So many communities seem to be in turmoil right now. Families. Schools. Neighbourhoods. Cities. Countries. The whole world is turning inside out, perhaps more visibly than ever before. When I see these struggles, I always take comfort in information. I read. I listen. I talk. And right now, I wonder, “Where are the Thinkers?” Where are the people who can stay calm under pressure and make good decisions with their ‘big picture’ hats on? When did our reliance on silo-ed experts become so entrenched? When did we stop trying to heal and grow and instead surrender to band-aid solutions that just end up making the problems we face someone else’s? How did we develop this complacency and acceptance of mediocracy? I know these are questions that have been asked for a long time, but I’m not sure they have ever been so relevant as they have been in this past year, with the convergence of COVID, race-relations, growing economic disparity, mental health concerns, and pending environmental disaster. How do we find our way out of the mess we are in and imagine something better for ourselves?
Here in Ontario, we are under a six-week Stay-At-Home order. Under the newest regulations, citizens are asked to leave home only for essential trips, and then to stay within their local community. We have closed schools and small businesses, with a few exceptions, including those that sell food and healthcare products. We have mostly left open big box stores (albeit at limited capacity and merchandise) and retailers that cater to the rich – those that sell or provide maintenance for vehicles, gardening stores, equipment rentals, etc. We have closed playgrounds (now reversed), campgrounds, and outdoor sporting facilities, and made it illegal to gather with anyone outside your immediate household, giving police the authority to stop and questions anyone found outside their residence (also now reversed). Schools are closed but still expected to deliver a full curriculum with zero time to reorganize lessons to be appropriate for online learning.
Don’t get me wrong. I am glad we are taking precautions. But what are we doing? Where is the evidence? Where is the compassion? How are we taking this opportunity to make our society stronger, healthier, and more just, and instead using it to further undermine social justice and mental health?
The advice offered by medical professionals was to provide paid sick leave, rapid testing in high-risk sectors, and a quicker vaccine rollout targeting essential workers. The science seems to indicate that transmission is occurring in settings where people have no choice but to work in close quarters, such as factories and packaging plants. There does not appear to be any evidence that spread is happening in playgrounds, on tennis courts, or while back-country camping. And yet, we are still failing to provide paid sick days, choosing instead to limit people’s access to activities that promote safe interactions and mental health. The provincial government’s insistence that federal aid packages make up for the lack of paid sick leave is preposterous if you actually read the policies. A low-income worker who wakes up feeling ‘under the weather’ may literally have to choose whether to stay home, just in case, or make rent this month. Beyond the very real fact that no person should ever have to make that decision, in a pandemic, we are literally asking people to choose between the possibility of endangering public well-being and the certainty of endangering the immediate health and safety of their families.
We look like we are saying, “Stay home.” But we are actually saying, “Stay home if you can afford to do so. But by all means, don’t stay home if your work makes my life better.” I believe that providing basic income or paid sick days would actually save money in the long run, regardless of the situation. But in a pandemic, we KNOW that creating conditions whereby staying home is a viable option will drastically decrease the chance of outbreaks in low-income workers. There is very little evidence that people are inclined to misuse paid sick days, especially in emergency situations. And yet, we are saying that we are so afraid of people ‘playing the system’ that we are prepared to gamble public safety to avoid giving ground politically. From my very privileged position, I am inclined to say if someone is occasionally taking paid sick days without actually being sick, then they likely need those days to maintain their basic mental health, which is also an issue that needs to be addressed.
While we’re on the topic, ‘playing the system’ seems to be much more likely for people who don’t really need to do so. Tax evasion, loopholes, and entitlement seem way more prevalent in the well-to-do. Providing low-income workers with the tiniest glimmer of flexibility to monitor their own physical and mental health seems a small concession when we look the other way or throw up our hands rather than close those loopholes for the more well-to-do members of society.
In general, I’ve been fairly pleased with how we’ve managed the pandemic. It hasn’t been amazing, but it could have been worse, and I’m glad I’m not making the decisions. But where I have been least impressed has almost always come down to lack of big picture thinking. Poor communication. Decisions made with only one sector in mind.
I know of at least two people who have been turned away from their scheduled vaccine appointments, at least one of whom had a letter certifying his eligibility, because the rapidly changing information hadn’t yet been updated at the vaccine centre. Another friend had a positive COVID test, which she later found out had been amended. But she learned that by accident, and not from the public health unit. As it turns out, that’s because there is no one whose job it is to contact her in that situation. How many other times have there been situations where important information isn’t shared because there isn’t anyone whose job it is to share it? I realize that this situation is impossibly difficult, and as I said, I’m glad I’m not the one making the decisions. However, I feel like we have truly lost our way, and this is just the piece that is making the cracks visible.
Where are the Thinkers? Is there no one whose job it is to look at the big picture? How do we fix a system that creates this chaos? We need to think outside the box. We need creativity. We need to start following evidence instead of historical patterns. Perhaps we need to rethink how government works. I am by no means an expert, and until fairly recently, I thought that government was a pretty boring topic. But the more I understand about how the system works (or doesn’t), the more I think we’re on the wrong path. We spend an inordinate amount of time and money carrying out investigations into the scandals of past governments, blaming other parties or levels of government for poor decisions, and beefing up the statistics of whatever party is currently in power. Within the government, we divide issues into separate portfolios, with each minister looking out for their own area. No one seems to see that many of the issues are clearly interconnected.
Most disturbing of all, we seem to measure success only by economic gauges. We talk about the importance of physical and mental health, and environmental protection, but we consistently put economic growth ahead of all of these. We talk about the need for good-quality education, but we don’t follow the evidence of what works. We say we want equality, but we stand by systems that clearly promote inequality, injustice, and sometimes active persecution. We punish governments for making policy with which we disagree. We elect officials to govern, and then we watch for the first opportunity to crucify them for not being perfect. We paint our leaders into a position where they cannot reverse mistakes for fear of punishment. Making mistakes is human. Reversing them is crucial for learning and correcting course.
We are not stupid. We are not uneducated. We are not in danger. So why do we allow this madness to unfold in front of us, year after year, government after government, generation after generation? Why is it so difficult to imagine another way? A better way? How do we start thinking, and sharing, and listening to divergent, out-of-the-box solutions? How do we start changing the systems that are no longer working? This past year has been incredibly challenging – difficult, and innovative, and terrifying, and hopeful. It has shaken up so many of the things we took for granted. This is our chance. If not now, when?
Out of the Well 