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SKU: A0.1262362
Composed by Sally Whitwell. 21st Century,Contemporary. Octavo. 17 pages. Sally Whitwell #855402. Published by Sally Whitwell (A0.1262362).On the morning of 2 March 2020, I finished writing the first draft of this song. It was the same morning that the New South Wales Rural Fire Service announced that for the first time since July 2019, the state was free of active bush and grass fires.
At the time it felt quite euphoric. We’d been through a lot. Little did we know what was coming just a few days from then, when the Covid19 global pandemic reached our shores. It’s a virus that would kill millions across the world, and disable millions more, long term. It forced us, globally, into a kind of reckoning the like of which we had never experienced before. Non pharmaceutical controls like lockdowns, mask mandates, social distancing and ventilation standards were employed to keep us safe from this airborne virus, whilst scientists worked round clock to develop vaccines and treatments.
Technically, the declaration of a pandemic is still active, but governments and people have somehow decided for themselves that it is all over. No one takes any precautions any more. Governments have stopped reporting statistics. People who know they are infected are going about their business with no thought for others. Meanwhile, many of the immune-compromised, the disabled, the vulnerable, are unable to safely leave their homes and engage in activities out in the world. I know this, because I am a carer for a vulnerable person.
What this whole exercise has taught me is that people in the world are actually much less kind than I thought they were. Humans do not really care for each other. People attack me for wearing a mask, tell me that I’m virtue signalling and that I look ridiculous (as if I care how I look). I’ve asked questions about workplace Covid safety and been informed that it’s “a bit rich” that I’m asking at all, when everything is now safe. A friend’s diagnosed Long Covid symptoms were cruelly minimised or completely dismissed “Oh, it’s not Covid. How old are you? In your forties? It’s your hormones, it’s the menopause.” The fatal combination of sheer selfishness, rampant misinformation and DISinformation continues, whilst people waltz around spreading a deadly virus with no thought for the grief that will undoubtedly ensue.
It boils down to this: if we want to continue as a species and to have a planet on which to reside, we have to stop with the Self Care and start with the Community Care. A choir is the perfect instrument for expressing these notions, through the unique power of the massed first person plural. My wish for this piece is that it spurs performer and listener alike into some kind of action. Please consider the effect your actions have on others, and on the planet, and make any changes necessary, however inconvenient or difficult they are. Otherwise, there’s really no point.
Sally Whitwell 11 July 2023.
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