Trying to be objective

Hope you're enjoying your Sunday.  And if you work from home, as I have since March, Sundays look a little like the other days of the week!

I jest, there are no Zoom calls to attend, no endless outreach to clients and prospects, no reports to prepare.  And I say this with immense gratitude for the employment that I still have, despite the fact that it has little resemblance to what I signed on for last fall!

But enough of that.  I've had some time to consider some of what's happening around us and am going to share a few thoughts, for better or worse.

First, I'm fearful that eventually we're going to find out that a lot more people have died or experienced significant health setbacks as direct result of the coronavirus.  I believe the national death count just surpassed 170,000, with predictions from the CDC and elsewhere that the total could reach 200,000 by Labor Day.  In just a couple of weeks.

We're doing our part at my house and within my family.  Only my son and his wife are going out of the house for work regularly, but so far, so good.  Hoping to keep it that way.

That may increasingly be a challenge given the "excellent job" that we keep hearing that our federal government has done.  The primary positive is that they have invested in more than one of the COVID-19 vaccines under development and testing, so that supplies will be ready to administer if and when any are shown effective by those who certify such things.  

The negatives are far too few to mention here, chief among them the denial of the overall impact and spread of the virus, and more recently a stubborn refusal to acknowledge its documented effects on children and young people.  The evidence is there, unfortunately.

Who's surprised that the current President and his supported almost immediately questioned the legitimacy of Senator Kamala Harris' eligibility to be a candidate for Vice President?  Not me.

And who's surprised that the United States Postal Service is systematically changing its mail handling procedures, just when we need them to operate at as high a capacity as possible, since in-person voting presents so many public health challenges during this pandemic?  Me, neither.

Change of subject....I'm a big baseball fan, specifically a fan of the Cincinnati Reds.  The way that Major League Baseball chose to return to play recently concerned me, as almost immediately there were some false positive coronavirus test among their players.  And Friday there was a true positive, forcing the postponement of at least two games.  

We hear a lot about "bubbles" these days, and I've laughed with my wife that she and I have our own little bubble, with little non-socially-distanced contact with anyone else.  But these baseball players aren't able to socially distance in the dugout, hardly any are wearing masks when not in the field, and are displaying the same signs of congratulating each other after a great play, a big hit or a win.  And they're not living in controlled or quarantined conditions, so they are exposed to others routinely.  The inevitability of problems is right there before us.

So I'm not sure how any university can expect different results in proceeding with fall sports, particularly college football.  Two major conferences have already delayed their seasons, but the rest of the Power 5 conferences, including the Southeastern Conference, of which the University of Kentucky is a member, are still planning to go ahead.  Never mind the fact that all but two of the states that contain an SEC member school are among the highest virus positivity rates in the country.  Yikes.

Rant over, thanks for reading.  Hope you have a good week!