2020 brought to light the INTRANSIGENT nurse. This year was ushered by the unforeseen- the unexpected, unpredicted, unanticipated eruption of COVID-19, which brought a seismic wave of panic, fear the world over, and brought every nation’s economy to a grinding halt. While it looks like the virus can run a government aground, due to incompetence and ineptness, rising to the occasion to save a nation are the unsung heroes in scrubs. YES – the nurses, along with other health care providers, are at the forefront of this war. Geared up to a bare minimum of PPEs, giving them a modicum of confidence in keeping themselves safe, they bravely trudge over the fear and the virus with sheer tenacity, determination, and dedication to the call of duty. Their assiduity to the crisis has left a profound and moving picture of the BEST of humanity – a picture that will be etched in our memory of memories forever.
COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus which left health organizations around the globe scrambling for a cure. It is a war with the unknown and yet, unknown it may be, the nurses are in the battle armed with strength of character, sharp awareness of their ethical responsibility and a dogged resistance to give up in the face of great uncertainty of one’s own safety.
Nurses are …
Noble. Nurses are not blue-blooded by birth but has patrician ideals and aspirations – that is, to serve. Nurses are hell-bent, driven, purposeful and intentional – to do the right thing.
Undeterred. Nurses remain steadfast in the face of setbacks. They remain to be the voice of reason amidst the noise of the government who make emphatic declarations that are seemingly plausible but wrong – statements simply aired to give their actions a specious appearance of novelty and a tinge of humanity because there is none.
Regal. Geared up not in a ritzy way yet, they conduct their duty in an exalted, august manner.
Spartan. Nurses are people of great courage. They give up their security to save humanity.
Energetic campaigner for the vulnerable and the defenseless. They go on the offensive to defend the helpless. Creative, Ingenious. Resourceful.
As unforeseen as this crisis may have been, COVID-19 has not predicted 2020-2021 to be the year of the nurse either. The COVID-19 virus may seem relentless but it is no match to the unshakable spirit and intelligent mind of the INTRANSIGENT nurse. Nurses have the Midas touch… nurses act to complete humanity. To all my fellow NURSES on the frontline, I wave the flag of victory! You deserve the highest of honors! To you, my HATS OFF!
“It is fake news.” … that is the loud, common cry of the many. In a society where the majority rules and the ones with the loudest roar make waves to suspend the truth. Where facts seem to cease to exist because the multitudes ignore it. Where wrong rebuffs its own pretense to be congruent to the cognitive dissonance of the masses. Where wanting to be liked has become the prevailing social norm. Where lying has been normalized by the media and has become the new world order. Where the powerful and the privileged lie too often enough it becomes the truth to many who believes – not because it is so but solely because the bulk of the populace believes it to be true. Where, in a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act. Where speaking the truth becomes blasphemous to those who righteously claim to be Christians. Christians who rerouted the way of speaking the truth in love by disseminating fear in a cacophony of subversive fibs. Where wadded up falsities, hypocrisy, and irony are stitched together to create an artistic quilt of flattery, illusion, manipulation, and control of the senses – stripping the many of their power of self-determination. Brainwashed – a paralysis of reason and logic sets in.
When a preponderance of men gets bedazzled by the cock and bull story of somebody so lightweight, then society resigns to live in mendacity – a world connected without truth. Danger and impending peril to the pillars of institutional and constitutional norms loom in the horizon as the viral twisted social construct of truth remains unimpeded. So, with collected bated breath we await with great apprehension the destruction of everything we behold – but often minimalized and trivialized in its value – our FREEDOM.
With a conflated false sense of valor and a screwed command of reality, the many amongst us relegated their power of sensible self-governance to be commandeered by their bold disobedience to TRUTH – to do the unthinkable. A bewildered nation stood still in disbelief as the sacred cradle of our very existence as a nation of men dedicated to the ideals of equality, justice, and freedom got desecrated by no less our own. Yet. Yet, our Constitution survived the grave assault on its legitimacy. And yes, our societal and democratic institutions came through the perils injured but still in one piece. Freedom and democracy prevailed. Its endurance, a testament to the certitude that truth matters and its glaring significance can never be diminished.
As Leo Tolstoy said, “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” Nor a lie becomes truth simply because the plurality of men believes in it. It will not, nor will it ever be. No societal class, party, or individual can claim the exclusive rights to truth. Truth is apolitical. Truth is unbiased. Truth is without prejudice. “Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance,” said W. Clement Stone. No amount of opposition, spin and disruption, sneering and jeering will obscure the truth because the light of truth will always find a tunnel to let its light shine through. TRUTH is TRUTH. Only TRUTH can claim the right to TRUTH. As Winston Churchill aptly said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” And when everything is said and done, TRUTH remained steadfast – unperturbed by common dissonance and unencumbered by the frailties of man.
Though assaulted, TRUTH prevailed.
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