The COVID Crisis Continues

Is This The New Normal?

Had we rallied as a country around the threat that COVID-19 presented, we could have put it quickly behind us. We didn’t and it continues on.

“Crying, ‘freedom’

Handed to obsoletion

Still you feed us lies from the tablecloth”

- B.Y.O.B., System Of A Down

I am not supposed to be sitting at my computer right now. Instead, my wife and I are supposed to be headed to the Banc of California Stadium to see System Of A Down headline a concert that would also include Korn, Helmet, and Russian Circles. The show was originally supposed to take place on May 22, 2020, but then the world shut down and the show was rescheduled by one year. When the Delta Variant intervened and the concert was postponed to October 22. Last night it was announced that System’s singer, Serj Tankian, had tested positive for COVID-19 after exhibiting flu-like systems forcing another delay.

Had the show proceeded as re-planned, it would have been without the previously announced third headliner, Faith No More. Last month, Mike Patton, the singer of both Faith No More and Mr. Bungle announced that he was canceling tour dates through the end of the year to deal with “mental health reasons” that were “exacerbated by the pandemic”. Hopefully, the delay will give Patton the time to get himself well and the band will be added back to the bill.

With the exception of stadium employees, stage crew, and other workers who will feel the cancellation financially, the delay of the show is nothing but an inconvenience. This does not take away from the frustration that almost two years into this pandemic we have not been able to put it behind us. Science has given us the tools that we needed to emerge victoriously, but too many of us have decided that instead of waging war against the virus, this would become another battle in the culture wars. In doing so, the fragile feelings of…