The US Is a Tomb for the Elderly, the Poor and Minorities

Published in Huanqiu Times
(China) on 28 May 2020
by Dan Renping (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Tyler Ruzicka. Edited by Patricia Simoni.
The number of deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. passed 100,000 on Wednesday. This is the superpower's greatest shame in over a century. It reflects the decline of the American political system and the government's open malfeasance, but there have been no imprisonments or depositions of any officials because of it.

On Thursday morning, hours after the deaths reached 100,000, President Trump posted a tweet that was slow in coming, expressing his "sympathy and love." It was clearly for show. A few hours before the number hit 100,000, the U.S. stock market closed high on all fronts. U.S. mainstream media reported prominently on the figure, but their voices were largely lost amid the busyness of daily U.S. affairs. Overall, the country passed the special 100,000-death mark with relative calm and apparent political indifference.

Previously, President Trump predicted that only 50,000 or 60,000 Americans would die, and later said that it would be 70,000 to 80,000. His newest statement was that 100,000 deaths was the result of exceptional work by his administration; otherwise, there could have been 1 or 2 million American deaths.

For the past few days, the focus of the U.S. government has been to attack China's Hong Kong national security law. There has been cross-partisan support in Congress on this issue. They have been awfully busy preparing to sanction China. While a huge failing of human rights has occurred in the U.S., they are deeply concerned for Hong Kong's human rights and freedom.

The Republican-led government successfully diverted the American public's attention, turning China's formulation of the Hong Kong national security bill into a more sensational story than the deaths of 100,000 Americans. Officials need only to speak harshly of China and prove that they are making efforts to "punish" the People's Republic of China, and their blame to bear for the failure of the pandemic response in the U.S. seems to shrink.

What they want right now is to strike up sparks of anti-Chinese sentiment to blind and confuse the public. It's an attempt to make Americans believe that currently the greatest human rights tragedy in the world is happening in Hong Kong, not in the U.S., where 100,000 people have already lost their lives because of COVID-19.

The flag of social Darwinism is flying high in America, while humanitarianism sits in a corner collecting dust. Today's U.S. is allowing the elderly and poor to die; it has reasons to ignore them in order to make America great again.

One hundred thousand deaths is more than the total American military deaths from the Korean and Vietnam Wars combined, but because the lives stolen by the coronavirus are also the most silenced voices in the U.S., their deaths are now, in reality, being considered a "reasonable price" for breaking out of economic hardship.

With no grief for the deaths of 100,000 people, and with no reliable plan to prevent more deaths, the government is collectively and openly promoting an approach to let nature take its course, killing as many as it may. Watching from afar, the Chinese people truly never imagined that the developed nation we once looked up to was like this all along. What shocks us more is that even this situation hasn't had any effect on how the country's political elites reprimand China, which has successfully saved more lives, for destroying human rights.

It's truly hard to discern if they are just pretending, or if they truly believe that 100,000 deaths is a small crime, while China's Hong Kong national security bill is unpardonable. To sum it up, the U.S. is politically prejudiced beyond common sense. Even 100,000 deaths couldn’t shock the system back to reality.

The political parties' games have led to collective American cognitive prejudice. Washington lectures the world on human rights and morality, but nobody there has pointed out the truth of what's happening right now: Today's U.S. is a tomb for the elderly, the poor and minorities.


单仁平:美国是老弱、穷人、少数族裔的坟墓

美国新冠肺炎死亡人数星期三突破了10万,这是美国这个超级大国一个多世纪以来最大的耻辱。它反映了美国政治制度的衰败,政府公然渎职,却没有官员因此坐牢或被革职。

特朗普总统只是在死亡人数破10万十几个小时后的第二天,也就是美国时间星期四的上午发了一条姗姗来迟的推特,表达“同情和爱”,明显是应付。星期三在死亡人数达到十万前几个小时,美国股市全线收高闭市。美国主流媒体突出报道了这个数字,但它们的声音还是夹在美国忙碌的日程中被大大冲淡了。总体上看,那个国家相当平静地度过了十万人死亡的特殊节点,它在政治上显得无动于衷。

此前特朗普总统曾经预测美国只死五六万人,后来又说七八万人,他的最新说法是,死10万人是他领导的政府出色工作的结果,因为否则的话美国可能死的是一二百万人。


美国政府这两天的焦点和国会两党共同支持的议题都是攻击中国的涉港国安立法,他们在为“制裁中国”忙得不亦乐乎。在美国的人权出现大漏洞的时候,他们对香港的“人权与自由”充满了关切。

共和党政府成功主导了美国公众的注意力,使得中国制定涉港国安法比美国死10万人更加轰动。那些高官们只要对中国说狠话,证明自己在为“惩罚中国”下力气,他们对美国抗疫失败应负的责任就似乎小了很多。

他们要的就是在这个时间点上擦出这样的对华冲突火花,照盲人们的眼睛,搞乱公众的心绪,试图让美国人糊里糊涂地以为,当下世界最大的人权悲剧真的发生在香港,而不是已有10万人因为新冠疫情失去生命的美国。

社会达尔文主义的旗帜正在美国高高飘扬,人道主义则像一个墙角的花瓶落满了尘土。让老弱去死,让穷人去死,今天的美国有理由为了实现“再次伟大”而顾不上他们。

十万人这个数字高于美国在朝鲜战争和越南战争中死亡军人的总和,但因为新冠病毒夺去的是美国最没有话语权的人的生命,他们的死亡正被美国实际当成摆脱经济困境的“合理代价”。

没有因为死亡10万人的痛心疾首,没有防止死更多人的可信计划,政府在公然推动“死多少人顺其自然”的集体态度,远远地看着美国,中国人真没有想到那个我们曾经仰望的最发达国家原来是这个样子。更让我们吃惊的是,都这样了,一点也没有影响那个国家政治精英斥责成功保护了更多人生命的中国如何“破坏”人权。

真的有些搞不清楚,他们是虚伪装出来的,还是真的就觉得死10万人的罪恶很小,而中国制定涉港国安法就是“罪不可恕”。总之,美国已经在政治上偏执得突破了常识和常理,十万条生命都唤不醒那个体制对实事求是的回归。

政党政治游戏导致了美国集体认知的偏执。华盛顿向全球讲人权,宣道义,那里却没有人指出一个正在发生的事实,那就是:如今的美国是老弱、穷人以及少数族裔的坟墓。(作者是环球时报评论员)
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