In the United States, seemingly coordinated angry right-wing protests are sparking up against stay-at-home measures that were put place to control the global Covid-19 pandemic. These angry men and women are protesting because they perceive the lockdowns as a violation of their constitutional rights/human rights. These protest have also involved heavily armed men entering state legislatures which have, of course, sparked debates over white privilege.

Directly above me, men with rifles yelling at us. Some of my colleagues who own bullet proof vests are wearing them. I have never appreciated our Sergeants-at-Arms more than today. #mileg pic.twitter.com/voOZpPYWOs

— Senator Dayna Polehanki (@SenPolehanki) 30 April 2020

To a far smaller degree these protests have appeared here in London. Well, I had a big post planned about that lunacy, but I’ll just tell you about the roadworks outside instead.

About two weeks ago I first heard the clear sign of roadworks outside of my window, and as I have not spent this much time in my flat ever, I started noticing some new things about my neighborhood. Now, I know about the chippy across the street, and the fire department up the road, but I never really paid attention to the street outside of my window. As I looked out on to that street I saw contractors laying new pipes for fibre optics or water. I really don’t know. I heard the normal sounds of jackhammers and trucks slowly delivering their goods, but there were some extra sounds that I could not identify. It was the sounds of saws and hammers, but these were not being used on the road. That’s when I noticed that there were two simultaneous sets of works happening right outside of my window. What was happening was not clear for the first few days, but eventually I saw that the building across the street was building two new temporary rooms. A few days later a walkway was built, and finally a green cover for the walkway.

While these additions were being made I noticed, for the first time, some of the vans coming down that street were marked “private ambulance”, and there were people dressed smartly walking around, some were carrying flowers.

I live across the street from a mortuary and, in the space of two weeks, they had conducted an emergency expansion. Now, someone could accuse me of assuming the worst. I haven’t seen the inside of the morgue so, it could be anything, but a bit of deductive reasoning would tell those people to shut the hell up.

Every day I wake up and look out of my window. I see what happens at the end of bad Covid-19 reaction. I have lived her for over a year, and in that time I have barely noticed any activity in that building, as would be expected, but over the past few weeks the black vans never stopped. For about seven or eight days the vans were a constant. Everyday there were people who were smartly dressed, perhaps going to say goodbye to a family member, and all the while, the workers kept going.

Covid is real. It doesn’t care who you voted for or if you believe it exists. Sure, you could get it and nothing could happen, but there’s also a chance that this highly contagious, airborne virus might kill you. It doesn’t care how strong you are or, if you are ‘the best’, its just a virus. It has one job, replicate, and until there’s a vaccine, we’ve only got one defence. Starve it of what it needs...us. That means social distancing and staying the hell away from each other until this is under control.

Jumping up and down because you can’t get your haircut or go to the pub is rank immaturity. Screaming in the face of nurses, doctors, and police officers because, you read some meme on Facebook about how Covid isn’t real, is appalling. Storming the statehouse under the guise of “liberty”, while heavily armed, is threat to democracy. These people, filled with Dunning-Kruger confidence, and loads of dark money, are putting all of us at risk. America has the worst Covid outbreak followed by the UK, but the response by some to this global crisis, is to pretend it doesn't exist and act as if everything is normal. During the Spanish (not from Spain) Flu, there was a uneven lockdown the US with some States acting as if this was not a real problem. This resulted in three deadly waves of the virus killing off 675,000 people.

It is at times like this when you actually get to see the value of your leaders. Democracy is all about the people selecting who they think will be the best for the job. We have been lucky. The last large scale war ended 75 years ago and, we have not had a large scale global pandemic since the aforementioned Spanish Flu. Families have been spared the horrors of the watching their loved ones die from virulent viruses and illness. It is because of this that I think we've seen a marked decline in the capabilities and quality of our leaders. Instead of people who would lead us into a brighter future, more and more countries are selecting people who pander to the lowest common denominator. Using fear and anger they attempt to advance their myopic goals, but eventually all leaders, both good and bad, will have to go through a crisis which means we all finally get to see the value of all that bluster.

Good Luck.