Bonnie Bing: When we eliminate racism we can truthfully say ‘We got this’

In my last column you found out what some people had learned from the on-going coronavirus experience. When I heard from more people, many agreed it was nice to get to know their family members a bit better. Yes, the ones who live right there in the house. The ones who usually have their heads bowed, not in in prayer, but looking at their phones.

Jo Walters says that she has noticed that during this time the smallest gestures have made a great impact. Two examples she gave were her husband making her coffee every morning and being able to see and talk to her boys through Face Time. She also said that taking time to connect with friends has meant a lot. “It is people, not things that are important! But having toilet paper helps.”

A favorite response came from a faithful reader, Esther Mayes. She says what she learned is “what goes around, comes around.”

“I am 96 years old so I grew up during the big depression. We got everything we wore and used by ordering from catalogs. We ordered from Spiegel’s, Chicago Mail Order, National Bellas Hess, and of course Sears and Montgomery Ward. Today all I use and wear I get on line,” she said.

An email from Jane Kjelland made me laugh out loud, then I felt a little guilty. Jane and her husband, Tom, decided in the early lock-down days it was the perfect time to get the garage cleaned out. First their Harleys wouldn’t start. The lawn mower wouldn’t start either.

“Next, the battery charger wouldn’t work, and forget about airing up the tires on everything because the air compressor wouldn’t work,” Jane said. Two days later their garage door wouldn’t work.

Jane said, “Tom said first thing every morning, ‘Don’t touch anything!’”

She didn’t touch it but the water heater burst and flooded the basement. “The restoration guys came out in hazmat suits! You don’t see that every day,” she said in the email.

Jane added that at least the whole mess was a major distraction from the pandemic.

We all needed a distraction from the job losses, social distancing and the “We got this” signs. But the one we got is beyond disturbing - the murder of George Floyd, the man who died face down on a Minneapolis street with a policeman’s knee on his neck.

As we cautiously watch the reopening of our country, let’s hope and pray scientists soon come up with a vaccine to stop and prevent the virus. All we can do is continue to protect ourselves and others from getting a virus that has killed more than 100,000 people in our country.

But we also, as individuals and in groups, need to do our part in alleviating the prejudices that are so evident in our country. That’s where this incident and countless others started. Prejudice. Discrimination. Racism.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if in our lifetime we could truthfully say, “We got this.”

This story was originally published June 14, 2020 at 7:00 AM.