Anger And Justice

“He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger
is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice.
And if you can live amid injustice without anger,
you are immoral as well as unjust.”
St. Thomas Aquinas

Choose a number. Any Number. Between one and 2,561.

Too difficult? Try between one and 56.

It really doesn’t matter. 

Somewhere on lists in Tennessee and Washington, DC. our brother Barry’s name appears as one of the 56 folks in Tennessee and the 2,561 Americans who died of COVID-19 on December 19.

My brother Michael posted an eloquent Facebook tribute. It read in part:

He was always the most generous and most entertaining
member of the family…
a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, 
having served in active duty for ten years in the Air Force Medical Service Corps 
and 20+ years as the commanding officer of his 
Medical Reserve Unit in Tennessee —
 for which he was decorated by the Pentagon for his outstanding leadership…
After a number of years as the Chief Financial Officer of St. Francis Hospital
in Memphis, he was the original CEO of the Assisi Foundation 
— the largest Catholic Charity in the state of Tennessee 
(like a modern-day Michael Anthony — 
for those of you old enough to remember that tv show The Millionaire). 
Yes — his job was actually to give away $4 million a year!
I always told my friends that EVERYONE in Memphis 
was always nice to my brother Barry!
But HE was the one that was always nice and helpful
to everyone he met — and the only person I knew that 
would talk to strangers in elevators!
He would always tip with $2 bills!
The members of his Unit always knew where they could 
get good career advice — along with a good steak and beer…
And once his University of Miami Hurricanes started to win 
National Championships in the 1980’s and the porters 
at the Memphis Airport would comment about his UM baseball cap 
— he would, for years, make sure to go to the bookstore at The U 
while home in Miami for the holidays to get Hurricane caps 
to gift to those porters when he returned to Memphis.
We will miss him so . . .
For me — I ask everyone who reads this to please, please, please 
ALWAYS do the right thing during this pandemic, 
to stay safe and protect the ones you love.

We’ll probably never know how Barry was infected. We tink he was taking appropriate precautions. Especially because he chose not to come home for Thanksgiving; he did not want to unknowingly transfer the virus to our 102-years-old mother.

But we know that, despite the fact that his medical team “used all of our bullets” (according to his pulmonologist) and he had received every treatment given to the president, he could not overcome the damage to his lungs.

In the closing hours of 2020, as my family waited for death certificates and struggled with funeral arrangements, the Center for Disease Control projected between 383,000 and 424,000 coronavirus deaths in the US by January 23 because too many Americans have disregarded recommendations against large crowds and travel.  

In the midst of all of this, Barry’s death leaves me angry.

To silence the babbling, low wattage cognitions of rightwing dolts, let’s attempt to be balanced. I am angry at the tens- and hundreds-of-thousand, perhaps millions of maskless men and women, teens and children of all races, identities and political attitudes who have crowded our nation’s streets since February and March in the name of racial/social justice. It doesn’t make sense to go masklesss and then complain about the disproportion of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in Hispanic/Latino/Latinx and Black communities. March! Demonstrate! It’s your right! But wear masks and insist that all of your fellow demonstrators wear masks.

I understand adolescent exuberance – smart enough to get into a “pretty good” Catholic school in the mid-West but sometimes really, really stupid. But I’m angry at the masked and unmasked Notre Dame students who flooded the field after their team’s 47-40 double-overtime victory over top-ranked Clemson. It’s rhetorical, but someone has to asked: How stupid can those kids be? Especially after – a week into the fall semester - classes were moved online to control a growing on-campus coronavirus outbreak. And, (as if it were not possible for the Fighting Irish to be more embarrassed), University President Father John Jenkins was caught unmasked at a September 26 White House Rose Garden super spreader.

I’m furious that on October 14 The New York Times reported: 

More than two dozen coronavirus cases have now been tied to the White House or people who spent time near President Trump before he announced on Oct. 2 that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, had tested positive. The size of the outbreak grew in the following days as more aides and their contacts tested positive, and earlier cases at the White House were revealed.

I’m angry that by mid-November more than 130 Secret Service officers charged with protecting the White House and the president when he travels had to be ordered to isolate or quarantine because they tested positive for the coronavirus or had close contact with infected co-workers. 

I am angry that two days before Christmas and four days after my brother’s death The Guardian and Kaiser Health News reported the deaths of 2,921 frontline health care workers – more than half under the age of 60 – and nearly 800 in the earliest months of the pandemic – March, April and May, while the initial surge of the pandemic was still largely on the East Coast. And “although white Americans account for about 86% of the US population, we found that almost as many black health care workers died as white health care workers.”  Moreover, a large number of those who died were worried about not having enough personal protective equipment. Of the 1,392 deaths for whom they had occupational information 460 were nurses, 265 were health care support staff members, and 220 were physicians.

In my anger, I’m the first to recognize that there are certain places that are critical to the on-going wellbeing of the community and the nation – grocery stores, medical centers, public transportation (“Perhaps even liquor stores,” he said attempting a little mirth). But not the ballrooms and conference halls of politically connected Palm Beach private clubs. 

I’m furious that a New York “religious leader” bragged, “We won’t surrender. We won’t close down” days after a massive, potentially super-spreader wedding in November. Videos show thousands of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder at the event that was organized “in secret” following a 10,000-person wedding at the same location in October. Attendees at both events did not appear to be wearing masks or practicing social distancing.  

I’m angry that it makes no sense to limit attendance at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to twenty-five percent capacity; college basketball teams could hold passing drills in the gaping spaces. But I’m equally angry that some bishops are suing their governors attempting to eliminate all limits on capacity. 

(Not surprisingly, some of those bishops also gifted a recent Attorney General with a tribute “In Honor and Gratitude for Fidelity to the Church, Exemplary, Selfless and Steadfast Service in the Lord’s Vineyard.” The honor was bestowed upon the same Catholic servant who authorized the first federal executions since 2003 with a steady stream to follow through the last days of the administration. No matter that such executions are in direct contradiction to the Church’s teaching “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2267). This “Exemplary, Selfless and Steadfast” servant is complicit in more federal death warrants than any time since 1896 and Grover Cleveland’s second presidency.

I am angry that Kentucky’s senior senator - with an estimated $34 million in assets and reportedly the ninth wealthiest U.S. senator - repeatedly held up additional COVID relief funds for millions of Americans who have lost jobs due to the pandemic and are facing evictions and starvation. I’m angry that politicians are so preoccupied with their next race that they can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, yet they call themselves “the People’s representatives.” 

I am angry that so many of this nation’s elected officials – I will not use the term “political leaders” because they are not leading – snivel and kowtow before a president who lost the popular and Electoral College votes because they are afraid of being “primaried” in 2022. 

It’s not fair that so many Americans – that so many people worldwide - live isolated and in fear of a virus that continues to spread because self-centered and just plain outright selfish men and women claim phony “Constitutional rights” to go without masks, to gather in crowds – deliberately ignoring social distancing – and to spread a deadly virus through super spreader events. 

Such unmitigated selfishness is not just unpatriotic – an easy phrase to throw around – it just plain downright sinful, profoundly immoral and a violation of Justice. Not to be angry in the face of such injustice is itself immoral and unjust.

As I write this, a dissembling, multiply financially bankrupt, perpetually morally bankrupt politician, who spent his Christmas holiday golfing while doctors and nurses struggled to save the lives of people like Barry, has twittered 

“The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far
exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov’s 
ridiculous method of determination compared to other
countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately
and low. ‘When in doubt, call it Covid.’ Fake News!”

As Michael made so very clear, our brother Barry was far more than an exaggerated number. His death is not “fake news.” And I am angry at pathologically mendacious politicians and those who unquestioningly believe them and don’t take the precautions necessary to bring this pandemic to a worldwide end.

We will never know Barry’s numbers in Tennessee and Washington, but we will believe

Dr. Anthony Fauci:

"To have 300,000 cases in a given day, and between two and 3,000 
deaths a day is just terrible. There's no running away from the numbers... 
It's something that we absolutely got to grasp and
get our arms around and turn that inflection down 
by very intensive adherence to the public health measures, 
uniformly, throughout the country, with no exception."