In the Hopes of Our Eventual Deliverance
Well, we are in it, aren’t we?
There has never been a time in human history where millions of people have been veritably grounded- forced with rare exception to remain within their confines, and only allowed to venture out for state-sanctioned purposes- purchasing food, prescriptions and supplies, getting medical attention or exercise. The schools at every level have closed, as have the non-essential stores, and wherever work still continues it is largely done remotely, for only those places of economic exchange or financial transactions- those again being the ones that are state-sanctioned– are permitted to continue, status quo ante. Across the fruited plains and majestic purple mountains and from sea to shining sea, we are being told essentially to stay at home and avoid interpersonal contact at all costs- even if such costs border on the absurd, if not insane. That any of us ever thought we would be so sequestered and restricted, even in our wildest sci-fi fantasies, and yet here we are and there it is…
…and then, there are the very severe economic impacts of grinding the economy to a halt.
Even during the very depths of the Great Depression (1929-1940), there was never a fortnight where more than 10 million people lost their jobs in this country, and there was nary a day where the entire economy ground to a halt. Both then and now, Americans saw relatively low gasoline prices but, unlike back then where for a few quarters, one could at least go for a drive and take in a picture show for another quarter, there’s nowhere for us to really go today, save for running, again, state-sanctioned errands. The beaches are closed, save for locals wanting to jog, the national parks may soon be closed and playgrounds in major cities are being closed to discourage close-contact sports like basketball. Moreover, churches and synagogues, during the most holy week in the respective Judeo-Christian calendars, are having to resort to parking lot congregating, drive-by confessionals and on-line services. For others, eating out means curbside pickup and bringing home, while spectator sports are over and done with for the foreseeable future. Even my favorite karaoke provider has had to resort to “sidewalk karaoke” for a fraction of what he made before and is now figuring out a virtual karaoke platform. But where’s the money in that for a guy who makes his living as a karaoke jockey, and had heretofore expanded his business to two locations per night with hired help? For the record, he and his staff have been careful about wiping down microphones with anti-septic wipes, but there’s only so much one can do in those regards.
And yet…
We all know why we are being asked to sacrifice our freedoms, our employment and, yes, even our sanity all to prevent millions of potential deaths. The President and the experts on his Coronavirus Task Force are telling us that if we take the guidelines that have now been extended through month’s end seriously and if we practice an almost-alien protocol of social distancing, we could possibly hold the number of deaths down to somewhere below a quarter million.
Well, if the country was needing a bucket of ice water to be thrown in our collective faces, regarding the seriousness of this pandemic, that certainly filled the bill.
Aside from the garden variety sociopaths and psychopaths, who relish the arrival of this horrible and hidden enemy- including most of the White House press corps, and not to mention the ridiculously partisan partnership of pathetic personages in the form of Pelosi, Schumer and Schiff (who smell yet another whiff of impeachment before we get too close to the November election), the rest of our sorry lot who has to deal with the loss of personal freedom and economic security, wish like hell they’d all just shut up and, for once, pull together for the country’s sake. Even a President Donald Trump, loathed as he is by those on the left and their collusive friends in the media, should be allotted some semblance of national unity in such times as these, or are there prurient and ulterior motives at play in all this?
That these times will come to an end is a certainty and, for the sake of our nation, the sooner the better. As mightily strong as our economy was prior to the pandemic, this forced stop can only go so long without irreversibly damaging the economy beyond repair, and only the most extreme socialist/communist would wish this upon our country. Sure, we can always print more and more cash, and dole it out to folks how we will, but that cannot continue without causing catastrophic disruptions in our supply chains, a severe devaluation in the dollar and the hyper-inflation that would attend to this devaluation along with widespread reduction in crucial supplies.
Setting all that aside, there is potentially a greater danger that may follow the “pandemic’s period of pause”, as it were. Once the restrictions are finally lifted, and once the engines of economic activity are restarted, and the people they employ return to work, will we as a freedom-loving people have unwittingly set a dangerous and pernicious precedence- one that enables the state to shut down the economy and confine us to our homes?
In the hopes of our eventual deliverance, we pray that all of our personal freedoms to life and liberty and pursuit of all happiness will not have been abridged in the pursuit of containing a COVID-19 coronavirus, created in the People’s Republic of China, and allowed to spread across the globe. Such a lost legacy would be the single most tragic, and most far-reaching consequence, that could possibly result.
-Drew Nickell, 3 April 2020
© 2020 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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