Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle:
How many times have we heard in the last week that Joe Biden’s presidency is “a return to normalcy”?
The term generally refers to Washington, D.C., normalcy — the theater of politics that has little effect on most people. Many Californians are still dealing with the old normalcy — the one where unemployment is high, schools are closed and many businesses are struggling to survive.
“To me, that is viewed through the lens of someone of privilege,” said John Jones III, a community activist in East Oakland. “It is a privilege to be able to assert that a presidential election is going to change your life.
“For decades, it hasn’t mattered to many people in my community who is in the White House. We’ve been suffering,” said Jones, community engagement director at Just Cities, an Oakland social justice organization. “Ask someone who is unemployed or homeless or suffering whether they have returned to normal.”
The dozens of people who were in line outside the food pantry at Shiloh Church in East Oakland one day last week have different ideas about what normalcy looks like.
They don’t care that Biden’s press secretary is holding daily briefings, unlike her predecessor, or that the new president doesn’t spend his days watching cable news and insult-tweeting like the old one. They’re not wondering how Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell will reach agreement on Senate rules or whether Democrats will kill the filibuster.
The people waiting in a drizzle outside Shiloh for a 25-pound box of food had more immediate concerns.
