November 8, 2020
Voting is over in the United States of America. However you may feel about the outcome, one fact is clear. In the time since the polls first opened on Tuesday, Nov. 3, our country has seen more than 600,000 new cases and lost 6020 lives to COVID-19. 
Just a few hours ago, the US became the first country to pass 10 million cases diagnosed (Reuters). It is clear who the real enemy is, and it isn’t any candidate or political party.
How can we fight this invisible foe?
Wear a mask, stay home if you can, and urge others to do the same. If you have friends and family in the “red zones” of the country, make sure they know the risks.
I check the comments regularly on our social media pages. We get many posts that are supportive and thank us for the work we are doing. But over the time since we launched, two trends have disturbed me:
#1) People who deny that Coronavirus is real, or claim that it affects only the very old and those with pre-existing conditions.
Among my own friend circle, I know three people under the age of 45 who have already contracted the virus. One of them, a 29-year-old schoolteacher who loves hiking and snowboarding, sent her picture from the ER today. This illness is serious at whatever age you contract it. And even if you are healthy enough to survive, there is a good chance that someone you love may not be.
Read this poignant and tragic story from Texas if you want to see what I mean.
#2) People who say that if a local government has misguided policies, then people in that area deserve to suffer. This wasn’t the way I raised and to me it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Children are still going hungry. Sick patients still need to get seen. We have no way of knowing who the impacted people voted for, or if they were able to vote at all. Nonprofits need to strictly stay out of politics in order to protect their own legal standing. If you choose to support a charity in one of the areas badly hit by Coronavirus, you are exercising compassion and affirming that we as a nation take care of our own.
Whether we are Republican, Democrat, or Independent, lives are in danger. We have an opportunity now to put our differences aside and come together. Many of our communities and our livelihoods have been devastated by Coronavirus. We as individuals have the power to save lives every day. This pandemic may feel isolating, but we will come back stronger than before. We just need to remember that what we are fighting is a virus, and none of us can do that alone.
Sincerely,
Tess Gadwa
Program Director
Givingmap.org
