Whose lives matter, and what are they worth to our leaders?

I’ve been uneasy about the “balance” that our President and a number of governors are expressing between saving people’s livelihoods and rescuing our economy, on one side, and keeping down the terrible illness and death caused by coronavirus, on the other. This two-way balance was complicated by warm weather, which brought young people to parks and beaches, and so added springtime exuberance to the economic side, while increasing the illness and death side of the scale. 

I began to wonder: How much is a life worth?  Are some lives more valuable than others? 

Early on in our country’s less than five-month history with COVID-19, it seemed that the elderly were most prone to its infection. Counting myself among the elderly, I was reassured that I was able to stay at home, but suspicious that the deaths of those of us on Social Security were a little too easily accepted, as if each death was unburdening a system supposedly running out of money.

As the analysis of who was catching the virus, and under what circumstances, grew more complex, compromised immune systems became a causal factor, as did living or working in close quarters, which was why COVID-19 was raging in nursing homes and prisons.  

Recently the high rates of COVID-19 among African Americans, immigrants and the poor have made clear that, as in every other arena, “Them that’s got shall get, them that’s not shall lose,” as Billie Holiday once put it so beautifully. By a cruel irony, African Americans constitute 13% of our population, but provide a third of all nurses; as front-line workers, often without proper protective equipment, they have been particularly exposed to the virus.  

The prairie states, which house our meat packing industry, have experienced a surge of coronavirus spread by workers standing shoulder to shoulder as they chop up pork, beef and chicken. These processing plants draw their workers from our immigrant poor; half of all workers in these plants are undocumented immigrants, without either health insurance or savings, and often fearful of checking into a hospital. 

The risk these workers live with has been exacerbated by President Trump’s executive order insisting that the plants stay open and workers remain on the job. As one worker in Greely, Colorado put it: “We signed up to process meat. We did not sign up to die.” That food processing workers who are ill are being forced to come to refrigerated plants and stand next to each other as the meat comes down the assembly line so that Americans can continue to enjoy a hamburger or piece of chicken goes far beyond a careful balancing of livelihoods and the economy with safety.  

Since most of those likely to succumb to the virus are not among the young, rich, or powerful, I also need to ask: how many illnesses and deaths from coronavirus among waitresses, cooks, personal trainers and hairdressers would you trade for keeping open one restaurant, gym or beauty salon? Or, with summer coming on, how many now-healthy nurses and other hospital workers are you willing to put at risk for a nice day at the beach?   

I know the balance is delicate. With single mothers who have lost their jobs and are acting as at-home teachers for their children while trying to feed them without unemployment insurance, and whole families waiting patiently in a long line of cars for a box of donated food, not all the argument is on one side. But before we agree to a run of deaths among our black, brown, poor and elderly neighbors, we need to guarantee protection for everyone. This means a ready supply of masks and other personal protective equipment, but it also means ample testing, tracing, tracking and whatever else develops, to insure our safety.  

 

Carol Ascher, who lives in Sharon, has published seven books of fiction and nonfiction, as well as many essays and stories.  She is trained as a spiritual director.

The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Lakeville Journal and The Journal does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

Latest News

East Canaan's CowPots to face the 'Sharks'

Amanda Freund of East Canaan will appear on the television show "Shark Tank" on April 4 to pitch CowPots.

Photo by Ruth Epstein

CANAAN — Fans of the television show “Shark Tank,” stay tuned. On Friday, April 4, Amanda Freund of East Canaan will be facing the panel, imploring members to invest in her unique product: cow poop.

Freund and her father Matthew Freund produce and market CowPots, which are made from the abundance of manure found on their dairy farm. Matthew Freund, realizing cows were producing more manure — 100 pounds per cow per day — than was needed for fertilizing fields for crops, came up with the concept of the pots. Years of trial-and-error experimentation finally resulted in success. In 2006 he began selling the biodegradable pots using 100% composted manure to local stores. Now the pots can be found in outlets across the country, as well as internationally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss lacrosse ices Kingswood Oxford 19-0

LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School opened the girls varsity lacrosse season with a big win in the snow against Kingswood Oxford School.

The Bearcats won 19-0 in a decisive performance March 26. Twelve different players scored for Hotchkiss, led by Coco Sheronas with four goals.

Keep ReadingShow less
HVRHS releases second quarter honor roll

FALLS VILLAGE — Principal Ian Strever announces the second quarter marking period Honor Roll at Housatonic Valley Regional High School for the 2024-2025 school year.

Highest Honor Roll

Grade 9: Parker Beach (Cornwall), Mia Belter (Salisbury), Lucas Bryant (Cornwall), Addison Green (Kent), Eliana Lang (Salisbury), Alison McCarron (Kent), Katherine Money (Kent), Mira Norbet (Sharon), Abigail Perotti (North Canaan), Karmela Quinion (North Canaan), Owen Schnepf (Wassaic), Federico Vargas Tobon (Salisbury), Emery Wisell (Kent).

Keep ReadingShow less
Thomas Ditto

ANCRAMDALE — Thomas Ditto of Ancramdale, born Thomas David DeWitt Aug. 11, 1944 in New York City changing his surname to Ditto at marriage, passed peacefully on Pi Day, March 14, 2025. He was a husband, father, artist, scientist, Shakespeare scholar, visionary, inventor, actor, mime, filmmaker, clown, teacher, lecturer, colleague, and friend. Recipient of numerous grants, awards and honors in both the arts and sciences, a Guggenheim and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, he was a creative genius beyond his time. In addition to authoring scores of papers, he held several patents and invented the first motion capture system and the Ditto-scope, a radically new kind of telescope. He was a pioneer in computer generated video, film, and performance.

When not hard at work, he was always there to help when needed and he knew how to bring smiles to faces. He loved his family and pets and was supportive of his wife’s cat rescue work.

Keep ReadingShow less