Usually my morning smoothie, with a little bit of fruit, a lot of yogurt, a little bit of homemade jam, and a good shot of soy milk, gives me a boost and starts my day out right. But, this morning, I awoke realizing that my smoothie was missing a key ingredient.
Upon this realization, I pulled out the food processor determined to make things right. I put slightly less yogurt in the mix and a little bit of Lysol. I pressed the magic button on the base of the food processor and the ingredients almost immediately became one. I pulled off the lid and smelled. The Lysol definitely masked the smell of fresh fruit but that was the price I was willing to pay to find a way to kill any virus that may have crept into my mouth and GI tract overnight.
Tomorrow, I will put a little bleach into the mix.
Oh, I forgot. After I drink today's smoothie, I am unlikely to live until tomorrow.
A not so minor detail.
Sarcasm aside, the fact that the President of the United States just yesterday suggested that some form of ingested, injected, or otherwise absorbed form of disinfectant into the human body might be helpful in combatting COVID-19 is upsetting. Whether Mr. Trump's suggestion was a result of sarcasm, a slip of the tongue, an impulsive response, uninformed rhetoric, or a well-intentioned inquiry is largely irrelevant. Coming from anyone else, his comment would likely have been quickly disregarded and forgotten. Coming from someone in his position, though, it set off a flurry of urgent warnings from agencies, doctors, toxicologists concerned that some Americans might take the comment as license to experiment with Lysol, bleach, or otherwise while sheltering in place.
Yesterday's error reminds me of what happens when I make a mistake in teaching. Even the most minor of mistakes can snowball into poor exam scores, unnecessary hours lost in debugging labs, and misconceptions that follow students into future courses and cause ongoing frustration and pain. As college teachers, we all bear the responsibility of correcting our mistakes (and apologizing for them) as quickly as possible in order to prevent harm to students' education (and interviewing success!).
So, if I have to apologize and fix that semicolon I left out in a hundred lines of code I was explaining to students the other day, why is Mr. Trump not apologizing (in a compelling and humble) way to the American people today?
As I drank my (lysol and bleach free) smoothie, I pondered the answer to this question. As I transitioned into a deeper reverie, I experienced a deeper longing ... I longed for a true statesman in the President's chair. I questioned prayers that remained unanswered ... for someone who puts the health and well-being of the American people front and center and is able to deliver stable, compassionate, and credible messaging to a population that desperately needs it in the middle of a horrifying time in American history.
Our need for strong and caring leadership "at the top" is not an issue of political party, nor is it about underlying theology or about race/ethnicity, gender, or other demographic.
It's simply an issue of being human.
Leadership please.
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