INSPIRE
DEME McDonald LIGHT in DARKNESS
Credit: Illustration by Austen McDonald
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he year 2020, has been a tunnel of darkness with every inch consumed by a thick fog of fear and no apparent light in sight. Humanity worldwide has been ferociously assaulted by the Covid-19 pandemic, continued civil rights injustice, and opportunistic terrorism while the U.S., once considered a leader of leader’s flounders with an inept commander at the helm. On the 5th January of 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported on a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. Many of us were still in the festive mode ringing in the new year and finally settling on those annual resolutions while this silent threat crept across waters from country to country. On February 11th, 2020, the Novel Coronavirus received its new moniker of COVID-19 at which time countries commenced grand preparation efforts to protect and detect the disease. During this time on February 22nd, the WHO director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, cautioned, “We must take advantage of the window of opportunity we have to contain the outbreak. We don’t want to look back later & regret failing to act.” Two days following this grave warning, the Commander 38 | eYs Magazine, December 2020
in Chief stated, “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” Thus, initiating an avalanche of missed opportunities, profound despair and unpresented fear. This respiratory disease is not selective as all in the community can become a victim with the impact ricocheting through generations, uprooting family trees and devastating communities leaving many battling the virus on ventilators and loved ones suffocating from sudden loss all saying, “I can’t breathe”. The lethargic action of the US government resulting in over 12.3 Million infection cases and 257,000 fatalities by November 2020, which greatly exceed the cases and deaths of any other country. (source, World Health Organization -WHO COVID-19 Dashboard). While the coronavirus took a stranglehold on the world, on May 25, 2020, the global community watched in horror as George Floyd, an unarmed black man was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by those who promised to protect and serve. We held our breath for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the time it took for a police office to kneel on Mr. Floyd’s neck squeezing out his last breath. This gross injustice and misuse of power ignited protest across the United States and flowed globally from Australia, New Zealand to London and more to fight against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people. Stifled by social injustice the resounding voice of the people proclaim, “I can’t Breathe”. Martin Luther King Jr., stated “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” (The Measure of a Man, 1959). This year has revealed the darkness and true motivation of government leaders good or evil. It has also, highlighted the stars of our global community. The heroes
