Fw: Reopening The Economics

The Covid-19 pretty much shutted down the economics of the world, for many of the business activities are considered "non-essential". There are people who protest the lockdowns, expressing a desire to reopen businesses soon. This article is taken from Jim Wallis' writing of a few days ago: Reopening Will Require Truth...

Nobody wants our society, economy, government, schools, or our families to stay on lockdown. Everybody wants our lives to reopen. But in order to do that in a way that protects health and lives, three biblical principles are necessary: truth, unity, and solidarity.

Let’s start by telling the hard truths. U.S. counties that are majority-black have three times the rate of infections and almost six times the rate of deaths as counties that are majority-white. Those numbers are just as stunning as the 45,000 U.S. deaths from the coronavirus — a number that is projected to increase and exceed the number of Americans who died in the Vietnam War, numbers that forever changed my life. Lower-income workers of all races and ethnicities who are now considered “essential” are at a higher risk of contracting the virus. Low- and middle-income elders in nursing homes are dying at the highest rate, accounting for nearly a fifth of all U.S. deaths.

Race and poverty have become pre-existing conditions for COVID-19. The entire faith community must use its prophetic and pastoral voice to emphasize this truth. Here is who is most at risk:

Those in densely populated urban communities — more than rural areas — where there is greater difficulty for social distancing. (住在人口密集的區域、難以保持社交疏離)

Those who live with more air pollution and the resulting conditions of asthma. (住在空氣污染比較嚴重的區域、因而患哮喘)

Those with historically less access to medical care, food security, or steady incomes. (缺乏醫保、缺乏三餐保證、缺乏穩定收入)

Those who are deemed “essential workers,” who are disproportionately women and people of color, many of whom use public transportation every day in order to serve the rest of us our food and supplies (and who we, as a society, have not insisted on paying a living wage).(定為「一線服務」的食物供應運輸人員、大多是有色人種、需要乘坐公共交通上班的低收入群體)

Our incredibly diverse health care workers — including the janitorial staff, food servers, clerical workers, nurses, doctors, and more — who risk their lives every day to save ours. (醫療服務人員--包括清潔工、食品預備、院牧、護理、醫生等等)

First responders who are daily on the front lines of danger. (一線救護接送人員)

The pandemic’s gaping inequality, which really means unequal suffering, makes reopening decisions fundamentally moral ones, and not just economic ones. Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” In this time of pandemic, not knowing or abiding by the truth will put you and your loved ones in physical danger.

One practical truth for the safe and healthy reopening of our society is the central importance of widespread testing and tracing, the United States fails when it comes to testing on a per capita basis. To say otherwise is indeed a lie.

Truth about the trajectory and spread of virus cases, the rates of recovery or death, and the critical knowledge that comes from testing and tracing must be our morality-centered criteria for reopening in every community in the country.

What does unity now look like? From a Christian perspective, the issue is 1 Corinthians 12:26: “Thus, if one part of the body suffers, we all suffer with it.” That is true of the body of Christ in urban, suburban, and rural areas. That is true for the body of Christ in the United States of America and the body of Christ in sub-Saharan Africa, where the virus is likely headed in devastating ways. Are all Christian leaders ready to say that?

Will this ultimately become a partisan pandemic, with political calculations overriding the crisis in public health? Do all our citizens count equally in this health crisis, or will they count more as members of one political base or another? Are we equally human in our moral and spiritual value, and equally valuable as citizens of a democracy? Or will health and human decisions be impacted by political calculations? Unity — spiritual and political — must be a criteria for when and how we open back up.

How to show solidarity: Perhaps the most alarming talk is from those who have actually said that lives may have to be sacrificed for the sake of the economy, that some older people may have to die to save the economic order. Pundits on the right have said that, some talk show hosts have said that, and some corporations and business leaders have suggested that. Even worse, some governors are suggesting that.

Meanwhile, workers at meat-packing plants in Colorado, Kansas, and elsewhere, many of them immigrants, are coming down with COVID-19 in increasing numbers, and many fear for their ability to do their jobs safely in sometimes crowded conditions. Protecting the vulnerable is not on the agenda.

However, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quote: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. The great wisdom of our faith traditions is that the protection of the vulnerable is not only the right thing to do, but is the best way to protect all of us.

These three moral tests — truth, unity, and solidarity — are not only religiously required but also practical and essential criteria for our reopening to a safer and healthier world. And these three biblical principles — truth, unity, and solidarity — are now essential tests for the health and the healing of the nation.