I was on a Zoom catch-up with a friend today, and we were talking about the upcoming American presidential election and how something as basic as wearing a mask during a global pandemic has become politicized. The CDC employee morale is at an all-time low; they never thought their work would be considered “left wing” or “democrat” — their work was simply about health and safety — or so they thought. Scientists are being accused of putting the public in danger because they won’t grant fast approval for a potential COVID-19 vaccine — umm, this is considered a bad thing? Vaccines typically take years and years to develop, yet a certain leader wants them to be approved and potentially distributed in October, which just happens to be right before the election; no conflict of interest, right?

I lamented these issues to my friend, and she said what I’ve been getting infuriated about all along: “You’re in the only country in the world who would think this way or succumb to a leader like that. And you know why, right? The people in your country do not even understand its own history, which is unlike any other country on earth. Therefore, if they are ignorant of their own history, they have no way of not repeating past mistakes and improving upon them. I’m so sorry.”

I’m sorry, too. Really, really sorry.