“Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world.” –Arundhati Roy
While COVID 19 may be an equal opportunity attacker, the systems in place that have created and maintain an underclass, with fewer resources, little to no access to health care, etc., are the larger danger being exposed by this virus. These systemic inequalities result in disproportionate deaths in communities of color, small businesses going under, families not having money for food, and more.
While I would never have wished the current catastrophe on any of us, what if we could use it as a “gateway” into a better world? What if we allow the huge corporations to fail and use government funds (to which most of these corporations have not contributed their fair share anyway) to save “Main Street” individuals and small business? What else can we do to create this better world?