S.E. Cupp: 600,000 covid deaths and us — the America revealed by agonizing milestone

Monday was an ordinary day at the Big Bear grocery store in DeKalb County, Ga., where 41-year-old Laquitta Willis worked as a cashier.

Just after lunch, 30-year-old Victor Lee Tucker Jr. entered the store. When he went to check out, Willis reportedly asked him to put his mask over his face.

According to police, Tucker left without his items, returned shortly thereafter, and fatally shot Willis.

Such capricious and violent encounters in the time of covid-19 have become an unfortunate side effect of the pandemic that just claimed its 600,000th victim in the United States. For more than a year and a half, we’ve tried to navigate the treacherous waters not only of the virus itself and keeping our families safe, but of the tumultuous culture wars that have added totally unnecessary insult to considerable injury.

In Michigan last year, a Family Dollar store security guard was killed for telling a customer that her child needed to wear a mask to enter the store. She yelled and spit on him, and left, eventually returning with her husband and adult son, who allegedly pulled out a gun and shot the guard.

Some pastors in evangelical churches spread misinformation and profited off of the fear of their congregants.

Public health officials all over the country were harassed and threatened out of their jobs, simply for suggesting or enforcing mask mandates in their municipalities. Women administrators in particular were stalked and sent death threats; many resigned for fear of their own safety.

In cities and small towns all over the country, anti-maskers harass their neighbors — even their children — for wearing masks. In Arlington, Va., a man filmed children wearing masks at a local playground, yelling, “Look at these kids — child abuse, child abuse, suffocation, suffocation.”

Of course, that idea was fomented by Tucker Carlson, who told his audience of millions on Fox News that “your response when you see children wearing masks when they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid at Walmart.”

Needless to say, the right-wing media has spread lies, conspiracy theories and misinformation about covid-19, endangering the lives of many Americans. But many personalities on those airwaves have also stoked division, fear and hatred, spurred on by former President Trump to mock safety precautions, villainize doctors, sow distrust in science and politicize a pandemic. What they have chosen to do in this moment of crisis is shameful.

Republican lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and others comparing mask-wearing and vaccination policies to the Holocaust, stoking conspiracy theories about mask ineffectiveness, claiming God doesn’t want you to wear a mask, invoking AIDS to flout mask requirements … I could go on and on. The willful ignorance combined with deliberate fearmongering, gaslighting, profiteering and politicizing of the very real pain and anguish Americans suffered this year is inexcusable and horrific.

Of course, just as there was after 9/11, Americans did come together in meaningful ways. Stories of sacrifice by health care workers and front-line workers of every stripe abound, as do stories of the generosity and compassion of teachers, food bank volunteers, churches and everyday Americans, reminding us that we can rise to the occasion and care for our neighbors.

But after 15 months of death and devastation, with many choosing to inflict more pain while we’re at our most vulnerable, it’s hard to look back on what seems to be finally approaching “behind us,” and say we should be entirely proud of who we were at one of our darkest hours. Was this America at its best? Or its worst?