Today the Mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms ( I feel like I always have to say her entire name - its a grand one!), is going head to head in court against our idiot Governor , Kemp, (just his last name is sufficient...also, its sounds like wimp!), on the issue of state mandated face masks.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued a city wide face mask mandate and also rolled back some of the openings that the Governor said were OK to do because we are as a state spiking in cases of Covid 19, particularly in the City of Atlanta. The Governor decided to tell the world that no, its not a mandate that she can enforce and that he does not intend to make it one state wide. Basically making the businesses themselves be responsible for enforcing something that will keep their employees safer and the public in general. Meanwhile the mayor of Savannah did the same thing as Bottoms weeks ago and did not receive this reaction by Kemp. If he ( the mayor of Savannah) was white Id scream racist, but hes not. Hes black, so my only thought can be that he (Kemp) just doesn't want to be publicly contradicted, right or wrong, which is BS. Hes more concerned with the economy than the lives of his citizens.
Its so frustrating.
Meanwhile, I am feeling a little "Va-cay-Shamed". I read a post my dear friend in NYC made right after I sent her an email (I think back in June, when I was in a bad way and trying to find some normalcy) about possibly going to Florida in August, assuming things were OK to do so. I tossed the idea about 10 minutes later because I realized it was going to be impossible.
Then yesterday I read this post. Very well written (of course, shes a genius!:)) and its not like she was directly saying I was a selfish, unaware, idiot, but its sure how it made me feel.
I've talked to my friend since she wrote it but I had not read it until yesterday.
The post, again, not calling me out as being stupid, but yeah, maybe a little unaware, not taking Covid seriously, and being a little selfish wanting to go on vacation. All of which could not be further from the truth.
My world is shattered right now, just like so may others. No work to speak of, and no end in sight. Watching the country fall apart little by little each day. Watching people who used to be friends part ways over social media posts. Trying to manage myself and my household. Turning 50 in the middle of it all, which pretty much everyone that calls themselves my friend actually forgot about. (totally understandable but still..) Trying to figure out this move to my moms house, which is THE most stressful thing under the best circumstances. Seeing money go out and not come in, and with the pandemic unemployment ending this week what I've got I hope to stretch out as long as possible, and hoping that my business will pick up again sooner than later, but knowing the reality is probably not. Watching my body swell and fighting it every step of the way but still losing.
So having a fleeting thought about going to the beach...well, yes a bad idea that was never going to happen, but I really didn't know how it came off as such a self centered, unaware idea.
To be clear, I don't think my friend meant to make me feel bad about it, but thats the way it reads to me, so there it is. Ill talk to her about it, because I love her and I know she didnt mean to make me feel bad, but people these days are taking all kinds of things and making them huge. Or maybe they are already huge and just have not been dealt with before.
I know the climate dealing with race issues is as hot as its ever been, and she in particular I believe has a unique perspective that most others people that I know dont have. Shes white, college educated, came from a middle class family, and her boyfriend (who is AWESOME!!) is black, and has a totally different background. None the less, they complement each other completely.
Frankly I have never given their relationship a thought as far as race goes. I just dont think that way, but I know some people do. Saddly the world is still harboring race as an issue in areas I was totally unaware of.
This same friend has sent me a few things to read about that subject that I found very interesting and enlightening.
At any rate, it’s tough for everyone in many ways, but certainly worse on some, and although I am not among the worst by far, I am struggling with my own day to day life, and I don’t feel like just because mine is not as bad as someone else that I don’t have a right to feel bad about it. It’s my reality after all. That being said of course I think vacation now is not a good idea, even though we all need it. I guess the world needs one but it’s not going to get it either.
