In these troubling times, I have something unfortunate to admit: I used to not like Gavin Newsom. No, it wasn’t because of anything regarding his values as a leader. If I had to judge his first year in office (2019), I would say that he’s been there for the most part, willing to take on the tough fights to make California a better state. In that time we’ve battled wildfires, homelessness, droughts, and all of the other familiar conflicts that we’ve had. If nothing else, I felt like he has been a more effective leader than his predecessor Jerry Brown – though that’s largely because I keep wondering why the presidential campaign reject keeps running for California Governor. I think he’s gotten it out of his system at this point.
So what was so wrong with Newsom? It’s something that makes me sound like Clint Eastwood, pointing a gun at my phone and saying “Get off my (digital) lawn!”
You know that the times are changing when a political campaign isn’t one you remember with TV ads or throwaway flyers in the mail. I’m sure that Newsom did that, but as a Democrat looking to get the youth vote, it makes sense why he went for the internet superhighway, pulling off everywhere he could to raise his profile. It was impossible to not know his name with the way he seemed to be everywhere, like a pop-up ad that you had to read before getting back to your article.
But to me, there was something annoying about how he handled his run. His team would anonymously send out text messages to everyone asking us to “get out the vote.” It would be one thing if you received one of these, but as is the case with many people that I know, there was a constant barrage of similar messages, all coming from unknown numbers. There was no organization to it, except that it created the sense that if we elected Newsom, we would be receiving insufferable messages like this every time a bill got passed. I understood the Amber Alerts.
If there was an emergency, we deserved to be informed, but dealing with Newsom felt like he was going to just stick around. Even thinking about Barrack Obama’s social media-conscious presidential campaign in 2008 wasn’t this annoying, if just because there was some distance between his goals and my contact information. Every time I saw Newsom on TV, I would think to myself “Why don’t you text it out instead?” No matter how much time passed and he took on issues with class, he could never be good because I remembered how annoying those text messages were…
Something has changed in recent months. In a lot of respects, I have come to admire a leader who is this transparent. None of us would have expected COVID-19 to be as bad as it is. The whole event is so surreal that it’s caused me many days of anxiety, feeling hopeless. I turn on the news and feel disappointed in the federal government. In a time where we need a strong leader, an average rollout plan has to be fact-checked for accuracy. There is no room for confidence when realizing that those in charge failed to take all necessary precautions. While I can’t speak globally, in the United States there was a time when we could’ve prepared and didn’t. One can’t help but imagine how much less the damage would be. Nobody would ever know.
But, with those mistakes now in the past, we have no choice but to make the most of the road ahead. I can’t comment on everything that’s happened. I have found myself finding comfort in only consuming an hour of news a night right now. I need to have that space in order to maintain my sanity. That’s in large part because any obsession I have will cause my autism will to be overwhelmed, and that does nobody any good. The truth is that I can handle (in an abstract sense) hearing that hundreds and thousands are dying every night. I can deal with Anthony Fauci claiming that the worst is ahead. It’s just that I need mental care for the other 23 hours to balance my emotions.
There is a tidal wave of reasons why this is a scary time. You hear about hospitals not having enough supplies. The east coast has been hit especially hard while other places stick up their middle fingers and have social gatherings anyways. How do you make sense of it all when the response to the immediate needs has been slow? Evidence has shown internationally that countries that have self-quarantined have had cases go down, so why has the United States been so slow to respond?
This is a moment that is impossible to not sound boastful, especially when all of our lives are on the line. I don’t mean this to sound like California is any better, but in some ways it makes you admire Newsom more.
As a man who already proved how transparent he would be from an annoying campaign, he found ways to do something that other governors or leaders couldn’t do. He communicated thoroughly and bluntly about why COVID-19 wasn’t just a fad that would pass with Zika and Ebola. It was a full-on epidemic, killing people by triple and even quadruple digits by the day. Action needed to be done swiftly, and I think that between Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, there was an immediate push. Most of all their clarity allowed for confidence in leadership that was sorely missing on the federal level at this time.
Most of us know the drill now. It started with asking the elderly to self-quarantine before expanding to everyone. There have been rules put into place for grocery stores to limit purchases, even making early hours geared at older shoppers to avoid any panic. Considering that some places saw lines balloon into hour-long waits, the need to organize these industries was definitely important. Small things like this need to be done eventually, and it feels like California was ahead of the curve.
In fact, they were in one regard. Because of Garcetti and then Newsom, there was a requirement that all non-essential businesses would be shut down. Everyone needed to stay six feet apart.
It’s all stuff we already know about, but it’s something that can be taken for granted. If you don’t even take in an hour of news, you may miss out on why any of this matters. It may seem stupid that California is self-quarantining. However, I encourage you to watch the news and understand how severe this is. Even innocent acts like attending church have become grounds for spreading the virus, as seen when an entire choir caught COVID-19 despite standing six feet apart. The slow dwindle from crowds of 100 to crowds of 50 and now 0 may seem dramatic, but it has definitely made certain things more tolerable.
Yes, I hate that I can’t jump out to a movie theater right now and escape my worries. There’s even a part of me that’s worried to go for a walk for fear of either running into that one person or getting fined for missing some new protocol that I don’t know.
However, I want you to consider what California being the first state to self-quarantine has done. It’s one of the most densely populated states in the country. It’s several times the size of many other states, and yet things have been going fairly well. I’m not saying that we’ve avoided contracting cases or deaths. What I’m saying is that because of having a leader who is predicting that the worse is ahead, preparation has already been put into place. There has been a concerted effort to get supplies where they are needed.
Despite the obstacles, there have only been 450 deaths of the 17,620 (as of noon on April 8, 2020) with 307 recoveries. This is far from perfect, but the fact that the numbers are on the lower side of cases is encouraging. It means that the few weeks of effort are already showing some progress. Newsom believes that we haven’t reached the peak yet, but all of the precautions have made that number much, much smaller.
It helps that he has also made resources available that the federal government hasn’t. Following one of his daily speeches this past Sunday, he announced a website that would provide information to those wanting supplies. He also had forms for companies willing to help provide things such as medical supplies and food. In recent news, Newsom has gone so far as to claim that he’s planning to have 200 million masks imported with the potential to provide them to other states who have so sorely needed them.
In what may be the most ridiculous part of this, the medical supplies haven’t been distributed where needed. According to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, many states are bidding on supplies instead of getting them in this time of emergency. Many have turned to making their own medical safety supplies. There have even been taco joints doing this. That’s how much the public is stepping up where the federal isn’t. In this time of uncertainty, you have to take a moment to appreciate the good in the world.
I don’t even know that this is the end of things. I am sure that there will be new obstacles to face in the days, weeks, and months ahead. We will need to overcome obstacles that show their face and demand immediate answers. We will need a leader who will look at it and not blow it off, believing it to be a hoax. They need to put the least of us first.
That is the kind of confidence I have in Newsom. It makes me feel pride to know that for whatever problems he’s given me in the past, he rose up to a challenge. As we see other states drag their feet to obvious forms of safety, there is some relief that we’re not in that condition. Our percentages are much lower than they could be. Even if he goes back to annoy me with those text messages, I will be relieved that he used his platform not to put down people he disagrees with, but prop up important information that we need at this moment. There is a confidence I have when his daily speeches start that I miss with other figures.
To everyone else, I wish you the best. I’m sure three are other great leaders out there, doing everything in their power to make the world a better place. It’s in times like this that I have come to admire a leader who puts aside ego. Newsom has publicly owned any fault in California’s handling of the matters. He is constantly moving forward to find long-term solutions. In a time where my anxiety has been at its worst in quite a few years, I am thankful that there are people out there that make me a little bit more reassured that things may get better instead of acting like there was never a problem.
So if you have local leaders who are going above and beyond to make this time safer, I’d love to hear about them. There are obviously so many other forces besides Newsom that deserve shout-outs. It’s everyone who works at grocery stores and hospitals, in medical labs looking for a cure, delivery men (thanks for risking your health just to send my book out), and other officials who make the world more stable. I’m glad that it hasn’t fallen into total chaos, and it’s because of people like you.
As a Long Beach, CA resident, I also want to thank Mayor Robert Garcia for his work on a local level. We all are doing our part and hopefully, we’ll be a better society when this is all over because we recognize the generosity that all of these people have brought. I hope you’re doing what you can as well, even if it’s babysitting or picking up food for your grandma. In times like this, it’s easy to get caught up in the negative (deaths, illnesses, lack of supplies, etc.), but that’s to ignore how much is being done to keep it from being worse. I’m thankful to live in a state where so much has been done to make things better, and I can only hope the same can be said for you.
Comments
Post a Comment