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.
