Eyerolls hurt.

Considering all the countries a geopolitical rival is putting at risk (saying it "loves peace" is "misleading the international community" at this point), I wonder why such a maligned political strategy, attributed to one political party, isn't adopted by the other as well. Maybe it's because the second chose gold-star approval*** in return for lucre long ago.

Wait - is that repetitive, accusatory, and unnecessarily negative in a time when people are looking for some form of cheer in the midst of quarantine? Is it taboo to point out that the shiny things a culture is led to respect is the image cultivated by extensions (not just hair), padding (not just budgets), and overseas funding?

Or maybe it's because those who have fought for the right to make and influence decisions for so many have made the sort of decisions that have weakened those around them to the point of incapacity, and aren't so keen on seeing the drama that results. Stirring things up is one matter, but consider whose choices created the things to stir up in the first place.

At least people are coming up with ways to prevent the spread of the recently arrived hornets, from safe methods for removal all the way to recipes.* If the capacity exists to safeguard natural resources within these borders, surely it's not too much to expect that there's a similar capacity to develop methods that safeguard the people within the borders as well.

This, I think, is some worthwhile reading - a writer acknowledging a reviewer that disagrees with him, though both are on roughly the same side of the divide (and opposite sides of a border). It's** a more eloquent and fully fleshed-out view than mine, but it's also what I think is an accurate reflection of accepting an increased risk with appropriate precautions in order to get things moving again.

* Speaking of cooking hornets, somebody's got to have had the idea to import Japanese bee nuclei by now.

** I should probably clarify that I focused on the reviewer's points, with some exceptions, rather than the original writer's.

*** Nope, random articles in the recommendations - still referring to the flag of a government that's willing to coerce cooperation from news, arts, and higher learning organizations.