Jason Marlow
“My gut tells me that most people will so hurriedly attempt to return to normalcy that our COVID numbers may surge and subsequently things might not be normal for some time.” This is what I wrote back in May 2020 in my piece “Six Local Quarantine Time Lessons” concerning quarantine locally here in Hillsborough County and what we learned. I know it would be gauche for me to say: “I told you so”, but I told you so. As we race through June now headlong into summer, the only thing that’s changed is that the COVID numbers have kept increasing.
Our Hillsborough Emergency Policy group has consistently featured County Commissioner Kimberly Overman and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor trying to carry the weight of the ignorance of the other members. I state again, it is absurd that the city of Tampa, with a population of approximately 400,000 – making up almost a third of the county’s population – has only a single vote on our Emergency Policy Group. In my opinion, Councilman Orlando Gudes, a former police officer who represents both Tampa’s downtown and our cities most vulnerable communities in East Tampa and Sulphur Springs, is the natural choice for appointment to this board once the necessary amendments are made. The Hillsborough EPG needs to be more reflective of the people that live in Hillsborough County as opposed to being dominated by Republicans in a county where there are nearly 80,000 more registered Democrats. Giving the city of Tampa an additional seat on the board would be a step in the right direction. The notion that Plant City and Temple Terrace have equal power to Tampa on the board is simply absurd.
I have been deeply embarrassed by the plethora of people locally who have made the idea of wearing a mask a partisan political act. We have seen our counterparts, the Hillsborough County Young Republicans, ludicrously decry the two functioning members of our Emergency Policy Group as “authoritarian” for placing public health and safety before profit. Let’s be clear – wearing a mask should have nothing to do with your politics and should have everything to do with being a decent and considerate human being who takes the lives and well being of others into account. If you don’t care to wear a mask, think of all those around you who may live with and love someone who is immunocompromised who you would potentially be putting at risk with your irresponsibility. Wearing a mask in public is not an infringement on your freedoms, choosing to not wear a mask infringes on the freedom others.
Governor DeSantis continues to struggle enormously with everything that’s gone on during this crisis. Between blaming Floridians for the failures of the unemployment system, being petulant with the press, publicly attacking the personal and professional reputation of a state data scientist, continuing his ill-fated fight against Amendment Four amidst public cries for criminal justice reform, and failing to appropriately address the social justice movement sweeping the state and country – it has not been a good few months for the governor. If this job is too tough for him might I suggest he resign and go back to Fox News where he might be more comfortable. Leaders lead, followers follow, and lately all DeSantis seems capable of is following Trump’s sad example.
I do not doubt that these protests have exacerbated this resurgence of COVID. It should be noted that if you are out protesting, and I encourage everyone to participate, PLEASE be considerate of others and wear masks, social distance when and wherever possible, and be responsible. We must appreciate and consider that this crisis has both economically and physically disproportionately effected communities of color so let’s make sure we’re doing all that we can do to keep our communities as healthy and prosperous as possible. We can also do this by making concerted efforts to shop locally and especially by patronizing establishments of color.
I don’t honestly have an idea what the end game for this crisis is anymore. We can’t return to normal without a vaccine, but we are being told both from the head of the country and state that there will not be a return to stay at home. So effectively it appears our collective response to this crisis on a state and national level is simply to let people die in the name of the economy. These are increasingly sad and scary times, so stay safe out there.