LAST Wednesday night I found myself glued to CNN once more but this time it wasn’t John King’s Magic Wall that had captured my attention. The scenes of what some called a ‘revolution’ on Capitol Hill were dreadful, but not surprising.
We have descended into a world of extremes, of polarised opinions and less and less tolerance of others. We aren’t born with such behaviours; they are learned.
Trying to guide the children in our lives comes with great responsibility whether your role is that of parent, guardian or mentor. We try to do our best by them, help them make the right decisions, as well as understand how to behave with decency and manners.
And yet, time and time again, we see people in positions of power, the world over, repeatedly behave in a manner that is far from responsible.
I was off work last week. On one of the days, while I was lolling around the house, a well-known broadcaster described her Christmas experience. She didn’t get to see her mother over the holidays and went on to say that, while the coronavirus pandemic has been undoubtedly difficult for her mother, both she and many of her generation understood how to deal with it, because they possess the ‘Blitz spirit’ .
While I have an allergic reaction to the use of this phrase as it is over used every time the British public have to face adversity, I understood exactly what she meant.
This pandemic is a world war against an invisible adversary. A lot has been asked of us. Some have complied and followed the rules; many have been a little more moderate with said rules; those in power have procrastinated while putting rules in place.
Questions will remain about how our political leaders have dealt with the spread of the virus and we have to wait to see whether or not they will manage the vaccine roll-out quickly and effectively.
Many of us definitely do not possess anything like the Blitz spirit. Perhaps we are of the mindset that we’re still dealing with the trauma of the Troubles, which hasn’t been fully dealt with. We don’t need this as well – no-one does – but it doesn’t excuse selfishness which has raised its ugly head in recent months.
There’s no denying that this is hard. It’s going to be very hard for all of us until vaccines are administered – however long that will take. At this moment in time I might be forgiven for not being very hopeful that this will be done with any conviction. Politicians in all corners of these islands have acted with great surprise that a third wave of Covid is upon us. Then in a time-critical situation, key decisions are taking days and weeks to make.
While draconian measures and rules, finally implemented by theNorthern Ireland Assembly last week, once again strip us of our freedoms, I think that we have to ask ourselves why these measures are so necessary in the first place.
We were all so desperate for a Christmas. At one point last October I heard the idea floated of celebrating Christmas in June – with outside gatherings, and two extra bank holidays. Not a bad idea, I thought. Too late now. We’ve had our Christmas and the damage is done. We didn’t bubble. We had multiple bubble baths and we are now paying the price for that – in lockdown.
Back in March, the onset of the pandemic brought out the best in us. We helped each other, we looked out for others, showed our concern for those most vulnerable in our families and in our communities. As the situation gets worse, fatigue has well and truly set in and we’re understandably fed up.
The pandemic has brought out the best and worst in us. For all our collegiate efforts, there have been all those occasions when two or three groups of people stand close together in a park and block the thoroughfare for everyone else, as well as the unnecessary parent-and-children outings to the supermarket to do the weekly shop. And let’s not forget the house parties.
What will it take for us to work together, to do what’s right to get through this? ‘Meitheal’ is the Irish expression of the ancient and universal appliance of co-operation to social need. Is it too late for us to embrace the ‘Meitheal’ spirit, to work together to help us all get through this nightmare?
