It was a little under two months ago when we as a group all decided to work from home/stay at home/shut down gatherings. This all happened on a crazy day in early March when the NBA was poised to play games in front of empty arenas, then we realized that basketball players and officials can get this coronavirus, too.
What followed was a fairly logical, albeit sobering social and financial agreement, that we’d wash our hands and try to do what we can to not spread the disease to others. This was not an act of Congress. It was not a proclamation by the government. It was normal folks, scientists, and doctors saying, “Hey, this is pretty bad. We do not want to be making it worse.”
The toll has been incredible – tens of thousands of lives lost. Over two million folks infected worldwide. Hospitals running at capacity with folks on respirators fighting for their lives.
This never, to me, seemed like a political problem. The virus isn’t a Democrat or a Republican. It’s an evolution of the H1-N1 virus that nobody on the planet has immunity to. Yet, here we are with protests in the streets, pontificating every night on the television from podiums. Twenty-two million filing for unemployment will do that, I suppose. And it is right for the government to do whatever it can, nay, everything it can to help those impacted both medically and professionally from this.
But we can’t do anything these days without picking a side. There are either winners or losers in the game of coronavirus, apparently. Or at least that’s what some folks would angle for. The fact that this happened at all is terrible. The fact that it happened in an election year — THIS election year — is horrifying.
I want to go out as much as anyone. I cannot wait to sit at Smokehouse BBQ on North Oak ordering a Gladstoner. But it won’t be to “own the Libs.” It’ll be because we’ve beaten back the spread of this thing. Within minutes of Florida re-opening their beaches against public health critics, there are thousands there. This seems to be the equivalent of standing on the hood of a moving car because the government can’t tell you where to stand on a moving car.
People, the health experts say it’s not time yet. They say that if folks start assembling now that more people will die and the price will be higher. South Korea had its first case the same day the United States did. They all uniformly stayed home, practiced social distancing, and their toll was a fraction of ours. They’re the ones who should have approval to go to the beach.
But, if I say it’s up, the other side will say it’s down – even when it comes to facts and science. The folks fanning these flames should be ashamed of themselves and have blood on their hands. Blood that they’re not washing off because they don’t want to give the other side the satisfaction.