Is the glass half empty, or half full?

Bruce Highland likes to sit down at his favorite pub and drink a nice smooth German pilsner beer (yes, yes I know Tiger isn’t that but it’s close enough) and reflect on things. We are coming out of the throes of a pandemic world society. And it’s sort of like coming out of the throes of communism. Yes, I was there in cold war West Germany, before the wall came down. I saw the bleak border villages on patrols. I’ve spoken personally to defectors about how their life was. I’ve come face to face with the East German border command, close enough to hand them a cigarette and even light it. The only reasons that these guys were allowed to be on the western side of the wall was because if they defected, their families would suffer.

There are a lot of opinions out there on how some of our leaders handled the pandemic situation. I have my opinions, and if you know me, and know my books you probably know my position so we will leave it at that. The big question is, did we learn anything? And by that I mean, have those in a position of authority learned from their successes and mistakes? I would say successes include a rapid development of vaccinations. Failures are too numerous to itemize so I won’t even get in to them. The glass half full person hopes that lessons were learned. The glass half empty person already sees the construction of another Berlin wall. But I remain positive. Bruce does as well, even in his assignment in The Tenth, penned in frustration shortly after the shutdowns began.