create; as if people were not standing in long lines just to get enough food to feed to eat…

As if this year’s crop of high school and college graduates were sadly unable to celebrate their accomplishments and milestones; as if schools and colleges and churches across the country were not locked down to prevent further contagion; as if many schools and institutions of higher learning were not already struggling to stay afloat in the stormy seas of declining enrollment and rising costs…

As if the climate of our planet were not already in peril; as if coastal areas were not already in danger of inundation due to rising sea levels; as if searing heat and devastating droughts did not already plague many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; as if famine were not a real concern for millions of people across the globe; as if needless pollution and misguided environmental policies did not already cause enormous harm to human and animal populations around the world…

As if the leaders of our country were not already incompetent and insensitive; as if our political system were not already dysfunctional, if not outright broken; as if our elected leaders did not already foment hatred, racism, misogyny, and xenophobia; as if our body politic were not already hopelessly divided; as if greed and self-interest did not already supersede rational policies that could provide quality health care and opportunity for all…

As if there were not already enough fear and hatred dividing us; as if justice for all were not denied or stymied by the very ones charged with protecting our civil liberties and freedoms; as if some people were incarcerated for minor offenses while others who have committed far more heinous crimes against the state have gone free…

As if all that and more were not already enough, now there’s this: there has been another needless death of a black man at the hands of white police officers; there is more rioting and violent confrontations with law enforcement; there are more nights of anger and frustration boiling over in cities across the land; there are more examples of the abysmal failure of anything resembling temperate, humane, and moral leadership; there is more denial, more obfuscation, more outright lies…

As if all this were not true, and sadly it is, there is still this: hope.

I’ll be right back.

Jamie Kirkpatrick is a writer and photographer with a home in Chestertown. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Washington College Alumni Magazine, and American Cowboy Magazine. Two collections of his essays (“Musing Right Along” and “I’ll Be Right Back”) are available on Amazon. Jamie’s website is www.musingjamie.com