Gide, humans. The pandemic has not been kind to rational conversation. It has not been

kind to consensus building. The past, oh, what is it, 12 months, 14 months, 16 months, has been a whirlwind

of competing interpretations, rival scientific ideas, and ultimately a kind of

a war of attrition in which both sides hunker down on the battlefield, in their trenches,

certain that either lockdowns make no sense or lockdowns are essential

and we should be doing more of them, that vaccines are the solution to the pandemic or vaccines

are an overrated conspiracy to turn us all into obedient sheeple.

This has not been a great time to, I suppose, fulfill the expectation that a great

disaster might bring us together.

Do you remember at the beginning of the pandemic, there was a sense that maybe this is the

thing that is finally going to let us sloth off our divisiveness,

our superstitions, our irrationalities, our tribalisms, our parochialism, our nationalism.

And as we enter this great global challenge, we will come together.

Did we?

Perhaps not.

But perhaps the wake of the pandemic, perhaps the recovery from the pandemic, perhaps the next

chapter is a time when we can come together, say enough is enough.

We will not be cowed from having the conversations that we want to have on the terms that we want to have

them. We will not be cowed from believing in science and reason, and we will state things

clearly and plainly, and I will respect you as a person. But respecting you as a person

means that I won't always respect your stupid ideas. I will respect you enough to stand up to the stupid ideas.

I will respect you enough to have the kind of frank conversation

...