These are hard times.
And what we’re seeing in America now, a
lot of the pain is by choice.
It didn’t have to be.
It’s not because of the virus, per se.
It is because of the pandemic of greed and
lies and trickle-down economics that, in this
situation, caused us to move in the wrong
direction from the beginning.
Now, what we know is, even before COVID hit,
too many people in power were too comfortable
with other people’s deaths.
We have 140 million poor and low-income people
in this country, 43% of the nation, 700 people
dying a day from poverty and low wealth, two-and-a-quarter
million a year, even before COVID hit, and
80 million people either uninsured or underinsured
before COVID hit.
And what all of the public health officials
tell us, that pandemics exploit the fissures
in the society and the wounds in the society,
the open wounds, and that America had a whole
lot of open wounds as it related to systemic
racism and poverty, because when you break
down those numbers, 61% of African Americans
were poor and low-wealth before COVID.
Sixty-six million White people, in raw numbers,
were poor and low-wealth in COVID.
From the mountains of Appalachia to the Delta
of Mississippi, you had extreme disparities.
And COVID hits.
And what we have now, as I just heard you
mentioning, is the disparity among Black people
and — and really, it’s low-income African
Americans or poor African Americans, and then
Whites and Latinos.
And we don’t really know how bad it is,
because the data is so spotty.
But what we do know is that the pandemic is
exploiting those fissures.
And our response, from the beginning, has
been terrible, both from the White House and,
dare say I, from the Congress, and from particularly
the McConnell Congress, since he has blocked
so many things, because it’s kind of our
imagination has been limited by this Reaganism,
this trickle down.
So, what happened?
We passed three bills up front, and 83, 84,
85% of all the resources go to the corporate
heads, go to the top.
The bills did not start at the bottom up.
It did not — think about it.
We’re in the middle of a pandemic.
We’ve had three so-called rescue bills.
Not one bill provided healthcare for everybody
and the uninsured, in the midst of a pandemic.
Not one bill provided living wages, in the
midst of a pandemic.
Not one bill guaranteed that your water couldn’t
be cut off and your utilities, in the midst
of a pandemic.
Not one bill ensured the protections that
you need in terms of personal protection and
the ventilators.
Not one bill significantly dealt with all
the homeless in this community, in this country.
Not one bill focused on the undocumented workers.
And so, what we’re saying is this is the
moment that you have to stay at home.
Don’t you believe these lies these governors
are telling us about the time to open back
up the society.
Stay at home.
Stay alive.
Organize.
Organize.
And we’re demanding that all the things
that were not done up front that should have
been done, they have to be done now, in order
for us to move forward and possibly overcome
this pandemic.
Otherwise, the pandemic is going to still
have root in our society.
And it’s not just going to hurt poor people;
it’s going to exploit poor communities and
the fissures, but it’s going to continue
to spread throughout the rest of the society.
I live in a county where we are the fifth
— one of the five highest areas in our state,
and the majority of our infections are inside
the prisons.
And then what we hear is, once that happens,
people can’t call out.
They’re not allowing the prisoners to talk
to people on the outside.
But again, the public health officials say
that something like 25 people — one study
says something like 25 people could potentially
be impacted because of one or two prisoners
on the inside that have the coronavirus.
They could actually pass it to the guards,
administrators.
Then they pass it to their families and others
outside.
This is horrific.
And it is a dereliction of duty, really, by
the White House and by the Congress, when
you think about what the president did, which,
in the biblical sense, it would be called
evil.
When he said, “I’m going use the Defense
Authorization Act to make meatpackers go to
work.
I’m going to make them go to work.
I’m going to say that they have to go to
work,” but he wouldn’t use that same Defense
Authorization Act to make sure that they had
the PPEs that they needed, that they had the
protection that they needed and the insurance
that they needed and the sick leave they needed,
it’s really sick.
“I’m going to make you go back to work”
in a lethal situation.
And that’s what we have here.
People are feeling like they are being sent
into lethal situations.
And it didn’t have to be like this.
When we see the long lines of 10,000 people
standing in line for food, it didn’t have
to be like this.
You could have expanded SNAP.
We could have made sure that everybody had
what they needed.
Even in some communities where many of these
institutions you’re talking about are, many
of them have had the closures of hospitals
over the last few years.
That should have never happened, but we could
have used the Army Corps of Engineers to put
field hospitals in place and testing in place.
That’s the problem.
Our response to this virus, what we have seen
has been a dereliction of duty and a damnedable
— a damnedable dereliction of duty, and
people are dying needlessly.
People are being infected needlessly.
And it did not have to be this way.
