Many of us are lucky enough to be experiencing the version of the pandemic where you complain about being stuck in the house with your Zoom-schooling kids, try out new hobbies like baking and gardening, and where, as long as you social distance, the biggest risk to your health comes from banging your head against the wall as you read the news. Frontline‘s latest episode, Growing Up Poor in America tracks kids from three Ohio families experiencing the other pandemic. The one where you can’t afford to have your car repaired, so you have to walk between vehicles in the carpool line picking up a school Chromebook, or push your baby sister in her stroller through the McDonald’s drive-thru on a day they’re providing free nuggets to kids who no longer have access to school lunches. There’s a bottomless pit of despair in so many American households. Yes, it’s brutal those families can’t find any inspiration from the top. But we—and this is a note to self as much as anything—spend too much time angry at the rabid MAGA rally attendees and their imbecilic hero, and not enough time considering and supporting average Americans. We can’t just close our eyes and ignore our country’s open wound. Trump’s lack of empathy mustn’t squash ours.

+ NPR: Pandemic Financially Imperils Nearly Half Of American Households.

+ Politico: As rich Americans get richer, the bottom half struggles.