New Mexicans find themselves in a fortunate place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now become the leading cause of death in America.
We are governed by an intelligent, clear-headed thinker in Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The biggest newspaper in the state, the Albuquerque Journal, has taken a responsibly mature view of “opening up” the economy again. The online news source New Mexico Political Report is showing us how crucial it is to have dedicated local investigative journalists at work in the service of the public good. New Mexico’s congressional delegation is staking out sane and compassionate positions. And UNM’s Chancellor of Health Sciences has given us a way to think about human health and economic health as being intertwined, not polar opposites.
Such is not the case, though, in Republican Indiana, or in the White House. Not only has President Trump decided to deflect blame from his infantile and disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic by accusing everyone but himself of failure, including the World Health Organization (WHO), he’s actually reneged on America’s obligation to the world community to contribute its fair share of the WHO’s budget and maintenance, right when global public health needs every single cent it can find.
New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland minced no words when she said in a release last week that Trump’s refusal to support the WHO “puts lives at risk and is an attempt to cover up his own failures to prepare for the coronavirus. This President’s fragile ego doesn’t have the best interest of New Mexicans or the country when he makes these harmful decisions.”
Perhaps even more shocking than Trump’s vendetta against science and decency, a GOP congressman from Indiana gave voice last week to the diabolical frame of mind that’s been infecting the Right Wing of American politics for years. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, who represents the outer suburbs of Indianapolis, said last week that it’s the lesser of two evils to let Americans die if that’s what it takes to open the American economy again. It is “always the American government’s position to say, in the choice between the loss of our way of life and the loss of life, of American lives, we always choose the latter….It’s our policymaker’s decision to put on our big boy and big girl pants and say it is the lesser of these two evils.” Someone in his office must have bashed him across the head as Hollingsworth amended his remarks later by saying, “It’s hyperbolic to say that the only choices before us are the two corner choices, no economy or widespread casualties. We can use the best biology and economics to enable as much of the economy as possible to operate while we work to minimize disease transmission.”
But as the Buddhists say, “first thought, best thought,” or in this case, first thought, real thought. I have no doubt, but great sadness, that somewhere in the heart of Republican darkness, Mr. Hollingsworth’s view was supported by a general, if silent, feeling that if it takes the old, the infirm, the weak and helpless to die so that shopping can start up again, then that’s the way the cookie crumbles and so be it.
I wonder what Mr. Hollingsworth’s mother or grandmother might say if they knew he considered their deaths to be a lesser evil?
Contrast Hollingworth’s capitalistic, dystopian righteousness to the moral eloquence of Governor Lujan Grisham’s message in the Albuquerque Journal on April 14th that ran under the headline: “Gov: Health vs. economy a false choice.”
Opening “prematurely,” she wrote, “means exposing many more New Mexicans to risk – and extending our economic pain. It also means dishonoring the thousands of doctors, nurses, and other essential personnel who are putting their lives on the line every day for their fellow New Mexicans. Reopening too quickly means sacrificing many of the things we care about most – and gaining little in return….This crisis has reminded us of a deep truth: we’re all in this together, and we will get through this together.”
The conservative Albuquerque Journal, to its lasting credit, echoed the governor in an editorial about the sacrifice that parishioners of all denominations had made this Easter by “sheltering in place.” “It was a unique Easter Sunday,” the Journal wrote, “that many children will remember the rest of their lives….The widespread sacrifice of adhering to social distancing guidelines put the health and safety of (religious) followers first. That sacrifice likely saved lives, lives that can be in pews next year to celebrate Easter 2021.”
The tone that was struck by Dr. Paul Roth, Chancellor of UNM’s Health Science system, was at once objective and compassionate. Even though continuing “stringent public health measures…touches many of you deeply, you have businesses, livelihoods, everything at stake,” but the “bad news is that every time in the past 100 years when societies in similar situations have begun relaxing basic public health measures, such as staying at home and dramatically reducing contact with others, there have been sudden resurgences of the disease. That’s what we are seeing in China and Singapore today, resulting in many unnecessary deaths.”
The brutal tragedies of social bigotry and economic inequality are laid bare by a crisis such as this. Why should it be that Native American communities in New Mexico are bearing a disproportionate burden of fatalities from coronavirus? Why should it be that the virus plagues more African Americans than white Americans? A partial answer at least is the vulnerability to disease that is caused directly by environmental pollution, poverty and political marginality.
We see this clearly in an article by environmental researcher and writer Kendra Chamberlain at the New Mexico Political Report. Chamberlain wrote about Navajo vulnerability to COVID-19. She said a Counselor Chapter Health Committee member told her, “The number of people becoming sick on the Navajo Nation is just a quantum leap higher than what’s happening statewide. It’s massively higher, massively higher.” Chamberlain writes that communities in the Greater Chaco region, in northwestern New Mexico where Counselor Chapter is located, “have been subjected to worsening air quality caused by oil and gas development in the region.” That exposure has possibly increased the risk of COVID-19 poses to Navajo families “living amidst oil and gas development,” according to a Harvard study.
Harvard researchers found that “long-term average exposure to particulate matter in air pollution is associated with increased COVID-19 mortality.” Chamberlain concluded that “Navajo families living in the Greater Chaco region are frequently exposed to large spikes in particulate matter” owing to oil and gas exploration and production.
As the National Institute of Health points out, the groups most affected by air pollution are people of color, the elderly, children with serious asthma and people living in poverty. COVID-19 hits them the hardest.
If there’s anything that this pandemic is teaching us it is that class, status, racial and gender privilege and the gross financial inequality that comes with them can lead to a death sentence for those of us whom our society undervalues. And that those who enforce hierarchy, bigotry and inequality will inevitably have blood on their hands.
That’s why it’s heartbreaking to see the President of the United States tweeting last week to his followers and egging them on to “liberate” states governed by Democrats who are following sound public health procedures to stop the spread of COVID-19. The president is encouraging his “base” to engage in behaviors that spread the contagion and could kill many of their fellow Americans. Some news sources were wondering if the president had lost his mind.
In this pandemic-clouded election season, it’s up to all of us to insist on choosing leaders of conscience who act for the good everyone, leaders who refuse to enflame the bigotry of privilege and fascist populism for nothing more than their own political gain.
*Nullius in verba: take nobody’s word for it
Beautifully said, V.B. We are fortunate to have intelligent and compassionate leadership in our beloved state of NM. Much love and respect to you. Take care of yourself. We continue to need your wisdom, eloquence, and beautiful spirit.
A sad confirmation of the observation: “I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor. Rich is better.”