"They Were Us"

The May 24th issue of The New York Times lists the names of 1,000 Americans who have died of COVID 19. Only 1% of the total and yet the names covered the whole first page, plus some pages within the body of the issue. Why did The New York Times do that? Because, as they note, “They were not simply names on a list, they were us.”

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1264427825639063553

It still boggles my mind that 100,000+ Americans have died of COVID 19 in just a few months’ time. Yet even more demoralizing is the fact that some people dismiss these deaths as unimportant. “They would have died anyway. They were old, fat, sick, or disabled.” Some people claim. As if the old, sick, disabled, and fat are somehow less worthy of love and life. As if the sick, old, disabled, and fat don’t have loved ones who are devastated at their deaths. As if God isn’t grieving the pain and suffering that fat, old, sick, and disabled people suffered not only at the hands of COVID 19 but at the hands of a nation that blatantly views some lives as more worthwhile than others.

The 100,000 people who died because of COVID 19 and because of inadequate federal and state responses to the pandemic were people whose stories and lives mattered. The fact that the current administration and quite a few Americans are so willing to just go back to normal and pretend that those killed did not matter, demonstrates, what so many of us from marginalized communities already knew: that the United States historically and into the present day does not view all lives as “created equal.” And the fact that COVID 19 has disproportionately impacted groups that continue to be marginalized by larger society- Black, Brown and Indigenous people, the elderly, the disabled, the sick, demonstrates without a shadow of a doubt that the phrase, "All Lives Matter," created as a racist response to the “Black Lives Matter” cry for justice, is also a flagrant lie.

The May 24th issue of the New York Times, as well as obituaries by the Chicago Tribune, LA Times and smaller local newspapers, and the posts by the Twitter page Faces of COVID are much needed attempts to memorialize and honor the dead. We cannot and should not just go back to normal. Especially when “normal” actually means violence and oppression for the marginalized. 100,000+ people are dead. Their names deserve to be read out loud, their stories told, and their families need to receive an apology from those in power. Many of their deaths could have been prevented had we lived in a nation that actually valued the lives of all of its citizens.

Here are the stories of some of those who have died of COVID 19:

Skyler Herbert, 5 years old, was the daughter of a Detroit firefighter and a Detroit Police Officer. She loved to give her parents hugs and tell her parents that she loved them.

Wogene Debele, 43, an Ethiopian immigrant, contracted COVID 19 when she was eight months pregnant. Shortly after she was hospitalized, she underwent an emergency C-section. On April 21st she died. Her newborn son survived and did not have COVID 19 but he has to grow up without his mother. Debele’s 17-year-old daughter, told reporters, “I didn’t just lose one person. I lost three. I lost my mother, my sister and my friend. We were very close. She left without saying goodbye...She taught me the meaning of strength and faith. We are safe because of her prayer night and day.”

COVID 19 has devastated Native American communities. The United States' long history of racism, forced displacement, and violence towards Native American communities continues to this day. By April 30, The Navajo Nation had the third highest per capita rate of COVID 19, trailing behind New Jersey and New York.

COVID 19 claimed the life of Valentina Blackhorse, 28, who wanted to become a Navajo council delegate or president of the Navajo Nation. Her sister told reporters, “She always stood her ground. If she didn't like something, she would say it's not right.”

Cynthia Whiting, 66, loved her 7-year-old granddaughter and would move heaven and earth to take her wherever she wanted to go. She took her granddaughter to the Mall of America, water parks, Disney Land, and Disney World. Cynthia Whiting’s daughter, Angelical explained, “She spoiled her grand-baby rotten, every time you saw my daughter, my mom was right there.” For her family, especially her granddaughter, Cynthia Whiting was not just a name on a list. Who knows the places that she could have taken her granddaughter in the years ahead had her life not been cruelly cut short because of COVID 19?

Helen Silvia, 96 was described by a friend as both “fiercely independent” and “loving life.” She was in her 90s but she could have easily lived longer. Linda Mulloy, who viewed Silvia as her best friend and a second mother, described the devastation of losing Silvia so quickly: ““If she had just gone to sleep or passed away or her heart gave out, you feel a certain way but you’re happy because she lived a good life and now her life is over. But because of this COVID-19, it makes you mad because she lived in 96 and was in fairly decent health and bingo. In a matter of days, like a week, she’s gone.”

I only briefly told the stories of five people who died by COVID 19. I barely even scratched the surface of the 100,000+ who have died. But each and every person that died was loved beyond belief. Each death leaves behind devastated friends and family members who have to figure out how to mourn alone and how to live the rest of their lives without their partner, daughter, parent, grand parent, sibling, and best friend. We need to remember and honor their lives. And we need to hold our political leaders accountable for actions they did or did not take that may have contributed to the deaths of so many people.