An Open Letter To Leaders: Do Your Job

If you are an Elected Official, Religious Head, Business Owner, Manager, Respected Community Member, Grandmother, Father, or if someone looks to you for guidance in any way, you are a leader; this is for you.

II firmly believe that problems, challenges, and hardships are genuine gifts, presenting opportunities to excel and shine. Your job is to lead the way. Before the seemingly impossible challenges from ALS, I was a manager who specialized in rescuing businesses that appeared to be beyond the point of saving. My experience has always been, the bigger the disaster, the bigger the reward on the other side.

When the disaster was my health, and I was faced with my muscles uncontrollably wasting away from ALS and the rest of my body under attack from reactivated infections, this proved even more true than ever. I promise, even this situation holds the potential for greatness; in fact, it has the most potential. There are just a few things you need to understand and do to help get us there.

First and foremost, this is NOT a political issue; this is a health issue that threatens EVERYONE equally.

We need to unify right now, not divide further. Anyone making this political or focusing on being right, dividing us further, proving a point, or remaining in power over their fellow Americans’ well-being, especially the weakest, have seriously lost their way. 

True leaders must deliver hard, unpopular truths, and they have to make decisions that protect the well-being of EVERYONE that looks to them for guidance, even those that don’t agree with them. They must protect not only our physical well-being but also the emotional, mental, spiritual, and financial as well. It is their responsibility.

Being informed and prepared is smart and gives us the opportunity to excel. It is not meant to “scare” anyone. What we are facing is new for everyone, and we can come out on top. We need to come together to do it, though. I don’t think any of my neighbors are just plain stupid or awful and evil. I respect and honor them, especially if they see things differently than I do. As leaders, if you are going there, judging and generalizing anyone, you are part of the problem, not the solution. 

We need to find common ground. This is what we know:

PHYSICAL

This virus is highly contagious. This virus is contagious enough to have infected its way around the world. We know that this is not a hoax made up by the “other” political party or by whoever it is that you might feel out to get you because the rest of the world is experiencing and suffering from it too. 

We know that the President and those in power knew how dangerous and contagious it was at the very beginning. We know that they not only sold off stocks but downplayed the threat to prevent “panic” for the stock market. Focusing on whether it came from an African Animal or an American Laboratory in China is a just distraction and creates division. Regardless of the virus’s origins, we have to face its consequences. Boris Johnson, the equivalent of the President in England, was infected and almost died from it.

The virus is here and is currently overwhelming Healthcare Systems and morgues across the country. The warmer weather and social distancing were supposed to slow the spread, but it is still increasing. Because we didn’t take advantage of this momentum, we knew from history that the second wave in the fall would be WAY worse.

It is a Novel (new) Virus. 

We are learning new things about it ALL of the time. The recommendations and information about it are changing ALL of the time. This can make it seem like we can’t trust the doctors and researchers that are the source of information. It might seem like “the story is changing,” and we are being manipulated. 

Experiencing this infection after much of the world gives us a huge advantage. The countries that had it months before we worked diligently to take what they learned and figure out the virus and the best ways to treat, prevent, and test for it. New information will continue to emerge, and we have to learn how to keep adjusting to it.

We were so fortunate to be late in the line of infection because we could predict the future and use the emerging information to save ourselves.

It is a Coronavirus. It turns out that Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that we are very familiar with, causing everything from SARS to the common cold. This means we have been trying and have not been able to safely and effectively create a vaccination for some of them. There is a chance we won’t be able to create a safe vaccination for this or that they will develop a vaccination quickly because we have a head start.

Symptoms: There might not be any. The ability of asymptotic and pre-symptomatic carriers to spread this virus makes precautions, like monitoring temperatures, basically useless. New information about symptoms is continually emerging, but the most crucial information is that this is a silent disease that has deadly potential. 

Some of the symptoms that we know so far are respiratory failure, strokes, amputations, severe lung damage, Neurological conditions, blood clotting, and now a new, very serious inflammatory condition in children. We also know that all ages and conditions are susceptible to this silent infection, not just the sick and elderly. 

It is very dangerous for anyone over 55 or with underlying conditions (diabetes, asthma, obesity) or auto-immune conditions (Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, IBD) the list goes on. I promise you know someone close to you with an underlying condition and someone who is over 60. If they are hospitalized, you won’t be able to visit or advocate for them. They (or you) will be all alone.

EMOTIONAL

People are scared, worried, confused, frustrated, and angry. This is an entirely new experience for everyone. No one has any experience with a global pandemic, and the information that we are getting is changing all of the time. ALL OF THE TIME. It feels like we can’t trust anyone or anything. We are literally alone. Our computers and phones use our behavior patterns to feed us only the version of reality that we want to believe, supporting us emotionally. It is a marketing tool being used for information that is feeding upon emotional insecurity, which can make it wildly inaccurate and alarming.

MENTAL

People are really struggling. There has been so much loss. Even if they haven’t been touched directly by the virus yet, they have suffered a substantial loss. One of the hardest things to lose is a sense of security, normalcy, and control. When you are unsure of seemingly everything, it is entirely understandable to start grasping at anything for reassurance.

SPIRITUAL

People are lost. In America, we are all taught a basic, fundamental truth: we will be rewarded for good behavior. Hard work, healthy eating, generosity, kindness, sacrifice, preparation, positivity, it all has an effect. We expect from life what we put into it. When something “bad” happens on some level, we need a why. We need something (or someone) to blame.

It doesn’t work that way, though. This life is not about getting a perfect score, and it is impossible to do. No one gets through it without experiencing hardships and unexpected challenges, NO ONE. This is one of those incredibly rare and remarkable times when hardships and challenges are shared by the world over. 

FINANCIAL

People are desperate. There is a desperation that is enhanced by all of the emotional, mental, and spiritual stress. The desperation is mainly in anticipation of things to come at this point. Once it shifts from anticipation to reality, and people are faced with the decision to eat and feed their family or pay the rent and avoid homelessness, this desperation will intensify to a dangerous place.

Things will never be “normal” again.

A TRUE LEADER…

As a leader, you must rise above it all and put differences aside to guide us through this health emergency. Show us how much we share, especially now. Assure us that we are not alone, even when we have to be separate for our community’s Physical Well-Being. Living in a prolonged state of extreme stress is so unhealthy for us as individuals and our community. It would be best to reduce stress by giving realistic, honest assessments and outlining the clear steps that everyone should take.

Model Emotional Stability while reminding everyone that what they are feeling is entirely understandable and normal because we are experiencing these unknowns. Remind us that the information is continuously changing because we are still learning about the virus, not because “they” are out to get us. 

Exude security, admit that there is still a lot that is unknown, and that you are listening to our concerns and willing to share all of the information, even if it isn’t what we want it to be. Remind us that the loss we are experiencing is not our fault and that this is an opportunity to shine and help each other through. Point out how the divine often shows up when things are the hardest and how we are coming together to help each other, or better yet, show us how it is done.

Prepare for this new reality. 

So far, most of the predictions and models regarding this virus have been accurate; many deviations have come from successful social distancing. If you believe that this accuracy is proof of some ‘Deep State’ manipulation, it doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that we can use the models and predictions to guide how we proceed.

We know that we will be experiencing a repeat of this pattern if we open up before recommended. Infection rates will flare back up as we relax restrictions, which will make hospitals fill to capacity, requiring social distancing to be necessary again. Wasting precious time and resources fighting to get back to “normal” is not only financially irresponsible and utterly detrimental to the well-being of everyone who is relying on you; it is dangerous. You will only be prolonging this suffering.

As this cycle continues, the financial desperation, spiritual void, mental struggle, and emotional torture will only intensify with each round. 

When business owners spend whatever money and credit they have left on PPE and equipment to make it safe for their customers and employees, only to be shut down by another, even stricter, lockdown (if they’re lucky) or by a member of their staff getting COVID and forcing the rest of the staff into precautionary quarantine or illness isolation. The staff will be out of work again, maybe physically sick but definitely feeling even more defeated. Those unemployment benefits that felt so inadequate before will only be a portion of what they were. 

The initial lockdown that everyone was so anxious to get out of will feel like the ‘good ole days.’ Your appeasing everyone by telling them what they wanted to hear will be exposed for what it is. If you continue, I suggest you pickle yourself in all of the admiration and good feelings. When you are equally despised for misleading everyone into destitution, you will definitely need something to help with the sting. 

Everyone pretending, believing, and demanding that this isn’t happening will not make it so. 

It is time for our Leadership to step up and become part of the solution by bringing people together against a common enemy. The places that have been able to come together are beating this. It is truly the only way to do it. 

Every leader must educate themselves fully. It is your responsibility not only to assess what is happening but also to understand the perception of the people that are relying upon you, those that you agree with but, more importantly, those that you don’t. You need to divide the gathering of information equally between the sources you usually use, the sources ‘the other side’ use, and another country’s take on it. 

I’m currently enjoying Australia’s coverage, but whatever country you choose, be open to how they see things, without any real stake in it, political, economic, or otherwise. If they are critical or saying things that aren’t in agreement with the news sources you don’t like (whether it is Fox or MSNBC), as leaders, you have to consider and determine the truth, not just find things to support what you want. If you are blindly following anyone, then you are potentially leading your community into a dangerous disaster.

We need all of our leaders to approach this fragile economy as if it were their own business.

All leaders are required to look honestly at each other and assess their abilities, it is your responsibility to do so. Even if you greatly admire the President’s accomplishments and agree with his choices, you must also remember that he has bankrupted four massive business endeavors. He has proven that he is actually rather good at it, considering how often it has occurred.

This mass unemployment was not necessary and should not have happened. Employers are going to take this opportunity to automate wherever possible, not only is it more cost effective but it will be easier to manage in the new normal. When germs and contact are going to greatly concern customers, the less people there are for transactions, the better it is will be for business.

Trust me, while people are blindly following leaders that are telling them what they want to hear, the heads of these companies are looking at the future with eyes wide open.

Even if it is not the what they want to happen, they can see what is going to happen, so they are preparing. If I were healthy, I would be one of those people hired to take advantage of this current unloading of employees. It is just one of oh so many things that I, as a business woman, can recognize as being severely and dangerously mismanaged. I am horrified at the thought of what I can’t recognize and at what none of us are seeing.

It is part of your position as a leader to take the President’s history into serious consideration along with his lack of experience with balancing entire economies. This is a massive and unprecedented undertaking, mistakes are inevitable and the ability to recognize and correct them is imperative. The suggestion that States go Bankrupt has already been made from the White House. You MUST prevent our economy from following the advice of it’s leader and succumbing to the same fate. It starts with YOU, with whatever capacity, whatever reach, whatever means you have… start to do right by those whose lives depend upon it.

We need testing:

The truth is that a vaccination is far from being guaranteed, will take a very long time to produce and won’t be safe for a lot of the people that need it the most. It is not clear if there is immunity after recovery from an infection and if there is, how long it will last. It is going to take a long time to truly determine these things as the variations are traced and antibodies are dissected. Bottom line, we need testing, widespread, accessible, easy to administer testing. It is the quickest way to safely proceed.

The motivations and the potential enrichment of the doctors who are “pushing” vaccinations, doesn’t really matter right now. No really, it doesn’t. The doctors and Bill Gates have constantly tried to inform everyone that the true time it takes to create a vaccination is well over a year. If you are opposed to using a vaccination because you truly believe that the goal is to inoculate and implant the masses. Eradicating the virus with testing, contact tracing and distancing, as both New Zealand and Australia has, should be your primary goal. Get yourself healthy, boost your immune system and demand the support to make social-distancing possible until testing and contract tracing can get done.

Enough Already

I get it; you hate the other political party, your governor or mayor, and do not appreciate them telling you, even remotely, what to do. I get it; you do not feel they have any right to do so. I also get that the state law giving them authority to do so is something you disagree with. 

Please go back to why there are restrictions and requirements, without the who and the how, just the why. Do you genuinely feel that assembling in a church is more important than protecting the weak and vulnerable in our community, more important than protecting me? Is it not worth using the ways to worship that do not involve the same behavior spreading this disease when it is so dangerous to so many of us? 

That is what I do not ‘get’. 

When I am one of the weakest and most vulnerable, it is brutal to think that your right to assemble, your day at the lake, your right not to wear a mask is more important than my life. I’ve done enough work on myself to understand that your actions speak volumes about you and say nothing about me but let me tell you, this one is challenging. For the girl that teaches how to ‘not take things personal,’ this is feeling personal. 

I am speaking up because I know that I am not alone. To see a Sheriff shrug off, cutting my life unnecessarily short while declaring that ‘everyone dies’ right before deputizing an entire congregation is terrifying on so many levels. I know so many others are also terrified by the complete disregard of their safety by those that are supposed to protect them. They are afraid to say anything, go to the store even wear a mask themselves for fear of retaliation, all on top of a highly contagious virus that is threatening them as well. It is your job to make them feel better, not become yet another thing to fear.

To tell people to ‘not live in fear’ and ‘just be positive’ is ridiculous.

This fear, this terror, is the kind that informs our movements and is SO beneficial and necessary. It is what keeps us, all of us safe, fear shaming needs to stop. You wouldn’t instruct your elderly neighbor or me not to take precautions to avoid rattlesnakes, to ‘not live in fear’ and to “just be positive’ with them. This virus is dangerous. We need to be smart to avoid it and not pass it on; it is that simple. I know humanity, I know our country, I know our community, I know at our core we all care about someone outside of ourselves and would want to help them, or maybe I don’t know anything at all.

In some capacity, we are all leaders to someone, even if it is just to ourselves in this unprecedented time. This is our opportunity to embrace these qualities and start to shift our experience by showing those in power that we need and deserve better and that this is bigger than them. We can show our leaders how to lead by our example. It is time to come together to advocate for what we need to not just make it through what lies ahead but to thrive in this new normal.rmal.