On a fundamental level, I do not understand what has happened in this country in the last two years. The reaction to COVID has disturbed me more profoundly than any major event in my life. September 11 was a terrible day, but it was an act of terrorism, and terror is easy to understand. This, the federal government's initial reluctance to respond to COVID, then the willful ignorance of its severity from my fellow Americans, the mass refusal to mask up, the conspiracy theories, the deepening divide between those who will get vaccinated and those who will not, is beyond my understanding.