Camille Granito Mancuso: Chatterbox-- Under the big top

Today’s column was planned to be off politics, out from under the circus tent that seems to be growing and spreading its tarp over the nation, covering us with its claustrophobia and surrounding us with the distractions of a show like no other. It’s not a fun circus and if we aren’t scared, we aren’t watching carefully enough.

 

As much as I always hate to wax political, our nation is very genuinely in very serious trouble, and a virus that is genuinely deadly, is a predominant and critical issue. As such, though it’s far from the only genuinely critical issue we face; it’s being used as a convenient wedge for our leadership. Bent on dividing us by any handy means, they downplay their own belief in the deadliness of this disease. For some reason, too many of those in charge don’t, won’t or can’t recognize this pandemic.

 

Depending on what our heart and head tell us, we’ll believe what makes us comfortable, but the truth can’t be denied. The pandemic is on our shores and, despite all the redundancy of ignorant misinformation, mask protest and the denial being sported by the powers that be, this virus is deadly, widespread, and real. Also, despite what anyone purports, this virus is also random; not wealth, position or denial will protect anyone. Any gender, any age, anyone, can survive it or succumb to it. Period.

 

We have heard the repeated remarks which, representing a tilted and tainted truth, are doing exactly what they’ve been conjured up to do. We have seen our own president and his people refuse precautions and, disregarding dead bodies around the world and throughout our own country, deny that this virus is contagious and highly communicable, deadly and indiscriminate. Denial of the truth doesn’t make it less true. If it could, we’d all be jumping on that bandwagon.

 

Despite repeated attempts to twist it into something it isn’t, we have heard one truth – we are doing more testing and that’s why we’re finding more cases, making our numbers go up. Unfortunately, our leadership would like us to believe that increased testing increases the number of cases. No. Testing doesn’t increase or create cases; it just reveals cases that exist, with or without our knowledge; the number of cases is the same whether we find them or not.

 

If we were to follow the logic our leadership is selling, only women who take a pregnancy test would ever be pregnant. Obviously, any kindergartner knows that’s wrong. A woman who doesn’t know she’s pregnant is still pregnant. A person with COVID, who hasn’t been tested, is still a person with COVID. Unlike pregnant women, though, undiagnosed COVID carriers can spread the condition to others.

 

These attempts at confusion among those who don’t hold America’s mouthpieces accountable keep many Americans barking up the wrong phone pole, thinking it’s a tree. This type of distraction and manufactured untruth are what much of our leadership uses to widen the gap between groups of Americans who should all be on the same side – the side of a strong, safe, unified America … a people’s America.

 

Last week, we talked about how we choose our friends and our leadership. We do pick those who feed us what we are predisposed to liking but, today, there are a thousand tactics being perpetrated against America and the unification of her people. If we’re really deciding for ourselves, if we really want truth, clarity, full disclosure and choices, we won’t entertain any twisting of the facts. We’ll examine all the evidence and deduce for ourselves what the reality is.

 

These distractions are, as we have said often, a huge ring in this new American leadership’s circus. Like the shell game in the city streets or the magician at a cocktail party, while we’re watching one hand, the real action is happening with the other.

 

While we’re watching the virus, the Goya beans, the misrepresentation of the defunding the police, and protester footage, our nation loses tens of thousands of loved ones to a virus that would, purportedly, go away if we would just stop looking for it.

 

In other rings, we are watching other methods of distraction like school openings, pardons, the revolving door of hirings and firings, and battles of governors over-riding mayors over pandemic precautions. Then, there’s the not so benign side-show playing outside the big top, but, unfortunately, that’s another show playing at another time.

 

Right now, there’s plenty to keep us busy under the big top.