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Tag is exactly
President Donald Trump
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2020-03-22
Pandemic Street Art: Welinoo in Copenhagen - takes no responsibility
Andreas Wellin is a street artist from Denmark, residing in Copenhagen. Some of his recent mural work includes images and themes from the pandemic, including a sneezing woman, and a surreal image of Donald Trump as a COVID-19 virus/Shrek figure. The Shrek-COVID-Trump image includes a caption on the corresponding Instagram post: "I take no responsibility for painting this piece," which is a direct reference to Trump's statement in March 2020 regarding the pandemic, "I don't take responsibility at all.” -
2021-03-18
Illistration by Pauline C. Cuevas
During the pandemic, hate crimes against the AAPI community have significantly increased. Our people had been unjustly blamed by previous leadership for the virus, and little hateful comments here and there have now grown into full blown terrorist actions. THIS is why words matter. THIS is why leadership matters. I urge you to speak up, stand up and be an ally to the Asian community-- especially for our elders. We are hurting, angry and scared, but the future can be a brighter one if we stick together. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to make this piece for @calendow. I've noticed my own fear and uncertainty during these times. I worry for my kids and my family, but being able to use my art to shine a light during these dark times gives me courage. We can do this together. #ProtectOurElders #StopAAPIHate #AAPI #AsianAmerican #PeoplePower #Solidarity #RiseUp #womenshistorymonth #filipinaartist #sandiegoartist -
2020-09-11
Trump Failed 180,000 Died
This week, it was revealed President Donald Trump deliberately minimized the seriousness of COVID-19 to the public despite understanding its true danger and severity. About 190,000 Americans have died from the disease since the outbreak began earlier this year. This photo was taken during a Republication National Convention firework celebration of Trump's Presidential nomination. -
2020-11-15
Trump Supporters and BLM Clash
Yesterday, thousands of Donald Trump supporters rallied in Washington DC to dispute the Presidential election results. Among those attending were white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, and alt-right activists. Throughout the day, Trump supporters violently clashed with BLM and abolitionist activists. I've had Trump supporters came at me a couple of times now. My favorite shots are the moments before they decide to make a move on me. Photo #9 is seconds before a woman decided to shove her bike in my direction. -
2021-02-22
HERMIT HERALD, ISSUE 102
Armageddon in the Mideast -
2020
Stencil of Nurse Hoax
This is an Instagram post of street art in Bexhill, East Sussex. The street art is a stencil of US President Trump as a nurse with an oversized syringe and the phrase, "DONT TRY AT HOME." This is a reference to comments made by Trump to try injecting bleach as a remedy for the coronavirus. -
2021-01-28
HERMIT HERALD, ISSUE 96
BIDEN CANCELS PROGRAMS -
2021-01-24
HERMIT HERALD, ISSUE 95
REPUBLICAN INTRAPARTY PROBLEMS -
2021-01-22
HERMIT HERALD, ISSUE 94
Biden as the great unifier? -
2020-09-03
How social justice protests could affect the 2020 election
This article by Jenesse Miller looks at the campaign strategies of Joe Biden and Donald Trump as the social justice protests occur in the wake of police brutality. From the article, "Both Biden and Trump made plans to visit Kenosha in the wake of the civil unrest in that city. Trump toured businesses that had been damaged during riots and praised law enforcement, while Biden’s campaign announced he would hold a community meeting and speak with the family of Blake, who was shot seven times by police. Each candidate’s actions were carefully choreographed to appeal to specific voters among their respective bases of support, but will their plans work?" -
2020-01-20
Deep Clean the White House
A cartoon shows a masked President Biden and Vice President Harris in front of the White House with a clean up crew of sorts. -
2021-01-11
COVID is all part of a plan
COVID was not a mistake or an accident. It didn’t just come here like other viruses did it was on purpose. The far left, Germany, Italy, and other countries used this virus to shut down people, shut down opinions and anyone who thought otherwise. Their main goal was to get President Trump and company out of the White House. They rigged the election, rigged the senate races and put in a fony President Joe Biden. Joe Biden isn’t the problem it is his Vice President Kamala Harris, she will bring socialism into this free country. You see, mail in ballot votes are safer cause of COVID, we can’t voice opinions cause of COVID, we can’t live cause of COVID. It’s all fit into a plan to turn this country into China, the left have used COVID to get rid all that we have loved about this country. -
2020-04-15
Covid-Induced Election Anxiety
The election is today, and this is probably the most important one of my lifetime. I don’t like either candidate, but I really hope Biden wins. I want to keep my rights, I quite like marriage and healthcare. If Trump wins I will most likely lose these things. I only see Trump as a bigot who isn’t doing anything good for this country right now. If he wins this election, I will most likely move out of the country when I am 18. I don’t care if I end up in China, I just want out of here. This election is causing me to fear for my own future, and that of my partner and all of my friends. We are not completely safe in this country, and we likely never will be. 2020 has been a garbage year for me and this election is quite literally the cherry on top of all things awful. I shall update this later with my thoughts and feelings after the election. If there is truly a God, he will let Biden win. I also have my driver’s test next Monday and that’s making me feel even worse right now! -
2020-10-07
Angry journal entry
Transcript: It’s been a wild like week and a half. The Grand Tetons are so fucking beautiful. I want to look at seasonal work there in the summer. Yellowstone is pretty dope as well, but I am fully obsessed with the Tetons. I spent like an entire week in that area, then I went to salt lake city and spent the night with aunt Debbie (first shower in like two weeks) and now I’m at little grand canyon, which is a dope random spot, Last Tuesday was the first presidential debate, which was a shit show. Trump couldn’t stop talking for more than like twenty seconds. Today was the vice presidential debate, which was also a mess, but not as bad. The star of the show was a fly on Pence’s head. But, the real news is that Trump has COVID. He was diagnosed last Tuesday and then ended up being brought to the hospital, He only stayed in the hospital before he went back to the White House, which he entered without a mask. I’m really kicking myself that I didn’t write this week. But it's been weird for sure. There was a lot of speculation at first that he was faking it, but after seeing a video of him, he definitely has me. What scares me is how this will change his attitude. He keeps telling people “not to be afraid” of it. This man had an entire team of doctors using experimental treatments and he has the audacity to tell people not to be scared. It’s disgusting. My first journal entry that mentioned COVID was from March 1st, 2020. I was complaining about the fact that my spring break school trip to Madrid might get canceled (spoiler alert, it did.) there were another one or two entries pretty much just ranting, and then on April 5th I wrote my first entry consciously thinking about the long term impacts of Corona. Well, I say long term, but at that point, I still thought COVID was going to go away by summer. I’ve never been the type of person who’s good at routine, so I don’t write every night, but since then I’ve been journaling at least once every few weeks. In this way I’ve been curating my own personal archive since pretty much the beginning of the pandemic, engaging with ethical archiving practices by thinking (sometimes intentionally sometimes not) about what I deem important enough to include in my ‘archive’, which in this case is my journal. This specific entry also illustrates the significance of the election and also the impact that covid has had on everyone up to the president. -
2020-03-18
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act Helps Employees Everywhere
On March 18, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). This act provided additional flexibility for state unemployment insurance agencies and funding to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. This act requires certain employers to provide their employees with paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave for specified reasons that relate to Covid-19. To receive these unemployment insurance benefits, you need to file a claim with the unemployment insurance program in the state you work. Employees everywhere are put on sick leave everyday due to coronavirus. This act gives them more support and sanity to help them in their day to day lives whether it is to help support family or pay expenses. -
12/09/2020
Salvador Tumamait Ambriz Oral History, 2020/12/09
The following submission is a brief statement on the experiences of myself and the thoughts I had until the end of the year. It will show the progression within one area devastated by the virus. -
2020-12-03
Lets talk March 13th
I was in my second semester of college when COVID-19 hit, all my classes got moved to online, due to the effects of Covid I ended up having to move out of my home, I switched jobs three times, and as I'm ending my third semester we are still fully remote. There is so much history in just 2020 alone, our children will probably do homework projects about it, or our grandkids will want to interview us for a history report. I want to have something to remember a time i wrote it all down to hopefully help them understand what we actually went through. -
2020-12-07
The Long Arm of History
I wrote this paper for my final project for HIS103 at Niagara University in 2020. -
2020-12-07
Using History to Explain Current Events
The objects ive uploaded basically takes into context both history and the present time to explain how we can make predictions about the current COVID-19 crisis. https://time.com/5837393/paris-cholera-lessons/ -
2020-11-29
International Businessman Oral History, 2020/11/29
IMPORTANT NOTE: My professor, Dr. Blake Jones, approved of the anonymity of my interview subject. My subject is highly private and wishes to maintain that anonymity for business and personal reasons. Max is a businessman from the United States. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business and holds an M.B.A. He has been conducting business in the electronics industry for over 40 years. He has a wife, adult children, and dogs. Max has been heavily involved in Asian markets in his business for multiple decades. He was a vital part of the explosion of Japanese electronics onto the American market in the 1980's, the rapid introduction of the Internet in the 1990's, and has most recently been working to implement the next generation of lighting displays for consumer electronics. Max’s life and work has been one that has been vital to the development of the world’s technological progress in the past 40 years, although he is not a household name. Max has lived through multiple important events and has a unique perspective on all of them as a businessman, agent of free enterprise, and average American providing for his family. He holds several unique opinions on current events and is not afraid to state them plainly. In this interview, he reflects on the difficulties and silver linings that COVID-19 has thrown at him in his work and personal life. -
2020-10-09
COVID-19 Having an Impact of the 2020 Presidential Debates
Due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in America and President Trump recently testing positive for the virus, the second presidential debate was canceled. It was interesting to see that during such an important election, one of the presidential debates could not happen. -
2020-11-23
Pandemic Poetry, Poem Titled: "Trumpty Dumpty"
"Trumpty Dumpty built a great wall. Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the Deplorables and Proud Little Men Couldn't elect Trumpty as President again..." This was a poem written by Dan Nave, who has used poetry as a means of processing his thoughts and feelings during the COVID-19 Pandemic. -
2020-11-18
HERMIT HERALD VOL 1 ISSUE 78
ELECTION CONTENTION -
2020-11-10
Keith Sweat’s “Nobody” Election 2020 Version
A FB friend shared this spoof on Keith Sweat’s song “Nobody” talking about the 2020 election of Joe Biden. The video was shared by Jody Hawes Jr. with the hashtag #NobodyRemix. -
10/17/2022
Sachiko Mortia-Mulaney Oral History, 2020/10/17
This is an Oral History interview with University of Cincinnati student Sachiko Morita-Mullaney. Sachiko discusses her experience as a student at the University of Cincinnati. She brings up her identity as a Japanese-American woman and how that has affected her personally during the pandemic due to anti-Asian racism. She also talks about her small online business, and the different ways her and her family’s employment have been affected by Covid-19. Sachiko, a Political Science major at the University of Cincinnati, is very informed about the government’s response to Covid-19. She shares her opinions about healthcare in the United States and how racism and classism have affected the United States’ response to the coronavirus. Finally, we talked about the future and the quality of the US response to the coronavirus. -
2020-11-06
HERMIT HERALD VOL 1 ISSUE 75
PERCEIVE WHAT YOU WANT TO PERCEIVE -
2020-11-02
Wooing Senior Citizens During an Election
Trump and Biden are fighting for the senior citizen vote in swing states. It’s an interesting story about senior citizens playing a major role in the 2020 election during a pandemic. -
2020-11-05
Where’s Some Russian Collusion When You Need It?
My friends and I were once again on Xbox Live, talking about the election, and I had a sudden thought. Didn’t Trump steal the election in 2016 with help from Vladimir Putin, according to the liberals? Of course he stole the election in 2016. Our voting system is totally rigged and rife with fraud. But, not when Joe Biden wins! When Joe Biden cheats his way into getting 5 states with hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots at 3AM and I point that out, I’m ‘disrespecting the electoral process’ and ‘a fascist.’ Both are hilarious because I never respected representative government in the first place and I’m an anarcho-capitalist. Naturally, I asked my friends at this point: “where’s some Russian collusion you really need some? Putin’s not coming through for the Orange Man this year.” Laughter ensued. -
2020-11-04
COVID Election Year
The photograph shows protesting in Phoenix, AZ on the fourth of November. The protesters were majority President Trump supporters, protesting that every vote be counted. Many protests have sprung across the United States for the 2020 election due the election results being undetermined. Most have been peaceful but some turn violent. The one in Phoenix was peaceful but more importantly the election results determine America’s course through the COVID-19 pandemic. -
2020-06
The Overton Window Shift
This meme is in reference to President Ronald Reagan’s gun control measures, which are a callback to the sentiments of a large number of gun-owning former Trump supporters that have been left in the dust by the President’s increasingly authoritarian and draconian attitude towards the Second Amendment. Once he started saying things such as “I prefer to take the guns first and go through due process second” and advocating for expanded red flag laws, many libertarian-leaning conservatives realized that the Republican Party was not going to preserve or prevent infringement on their Second Amendment rights. The final nail in the coffin came with the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, when riot police across the country began abusing protestors and onlookers. When right-wing libertarian militias grabbed their kits and began protecting BLM protesters from police and protecting businesses from rioters, they were targeted by counterterrorism elements of the federal government. This meme represents the complete and total lack of faith that most gun owners now have in the Republican Party. -
2020-06-25
President Trump and BLM
This is a news article explaining how Trump has reacted to the Black Lives Matter protests. He has reacted in a negative way and posted things on the internet that were false and showed his stance on the subject. It is important to note that this is the President of the United States and this is how he reacts to protests and people wanting change. -
2020-10-30
Over 90,000 Cases Recorded in a Single Day
The United States is experiencing yet another surge in Covid cases, this time just days before the presidential election. "The new benchmark of 90,456 cases was hit Thursday just hours after the U.S. logged its 9 millionth coronavirus case and shattered the previous daily record of 80,662 infections, set a day earlier. Also, the 540,035 new Covid-19 cases reported from last Friday, Oct. 23, to Thursday was the most for any seven-day period since July." The Trump administration has said that the U.S. is rounding the corner on the pandemic and even cited "ending" the pandemic as one of Donald Trump's accomplishments in office, yet the growing number of cases and deaths would say otherwise. -
2020-10-21
Hermit Herald Vol 1 issue 71
Herd immunity -
2020-10-22
Governor Chris Christie
I thought this story was important to preserve. Most politicians who follow President Donald Trump hold him up on a pedestal. In their devoted eyes the President can do no wrong. I was not surprised when Governor Chris Christie contracted COVID, I felt like it was just a matter of time for most of them after the President contracted it. The surprising part was his reaction and revelation after the entered the recovery phase. I was surprised to hear him admit that not wearing a mask was a mistake. I’m assuming that he felt immediate regret because COVID landed him in ICU. He also went on to urge people to wear a mask and protect themselves. This story makes me hope that other diehard Republicans will realize the importance of masks. -
2020-10-19
Will Trump Use Covid to Pull Off A Bolivia?
In 2019 the right-wing party in Bolivia used an excuse to pull off a coup of the government. Sighting irregular election processes. Riots ensued on the streets and within a few weeks, the right-wing power took control. The US government supported the coup before the election and supported them after the coup. 1 year later Bolivia redid their election and people lined up in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic to cast their votes and re-elect the former government. I wonder if Trump will copy Bolivia. I believe Trump would be able to garner enough people and support for intense riots. As well as make a contention to the validity of the election. Regardless, from examing Bolivia, anything is possible. -
2020-10-19
A Government Against It's People
Finding any type of media that will accurately show what little the government has done and the lack of support the people of America have is unbelievably easy. In fact, I had a hard time choosing between which cartoon illustration was better. I knew our government wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t until Donald Trump being elected and the coronavirus pandemic hitting our homes did I realize how terrible things really are. These cartoons depicted so well how our government has harmed us more than helped us. The dangerous lies told by our own president and how the government won't take responsibility. When corona made its way to the U.S it was deemed unserious. On March 11th, 2020, President Trump said, “The vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low.” At that time there were 1,105 cases and 33 deaths documented in the U.S. The next day my highschool as well as every other school within the country closed down as an “extra week of spring break” due to the virus. This “break” soon became eight months and in the U.S alone there are now 8,128,524 ( plus 47,035 new) cases with 218,986 ( plus 475 new) deaths . The scare became real, people started stocking up leaving nothing for anyone else. We have almost 15 people in our home, it took my mom multiple trips to different stores in order to get the necessities for our family. You would think when a pandemic is spreading throughout people in the country you were placed in position to protect you’d address the problem seriously and work hard to find a solution. All Trump and our government has done was ignore the citizens deaths and provide false hope. What we did get was our president being sarcastic and telling us to inject lysol into our lungs. The citizen’s of America have seen other countries rise in numbers of coronavirus with us and then watch their governments actually handle the situation causing their numbers to decline while our numbers are still shooting through the roof. The panic of this virus does not even cross the mind of those who are rich, the group that our current president only cares about. They didn’t have to worry about medical bills in a country where the president doesn’t believe free healthcare is a human right because they know they are important in his eyes. At the end of this virus, it will be the stories from the one percent belittling the destruction of this virus rather than those who have actually suffered. America is running on ignorance right now. Our own president and government is not concerned with the health of the country. It is the government's job to protect and provide for its people, whether it be an outside threat or a threat within the country. When I look at those cartoons of Donald Trump and the coronavirus, it makes me remember how badly I want our country to actually function the way it is intended to. -
2020-10-16
Trump Rally Amid High Covid-19 Numbers in Iowa
Iowa is one of the states with the highest coronavirus numbers as of October 16, 2020. President Trump plans to hold a rally for his campaign right after he recovered from the virus. This photograph talks about the measures they plan to take during the rally. There is a chance that even though they are taking these measures; it does not mean that it will prevent the numbers from going up, especially since President Trump just recovered. In many local newspapers, there is a lot of concern over this rally. -
2020-10-07
Trump tiene COVID-19
Un dibujo de Andrés Edery mostrando la cara de Trump, y un Coronavirus intentando escaparse. El Coronavirus parece que quiere salirse, lo entiendo con un sentido de humor, como ni siquiera un virus horrible quiere permanecer en su cuerpo. -
2020-10-06
HERMIT HERALD VOL 1 ISSUE 68
Mask importance -
2020-10-12
Tik Tok
I resisted joining Tik Tok, and working on the archive I saw that some of the submissions were from this application, but I wasn't interested in learning a new platform. Then, when NPR started reporting that President Donald J Trump was going to ban downloading the app, I decided to download it and see what it was like. It's a funny amalgamation of short videos, sometimes music, that ranges from bizarre to hilarious. I keep seeing videos from the member TreyTV who does hilarious impressions of DJT, this one is a spin off the Idaho man who make a Tik Tok to a Fleetwood Mac song while drinking Ocean Spray. I have to say, as bleak as thing are right now, it feels so great to laugh. -
2020-10-09
Trump to Undergo Live Physical Examination
Following President Trump's contraction of COVID-19, the White House has not given much information on the President's physical condition. President Trump released a few videos on his personal twitter saying he was feeling fine however they have not released any medical records. He is to undergo a live physical on Tucker Carlson to prove his fitness for office. -
2020-10-09
Speaker Pelosi Announces 25th Amendment Commission
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces she will introduce a bill to create a 25th amendment commission. The 25th amendment details the presidential line of succession were the president to become unable to execute the powers of the president. This announcement comes as a result of the uncertainty around President Trump's current physical condition following his contraction of the COVID-19. -
2020-10-05T15
Stocks Fall after Trump Announces Deferral of Stimulus Talks
President Donald Trump announces that he will not discuss the issue of stimulus talks to boost the economy during the pandemic. After this announcements, the DOW was down by 400+ points. -
2020-10-09
Controversy Over if Trump can Return to Office
twitter screenshot of whether President Donald Trump can return to his presidential duties after contacting COVID-19. Despite being cleared by his physician, other medical experts are skeptical, as Trump may still be contagious. -
2020-10-06
Trump Postpones Stimulus Check until After Election
The main point of the news article is to inform those looking for a second stimulus check that it will be pushed back until after the election. I choose this article because it's important to a large number of people because the check is very important to many people’s businesses, families, and other things. It reveals how people struggle financially during this crisis as it can be hard to provide an income. Some bias against Trump, for trying to sway the votes in his favor. I think the media’s responsibility during the pandemic is to inform the public on new occurrences that manifest with the virus. It is also their responsibility to be a watchdog over other media sources and people. If any wrong doing happens it is their job to report on it. -
2020-10-08
A Bright Light At the End of the Tunnel
The first picture shown was taken while in Downtown, Phoenix. It was very shocking to me to see how many little tents and makeshift homes were here. The whole area looked like a miniature town. It is impossible to know if people were pushed there due to Covid-19 and the rising unemployment rate, but I wouldn't doubt the possibility. According to The New York Times, "Staggeringly High: U.S. Jobless Claims Remained Elevated Last Week" by Ben Casselman, millions of Americans remain out of work and that number has only been rising. Casselman also stated that 8.3 million Americans reported that they could be evicted from their homes within the next two months. Hearing all of this it also makes sense the homeless population is rising. It's hard enough trying to find hygiene products, food, and other essentials when you are homeless; I can't imagine what it's like during a global pandemic. I think something must be done to help these people along with those facing eviction and job loss. The pandemic is a human issue and its very strange that people put money before actual people's health and livelihood. The last picture I used of the rainbow is meant to symbolize a bit of hope in these gloomy times. I feel especially down lately, hearing about how many people have lost others due to the virus and how helpless the situation seems when many are making absurd choices. I remember I saw the rainbow while taking a walk- which is pretty much all you do while being safe right now. It had rained a bit but the rainbow lifted my spirits seeing all the colors and the vibrant greenery. The pandemic can't last forever, and I hope everyone can work together to stop the spread of the virus and implement change within our fragile health and economic systems. -
2020-03-09
The Lies #REL 101
This object is something that the president of the united states said to his people in response to the start of this pandemic. Telling them that this whole virus is just a hoax and that hardly anyone would contract this virus because it is not strong enough. In the beginning Trump failed to accept this virus is a dangerous thing and that he needs to do something in order to protect his people but instead he did nothing and the United States of America has become the hot spot of this virus and the laughing stock of the world. Throughout the process of the virus only becoming worse he did not suffer it was us the people who had to deal with it the most. What this shows the people of the pandemic is that it was not taken seriously and our national leader lead us to our own demise. The pandemic has lasted nearly a year since today, October 8, 2020, and we are still having people ignore that this is a real issue because our leader does not see it as one. What people failed to seem to understand is that the only reason that we are still in this pandemic is because of the person new have put in office. This is important to me because it shows everyone how much of a joke our president is and how his stubbornness was more important than all of the thousands of lives that have been lost to this pandemic. It is also a showcase of what a joke our president is and how this needs to be changed. This just goes to show how this man has done nothing for the people beside doom us all and lead/ kept us in this pandemic that could have been prevented from getting to where it has gotten. -
2020-03-12
Coronavirus hurting the economy
The main point of this article is to inform the reader about the impact covid has had on our economy. Personally, I chose this article because I am very interested in the stock market and our economy and I feel like this article is right along the lines of that. This article shows how during this pandemic, the S&P 500 fell 21 percent and how by the end of 2020 we could see another recession. It also shows how if president Trump went through with the Payroll Tax Cut Act then we would have a lesser chance of recession. This is an important article because the economy is what America runs on and covid played a huge role in its downfall during the pandemic. There is definitely more of a conservative bias because it is from Fox News and it talks positively about Trump's economic policies. In my opinion, during a time like this the media should not have a bias because the virus does not care about your political views. What I mean by that is we need to be informed about the virus with facts and not opinions from the left side of the media and the right side. So the medias only responsibility should be to inform the American people with facts. -
2020-10-06
As Trump Seeks to Project Strength, Doctors Disclose Alarming Episodes
On friday october 3 the president of the united states of america was diagnosed with covid -19. This was a great shock to a lot of the people around me and myself. To me this was a very big moment, as he was one of the first world leaders who had caught the virus. -
2020-10-07
COVID-19 Exhaustion
I chose to submit a few tweets that go along with the exhaustive perspective I’ve had on the pandemic since we first were asked to quarantine back in March. As someone who works in customer service and interacts with people all day, I was immediately on board with social distancing, mask wearing, and limiting being in public spaces. However, it became very clear that this was not everyone’s opinion of COVID-19. Seeing how large majorities of people are so against measures put in place to protect us has been quite frustrating to witness. The lack of empathy toward those who have been negatively affected by the pandemic (such as family deaths, irreversible health issues, loss of jobs, etc.) has done nothing but increased, as people on one side continue to believe all of it is a hoax and being blow out of proportion. How is it dramatic when 200,000 people, and counting, have died? How is it a hoax when it’s still running rampant through our country but other countries managed to get it under control by actually taking steps to do so? Hearing the excuses that we shouldn’t let ourselves be dominated by the virus is incredibly irritating, when we shouldn’t resign ourselves to living with something that could be of great harm to us or others in our lives. We should be trying to eradicate it as much as possible. Alas, my efforts are fruitless. On top of that, seeing the dichotomy of the pandemic with the protests for BLM and such side by side has been an interesting spectacle. BLM protestors have made sure to protest safely and because of it, they have yet to turn into super-spreader events. In addition, the hypocritical outlook on police brutality is puzzling. They say the black and brown men killed by police should have just complied or else they wouldn’t have been killed, yet these are the same people refusing to wear masks because it is their right? It was those men’s rights to just exist and you think they deserved to die because of it? The privilege of it all is absolutely baffling. Those who don’t want to wear masks believe it is their right to protest it, then turn around and scream profanities and spew hate at those protesting with Black Lives Matter. You can’t demand justice for your minor inconvenience yet hope to tear down the efforts of those fighting for a real cause. Your rights are the same rights as others. Overall, the past six months have been eye-opening to say the least. Our country has never been more divided: socially, politically, economically, or financially. The fact that we aren’t all on the same page about taking care of each other, having empathy, and wanting everyone to thrive and live is so mind-boggling when these things are basic human decency. My heart hurts reading every news story that comes out each day, knowing that we continue to push farther and farther away from one another, when really we should be striving for a better goal. I can only hope that 2021 holds better times for us, but things appear bleaker than ever. For now, I continue to point out the hypocrisy and indecency of it all so others may understand.