III. CONCLUSION

It is the combination of these hundreds or thousands of local, state and federal, public and private responses that create the monstrous mosaic of the human endangerment in the COVID-19 pandemic here in the United States.

One can go on and on with thinking about what we learn in the news each day and see the intentionality of the acts and omissions done at each step of the way.  On each occasion, the ordinary citizen particularly from communities of color is placed before a difficult Hobbesian choice of protecting their health or venturing out in some manner.

And, beyond the United States, if we look to what is happening in Sweden and Brazil, we can see further examples of the devastating impact of reckless governmental action anywhere on vulnerable populations like the communities of color here in the United States.

There is no doubt, that if the case is bad enough, government neglect, combined with an affirmative government action that endangers a civilian population, could slip out of the realm of bad policy, into human rights abuses, and thereafter into international crimes.

Please make sure that the double security of the rights of the people touted by James Madison, is not flouted in the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for the members of communities of color as well as all Americans.

Toledo, May 26, 2020