POINTSOFVIEW | I’D LIKE TO SAY
By Patrick Carolan
Patrick Carolan
CatholicClimateMovement.global
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COVID-19 Can Lead Us to a Better World
M
y good friend and former pastor Father Tom Lynch would often say, “Life turns on a dime.” He was generally saying this in reference to Matthew 24:42: “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” Father Tom talked about how your life could be humming along, most things going smoothly, when something happens—a death, illness, loss of job, anything—and your life is turned upside down. We have all experienced positive and negative events that have changed us. Two years ago, while I was working in Washington, DC, my wife received a phone call from the Savannah, Georgia, police telling us that our son had been shot and was in critical condition in a hospital. Thankfully, my son survived, but our lives were changed. How we react to these life-changing events defines who we are. This is true not only for us as individuals but also for society as a whole. As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, our world has been turned upside down. Everything has changed. We now use terms like “shelter in place,” and we practice social distancing. Stores ration hard-to-find items. Parents have learned how to be teachers. Children have virtual birthday parties, weddings are canceled, and we are forced to remotely mourn our loved ones who have passed. Previously, I traveled across the country on a bus going from state to state as part of Vote Common Good. Now we organize online events. Our lives have indeed turned on a dime.
WHAT IS NORMAL?
As we spend more time socially distanced, we hear people say they cannot wait for things to get back to normal. But what exactly is normal? For many of us, it is working, having friends over, maybe going out for dinner or a movie. We might regularly attend church or volunteer at a food pantry. Normal means settling into a comfortable routine not really affected by the suffering of the poor and marginalized. But for many others it is a different story. For young black men like my son, “normal” is frequently being pulled over for driving while black and fearing that they may be shot. For women, “normal” often means making less money than men for doing the same work and being sexually harassed or assaulted. For some immigrants, it means fleeing violence and death in your country only to have your children taken away from you at the US border. For schoolchildren, “normal” is having drills in case an active shooter should come to their school. “Normal” is giving tax cuts to the wealthy while cutting programs to feed the poor. It is the growing inequality between the rich and the poor, where the wealthy can spend a million dollars on a car and poor families are trying to make sure there’s enough food on the table and praying that no one gets sick because they cannot afford health care. “Normal” is 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty and 10,000 children dying from hunger every day. It is ignoring the
UPPER LEFT: COURTESY PATRICK CAROLAN; TOP: IQONCEPT/FOTOSEARCH
Patrick previously served as executive director of the Franciscan Action Network. He is also a cofounder of the Global Catholic Climate Movement. He currently serves as director of Catholic outreach for Vote Common Good. He is a recipient of the 2015 White House Champions of Change Award and is personally dedicated to social justice through individual and societal transformation.
14 • September 2020 | StAnthonyMessenger.org
POINT OF VIEWS 0920.indd 14
7/31/20 10:24 AM
