No Excuse
Lynley Jones
“So, never be afraid. Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion, against injustice and lying and greed.”
Here’s my truth:
I love my country. I was raised by a former Marine, a veteran of the battle for Guadalcanal in WWII. He was the son of a railroad worker and a hairdresser, who were so poor during the Great Depression they had to send him and his sister away when they couldn’t put enough food on the table. America gave my dad the GI Bill, which changed his life and has made everything in my life possible.
My dad loved America, and so do I. But America, I expect better of you.
Your democracy was groundbreaking. We the People - with a capital P! Government of the people, by the people and for the people. You sent us into space, eliminated polio, defeated Hitler and rebuilt Japan and Europe, leaving thriving democracies in your wake. You absorbed the wretched refuse of all their teeming shores, and it only made you stronger and better.
And now what?
You can’t muster the fortitude to even have enough masks for hospital workers? MASKS? Literally the easiest thing.
And the testing. The nation that invented mass production, space travel and nuclear fission somehow can’t make and distribute enough tests for a virus? The gene sequence had already been mapped out for you! And they actually handed you a fully-functioning test!!
Come ON.
Someday, someone writing the history of these times is going to romanticize the hardship:
It was such a daunting challenge, they’ll say. Everyone had to pitch in. Volunteers sewed masks. Brave front line workers cared for the sick and kept the grocery shelves stocked.
I’m going to vomit in their face.
To my grandchildren, if someday you are reading this: Regular hard-working Americans did bravely step up to fill in the gaps, to pitch in and sacrifice. They had to, because their country let them down.
We were not prepared, this was completely mismanaged, and there is no excuse. We had lived through 9/11 and anthrax, we’d fought world wars, we’d already had Ebola and SARS and MERS and H1N1. We knew exactly what what could happen, but still we were not prepared, we disbanded teams, ignored the playbook and repeatedly dropped the ball.
We put our people at risk: our healthcare workers, our grocery workers, our food processors, our first responders, our grandparents. And there is NO excuse. These things happened because of incompetence, greed, stupidity, politics and narcissism.
This is a complete failure of leadership. To say it any other way is to dishonor those who are sacrificing and suffering because of it.
We can and must do better.
Breakfast: Peanut-Butter Toasts
My peanut-butter toasts with apple slices and toasted slivered almonds. In spring, apples are a bit off-peak, having spent several months in cold storage. So I drizzled some honey over these. Perfection.
I wrote about my egg-toast breakfast strategy before, but this is another go-to. Here’s my strategy for peanut-butter toasts:
A nice piece of bread (or a run-of-the-mill grocery-store piece of bread, whatever), toasted
Slather the toast with peanut butter (or nut butter of your choice): You can use whatever floats your boat, but I prefer the type that is just peanuts-and-salt. And personally, I’m in a chunky phase right now, so that’s what I’m using.
Top with fruit of your choice: In the picture I used apple slices, but blueberries, strawberries, bananas, mangoes, peaches, nectarines, pitted cherries are all fantastic. I’ve never tried any type of citrus on these; I’m thinking it may be too acidic and/or the juices might squirt out and make the toast soggy, but who knows?
Some sort of chopped and/or toasted nut is nice for extra crunch, extra protein and extra deliciousness. (I used toasted slivered almonds in the picture).
Optional: a drizzle of honey. When fruit is in peak season and peak sweet tastiness, this never even crosses my mind. But when you’re working with fruit that’s not quite at its prime, it’s honey for the win.
Extra-Optional: If you have some mint, basil or thyme growing nearby, a few torn leaves over the top can make it even better. (Mint works with just about everything; basil and thyme are both great with strawberries, blueberries and peaches, and thyme is especially nice with apples.)
(PS - If you’re new around here, welcome! Adventure Kitchen is a local, small-batch maker of original spice blends and prepared foods, and I’m the founder and chief creator. Separately, I send a weekly email with recipes and cooking suggestions. If you’d like to follow along with that, you can sign up on this page. And if you’d like to support my small business, you can buy our spices online. We ship everywhere of course, and we deliver locally for free!)