Posted on 12/30/2020 8:31:54 AM PST by Kaslin
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic and darkest days of 2020, Americans proved their benevolence and generosity in ways the government never could.
Two-thousand and twenty is a year most Americans are in a hurry to forget. From a chaotic political atmosphere to uncontrolled riots and violence across the country, to a pandemic that revealed the worst instincts in our politicians, the year seemed to resemble a horror-house of our worst fears.
Because of all we’ve been through, most people would just as soon get on with ending this year of chaos, mobs, and quarantines and get on with the business of believing 2021 will be better. It has to be better, right?
If we pause, however, we’ll notice 2020 can be seen as a model of Americans’ passionate fight to overcome the adversity they’ve faced. Yes, it’s understandably easy to feel helpless and focus on the death counts and infection rates as they glare out at us on the news. It’s easy to point at the cities destroyed by mob violence and forget about the human cost after the cable news outlets leave. It’s easy to shrug our shoulders in disregard as communities are divested by floods, fires, and storms.
Indeed, the government has in some way superseded our responsibility to each other on a basic, human level. And now we see the most egregious violation of a government’s responsibility in its disregard for its citizens’ freedom. After government forced people to give up their livelihoods, these same “public servants” betrayed the loyalty and trust of the very people they stole it from.
In 2020, naked corruption and the practice of unabashedly prioritizing lobbyists and unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats over the needs of desperate Americans were exposed. The COVID-19 relief bill approved by Congress this week is an insult to those who continue to suffer — it’s a relief bill to help Americans in the same sense as giving a drowning man a brick.
Yet, just because I have little faith in government to right this massive wrong (considering public approval for Congress sits at 13 percent, I’m not alone) doesn’t mean I don’t have faith in my fellow Americans.
When FEMA is slow to respond to natural disasters, civilian groups formed to stand in the gaps. The Cajun Navy, an informal group of private boat owners, volunteer in search and rescue efforts in a hurricane-lashed Louisiana this year. Since entering the public sphere in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the group is credited with rescuing thousands of people stranded in dangerous waters.
Team Rubicon is another assistance group, founded by U.S. Marines William McNulty and Jacob Wood. The nongovernmental organization employs veterans and first responders to help disaster victims while maintaining a sense of service in the people who comprise the organization.
Earlier this year, they joined disaster relief efforts in Louisiana and are now manning the front lines of COVID-19 in under-staffed communities. On Dec. 1, members of the team are providing emergency medical aid to the Navajo Nation, where COVID-19 cases increased by an astounding 484 percent in November.
Even here in Minneapolis, communities took action where government leaders displayed nothing but cowardice and dithering. After the death of George Floyd and the destruction that ravaged the city, communities gathered to form watch groups. Neighbors helped each other clear the streets and clean the debris.
I’ve helped with People and Pets Together, a local food shelf for pets. It offers free pet food and veterinary care. Community organizations such as A Mother’s Love Initiative took to the streets to deescalate street violence and mentor young people away from criminal activity, while demanding more police protection from a city council and mayor more interested in satisfying leftist vanity projects than the safety of their constituents.
On a national level, charities and fundraisers started by individuals continue to put the government’s cumbersome, inept efforts to shame. In New York City, Kosher19 was started to link hospital staff working the COVID-19 frontlines with kosher meals, keeping nurses and physicians fed and restaurants in business. Simone Policano co-founded Invisible Hands, a nonprofit that organizes volunteers to deliver groceries to the elderly and disabled during the pandemic.
Usually mocked for his platinum-spiked hairstyle and bombastic demeanor, Guy Fieri has been a staunch defender and supporter of the restaurant business nationwide. Since he started his Restaurant Employee Relief Fund charity, Fieri has raised more than $21.5 million. Chef Andrew Gruel’s GoFundMe site raises money for a similar cause, with donations pouring in from Americans all over the country. Not to be outdone, in one week, Barstool Sport’s founder Dave Portnoy’s Barstool Fund raised $2 million to save small businesses.
It’s a testament that people would set aside their celebrity and use their platforms to help organize such an amazing display of charitable spirit. In his indispensable work “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville wrote eloquently about the grassroots, philanthropic endeavors undertaken by so many Americans — efforts that still survive even in these dark times.
In the United States, as soon as several inhabitants have taken an opinion or an idea they wish to promote in society, they seek each other out and unite together once they have made contact. From that moment, they are no longer isolated but have become a power seen from afar whose words are heeded.
2021 will be better. But I also think it is important that we use these last days of 2020 to be thankful that the enduring spirit of giving is alive and well in America.
Year after year we continue to prove, whether amid a natural disaster, an unjust wrong, or political catastrophe, that Americans reach out to their countrymen when needs arise. Our collective sense of connectedness doesn’t allow us to just look away.
Instead of waiting for a cumbersome, regulation-riddled government overflowing with bureaucrats who can’t buy a pack of screws without a committee vote, we get it done ourselves. After all the tirades and trials of 2020, America is still a force for good and a beacon of hope for all of humanity.
When we gather together to ring in the new year with friends and family, let us bow our heads and be thankful for the sacrifices of those whose seats sit empty, and grateful for the new ones we welcome. 2020 will come to an end, but let us never let go of the kindness, strength, and generosity that helped us through it.
“After government forced people to give up their livelihoods, these same ‘public servants’ betrayed the loyalty and trust of the very people they stole it from.”
“In 2020, naked corruption and the practice of unabashedly prioritizing lobbyists and unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats over the needs of desperate Americans were exposed. The COVID-19 relief bill approved by Congress this week is an insult to those who continue to suffer — it’s a relief bill to help Americans in the same sense as giving a drowning man a brick.”
“Yet, just because I have little faith in government to right this massive wrong (considering public approval for Congress sits at 13 percent, I’m not alone) doesn’t mean I don’t have faith in my fellow Americans.”
This is an excellent, positive way to look at all Mother Government has tried to do to, ‘We The People’ since way-back-when, when she started amassing centralized power to become the monstrous beotch she is, today.
‘We The People’ will ALWAYS rise to a challenge - Government inflicted or not!
Thank you, President Trump, for reminding us of that FACT!
I’d speculate a good deal of those $timulus $$$ $ent ‘round the world $omehow circulates back to them who passed it... what ya think?
Are our “elected representatives” now in such control of the process that we now can’t unelect them even if we want? Was the 2020 “election” proof of that? We know the election was stolen, they know it too... and they know we know it! They have let us know in no uncertain terms that we are now to be RULED as serfs not governed by consent... and any of us insolent enough to even question much less oppose the destruction of our Republic will be ‘silenced!!!
Kyle Rittenhouse is a teenage hero in a position created by criminal adults enabled by failing adults.
Please help get this message out even if you don’t live in CA. It will encourage rallies like this one in every State Capitol! Our nation and our freedom are at stake.
Rally at the CA State Capitol, Sacramento on January 6, 2021!!
Jan 6 Sacramento Rally to Stop The Steal, Cancel the Coup and Restore the Republic
https://apps.facebook.com/events/2494676377503459/
We should all try to get to DC for the battle to decertify the fraudulent votes and Stop the Steal of the election. But if we can’t, we all need to be at our state capitol on January 6, 2021.
The survival of our Republic is on the line. It is under direct frontal assault by enemies foreign and domestic. President Trump has called on us to turn out for the biggest protest in history.
Let’s gather by the hundreds of thousands in Sacramento as they mass in the millions in DC. We need to show our Dictators that We the People will not submit to their lockdown tyranny and blatant theft of our democratic election process.
If you absolutely, positively can’t get to DC or Sacramento, then it is your duty to rally at a local City Hall.
It’s your duty to be there and to spread the word to everyone you know. Share, post and invite!
1. They are NOT our “leaders”; they were hired as our REPRESENTATIVES.
This misnomer has helped ruin this country.
The other big fail is GOP state legislatures refusing to hear the evidence and allow for a forensic analysis of the ballots.
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