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On the road again:
Greetings from Kartchner Caverns State Park, Arizona
The cave here is amazing. Cyndy has walked through it several times; I've been here once. Wisely, the caverns are closed due to COVID-19.
Today's Story
Many years ago, I had an epiphany that is relevant today.
Imagine: The world is in a global meltdown due to either a man-made or natural cause.
Communication networks are silenced. Electrical infrastructures are fried. Transportation systems are idled. Currencies and credit cards are useless.
The only supplies are local, and those are available only through bartering or goodwill credit.
Now imagine: In this situation, what people, by occupation, would we turn to first and most often?
I suggest it would be these, not necessarily in this order:
- EMTs and first responders for triage. Nurses and doctors for medical treatment.
- Local police and constables for law and order. Fire fighters to protect our homes and buildings.
- Small grocers and clerks to provide basic necessities, like canned foods and paper products … while they last.
- Small hardware stores and their customer-oriented employees to provide us with basic tools, like hammers and handsaws … while they last.
- For our food, we would need nearby farmers and growers and neighbors who still garden, plus homemakers who know how to can and preserve produce without electricity.
- Permaculturists, outdoorsmen, and anyone with living-off-the-land skills.
- Craftsmen and carpenters to repair our physical structures. Mechanics to maintain and fix things. Tinkerers to develop new gadgets. But only if they still own and use non-motorized tools.
- Ministers and clergy for spiritual continuity. Teachers and childcare providers to educate our kids. Coaches and amateur athletes to organize sport games that offer temporary distraction.
- Artists to capture the scenes. Writers to document our stories. Amateur musicians, storytellers, and street performers for entertainment.
- Folklorists to remind us of our heritage. Elders for their wisdom.
- And family and close friends for emotional support, of course.
Now consider: What people, by occupation, does our society currently reward and financially compensate the most?
- Corporate and bank executives, stock market analysts and traders, professional athletes and coaches, movie and music stars, lobbyists and politicians.
But just how valuable are people of those professions in times of disasters?
For answers, look around now as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Theaters are closed. Rock concerts are cancelled. Stadiums and arenas are empty and silent. While individual celebrities and athletes might be doing charitable deeds, their “work” is taking a time-out.
In Washington, politicians are quibbling along party lines. Trump is mis-leading the population with unsubstantiated “happy talk.”
The stock market is in topsy-turvy turmoil as traders make choices based on hyper-emotion, greed, or news from the Federal Reserve.
Executives are, so far, keeping their banks and businesses open, but are those execs walking the aisles and lobbies, interacting with customers? Probably not.
Yet their front line employees are there daily, stocking shelves, making sales, and processing transactions while also trying to maintain the appropriate “social distance.”
Plus, in recent days, many CEOs have resigned because they are not allowed to sell their diminished, and falling, stocks while holding office or they don’t have the fortitude to lead through tough economic times.
Really? How greedy is that?! (
Read article, including names of companies affected, in Global Research.)
Some US senators, in the earlier days of the COVID-19 pandemic and after receiving a political briefing on the potential economic upheaval it would bring, used that “insider information” to make stock transactions for personal profit.
Really? How greedy—and illegal—is that?! The US Justice Department is investigating. (
Read article in Forbes.)
My point is simply this: When this COVID-19 thing is over, I hope that our society will reexamine who we value and who we reward.
I hope we, as a society, will amp up compensation for those we really depend on and diminish the compensation for those who contribute little.
If, for example, politicians do nothing—or worse—then they should receive nothing … and definitely not life-time retirement benefits.
Rather, let’s “reward” partisan obstructionists, stock-unloading senators, and any uncaring politician by voting them out in November.
Likewise, I hope we will turn our backs on corporate big box stores and spend more of our money on local goods and services.
Let’s boycott the companies whose execs resigned in order to profit personally.
I hope we will turn our backs on corporate farms and ranches with their contaminated, GMOed crops and livestock and, instead, buy from our local agrarians.
I hope that more of us will plant our own gardens and learn how to preserve food.
In the meantime during this time of self-quarantine, please look at the people who are immediately around you and those you encounter in stores and take-out drive-throughs.
These are the most valuable people in our lives right now. Please reward them with a thank you and a smile and maybe a monetary tip.
Your family is valuable. If they're not sick, give them a big hug and say, “I love you. I care for you. Let’s get through this together.”
Thanks for reading my stories.
God blesses everyone ... no exceptions.
Robert (Bob) Weir
