This is Southern Illinois, at the end of a year like no other in living memory.
A Belleville emergency room nurse despairs at what sheâs seen, from both the living and the dying. An immigrant restaurant owner in Marion clings to her business, determined to stay open. A lifelong Carterville Republican has to silence herself when she is with family because she voted for Joe Biden. A Black Army veteran in OâFallon watches resentment grow as aggrieved whites react to the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.
COVID-19 didnât create the divisions and disillusion that seem to be everywhere. But it left them wider and deeper: Chicago versus the south, rich and poor, Black Lives Matter and white anger, partisan passions, the virtual silos people build to get the information that only affirms their beliefs.