The View from the Hermitage, Day 271

I must admit that it did not surprise me that Time's Person of the Year was Uncle Joe and Kamala Harris, though Dr. Fauci would have been a good pick as well, especially when paired with front-line health care workers. It gave me a bit of perverse pleasure to see that The Lame Duck was one of the also-rans. (The last of the final four was the social justice and Black Lives Matter protestors.) The Lame Duck supposedly has photo-shopped Person of the Year covers hanging in several of his golf resorts. He came close this year, but lost to Uncle Joe for the second time in two months. I wonder if he'll try to overturn this vote as well as the general election one.

We're now losing 3,000 or more people to covid-19 each day. We lost fewer than that on September 11, 2001. Right now, every day is September 11, 2001, yet people don't seem nearly as upset now as they did then. Covid-19 is, right now, the leading cause of death in this country. About 1,800 people daily die from heart disease; another 1,640 die from cancer. We haven't even started to see the deaths coming out of the Thanksgiving surge, since deaths lag case numbers as well as hospitalization ones. Truly frightening is the number of public health officials I have seen quoted to the effect that "the worst is yet to come." Total deaths are in the neighborhood of 293,000; for comparison, the US suffered 291,557 battle deaths in World War II.

For someone who claims to be pro-life, The Lame Duck is bent on executing as many federal prisoners as he can before he golfs off into the sunset. There was another execution last night, and four more are coming before January 20. Last night's was the first execution during a President's lame duck period in 130 years. It was the ninth federal execution since July. Four more are planned before The Duck leaves office. I wrestle with capital punishment. I say that I oppose it, but then I hear about some really heinous crime, usually one directed at a child or a woman, and want to make an exception. I am not at all certain how I would respond to the question do I support it if I were ever called to be on a jury in a potentially capital case. 

My sister-by-another-mother this morning posted a quote on Facebook relevant to both the subjects I've touched on:

"Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take 'til he knows that too many people have died?"

You probably already recognized it, but that's from "Blowin' in the Wind" by Nobel Prize winning songwriter Bob Dylan.

I'm working on getting into Christmas, but it hasn't been easy. I have been putting Christmas cards on the mantle as I usually do. Our Christmas cards are awaiting The Professor's signature and the holiday stamps that shipped today. After discussion, I did order an artificial Christmas tree that should arrive in about a week. I've wrapped some of the presents I've bought and sorted the others for wrapping. I've listened to a bit of holiday music. I said I alternated between anger and sadness. This is the sadness as a Christmas like no other (that my generation has known) begins to take shape. We hope to have Son #2 and DiL= here for Christmas day; they will quarantine before and not come if there is any question re their health. I think I am saddened by hoping others forego large family gatherings and help stop the spread of covid at the same time as I know their holiday won't be as happy as it usually is.

Damned if I do and damned if I don't.