No Virus Is Illegal

It’s news that is sadly symptomatic of the moral corrosion that afflicts America -- an America where kindness and empathy have succumbed to hatred and xenophobia.

I am speaking of the declaration by many Republicans that undocumented coronaviruses be denied sanctuary in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, and any intercepted at the airport or Mexican border be detained and separated from the cells they were attached to, without any concern for the emotional trauma which these forced separations will inflict.

It is clear that for heartless Conservatives, a virus is just a parasite. A net fiscal burden devoid of any humanity. But progressives know that life is not just about dollars and cents or health and sickness. Morality should never be subjected to a cost-benefit analysis. They know that viruses have rights too. Even the viruses that were not born here.

America is a nation of transnational viruses. It is what defines us. From the time that the first pilgrims arrived on Plymouth Rock, virions from afar came to this country in search of a better life for themselves and their replicants. The American dream.

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