Our twin grandkids reminded me last night that next week will be one year since covid closed the High School they were going to. They remembered it was supposed to be two weeks of staying home, and no one should wear a mask. We were living in New Mexico at the time, and that state is now only opening up 25 percent, and that is not for everything. School there is still closed, and will be all this year. It's a state run by Democrats. Teachers don't want to teach because the union tells them that they have leverage. They want all the children to get the shots, first, even though these shots have not been approved for children. We lived that food shortage, food lines, stay in the house nightmare from March to July. Moved to Kansas, a red state. Kids are in high school. Little one in grade school. The older ones have a weekend job. The have extra curricular activities: Bible study youth group night, tennis after school, and the track team for the other one. Our hospital has no covid patients in it. The hospital is our next closest town of over 40 thousand people.
What a horrible year. Our New Mexico friends and family have been through so much, and it has changed them into people that they don't want to be. A year of this has devastated most of the businesses, except of course, for the really big ones. Mom and pop businesses have left, and Walmart remains. Those jobs are gone, too, and gone for good. There are a few smart states that remain, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas. They allowed (ha ha allowed) their citizens to work, to feed their families, to own and operate a business at full capacity.
I still remember the shock I had when I came to live here and left New Mexico. Where is the hour long food line I have to stand in just to shop. My cousins here thought I'd lost my mind.
My mother in law and sister in law in California have been staying at home for a year now. Sometimes they don't want to talk on the phone they are so depressed. No Thanksgiving, no Christmas for them. No anything. A year of this changes everybody. They'll agree to anything just to have a little bit of freedom to visit a friend, to get a hug. To be a normal human being again. Prayers for these states that have to continue living this way.