The current infighting at the capital, however, doesn’t seem like political debate it feels more like it’s part and parcel of the deepening divide in values that is separating so many of us from each other. Tom Wolf has a very different belief about what he was elected to do. The Republican-dominated General Assembly in Harrisburg has an idea - one it isn’t shy about expressing - of what government should not be. Perhaps none of that should be surprising in this strange political era. Twenty months into his administration, he has only a few small victories to show for all his bold ambition. Instead, there was an unprecedented nine-month budget standoff with the House and Senate, and many of Wolf’s transformative hopes - especially a huge increase in education spending - were dashed by the end of his first year. Wolf deemed his first budget so pristine and beautifully wrought that it shouldn’t be tampered with, and he seemed certain the General Assembly would see the light of his wisdom. Indeed, he seemed to be what voters hungered for - a Jeep-driving non-career politician (his only experience was two years as Ed Rendell’s revenue secretary) whose sole ambition appeared to be to do what was best for Pennsylvania. Who, as eight or 10 others wait patiently to meet him, is eager to discover that my father had seven sisters and no brothers and so forth, as if he has made the trek from the capital to learn about exactly that.īeing a different sort of politician - an outsider who ran the family kitchen-cabinet-making business, with a doctorate from MIT in political science - is part of the Wolf story, of course, one that helped get him the governorship almost two years ago. Every politician wants to engage, certainly, but I’ve never met one who seems so genuinely curious. In the following weeks, I will share my experience with many people who know Wolf well, and they all have the same reaction: Yes, they say, laughing, that’s Tom exactly. “The Hubers in York might have come from Switzerland, too,” the governor suggests. I tell him no, that my father’s parents emigrated from Zürich more than a hundred years ago. He wants to know if I’m related to any of them. “There are a lot of Hubers in York,” the governor tells me - Wolf lives just outside that city. “We’re constantly looking for beds,” said Cassie Ban, an intensive care nurse at Indiana University Health.Įach one of those numbers is the death of a person who wasn’t ready to go yet.”Although concerns remain about getting enough beds, masks and other equipment, many frontline health workers are most worried about staff shortages.When Wolf turns to me, the governor, tall and pale and bald, wearing outdated wire-rimmed glasses, nods and smiles (he’s been told I’m writing about him) and says, “Where are you from?”īut that’s not what he means - he means my background, my ancestors. are becoming exhausted and demoralized as they struggle to cope with a record-breaking surge of COVID-19 patients that is overwhelming hospitals and prompting governors to clamp back down to contain the virus. Bukaty, File)Doctors and nurses around the U.S. are becoming exhausted and demoralized as they struggle to cope with a record-breaking surge of COVID-19 patients that is swamping hospitals and prompting governors to clamp back down to contain the virus. 8, 2020, file photo, a health care worker wears personal protective equipment as she speaks to a patient at a mobile testing location for COVID-19 in Auburn, Maine.ĭoctors and nurses around the U.S. He said, “I hope everyone has realized by now, these masks make a difference.”Biden added: “We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease” and said “the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask, forget it.”AdRelated Stories:ĭemoralized health workers struggle as virus numbers surgeįILE - In this Dec. The governors of both states announced Tuesday they would lift their states’ mask mandates and other restrictions on businesses and gatherings aimed at stopping the spread of the virus.īiden called it a “big mistake” while speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday during a meeting with lawmakers, who each wore a mask. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)President Joe Biden called out Republican governors in Texas and Mississippi for “Neanderthal thinking” in deciding to relax their mask mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions. President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting about cancer in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, March 3, 2021, in Washington. ‘Big mistake’ by Texas to drop mask rule, Biden says
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