If this Covid 19 pandemic showed us anything it is that some lives matter more than others. This does not come as a surprise to me but the pandemic sort of put it into stark relief. The day that the mayor of Peekskill had asked me to speak at a Black Lives Matter rally, June 6, 2020, my father in law died of Covid at Hudson Valley Hospital. He'd sprained his ankle and had been hospitalized, and was sent to rehab where he caught Covid. I think of all the things that I personally dealt with during the Pandemic, the hardest was the inevitable question people asked when I told them he'd died of Covid, which was "how old was he?" It got to where I would not actually answer that question, and instead I'd say "Why do you ask that?" Nobody really wanted to answer that question.
I find it ironic that in response to Black Lives Matter, white supremecists and right-wingers used the phrase "All Lives Matter." I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me that all lives do not matter equally. People of color died disproportionately in the Covid pandemic. Walking while black and driving while black are als still very dangerous in this country. As for the Pandemic- white people my father in law's age also died in huge numbers, which is not remarkable, because they were vulnerable. What is remarkable is how little we seemed to care about it. Covid finished off my father in 2022. Both of our Dads died, directly or indirectly because of this virus. I'm through answering the question "how old were they?" Their lives mattered, as did the quality of their deaths. Don't tell me all lives matter when they don't. Come up with another slogan. The irony of your slogan and the dishonesty of it make you look callous, naive, racist, ageist, ableist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and a bunch of other really shitty isms. SO please- don't tell me all lives matter and don't ask me how old my loved ones were when they died of covid. Thanks.

Tuesday, March 14th 2023