Mayor Robert Garcia wants to commemorate the people of Long Beach who have tragically passed due to the recent pandemic with a memorial. I believe that the resources that can potentially go to a memorial can be diverted to better causes like pandemic preparation and stockpiling resources.
According to the Long Beach Post, the memorial planning process began on May 11. On March 24, Garcia announced on Twitter that the city of Long Beach would be building a COVID Memorial and that he was, “Putting together a community commission of city leaders, artists, and folks impacted by the pandemic to select a location, theme, and mission.”
The purpose of a memorial is a structure that is built to remind people of a person or event. To have a memorial for people who’ve died from COVID-19 now or in the near future would be inappropriate.
Any statue or plaque would just be a mediocre attempt of consoling. Especially while people still suffer from the pandemic.
What could you possibly put up that could sufficiently meet every person affected? Some people lost everything when they lost their loved one. A statue won’t help the family who lost their mom, dad or whoever pays the bills in their house to COVID-19.
No doubt that this is an important event in history and should be commemorated, eventually. But last year we thought it would last a few months and those months have turned into over a year.
According to an article by the Long Beach Post, right now there are living people who don’t have access to the vaccine. They can get vaccinated but they can’t due to a variety of reasons like scheduling a visit, transportation issues or finding time off work.
The city is putting effort into reaching these demographics, but so far have failed to do so equitably. The Long Beach Post article outlined how some of the poorer zip codes are lagging behind the city average vaccination rate.
Long Beach is failing these communities, they failed in their preparation. They failed to accommodate the needs of the entire city besides the most fortunate.
A memorial won’t fix these failures, future action and planning will. Long Beach has already begun future preparations, with the Recovery Act. In which they aim $72 million at communities most affected by the pandemic.
But we should also think about the possibility of future pandemics, for which we should stockpile money and or supplies like medical masks for just such an event in order to avoid the initial shortages.
People need to be able to be rest assured that something like this won’t happen again and if it does at least our government will be better prepared by committing more resources to stemming and reacting to future pandemics rather than just virtue signaling.
This way we as a people can minimize the harm of the next pandemic, this way the loss wasn’t lost in vain.