Two states
21/10/20 02:32
For a little while, we have two home states. We still own a home in South Dakota, which is now under contract and will no longer be ours in early November. We plan to return to South Dakota this week to finish some cleaning and other work on our home there. We have leased a home in Washington, where we plan to move and start shopping for a new home to buy. We’ve lived in South Dakota for 25 years and it very much feels like home to us. Washington is a new experience for us, though we have visited frequently in the past decade and are beginning to be familiar with our new surroundings.
South Dakota has averaged 85 new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks. Washington has averaged less than 15 new cases per 100,000 residents. Yesterday we received news of two more friends who have contracted the disease. One of them is in the hospital.
The obvious difference for us as travelers between the two states is the use of face masks. We haven’t witnessed anyone in Washington defying the state’s mask mandate. People wear masks in all public settings. The movers who helped us unload our truck wore masks, as did we. The man who came to turn on the natural gas wore a mask. Use of masks and limits on the number of people in the bank was obvious to us. In South Dakota I haven’t been to the grocery store on any occasion where there weren’t people who weren’t wearing masks.
More importantly, we have noticed the difference in the attitude of the Governors of the two states. Governor Jay Inslee, of Washington has issued a statewide mask mandate. He has issued and extended a moratorium on evictions and utility cut offs during the pandemic. He appears regularly in the media with information on prevention and state statistics. He has shown his compassion for victims and their families and expressed his sorrow over the loss of life.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has spent more time in the past month campaigning and raising funds out of state. She isn’t even up for re-election this year. She is campaigning for the President from whom she has received a lot of support. She keeps talking about “flattening the curve” of covid in a state where the curve is anything but flat. Comparing the infection rate charts of both states is very revealing. And, most importantly, I haven’t heard Governor Noem express any compassion for those who have been ill or for the families of the victims of the disease.
Governor Noem is selling t-shirts that say, “Less Covid, More Hunting.” Proceeds from the sales are going to her huge campaign account, added to contributions from 41 states in the most recent report.
I wish her t-shirts expressed a hope for the future. In the future it would be good to have less covid. And there is room for more hunting in South Dakota, when pursued carefully. However, it seems that it may be an expression of a fantasy. Is it possible that the Governor actually thinks there is less covid in South Dakota? If so the only state she could use for comparison is North Dakota, where there is plenty of hunting.
The issue isn’t t-shirts anyway. I know this because after a lifetime of collecting t-shirts, I have been giving them away. A box went to a friend. Another box went to a vintage clothing store. Another box went a raptor rehabilitation organization. Many ended up in the rag department. I had t-shirts from 40 years of camp and youth ministry. I had t-shirts from dozens of charities. I had t-shirts from decades of suicide prevention walks and events. When you have a low budget for new clothing, new t-shirts seem to come to you without much effort. I don’t have and don’t want a Noem t-shirt. I have discovered that t-shirts are a dime a dozen, so even if I were a big fan of the Governor, I wouldn’t shell out $35 for a shirt.
Frankly, I don’t care about the shirts. I’ve got plenty even after giving away boxes of them.
I do care about the victims of this dangerous disease. I do care about out of control spread. I do care about hospitals that are woefully understaffed dealing with ever-increasing numbers of ill people. I do care about people who are unemployed and facing eviction during what may be a very harsh winter. I do care about the worry of families when their loved ones are sick. I do care about those in nursing homes who cannot receive visitors due the pandemic and the policies of care centers. I do care about the grief that comes with the death of a loved one.
And I notice the difference between the two states that I call home. I notice that increasingly even something as major as a worldwide pandemic that has killed 221,000 in the US and 1.12 million people worldwide has become politicized. In South Dakota there is a direct relationship between which political party you back and your approach to prevention of the spread of the disease. President Trump has famously called Covid “China virus,” but increasingly it is becoming Republican virus, which is a tragedy. The Republican party used to stand for smaller government, smaller deficits and responsible spending. Those values seem to have been forgotten.
To those who complain about my politics I will simply say that I have already voted. You can’t change that. And you are free to vote for whomever you choose. That is the way democracy works. But I am sad that something we should be facing together has become something that divides us. And I am sad that the number of cases of Covid in South Dakota continues to go up and up. And I am sad that there is illness and death that could be prevented.
Canada has a territory, Nunavut, where there have been no cases of Covid-19. I have no relatives there. I won’t be moving there. But I do see the appeal to its residents.
South Dakota has averaged 85 new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks. Washington has averaged less than 15 new cases per 100,000 residents. Yesterday we received news of two more friends who have contracted the disease. One of them is in the hospital.
The obvious difference for us as travelers between the two states is the use of face masks. We haven’t witnessed anyone in Washington defying the state’s mask mandate. People wear masks in all public settings. The movers who helped us unload our truck wore masks, as did we. The man who came to turn on the natural gas wore a mask. Use of masks and limits on the number of people in the bank was obvious to us. In South Dakota I haven’t been to the grocery store on any occasion where there weren’t people who weren’t wearing masks.
More importantly, we have noticed the difference in the attitude of the Governors of the two states. Governor Jay Inslee, of Washington has issued a statewide mask mandate. He has issued and extended a moratorium on evictions and utility cut offs during the pandemic. He appears regularly in the media with information on prevention and state statistics. He has shown his compassion for victims and their families and expressed his sorrow over the loss of life.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has spent more time in the past month campaigning and raising funds out of state. She isn’t even up for re-election this year. She is campaigning for the President from whom she has received a lot of support. She keeps talking about “flattening the curve” of covid in a state where the curve is anything but flat. Comparing the infection rate charts of both states is very revealing. And, most importantly, I haven’t heard Governor Noem express any compassion for those who have been ill or for the families of the victims of the disease.
Governor Noem is selling t-shirts that say, “Less Covid, More Hunting.” Proceeds from the sales are going to her huge campaign account, added to contributions from 41 states in the most recent report.
I wish her t-shirts expressed a hope for the future. In the future it would be good to have less covid. And there is room for more hunting in South Dakota, when pursued carefully. However, it seems that it may be an expression of a fantasy. Is it possible that the Governor actually thinks there is less covid in South Dakota? If so the only state she could use for comparison is North Dakota, where there is plenty of hunting.
The issue isn’t t-shirts anyway. I know this because after a lifetime of collecting t-shirts, I have been giving them away. A box went to a friend. Another box went to a vintage clothing store. Another box went a raptor rehabilitation organization. Many ended up in the rag department. I had t-shirts from 40 years of camp and youth ministry. I had t-shirts from dozens of charities. I had t-shirts from decades of suicide prevention walks and events. When you have a low budget for new clothing, new t-shirts seem to come to you without much effort. I don’t have and don’t want a Noem t-shirt. I have discovered that t-shirts are a dime a dozen, so even if I were a big fan of the Governor, I wouldn’t shell out $35 for a shirt.
Frankly, I don’t care about the shirts. I’ve got plenty even after giving away boxes of them.
I do care about the victims of this dangerous disease. I do care about out of control spread. I do care about hospitals that are woefully understaffed dealing with ever-increasing numbers of ill people. I do care about people who are unemployed and facing eviction during what may be a very harsh winter. I do care about the worry of families when their loved ones are sick. I do care about those in nursing homes who cannot receive visitors due the pandemic and the policies of care centers. I do care about the grief that comes with the death of a loved one.
And I notice the difference between the two states that I call home. I notice that increasingly even something as major as a worldwide pandemic that has killed 221,000 in the US and 1.12 million people worldwide has become politicized. In South Dakota there is a direct relationship between which political party you back and your approach to prevention of the spread of the disease. President Trump has famously called Covid “China virus,” but increasingly it is becoming Republican virus, which is a tragedy. The Republican party used to stand for smaller government, smaller deficits and responsible spending. Those values seem to have been forgotten.
To those who complain about my politics I will simply say that I have already voted. You can’t change that. And you are free to vote for whomever you choose. That is the way democracy works. But I am sad that something we should be facing together has become something that divides us. And I am sad that the number of cases of Covid in South Dakota continues to go up and up. And I am sad that there is illness and death that could be prevented.
Canada has a territory, Nunavut, where there have been no cases of Covid-19. I have no relatives there. I won’t be moving there. But I do see the appeal to its residents.
