Time magazine each year selects a Person of the Year. This being an election year, tradition dictates that the individual chosen usually is the winner of the U.S. presidential election.
Here’s a thought for the Time editors to ponder: Toss that tradition into the crapper.
Whoever the magazine honors must be someone — indeed, the many individuals — associated with responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
To say that the worldwide crisis has dominated Earth’s attention is to commit the most egregious understatement in human history. I will venture to guess that the pandemic will remain front and center for the remainder of 2020 and perhaps well beyond.
Americans and others around the world are paying tribute 24/7 to health care workers, to police and firefighters, to their neighbors and family members, and even to total strangers who are delivering unsolicited random acts of kindness.
Millions of human beings are going to be stricken by the virus before we turn the tide.
I don’t know how the Time editors might categorize the winner of the Person of the Year honor. That’s their call. It’s why they make the big bucks … you know?
Whatever they decide or however they label the human(s) they honor, my strong sense is that Time should look exclusively at the millions of people who are stepping up to offer aid, comfort, relief and support to an entire planet of inhabitants who at this moment are frightened for their lives and for the lives of their loved ones.
