500,000

Much is being made of crossing the number 500,000 in COVID-19 deaths yesterday.

Three thoughts:

One, this includes not just people dying of the coronavirus, but of people with the coronavirus and other comorbidities. US numbers are not consistent.

Two, China's numbers coming from a Communist government are not reliable, but the want-to-be Communists report them as if they are and as if this is reason to beat up on their own country.

Three, the language describing the number as being “mind-boggling” and “almost too large to grasp” represent difficulty in understanding and personalizing the tragedy.

We need to apply this language to another tragedy willfully imposed on ourselves as a nation. If 500,000 in a year is a tragedy, what about that many every year for half a century?

Many people, such as about half the population of the United States, close themselves off from that number entirely. They rationalize this happening and justify it by establishing their own form of righteousness so they can believe this is not a problem.

It is a problem. One day, that false standard of righteousness will crumble. One day, the full weight of that number will be seen as mind-boggling and almost too large to grasp.

It is not unlike war. That kind of loss of life is never unlike war. During World War II, word was getting out about similarly high numbers of lives being lost. It wasn't until the war was won and Allied forces uncovered the gravity of the situation that the full weight of the immense loss was truly felt.

The numbers in the US alone are 10 times that loss.

Did it take winning a larger war in order to stop the war within?

Are we losing the war within because we've surrendered our weapon?