As Congress negotiates what looks to be a huge corporate bailout — and a modest economic stimulus package — coronavirus cases continue to increase exponentially. We’re all looking ahead dimly to a dual economic and public health catastrophe.
Ray Brescia, who worked with a legal group that helped survivors get help after 9/11, writes this week that we’ll need to mobilize all sectors of society to respond to the crisis to come. Look at his piece for some of the lessons learned.
What else might that look like? For starters, Negin Owliaei writes, cities should categorically stop water shutoffs to poor residents. After all, who can wash their hands without water?
In the longer term, Ashar Foley adds, we need much bigger changes, like Medicare for All. If you’re worried about rationing, she writes, just look at us today: We’ve shut down our entire economy to ration for-profit health care.
Finally, Jill Richardson argues that if you feel angry about all this, you should — the people up top screwed up bad. But Jim Hightower thinks this crisis might actually bring us together after decades of drifting apart.
Stay safe out there — or, if you’re quarantined like us, in there.
New This Week…
Coronavirus Proves It: We Need Medicare for All | Ashar Foley
Health care rationing isn’t what awaits us in a single-payer system. It’s happening now in our failed for-profit system.
Wash Your Hands — If You Have Water | Negin Owliaei
Americans are going to need a lot of help in the coming months. Ending water shutoffs — permanently — is the least cities can do.
What 9/11 Can Teach Us About Responding to Coronavirus | Ray Brescia
The community came together to help 9/11 survivors and their families get relief. Here are the lessons we learned for the hard times ahead.
Stay In Your Home — And Stay Angry | Jill Richardson
The economy’s turned upside down, people are dying, and we’re all cooped up because the people who are supposed to keep us safe didn’t.
This Pandemic Can Bring Us Together | Jim Hightower
The actual disease of our country is not a pathogen, but the widening separation of rich elites from the rest of us.
The Communist Virus | Khalil Bendib
We’re all socialists in a pandemic.
In Case You Missed it…
To Fight Coronavirus, Fight Poverty | Kait Ziegler
Americans aren’t stocking up on toilet paper because we fear a virus. It’s because we fear our system won’t protect us.
Coronavirus and the ‘Shock Doctrine’ | Sarah Anderson and Sam Pizzigati
Powerful interests used the Great Recession to hardwire more inequality into our system. This time, let’s do the opposite.
Money In Politics Is a Civil Rights Issue | Chiraag Bains
Less than 1 percent of the population provides most of America’s campaign funds. It looks nothing like the rest of us.
We’re All in This Together | Jill Richardson
Why we can’t be okay with other people bearing the brunt of a pandemic or recession.
