Love brought me to Green Bay and hope is keeping me here. However, Sen. Ron Johnson’s recent op-ed calling for more “perspective” during this coronavirus crisis has left me feeling frustrated and fearful. In his piece, Sen. Johnson urged readers to “evaluate the total societal cost of this awful disease” and reminded us that “death is an unavoidable part of life.” I’d like to see a bit more empathy and leadership, senator.
My husband, William, and I were a seemingly unlikely pair from the beginning — him the son of two generations of Wisconsin dairy farmers and me the son of a teenage single mother from an East Coast manufacturing town. We met for drinks one June evening in western Massachusetts and fell in love over a debate about who is the greatest Green Bay Packers quarterback.
In addition to our mutual love of the Green and Gold, we would also come to learn about our shared passion for public service — him serving as an emergency room physician and me as a progressive policy activist. And thanks to a great opportunity with a Brown County health system, six years later, we found ourselves packing up our belongings and moving into an apartment within a stone’s throw of Lambeau Field.
Green Bay is incredible — a small city with big city ambition. As someone who has always been passionate about uplifting marginalized communities, it was refreshing to see a mayor and a local chamber of commerce pushing to make the city more inclusive and a place where longtime Green Bay families can build on their legacies and new residents have the opportunity to create their own. In most places I’ve lived, these are unlikely allies. But like so many things in Green Bay, the focus here is centered on bringing our communities together, not picking winners and losers. Unfortunately, however, if others in Washington, D.C. follow the lead of Sen. Johnson, that is exactly what is going to start happening in our hospitals and health centers across the Badger State and throughout the country.
As I write this, William is working on the frontlines at the hospital across town. And just like his colleagues across the country, he is already having to ration his personal protective equipment, unsure when they’ll receive a new shipment of face masks and gowns. Meanwhile, health care workers and first responders aren’t the only ones on the front lines. Grocery store clerks, farmers and delivery drivers are risking their own health and safety each day to serve our communities.
Policymakers must support their efforts by providing adequate resources to health care workers and basic protections to low-wage workers. State and local governments are doing their part to provide resources to their residents. Our federal policymakers must be working in lockstep with them, not attempting to justify potentially hundreds of thousand of American deaths in the name of our economy.
The only economic context worth noting at this moment is how policies championed by President Trump and Sen. Johnson were the kindling that allowed this current crisis to burn hotter than it otherwise would have. Between their tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected, the free passes given to Wall Street to load up on debt and take risks, blocking every attempt to pass paid leave while dismantling the Affordable Care Act, or cutting investments in disease prevention and other public health priorities — they have prioritized the interests of the powerful over working people and families. And now we are all paying the price.
I agree with Sen. Johnson on one thing — perspective matters. It just depends whose you prioritize. My perspective is that of someone suffering through sleepless nights, worrying my husband doesn’t have the resources needed to both save patient lives and protect his own. When William scrubs in, he’s not pondering economic theories through his head in order to determine whether this patient is worth saving. He’s not declaring that death is just a part of life right before he starts a long shift trying to save people’s loved ones. It’d be great if some politicians had the same perspective.
Amaad Rivera-Wagner, Green Bay, is a regional lead with Opportunity Wisconsin, a coalition of Wisconsin residents fighting for an economy that works for working people.
Story originally published by The Cap Times.