Chickens and Consequences

The new normal is no escape from old problems

 By R. T. Andrews

 

Like many of you I have been self-quarantining for over two months.

It’s been quite an adjustment. I felt confined at first, unable to go places or do things that were routine.

But after a period of adjustment I feel in some ways liberated. I have more time than I used to. I’ve reconnected with some old friends. I have spent time reading and learning. I’ve pulled a lot of weeds in my yard.

I think the change in attitude and outlook began when I started to walk around my neighborhood. I’ve cultivated a fast walking pace since I was about 14, especially if I’m around other walkers.

But when I started walking my neighborhood with no schedule and no destination, I affected a very leisurely pace that allowed me to discover new things about my environment.

On one early evening stroll down a not too familiar street, I chanced suddenly upon a couple of chicken broods. I thought some of the chickens were loitering perilously close to the street, but since there was no traffic, perhaps they were enjoying the opportunity to roam.

I took the opportunity to engage a woman standing nearby on her porch who as I suspected  was one of the chicken keepers. I gently peppered her with questions about my newly discovered neighbors. (Apparently, we were both delighted for the opportunity to speak face to face — we stayed 20 feet apart)

She had a natural reply to my query about the chicks’ independence: “Oh, they always come home.”

Bingo!

I’m about as non-agrarian as they come, so my immediate reference was to Malcolm X: chickens come home to roost.

Malcolm famously used that phrase to reference the American propensity for violence when asked by a reporter to comment on the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.

That barnyard knowledge reverberated again this morning as I read a brief essay about why the United States is leading the world in so many negative categories with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic:

No other nation has endured as much death from Covid-19 nor nearly as a high a death rate as has the United States.

With 4.25 percent of the world population, America has the tragic distinction of accounting for about 30 percent of pandemic deaths so far.

And it is the only advanced nation where the death rate is still climbing. Three thousand deaths per day are anticipated by June 1st.

No other nation has loosened lockdowns and other social-distancing measures while deaths are increasing, as the U.S. is now doing.

No other advanced nation was as unprepared for the pandemic as was the U.S. …

No nation other than the U.S. has left it to subordinate units of government – states and cities – to buy ventilators and personal protective equipment. In no other nation have such sub-governments been forced to bid against each another.

In no other nation have experts in public health and emergency preparedness been pushed aside and replaced by political cronies like Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who in turn has been advised by Trump donors and Fox News celebrities.

In no other advanced nation has Covid-19 forced so many average citizens into poverty so quickly. The Urban Institute reports that more than 30 percent of American adults have had to reduce their spending on food.

The entire column, by former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich, is worth a read.

Elections — and history — have consequences. Our chickens have come home to roost.