Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this column are those of Bishop Michael Goings and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Dillon Herald.

Hopefully, one day real soon, we will come to the end of this COVID-19 crisis. We will be able to look back on it with much relief that it has passed along with the grief and regret, as well as the awful loss and agony it released upon us. At the top of our losses that we can never regain is the loss of lives. However, there were other losses though not important as human life that we perhaps may never recover. I am going to cite and comment on a few in the remainder of my column today.

The Loss of Jobs
One of the great losses that perhaps may never be recovered is the loss of jobs. Though we have not been hit as hard as some in certain areas, by the closing down of many jobs because of social and physical distancing, quite a few of our small businesses like salons, barber shops, certain restaurants (Chinese in particular), and a few others, have been temporarily shut down and inactive. The question that some of these small business owners and operators are grappling with is whether their establishments will recover back to their pre-coronavirus status, when the virus has been completely conquered and things get back to normal.

The Loss of Salaries
and Livelihoods
It stands to reason that the loss of small businesses will produce a cascade effect that will bring about the loss of incomes and salaries. Perhaps what many who have been temporarily unemployed, due to COVID-19, will be a permanent loss of having a job that will mean no continual incomes. The loss of personal income for many Americans is the most detrimental effect after people actually contracting the virus and dying. Regrettably, there is a great probability that many of these unemployed people will remain unemployed indefinitely. Their lack of employment will have a cascading effect on the well-being of their families, as well as the economy.

The Loss of Confidence
in Leadership
According to recent polls, the majority of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of our leaders in Washington, D.C. and the way they are running the nation. This is true for both the executive branch and the Congress. This negative opinion has been greatly exacerbated by the onslaught of COVID-19 and our national leaders’ failure to seemingly deal with it in an effective manner. This is especially the case when it comes to the way the White House has failed to take charge over how they should be taking the lead in combating this invasive and deadly virus. The loss of confidence in our leaders in Washington, who are often bickering from their partisan positions instead of coming together to tackle and resolve the problems and perplexities that confront this nation, may perhaps never be fully recovered.

The Loss in Our Sense of National Invincibility
The final thing that we are going to cite and briefly consider today that we may never be able to regain is our vaunted sense of invincibility and supremacy, as the most powerful nation perhaps in the history of the world. Up until the siege of the coronavirus, our President and other leaders were declaring how our economy, military, and other national aspects of our nation were the strongest and wealthiest they have been than at any other time in the history of our nation. I do not want anyone to assume or think that what I am saying here means that I am not a patriotic and positive American, who is not praying and rooting for the success of our leaders on every level.
At the end of the day, their failure to effectively govern will hit and hurt the Black-and-Brown Community disproportionately, like this COVID-19 is doing, because we are the most vulnerable in the basic areas of income, employment, and healthcare. It is my continual prayers that our nation, economy, and every sector of our country will rebound and be stronger than they were before the coronavirus crippled us as a nation. Nevertheless, I hope that our recovery will be inclusive, impartial, and more mindful of the people who have been hit the worse by this virus. The people who were already struggling to survive, to make ends meet living from paycheck to paycheck. In light of all of this, it is very doubtful if we will ever recover our national and vaunted sense of invincibility.
Perhaps this crisis has humbled and brought us to a place of understanding that all the things that we boasted in could easily and quickly be taken away. Perhaps and hopefully from this, we will experience a new awakening that will bring with it new perspectives and priorities that will bring us back to God (from where we have deserted as a nation). With that having been stated, we will close with the following passages of scriptures that are very relevant to our column today:
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God (Psalm 9:17).
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity (Isaiah 40:15-17).