I currently spend my time at home in New Jersey, the state with the second largest number of cases in the United States. My close friends have lost loved ones and I have heard sorrowful stories about people passing away all alone. I think this situation can bring about many emotions, but I think there are a couple things that we can remember including the changes that our country may need after this.
Our economic system is extremely flawed in the way that we allow certain individuals to succeed over others. We pay workers as little as $7.25 and then, with a global pandemic sweeping the nation, expect them to go to work everyday, surrounded by people. While some CEOs have accounted for this, my fear is that this pandemic will end with nothing changed and that we will continue to treat minimum wage workers as a commodity (did not mean to get all Marxist here) rather than as people. I feel that if we pay workers so poorly, with no benefits, we cannot expect them to be on the front lines of a global pandemic and then expect them to go back to receiving $7 an hour, post-pandemic.
Healthcare in the United States has many issues, but I thought I would just touch on a few that I felt really affected this pandemic. People of color are being hit harder by the coronavirus in comparison to white individuals. These facts are definitely sad, but they did not surprise me. People of color are constantly at a disadvantage in terms of healthcare, especially those of a lower-economic class, not to mention those without insurance must feel an extreme amount of anxiety during this time.
Lastly, I’ve noticed how disconnected we can be from one another as this time allows us to feel more connected. Personally, I’ve realized that I tend to put an immense amount of pressure on myself to be the best I can, always. I hope that when the pandemic is over we learn how to connect more and be our unique selves. I hope that we can reflect more on the time that we have rather than focusing on going from place to place.