This morning I do not want to write more about the coronavirus.  I prefer a session with a philosophy book, America by Jean Baudrillard.  The pandemic leaves one emotionally drained, by the disruption in daily life, — more so after hearing recent developments in the South and West.  What to write is not entirely up to the writer.

According to a New York Times article of today’s Sunday issue the virus is roaring back.  States whose governors decided to go ahead and open the economy in stages, even though the states had not yet met the less than stringent guidelines proposed by the Trump administration, are showing spikes in reported coronavirus infection.  Many of these states have Republican Governors with fealty to President Trump. 

New virus cases were on the rise in 29 states on Friday as the outlook worsened across much of the nation’s South and West.

On Saturday, Florida reported more than 9,500 new coronavirus cases, beating its record for the second consecutive day. At least 980 new cases were added in Nevada, more than double the state’s previous daily high. And in South Carolina, officials announced more than 1,600 new cases, nearly 300 more than the previous record, set a day before.

— excerpt, After Asking Americans to Sacrifice in Shutdown, Leaders Failed to Control Virus, NYT by Sabrina Tavernese, Frances Robles, and Louis Keene

In order read the entire Times article CLICK HERE.

Undeterred I reviewed several recently read pages in America.  These words seem prescient, written in 1986, brutally relevant to our present situation.  Nature is not to be discounted, regarded as in our employ, subject to our whim.

…on the lawn,
the American squirrels tell us
all is well,
that America is kind to animals,
to itself,
and to the rest of the world,
and that in everyone’s heart
there is a slumbering squirrel.
The whole Walt Disney philosophy
eats out of your hand
with these pretty little sentimental creatures
in grey fur coats.

For my own part, I believe
that behind these smiling eyes there lurks,
a cold, ferocious beast, fearfully stalking us….

On the same lawn with the squirrels
stands a sign put there
by some society or other of Jesus:
‘Vietnam, Cambodia, Lebanon, Grenada –
we are a violent society in a violent world.’

Excerpt, America, by Jean Baudrillard p. 48