Cartoonistry: Is Professor Pandemic trying to teach us something?

“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”

So said Col. Nathan Jessup from the witness stand in the movie ''A Few Good Men.'' I find myself wondering whether we all don’t deserve a similar dressing down — not from a raving narcissist such as Jessup, but from ourselves.

So far, the nearly two-year history of this pandemic has been utterly confounding and more disruptive to our families and communities than many of us imagined. At this point, no American community has been left untouched. We’ve lost loved ones, and many of our health-care and frontline workers are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. But on top of this exhausting reality, we are just beginning to understand more ways this virus will affect our lives.

Seeing my Dec. 23, 2007, cartoon the other day put me on this line of thought. At the time, the town slashed budgets to be prudent in a recession. My cartoon ventured the opinion that such economic prudence could be the proverbial “penny wise” versus the “pound foolish” of not being prepared for the unexpected.

Dealing with this pandemic has been a mixed bag. Recent advancements in genetic research and data analysis enabled biotech companies to shave years off the development time for vaccines and treatments. On the other hand, our health-care bureaucracy, suffering from reduced and rescinded funding as well as politicization, has been unprepared for this fast-moving pandemic and still contributes to confusion and distrust in the population.

Systemic failings don’t stop there, however. It turns out that just-in-time inventory practices developed by global business, while profitable, are not resilient. Supply chains have been broken at every weak link, starting with overseas factories and ports, and now backing up container ships at our ports.

Other weak spots continue to manifest in rolling fashion: inadequate rural health-care, insufficient broadband access and semiconductor shortages. Farmers are concerned about maintaining their modern equipment, which may affect the food supply. A natural gas shortage for heat in the northeast is anticipated this winter because unpopular pipeline projects were killed. Decades of business pursuing technology-enabled productivity while neglecting employee wages and career aspirations have contributed to the “great resignation” as workers rethink their post-pandemic priorities.

Do you get the sense that Professor Pandemic is trying to teach us something? Were these failings self-inflicted by chasing profits, productivity and political gains without considering the effect on stability and resiliency? Have we been too complacent?

No company, government body, community or citizen deserves better than a flunking grade if this is the case. Unfortunately, failing humanity is not an option. Professor Pandemic does not grade on a curve.