In a recent newsletter by author Heather Cox Richardson:
"I thought of Mother’s stories of her father’s World War One service and the pandemic that shaped her town today as I shopped, in my mask and gloves, during our own pandemic, which has now taken more than 55,000 American lives. Mother was a smart, sensible, highly principled woman who cared deeply about American democracy, and I was glad she was not here to watch today as Trump’s frustration at the drumbeat of condemnation for his botched response to the pandemic and at his cancelled coronavirus briefings boiled over on Twitter." https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-26-2020?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo4MzI3MDk3LCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0MTAxMTUsIl8iOiJRa1NLVCIsImlhdCI6MTU4ODAxNDI3NSwiZXhwIjoxNTg4MDE3ODc1LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjA1MzMiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.nzU934B8rZbjpzpqEh0ax0yQGV9UpqLzhgNBkPEKX50
This reminded me of my weekly chats with Aunt Ro. I can't imagine what all our relatives would think of this moment. We are forced to normalize to extremely scary circumstances, but they wouldn't have stood for it by just going along with the program. The reason they came to this country was to flee "the program" or "the plan". And they never had to endure a fascist, authoritarian government, or the looming possibility.
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