Our Endless COVID Summer

This week, in tiny, Republican-controlled Tioga County in rural Pennsylvania, Republican county commissioners told a state lawmaker pushing for an Arizona-style sham investigation of the 2020 election results to take a walk, as they denounced the costly and “unnecessary chaos,” that such a probe would cause.

In Texas, Democratic state Sen. Carol Alvarado spoke for more than 14 hours as she filibustered a Republican-backed voter suppression bill. The bill, which opponents said would suppress voters of color and the disabled, ultimately passed on an 18-11 vote, according to the Texas Tribune.

According to the Tribune, Alvarado, who wore running shoes and a back brace, wasn’t allowed to take bathroom breaks or even a drink of water. Nor was she allowed to sit or lean against her desk on the Senate floor.

But she kept at it. The obstacle became the way.

And those are just the headlines. Think for a moment of all the doctors and nurses who are putting their own health and safety at risk as they treat the unvaccinated, who have urged us time and again, to get vaccinated so we wouldn’t reach the crisis stage in which we currently find ourselves.

Again.

A year or so back, at the height of the pandemic, I wrote that there was no greater failure in the warrior state of ancient Sparta than to drop your shield. That’s not because it not only protected you, it also protected the hoplite marching into battle next to you. It was about protecting the whole line.

Those healthcare workers. The educators in Florida. The county commissioners in rural Pennsylvania. They’re protecting the whole line. Even if you don’t agree with them or their choices, there’s no disputing that they’ve put responsibility to the whole above responsibility to themselves.

They’ve recognized that the obstacle is the way.

An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.