Two women meet in the grocery store. They are very happy to see each other and it looks like they haven’t seen each other for a while, glad to accidentally meet in one of the refrigerator aisles. They talk and talk. At the checkout, one woman says loudly, “It’s the doom’s day. We are too evil and God is sending these punishments.” Her companion give a little polite laugh and voices her uncommitted opinion in a soft tone, which only serves to make the first woman more excited.
“I tell you we are doomed. You will see.” She raises her voice. And the second woman murmurs something, probably in a forced agreement with the first one.
By now it reaches the point that the first one is too busy with her all important task of fumbling for her coupon in her handbag to pay attention to the frivolous debate of human destiny. The conversation is dropped. Then they say goodbye unceremoniously and part their ways.
I am right behind them, and I repeat the first woman’s statement to myself. Instead of asking this grand question of whether the world is coming to an end, I am thinking of the less grand questions of vaccination and election.
Actually I think about how ancient Rome went from republic to monarchy in 27 B.C. I hope this doesn’t happen in the modern world. Yet knowing that history repeats itself, I fear for the world. History is a jerk–it is bloody, it is irrational, it lies.
I know a person who holds three passports in three continents. I have to say I hate him. If one country is getting too crazy for him, he can jump ship any time. I know immigrants are often insecure, but he is pushing the insecurity to the extreme. We immigrants are all afraid that whenever a political battle comes, we are caught in the crossfire. Already, pandemic is making immigrants’ life difficult–global traveling coming to a halt; family members separated; relatives’ funeral left unattended; Asians targeted as spreaders of disease; small businesses going bankrupt.
I am very much afraid that a Julius Caesar look alike, who can command the admiration of the dissatisfied and passionate mob, will come in within the next four years. It will be a landslide and nothing will be able to stop him from becoming …
Haoyan Do 