Dana Milbank, a regular columnist for the Washington Post shares this in his article addressing the heinous incidents of “zoombombing” taking place across the country:
Rabbi Jeremy Kridel, whose flock in the capital includes several members of my family, was leading a recent Shabbat service for Humanistic Jews. About 10 minutes into the service, one man unmuted himself and started shouting “Jewish scum” and “Heil Hitler.” Before he could be blocked from the call, he lifted up his shirt to reveal a large swastika tattooed on his chest.
Other hooligans began interrupting, and while the rabbi shut down the virtual service, another man dropped his pants on camera. Remarked Kridel: “This is just another indication of the fact that the current crisis isn’t the only one we face.”
As disruptive as this crisis has become, it is incumbent upon us to remember that we face other social sicknesses which we cannot ignore. Perhaps, as we settle in to our new norms of social distancing and quarantine to ride out the worst of this pandemic, we must (re)focus on other underlying, chronic, social illnesses.
And it is not as if social issues such as racial inequalities do not compound the current crisis. All one needs to do is look at this repost from Austin Channing Brown alongside the breakdown in mortality rates in terms of ethnicity from Covid-19 and it is clear the contours of the epidemic follow the fissures of racial and economic injustice.
Wash your hands. Stay Safe. Be kind. Normally I’d say this is a marathon, not a sprint, but perhaps triathlon would be a more apt metaphor, as there are multiple races here to be run.
