Dress Rehersal for the Apocalypse: Humanity's Not Doing So Well
By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon
We here at the Beacon have scaled back our editorial and opinion articles during the COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping through the nation and through the Great State of Texas. We felt this was not the time to be criticizing local and state elected officials. Nobody, and I do mean nobody, was prepared for this insanity. There were no contingency plans sitting on a shelf somewhere that were waiting to be implemented in the event a global pandemic ripped through Brownsville.
Every city, county, and state organization is really trying to do the best they can with the information they have. This is the proverbial rock and hard place scenario.
If the current COVID-19 pandemic is a dress rehearsal for the end of the world, or the apocalypse, humanity has proven it is nowhere near ready to tackle the world's impending doom.
I was always taught it was important for communities to come together during time of crisis. I was always told during trying times we would join forces with everyone else to try and survive these terrible things that have been thrown our way.
There are definitely exceptions to the norm. There are some examples of people who are coming together to help the community. Social media has stories of people who are trying their hardest to help their neighbors and other people in need. If you read through the Herald and other news outlets, you'll see there are people who are trying to help others by delivering food to the homeless in Matamoros and in Downtown Brownsville. There are those who are sewing masks and companies have retooled to start making face shields and other personal protective equipment.
There are also Facebook pages that are trying to promote local restaurants and eateries that are open offering curbside pickup and carry-out. There are prayer groups and self-help pages that are offering positive thoughts and prayers to those who need them.
However, these acts of kindness and pages offering people help are overshadowed by the overwhelming wave of negativity that has enveloped the city, the county, the state, and the nation.
I understand one of our basic human traits is the idea, and act, of doing anything, and everything, one can in order to survive. The problem is, the pandemic has not affected the food supply. The pandemic has not affected the water supply. Yet, people still decided it was a good idea to start panic-buying and emptying grocery store shelves. As soon as this pandemic started to affect the United States, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, paper towels, and toilet paper flew off the store shelves. Perishable foodstuffs flew off the shelves. People began buying everything they could get their hands on.
Managers at HEB and Walmart issued press releases. They pleaded with the community to restrict their panic-buying. They adjusted their store hours and assured us all there would be more than enough supplies and essentials if we just calmed down and restricted purchases to things we absolutely needed. We didn't listen. Stores and distributors are still struggling to keep up with demand because of people buying and hoarding everything up.
Some people did it out of fear and some people did it out of greed. People looking to make a profit were thwarted by online retailers when sites like eBay shut down sellers trying to price gouge buyers by selling toilet paper and hand sanitizer for ridiculous markups. A story on social media was making the rounds of a grocery store manager who refused to take back dozens of packages of toilet paper and hundreds of bottles of hand sanitizer when he couldn't sell them online anymore.
More profiteers tried making money off people by hoarding several masks emergency personnel needed in order to do their jobs effectively. Hospital workers scrambled to find masks. Just now are hospitals and other health care facilities starting to receive the much needed equipment they need in order to do their jobs and serve their respective communities respectively. Some places still are struggling to get their shipments of personal protective equipment.
City and county leaders issued orders to try and prevent the virus from spreading by issuing ordinances designed to restrict non-essential travel and ordered certain parts of the city and county shut down in accordance with the governor's state of emergency declaration. The Brownsville Police Department and the Cameron County Sheriff's Department set up checkpoints around heavily trafficked areas of the city in order to ensure those on the road needed to be on the road.
The community began complaining these checkpoints were violations of their Constitutional and civil rights. Pages on Facebook started to pop up where people were posting where the police checkpoints were. People started complaining and asking if they still needed to carry their driver's license and if they needed to have insurance. I'm sure they were surprised and shocked to find out you always needed insurance to legally drive in the State of Texas.
Several others have taken to social media to thumb their nose at authority by saying they will not be following the rules set in place by the city and the county. Several people are still driving around and refusing to wear masks and/or facial and nose coverings, and when they do wear them, several people are wearing them around their necks or exposing their noses, completely defeating the purpose of wearing the masks in the first place.
And still some people who are running for state office think it is a good idea driving around the entire Rio Grande Valley from Willacy County, to Cameron County, to Hidalgo County, and back to Willacy County with no practical purpose other than to openly challenge and question law enforcement officials who are just enforcing the policy set in place by county leaders. If political candidates for office cannot follow the shelter in place orders issued in the Rio Grande Valley, many others will think it's perfectly fine to follow suit.
Politicians and policy makers started out trying to bring the community together, but eventually some civic leaders turned their policy choices into legal quandaries and territorial squabbles. One organization's leader made decisions another thought were his to make, and instead of worrying about what was best for the community, they bickered over who had the authority to do what.
At a time when partisan politics should be set aside, people on the left and people on the right have not been more divided. I am not saying one side is right and the other is wrong, but the Democrats seem to think the president is doing a terrible job managing this crisis and the Republicans seem to think the outbreak and spread of the Coronavirus is part of a Democratic conspiracy theory designed to make the president look bad and is a veiled attempt at painting the president in a bad light for the upcoming presidential election — an attempt to do what the Democrats failed to do with the impeachment trial and hearing.
Instead of bringing people together, this challenging time in the world continues to tear the country, and the world, apart.
The country, and the community, is further being torn apart because there are those who think the country should begin to be "reopened." Friday, Governor Abbott unvelied his master plan, which closely mirrors the president's master plan. It calls for people to be allowed back in public in phases, continuing to practice social distancing and gradually stepping away from the practice until people are allowed to perform normal duties and functions.
There is absolutely no reason why reopening the state needs to be rushed along. Yes, I understand sheltering in place is stressful and can be boring, but this isn't something that is being done for fun. Doctors and all kinds of medical professionals from the government, the United States Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization are all in agreement. We need to continue practicing smart social distancing procedures; and the only reason numbers of those infected have not skyrocketed is because we are all staying at home and limiting contact with the rest of the public as much as possible.
Healthcare professionals are also starting to feel the stress and pressure of trying to work through this pandemic during a situation that is already unbelievably stressful and difficult. One of the largest healthcare systems in the Rio Grande Valley, Tenet Healthcare, has furloughed several employees from Valley Baptist Medical Centers in Brownsville and Harlingen. As if things weren't already going bad for these brave souls risking their lives to work in hospitals, the administrators have told them, for the time being, their services will not be needed.
Society is fractured, and we are proving as a community, as a state, as a nation, and around the world — our society, our political systems, and our economy are extremely fragile and will not take much more of this.
As a species, humankind is not handling the current crisis well. Selfishness and self-centered decisions are orders of the day. Some people are trying their best to stick to the rules, while many more are still displaying a nonchalant, devil-may-care attitude when it comes do trying to curtail the spread of the virus.
If you are a religious person, your faith probably has some sort of prophecy or belief in a time when the world will end in soms sort of apocalyptic event. If you are Christian, and you subscribe to the beliefs set forth in the Book of Revelation, a global pandemic is child's play compared to the problems, plague, and pestilence the world will experience during the end times.
It is disappointing to see humans are so ill prepared to live in a society when things don't turn out exactly the way they want it to.
We were not prepared for this, we are not handling this well, and we are nowhere near prepared for the perils of worse things to come.
Let the history books record when we could have come together for the good of humanity we decided to do things our own way instead. When you peel everything away to its base, most people will only worry about themselves.
I fear it will be too late when we will finally realize the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
We here at the Beacon have scaled back our editorial and opinion articles during the COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping through the nation and through the Great State of Texas. We felt this was not the time to be criticizing local and state elected officials. Nobody, and I do mean nobody, was prepared for this insanity. There were no contingency plans sitting on a shelf somewhere that were waiting to be implemented in the event a global pandemic ripped through Brownsville.
Every city, county, and state organization is really trying to do the best they can with the information they have. This is the proverbial rock and hard place scenario.
If the current COVID-19 pandemic is a dress rehearsal for the end of the world, or the apocalypse, humanity has proven it is nowhere near ready to tackle the world's impending doom.
I was always taught it was important for communities to come together during time of crisis. I was always told during trying times we would join forces with everyone else to try and survive these terrible things that have been thrown our way.
There are definitely exceptions to the norm. There are some examples of people who are coming together to help the community. Social media has stories of people who are trying their hardest to help their neighbors and other people in need. If you read through the Herald and other news outlets, you'll see there are people who are trying to help others by delivering food to the homeless in Matamoros and in Downtown Brownsville. There are those who are sewing masks and companies have retooled to start making face shields and other personal protective equipment.
There are also Facebook pages that are trying to promote local restaurants and eateries that are open offering curbside pickup and carry-out. There are prayer groups and self-help pages that are offering positive thoughts and prayers to those who need them.
However, these acts of kindness and pages offering people help are overshadowed by the overwhelming wave of negativity that has enveloped the city, the county, the state, and the nation.
I understand one of our basic human traits is the idea, and act, of doing anything, and everything, one can in order to survive. The problem is, the pandemic has not affected the food supply. The pandemic has not affected the water supply. Yet, people still decided it was a good idea to start panic-buying and emptying grocery store shelves. As soon as this pandemic started to affect the United States, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, paper towels, and toilet paper flew off the store shelves. Perishable foodstuffs flew off the shelves. People began buying everything they could get their hands on.
Managers at HEB and Walmart issued press releases. They pleaded with the community to restrict their panic-buying. They adjusted their store hours and assured us all there would be more than enough supplies and essentials if we just calmed down and restricted purchases to things we absolutely needed. We didn't listen. Stores and distributors are still struggling to keep up with demand because of people buying and hoarding everything up.
Some people did it out of fear and some people did it out of greed. People looking to make a profit were thwarted by online retailers when sites like eBay shut down sellers trying to price gouge buyers by selling toilet paper and hand sanitizer for ridiculous markups. A story on social media was making the rounds of a grocery store manager who refused to take back dozens of packages of toilet paper and hundreds of bottles of hand sanitizer when he couldn't sell them online anymore.
More profiteers tried making money off people by hoarding several masks emergency personnel needed in order to do their jobs effectively. Hospital workers scrambled to find masks. Just now are hospitals and other health care facilities starting to receive the much needed equipment they need in order to do their jobs and serve their respective communities respectively. Some places still are struggling to get their shipments of personal protective equipment.
City and county leaders issued orders to try and prevent the virus from spreading by issuing ordinances designed to restrict non-essential travel and ordered certain parts of the city and county shut down in accordance with the governor's state of emergency declaration. The Brownsville Police Department and the Cameron County Sheriff's Department set up checkpoints around heavily trafficked areas of the city in order to ensure those on the road needed to be on the road.
The community began complaining these checkpoints were violations of their Constitutional and civil rights. Pages on Facebook started to pop up where people were posting where the police checkpoints were. People started complaining and asking if they still needed to carry their driver's license and if they needed to have insurance. I'm sure they were surprised and shocked to find out you always needed insurance to legally drive in the State of Texas.
Several others have taken to social media to thumb their nose at authority by saying they will not be following the rules set in place by the city and the county. Several people are still driving around and refusing to wear masks and/or facial and nose coverings, and when they do wear them, several people are wearing them around their necks or exposing their noses, completely defeating the purpose of wearing the masks in the first place.
And still some people who are running for state office think it is a good idea driving around the entire Rio Grande Valley from Willacy County, to Cameron County, to Hidalgo County, and back to Willacy County with no practical purpose other than to openly challenge and question law enforcement officials who are just enforcing the policy set in place by county leaders. If political candidates for office cannot follow the shelter in place orders issued in the Rio Grande Valley, many others will think it's perfectly fine to follow suit.
Politicians and policy makers started out trying to bring the community together, but eventually some civic leaders turned their policy choices into legal quandaries and territorial squabbles. One organization's leader made decisions another thought were his to make, and instead of worrying about what was best for the community, they bickered over who had the authority to do what.
At a time when partisan politics should be set aside, people on the left and people on the right have not been more divided. I am not saying one side is right and the other is wrong, but the Democrats seem to think the president is doing a terrible job managing this crisis and the Republicans seem to think the outbreak and spread of the Coronavirus is part of a Democratic conspiracy theory designed to make the president look bad and is a veiled attempt at painting the president in a bad light for the upcoming presidential election — an attempt to do what the Democrats failed to do with the impeachment trial and hearing.
Instead of bringing people together, this challenging time in the world continues to tear the country, and the world, apart.
The country, and the community, is further being torn apart because there are those who think the country should begin to be "reopened." Friday, Governor Abbott unvelied his master plan, which closely mirrors the president's master plan. It calls for people to be allowed back in public in phases, continuing to practice social distancing and gradually stepping away from the practice until people are allowed to perform normal duties and functions.
There is absolutely no reason why reopening the state needs to be rushed along. Yes, I understand sheltering in place is stressful and can be boring, but this isn't something that is being done for fun. Doctors and all kinds of medical professionals from the government, the United States Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization are all in agreement. We need to continue practicing smart social distancing procedures; and the only reason numbers of those infected have not skyrocketed is because we are all staying at home and limiting contact with the rest of the public as much as possible.
Healthcare professionals are also starting to feel the stress and pressure of trying to work through this pandemic during a situation that is already unbelievably stressful and difficult. One of the largest healthcare systems in the Rio Grande Valley, Tenet Healthcare, has furloughed several employees from Valley Baptist Medical Centers in Brownsville and Harlingen. As if things weren't already going bad for these brave souls risking their lives to work in hospitals, the administrators have told them, for the time being, their services will not be needed.
Society is fractured, and we are proving as a community, as a state, as a nation, and around the world — our society, our political systems, and our economy are extremely fragile and will not take much more of this.
As a species, humankind is not handling the current crisis well. Selfishness and self-centered decisions are orders of the day. Some people are trying their best to stick to the rules, while many more are still displaying a nonchalant, devil-may-care attitude when it comes do trying to curtail the spread of the virus.
If you are a religious person, your faith probably has some sort of prophecy or belief in a time when the world will end in soms sort of apocalyptic event. If you are Christian, and you subscribe to the beliefs set forth in the Book of Revelation, a global pandemic is child's play compared to the problems, plague, and pestilence the world will experience during the end times.
It is disappointing to see humans are so ill prepared to live in a society when things don't turn out exactly the way they want it to.
We were not prepared for this, we are not handling this well, and we are nowhere near prepared for the perils of worse things to come.
Let the history books record when we could have come together for the good of humanity we decided to do things our own way instead. When you peel everything away to its base, most people will only worry about themselves.
I fear it will be too late when we will finally realize the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
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