The Owls Come Out at Night

2021 was the first full year of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In the United States, total deaths went from 500,000 in January to 800,000 by year's end. Northern, liberal cities like New York stayed on lockdown. Southern, conservative states like Texas reopened first.

The battle over COVID-19 procedures was partisan. Some Democrats supported $2000 monthly payments for Americans to stay at home. President Joe Biden passed a single $1400 stimulus check-- added to $600 from Trump-- included in his $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. Upset with Biden and pro-Donald Trump, many Republicans opposed masking and social distancing rules. They supported conspiracy theories that Trump was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election and that the COVID-19 vaccines are harmful.

Trump and Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene had their Twitter accounts banned for spreading false information about the election and the coronavirus, respectively. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told a right-wing Arizona audience that "it'll be over my dead body that I'll have to get a shot." Anti-vaxxer Christopher Key of Alabama falsely claimed that urine is a cure for COVID-19.

The consequence of people like Greene, Key and Palin has been increased coronavirus deaths and transmission rates in red states. According to NPR people living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had nearly three times the death rates of those that went for Biden. To this point, 91% of Democrats report being vaccinated compared to 60% of Republicans. Republicans make up 60% of the unvaccinated population.

COVID-19 was not the only hot-button political issue of 2021.

On January 6, 2021, a mob of 2,000 to 2,500 Trump supporters attacked the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. They believed that Trump had won in votes despite clear evidence otherwise. They rioted as Congress’ joint session to count states’ electoral votes was about to begin. Democratic lawmakers-in-hiding like New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez feared for their lives as rioters took over their offices. To date Democrats and Republicans argue who's to blame for the January 6 events. While the insurrection was not successful, it represented a dangerous threat to US democracy.

On August 1, 2022 a new threat to U.S. democracy emerged.

Several barn owl attacks in small-town Lancaster, Pennsylvania left ten people dead. Each of the attacks happened at night near the campus of Franklin & Marshall College.

Joe Schmoe, 23, was among the dead. The Franklin & Marshall student is survived by his partner Jane.

"We [were] engaged," Jane cried. "Whatever caused the owls to kill my fiancé must be investigated."

Initial investigations to the deaths led nowhere. The night owls were difficult to track and understand.

The next day the death toll spread to major cities Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. This time the owls came out at night to leave over 10,000 people dead. The attacks were shaping into another pandemic. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf declared a state of emergency.

"I promise to help stop the owl attacks in a safe and humane manner," he said.

Donald Trump disagreed with Wolf's "safe and humane" approach. After officially declaring that he was running for the 2024 presidential election, Trump was allowed back on Twitter to exclaim:

Trump's tweet was in step with his tough-on-crime reputation. In 1989, he signed full-page ad that advocated for the death penalty in New York after the 'Central Park 5' (5 Black and Latino youths) were falsely accused of assaulting and killing a woman. The group was exonerated in 2005. In 2020, Trump tweeted: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" in response to Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Twitter flagged the tweet for violating its rules against inciting violence.

By June 11 all 50 states reported deaths. Trigger-happy supporters of the NRA (National Rifle Association) yearned to shoot the owls out of the sky. Trump had the same idea.

Before any violent response from humans, a sick owl was recovered from the ground and tested by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The bird tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans. Mammals had tested positive before, but the owl was the first bird species to contract the virus (and pass it to humans).

A human survivor tested positive for the virus after testing negative the day before he was attacked. He reported experiencing a loss of taste, a runny nose, and increased irritability. The man recovered after 14 days of isolation.

The increased irritability symptom did not exist in the original coronavirus or the Delta and Omicron variants. But it caused a nationwide spike in cases of aggravated assault and domestic violence. People went crazy. The new "night owl" variant was underway.

President Biden was worried. Would he win re-election with the angry owls in play? He signed an executive order for a national curfew at sundown. Homeowners and renters were safe but there was no plan for the homeless. Left on the streets, an estimated 50,000 homeless people were killed by owls within two weeks.

Democrats owned the House, the Senate and the presidency but had a hard time passing important legislation in 2021. This was in part because conservative Democrats Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) voted against all other Democrats who supported Biden's Build Back Better plan, new voting rights legislation, and a $15 national minimum wage. Now, Democrats worried that Manchin and Sinema would support a new Republican bill with the following instructions: to kill every owl alive. The Democrats were in double-trouble. After being on the the decline, the Republican Party was back.

People were sick of the virus in all its forms. On this pretense Trump ran for the presidency again. His "Make America Great Again" slogan fit more than ever given the owl threat. His platform empowered vigilantes.

Solving right-wing vigilantism was a governmental problem in 2021. First, three neighborhood vigilantes were charged in the murder of Black man Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia. The men had ties to white supremacist groups. This murder combined with the murder of George Floyd led to the largest mass protest in U.S. history. Next, vigilante gunman Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two people and injured a third at a Kenosha, Wisconsin protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. In 2021 he was found not guilty of all charges associated with the incident. Now, men of the same type began shooting owls en masse. They were active at night in possession of full military gear and long guns. Their strategy rose in popularity as did the Republican agenda.

In November 2022 Republicans took back the House and the Senate. Biden was seen as too soft on crime. In 2024, Trump won the presidential election by a landslide. The commander-in-chief instructed the police and military to kill every owl on sight, barn owl or otherwise. It took a radical Republican effort to make the entire owl population go extinct.