For the purposes of this blog, I’m just referring to the years 2020-2021 that began on March 12, 2020 for those of us in Michigan when Governor Whitmer announced that schools would be closed for 3 weeks and other pandemic protocols were put into place and bring it up to today, March 12, 2021.  This date holds obvious significance for me b/c it’s my birthday, but this year, it’s also the one year anniversary of when everything we took for granted started to go sideways.  Just thinking about the past 365 days makes my head hurt because SO MUCH STUFF happened in that time span.  Just as a sample:

• The Covid pandemic officially hit the U.S., in-person schools were shut down for a while, and stay-at-home orders were issued several times
• The economy was smashed by the rolling waves of the pandemic as businesses had to shut down and others had to reinvent their way of doing things over night – we still haven’t recovered from this yet.
• A Black man, George Floyd, became the latest victim of police violence against unarmed POC and the sudden explosion of Black Lives Matter protests around the world
• There was a genuine attempt at looking at the country to see where white privilege existed and change things to benefit all people
• A strange presidential campaign which didn’t include the usual stuff of canvassing door to door and mass rallies (for the most part), including a sadly bizarre disappointing 1st presidential debate
• Former Vice President Joe Biden wins this strange election along with the first woman (and woman of color) as his VP, Kamala Harris
• Numerous unfounded claims and charges that there was widespread voter fraud which would result in over 60+ lawsuits that were all found not to have any merit or substance behind them
• Liberal icon and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died a month or so before the election
• Thousands of President Trump’s supporters, inspired by his words, storm the Capitol while Congress attempted to certify the election, in essence, trying to overthrow the normal functions of our Constitutional government
• A second unsuccessful impeachment of Donald Trump
• The successful development and limited distribution of a Covid vaccine by at least 3 different companies
• For most of this time span, the inept federal (and sometimes state) leadership over dealing with the pandemic as it cycled through three different waves in different parts of the country (We were hit in March and April and then again around Thanksgiving through the New Year)
• Congress passed three Covid aid packages, with this latest one could do an amazing amount of good for regular people in poverty and in need around the country
• As of writing this blog this morning (3/12/21), over 530,000 Americans have died from the disease (total worldwide deaths at 2.63 million), and over 29 million positive cases (over 119 million positive cases worldwide).

Questions I would like you to answer (my answers are below):

1. If you could go back to March 11, 2020 and give yourself some advice, what would it be and why?  This can be funny, serious, whatever.
2. What were your thoughts as the BLM protests spread across the country (along with some amazing changes and actions by companies and institutions)?
3.  What were your thoughts about Governor Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders in the spring and then again in late fall?
4. What is your best and worst memories of this past year?  Why?

400 words minimum for all four answers.  Due by class on Thursday, March 18.

1. Advice – I don’t even know where to start with this.  First thing would be to not worry about wiping down all the groceries or not opening delivered boxes for a day or two.  Being out in public during those months in the spring was terrifying but I had to go shopping.  Second, your job will become immensely difficult and the district will change what it wants / expects of you and the students numerous times (and is still doing so), so don’t waste any emotional energy worrying about it.  Just do the best by your kids and make sure that they learn and are doing ok.  Third, I would tell myself that a Democrat would win in November so don’t freak, just not the one you want.  Fourth, buy Game Stop stock in early January and then sell it at its peak on January 27.  Borrow money to do this if you have to.
2. Sadly, I was not shocked at the death of another unarmed Black man.  What horrified me was the way he was killed and that the network news kept showing it OVER and OVER again.  When the protests started, I wasn’t surprised, but I was shocked at how widespread the protests were.  Then I was pleasantly surprised when the Confederate monuments started coming down.  Also shocked at how quickly terms like “white privilege” and “institutional (or structural) racism” were being used and discussed in candid ways.  There were some very surface level changes like getting rid of the Aunt Jemima syrup or changing the name of the NFL team in Washington.  But I was also pleased to see that the vast vast majority of the protests were peaceful and that most people were wearing masks.  I just hope that we can see some real systemic changes that advance equity initiatives across the country for all people.  Elevating marginalized groups doesn’t mean taking away from the dominant group.  It’s not a zero-sum thing.
3. I understood the first few stay-at-home orders in March through April.  In the beginning, there was so much conflicting evidence as to what to do to keep yourself safe.  What kinda surprised me was the spread of orders to close schools down for the rest of the school year around the country.  I regularly consulted a website that kept track of this, and I knew that because we had been hit very hard by the first wave in March – May, I knew it would be a matter of time before we were shut down for good.  I was really disappointed (but not shocked) at the number of selfish people who wanted the state reopened quickly and rebelled against mask-wearing.  For many businesses that were forced to close for three months, I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for them to survive.  A number didn’t survive, despite the inadequately funded PPP loans for small businesses.  So I get why business owners wanted to reopen.  But other people who wanted to do their gardening in early April or get their nails done?  SMH.  By June, I was ready to go back to a restaurant and sit down for dinner.  I was tired of cooking all the time.  And when the next shut down order came right before Thanksgiving, I wasn’t surprised.  Cases in the state had been going back up to unsustainable numbers.    I’m not gonna argue over how much was too much or that, but I really was surprised that we did not have physical school for ten months (minus summer vacation).  And I was anxious going back, even w/ my first dose of the vaccine, and am still anxious about fully going back next week.
4. One of my favorite memories was participating in the Senior Drive-By in June so that we could say goodbye to the Class of 2020.  It was a beautiful day and I loved seeing a bunch of the seniors in their caps and gowns drive by.  I had coached some of them for two years in powder puff and some of them were in my classes.  Another favorite memory was the day in late July when we picked up Scout.  We didn’t know which of the three little girls we would pick, but it seemed that she was the one who gave us the most affection.  So she kinda picked us.  I will preface this part about worst memories by saying that I have not lost a loved one to the virus or been thrown out of my job because of the economic collapse, so I’m coming from a privileged standpoint here.  One of my worst memories of this time was easily the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th.  To me, this was one of the greatest threats (if not the greatest) to democracy that I had seen in my life.  I didn’t live through World War II or the Civil War or the Great Depression, but I can now imagine this would have been something similar.   For my entire life, I realized how much of the functioning of our democracy I had taken for granted and was horrified at by how close we came to a catastrophe there.