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Don’t Forget the Covid Miracles
What we should have learned from the Covid experience
Three years in, it’s not too early to begin reflecting on what Covid taught us about ourselves and our communities.
Sure, lots of people—the wealthy, in particular—retreated to their vacation homes, outfitted them with new WiFi, purchased special high-priority accounts with their favorite gig-worker delivery services, and subscribed to the best TV and hi-def audio channels that Hollywood and Silicon Valley have to offer. Between craft beers, Microsoft Teams, and Grogu, life was good. During this interregnum between Covid and the next disaster, I’m sure these folks are busy constructing the rec rooms, pools, security systems, and hydroponic gardens their facilities lacked on the first go round.
But the rest of us, or at least a bunch of the rest of us, learned something very different: the power of mutual aid.
In spite of the ridicule they received (sometimes from people like me), parents of all economic classes formed “bubbles” with neighbors for their Zoom-schooled kids to do homework together, or to home school their children collectively. People brought food to neighbors, and checked in the elderly. “I’m sorry I can’t open the door to thank you,” one neighbor would shout through the storm door whenever I brought her groceries. As if she should be thanking me, when I am the one getting the joy of doing something positive in dark times.
In less affluent areas, many smaller grocery stores teamed up with mutual aid societies to post lists of the specific food items that people needed, so that donor customers could purchase them. The charity food pantry in my neighborhood became so flush with food during the pandemic that organizers began distributing to those in neighboring towns.
Businesses found ways to shorten shifts and reduce work weeks in order to keep employees on the payroll (and with health insurance) until things picked up again. Cooperatives fared better than most other businesses, however, because their workers and/or customers are their only owners. They are set up to prioritize the interests of their members, not their distant shareholders.
Now that we are (hopefully) emerging from the Covid…
