I’m come from the Gen X generation. When I graduated from High School the internet did not exist and while there were car phones, cell phones also did not exist. I didn’t grow up with these things.
On the farm where I lived from 4th grade to my sophomore year of HS and after a short stint in Seattle (2 years) I spent my senior year at this same farm. I explain to people we were wedged somewhere between Ethan/Dimock/Parkston and Milltown. It really was the middle of nowhere.
I know isolation. I have lived by myself in my home for 18 years and before that I lived for about 7 years by myself in various apartments. During the summer living on the farm the only time I got in a car or pickup was to go to church on Sunday. EVERY SUNDAY. I mostly spent my summers cleaning hog barns, doing chores, walking beans (SUCKS!) and bailing hay. But when I wasn’t working I went on hours long hikes with my various dogs exploring the prairie. I found old cars, old farmstead cellars, beaver dams and even explored a homestead house. Besides my dogs, and my brother, I mostly talked to myself and took in a great appreciation for nature and a great dislike for dumb farm animals.
I can count on a couple of fingers the things I have been missing because of Covid. Live music (I really missed Levitt this summer) eating out and traveling. Other than that I really haven’t experienced despair because of Covid.
But I think the isolation has been making people crazy. Just look at the state our country is in. We have a president who refuses to concede (though he lost the popular and electoral count and no amount of fraud could overturn this election) that is, if it even existed. We have a governor who doesn’t believe in science and goes along with the insanity. We have an AG who drove off of the road and killed a man and still walks free. We have local officials who don’t understand leadership and to top it all off this week a CEO of a major healthcare institution writing poems about Covid and how he won’t wear a mask while the 50,000 workers he manage languish in his institutions.
I call it Covid Madness.
While I have only been on this earth a little under a half century, I have never seen so much denial, craziness and despair. NEVER.
Does it worry me? No. Because I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel and only the truth will save us.
But we have to continue to fight for those things that are important to us. Our health and wellbeing, our families and the ones we love, our livelihoods, justice, open government and most of all good craft beer.
So if you have the day off today, like I do, I implore you to turn off your phone, the internet and the TV and make a list of all the things that are important to you. Also make a second list of all the wonderful and positive things you are going to do when we come out of this pandemic.
Don’t become a victim of Covid Madness. We got this, but it is going to take a little effort and having common sense and peace of mind. Also, if you go shopping today, where a dang mask!
“Reefer Madness” has come just in time!
( and Woodstocks: “I joined Parler last night and I’ve already been kicked-off it”… “I guess they really don’t want to know the truth after all”…. )
Ahhhhh, Such good, sage advice from a person w/similar
background! Solitude can be good for the soul, as monks of various faiths have discovered for generations. Getting in touch with ou true inner spirit and communicating with the Higher Spirit be good for us all and can hardly be done in a bar or coffee shop-both of which I have frequented thousands of times! Thanks, for you blog-well done.
Covid has led to cultural change good and bad. Good because there’s been inner soul searching and more time for family. Bad because of isolation and a slowing economy. Four drug companies will thank the Chinese for money they’ll make from coming up with vaccines. I’m wondering what will return once the pandemic subsides. There’s been social change that’s caused a different style future.
If you have been kicked off any platform, it may show something about how you act in public; I been a member of parlor for 5 months, and have yet to be removed, or have any of my comments deleted. The nice thing about Parlor, is the fact they allow YOU to share your opinions freely with no recourse, no public shaming, no personal attacks made by any other member of the platform. I would safely contend that it was not your opinions that got you removed from the platform, but it was your “attitude” and “Rude Behavior” torwards other persons that got you removed. Again – you have the right to make your opinion regardless of whether its true, false, or the fact no one agrees with you. It seems that to me that you Democrats love to always voice your opinion, but then you choose to attack personally anyone whom may argue your opinion, thought process, belief, or ideal. Knowing the fact of how they are choosing to govern the platform, leads me to believe your “Attitude” is what got you removed from the platform. It is the same issue I see by how some of you act in public at our local city council meetings where you continuesly yell, scream, attack, call names, slander, misrepresent the facts of matter in front of our City Council. IT is also why one of the reasons ‘we’ moved public input to the backside, was cause some of you have disrespected our Decorum rules. Yes, I have not spoken up as much as some at these meetings, but I am starting to, and with every time, I get more comfortable, but even I understand the fact remains I need to be respectful to both sides if I want to push my agenda, my ideals, my thought process to the Mayor, the Council, the City. I understand whether I make my opinions known at a public meeting, or to the residents, or on Social Media, I to must “RESPECT” anyone whom shares an opposite opinion. ALL of you may disagree with me on any subject, but at the same time, you do NOT see me going all over the place ‘attacking’ your opinions. Just cause I oppose a Mask Mandate, or have a different belief regarding masks or this entire COVID-19 issue, you do NOT see me attacking your beliefs, nor ideals regarding the same. There lies the difference of how ‘we’ get our points across. And why you most likely got removed from Parlor. At least they do NOT censor your opinions, as do Twitter and Facebook where two people disagree on the facts thereof, but – they will remove you like anyone else, even the Mayor if you are Disrepectful to one another.
– Mike Zitterich
(605) 376-0527
Mr. M.L.Zit: “It seems that to me that (sic) YOU DEMOCRATS (most caps added) love to always voice your opinion. . . you do NOT see me attacking your beliefs, nor ideals regarding the same. There lies the difference of how ‘we’ get our points across.“ Oh, yeah – Mr. pathetic written English/pontificus maximus purveyor of prolific and misused quote and apostrophe marks rendering writings tiresome if not unreadable. . . a real Dale Carnegie course grad you are, talking out of both sides of your a_s. You demonstrate a real diplomatic touch leading with “YOU DEMOCRATS…â€. You’re a side street used car lot guy (read: junk peddler) sitting in a lonely, grimy little ramshackle office hammering out desperate diatribes struggling vainly to be relevant. Take a bath, use some deodorant, and stick to selling junk cars. You’re way out of your lane trying to influence local opinions. Consider: “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.†– Charles Bukowski. Gee, Mr. M.L. Zit. Into which group do you suppose you obviously fall? Crawl back in your hole, urchin.
Isn’t it ironic that Mr. Bukowski left us with such inspirational words?