THE OTHER SIDE OF COVID -19
            What will our country, what will our world look like?

Stephen King reflects:  He has a vision, a frightening vision.  He puts it out there in:            THE STAND....and it is 'coming out'.. ............(Last, Dr. Tony Fauci, John Lewis.).

    King: He  has put it all out there in an exclusive preview, a new limited video series, a 9-episode run.. It was already already in progress BEFORE the word 'COVID-19' virus was known to anyone.
      Filming was not quite complete when the Corona virus hit us. They had to rush, to hurry production to get it done!             It is based, of all things, his 1978 book, called 'The Stand'. A global Pandemic takes all but a fraction of human life..When there are no rules. What track do survivors take? 
  
      Does it indulge dark, selfish instincts - becoming a dystopian, cold society, one run and controlled by a diabolical few: "We know what is right now for us all. We will make the world right again...for you.' Or, do we do what is right, right for the sake of all others?   In the last 100 years, we have seen both models:'The Thousand Year Reich'..... for one example was one model...We have seen the US as the World Leader for decades.

     CBS will air it later this year in the shadow.of...the real thing, a global Pandemic. King said: "I want to write about bravery."...... At some point (and this writer 'loved this line': .."At some point, we people do 'have to take a stand'!... To me, Ol' KH,  in the twilight of my life, the 'crepesculo de vida', ......that meant that we cannot just sit by and become victims.

     Yep. This is a dark story... ('surprise'!).....However...(good news)...King has layered in reassuring themes along with some very terrifying ones. He says: "It is all about the fundamental questions of what society owes the individual and what we owe to each other."

     Parallels will be drawn to today, but what happens in The Stand is catastrophically worse than anything we have seen in this COVID time now, killing more than 99% of the population.

      Aha! Survivors are drawn to the 108 year old Mother Abigail  (Whoopi Goldberg),  for she has endured the worse the world has to offer and has kept her strength and empathy intact. She has a dark and sinister counterpart, a demon named Randall Flagg. With warring tribes arising out of the ashes, it looks like the prophecy of Armageddon will be fulfilled. There is the young pregnant, 20 year old, Fran, pregnant during the time of the Pandemic. Fran is immune to the virus - but what about her baby? King, first, scares the hell out of us...sooo successfully..

     Director Benjamin Cavell, said, "It is hard to know what our world will feel like when The Stand begins its 9-episode run....... Over the years, we have sort of taken for granted the structure of Democracy..... Now, so much has been ripped 'down to the studs' - It is interesting to see a story about people who are rebuilding it ...from the ground up."

                OPTIMIST HERE!  ...(I admit, it very hard at times) - but then, we have role models, Ummm, Like John Lewis and Tony Fauci..)..
                        Today...a 'near' out of body experience:
       I have never written or posted two blogging-Articles 2-3 days apart ....However.....it was an incident early this afternoon that was the 'sudden motivator! ....I was doing pretty good this weekend ....until
    IMAGINE!, someone in your extended family, coming for short hour visit, someone you particularly like. A cordial visit: someone we have not seen for almost a year....(no political talk..),..but this peson does mention . 'The COVID 'THING' ...and then says..."I have a mask, but I don't wear it. I have it,..IF someone absolutely requires it..But so much of this is really a hoax, an 'unjustified hysteria'. (Next):.."I honestly believe the hospitals 'are lying' about how many virus cases they have...for example,..'We now 'now know' 'they are counting every hospital admission, cuts, broken arms, whatever,... 'in the COVID totals."...Florita and I just glanced at each other...(....not done!): ..."I think, ....and almost all my friends agree,... these 'so called scientists 'have so twisted and so greatly exaggerated the virus danger, it makes me sick..I never put much faith in  science anyway.".....Ta-dah!...We changed the subject. The person 'took note?'.The words 'president' or 'Trump' were never uttered once.

     I believe in Dr. Tony Fauci and, that one day there will be more 'golden sunrises', but first, in this 2020 ending, and in 2021 early...there  will be very painful memories....The 'new day' it is coming .. one of hope and aspiration, one where Black Lives finally do matter - (much more) , and the same for our Hispanic friends, an all immigrants and nationalities who buy into and respect the history of America and what it can be and will be for ALL. Prejudices... like we are seeing..never die...seems they will be here forever- We are not going to 'change them'....We just have been better than 'them'..and in control of our government, protect it always and also all of our hallowed traditional institutions: The LAW, above all.

.........I yearn for the return of law where law is respected, our institutions are respected. Where everyone is treated equally. As  country, we have our warts, our flaws - as Winston Churchill noted so famously: "..Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time..."..been tried from time.".............Winston S Churchill, 11 November 1947 

          With it all, I know we will not only come out of this, (too painfully, at first..) before our US world gets much better......To quote a favorite line from a  movie: One that I sincerely hope is not the case in our world, but in 'some cases':  What was broken in there, can never be put back together!"