By Alexander Lomax
All across the world, people are yearning for a return to everyday life, or at least whatever that will look like in 2021. Along with the return of staples of normalcy, we have seen a pent-up energy being released in less-than-ideal ways. Jumping onto the courts and fields of professional sports, throwing items at players, and throwing temper tantrums on flights seem to have become the new normal in our post-Covid world.
Here in Scottsdale, our ability to act like mature adults will be tested in spades; Scottsdale City Hall will allow limited capacity in-person to their meetings.
What could possibly go wrong, you may ask? Well, perhaps you read my musings a few weeks back about the children cosplaying as adults who disrupted a recent Scottsdale Unified School District meeting. They refused to wear masks and were angry about “critical race theory”, the new cause du jour for “conservatives” looking for something to be angry at; never mind that it is not taught in our schools nor was it on the meeting’s agenda. Facts should never get in the way of misplaced anger!
Mayor Ortega has had a successful honeymoon in his time as Mayor; while the most contentious items of his agenda lay in front of him still, there is no doubt that some of this conservative activist base will see the recent non-discrimination ordinance as a sign of the Communist/Marxist takeover of Scottsdale. Will those people bum rush City Hall to complain? Will they attempt to force an end to Critical Race Theory in a quixotic, ignorant manner that has typified their tactics so far this year? Perhaps Mayor Ortega’s upcoming push for voting districts is a sign of China’s takeover of the city? Perhaps new parks and greenbelts are actually an attempt to redistribute the means of production?
I wish I could predict it, but just like predicting the actions of a madman is a fool’s errand, I’m not sure that I can put myself into the headspace of these pseudo-adults. When you can invent non-issues like CRT, the sky’s the limit.
I’m ready to get back to normal, but in some ways maybe the Covid-world was a better world. Forcing annoying people to be a square on Zoom instead of seething, foaming-at-the-mouth clumps of cells and misplaced rage seems preferable. Helmets and spittle shields may become the new masks at public meetings, except mine won’t be to keep you safe, it’s for my own safety.