Invitation To Carnival
An original acrylic painting, on primed canvas panel
24" X 20", unframed
( click on image to enlarge )
"To be, or not to be?" That was the question that Shakespeare's Hamlet posed for
himself, and that life-or-death question is still the one which remains for us today,
although in a slightly different form. Now the debate asks, "To mask, or not to mask?".
Masks seem to have become as much of a political issue as they are a beneficial
means of reducing the spread of the pandemic. The irrational refusal of some people
to comply with such a sensible precaution, seems to be increasing exponentially with
the surging rise of infections and deaths. The most shocking examples are the reports
of people entering stores and brandishing weapons, demanding to shop without the
inconvenience of wearing masks.
The madness of crowds is also still evident in some areas, despite the efforts of
some governors to restore a shutdown of bars and clubs. Our nightly newscasts
continue to show us examples of happily, oblivious party-goers and revelers, gathered
in crowds, without a sign of masks. When these new groups are questioned about
their irresponsible behavior, they tend to proclaim that they have the constitutional and
God-given right to risk their lives in any manner they choose. Again, they don't seem
to give any thought to the notion that their actions could put other people's lives in
danger, nor do they question what kind of God it would be, who would condone
their possible transmission of this lethal disease to dozens of their fellow party-goers.
Some unbelievable examples of this kind of stupidity, are the stories about the people
who attend "covid-19 parties", where the first one in the group to catch the virus is the
"winner". If we did not know it was true we would swear it was fiction. It sounds a bit
like some kind of drunken, Russian roulette game, where a revolver, with only one of it's
bullet-chambers loaded, is given a spin and passed around to see which man would get
the final, fatal pull of the trigger.
One man who became seriously infected at one of the covid parties, said that he
had thought the disease was a hoax. We can all recall where he may have gotten that
warped idea. One of Donald Trump's first claims about the spread of the virus was
that it was a hoax, created by "the Dems", as a political attack on him. How insane does
a man have to be, to say that some mysterious, political entity created a world-wide
pandemic, just as a personal attack on him? And yet he still continues to try and hide the
truth about the growing danger to all of us, by weakening and hindering the work of the
Center For Disease Control, and making personal attacks our medical authorities, just
because they are telling us the truth about what we need to do, to slow the spread of the
disease.
Trump expresses no empathy for the victims of this cruel pandemic. His attitude
is much like that of the observations of Samuel Pepys during the Great Plague of
London ( 1665 - 1666 ). Pepys wrote in his diary, about the inconvenience to him,
of having to step over the bodies of plague victims, which would accumulate in the
streets at night. Because of that hazard, he tried to leave earlier from his government
office in the evenings, when there would be fewer corpses cluttering up his route home.
Trump continues to act like this disease is simply going to melt away, and that we're
all going to get back to normal, with everyone working, and the economy booming,
before the November elections. He doesn't talk about about the true nature of plagues.
The history of plagues shows us that they can linger for years, and then come back
again, in repeated waves of death and disaster. The Italian peninsula was struck by
outbreaks of plague in sixty eight percent of the years between 1348 and 1600.
There were twenty two outbreaks of plague in Venice between 1361 and 1528.
An especially deadly outbreak struck in the republic of Venice from 1478 to 1482.
During those years, in the Venice-an territories, well over three hundred thousand
people died.
Now, with Trump's encouragement, the madness continues. He holds his
no-mask political rallies, like a performing, court jester, where hundreds of people
can sit side by side to applaud his clownish inanities, while some giant amusement
parks are also opening to senseless crowds of people. It's party time!
So, come one, come all! Come to the party. It's Carnival! Don't sit at home!
Drop all your cares and worries and join in the fun. There's nothing to fear. Just drop
those masks and join all the people. Listen to the bands, drink the wine, spend some
money and have a good time.
"Welcome to Carnival!" ...........( Or should that be, "Welcome to Cabaret?",
and should I be singing that, in English, French and German? )
Oh, and by the way, don't pay any attention to the guy in the plague-doctor mask.
he's a real party-pooper!
Eugene P. McNerney
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