“We’re All In This Together”

Any fool can survive a crisis; it’s the day-to-day living that wears you out.*

(*the line’s creator has never been identified definitively, so I use it here without attribution.)

Apocalypse Corona: American merchandise centers, abandoned indestructible concrete wastelands - monuments to excess provide a bleak, hazy vista into an uncharted future

The voices on the radio, or the website, or coming through the Apple TV or Roku box, or from wherever, are sickly sweet, that saccharine tone now part of every sound mixer’s repertoire — a slight echo, a bit of depth and musicality added to smooth out the imperfections of even the trained human voice, and the spokesperson assures us that their company (Bank of America, Brinks’ Security, Kohl’s Department Store, Carl’s Jr., Bill’s Tool and Die) is doing everything they can in this viral crisis, protecting employees by cutting down staffing, losing revenue by only having delivery or drive thru options available, happily doing their part to keep us safe, because, they remind us: We’re all in this together.

Are we really?

Is it believed that a national crisis brings out the best in CEOs and stockholders, who will enact policies that keep people paid, fed, healthy and optimistic? The past doesn’t matter with these companies? Ignoring sexual harassment complaints, foreclosing on loans that should have never been offered, providing restaurant service (or not) to select racial groups, incarcerating…