The Dangers Of Normalization
It goes without saying that 2020 has been one of the darkest years in recent memory for a myriad of reasons. A nightmarish mix of incompetent presidential leadership, a global pandemic, and continued police brutality due to foundational systemic racism have defined the first six months of the new decade. While I don’t think it’s a bad thing to look for the best in any given situation, I’ve noticed a troubling trend of large issues being ignored until they reach a boiling point, or more recently, just accepting the absurdity of everything around us as a “new normal” when, in reality, there is nothing normal about what is happening. The onus is on us to make a change for the better.
Whichever methods Donald Trump used to swindle millions of Americans to support him in 2016 don’t seem to be working so far in 2020’s campaign. Recent polls collectively reflect that soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is beating the incumbent president on both a national level and in the key swing states which will likely end up deciding the results of November 3rd’s election. We must remain vigilant and active, though, and learn from the mistakes of the 2016 election, in which many overestimated the polling data and decided not to vote. The president’s recent attacks on dreamers and DACA, the LGBTQ+ community, and unfathomable ambiguity when discussing COVID-19 and police brutality are sickening and un-American. This can’t become normal.
While our leadership continues to fail us, the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to spread uncontrollably in many states such as Florida, Arizona, and Texas. These recent spikes have led said states to regress their reopening plans, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in-sight as there are still individuals disregarding guidelines such as social distancing and mask-wearing. At the time of writing this, 127,986 Americans have died from the virus. This is because of an unspeakable mishandling of the pandemic from the president and his administration, who infamously claimed in February that cases would shortly be down to 0. Just because the virus is continuing to spread doesn’t mean it needs to keep spreading. If we follow the guidelines and listen to healthcare officials, we can slow the spread and manage the virus. What is happening now is simply unacceptable. This can’t become normal.
Speaking of unacceptable is the fact that Breonna Taylor’s killers still haven’t been charged for murder. It’s unacceptable that black Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of white Americans. It’s unacceptable that police officers receive so much funding, yet so frequently abuse their power and fail to uphold the oath of protecting and serving their citizens. It’s also unacceptable that, for many, the Black Lives Matter movement was simply a trend which served as a means to virtue signal to their followers that they’re “woke”, but then return to not giving the cause any more thought. Whether one decides to post about these causes on their social media or not doesn’t necessarily reflect the advocacy and activism they partake in, but failing to advance a movement which is striving for equality and justice for black Americans at all is unacceptable. We can’t just pretend that everything’s okay. It isn’t. This cannot become normal.
Despite the circumstances we are in, we don’t have to accept what is happening as normal. We are able to love one another, educate ourselves, and advocate for rationality all while rejecting the status quo which has led us to this troubling moment in American history. The only way forward is upward toward a future of science, compassion, justice, rationality, and equality for all. Criticizing aspects of this country doesn’t mean you hate it, it means you love it and you want to make it better, because what is happening now isn’t working, and it can’t become normal. Thanks for reading.
