Has the Pandemic Changed Us?
One of the most shocking and saddest stories of the pandemic era was reported in a brief story in USA TODAY a few weeks ago.
“A COVID-19 patient at a California hospital allegedly struck and killed his roommate with an oxygen tank because he was upset when the victim started to pray,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday.
“Jesse Martinez, 37, has been arrested on suspicion of a hate crime murder and elder abuse,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “The victim, an 82-year-old Hispanic man, was sharing a two-person room with Martinez at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster in northern Los Angeles County.
“’The men, who didn’t know each other, were both receiving treatment for COVID-19,” according to the department. The victim died the day after the attack.
Affected His Mental Health?
The story is shocking in that a person could bring himself to kill an elderly man in such a fashion. It’s sad and hard to be too harsh in judging the perpetrator knowing that he was also sick, his illness perhaps affecting his mental health, and obviously unable to tolerate his roommate’s prayers.
Even for those of us who profess a religion, it’s sometimes hard to tolerate the religious intrusion of others. You have to wonder whether the perpetrator had asked the man not to pray or to do so silently. Was the elderly man unaware of his surroundings, or if he was asked not to pray out-loud, did he forget? These circumstances, of course, don’t justify murder, but I couldn’t find answers to these questions online.
However, the answer to the question asked in the title of this blog is, in my opinion, “No,” if you mean that the pandemic has changed us for the worse. It has undoubtedly changed us in subtle, and not so subtle, ways. But I believe it has mostly brought out the good in people as crises usually do. The incident at Antelope Valley Hospital has been offset by thousands – maybe millions – of stories about people taking extraordinary measures to help others during the pandemic.
“Ordinary” People
I found this one on the CBS News web site, a story about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, about 10-year-old Riley Kraft and his parents, Chris and Suzie Kraft, who own a meat locker in Ruthven, IA.
“My parents have not stopped working since the pandemic started…,” said Riley.
They knew farmers needed to sell their livestock and Americans needed reasonably priced meat. Besides making sure their employees had comfortable masks to stay protected, Chris and Suzie gave everyone bonus pay for their hard work. They gave out meat bundles to people in need, and when other small businesses temporarily closed, the Krafts bought gift cards to help out.
For people searching for God in the Judeo-Christian tradition, this attitude and these actions are the heart of the matter. We acquire and maintain faith not just by thinking and believing, but by doing.
Brothers and Sisters
“’At this moment in history,’ said Pope Francis in his Christmas message, ‘marked by the ecological crisis and grave economic and social imbalances only worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, it is all the more important for us to acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters.’
“Pope Francis spoke of the need to be generous, supportive and helpful,” according to the Voice of America website, “especially towards those who are vulnerable, the sick, those unemployed or experiencing hardship due to the economic effects of the pandemic, and women who have suffered domestic violence during these months of lockdown.”
Pope Francis, in my opinion, always seems to be able to hone in on what matters most.
