Exactly eight months ago on Friday, March the 13th, 2020, the president finally stopped denying the truth: we were indeed in the midst of a pandemic rather than a hoax. So, I hoped that he’d once again, lift his veil of denial to concede that he’d lost the election. After all, it was Friday, November the 13th.
Sometimes I flirt with being superstitious, but it’s more a result of anxiousness than anything else. I know there’s no reasonable expectation that the president would come to his senses–he’s seldom demonstrated that he experiences such a condition.
Instead, my wishful thinking lie in everyone else’s response. Lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit strengthened my belief that democracy wouldn’t be another casualty during this traumatic year where so many people have died, businesses have gone under, and things in general have gone awry. As a matter of fact, if democracy were to fail, this would’ve been the year to do so. Yet, thank goodness our courts demanded evidence and none of the lawsuits thus far have gone to trial. My favorite flimsy lawsuit motivated a lawyer to state that there was a “nonzero number” of GOP poll watchers. The former math teacher in me just rejoiced as I reflected upon how three different cultures (Sumerians, Mayans, and Southeast Asian Indians) invented the concept of “zero.”
Ten days later, my wish somewhat came true. The president still hadn’t conceded, but at least the president-elect received his transition money and other resources. The stock market increased. Big businesses, those corporate whores, stopped coddling the orange lame duck and embraced the president-elect and his environmental-friendly agenda.
The skies turned a healthy blue. The birds began to sing, the bees started to buzz. Democrats became giddy as the president-elect picked highly qualified, rather than ironic, candidates for his pandemic taskforce and cabinet. I had to temper my overreaction to hearing politicians and appointees speak in full, competent sentences on subjects where they were experts. After all, this was how the office of POTUS had become internationally respected in the first place.
Nonetheless, if I had any lingering superstitious feelings about Friday the 13th, the transformative year of 2020 has obliterated that. Many of the illusions have been necessarily torn down, thanks to Rona.