When did child endangerment stop being a crime?
Two Georgia coaches were recently charged the 2019 death of student athlete, Imani Bell. A grand jury stated, “by conducting outdoor conditioning training for student athletes in dangerous heat, resulting in the death of Imani Bell due to hyperthermia and rhabdomyolysis.” Certainly, the family feels justice is on the road towards being served. Some may debate that she didn’t have to play sports. Others will argue that the coaches knew the conditions and shouldn’t have forced kids in a dangerous situation. Still others will say, other kids were fine, so it was just Ms. Bell (pre-existing conditions; etc.). It is a tragedy, no the less. Yet, we know all too well that indicting Black people is too easy in this land.
You must ask the bigger question, for the parents of kids who aren’t mine — If coaches can be charged with a crime for exposing athletes to unsafe temperatures, what will the charges be for governors, principals, local electeds & parents who expose their children to Covid19? Delta? Lambda?
An adult leaving a child in unsafe conditions can be charged with child endangerment. What’s the EXEMPTION clause for Covid19 or any variant named with the Greek alphabet?
Children are traumatized by being forced to walk into a dangerous situation without the minimum protection — endangering themselves and fearful of family safety. Children are traumatized when their teachers & friends die from Covid19. Children are being orphaned when their parents die. Children have to wonder, “Am I next?”, “Is my loved one next?”
Educators and administrators are, literally, risking their lives and livelihoods because of a political machine that doesn’t care about a life-threatening virus. Where are the state child welfare agencies & other mandated reporters? Parents, politicians and pundits need to be brought in for questioning.
Medical professionals, soldiers, firefighters, police, and other first responders enter dangerous spaces, as it is the duty for which they signed up to do. It’s not in the job description for teachers, janitors, principals, cafeteria workers, school bus drivers and others who keep schools operating. Yet, governors and school boards choose (it is a decision) to endanger all of these people — and the children — because they drink a hypnotic political concoction that intoxicated them into believing there is liberty in the “freedom” to inhale a deadly virus.
Florida Governor DeSantis has bestowed $1,000.00 checks to some teachers for their hard work, while denying them their right to be safe. The average cost of medical care for those in the throes of Covid19 ranges from $51k to $78k. Death, or long-term health issues are also possibilities. How did $1,000 become the deal of the century? Several states endanger their citizens — and the rest of us — by playing Covid19 roulette and intentionally ignoring a global threat for political “gain”. Imagine if the airline industry did away with the security measures implemented after 9/11.
When a government intentionally harms its citizenry, and, there is no accountability, it is NOT a democracy. When you can’t trust your neighbor to look out for you, your security is compromised. When you cannot trust faith institutions to be a credible refuge, you’ve lost humanity. These things are happening around us, real-time. Covid19 has shown us what it’s capable of. We either fight it or let it win — There is no in between. And let’s not forget that the rich can afford to be sick, take time off, self-quarantine…
Tennessee leaders had decided to just stop all vaccine outreach for young people. Of course, 12 & under aren’t even eligible for Covid19 vaccine, yet. Imagine what a school system of kids unvaccinated from measles, mumps, rubella, etc. could become over time. Now, imagine those kids connecting with your kids at summer camp, Disney World or in the community.
Airlines removed peanuts from flights, to protect those with peanut allergies.
The covid19, 12+yo version of that scenario is vacationing, returning to offices, traveling on public transportation, shopping, living amongst those unapologetically unprotected. When military leadership made the wise decision to require soldiers to add another vaccine to PROTECT soldiers (and those they may come in contact with around the world), some folk took offense. The logical understand.
Yet, people are battling available safer, proactive strategies to “live freely” to the point of death. YOLO?
The 1918 Influenza Pandemic ran its course across the world for two+ years. It’s estimated that 500,000,000 became sick & 17–100 million died. Back then, the world had far less technological and medical advances — and no vaccine. That virus is a strain we now call H1N1. We fought the recent infection — 2009 swine flu — with competent elected leadership and far less rampant conspiracists, emboldened by elected folk. We can travel the world — so can pandemics — it’s wise to take precautions. The wise will do so.
Conservative Politicians & Pundits are lying us to Death
It may seem like an eternity of Covid19 news, fears, losses & lies, but it’s not been an eternity for the living. For those lives gone, they are in the realm of eternity. In 2019, most of us isolated from the unknown & unnamed illness. Some of us listened to those of authority and questioned the threat — to their demise. We hoped for a solution that could help us return to some degree of “normalcy”. Never mind that our “normal” was full of racial injustice & criminally (by common, basic standards of human rights & dignity) stark inequities. We are far more advanced than we were when 1918 and other illnesses struck the world, yet, the amoral illness of injustice takes new forms — variants with no global inoculation strategy in sight.
We, as a society, refuse to vaccinate against the infections of lies & disinformation. Never confuse those two diseases with “opinion”, because neither is based on facts. They can both be spread across the globe in seconds and infect people before they have the ability to get a shot of facts. For some, the infection of lies, fueled by media and mouths, has metastasized, so cures are few. Some will live the lies to death. In 1918, we had a President who elected to downplay, masks & vax, yet human ignorance is killing people. We have been here before — we should know better.
