2020: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

This is my end-of-year blog as I want to record some of my thoughts to look back on later in life.  2020 has been an impactful year, but I will only cover 3 main events in this.  Please open the linked articles for more details.

THE GOOD:

COVID-19 - On the surface, one wonders how anything could be good about this virus.  However, Shelter-in-Place orders have resulted in fewer school shootings and my family members have been able to stay healthy so far from even the usual colds.  It has also forced me to stay home and find ways to occupy my time productively.  Since I can't actually travel anywhere for vacation, I am reading books like "The New Jim Crow - Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness."  It's not an easy read - both from the standpoint that there's a lot of disheartening information, and it is written like a textbook.  Nonetheless, I am glad to have the time to read it if I can't be enjoying time with family and friends in Hawaii, Tahoe and Vegas.  I am learning a lot from the book as well as other resources regarding the racist origins and current practices of this country.

Presidential Election - Joe Biden appears to be the President-Elect and that helps me sigh a bit of relief.  He was not in my top 5 during the Primaries, but when House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn turned the South Carolina and the entire Primaries on the ear with his endorsement (followed by Klobuchar, Mayor Pete, etc),  I suddenly got excited.  Biden may have supported some racist policies in the past (most of the past Presidents including Obama and Clinton have), but he is able to admit when he makes/made a mistake and learn from it.  He worked under the first Black President for 8 years without complaint - a true racist would not be able to do that.  Biden's not terribly dynamic and has a speech impediment, but he is calm, reasonable and has a history of reaching across the aisle.  I know it's infuriating to have to wait for progress and working with people we disagree with, but that's how this country was built... and we need to get back to doing that.

Black Lives Matter - Since the killing of George Floyd, the American public has been forced to witness 8-9 minutes of a murder that shouldn't have happened.  A man calling out to his mother in his last moments of life should have impacted every mother around the globe, and BLM demonstrations/protests have been held around the world because we know George Floyd is just one of way too many.  In America, I knew (at a surface level) that Black and Brown men are stopped and harassed by police disproportionately more than White men; and I supported the football players who kneeled before games.  But I didn't really realize the depth of racism built into our justice system until I honestly tried to learn more about it... Not just police killings of unarmed Blacks (although that is bad enough), but systemic/institutional racism which impacts criminal justice, employment, housing, health care and education. I'm glad that I have the resources available to learn more and try to share this knowledge.

THE BAD AND THE UGLY:

COVID-19 - The bad and ugly is obvious - As I write this, over 320,000 Americans have died, 1.7 million people died globally.  This has impacted the national and global economy... and there are people going hungry.  You would think Americans would come together in a crisis like this, but the pandemic has been politicized to where even wearing a face mask is called into question.  Trump, the "Leader" of our country, purposely and continuously lied about the severity of the virus and admitted it to Bob Woodward.  He told Woodward, "I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down... Because I don't want to create a panic." In short, I believe he was mainly concerned about the stock market and he didn't want to panic the investors.  Never mind the fact that many of the poor and middle class folks don't have the income to invest in the stock markets because they're just trying to make ends meet.  He cares more about Wall Street than Main Street, but his followers don't see that.  It took a Republican-run Senate 9 months to pass a second "relief package" which includes $600 per person.  I'm not the only one that is angry at a Senate who granted the wealthy a huge tax cut and just parceled out $600 to the people who are struggling.  (If I have any Georgian friends reading this, please remember this and vote blue in January). While his Administration helped fund Operation Warp Speed to get vaccines to the public, it's after hundreds of thousands of people died under his watch.  Yes, people would have died even if he was a good leader, but I don't think the numbers would've been nearly this high.  If he had just supported what Anthony Fauci and the CDC recommended (simple things like social distancing, masks, hand sanitizing), things would've been a lot better.  Instead, he held super spreader events and rallies in addition to mocking face masks.  And since I want to keep this short,  I won't go into detail on how his Administration passed on 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Presidential Election - Although Biden appears to have won the election with over 81 million votes, Trump still got over 74 million votes.  I consider this bad news because it shows how badly divided this country still is.  To be clear, I expected that Trump would win because of how the Electoral College is setup to benefit formerly slave-owning states.  Nevertheless, Biden won but many Trumpicans are not ready to admit it because their "leader" won't admit it.  They've been trying to overturn the election results and even the Supreme Court ruled against their case.  Instead of dealing with starving families, COVID deaths and Russian cyber hacks, Trump is trying to overthrow the election. You know it's bad when Trumpicans complain about Fox News.   As the linked article mentions, Trump may just be trying to get his own media/"news" company to spew his conspiracy theories and other QAnonsense.  Fox and Newsmax had to walk back their claims of election fraud.  I believe all of Trump's thrashing about is to get more money to pay off his debts and line his pockets so he can start his new company.  

That is all bad, but here is what I think is truly ugly: 80% of White Evanglicals still support Trump; and I believe that this is why Christianity in America is dying.  I go to three different churches (especially during COVID) and I know a good number of people who support Trump... after hearing him brag about grabbing women by the pussy, lying about the severity of COVID, and talking trash about immigrants and refugees.  It's easy for White Evangelicals to say "Make America Great Again" because they weren't the ones being enslaved and/or oppressed when it was so "great."  It also annoys me to hear Christians say that the Church is dying in America because of the culture we live in. No - it is dying because we're not practicing what we preach.  Trump-supporting White Evangelicals are not loving their neighbors - they're loving this con artist who got them a Conservative Supreme Court. I know a number of Trumpicans who vote strictly on a "pro-life platform" while complaining about paying taxes for social programs to help families get by.  While they say, "Put prayer back in the schools," they forget that prayers were in the schools while oppressing the "least of these."  As one of my pastors said: During the Civil War, both sides prayed to the same God.  Church - If you want to truly share Christ with the world, you need to stop being so hypocritical and judgmental.

"It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.  God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, 'You must remove the evil person from among you.'"  1 Corinthians 5:12-13

Black Lives Matter - While the movement has grown and people are gaining more understanding about  systemic racism in America, there are still too many people who refuse to see it.  Just like COVID, you'd think the country would be united in eradicating racism.  But unlike COVID, racism is easy to deny if you aren't experiencing it.  Most of us by now know somebody who has battled and perhaps died from COVID.  But not all of us understand the systemic/institutional racism that exists if it doesn't impact us or ones we love.  The ugliest part of this is that many Americans simply lack the empathy for those that are being oppressed.  After watching George Floyd die, I (and many other Americans) vowed to learn more about what I'd been averting my eyes from.  It saddens me to know that so many Americans prefer to live in denial and long for a day when America was "great" again.  Until this year, I didn't understand the true depths of this issue - partly because I am Asian-American and didn't have the experience of growing up Black or Brown.  To be sure, there is racism against Asians as well which I'm familiar with, so I've always known racism is still a problem in America.  However, my White friends may not be aware of it because they only see things from their life experiences and viewpoint.  It takes an actual willingness and effort to learn more about systemic racism; and not everybody is "there" yet.  If you don't have the time and energy to read The New Jim Crow (I admit, it's taking me a while because it is like a textbook), then please read this New Yorker interview with the author Michelle Alexander and/or this NPR interview with her.

MY FAITH in God remains intact, even as my disappointment in Trump-Supporting White Evangelicals grows.  I'm sure they are just as disappointed in me, and I can live with that.  I'm not really in a festive mood this Christmas as I feel like the fight for racial justice is being put on the back burner by America again... and I doubt Jesus wants us to be complacent.  Currently I go to three different churches online as they all have different styles in addressing racism. I've liked that the Chinese Baptist Church (in SF Chinatown) pastor(s) have prayed weekly for BLM and one pastor centered a message around it.   I haven't found the perfect multi-cultural church yet because there is no perfect church; only a perfect God.  In order to get there, you'd have to have diversity at all levels - in the congregation, on the stage, on the leadership boards, on the staff, in the message, etc.  One of my Black friends said he's also been going to an AME church in addition to our local one. Perhaps I'll check that out too.  One of the great things about sheltering in place is that I'm now able to visit multiple churches to get true diversity.  Perhaps this is the best way to get my perfect multi-cultural church experience - through various congregations. 👍