The tourists have arrived on the Peninsula.  Perhaps they were at some invisible starting gate waiting for Pacific County to say, “Okay, come on over!”  They were here almost immediately when the beaches opened and, from what I’ve seen on the streets of Long Beach, they all forgot their masks.  Plus, none of them know how to judge “six feet.”

None of that is newsworthy, of course.   Not even blogworthy.  We have all moved on to the the George Floyd protests.  Somewhere I read that it’s the  biggest protest movement since… I’ve lost track of which one.   Was it “Black Lives Matter” or one of the “Moratoriums Against the Viet Nam War” or “The Women’s March” or  maybe a march against “Gun Violence.”

Solidarity – Image by Adam Maida

I’ve  also lost track of what good those protests do.  If any.  I’m reminded of an article in the New Yorker by Nathan Heller back in August of 2017:  “Is There Any Point to Protesting?”  My take-away from the article was, “No.  Nothing changes.”  In fact, for me, only the caption under the solidarity illustration was memorable: Skeptics suggest that “folk politics”—marches, protests, and the like—are a distraction from the challenges of real change.

I think we have a serious genetic flaw.  It seems that we humans are unable to learn from our experiences or to formulate and follow plans for change.  Hell, we can’t even wear masks if our lives depend upon it!  Nor can we seem to enforce our rules.  Not even the life-and-death ones.

I do have hope, however.  It’s along the lines of stem-cell transplants.  If we can locate someone with an appropriate listen-learn-change gene, maybe we can vaccinate people with a genetic antibody.  And how is that for conflating a few concepts?  Probably has as much hope as a good protest movement, eh?