Are We All In This Together?

The Schloss-Blog is feeling ill and fatigued.

In other words, sick and tired of all the ads proclaiming, "We are all in this together."

Clearly, we are not.

Very saddened to see the president dis Anthony Fauci on the good doctor's remark that it's a "bridge too far" to think we'll be able to open schools in the fall.

Trump called that remark "unacceptable."

Are you prepared to send your children to school in masks and gloves and be taught by instructors in masks and gloves and served lunch by kitchen personnel in masks and gloves?

Are you prepared to send your kids off to college, put 'em in dorm rooms with perhaps strangers whose health histories they have no idea about? Except California state universities have already declared they won't reopen - it's online only for the fall (what does that do to college athletics?).

I'm not even prepared to go to a restaurant that has reopened where the hostesses, carhops, wait staff, bartenders and kitchen staff are all in masks and gloves but the rest of the diners aren't, whether they are socially distanced or not.

Takeout and delivery work just fine for me for now.

Trump wants the country "reopened." So do I. But it's not going to be reopened until we have a vaccine and an understanding that said vaccine will protect us. That takes time, development, testing and more testing before it gets FDA approval.

Trump says he wants the country reopened slowly and safely and then calls Fauci's remark unacceptable. He can't have this both ways.

For all we know, we may never have this virus completely under control, completely understood. Maybe we will have to learn to live with it in some way, shape or form. Maybe we'll be able to delay it, slow it down and keep practicing safe habits (sorry, college kids, but this could be the end of casual sex).

Ultimately, it doesn't matter now how much time we had let slip by before our government finally got its act together and started testing. By then it was too late.

Trump has placed the economy ahead of the virus, which is now starting to take our youngest children. Fauci has said repeatedly, the virus is "the boss," it'll tell us when we can get back to normal, depending upon how soon we can tame it.

Only now, finally, is White House staff starting to wear masks (not Trump).

We are not all in this together.

A man shot a security guard in Flint, Michigan, at a store where he was told in order to get in, he had to be wearing a mask.

We are not all in this together.

Protesters, openly armed protesters, keep gathering at the Lansing, Michigan, capitol building to have shelter-at-home orders dropped.

We are not all in this together,

The Wisconsin legislature's Republicans went to court to have the Democratic governor's shelter-at-home orders dropped.

We are not all in this together.

The Lt. Gov. of Texas proclaimed that the elderly should volunteer to die so we can hasten a return to normalcy for society.

Fox News agreed with him.

We are not all in this together.

Until we are, get ready for the second surge. And perhaps the third.

Next week, a look at sports in America. Without fans in attendance, that is.

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More on my Radio Free Phoenix show Sunday night, 9 p.m. Pacific.