The Hypocrisy of Thanking First Responders

If we cared about first responders, we’d have given them a living wage

Image by Taryn Elliott, from Pexels

When the actors, politicians, and mainstream media groveled before the first responders, thanking them profusely and conveying their heartfelt admiration for sacrificing themselves on the frontlines of the battle against the coronavirus, did these celebrities pause to wipe away their crocodile tears and reflect on the fact that the nurses, paramedics, firefighters, and the other first responders barely make a living wage in North America?

When these wealthy power elites performed their obligatory paeans to the first responders, at the tail end of their podcasts or televised segments that enable them to keep in touch with their legions of fans during the quarantine, did you notice any reservation from them, any sign of contrition or that they understood the magnitude of their society’s hypocrisy?

Here’s what the celebrities should have said after they read their little script for their piece of disposable entertainment or fear-mongering: “Oh, I’m supposed to thank the first responders at the end, too? But don’t they make, like, $20 an hour on average in the US, and $17 in Canada? So wouldn’t they receive the thanks rather like a super-hard slap in the face? Better not to add insult to injury, then, right?”