America Endures It’s 244th

Perspectives from Greater Wapanucka, Oklahoma

The failure of the U.S. governmental institutions to address the Covid-19 crisis has clearly revealed the inherit weaknesses of its Capitalist political system. Despite access to vast monetary reserves, its leaders have yet to implement coherent, science-based programs. Each beleaguered state is free to ponder and wonder toward its own fate as the virus resurges more strongly in conservative areas that ignore reality. Each state must ponder quarantines on other states’ travelers and also compete for medical equipment and personnel. The U.S. repeats the pattern in dealing with the rest of the world and hoards therapeutic medicines while eyeing patents on vaccines. Air travel from countries that have fallen out of favor with conservatives and crossings at the border with Mexico are blocked. Under the Republican knee-jerking, the country further isolates itself as a non-player from a pandemic that can only be addressed on a global scale. 

Those appalling weaknesses are further amplified at the state and local level as residents express their political leanings by wearing or not wearing face masks. In conservative Oklahoma, few residents wear face masks as they shop or go to public events. Local newspapers and TV stations gloss over confusing data provided by the State Health Department that shows rises in Covid-19 in almost all counties, and the state as a whole. The health department, however, releases data claiming the state is 37^th in Covid-19 cases and ignores the record rise in new daily cases.

Meanwhile, the urban populations in Tulsa (where Trump’s June rally failed) and Oklahoma City are savvy and voted against the state’s Republican leadership to adopt Obamacare. Much of that can be attributed to better access to the Internet and critical news sources. This does not bode well for Republicans in the November elections.

As the 4^th of July approached, entrepreneurs erected their usual fireworks stands at each highway intersection. Early in their efforts, the hawkers advertised, “Buy 1 – get 1 free!” The day before the 4^th of July, some upped their offer and said, “Buy 1, get 3 free!” I suppose by time to take the stalls down, some were advertising, “But 1, get the whole damned stand free!”

Each of my three neighbors, who live about a half-mile from my farmhouse, started their celebrations early and shot-off bottle rockets and fireworks on the evening of the ​3rd. The panicked wildlife in the area quickly migrated onto my 54-acres which were peaceful. The critters stayed with me on the 4^th and seem to have become comfortable here.

Now there are three Mockingbirds in my trees – but I have not yet coached a single one of them to chirp the first four notes of Beethoven’s 5^th.

Bo McCarver

Reporting for Radio-Free Oklahoma

July 7, 2020