It's sad that it has taken a devastating pandemic for us to begin to appreciate all the frontline workers who make our world turn. They perform desperately important functions and deserve our respect and acknowledgement. They deserve living wages and health care, too.Everyone knows that doctors and nurses are performing heroic, lifesaving work during this awful time. I want to focus here on the frontline workers who are less often acknowledged-at least until a once-in-a hundred-year pandemic forces us to look more closely at their importance. I'm talking about the workers who are keeping food-and, yes, toilet paper-on grocery store shelves. I'm also thinking of the cashiers who until recently were prohibited by many store managers from wearing personal protective equipment such as face shields even though their contact with the public was probably as great as that of any workers outside a hospital. And let's not forget the janitors who clean up hospitals and essential businesses, bus drivers, train conductors, and delivery people. These workers have proved themselves to be far more essential than any celebrity, and they deserve our recognition.
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