Before COVID-19 I was focusing on the failing Trump administration, now with COVID-19 I am fearful of a failed state. Will America survive this?
This question reminds me of Tevye. Yes, recently I was doing hazara on Shalom Aleichem’s Tevye the Milkman and I came across an extraordinary quote. There Tevye is telling Shalom Aleichem, who is a character in his own story, about his daughter Hodl. Peppercorn, or Perchik as we know him from Fiddler on the Roof, is a student revolutionary who comes to Anatevka and falls in love with Hodl. He leaves for Kiev to help in the efforts to overthrow the corrupt government, is arrested, and exiled to Siberia. Tevye is embarrassed to share the news that Hodl is also leaving Anatevka to be with Peppercorn in Siberia.
There we read:
That did it! I couldn’t keep it in a second longer. You see, just then I thought of my Hodl when I held her as a baby in my arms… she was just a tiny thing then… and I held her in these arms… please forgive me, Pani, if…if I… just like a woman… but I want you to know what a Hodl I have! You should see the letters that she writes me… she’s God’s own Hodl, Hodl is… and she’s with me right here all the time…deep deep down.. there’s just no way to put it into words… You know what, Pani Shalom Aleichem? Let’s talk about something more cheerful. Have you heard any news of the cholera in Odessa?
We see Shalom Aleichem’s comedy of trying to lighten the mood my changing the conversion from his daughter being swept up in the politics of the day to a plague. Today this quote seems prescient. Before COVID-19 Trump was just horrible and an embarrassment. With COVID-19 the Trump administration’s maleficence and gross incompetence is causing suffering and death. I would love to go back to the comedy, but that is just not possible. When will we be able to take a break from the pandemic to fixing the state by changing the government? I am worried I sound like Pani Perchik.
-Another piece on Fiddler of the Roof: Fence on The Roof- 50 Years Since Fiddler
Said to Myself 
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